Going downhill fast

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming

When Bond saves a beautiful, reckless girl from self-destruction, he finds himself with a lead on Blofeld. In the snow-bound fastness of his Alpine base, Blofeld is conducting research that could threaten the safety of the world. To thwart the evil genius, Bond must get himself and the vital information he has gathered out of the base and keep away from SPECTRE’s agents. Which may require the help of the rescued maiden who can handle herself at high speed…

The usual heady mix of high octane chases, upper class hanging out and top secret fun and games. Despite the endemic sexism of the writing (“rescued maiden” indeed) and some dull casino passages and ski equipment descriptions it is still a pretty exciting and fast-paced yarn. Although the Blofeld plot for world domination is not terribly well articulated it does seem to anticipate more contemporary fears about bio-terrorism.

Books of the year 2009

Favourite books of the year

Of course they’re not of the year, rather just the best I happen to have read in the past 12 months. And, strictly speaking, this one was at the end of 2008:

Vertigo by W G Sebald

This one was extremely good:

Restoration by Rose Tremain

And can’t believe it took me so long to get round to this – just absolutely outstanding:

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

And the worst…these two were just awful:

And then we came to the end

Gilead

The Weaver of Raveloe

Silas Marner by George Eliot

According to the blurb:

Wrongly accused of theft and exiled from a religious community many years before, the embittered weaver Silas Marner lives alone in Raveloe, living only for work and his precious hoard of money. But when his money is stolen and an orphaned child finds her way into his house, Silas is given the chance to transform his life. His fate, and that of the little girl he adopts, is entwined with Godfrey Cass, son of the village Squire, who, like Silas, is trapped by his past. Silas Marner, George Eliot’s favourite of her novels, combines humour, rich symbolism and pointed social criticism to create an unsentimental but affectionate portrait of rural life.

“Unsentimental” is perhaps not entirely accurate but it is a cracking tale and beautifully crafted. Almost feels like a novella compared with other chunkier works but nevertheless absolutely outstanding. Can’t believe I’ve never found the time to read it before.

One day at a time

Thank you for the days by Mark Radcliffe

Approaching 50, Mark Radcliffe decided to write about his life, most importantly, his time in music. But crucially, he only wanted to write about the most interesting days and not the dull ones in between. Mark’s family life is covered by ‘The Day My Mother Hit Me With a Golf Club’ , his school life by ‘The Day I Ruined a Perfectly Good Suit’ and ‘The Day I Got My First Guitar’; through his epiphany of the power of music in ‘The Day I Met the Band Who Changed My Life’ and his star struck meeting with childhood hero, David Bowie.

Other stars are there too including in ‘The Day I Went to Kate Bush’s House for Cheese Flan’, and ‘The Day Mick Jagger Was Taller Than Me’ as well as close encounters with Kylie. The report of the slow motion car crash that was Mark and Lard’s stint on the Radio 1 breakfast show is presented in an honest matter of fact way. Overall a pretty enjoyable read with the stuff with the stars being considerably more interesting than the tales from home. Radcliffe, as you would hope and expect, comes across as an entertaining and thoroughly decent bloke.

Playing with Fire

The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about sex trafficking in Sweden are murdered, and Salander’s prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society – but no-one can find her. Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, does not believe the police. Using all his magazine staff and resources to prove Salander’s innocence, Blomkvist also uncovers her terrible past, spent in criminally corrupt institutions. Yet Salander is more avenging angel than helpless victim. She may be an expert at staying out of sight – but she has ways of tracking down her most elusive enemies.

A slightly slow start to this, the second in the Larsson Millennium trilogy, but when it gets going it really takes off. Fast-paced and gripping it delivers on every count. Super stuff.

Rock n roll poetry

Gig by Simon Armitage

A poet is a rock star without the sex’n’drugs, or the rock’n’roll. But that never stopped Simon Armitage dreaming, and in Gig, he explores how music and the muse intertwine in work and in life. Crammed with stories, anecdotes, jokes, absurdities, the odd informal homily, pitfalls and pratfalls (not all the author’s own), Yorkshire life and death, Gig is about the dream and reality of what you are, and what you might have been.

