On Books: Read,Borrowed And Bought. Including A Booksale And Why I Might Have Underestimated Bernard Cornwell

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Now that the World Cup is slowly drawing to a close probably the only good thing is that there's more time to go back to reading. I must admit in the past month or so to having slowed up on it whilst there was the distraction of the global footy.

But now normal service has been resumed. And let's start with the book I've read since I last chatted on the subject.

Bernard Cornwell - Fools and Mortals

Now I slight digression is called for to explain why I've never read a Bernard Cornwell book before. In the mid nineties I made the mistake of watching a programme in the TV series of his Sharpe novels. All about the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars. And to be honest in my early thirties it just didn't seem that interesting anymore whereas previously I would enjoy them. Only later did the explanation come clear.

I was growing old.

Also though as I've mentioned in this blog I read a C S Forester Hornblower novel about a year back and didn't like it. It's patriotism was over the top. The sort a member of UKIP would love. So not for me.

So Mr Cornwell's books have been avoided....until now. And let me say I loved Fools and Mortals. Set in Elizabethan times it follows a (literally) Shakespearean theatre company in the days where female roles were played by men. One of whom turns out to be the main character. William Shakespeare's younger brother.

Did Shakespeare have a brother? I don't know and it doesn't matter. It's a historical entertainment. Indeed I'll go as far as to say that as an entertainment it's the best book I've read this year.

I might still be right about his Sharpe novels. But reading Fools and Mortals has made me realise that should opportunity come I should give them a go.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to spend part of Saturday in a book sale in Sully where I'm currently renting. I haven't bought that many books since we moved out of Bridgend so wasn't going to pass away the chance here.

(Another quick aside - Still renting at the moment whilst looking for "the place" - We thought we'd found a house and had an offer accepted only to drop out when the survey revealed a house that didn't so much need updating as upending and demolishing. It was that bad.)

It was held in The Old School Hall, now used for community activities.

Signs and Balloons For Books...I Love It

There was a good selection on display.

Full On Trestle Table Action

Now the price range was 1 book for a pound or six for five pounds. The intention was to buy six. The idea was two were those suggested by my favourite book podcast Backlisted, Two were going to be Penguin Paperbacks and two were going to be "Welsh" books as I've recently realised that I've not been chatting about Welsh books and their authors and this will change.

So the first book was:

Raymond Chandler -The Big Sleep

This is the sort of book I feel I know about even though I haven't read it. Certainly a book I should've read by now. So soon a literary bucket list will be ticked (An author on Backlisted by the way).

Now I only bought one "Welsh" book in the end. Could've bought more but wanted to avoid books by Catrin Collier or Dylan Thomas or about rugby.

(To be fair I've yet to get round to the audiobook I've got of Dylan Thomas' poetry - which I think is better listened to than read. And was tempted by a biography of Richard Burton. It's hardback brick length put me off. When we eventually more somewhere I will seek it out)

So it came to this.

Oliver Balch - Under The Tump 

Then I saw a Penguin Paperback.

Honor Tracy - Mind You I've Said Nothing

"Forays In The Irish Republic" is the description to this travel book. Let's just hope it's not cliché Ireland.

The next one was suggested again by Backlisted

Elizabeth Taylor - Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont.

The next does not fall into any of the categories I intended. Still....as I'm a fan

Clive James - Even As We Speak

And finally. Recommended by Backlisted and apparently David Bowie.

Spike Milligan - Puckoon

All for £5....

And that's not all. Went to the nearby library afterwards. The next book on the non fiction pile to read there was...

Jo Hardy - Tales From A Young Vet

All I can say is. If she can't get me to be interested like James Herriot could then she's failed.

No pressure then.

Until the next time.

The Joy Of Pre Work Routine

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A couple of days back I was in the bath when the phone rang. Now this bothered me, Firstly because I was in the bath and as I think I've made clear before I like baths.

There I was then relaxing in it's (manly blue) bubble warmth. Listening to a Ramblings BBC Radio 4 podcast that I'm slowly going through. This is the one about walking up some ex MOD land to get a view of Belfast and when the weather is really good some part of Scotland. It sounds better on radio trust me.

