Mr. Wydey's
Book List
Highly Recommended Reading
& Authors worth pursuing

Dana, Richard

In 1834, at the age of 19, the author had to leave Harvard university due to a problem with his sight, which prevented him from studying. His answer was to get a job as an ordinary seaman on a sailing ship, which travelled from the east to the west coast of North America via Cape Horn. He spent most of 1835 on the Californian coast, which belonged to Mexico then, and he returned home in 1836. He published his account of his experiences under the title Two Years Before The Mast in 1840, 3 years after graduating from Harvard. It's well worth visiting to experience the time scale of people who took half a year to travel from Boston to San Francisco instead of a few hours on an airliner.

Defoe, Daniel

Robinson Crusoe is a sobering read. The 18th Century shipwreck victim has all sorts of survival skills, which people of the 20th/21st Century no longer have. I finished this book with a strong sense of admiration for the people of that era.

Dumas, Alexandre, the elder

If you're looking for a long read, look no further than the works of this man. The Three Musketeers runs for well over 600 pages, and this is a typical length for the various sequels. The surprise for someone new to the book is how much there is in it. The film industry made a set of three movies out of it in the Seventies. The Man in the Iron Mask and The Count of Monte Cristo receive a similar thorough treatment from the author.

Melville, Herman

His story of the hunt for the great white whale has been made into films and cartoons, and it has passed into the universal consciousness. Moby Dick the novel, finished in 1851, offers much, much more than any film could deliver. It provides a complete account of the life and times of the men who pursued enormous sea creatures in relatively frail wooden boats and it is highly recommended to the mature reader.

Poe, Edgar Allan

Tales of Mystery and Imagination contains horror stories, detective stories, science fiction, humour and much more. There's everything in this collection of short stories, which opens with The Pit and the Pendulum and closes with The Masque of the Red Death. Much filmed, much adapted, much ripped-off, this work should be on everyone's have-read list.

Stevenson, R.L.

Best known for Treasure Island, which has been stuck with the label of a book for children even though it wasn't intended as such, Mr. Stevenson is also known for Kidnapped, its sequel Catriona and Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, all of which have been filmed and/or adapted for television a number of times.

Tyng, Charles (1801-1879)

Before The Wind describes the author's life from 1808 to 1833 and includes his rise from ship's boy to mate to captain to international trader with a line of credit amounting to $1million. The ms, written in 1878, ends abruptly with the author recovering from cholera in 1833. His handwritten memoirs passed through his family before being edited and published in 1999. Highly recommended as a piece of living history.

Aldiss, Brian W.

Originally a writer of science fiction, producing short stories for the magazines and novels such as Hothouse, he joined the Speculative Fiction movement of the 70s and became tedious. He has produced anthologies which are histories of science fiction, e.g. Billion Year Spree, and he crossed over to the mainstream with a series of autobiographical novels.

Asimov, Isaac

One of the most prolific science and science-fiction writers of all time, he is known for his short stories about robots, in which he provided Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics, and his Foundation trilogy. Dr. Asimov was a very fountain of information!

Bagley, Desmond

Mr. Bagley is out of the same box as Alistair McLean and Hammond Innes. His adventure yarns are extremely readably, full of action and highly recommended. Landslide, for instance, is a story of skullduggery and murder set in the forests of Canada with a guest appearance of the geological phenomenon "quick clay".

Boyer, Richard L.

Dr. Watson mentioned The Giant Rat of Sumatra in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire". Luckily, the good doctor set a date after which the tale could be published and Mr. Boyer has delivered a tale of terror, revenge and code-breaking.

Burgess, Anthony

A Clockwork Orange is a surprisingly slim volume (the 1972 Penguin paperback is 144 pages), which comes with a 4-page glossary of the Nadsat language. Originally published in 1962, the tale of teenage ultra-violence and Beethoven has a timeless quality and Young Alex's first-person account of this reclamation and release is an excellent read.

Caine, Michael

Not Many People Know That! is an 'almanac of amazing information' arranged in date order, two days per page. Lots of fascinating facts and some nice cartoons. Well worth tracking down in a second-hand bookshop [my copy cost a quid].

