Books recently read (titles have direct links to Amazon.co.uk):
• Graham Greene - The Quiet American - a carefully crafted, vintage classic, circular novel that starts with the dénouement and works back round to it:
Into the intrigue and violence of 1950s' colonial Indo-China comes a young, idealistic, quiet American (Pyle) sent to promote democracy through a mysterious 'Third Force'. As his naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Thomas Fowler (the narrator), a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as he intervenes he wonders why: for the sake of politics, or for love?
• Stuart Maconie - Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England - a time capsule of England as it is now; in its quirky, offbeat way, a celebration of this country's extraordinary capacity to accommodate change while remaining essentially the same. Also a few good titters along the way. "The English Bill Bryson"? He writes well, for a Northerner.
A celebration of the workaday pleasures of living in Britain and the characters along the way, from trainspotters to tea-room ladies and hoodies to binge-drinkers. Stuart Maconie is perhaps best known as a radio presenter, co-hosting the Radcliffe and Maconie Show on BBC Radio 2 every Mon-Thu evening.
• Andrew Rimas and Evan D.G. Fraser - Beef (How Milk, Meat and Muscle Shaped the World) -
Not exactly a riveting read (it's patchy and somewhat random in content), but well-research and the more interesting for it, nonetheless. More for food historians than meat-eaters.
Cattle have always been central to our human existence, not only as a source of food and labour but also as an inspiration for art, warfare and religion. This panoramic view of the cow's rich history covers breeding to braising, hunting to worshipping, from ancient Mediterranean bullfighting rings to the rugged pastures of 18th-century England. Seasoned with anecdotes and recipes from around the world, it's also an indictment of the perilous state of beef production in Europe and the US - a situation possibly closer to a health and economic emergency than most might believe.
• Dawn French - Dear Fatty - a lovely autobiography, written in the style of individual letters to people who have meant most to actress and comedienne Dawn French across her 50-odd years.
She's a national treasure, of course, and naturally funny, which comes out clearly in her writing. But there's more than the odd stream of emotion for the loss of her father (who committed suicide) and the love of her life, comedian Lenny Henry. There's little real detail of her showbiz life (Comedy Club - Fabulous Five, Vicar of Dibley et al), but it raises a few laughs along the way.