But when the phone rings I knew I had to move and all vestiges of comfort dissolved as my lumpen wet frame raced to the bedroom to answer the call. And thereby lies the second reason, for unusually for a Saturday morning my wife and daughter were already up and out of the house for the day as with a friend they were on the way for a day trip to Hereford (which apparently is not an interesting place to do any shopping in - I'm merely noting what was told to me afterwards you understand). So was worried that something had happened to them.

I needn't have been so concerned...it was work.

"Is it possible...." I was asked "you can work a few hours earlier tomorrow?"

Replied probably yes. Given that I was working on Sunday anyway it didn't particularly bother me. Just needed to clarify with wife and daughter that there wasn't any issues that might stop that and as it happened there wasn't. So ten hours was spent at work that day. Money is,after all, money.

I need to make two separate digressions here. Firstly I'm not making any statement about how hard I work or otherwise. Indeed learnt recently about a man who was working a seventeen hour shift at KFC (though I'm not sure whether this was exceptional or the norm). Working in intense heat and smelling fried chicken flesh, perhaps if it exists then whatever their shift it's KFC workers who can most vividly imagine what hell is really like.

Secondly since I've gone onto the subject of KFC. If you are a young gentleman wishing to invite a young lady who works there to a date then offer them a beef dinner. Reeking of chicken at the end of their working day puts them off the stuff so anything else that is as far away from the hen as possible would be welcomed. That is I assure you, the only piece of dating advice I'll ever give in this blog.

Anyway,back to Sunday. If there was one thing that bothered me about working from an earlier than expected start time it was that I'd have to change my routine. There is you see a certain comfort in having a routine before you go to work. If we take the afternoon/evening shift as an example I would wake up, have some breakfast whilst watching something on TV and then have my second cup of tea and if I'm feeling particularly reckless another cup of tea. If this was school time my only normal duty would be to make sure that my daughter got to her bus on time having of course being fed.

After another cup of tea that would then be bath time with a precursor of shaving and cutting any unsightly hairs from my person. Bath time:Normally half an hour occasionally ten minutes of the aforesaid bubble primed inaction.

Once out of the bath and dressed I'd wander round the house tidying things up and vacuuming where needed. Occasionally going round to the local shops for any provisions (this mainly meaning milk for tea,bread for sandwiches and chicken - not fried but slices - for what I'd normally have for the sandwich filling for lunch).

Come lunchtime I'd have a chicken sandwich whilst watching some more TV have two more cups of tea. Go to the toilet, get some mineral water and I'm ready for work.

Sunday was different. Woke up and after a quick breakfast and just one cup of tea went to have that bath. Just ten minutes this time though. Listened to A Point Of View also on Radio 4. Going through the podcasts of that programme if I have to take a quick bath. It seemed I've used up all the Clive James talks so instead listened to Dame Joan Bakewell explaining why diaries are a valuable resource and are threatened by the modern age. As if blogs did not exist.

And so to lunch. In the mid morning you understand. Needed to have something more filling than a sandwich so went for a microwave meal. It was perfectly fine, though nowhere near as alluring as the packaging would suggest. Is there any microwave meal I ask you that looks as good as the photo on the box?

Everything else I had to do was in the knowledge that the countdown clock was moving faster than normal. I would of course do it again given the same circumstances but still, the description to the normal pre work routine took a bit of getting used to.

Sad isn't it. But that's the point. Predictability is the greatest strength of the routine. I've been unemployed and I can tell you that having long periods of time to yourself is not as simple as would be made out by the politically right. You become depressed,listless,unmotivated and feel as if you are living in a parallel universe to those that are in work. And to you George Osborne I've have seen a full episode of Jeremy Kyle once in my life and I hated it (pre watershed MMA).

The greatest trick that the political right has ever been able to pull off is that there is a vast army of people scrounging off benefits at the expense of those who work. Of course those people exist and need to be dealt with, but the trick, and it is a trick, is to suggest that these people represent the majority. Whereas the majority are decent people where life has taken a sharp downturn. People who would revel in the dullness and predictability of a pre work routine if it came their way.

