BR - a cat called norton by Peter Gethers

This is a funny little book written by a chap about his cat. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is not literature but it is entertaining and it doesn't end on a sad note (always good with animal books). He takes his cat everywhere and it fits along nicely with his life.

I found it really easy to read but it made me smile and that is OK. So if you like cats; don't mind the American slant and want an easy entertaining read - give this a go. You won't be disappointed.

Dix

BR - What if God were the Sun? by John Edwards

I have had this book for ages - years even but recently it kept coming to the top and being in my eyesight. I, mistakenly took this to mean that it was a message for me to read it. That this book would help me in some way - would help me feel better or give me a answer to the pain I feel in my life at the moment.

It didn't.

In fact it is a very poor book with little or no story line, is badly written and didn't leave me with any feeling apart from why did I bother to read it, buy it, or keep it so long. He didn't even explore the spiritualism properly. Oh well I can now pass it on and it won't be part of the clutter in my house anymore.

Dix

BR - the accidental by Ali Smith

I found this book really good to read and really bad. I know that doesn't really make sense but it does to me. I would recommend this book to anyone but beware it is written in a style that make is difficult; that makes you question what you have read and re read again and again. Well that is what I did anyway. I really liked the end, which is unusual for me as I normally find ends a disappointment. There are parts of the story I guess I still don't get but other parts that just wowed me. They left me wishing I could write like this; wishing I could get anywhere near this standard.

I don't want to even start to explain the story; it would just sound crap in explanation so if you are brave or if anything intrigues you - read it.

Dix

BR - Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

I picked this book up by chance on a buy 2 get one free offer.(aren't often the best books found this way). I chose it because I liked books based in this period and thought it might be something like The Book Thief, one of my favourite books. I realise I enjoy books based in the second world war.

I was really surprised by this book - firstly it was actually written just after the war, 1947 by a German who had experienced some issues during war time, secondly that it has been translated into English fairly recently (I think).

Don't get me wrong there are places where the story hardly moves at all but the atmospheric is amazing and that keeps it moving alone. It is a very good book - a proper keeper. The main characters are actually based on real people and many of the characters have the reader really hating them even when they come to a sticky end. It is full of people who are hard to like, and some that are hard to understand and some that you try to sympathise with even though you may ask would you be the same

If you are in any way interested in the second world war and want to have an idea of life in Germany for ordinary people - read this. If you just like and interesting historical read - read this - if you are prepared explore history and personalities - read this.

If not - read this anyway - you wont regret it.

Dix

BR - Michael Caine - The Elephant to Hollywood

I actually finished this book some time ago but haven't felt able to blog much recently. Will talk about that soon. I thought it was ok. He came across quite well and I enjoyed bits of the books very much, especially when he was writing about films I knew and liked but other bits were frankly a bit boring. I wouldn't read the book again but if you like Michael Caine this is defo worth a read.

Dix

BR - Bluebeard by Angela Carter

This is a Penguin Mini Modern Classic. An interesting read but not as good as I hoped it would be. It kinda stated the obvious about old classic fairy tales and didn't do anything new. We did an exercise at Uni about rewriting or writing a fairy tale and I was hoping these would be more like this in creating new ideas around old stories.

Anyway quick to read and a bit of fun although I felt it was kinda judgemental and sarcastic (if that is possible) and superior in away that took away the fun and even interestingness of it.

I must admit I have never really liked moral tales that much and this points out the morals and the alternative morals and that just irritated me.

Dix

BR - A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French

Over the last couple of weeks I have read loads of books (well quite a few) but not blogged my reviews yet so here is one.

I read this book initially whilst I was away with boy and then finished it at home. I did enjoy it but have to say with the change in my life circumstances it didn't seem so good.

I think it is well written and enjoyable. The characters really stand out and parts of it made me laugh. The main female character ended up getting on my nerves though. Maybe she reminded me too much of me. I don't know. But anyway I would recommend this to someone as a summer read - I really would and I think Dawn French can really write (if she did write this of course but I suspect she did). I enjoyed the differences in the characters language and style and found this an interesting way of writing.

I will probably give this to my friend to read (and her daughter maybe) as it was fun if nothing else.

Dix

BR - No! I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub by Virginia Ironside

I brought this book from a second hand book shop just because I like the title (and the cover) and took it to London with me because it look a light read and was easy to carry.

I absolutely loved it. It made me laugh out loud - and not many books make me do that. Some of the comments were just really funny. I do except that perhaps you have to be a certain age to see the humour but I am coming up to (or already at) that certain age so it hit home.