Childers, Erskine

The Riddle of the Sands, published in 1903, was written as both an adventure story and as a warning to the British Government of a way in which Germany could launch a sneak attack against England. Ironically, the author ended his days in front of a firing squad in Dublin in 1922 as a member of an Irish Republican terrorist gang.

Charteris, Leslie

The Saint Meets the Tiger is the first of around forty novels and collections of short stories featuring a hero who has gone one to appear in films and on television. Most of the books have become historical novels set in 1930s, and they can be read and enjoyed as explorations of the customs and attitudes of those far-off days as well as adventure stories.

Clarke, Arthur C.

Inventor of the communication satellite and author of Earthlight and Childhood's End, the source of 2001, A Space Odyssey and its sequels, Dr. Clarke is now a Grand Old Man of science fiction. This means that he is involved in masses of projects but he supplies the ideas and lets others do most of the writing work. But he is someone who has earned the laurels on which he currently rests and a good read.

Clement, Hal

Imagine a discus-shaped world with a polar diameter of 20,000 miles and an equatorial diameter of 48,000 miles. Gravity here tails off from 600g at the poles to a few g at the equator. A probe containing measuring instruments worth $2billion (at 1950s prices) is stuck at a pole. Charles Lackland has struck a bargain with one of the natives, a caterpillar-like creature 15" long and 2" in diameter, who captains a ship which sails on methane oceans. Barlenna and his crew are going to the high-gravity area on a rescue mission. This is the idea behind Mission of Gravity and learning how it all comes out is well worth the journey through the book.

Condon, Richard

The 1962 Frank Sinatra film of The Manchurian Candidate is lost in the mists of memory but the book is so much bigger than the film, some 100,000 words, and the story has a depth and breadth which hold the reader's interest from start to finish. A highly recommended saga of the Cold War era, brainwashing and the American way of politics and political influence.

Conrad, Joseph

Spies, anarchists, murder and a plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory all figure in The Secret Agent; and, inevitably, people coming to a bad end. In fact, people coming to a bad end seems to happen quite a lot in this guy's books.

Deighton, Len

Mr. Deighton got himself noticed with his Harry Palmer books, The Ipcress File, Horse Under Water and Funeral In Berlin, then he got heavily in to Cold War Stuff and writing books in multiples. Close Up, a novel set in the film industry, is a particularly good read.

Dickinson, Peter

It's unusual to come across a really original setting and an original type of character who's investigating a murder on a fairly unofficial basis. Mr. Dickinson manages both in The Poison Oracle [Hodder & Stoughton, 1974] and it's well worth tracking down a copy of this interesting book. In fact, Mr. Dickinson has a talent for the original/peculiar. Sometimes it works, sometimes it needs a lot of patience on the part of the reader.

Gardner, John

The creator of Boysie Oakes, lecherous and blundering secret agent, and the author of a number of Bond books borrowed another character in the 1970s. The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty chronicle the evil Professor's life of crime and the extent of his influence on Victorian London in the 1890s. An interesting read and well worth tracking down.

Gibbons, Stella

The collision between Flora Post and the totally weird Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm has to be on any must-read list.

Gordon, Richard

Famous for his humorous books with a medical background, e.g. Doctor In The House and at least nine others in the same "Doctor" series. The Doctor books were much filmed - the films still appear on TV occasionally - and they spawned stage plays and radio and TV series before going out of fashion.

Grey, Zane

Riders of the Purple Sage is a classic Western adventure full of Mormon-bashing; which was quite popular once.

Heller, Joseph

Catch 22 was Catch 18 when it came off the author's typewriter. But the name had to be changed and it eclipsed Mr. Heller's subsequent writing career. The book is set in World War II and the central character is Yossarian, whose CO want his men to fly more missions than any other squadron for no sound military reason. So Yossarian decides that he's going to say 'NO!' to the system. 'War is insanity', is the message.