Until the next time.

Do You Remember Harry Carpenter? (Even Great Books Can Die). Also Books Bought And Borrowed

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let's start with the question in the title. That's for anyone living in what will probably soon be named the Disunited Kingdom. A land whose government is apparently telling people living here originally from the EU that they might not be allowed to stay post BREXIT.

No matter that you worked here, started up businesses and/or a family

With every day that has followed since the referendum this Kingdom seems to be slowly moving to a very dark place indeed. A look here,a remark there, a graffitied wall strewn with racial insults, in some cases violence.

Britain has become a very worrying place to live right now. And I say this as a white male with a British passport.

So I went today to Porthcawl mainly to go to the library. Here is the Porthcawl view of the day.

Metaphor time

That view seemed to match my mood. Calm but with a sense of foreboding.

Before I went to Poundland for a few odd groceries. Poundland sell small stocks of stuff mainly for, surprise, surprise a pound. Now they do sell books most of which deserve to stay there. Some though will surprise you. There was a Howard Jacobson. But that wasn't the book that caught my eye. It was this.

Martin Booth - The American

This attracted me because it was set in Tuscany, where my Italian relatives live. Remember starting to watch the film on TV and nodding off but liking what I saw before seductive power of the nap took over.

It's not a Penguin paperback I know. But as it was only a pound it was bought.

And so to the library. Picking the football book to read was easier than I thought.

Andrew Jennings - The Dirty Game

Well the cover says it all really.

I was about to leave when in the corner of my eye I noticed this.

Sue Townsend - The Public Confessions Of A Middle-Aged Woman

Sue Townsend wrote the Adrian Mole books (I've read when he was a teenager but not those as an adult) but she also wrote some other stuff as well (I remember a novel...though not the title... where the Royal family were moved in a Republican Britain to a council house). These are a selection of columns she wrote on various subjects. I borrowed it, pathetic as it sounds, because I thought it would make me laugh. How sad is that?

So to the question Do You Remember Harry Carpenter? If you do then I've finished my "car book", Glued To The Box by Clive James. Let me say now that the next car book is volume one of  Michael Palin's Diaries bought a couple of weeks back. I now have five books on the go. I'll never kick the habit of reading but I've got to learn to control it. Thing is I don't know how.

This was his final published collection of his TV columns for The Observer between 1979-1982. It's quite simply just as good as I remember it all those years ago. Funny yet erudite. Here is a man capable of talking about an opera and then move on to The Rockford Files (that was in an earlier book - Just lumped that in to say that The Rockford Files seem to be one of the few seventies detective shows that has stood the test of time - I liked The Rockford Files - It seemed to be written and performed by adults - Clive James liked it as well).

He is the best critic I have ever read. One of the few that I would look forward to reading (or perhaps even prefer listening to, as I mentioned when discussing the book of his radio show he used to do called A Point Of View).

But........

Do you remember Harry Carpenter? He was a BBC sports presenter in the seventies and eighties. He was mainly known for his Boxing commentary but he'd also present The British Open and Wimbledon. Clive James writes about him here. If you do then you will read the book with a wistful smile about a time long gone.

If you don't then the bulk of this book is not for you. It'll mention programmes and people long since forgotten unless you look them up on Google or Youtube. I don't know why book or literary or theatre criticism (Christopher Hitchen,Dorothy Parker, Kenneth Tynan) survives but TV doesn't, certainly not for this period anyway.

So when the last person to remember Harry Carpenter dies. This book, great as it is will die with it.

Until the next time.

On Poetry And Football

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I've finished (presumably thanks to my wait in the Bar and Grill on Sunday) Poetry Of The Thirties edited by Robin Skelton. It was the first poetry book I'd read for decades and I had forgotten that you have to read these books slooowly so that every word and meaning is captured. In the beginning there was a great deal of rereading so that there was a better chance of understanding what was being written.

Even so most of the poetry made me just mentally shrug my shoulders. As if I was saying, "is that all there is"? The vast majority of verse in this book aroused me to a state of depressed boredom.