A really warm, uncynical and refreshing view of the life poetic with stories of being out on the road interspersed with musical reminiscences. Very enjoyable. The only gripe about the otherwise impeccable musical selection is the author’s eventual caving in to the pressures of the Bob Dylan hegemony.

Grounded

Gone to Ground by John Harvey

(Actually read this some time ago) Not a Resnick one but very good nevertheless.

Will’s first thought when he saw the man’s face: it was like a glove that had been pulled inside out…Stephen Bryan, a gay academic, is found brutally murdered in his bathroom. Will Grayson and Helen Walker, police detectives investigating the case, at first assume that his death is the result of an ill-judged sexual encounter: rough trade gone wrong. But doubts are soon raised. Bryan’s laptop has gone missing – could the murder be connected to a biography he was writing on the life and mysterious death of fifties screen legend, Stella Leonard? Convinced there’s a link, Bryan’s sister Lesley sets out to prove that Bryan had uncovered a dangerous truth, and that – desperate to keep it hidden – Stella Leonard’s rich and influential family have silenced him. But soon both Lesley and Helen Walker find themselves victims of the violence that swirls around them, as gradually the investigation uncovers the secrets of a family corrupted by lust, wealth and power…

One of the more recent ones and I think this was in fact the first Harvey I picked up. Mainly set in Cambridge rather than Nottingham but some of the characters do cross over from Resnick series. Really is rather good – well-paced, well-plotted and just an entertaining read.

Headway

The Maintenance of Headway by Magnus Mills

‘It’s a matter of procedure,’ I explained. ‘Strictly for the record. You don’t get sacked from this job unless you did what Thompson did.’ ‘What did he do then?’ ‘We never mention it.’ In Magnus Mills’ brilliant short novel he transports us into the bizarre world of the bus drivers who take us to work, to the supermarket, to the match and home again. It is a strange but all too real universe in which ‘the timetable’ and ‘maintenance of headway’ are sacred, but where the routes can change with the click of an inspector’s fingers and the helpless passengers are secondary. The journey from the southern outpost to the arch, the circus and the cross will seem as familiar as your regular route, but then Magnus Mills shows you the almost religious fervour which lies behind it, and how it is fine to be a little bit late but utterly unforgivable to be a moment early.

Very reminiscent of The Scheme for Full Employment but none the worse for that. Mills writes in a cool, deadpan style and delivers a surreal tale of the strange life on the buses which is compellingly realised and never dull.

Last writes

Last Rites by John Harvey

Getting towards the end of the Resnick series and they do just get better and better:

Lorraine Preston’s brother, Michael, was sent down for life for the murder of their father – and now he’s being allowed out for their mother’s funeral. A hardened criminal, Michael Preston is the last person Resnick wants back on his patch, even is it’s only for a matter of hours. Heartsore and world-weary, Resnick is struggling to contain an explosive situation on the streets, where the spread of guns has led to a frightening escalation in drug-related crime. The local force, meanwhile, is riven by internal rivalries and rumours of corruption. With his previously stable relationship with Hannah Campbell wavering, Resnick is forced back on his self-belief, his understanding of people. Why – himself included – they do the things they do.

Really don’t want them to end.

Who let the dogs out?

The Dogs of Riga by Henning Mankell

Second in the Wallander series – and some exceptional challenges for Kurt:

Sweden, winter, 1991. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team receive an anonymous tip-off. A few days later a life raft is washed up on a beach. In it are two men, dressed in expensive suits, shot dead. The dead men were criminals, victims of what seems to have been a gangland hit. But what appears to be an open-and-shut case soon takes on a far more sinister aspect. Wallander travels across the Baltic Sea, to Riga in Latvia, where he is plunged into a frozen, alien world of police surveillance, scarcely veiled threats, and lies. Doomed always to be one step behind the shadowy figures he pursues, only Wallander’s obstinate desire to see that justice is done brings the truth to light.

It is rollercoaster stuff and the Lativan escapade is particularly exciting. Also serves as a reminder of what already seems like a different age.