It was funny and sad and sometimes when she is worrying about her lodger and worrying about her family and especially her grandson I really get it. It is so easy to be anxious over nothing and something that is rarely portrayed in novels.

I loved the main character, I like the other characters. I liked the plot is was easy to follow and kept moving. I like books that are written in diary form (it almost feels that you are reading someone private thoughts) and I just wanted to keep reading.

This is not an earth shattering, life changing novel. It is not high brow but it is fun and written for adults and well written and has a beginning, a middle and an end. I would recommend it to people and would have been glad if someone had recommended it to me.

If you get the chance (and I must say probably if you are female of at least 40+) read and enjoy. It is definitely worth it.

Dix

BR - Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler

I have always wanted to read a Raymond Chandler book but for some reason, really unknown to me, I didn't want to buy a new copy. So I have trawled the second hand shops looking for a copy of anything really.

At uni we did read some extracts and a short story and this is what got me interested and lodged the idea in the back of my head.

It is not that this is a brilliant book, in fact there were times when I struggled to keep up with the story (this may have been because I mainly read it when I was tired and just about to drop off to sleep - a couple of times I fell asleep with it glued to me face!) but there is definitely something about the way he writes that is well just amazing. It is hard to think that this was written so long ago - published 1969 - and although it did seem old in some ways, obviously short of technology and such like but even so certain paragraphs, certain sentences, places where he has put words together in such a way as to take my breathe away. Sometimes he just writes so well, so beautifully that nothing else matters.

I am glad I have read a Raymond Chandler at last. I will surely read another some day. I particularly want to read The Big Sleep and or any short stories if they exist. Sometimes it is just so awe inspiring to read words so beautifully written, they catch at me with almost lust and desire. Such beauty that I feel that I can never hope to reach. But it is good to try.

If you have never read one, read a Raymond Chandler - put it on your bucket list as a to do.

Dix

BR - The comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer

This book was lent to me by a friend and to be honest I was immediately attracted by the title. I have read a few books on the subject of madness and have found them interesting, thought provoking, sad or sometimes just not very good.

I sat outside in my summer house yesterday and read this book in one sitting. It is only 130ish pages long but it is still a long time since I have read a book in one sitting. I so enjoyed having the time and concentration to do this and was glad that the book held me to enable me to keep going. I felt very relaxed and chilled afterwards.

The book itself is very dark. The main character Peter is caught inside himself and is unable to escape. Many of his carers feel he is putting on, that he is able to break free but it soon becomes clear that he can't, that maybe he doesn't want to. The descriptions of him, both physically and mentally seemed very clear. I understood who he was and maybe even why he was. As he becomes more and more rigid and bent in his body somehow is mind becomes clearer (or so it appears to the reader who can see inside his head).

The ending is not upbeat - yet somehow it is not sad - somehow it feels inevitable and possibly kind. It is not a fun book, it has aspects that should make the reader explore their ideas of humanity, of madness, of what makes us.

The process of reading it for me was wonderful - a quiet, almost stolen couple of hours that reset my inner clock to a better calmness.

I think I would recommend this book to you - but in the proviso that you read it quickly (in one or two sittings only) because I think this is the only way you can get inside Peter's skin and understand his mind, understand his madness.

BR -WOW 366

I know I have talked about this book before but just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. 366 little stories written in 366 words. Some contrite to the limitations, others absolutely brill. Some moralistic, some fantasy, SF - really all sorts of genres and all sorts of writers. This book is a compilation for charity and a really good pick and delve read (if you know what I mean).

A keeper.

Dix

BR - the Finker Question

I have just finished this book and to be honest I am not sure why I kept with it. I brought it because I read it was the first humorous book to win the Booker. I thought this sounded good and it was worth a try (I waited until it came out in paperback though as it was expensive in hardback).

I have to admit it had humour in it, it made me smile a couple of times but in the end I felt like I was reading something that was, well frankly, labouring the point. I felt like I was reading something that maybe wasn't really meant for me, that somehow I wasn't in the right club, the right race, the right intellectual band to read this book - and I hate that. I didn't really understand what the question was? The characters were strange, particularly the main character somehow he didn't quite add up - it was full of sadness and did portray that terrible feeling of sadness and loss well. The ending was low and somehow I felt like sadness had won - I know there is a place for endings like this but I have to admit generally they are not so much for me. Nobody felt like they learnt anything and I guess as the reader I felt like I hadn't learnt anything.