There were, of course exceptions. John Betjeman reminded me why I liked him all those years ago. And if someone offered me a volume of the poetry of Lewis MacNeice I wouldn't be sniffy about it. On the other hand I really,really didn't like W H Auden.

And then there was Dylan Thomas. I don't want to read another Dylan Thomas poem again. I want to listen to them. He was the only poet where that thought occurred to me.

The next "car book" is this.

Clive James - Glued to the Box

This is the third volume of his TV critism between 1979 -1982. Should be fun.

So to the evening's football. It was the first opportunity since the Euro 2016 tournament began that I had the opportunity to wear this.

England

The wife watched the Wales game against Russia whilst I watched England Slovakia. Clearly she had the better time than I did with the dragons winning 3-0 and being top of their group. Although she did ask after eighty minutes why the game hadn't finished. I explained that it was football.....not rugby.Still genuinely was pleased for Wales. I've said before that in my view football was the bigger club sport here and if they continue to do well then that might be the case at a national level as well. And the Welsh Rugby Union would only have themselves to blame.

For me despite the ITV "Brexit" commentary - everything England did was good against weak Slovakia - England were disappointing. Slovakia just dug in, having obviously checked the durability of their Puma football shirts first.

Their goalkeeper seemed to follow the lead of his Swiss counterpart yesterday. Dressed luminously suggesting he too would be cycling back to his base afterwards.

But the commentary. "England fans are staying with their team" was one gem. What did he expect them to do? Suddenly support Austria? We also know the power of words. Slovakia were like "a boxer on the ropes" according to Glenn Hoddle. Had that been England then words like "disciplined" or "dogged" would have be used.

Will always believe....but was not encouraged.

Until the next time.

Of Pelicans, Penguins,Panini and the leader of Plaid Cymru. With an added sprinkle of even more books and Maesteg

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A couple of years ago I was having my hair cut and having a conversation with the hairdresser. For some reason the town of Maesteg, about half an hour away, was mentioned. She said that she'd never been there. I said I had.

"Why?" She asked

"Because I'm a world traveller" came my response. (Which on reflection was rather brave given that if there is one rule a man should always obey when it comes to gender politics it's never to annoy a lady with a sharp object around your face)

And one final point about the lady who cuts my hair. Her partner is possibly a woman's ideal man. A cook who doesn't like sport.

On Saturday I needed to go to the town and as it happened I'd learnt that the leader of Plaid Cymru was going to be at the market there around midday. Even though it is a well known killer of cats I was curious to see the leader of the political party I'd joined first hand.

So I hung around a bit.

What I like about Maesteg town centre is the way it can integrate the old and the new almost seamlessly. Obviously there are problems here as well but as I suggested yesterday it is far better than its equivalent in Bridgend.

I'm assuming this building is the local Tabernacle. Very impressive anyway.

The Building on the left is a Post Office

Now come now. Wouldn't you want your Council Offices to look like this?

The Town Hall and Market Entrance

I'd a few minutes to spare before she was due to come so looked at the book stall in the market. Just as Porthcawl has the Porthcawl Animal Welfare Service (PAWS) Maesteg has the Maesteg Animal Welfare Service (MAWS) which sells books at 50p each whether paper or hardback, I eventually picked four books as follows:

Fatima Beer - Higher Than Hope

This orange spined Penguin paperback was the authorised biography of Nelson Mandela. The important point to remember here is that it was written in 1990. The year he was released from jail.

I think I forgot to mention that not only do I collect Penguin paperbacks but I also collect their stablemate Pelican paperbacks (again it has to be in their classic coloured spine - in this case blue). What pleased was that I was able to buy two "vintage" ie pre ISBN numbered books.

A465 - Boris Ford (Editor) - The Pelican Guide to English Literature 7 - The Modern Age

A702 - Hugh Lloyd-Jones (Editor) - The Greek World

These vintage Pelican and Penguin Paperbacks are checked against the list written in a Paris Saint Germain notebook. Possibly the only time they can be put together in one sentence.