Hasek, Jaroslav

A totally disreputable character, he managed to complete only 4 volumes of a 6-part sequence begun with The Good Soldier Svejk. The Svejk saga in a riotous account of confrontations between authority figures and a ruthlessly cunning, if dim, Czech old soldier, who wants to go off to war when the Great War breaks out. Svejk manages to do a marvellous job of destroying the morale of the Austrian officer corps and the English translations of the stories are very highly recommended.

Heyerdahl, Thor

First, come up with your theory. Then prove it's possible by doing it. That's exactly what the author and his equally intrepid companions did on The Kon-Tiki Expedition, when they travelled across the Pacific Ocean from Peru toward Tahiti on a raft made of balsa wood.

Hope, Anthony

Both The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau are tales of plots and counter-plots in Ruritania, a land of castles and dirty dealing somewhere in Europe. The Prisoner, at least, has been filmed and is probably due for a remake.

Hornung, E.W.

Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman starts off as jolly fun but it's all aimed at showing that anyone who goes off the rails and starts nicking stuff from people who appear to have too much is bound to come to a bad end.

Innes, Hammond

Author of The Mary Deare, Campbell's Kingdom and The Land God Gave To Cain, in the 40s and 50s, and North Star in the 70s, Hammond Innes was someone who travelled all over the world and then wrote best-sellers set in the places that he had visited. A quality author.

Mason, A.E.W.

The Four Feathers is out of the same box as Beau Geste. The hero is accused of cowardice and sets out to prove to his accusers that he's an okay bloke.

Monsarrat, Nicholas

The author is known for his books with a nautical background and The Cruel Sea is the most well-known of them. Set in World War Two, the book follows the fortunes of the crew of an escort vessel on Atlantic convoy duty, running the U-Boat gauntlet and struggling to bring supplies from the United States to the British Isles.

McLean, Alistair

The author started his career with a best-seller - HMS Ulysses, which was filmed, and went on to write a whole string of block-busters, including The Guns of Navarone and Fear Is The Key, and he provided the film industry with a whole lot of material. The early books tend to be better but most of them are worth a read. Some of them, such as Goodbye, California contains masses of statistics about the theme of the book - the nuclear industry in the United States in this case - and they can get a bit tedious.

Orwell, George

Down & Out In Paris & London is probably his best book and shines a spotlight on life behind the scenes in posh hotels and doss-houses for down and outs in the Twenties. Homage to Catalonia, set in the Spanish Civil War, and The Road To Wigan Pier are also worth reading. Orwell's non-fiction tends to be better than his fiction - e.g. 1984, Animal Farm - and full of fascinating bits and pieces.

Remarque, Erich Maria

This author wrote only eight novels, so a complete collection doesn't take up much bookshelf space but it will take some assembling. His first and only famous novel is All Quiet on the Western Front. Set in the First World War, the tone is so anti-war that it was banned in Germany during the militarist period pre-1945. His other works include The Way Back, a sequel to All Quiet, and The Black Obelisk, which contains unexpected humour among his output of general doom and gloom.

Reynolds, Mack

Looking Backward, From The Year 2000 is set in 2002 and it's quite amusing to read the book, published in 1973, in the real-life 2002. Science fiction author Mr. Reynolds presents a society with no cities, no spirits and no alcoholics, no farms producing livestock for meat, no wars and no money. And every home is an office if the occupant so wishes. Amazing how far off the beam someone can be when he looks forward just 30 years. Pity about the silly ending.

Russell, Eric Frank

One of the masters of science fiction. Wasp (1957) is the story of a secret service man, who is sent out to cause panic on an alien planet - singlehanded! In Next of Kin, the hero takes a piece of bent copper wire ... and conquers the universe! Anything by this author is well worth reading, e.g.: Far Stars (1961) – a collection of stories. Scouts flit among the stars, looking for inhabited planets and sending back an unhelpful and brief message when they find one. Earthers are the dominant species but they sometimes run into a species which can't be dominated. The Great Explosion (1962) – There was a mass exodus of minorities from Earth after the Blieder Drive was perfected. A century later, Earth would like the deserters back under its thumb. Only the military expedition sent to sort out the defectors runs into severe problems. Three To Conquer (1955) – A classic SF story set in 1980 featuring Wade Harper, a telepath. He has helped the police and the FBI bring criminals to justice and he keeps digging when he comes across a dying policeman. But things go really pear-shaped when he makes contact with another mind; and finds it belongs to an alien from Venus!

