"The great Railway bazaar" Paul Thereax. From London to Singapor by train. He is a great travel writer although his books are more about the people on the journey than the places. Although written in the 1070z i find that more intresting. As Trainspotters im surprised it isnt complusary reading !
I loved this book ... he's also written one about travelling the length of Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town, the name of which I've forgotten. It was all the more interesting because Theroux Snr spent several years teaching in Africa and knows well of what he writes
Paul Theroux's African railway travelogue is called 'Dark Star Safari'. I heartily recommend one of his earliest books, 'The Kingdom by the Sea' (1983), about his journey round the coast of Britain - easily as perceptive and wryly humorous as Bill Bryson.
"The great Railway bazaar" Paul Thereax. From London to Singapor by train. He is a great travel writer although his books are more about the people on the journey than the places. Although written in the 1070z i find that more intresting. As Trainspotters im surprised it isnt complusary reading !
I loved this book ... he's also written one about travelling the length of Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town, the name of which I've forgotten. It was all the more interesting because Theroux Snr spent several years teaching in Africa and knows well of what he writes
Paul Theroux's African railway travelogue is called 'Dark Star Safari'. I heartily recommend one of his earliest books, 'The Kingdom by the Sea' (1983), about his journey round the coast of Britain - easily as perceptive and wryly humorous as Bill Bryson.
thanks VF .. his travel writing far surpasses his fiction
"The great Railway bazaar" Paul Thereax. From London to Singapor by train. He is a great travel writer although his books are more about the people on the journey than the places. Although written in the 1070z i find that more intresting. As Trainspotters im surprised it isnt complusary reading !
I loved this book ... he's also written one about travelling the length of Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town, the name of which I've forgotten. It was all the more interesting because Theroux Snr spent several years teaching in Africa and knows well of what he writes
Paul Theroux's African railway travelogue is called 'Dark Star Safari'. I heartily recommend one of his earliest books, 'The Kingdom by the Sea' (1983), about his journey round the coast of Britain - easily as perceptive and wryly humorous as Bill Bryson.
thanks VF .. his travel writing far surpasses his fiction
I agree, Lincs: some of his fiction is pure pulp, full of clichés and stereotypes. But I think 'Chicago Loop' (1990) is a good story well written.
"The great Railway bazaar" Paul Thereax. From London to Singapor by train. He is a great travel writer although his books are more about the people on the journey than the places. Although written in the 1070z i find that more intresting. As Trainspotters im surprised it isnt complusary reading !
I loved this book ... he's also written one about travelling the length of Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town, the name of which I've forgotten. It was all the more interesting because Theroux Snr spent several years teaching in Africa and knows well of what he writes
While Theroux was travelling by train round coastal Britain in the early 1980s, he briefly met up with Jonathan Raban, who was sailing round the Isles in the opposite direction and whose account was published as 'Coasting' in 1986. Raban is a wonderful travel writer on both land and sea - I urge you to check out 'Old Glory' (1981), his account of a single-handed voyage down the Mississippi.
"The great Railway bazaar" Paul Thereax. From London to Singapor by train. He is a great travel writer although his books are more about the people on the journey than the places. Although written in the 1070z i find that more intresting. As Trainspotters im surprised it isnt complusary reading !
Shake hands with the devil: the failure of humanity in Rwanda by lt. Gen. Romeo dallaire. Already had me in tears in the introduction. Going to be brutal, but very well written so far
Read a couple on holiday, both of which I strongly recommend:
- "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck ( 1939 ) - the brutal tale of families forced off their farms in the dust-bowl of Oklahoma and lured west by the promise of work. As RedPanda has commented earlier in this thread, it is a great and harrowing novel. I picked this up 11 years ago when we were touring California but got waylaid after about 40 or 50 pages. I'm very glad I revisited it as a result of this thread.
- "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 1989 ) - it is set in 1956 ( with several flashbacks going back to the 1920s ) and is narrated by Stevens, the emotionally stunted butler of Darlington Hall, a stately home, as he looks back on his decades of service. It is beautifully written and unbearably sad. It won the 1989 Booker Prize and was adapted by Merchant Ivory in their 1993 fim, in which Anthony Hopkins played Stevens, opposite Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton.