Believe me this is needed

And finally:

Michael Palin - Hemingway's Chair

Before you say "that's not a Penguin/Pelican paperback or anything to do with sports" well yes. But only the day before I'd downloaded a radio adaptation of this book and now it was there confronting me to buy it. So I did.

It was about twenty past twelve before she actually came. The life of a political leader in election time is obviously a busy one. I was in the market cafe with a cup of tea to warm me in what was a surprisingly cold day and had been ready to leave because there were other things I needed to do that day.

Leanne Williams is an impressive leader and worked the scene well.  She shook my hand and I told her that Plaid had my vote even though I'm English.. Wasn't going to go into full blown detail as to what lead me to this process or that I was now a member of the party as this was neither the time nor the place to gush like a girl to (insert boy band here).

Did though ask for a selfie...well it would've been a selfie if I'd known how to have used the phone. #OldMansProblems

Should've been a selfie

When I showed my wife later she was impressed. She too is going to vote Plaid Cymru,

Her visit to Maesteg probably means that Plaid they have a good chance of doing well here in the National Assembly elections. I think they're right. Based purely on the unscientific approach by the number of placards on the road from Bridgend when I was closer to the town.

I've finished A Point Of View by Clive James. Nothing has really changed from what I posted before. The only good thing about it really is that it has led me back to the podcasts.

What it means is that I need a new "Car book" and it's this.

Hunter Davies - The Fan

This is a collection of left field articles on football in the New Statesman by Hunter Davies. I've always liked him. He writes on a wide field of subjects interestingly and with enthusiasm

I'm a man in his fifties. But football and only football has the power of turning me instantly into a ten year old boy.And it occurred to me late last week that with the Euro 2016 coming soon it might be a good idea to collect a Panini Football stickers for my daughter as a souvenir when she gets older. I'm not going to deny that the schoolboy in me is part of the reason for this. But there is also the fact that this is first time Wales are in a major football tournament in my lifetime let alone hers.

My wife thinks this is silly. But I'm going to ignore her (for once). Until the end of Euro 2016 I'm going to buy 1 pack of stickers a day. How I will proceed after it finishes depends on how well I've done.

Of course I won't deny that this hasn't been completely worked out. The biggest problem being the question of what I do with doubles (as for obvious reasons I'm not going to deal with kids. I've no wish for anybody to put two and two together and make five). Hopefully though I'll muddle through.

Brings back memories

Until the next time...

In Which I Forget About Another Book I'm Reading. Though Listening To The Podcast Was Better

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Today I collected my daughter from school. Now when I say "collected" and "from school" I don't mean that literally. Times have long since gone when Dad/Mom collected their child with a smile on her face from the educational establishment. No it has gone to the stage where the parental car is hidden around the corner as she gets off the school bus to walk to her parents and all the teenage thought at that moment is focused as to what there is for lunch.

So when I'm waiting for my daughter I have a little time to spare which is why there's always a book in the car to read.

Now before you ask why I don't simply bring one of the two other books I'm reading at the moment well sometimes I do, but often I just forget. So it's just convenient that there's something there for me to read when I'm in the car and opportunity rings the doorbell. It is,as it were my "car book".

The one criterion of the car book is that it has book of short stories or articles or essays. Something that can be dipped into on a haphazard basis. Like the current one I'm reading.

 Clive James - A Point Of View

This is a collection of essays from the BBC Radio 4 series where a speaker discusses various issues . Although there are a number of contributors to it his was the voice that drew me to the show when I recently started listening to the podcasts. I was always a fan of his work anyway (Indeed have admired the way he could chat about Russian literature and The Rockford Files or write poetry without seemingly being stretched) so I listened with interest and a recognition of the classic James style.

These essays actually began for him from 2007 until 2009 and when I saw this book on sale it was automatically bought.

Alas it has been a disappointment. For although there are subsequent postscripts these are the exact essays from the radio series but what it misses is of course hearing the James voice. The tone of reflective sarcasm. A voice that is relaxed,calm but nonetheless effective when in attack mode. A voice I would suggest comfortable being heard on Radio 4.When you have heard these essays in the medium they were written for then the printed page seems pale in comparison,

I should have realised that. It's my fault.

Can't win them all.

Until the next time.