Category Archives: Books and Literary Things

Some books i have been reading lately:
Agatha Christie: An english mystery - Laura Thompson (2007)

A biography of my favourite author so I read this with great interest: it”s a good complement to agatha”s own writings about her life ( she published two sets of autobiographical writings) - and goes into a lot that Agatha doesn”t reveal about herself. the disappearance in 1926, her first marriage etc.) I particularly enjoyed reading about her early life, i always do about people”s lives and the minutiae of everyday life in a bygone era.

Desertion - Abdulrazak Gurnah ( 2006)

Published in 2006, by a man who is an english lit professor at the univ. of kent and originally from the beautiful sounding island of zanzibar - i found this really fascinating. ( if only for the details and insight into life in zanzibar, that exotic place, in the 50″s, and Mombasa, at the turn of the century) the two sets of tales are intertwined.

You can”t keep a good woman down - Alice Walker (1982)

Fourteen short stories, provocative, sharp and poignant. I read that this never got the kind of acclaim that The Color Purple received..ah well, there”s no accounting for taste, is there?
Dancers in Mourning - Margery Allingham (1937)

perhaps because i spent my childhood onwards devouring Christies, Margery Allingham was a crime writer i didn”t bother to delve into very much. i found an old penguin edition in the library, and having heard lots about Albert Campion over the years, picked it up. I found the narrative interesting, and sparkingly amusing, but i didn”t find it on par with a Christie, assuming I were comparing, of course.

Miss LonelyHearts and A Cool Million - Nathanael West (1933)

this man clearly had a wicked sense of humour, and a ripping sense of satire: black comedy about the Depression years. A random find at the library, the author sounds like an intriguing character, I must read more about him. America is such a crazy place, i”m interested in finding writers who touch upon that insanity.

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol. III)

Maugham was a witty fellow. This collection of short stories features the British agent Ashenden - who it is said inspired Ian Fleming’s Bond, particularly with regards to Bond”s interactions with M.

In any case, they revolve around the First World War - and are loosely based on the author’s experience of being an agent for the Intelligence Dept. during this time. As he puts it - ” The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless, the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable’

Apparently some of his stories were juicier and closer to the truth but were axed by Winston Churchill because they violated the Official Secrets Act..

Very readable, witty, highly recommended.

Another work - Ashenden: Or the British Agent which Somerset Maugham published in 1928 and is a complete collection of all the Ashenden short stories.

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William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874, his father the solicitor at the British Consulate. He studied literature and philosophy at Heidelberg University, and then medicine at St. Thomas’ in London. It was during this time as a medical student he built on his experiences and published Liza of Lambeth in 1897.

After the 1930s Maugham’s reputation abroad was greater than in England.

Zadie Smith discusses her latest book “On Beauty” at Wanstead Library this Saturday - 29th July.

This is her third novel and was published in 2005, and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction. It”s been referred to in a lot of reviews as a “homage to EM Forster”.

Starts at 7.00 p.m. and tickets are £3.

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Wanstead Library is in the London Borough of Redbridge

Spratt Hall Road
Wanstead
London
E11 2RQ

Tel: 020 8708 7400

Bringing you essential etiquette guidance since 1102:

“ Being a scholarly Journal within which gentlemen, and those others, who in so being concerned with manners and all matters of etiquette in these dark times make it their solemn duty to educate their peers and lessers in the ways of civilisation.”
The Editor, 1102

Can be perused at your leisure. The April issue features “nominative difficulties, feminisation of theatrical artisans, apologising for social absence, card gaming and letters to the Editor.”

Has been added to the Book section. Check this space: over the next few weeks i will be adding more content. Also, i will be moving some content across from the Saki and Satire blog to this section - why? well just because the end of the Blogger experiment has drawn to a close. Blogger sucks, bigtime. it”s pretty clear wordpress is far superior, and i”m sticking with it.