Shirer, William L.

At over 1,200 pages long, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is considered to be the definitive study of the 12-year history of Nazi Germany. And at £1.00 from a book club as an incentive to join, it was a dead bargain. Berlin Diary by the same author gives a much more personal view of what life was like under the Nazis from 1934 until the United States got involved in World War Two at the end of 1941.

Shute, Nevil

Prolific Australian author of No Highway, On The Beach, Round The Bend, The Chequer Board, A Town Like Alice, etc. Seeing his name on the spine of a book is generally a guarantee of a good read. Some of his books are works of speculative fiction. In The Wet, for instance, was published in 1953, the Coronation Year, but it includes a sequence set in the 1980s. Britain is in decline with all the get-up-and-go people emigrating to Australia and Canada, leaving less ambitious people at the mercy of a Socialist-envy government led by Trade Union non-entities. And Prince Charles has two sons.

Spillane, Mickey

The Mike Hammer series has become historical novels now. Beginning with Vengeance Is Mine, the series starts in the period just after World War Two. It charts a time when men were men, who had a gun in one hand and a drink or cigarette in the other, and a stunning blonde in tow. A great antidote to the wishy-washy politically correct era of the 1990s/2000s. Probably to be found only as browning paperbacks with 2/6 or 3/6 as the price tag.

Smith, Henry T.

Death In Small Corners is the first episode of a pentalogy, in which the central character is Johnny Royle, 'a man born without a conscience'. Royle has a talent for strolling casually into trouble, expecting to come out in one piece on the other side. His part-time job as a cocaine smuggler brings him to the attention of a boss with lethal sporting instincts. His assassin friend Lenny Suskin's plans to recreate himself bring Royle to the attention of his local police force. Extraordinary things happening as everyday life goes on around them, that's the theme of the series.

Turner, Harry

Triad Optical Illusions and how to design them is a large format Dover Publications softback which explores the theory and practice of drawing objects which are physically impossible to construct in our 3-dimensional world. The book contains ideas galore, templates for impossible object building blocks and 32 sample designs to admire and colour. A tour de force by an internationally acknowledged expert in the field.
NOTE: ISBN 0486235491 is still available from amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com [Feb/2002].

Wren, P.C.

Much filmed and borrowed from, Beau Geste is the classic tale of the French Foreign Legion, refuge of the disgraced and those seeking to regain lost honour. There are mysterious goings on in England over the Blue Water, a sapphire which disappears, and out in the African desert at Fort Zinderneuf.

Booth, Stephen

If you want to know about policing in Derbyshire, Black Dog is the book for you. It's all either very well researched or, if Mr. Booth is anything like most of the Romiley Literary Circle authors, it's all made up in a very convincing fashion. Rural Derbyshire is full of angst, jealousy, hostility and resentment. Oh, yes, and criminals and totally awkward sods. Among the ranks of the coppers, everyone is either on the make or being overlooked when they're not boozing like mad. And when it comes to solving the rather bizzarely motivated murder, well, they just trip over the solution when it drops dead in front of them. Bit weird but not a bad read.

Baben, Eddie

The Book What I Wrote (2004) comes from the man who wrote scripts for Morcame & Wise after Sid & Dick jacked it in. He has constructed a very readable story of his own life around this main theme. As well as writing for TV; Mr. Braben includes Ken Dodd in his client list; he also wrote for radio and starred in his own show. An excellent read and trip down memory lane.

Foley, Mick

Have A Nice Day by Mankind [one of Mick Foley's characters] gives an insiders view of life in the television wrestling industry in the United States. Written entirely by the man himself on trans-continental flights, the book confirms that everything that happens in and around the wrestling ring is scripted; but the injuries are real. Anyone watching WWF's output today and wondering what happened to Commissioner Foley's right ear will find out in this book. Mick has a real talent for telling his story.

