My friend Mick Wall turned me on to Filth. Reading that sentence back I see that there are a few ambiguities in it, admittedly, but those aside, he did. ‘Have you read Filth?’ he asked one day when Irvine Welsh’s name came up. I hadn’t, but because Mick has rarely ... Read More...
The 1p Book Review
Books for a penny
Hard Times’ reputation is a bit of a mixed bag. FR Leavis claimed, absurdly, that it was the only Dickens novel worth consideration; George Bernard Shaw criticised the anti-Trade Union element and Thomas McCauley called it ‘sullen socialism’. Certainly there are sound arguments both for and against Hard Times (available for ... Read More...
Readers of Nigeness will know that I recently reread Samuel Beckett's Malone Dies. Having consulted Amazon, I see that it qualifies for a 1p Book Review, so here goes... Malone Dies, published in French in 1951 and English (translated by the author) in 1956, is classed by some - not the ... Read More...
Yes, it's a highly entertaining trove of show-business anecdotes. Yes, it's a great tale of a boy made good (and bad), the son of America's first racially-integrated dentist - lauded in Harlem but nowhere else - who achieved Hollywood fame with all its trappings. Yes, it's the inside (and disputed) story of ... Read More...
Channel 4's lavish production of William Boyd's Any Human Heart may have tempted you to buy the novel, though I would question why: it seemed to me to consist of just one damn thing after another, the pace being kept chugging along by a death every ten minutes or so. Despite ... Read More...
Diary of a Nobody is a fictional account of the daily life of Mr Charles Pooter, a middle-aged City of London clerk. It was written by George Grossmith and illustrated by his brother Weedon in the late-1880s and was originally serialised in Punch. It's available in book form, unused and unsullied, for ... Read More...
Once upon a time - and it wasn't so long ago - Alice Thomas Ellis and Beryl Bainbridge were twin stars in the literary firmament (and close friends and fellow ornaments of the Duckworth list). Since her death five years ago (in fact since rather before then), the former's star ... Read More...
The release of Aung San Suu Kyi provides a happy opportunity to plug one of the best autobiographies I've read, The Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe, available for a mere penny here. It's written in a vivid and fresh style and is full of arresting images and ... Read More...
Since we’re discussing Diary of a Nobody and Three Men in a Boat, it would be remiss not to give a nod to another classic of English comedy, WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman’s 1066 and All That, available for a penny here. Written in 1930, it’s the best, well, the funniest ... Read More...
If you would like to read the funniest book in the English language, get hold of Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (available for 1p - or even less - here) Take no notice of those who tell you to read The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith ... Read More...