It did make me think about being Jewish (obviously I am not) and what that might mean, what that means as an political, racial and identity issue. But somehow it felt like in doing this it was basically 'taking the mickey' and this did not feel comfortable. I realise that might have been what the author was trying to achieve and maybe he wanted us to feel uncomfortable but in doing so I wish I had cared more about the characters - I wish I had cared at all.

This book is not a keeper or something I would recommend to others yet I suspect it may be a book I will remember for a long time - strange that.

So now I have to return to my huge pile of un read books and choose something else. I want to read something that grabs me, that makes me want to turn the page and stay awake and laugh or cry and mostly makes me sad it had finished.

Any ideas.

Dix

Witches' Knickers

Witches’ Knickers by Ghillain Potts

A plastic bag blew along the street and up into a tree.
“Hey, witches’ knickers!” said Freddie
“What? Where?” said Megan.
“There! In the tree. Look!”
Megan looked up. In the top of the tree was an orange plastic bag. The wind tugged at it.
“That’s not knickers!” Megan told him. “That’s a bag. From the supermarket.”
“No, it’s some witch’s knickers. See, they swoop down on their broomsticks and they don’t see the tree in the dark till the last minute and the tree grabs their knickers as they swoosh past and – no knickers!”
Hamid came along. “What’re you looking at?” he asked.
“Witches’ knickers,” said Freddie, pointing.
“Oh, right.” Hamid nodded.
The bag fought the tree. The wind pulled. The bag puffed up.
Megan sniffed. “So why would a witch be wearing a plastic bag for knickers, anyway?”
“Ah!” said Freddie. “Plastic bags are windproof, OK? And when the witch flies around on her broomstick, it’s windy, OK? And the wind is cold. So to stop the wind making her bum cold, she pulls a bag on over her real knickers!”
“Freddie,” said Hamid. “Nobody could wear a plastic bag. Where would you put your legs?”
“Umm. Through the handles?” Freddie grinned.
“Don’t be daft.” Megan told him. “That wouldn’t work.”
“Yes it would! Witches have awfully thin legs.” Said Freddie.
“Rubbish!” Megan sniffed. “What you would have to do is cut the two bottom corners off and put your legs through the holes. Then you could put some string through the handles and tie it around your waist.”
Freddie shrugged. “OK, so that’s what they do.”
The bag filled with the wind and jerked at the tree.
“I bet the witch’s come back and she’s tugging it.” Said Freddie.
The bag pulled free and whirled up and up.
“It’s escaped!” shouted Hamid. “Go, bag, go!”
“And it wasn’t a witch’s knickers.” Said Megan. “because there weren’t any holes in the bottom. So there!”
That night, Megan put on her black robe and her black cloak and tied her pointy black hat tightly under her chin.
Then she put on her orange plastic-bag knickers, got on her broomstick and flew out of the window.

I found this book in Waterstones bookshop, reduced because the cover was damaged. Most of the stories (all written in 366 words) are either good, bad or ok. But this particular story really took my attention. I would love that every carrier bag floating around was a pair of witches' knickers and when I see one now I always say 'witches knickers' to myself. I know it is a very different image from American Beauty where he video a bag floating around his yard but it makes me smile. This is definately the sort of short story, and particularly children short story that I would like to be able to write. It just made me smile and I hope it makes you smile too. And hope the author Ghillain Potts doesn't mind me blogging it here.

A Second hand poetry book

I may have mentioned this before but I like buying second hand poetry books - I will spend ages browsing and enjoying them before making cheap purchases. This book cost me a pound and has some wonderful work in it. I think some, or maybe all of it, is very female and so for me easy to empathise with but I still think others will enjoy this work. I am going to blog some of my favourites over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy.

Is This Where I Was Going? by Natasha Josefowitz

Today's Women

We are

Today's women

Born Yesterday

Dealing with tomorrow.

Good Management Potential

If I'm assertive,

I'm seen as aggressive.

If I'm aggressive

I'm a bitch.

I won't be promoted.

Let's try it again.

If I'm nonassertive,

I'm seen as a patsy.

If I'm a patsy

I won't be promoted.

Let's try it once more.

If I'm very careful,

I can go unnoticed.

If I'm unnoticed,

no one will know

I want to be promoted.

Any suggestions?

Stereotypes

She said to him

"The academic life must be pleasant

You're a professor, how nice!"

He said to her,

"Well, maybe someday

you'll marry one"

She said to him,

"Why should I marry one

when I can be one?"

Promotion

If she wants to move up

but he wants to move in,

one of them will move out

and it won't be him.

Can't Do It All!

If I do this

I won't get that done

If I do that

this will slip by

If I do both

neither will be perfect.

Not everything worth doing

is worth doing well.