Forsyth, Frederick

The Deceiver (1991) is a novel consisting of 4 long stories with linking text wrapped round them. The stories are episodes in the career of a Cold War warrior, Sam McCready, who is being ditched by an SIS run by dickheads, who think electronic information gathering can replace agents on the ground, and who failed to anticipate Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. The author's body of work began with The Day of the Jackal (1971) and The Odessa File (1972).

Gored, Jon A.

Dreamers of the Day is a stunning collision of the rock music industry; lots and lots and lots of cash; a weird being from... well, somewhere; people out to cause trouble just for fun and lots, lots more. Five hundred pages of pure delight. His next offering, Prey is 650 pages of more delight. A police officer undergoes a life-changing event by being on the fringes of a spot of industrial counter-espionage. Detective Sergeant Robson Alkan finds himself better equipped to do his job of spotting predators - but in a way which would cost him his career if he revealed it. More info in The Works section of the RLC website.

Holt, A.J.

Watch Me (1995) is the ultimate crime-fighter's fantasy and features FBI agent Jay Fletcher, who becomes disillusioned through official restrictions on searching databases. She has the computer skills to track down serial killers but her bosses and the system won't let her. And when she finds a whole gang of them sharing experiences under the cover of an on-line game, she feels obliged to go on leave become a free-lance exterminator.

Idle, Eric

The Road To Mars could be described as a sci-fi crime/terrorism novel with androids. It's also a thesis on the nature of comedy. The book is well crafted and well written, and even if the plot is a bit strung-out and incidental, the story is well worth reading. But anyone who gets the paperback should be aware that it is printed with a miserable little type size.

James, Russell

Painting In The Dark is set in 1997 in the run-up to New Labour's landslide election victory. The book is in part a crime story and in part a warning against charismatic political leaders. One of the main characters is Sidonie Keene, whose sister Naomi knew and admired the Nazi Party leaders in the 1930s and whose portraits of them became highly collectable after the war. The action of the book centres around the paintings. Its deeper message is an explanation of what went wrong in Germany in the Thirties and a suggestion that charismatic politicians like Tony Blair are bound to come unstuck and get their country into a war.

Kostova, Elizabeth

The Historian (2005) is a monumental work (700 pages for 7 quid in paperback!), which charts the involvement of Dracula, a.k.a. the Walachian hero Vlad Tepes III, with a young woman's parents, both of whom have disappeared. She finds an ancient books and a cache of old letters in her father's library, and they set her off on her adventure.
   The story is told from the viewpoint of the daughter and both parents, and the reader has to pay attention to keep hold of the threads. The author has done a good job of researching the history of Vlad, according to Romiley Literary Circle's resident expert on him, and this is a long and good read.

Leather, Stephen

Cold Kill (2006) A 500-page study of the effects of counter-terrorism work on British people doing it. The hero is an undercover cop, a widower and guilty about neglecting his son. His department goes through an upsetting change of command and he has little confidence in the new female boss.
   The background is world-wide terrorist attacks by Al Qaida and attempts to stop an atrocity in Britain. The Americans are painted as black as the Islamic terrorists because they have adopted robust tactics against them. The hero doesn't want to be a killer, which he is obliged to become. And the terrorists are unstoppable. Kill off one operation and another succeeds. A long read which moves along very nicely.

Malkin, Lawrence

Krueger's Men (2006) is an account of the Nazi plot, run by Major Bernhard Krueger of the SS, to flood the world with counterfeit British currency as a way to win World War II. Concentration camp prisoners were used to manufacture notes, which could fool Bank of England officials. The original plan to drop planeloads of the notes over England was abandoned in favour of a much more cunning alternative. Great stuff.

Mortimer, John

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004) Horace Rumpole, the Old Bailey Hack, has referred throughout his long career to winning this case 'alone and without a leader'. Finally, Rumpole fans have a chance to find out how he did it. The story is presented as sections of memoirs within a contemporary setting, and it keeps the reader wanting to go on and on until he/she reaches the last of the 215 pages. Highly recommended.

