On this day in history, 18th of May, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte took the ultimate accolade for a (relatively) low-born Corsican when he was declared (mainly by himself) Emperor of France.
Arguably the single most influential figure of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe, and still today one of the most recognised names of European history. Less diminutive than you might think at 5'7" in modern measurements (5'2" in the then form of French measurement apparently, which led to his reputation for being a little chap) he certainly made a big impact on the world at the time.
There are more books out there about 'Boney' than you can shake an Imperial Crown at, but Bonaparte by Corelli Barnett, published in 1978 is a good starting point if you want to learn a little more.
For any fan or George Orwell, this is a 'must watch'...
There are no 'real' moving pictures, or recordings of his voice in interviews... so this work has to utilise the massive quantities of writing Orwell produced in his relatively short life.
George Orwell, A Life In Pictures...
Like, I'm sure, many of you, I've been a big fan of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, and it's spin-offs on TV over the last thirty or so years.
Well I've finally got around to actually doing the decent thing for a book lover and delving into the novels upon which the TV series was based. I bought the boxed set of 'Morse' novels, published by Pan, during my UK trip earlier this year, and having recently run out of my favourite detective fiction... decided to give this a go.
I have to say I've ploughed through 'Last Bus To Woodstock', the first in the Morse series, in less than two days. Always a good sign. The writing of Mr Dexter allows reading to flow very easily. It is uncomplicated yet descriptive, erudite yet not elaborate.
As to the story itself, aside from a slight personal discomfort in the way the issue of a rape is addressed, (this was written in 1975, whether we like it or not, sensibilities were different then) it is a throughly gripping story with, of course the required twist in the tail.
I'd definitely recommend giving it a go!
Stevie at BLM
So, here we are once again dear reader, at that festive time of year when even atheists like me like to eat drink and be merry, think of friends close and afar and take a look back over the year.
That being the case it's time for a quick review of my favourites from 2015, which I sit typing with a glass of decent Cab Sav to my left and a growing pile of food, pressies and relatives to my right!
I've not read anywhere near as many books this year as I would like, only forty two, which is a lot for some, not many for others, but it was all I managed to squeeze in. Must try harder next year!
I diarise and rate all my reading (lucky for you I spare you all that particularly geeky, detailed information) so it makes it quite easy to go back over the year and figure out a few highlights.
Out of the 42, only three achieved a 10/10 rating from me, though there were six that I gave a 9/10.
The '10s' were, in order of reading:
Time And Time Again by Ben Elton (Jan)
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (May)
Seventy Seven Clocks by Christopher Fowler (May).
All recommended reading as far as I'm concerned, and wide-ranging enough in topics that there is something there to please everyone.
Of the six that received a '9' three were also from the Bryant & May stories by Christopher Fowler, who, by any sort of reckoning, has to be my Author of the Year. I've worked my way through all but one of his Bryant & May series this year, (having read the first in 2014) and have now, sadly caught up with the author who is busily working on the next instalment.
Finally...
I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to the thousands who follow us on our Facebook page, and the considerably less who follow this, the less popular, less often written but more verbose version of Book Lovers Melbourne. your kind comments and input through the year has been much appreciated.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!
So, recently on Facebook I found myself doing one of those "100 tunes blah blah" that the owners of both Facebook and YouTube must absolutely love for their 'clickbait' potential as more and more users join in and link to more and more YouTube videos ad-infinitum...
I soon realised it's actually quite difficult to think of stuff that you used to be into musically, when you are still voraciously absorbing new stuff, or, in my case new old stuff that I enjoy discovering for the first time.
This set me thinking about books, unsurprisingly... more specifically books that I enjoyed many years ago. Now being a bit of a book hoarder this is a little easier than music for me, if I've read and liked it, I've almost certainly still got it somewhere!
But would those old favourites stand the test of time? I'm thinking perhaps some more than others...
So, here are a few books I once was in love with, will love be re-kindled (sorry, couldn't resist that one...) or is it time for these old flames to be consigned to the fire?...
