Pete McCarthy - McCarthy’s Bar
Written by admin on 21 March, 2009 – 8:22 am -Well well well. Continuing the theme of books that you have to be careful reading on the train, this is one par excellence. The basic premise of the book is that our hero Pete McCarthy, sadly no longer with us, has decided to go to Ireland to rediscover his Irishness (his mother was Irish and he spent many many happy days in his school holidays there). Also, and perhaps more relevantly, he's also following the Eighth Rule of Travel, namely, Never pass a bar with your name on it. What follows is a brilliant account of the people he meets on his travels, from German musicians through English Hippies to married priests. He shows us how to get lost in rural Ireland and what to do when a bird gets stuck in your car's exhaust pipe (!?) etc... more
Tags: humourous books, mad englishman travelling around ireland
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Tony Hawks - Playing The Moldovans At Tennis
Written by admin on 19 March, 2009 – 9:52 pm -Following on from Hawks's escapades in Ireland (with his trusty fridge) he now moves on to trying to convince the entire Moldovan national football team that they should play him at tennis. As with the fridge, this is also the result of a drunken bet, this time with his great mate and sometime Grumpy Old Man, Arthur Smith. Both the forfeit and the prize for this bet are the same - sing the Moldovan anthem, naked, outside Woolworths (sob) on Balham High Street. It's just as absurd as the fridge story, infact perhaps due to the attitude of the Moldovans, even more so. They're so apathetic, almost to everything, but especially to the reason for Hawks's presence in their country. Even his first ever employee, translator Iulian, can't be persuaded... more
Tags: humourous books
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Tony Hawks - Round Ireland With A Fridge
Written by admin on 19 March, 2009 – 9:19 pm -Now I must admit that Tony Hawks didn't strike me as being the sort of author that I could enjoy. If anyone remembers the dreadful Morris Minor And The Majors Stutter Rap thingy from 1988 then you'll know what I mean. However, Round Ireland With A Fridge is the funniest book about travelling around Ireland since Pete McCarthy's McCarthy's Bar (never pass a bar with your name on it). It just wouldn't let me put it down. The premise, a drunken bet that Hawks couldn't hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a fridge is just plain potty. However, not only does he carry it off (boom tish), but he comes across as well cool (BOOOOOOOOM TIIIIIISH). On the way he meets many different people, from the king of Troy to spoons players... more
Tags: humourous books, mad englishman travelling around ireland
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Jimmy Greaves - Greavsie
Written by admin on 9 March, 2009 – 9:10 pm -Alcoholism is a terrible thing. Imagine the fleet footed, nimble hipped striker in white as he skips past several defenders before coolly slotting home. Then think about the frankly annoying brillo padded, moustache wearing, non-Scottish half of the 1980's football punditry duo, Saint and Greavsie. That's what drinking too much for far too long did for Jimmy Greaves. But it was all so different, Greaves was a goalscorer of legendary prowess, of that there can be no doubt. Statistics can be used to prove any theory, but his ratio of better than a goal every two games (357 goals in 514 League games!!) surely cannot give a false impression. Starting out at Chelsea, then progressing to AC Milan and back to England with Spurs he scored goals... more
Tags: sporting biography
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Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
Written by admin on 9 March, 2009 – 6:06 am -In perhaps his greatest work, Dickens mixes the Realist with the Gothic to stunning effect. From the opening scene as Abel Magwitch rises, as if from the grave, to frighten young Pip to the very end of the novel, Dickens gives us no respite. Daniel Quilp, Fagin and Bill Sykes aside, we meet some of his most repulsive and grotesque characters. Orlick, Compeyson, Pumblechook, Drummle and Miss Havisham all turn the stomach in their own particular way. Yet we have some generous, even kind hearted souls too, Joe Gargery, Wemmick, Jaggers and Herbert Pocket to name but a few. Written in the first person narrative style, we see Pip as he travels through life from abject dependence upon his sister through misfortune and suffering to eventual maturity.... more
Tags: Charles Dickens
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Iain Banks - The Crow Road
Written by admin on 8 March, 2009 – 8:09 pm -The Crow Road by Iain Banks begins with a bang. 'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.' Our hero, Prentice McHoan is returned to the bosom of his sprawling Scottish family. The novel is full of questions about the past, present and future of the McHoan family. Amongst other things, Prentice is consumed with such mundane issues as death, sex, drink and drugs... Oh and the existence or otherwise of God. I started to watch this when it was serialised on the BBC back in 1996. Unfortunately, at the same time, I took up with a girl who wasn't into 'this... more
Tags: modern novel
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Jeanette Winterson - Lighthousekeeping
Written by admin on 7 March, 2009 – 7:33 am -Jeanette Winterson, born in Manchester in 1959 is perhaps best known for her first novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. This was serialised by the BBC in 1990, starring the late Charlotte Coleman. Lighthousekeeping is her eighth novel and is set in the coastal town of Salts. Silver is an orphan, having lost her mother (she never knew her father). After a brief stay with the teacher, Miss Pinch, she is apprenticed to Mr Pew, the keeper of Cape Wrath lighthouse. The timeless Pew is blind, but he is also a fantastic story teller and soon Silver becomes lost in a world of Pew's creation. In particular, he tells of Babel Dark, a nineteenth century vicar. Silver finds herself following Dark's life like a map - a map drawn by Pew's blend... more
Tags: modern novel
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Which Charles Dickens book should I read?
Written by admin on 15 December, 2008 – 6:57 am -Charlie Hustle asked: I'm of a mind to read a Charles Dickens book. Having never read any of his work before I'm looking for some recommendations. Admin replies: Wow Charlie! What a question! The thing about Dickens is that you can start anywhere. As it's Christmas, and we are all, I guess, more or less familiar with A Christmas Carol, why don't you start there? The full title for the book is A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. And, as it's a short story, you'll not take long to read it and you'll pick up the nuances of the language much more quickly. And when you've read that, the world is your oyster. I'd probably go for The Pickwick Papers next. Oh, and use the fact that Dickens wrote his books... more
Tags: Charles Dickens
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The King James Bible
Written by admin on 1 September, 2008 – 8:04 am -Of the plethora of books written in the English Language, surely the King James Version of the Bible has been one of the more influential? It deserves its place, not only as a religious work, but also as a work of English literature. Much of the translation work must be credited to William Tyndale. Many common, everyday phrases were introduced into the English Language, such as 'let there be light', 'eat drink and be merry', 'ye of little faith' and 'am I my brother's keep?' Yes, they were there in some form in the original Greek and Hebrew, but Tyndale had given them wings as English phrases. In his book, Great Books and Great Collectors (1983), the respected antiquarian bookseller and bibliophile Alan G. Thomas comments that 'No book... more
Tags: antiquarian books, Bible, King James Version
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