McDevitt, Jack

An amateur astronomer spots a new comet during a total solar eclipse. It's coming at the Solar System at an unusually high speed after travelling through the cosmos for billions of years. And it's going to smash right into the Moon! Moonfallis a big book (464 pages) with a big story to tell.

Preston, Richard

If you're looking for thoroughness, check out The Cobra Event by this author. Mr. Preston seems to specialize in novels about biological terrorism, building on a lot of research by introducing gadgets of his own, which don't exist yet but which ought to. He can put together a strong action thriller and he includes explanations in the text, which can be a bit off-putting at times. This book also includes a glossary of biological warfare terms to give it an even stronger textbook flavour. But it's a good read.

Fabian, Robert

London After Dark is the 2nd volume of memories and case notes from the ex-Superintendent of Scotland Yard. He opens it with sermons about things like London's night clubs, prostitutes, dope trade and the 'Problem of the Perverts', and finishes things off with 14 cases involving murder and lesser crimes. A fascinating piece of 20th Century history in the period from the late Twenties to the early Fifties.

Galland, Adolf

General Galland's account of his war, The First and The Last, has a foreword by Douglas Bader and describes World War II from the perspective of a fighter pilot and an administrator, who had to deal with Goering and Hitler.
David Baker's Authorized Biography of 'the most famous German fighter pilot of World War II' devotes 6 chapters to his life from 1912 to September, 1939, 14 chapters to WW2 and just one chapter to the 50 years up to his death in 1996. It is an interesting companion work to Galland's own book but somewhat bottom-heavy in its focus for a biography.

Ernst Hanfstaengl

Hitler's Piano Player by Conradi, Peter delves into the life and times of 'Putzi' Hanfstaengl, who used to be part of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, and played the piano to calm the Fuehrer's jangled nerves, until he came unstuck. He fled Nazi Germany when others in Hitler's circle tried to have him done in and ended up working for the Americans. A fascinating insight into the early days of the Third Reich.

Lawrence, T.E.

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a lengthy (600+ pages) account of the author's adventures in Arabia during World War I, where he worked to oust the Turks and help the Arabs take over, knowing that the British and French governments were up to no good behind the scenes. Lawrence provides a geologist's tour of Arabia and descriptions of the way of life in the desert in the early years of the 20th Century. There is practically nothing about taking Akaba but he does include attacks on trains after going all round the houses to get there. Not a book for anyone in a hurry.

Manzarek, Ray

Light My Fire - My Life With The Doors starts with the death of Jim Morrison and the lack of concrete facts about this event. The account then goes back to when Manzarek met Jim Morrison and travels on to Miami and its aftermath. The book is well worth reading but the further one gets, the more the reader comes to think that author is presenting too much of a naive, hippy image for someone who's approaching 60. Life should have knocked a bit more sense into him. An interesting thing to do is read the author's descriptions of the recording sessions, play the album concerned and experience the credibility gap. Still, if Ray was a part of the Doors and he helped to create all that great music, good luck to him.

Riefenstahl, Leni

A Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl by Audrey Salkeld devotes the first 220 pages to the dancer/ film-maker/ photographer's life up to the end of World War Two, then just 60 pages to the remaining 60 of Frau Riefenstahl's 101 years. There is a similar imbalance in the photographs; just 2 of them are post war. That said, this is a very readable, well researched work with lots of context, and highly recommended.

Simpson, Professor Keith

In Forty Years of Murder, Professor Simpson gives an account of his work as a Home Office Pathologist from the Thirties to the disappearance of Lord Lucan in 1974. One to read after Sir Sydney Smith's book and the biography of Sir Bernard Spilsbury.

Spilsbury, Sir Bernard

Bernard Spilsbury, the biography by Douglas G. Browne and Tom Tullett, has the sub-title Famous Murder Cases of the Great Pathologist. It gives a well constructed account of the life of a man who made himself the leader in his field, worked himself to death and then ended his life at a moment of his own choosing. Not as technically oriented as Sir Keith Simpson's autobiography but a well-rounded and very readable work.