Gianfranco's papa .. but seriously .. Radio 4 did a dramatization of Germinal a good while ago .. I have not read the book but the play/serial was excellent
My plan is to one day read the Rougon-Macquart novels in sequence, not in the order that they were published as Emile Zola darted around a bit himself, but you can construct a chronology based on events. Being that there are some 20 of them it would take some time but it doesn't really matter if you read them out of order.
My favourite of the bunch is probably La Debacle - based around the Battle of Sedan/Franco-Prussian war and the formation of the Paris Commune.
My plan is to one day read the Rougon-Macquart novels in sequence, not in the order that they were published as Emile Zola darted around a bit himself, but you can construct a chronology based on events. Being that there are some 20 of them it would take some time but it doesn't really matter if you read them out of order.
My favourite of the bunch is probably La Debacle - based around the Battle of Sedan/Franco-Prussian war and the formation of the Paris Commune.
That's exactly what a friend of mine has just done. He joked that all twenty-plus novels would take him about three years, but he suddenly had a lot of time on his hands and read them all in three months. When pressed to recommend one in particular to a social historian, he nominated 'Le Ventre de Paris', which is stuffed with all the flavours of the city in the 1860s.
- "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 1989 ) - it is set in 1956 ( with several flashbacks going back to the 1920s ) and is narrated by Stevens, the emotionally stunted butler of Darlington Hall, a stately home, as he looks back on his decades of service. It is beautifully written and unbearably sad. It won the 1989 Booker Prize and was adapted by Merchant Ivory in their 1993 fim, in which Anthony Hopkins played Stevens, opposite Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton.
In my opinion, for what it's worth, one of the most brilliant films ever made....I'm not sure why this book passed me by but will definitely make an effort to read this.
Just finished HHhH by Laurent Binet which is an account of the assassination attempt on Heydrich in Prague in 1942. Really compelling stuff whether you're into that period of history or not.
Just finished HHhH by Laurent Binet which is an account of the assassination attempt on Heydrich in Prague in 1942. Really compelling stuff whether you're into that period of history or not.
A History of Britain by Simon Schama - just finished the third and final book - something like 1200 pages in total. Excellent in parts. Laborious in others. But affirmed my feeling that the 17th century is by far the most interesting period of Britain - you couldn't script it - Gunpowder plot, Charles 1 Execution, the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell, the restoration, William and Mary, the Glorious Revolution and The Bill of Rights etc etc. Rip-roaring stuff.
A History of Britain by Simon Schama - just finished the third and final book - something like 1200 pages in total. Excellent in parts. Laborious in others. But affirmed my feeling that the 17th century is by far the most interesting period of Britain - you couldn't script it - Gunpowder plot, Charles 1 Execution, the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell, the restoration, William and Mary, the Glorious Revolution and The Bill of Rights etc etc. Rip-roaring stuff.
not read this book but I agree about the 17c .... the true beginnings (rather than the embryo) one could argue of the modern UK and the industrial revolution .. great scientists and technologists, Newcomen, Newton, Jethro Tull (Not the one legged flautist). England especially settled down after years of strife under the Tudors and Plantagenets , the start of true parliamentary power and common democracy .... Are you listening to 'The Stuarts' currently on Radio4?
A History of Britain by Simon Schama - just finished the third and final book - something like 1200 pages in total. Excellent in parts. Laborious in others. But affirmed my feeling that the 17th century is by far the most interesting period of Britain - you couldn't script it - Gunpowder plot, Charles 1 Execution, the Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell, the restoration, William and Mary, the Glorious Revolution and The Bill of Rights etc etc. Rip-roaring stuff.
not read this book but I agree about the 17c .... the true beginnings (rather than the embryo) one could argue of the modern UK and the industrial revolution .. great scientists and technologists, Newcomen, Newton, Jethro Tull (Not the one legged flautist). England especially settled down after years of strife under the Tudors and Plantagenets , the start of true parliamentary power and common democracy .... Are you listening to 'The Stuarts' currently on Radio4?
