In the fourth Dan Kavanagh (a.k.a. Julian Barnes, http://www.dankavanagh.com/index.html) novel, bisexual detective Duffy finds himself investigating a mysterious death in a country mansion. Dan Kavanagh a.k.a. Julian Barnes HarperCollins reprint paperback edition. ISBN 978-0060809539
A beautifully written study in melancholy set in a Swiss hotel by a lake. Edith Hope has gone to regain her composure on the advice of friends after an affair. Full of sly humour and rendered in delicate prose, this is a gently entertaining read for which Brookner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Brookner) won the Booker Prize of 1984. Anita
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In the dying days of the Ottoman Empire in 1908 Basil Pascali is a spy who reports regularly to Istanbul on the activities of the local people on his Aegean island. His reports are never acknowledged or seemingly acted upon, although his regular payment continues to come through. He expects to be found out at any
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Packed with detail and displaying an evident love of the subject Melvyn Bragg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvyn_Bragg) gives us the story of the Christianization of the North of England in the seventh century. The book shines a fictional light onto the warring, pagan Dark Ages. An outstanding blend of passion and erudition. Melvyn Bragg 800 pages in Sceptre
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‘Ad majorem Dei Gloriam’ – ‘To the greater glory of God’ is the motto of the Society of Jesus. It can also be understood as the aim of constructing all the buildings and creative works of art which are really hymns in stone, word and music to the divine. Golding (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) gives us Dean Jocelin who determines
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Raphael (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Raphael) presents a sample of the generation who went to Cambridge in the 1950s and their subsequent careers. Incredibly witty with beautifully realised characters this is a pure pleasure of a read. The six part 1976 TV mini series, from which the book was adapted, (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073999/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm) is with Tom Conti, Barbara Kellerman, Leonard Sachs and Nigel
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Regeneration (1991) is the first of the award winning trilogy of the same name. Pat Barker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Barker) gets into the heads of the young men who were forced to endure the horrors of the First World War. It was followed by The Eye in the Door (1993) and The Ghost Road (1995). It mixes fictional characters
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This book is a classic exploration of the short story with readings of Chekhov, Hemingway, Kipling, Joyce, and others. Published by Frank O’Connor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_O%27Connor) in 1962. Frank O’Connor 211 pages in Melville House Publishing paperback edition. ISBN 978-1935554424
The Lonely Voice by Frank O’Connor Read More »
Originally published as Le Noeud de Vipiers in 1932. A rich but wretchedly unhappy miser approaches the end of his life, and tries in a series of reflections to figure out how it has all gone wrong. Suffocating in his own avarice and bitterness, is there anything that can be done to save this lost
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This is an elegant and wonderfully lucid introduction to the philosophy of science. 288 pages in Open University Press paperback edition. ISBN 978-0335201099
What is this thing called science? by Alan Chalmers Read More »
Lisa Jardine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Jardine) argues that the creation of culture during the Renaissance was inextricably tied to the creation of wealth — that the expansion of commerce spurred the expansion of thought. This is a superb and fascinating read, especially for those who are drawn to the Renaissance as a subject. Do also listen to
The Sense of an Ending (1967) is a book which seeks to establish a connection between fiction, time and apocalyptic modes of thought. Frank Kermode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Kermode) sees in the apocalyptic certain features which, he suggests, provide a useful analogy with the process of reading and writing fiction. The author tells us that in imagining an end
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The language that would become English arrived in these islands in the fifth century with Germanic tribes as the Roman empire began collapsing. Bragg describes it in almost Darwinian terms, a “subtle and ruthless” survivor that defeated competing tongues over the next three centuries, refusing to marry with the indigenous Celtic language (which has left us
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Mystery and thriller writer Harlan Coben (http://www.harlancoben.com/) entertains us once more with a tale in which facts re-surface from the past. In Six Years the narrative is immersive, and the well-drawn characters and twisting plotting are stellar. With such a cool hook and a surprising and satisfying payoff, get straight out and read what might be
Consciousness, morality, creativity, language, and art: these are the some of the traits that combine to make us human. Scientists have have often explained these qualities as merely a side effect of surplus brain size, but Miller (http://psych.unm.edu/people/directory-profiles/geoffrey-miller.html, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Miller_(psychologist)) argues that they were sexual attractors, not side effects. The author bases his argument on Darwin’s
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