Smith, Sir Sydney

Mostly Murder, the autobiography of the leading authority on forensic medicine of his day, provides an excellent account on how the business of understanding crimes was conducted in the Thirties and Forties. Later editions include a foreword by Professor Keith Simpson, who became the next leading authority in the field.

Look To Windward by Banks, Iain M.

This is part of a sequence - I've not read any of the others. Lots and lots and LOTS of messing about. Not the sort of book that engages the reader and pulls him/her into the author's vision. Be prepared to go at least half way before the [dastardly] plot starts to emerge. If you have something else to read which looks more promising, give this one a miss.

Dangerous Visions 1 edited by Ellison, Harlan

There was a lot of pretentious tripe around in the 60s and 70s. This collection contains 30,000 words of it by Philip José Farmer. The editor, a noted tripehound himself, describes the story as the finest in the collection. The unfortunate reader began with clever, went through pointless and tedious and ended at who cares what happens next? about one-third of the way in. The reasonable stuff, by the likes of Miram deFord, Robert Bloch and Brian Aldis, comes after the Farmer story - but the collection is seasoned with more tosh.

The Gormenghast Trilogy by Peake, Mervyn

Titus Groan, Gormenghast and Titus Alone seem to have a built-in progressive unreadability. I got through the first two volumes but I found myself skipping more and more of the third until I decided I didn't care any more and abandoned it.

War & Peace by Tolstoy, Leo

The creation is over 1,000 pages long, and no wonder! It begins with a grand ball scene which goes on and on and on and bloody on! Until I gave up in disgust and went on to read something more interesting.

BRIXMIS - The Untold Exploits of Britain's Most Daring Cold War Spy Mission

Tony Geraghty has written a fascinating book, which engages and holds the reader's interest right from the start. It's the story of how British 'monitors' kept track of what was going on in the Soviet-occupied region of Germany from the end of World War Two up to the collapse of Communism in the 1990s. It was a mission to gather intelligence, despite the many obstacles erected by the Red Menace and its stooges, and to prevent war by accident as the superpowers manoeuvred and tested each other. (1996)

The Cynic's Dictionary

Editor Rick Bayan has assembled a fine collection of definitions of common words, e.g [at random] Mugger A benevolent citizen of the streets who frequently spares the lives of total strangers in exchange for any cash and valuables in their possession. (Ed. - see also Gordon Brown). Well worth tracking down, if only as an interesting read.

The Great Rock Discography, 5th Edition

This monster tome is A4-size and 1,100 pages packed with information on bands and their singles, LPs, CDs, etc. Information on personnel and chart ratings, if anyone cares, is also provided. An interesting thing to do is find the most obscure album in your collection and see if it's in the book. Tonto's Expanding Head Band's album Zero Time is unaccountably absent, for instance.

Le Mot Juste – The Penguin Dictionary of Foreign Terms and Phrases

The 1988 revised edition of a work originally published in 1934 contains material from all over the world and there's a 90-page index. One for people who are too mean to buy every English-Other Language dictionary under the sun.

Nil Desperandum

Eugene Ehrlich has sub-titled his work A Dictionary of Latin Tags and Phrases, and that's what it is. An collection of 1,200 latin phrases, maxims and proverbs of the sort tossed around by people who are trying to impress others with their knowledge, or to exclude the peasants from their circle, and also the bits and pieces of Latin still in everyday use. Well worth dipping into at random.

A Pig In A Poke

There is no author credit for this work, which explains Curious, Bizarre and Incomprehensible Expressions; like 'a pig in a poke'. One to dip into or devour from cover to cover, according to the reader's preferences. Comes from Grange Books (www.grangebooks.co.uk).

Wordly Wise

James McDonald describes his collection as A book about the origins of English words and phrases. The book contains 30 chapters, each devoted to a topic, e.g. magic, law, religion, money, drink, sex. The chapters show how the language associated with the chapter title has evolved over the years and they include 'amusing stories' as well as strictly informative stuff.

Looking for more good stuff? Try the Romiley Literary Circle site.
It's jam-packed with goodies!
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