What are you reading at the moment?

Another memoir finished, this time by an RAF doctor who served through France and Dunkirk, won a George Medal in the UK and was taken captive in Java, surviving the horrors of Japanese internment and also being torpedoed, finally witnessing the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This is a Grub Street reprint of an account that first appeared in the late 60s and rightly deserves a much wider audience.

 

Yes, the series was excellent.

There is also a DVD called Whickers War which has some good reviews on Amazon and might be worth a watch.

 

I recently re-watched Around the World in 80 Days, the first of the Michael Palin travelogues (Alan Whicker features in the first episode in what was intended to be a 'baton-passing' moment).

It was broadcast in 1989, which doesn't feel so very long ago--despite being during my childhood--yet it's immediately obvious how greatly the world (and the world of programme-making) has changed--much of it for the worse, I'm afraid.

Even though Palin was much more modern and impishly irreverent than Whicker (tempered with his famous 'niceness'), this was still an unashamedly British look at the world, with far too much conversation, far too few graphics and far too little interpretation for modern documentary makers. The fashions and gizmos aside, 1989 could have been 1979 or 1969 in essence, but 2020 it was certainly (and thankfully) not.

Wistful escapism with a minor addition of history.

 

Halfway through the book and it is a fast and entertaining read. Posted as a young officer in the Army Film & Photo Unit, Alan takes us through the Italy Campaign from his own eyes and viewpoint in a witty and informative way.

 

Finally picked up a copy of Malta Spitfire by Screwball Beurling, one of the Grub Street copies with a bit of a bio on his fellow Malta pilots. For a book first released in 1943 it’s not exactly the morale boosting record of a fighter pilot that I expected. He fully acknowledges discipline isn’t his thing but in the air over Malta he promotes the group spirit idea rather than the traditional view of him as a one track minded loner. Most surprising was the long and very detailed record of fellow pilots who died either in training, above Malta and the Liberator crash that killed off some of his surviving squadron mates. Aerial combats are vividly described and he puts his success largely down to the extra hours training he put in off his own back to master deflection shooting. It’s a shame he never got the chance to write his version of events in the latter part of the war that saw him discharged before the conflict ended as his attitude seemed one of single mindedness rather than being an outright challenge to authority. Presumably a chest full of medals and fame made him a bit more ‘vocal’ towards his superiors. Who knows. I’ll have to leaf through some books by his contemporaries and see what they have to say.

 

Having a rest from WW2. Began reading, Anger is an Energy, by John Lydon. Fascinating early life, no wonder he became what he became:

 

Certainly an interesting read that Mr Lydon one. I reckon he could have cut a good 100 pages out by not constantly repeating how ‘honest’ he’s always been though!

 

I read his earlier stab at an autobiography, No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs, and it was a very sensationalist rock n' roll tale (the tale of someone frying up human feces and trying to convince a victim it was corned beef sticks in the memory).

That said, I also read a very good interview with him yesterday in which much was said (by the interviewer) of his full-time role as carer to his wife who now suffers dementia and his patience, and loyalty to friends and family.

While he still came over as being as stubborn as a mule and willfully controversialist at times (see his recent pronouncements on U.S. politics), there was a suggestion that the trials of life--and death--have tempered his character and sharpened the aim of his ire.

Let us know how this one reads.

 

The partner of a longstanding family friend worked with JL during his early PIL years. He always says he was a very straightforward man to work with, once you got to know him and him you. I suppose that is the same for most people. I know what you mean about the repetition and the 500+ tightly packed pages.

 

It's pretty much the same as the earlier autobiography but brought up to date with a strange view that latter day PiL albums are somehow on the same level as his earlier work. The list of people he's fallen out with is pretty much endless, but obviously not his fault as he's the 'honest' one, true to his principles........ It could definitely have done with some serious editing as I alluded to previously but it's well worth a read for anybody interested in punk or post/punk. Love him or hate him, he's certainly entertaining.

 

I was a little too young to be a punk. Didn't really get it at the time, too busy listening to ELO!! But reading about his early years and schooling, his own musical tastes were fairly wide-ranging, from Jim Reeves to Status Quo.

 

A couple of years ago I read Will Birch's book about Ian Dury. I found it really interesting and quite fascinating, but at the end of the read had formed the opinion that Dury for all his talents, was quite an unlikable man. There are parallels with him and Lydon, childhood illness etc. So I wonder how I will feel at the end of this book?

 

I'm about to start on these four books about the Desert War 1940- 1943!

 

Despite eagerly awaiting this book, for one reason or t’other I only started reading this a little while back and it is a great read, as Owen advised me when I first joined (thanks again for that, Owen, I’ve not been able to put it down since I started). I have learned so much from it.

Rich, you were right about the illustrations, loads of great photos and drawings. This photo in the book, at Anzio, made me sit up. Even my brother, totally unprompted by me, said the same thing when I showed him: “That guy there doesn’t half look like grandad!” It really does too.

It’s the shortish soldier stood waiting directly behind the three blokes who are at the counter on the left.

Of course, as you can only see him from behind, that old adage “we’ll never know” comes into play but, boy, did it send a shiver down my spine when I saw the photo.

 

Just finished 'The Hitler Conspiracies' by Richard Evans in which he examines five conspiracies about or used by the Hitler regime - Protocols of Elders of Zion, the WW1 Stab in the back, Burning of the Reichstag, Hess's flight to Scotland and Hitler's survival.



Have to say one of the best books I've read recently and highly recommended. I particularly liked the comprehensive demolition of the theory that Hitler survived the bunker. Alas I'm sure the likes of 'Grey Wolf' and 'Hunting Hitler' will reach far more people than Evans' book.

[Prompted by mention of them I did a little wiki-research into Pizzagate and QAnon - would you still believe The Protocols are still being quoted and taken for fact ?]

Now on to 'Cruiser Tank Warfare' by John Plant


OK, but bit dry so far.

 

Reading For Whom the Bell Tolls, but in a rare move for me, I'm thinking of abandoning it. I'm about a quarter in and the repetitive writing style and daft dialogue are not making it an enjoyable experience. The idea of soldiering on for another 300 pages simply because 'it's a classic' don't seem to be worth the effort!

 

Well, For Whom the Bell Tolls is the only Hemingway book I've been able to finish, I generally find him unreadable although I have tried. I thought A Farewell to Arms was particularly awful, really couldn't be bothered to finish it.

 

And I’ve ditched it. Up there with Fitzgerald on the unreadable scale. Recently chain read a couple Graham Greene books as a break from the war stuff and thoroughly enjoyed those, so I’ll look for some more of his.

 

Life's too short to force yourself through books you don't like, so don't feel a shred of guilt.

Which Greene are you reading?

I read six or seven of them in a row a few years back.

 

Also at the 6 or 7 mark, but the most recent were A Quiet American (superb, loved the lethargy of the main character) and End of the Affair (the first third amongst the best I’ve read, a real rollercoaster of emotions. I enjoyed the rest but started to switch off a bit as it got heavy on religion). Stamboul Train, Power and the Glory, Third Man, Brighton Rock are others I’ve read.