First out of the traps has to be my absolute favourite in my formative reading years, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis. Now as far as standing the test of time is concerned I won't hear a word against this little gem. I think I first read it, (a school library copy) in about 1975,. My own copy is about thirty years old, and I have re-read it many times since, so I'm fairly comfortable that it is perhaps one of the best children's books ever written. I moved on to 'High Fantasy' a little while after, delving into Tolkien of course, but this book, and it's companion stories (particularly The Magician's Nephew) put me under a life-long spell. If you don't buy your kids a copy of this, it's probably child abuse. Probably.
Next up, following my reading habits, I'd, after a few years, moved into the realms of Dungeons & Dragons stories. The Dragonlance Chronicles: Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman is actually an anthology of three novels, Dragons Of Autumn Twilight, Dragons Of Winter Night and Dragons Of Spring Dawning. Which came out in the mid 1980s, (by which time I was in my late teens, and a bit of a nerd reading wise...). I loved this book at the time and it actually led me into playing D&D for a little while... (yep nerd confessional right there....). Sadly I lent my copy to someone many years ago and have never had it returned (I can't actually recall who I lent it to...), but I can still recall an early scene in which one of the characters, a Dwarf named Flint Fireforge, is seated on a rock feeling the heat that it has absorbed from the sun gently warming his old bones. I can't sit on a rock without remembering that bit... Maybe I need to get another copy to see how it stands up to my current reading...
Out of the Fantasy genre now, as I'm sure many of you will be pleased to hear... and on to a book I read in about the mid-eighties, Jack Higgins:The Eagle Has Landed. Yes I moved on from Fantasy to War stories... so mature... but the thing I loved most at the time about this book, as a young man who was an avid reader of real-life WWII historical accounts, was that this was my first 'what-if?' story. It also opened my mind to other perspectives. As a born and bred Englishman, for the first time I found myself cheering for the traditional 'bad guys' of my limited cultural exposure, the Germans, and the IRA. I read a lot more Jack Higgins back then on the strength of this, which I recall enjoying at the time but I have to confess that reading one a couple of years back the I'd not read before, I was little disappointed. I'm too scared to re-read this one in case that happens again. Memories are sometimes best left alone.
Back in time a few years again, (I know this is jumping around in time like a Tarantino script, but I'm going a little 'stream of consciousness here...) A book that left a deep impression on me in my high school years was The Long Walk: Slavomir Rawicz. It was, as far as I can recall my first exposure to historical biography and I will be forever in my Literature teacher's debt for opening my mind to this field, one which is still a massive favourite.
Next up, we bounce forward a bit, to the late eighties, by which time I'm bitten by the historical fiction bug. The book that dragged me into this other so-far life-long love, was Sharpe's Rifles: Bernard Cornwell. I've read and re-read all the Sharpe novels literally dozens of times and I still find myself absolutely absorbed. Napoleonic Wars, muskets, swords, heroes, villains, it's got the lot. Probably very much 'boys own' stuff, but I'm a boy.
Finally on this little delve into my reading past, I'm going for London: Edward Rutherford. I re-read the paperback version of this so many times it literally fell to pieces, and the replacement hasn't fared much better. I treated myself to a first edition hardback a few years ago which I refuse to take off of the shelf and subject to the same abuse. published in 1997, this isn't even twenty years old yet, but it seems like a very long time ago when I first got to know the group of families that are our hosts through thousands of years of London's history. Probably my favourite piece of historical fiction ever.
I hope this little dip into my past loves of the literary world isn't too self-indulgent. If you haven't read any of the above, give them a go, you may (or may not) be pleasantly surprised.
Happy reading.
Stevie at BLM.
Thanks to my day job, yesterday I was lucky enough to get a spare couple of hours in Bendigo, one of Victoria's most beautiful cities.
For a lover of history Bendigo is a 'must see' destination, heartland of the Australian gold rush in the 19th century and the traditional land of the Dja Dja Wurrung people. It is wonderfully multi-cultural (in spite of planned events for this coming weekend indicating otherwise) and has one of Australia's most vibrant Chinese cultural centres, impressively documented at the Golden Dragon Museum.
Of course, as you might have guessed, it also has a couple of excellent second hand bookstores which I managed to spend a couple of hours, and a few dollars in....
