I know not whether Laws be right, Or whether Laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol Is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, A year whose days are long. Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ is the source of one of the less […]| Somewhere Boy
My previous experience of the Indian writer R.K. Narayan was a mostly successful read of his comic novel Mr Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi some years ago. Narayan’s best-known works are set…| Somewhere Boy
What did I know of A.J. Cronin before reading this book? I had read one novel of his some years ago, The Spanish Gardener, an offshoot of a minor Dirk Bogarde fixation chronicled elsewhere. I knew he was the man behind Dr Finlay’s Casebook (still a cultural touchstone in comedy shows of my youth, though […]| Somewhere Boy
Campus novels! Aren’t they great? I say that, but my personal history with them is the dictionary definition of patchy. Most of the ones I can think of (Tom Sharpe, Lucky Jim, White Noise) I’ve either actively disliked or have zero memory of. I think I’ve had the most luck with American ones. I know […]| Somewhere Boy
I’ve never read any of A.A. Milne’s non-fiction before; in fact the only thing I knew about Year In, Year Out before opening it was that Simon would have read it (which he has). In fact Simon’s post on the book dates from the time I last read any Milne at all, which was a […]| Somewhere Boy
I’m doing the 1952 Club. Make yourself at home, pull up a beanbag! I’m sure you know our gracious hosts. That’s Simon over there, reading, and that’s Karen, also reading. **…| Somewhere Boy
It’s the fourteenth of these I’ve done. Is it time to admit I’m using the word meme incorrectly and don’t know what a meme is? I think not! How many books read in 2024? 158, up 14 from last year. It’s not sustainable for me to read so many books in a year, and I […]| Somewhere Boy
My traditional (i.e. hackneyed) look back to remember some of the good things that happened to me (maybe others) this year. Top 3 theatre I seem to have gone to the National Theatre quite a lot in …| Somewhere Boy
My last 1970 Club book is a reread I’ve been saving up, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall’s The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, which knocked my socks off to such an extent when I read it 15 years ago that I gave it as a present to at least a couple of people. (My […]| Somewhere Boy
With Mark Rosenblatt’s play Giant currently on at the Royal Court, Roald Dahl’s monstrosities have been in the news again. His anti-Semitism is well documented, and anyone familiar with the short story collection Switch Bitch would have a hard time defending him from charges of gross misogyny too. My recollection, from a master’s thesis I […]| Somewhere Boy
Back to school. Timms Sir. I don’t always understand poetry. Hector You don’t always understand it? Timms, I never understand it. But learn it now, know it now and you’ll understa…| Somewhere Boy