Yes, been learning from The Stuarts on R4 - brimming with atmosphere. Bill Paterson - what a voice.
1650s-1850s are fascinating. I've just strated Macauley's hostory of England between James II to the mid 19th century. A hugely influential work and brilliantly written.
Recommend the Lunar Men for anyone interested in the early days if the industrial revolution and Neal Stephenson's massive baroque trilogy (historical fiction) set in this period. It'sbreathtaking in its intellectual scope as well as being a hugely entertaining adventure yarn.
The best book I have read on the 17th Century was Christopher Hill's "A Century of Revolution" which looks at the era not so much chronologically but economically, socially etc. If you want an understanding of the forces at work rather than what happened that would be the book I'd recommend, but reading a more straight-forward narrative of events would be the first move, that would put things into context.
Finished Darkness at Noon, pretty interesting. It had me looking up some Soviet history, did feel very dystopian and 1984 like in places.
I was then bored on a train last week so went back to Heart of Darkness, decent but still a slog. Now on Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, a bit more my usual thing. It's a look at some (I think) senseless murders in Kansas 60 or so years ago.
I was going to download more Steinbeck but most of his novels are £7+ on Kindle, I can't really justify that. Yeah I'd spend that on a new book but I'd prefer a copy for my shelf for that much, I can't lend it to anyone, etc. Instead I have Cannery Row in the post, or at least I think that's the one I ordered.
I don't think you'll be disappointed by Capote or Steinbeck, RedPanda; a friend of mine has been waxing lyrical about 'Cannery Row'. I have begun 'Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?', Jeanette Winterson's account of her brutal adopted childhood in Accrington in the Sixties.
I'm reading Carra, James Carragher's autobiography at the moment (don't ask!)
One interesting snippet I didn't know, or certainly didn't remember, is that Curbs (and Gordan Strachan) was interviewed for the Liverpool job when Benitez got it.
Comments
- "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck ( 1939 ) - the brutal tale of families forced off their farms in the dust-bowl of Oklahoma and lured west by the promise of work. As RedPanda has commented earlier in this thread, it is a great and harrowing novel. I picked this up 11 years ago when we were touring California but got waylaid after about 40 or 50 pages. I'm very glad I revisited it as a result of this thread.
- "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro ( 1989 ) - it is set in 1956 ( with several flashbacks going back to the 1920s ) and is narrated by Stevens, the emotionally stunted butler of Darlington Hall, a stately home, as he looks back on his decades of service. It is beautifully written and unbearably sad. It won the 1989 Booker Prize and was adapted by Merchant Ivory in their 1993 fim, in which Anthony Hopkins played Stevens, opposite Emma Thompson as Miss Kenton.
My favourite of the bunch is probably La Debacle - based around the Battle of Sedan/Franco-Prussian war and the formation of the Paris Commune.
Enjoyable and revealing ...but way too short
Are you listening to 'The Stuarts' currently on Radio4?
Recommend the Lunar Men for anyone interested in the early days if the industrial revolution and Neal Stephenson's massive baroque trilogy (historical fiction) set in this period. It'sbreathtaking in its intellectual scope as well as being a hugely entertaining adventure yarn.
I was then bored on a train last week so went back to Heart of Darkness, decent but still a slog. Now on Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, a bit more my usual thing. It's a look at some (I think) senseless murders in Kansas 60 or so years ago.
I was going to download more Steinbeck but most of his novels are £7+ on Kindle, I can't really justify that. Yeah I'd spend that on a new book but I'd prefer a copy for my shelf for that much, I can't lend it to anyone, etc. Instead I have Cannery Row in the post, or at least I think that's the one I ordered.
One interesting snippet I didn't know, or certainly didn't remember, is that Curbs (and Gordan Strachan) was interviewed for the Liverpool job when Benitez got it.