As you arrive into town from the south, if you're travelling up from Melbourne, look out for Bendigo Book Mark Two at 24 High Street. It's right on your left, as you hit the CBD, on the corner, so keep your eyes peeled! It looks great from the outside...
But looks even better from the inside!!
From which I was able to find over a dozen additions to my growing collection of Penguin paperbacks! Prices are very reasonable and the range of material available is excellent! The owners are also very friendly, They even asked me to mind the shop while a delivery came to the back door!
Next I zipped through town (about three minutes...) to a bookstore I'd visited before, a few years back and that had stuck in my mind because it simply looked great. 'Book Now' at 1 Farmers Lane is owned and run by Jill and Garry Murray, lovely and friendly, as seems to be the norm with bookstore proprietors... they are situated in a former 19th century wine and spirits merchants that oozes charm....
Which also has the ever-sexy-in-a-bookshop benefit of a mezzanine floor!!!
With around 50'000 titles on offer, including a decent sized selection of Chinese titles, you're bound to find something there to take home as a souvenir of your visit to Bendigo. I picked up four additions for the BLM private library at very reasonable prices!
So if you find yourself in the heart of country Victoria, please don't judge Bendigo on what you might see on the local news over the next couple of days. Places are defined by those who choose to stay in them and become a part of the community, not those who choose to vent their anger on the streets as a vocal hate driven minority.
Go to Bendigo!
Stevie at BLM
Much as I might try to drag myself away, in recent years I'm attracted to detective fiction like a super villain is to a long drawn out and impossibly contrived plan for the demise of his or her detective opponent from which they will obviously escape! Yes, I am addicted to detective novels!
No matter how smart your bad guy, no matter how much the author might make them out to be a genius, unsurpassed in their evil plans for world domination or just plain old top-hole murdering skills... The detective always wins through in the end!
And, that is part of why we love them. But who, in the wide spectrum of sleuths do we really connect with? There are literally hundreds to choose from these days, many classic 'Golden Age' detectives have made it to TV status, opening up a whole new fan base, whilst some seem to have lost their earlier popularity. Some from novels written in the fifties, sixties and seventies only achieved wider TV audiences, and as a result, new readers, a decade or two later. There's no denying a good TV adaptation does no harm to a literary detective's flagging career, but there are plenty out there who have not yet hit the small or big screen, but still hit the spot with millions of readers.
So here is a selection of some of my personal favourites, Super-Sleuths all!
Sherlock Holmes
Obvious, I know, but you'd be hard pushed to find a better known literary detective figure in the world. Whether he's coming straight from the pages of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's four novels and fifty six short stories or the plethora of film and TV incarnations, he is a phenomenon.
Holmes first appeared in 1887, initiating for many readers what was to become known as the 'Golden Age Of Detective Fiction'. Doyle's serialisation of stories became popular in The Strand Magazine, and ran on until 1927. Holmes is, according to The Guinness World Records, the 'Most Portrayed Movie Character' having been played by 70 actors in over 200 films!! Now, 130 years on from his first appearance, Holmes is still engaging with audiences. Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller having both recently appeared as new TV incarnations of the character for the 21st century. 130 years and going strong, Holmes will be thrilling readers and audiences for some time to come I think!
Hercule Poirot
Another obvious inclusion to this list has to be Belgium's greatest export, Hercule Poirot! More famous than Stella Artois, more stimulating to the senses than a box full of Guylian seashells, Hercule Poirot combines a mix of genius, arrogance, unintended comic appearance and a dose of obsessive compulsive disorder to create the greatest detective to have ever lived, at least as far as he, himself, is concerned. He's not far off in his estimations too, it has to be said. By his own admission, he has been wrong TWICE in his career. So nobody is perfect.
A refugee following WWI, from his home country, where he worked for the police, once in England the role of private detective becomes his world, much to the annoyance of a string of British Police Officers, it has to be said.
Like Holmes, Poirot has been portrayed copiously on radio and both small and big screen, by such luminaries as Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov, Orson Welles, and most famously and successfully, David Suchet. from 1989 to 2013 ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot worked through the entire canon of Poirot stories as produced by Christie. You'd think that would be it for the little Belgian, but I can't help thinking such a successful character is bound to re-appear in a new guise at some point in the next ten years or so.
Jules Maigret
Simply 'Maigret' to most, including his own wife, this iconic figure of the detective world was created by Georges Simenon and went on to appear in a massive 75 novels and 28 short stories between 1931 and 1972!
Simenon was arguably one of the most successful fiction writes ever, and another Belgian, but his character Maigret was a Parisian, and his adventures take part in that iconic city. Maigret has been portrayed by French, British, Austrian, German, Italian, Dutch, Japanese and Russian actors in his time. Originally written in French, English translations have also been an enormous part of the Maigret canon, having been a long-standing staple of the Penguin Green paperback series. With a regular focus on Maigret's desire to see into the character of those he comes across during his investigations rather than the crimes themselves, he is, for me a more human detective than many of the genre. Born in the countryside, near Moulins, Maiget originally studied for the medical profession, but the sudden death of his father and the influence of a police office in Paris, and his personal desire to study the dark mysteries of the human character, led him to a profession in which he could become a "doctor of destinies". So was born the legend.
Piet Van Der Valk
Less well know worldwide than his detective compatriots above, Van Der Valk was was the creation of British author Nicolas Freeling in the 1960s. Freeling lived much of his life in the Netherlands and consequently produced a rarity in developing a character that was truly continental European from a British born author. Van Der Valk novels have a realism that is often neglected by others in the genre, Freeling being a self-confessed follower of the Simenon style. Set in and around Amsterdam, Van Der Valk's habit of picking apart the finer details of any crime that comes across his desk, often over a good meal, gives him a distinctive style that delivers results.
Made famous by the British TV series of the 1970s, which used the character, (but little of the plot details) Van Der Valk was portrayed by Barry Foster to great public and critical acclaim. Another series popularised by the Penguin Green publications, they are well worth a read for fans of the detective genre.
Josephine Tey
Readers of this page will know of my recent discovery of Josephine Tey, both as real-life author and as a character in the novels of Nicola Upson. I love Upson's choice to develop a real person into the main protagonist of a detective fiction series. A choice that grew out of an earlier project by Upson to write a biography of the crime writer from the middle of the 20th century. The fictional Tey is not a detective per-se, but closely resembles the real Tey as a writer of both plays and novels, who is embroiled in a series of murderous incidents during which her own skills at human interaction play an important part. Working alongside her friend, and 'actual' detective, Archie Penrose, Tey brings something to crime fiction I've not found elsewhere.
In the nature of the genre, Tey would, perhaps, be considered a 'side-kick', but the realism with which Upson portrays the relationships between Tey and Penrose, as well as Tey's ability to interact with other characters on a realistic level, puts her centre stage in the story. This focus on human relationships does not, however leave plot and drama to play second fiddle, as Upson demonstrates all the skills of the past mistresses and masters of crime fiction to keep the reader hooked on the mystery at hand.
Bryant & May
Okay, this is a bit of a cheat, because it's two detective in one, John May and Arthur Bryant, as created by author Christopher Fowler. The difference here is that, whilst Holmes has his Watson, Poirot has his Hastings and Tey has her Penrose, these two are genuine equal partners in crime fighting.
Artist Keith Page
I've metioned a number of times on this blog my love of the Bryant & May stories and have interviewed author Christopher Fowler in an earlier post, because, put simply, I think this is some of the best crime fiction around at the moment. This pair of octogenarian detectives, jointly leading the Peculiar Crimes Unit spend their days simultaneously uncovering the deep, dark and quite interesting past of London, whilst (eventually) outwitting a series of murderers and ne'r do wells. Author Fowler's extensive knowledge of London makes for a wonderful backdrop to the stories that is wonderfully familiar to those of us lucky enough to have spent much time there.
The often strained but consistently entertaining relationship between the two main protagonists is one of the strongest elements of the stories, which, Fowler does an excellent job of convincing the reader, has lasted over four decades. Standing up proudly with classic crime detectives from the golden age, these two 'Golden Boys' of detection will, (old-age-onset-illness hopefully being kept at bay...) be around for us to enjoy for a while yet I fancy!
So there they are, half a dozen of the best fictional detectives the cost of a paperback can buy. Other detectives are, of course, available.... But they didn't make the cut. Enjoy.
Stevie at BLM.