All poems by Natasha Josefowitz - blogged with admiration.

BR - One Day by David Nichols

I have looked at this book many times over the last couple of years and thought it would be something I would like but not got it. Then I saw it recommended on My Life in Books (can't remember who by but loved the sound of it) so was in a proper bookshop so got it.

It is wonderful - one of those books that you can't put down, one of those books that has moved me in so many ways - at times I felt depressed by the female character because I could understand her life and the male character reminds me of someone I once knew well.

I loved the dialogue between them, their thoughts and feelings hit home so much. The words carried me along with them.

This is a wonderful book, modern, alive and just well, wonderful. I kept reading and reading desperate to get to the end but never wanting it to stop. These were real people to me, real people in my life who I was watching live their lives, making mistakes and doing the right thing, having a great and awful time.

And then, as per normal the problem arose. The ending. I often have a problem with endings and I knew 100 - 150 pages towards the end that things weren't going the way I hope, expected or wanted. Then it happened, someone died and I didn't want that. I didn't want it to end this way. This isn't how life should be (and these people were alive to me).

Where is the happy ending that I so long for; or even the satisfactory ending.

Now I have a dilemma - I loved the book, it is definitely a keeper but it is the whole 'killing off Dobby' thing all over again - as a wanna be writer this ending doesn't feel right - it isn't what I wanted but is it what I would have done. I finished the book Tuesday and have had a day to think about it - how else could it have ended - happy ever after - them getting everything they wanted - dull but satisfying. Not happy ever after because certain wishes aren't fulfilled. Yeah that would have been OK. Not being together - making new lives apart remembering the good time - this might have been what I would have done. But death, hmm not at all sure.

I know I will read this book again someday - I will see different aspects of the characters, perhaps it won't be so relevant to where I am today - who knows. Will I feel different about the ending - not sure - maybe, maybe I do a little already.

What has it really made me think; wish I could write like this; wish I could make a reader connect the way I feel I have. Maybe then I will understand about endings, how difficult it is to satisfy the reader at the end - who knows.

Whatever though - read this book, enjoy it; hate it; love it but read it. I really really recommend it.

Dix

BR - Michael McIntyre Life and Laughing My Story

As I have shown before I am rather partial to a biography, especially of people I like. I wanted this one for Christmas but got Stephen Fry and Michael Caine instead (which is OK as I wanted them to) and only got this one as my daughter found it cheap in WH Smith's because the cover was torn.

I do like Michael McIntyre, I find him funny both to look at and his comedy. It is generally funny but kind and no so far of the wall that I end up thinking Huh. I was really hoping that I would like him as a person in this book and the good news is - I do. He is a little posh, he is a little strange but that is what I really like about him. The book shows him as soft and generally kind, over-confident when really he is not confident at all. He seems to like people, and treat his friends and family well. I like this in a person, famous or not.

The book made me laugh just because of some of the stupid things he did and the terrible angst he had as a teenager (God I could recognise that). He loves his wife, he loves his kids, he respects others inside and outside of show business, he loves his parents and sister. Just a generally nice man.

I know that this could all be rot - just written to keep up the persona but somehow it felt real enough. I enjoyed the book because he is 15 years younger than me so I recognised what he was talking about re music, culture etc and it made me laugh.

I hope he really is this nice man. I would recommend this as an easy read, especially if you like him. It made me laugh, it made me sad for him, finishing it left me feeling good. What more can you ask for in a book.

Dix

Passionate TV

Firstly, excuse the photo of Anne Robinson - I am not a fan of her style and never will be - but I am a huge fan of this program My Life in Books. It is a half hour program shown on BBC2 at 6.30pm where famous people (I am careful here not to use the word celebrity because I feel they are not celebrities but people who have become famous for lots of reasons, not just TV but politics and writers etc. They come on the show and chose books that they love and talk about them; introduce them to the audience and in away introduce themselves to the audience.

There has been a wide variety of people on the show who have all been interesting and have all had something to say. I would be a liar if I said I wanted to read all the books that they recommended but certainly there are many that I would like to read; many that I have already read and many that I wish I could read (different from wanting to read because some of them seem like books I would struggle to get through but wish I had the stamina).

I have found the writers particularly passionate (well I would, wouldn't I) - they talk about books in language that I use, with the passion that I feel. They hold and smell and caress books in the way that I do, and remember the characters and plot like they are old friends. They talk about the memories evoked by reading this book and how they changed their lives or how their lives where changing when they read it. They talk about memories of family, of lovers, of children, even of world events and politics. They talk about love.

I record this program and watch it at least twice - just to feel the joy of the reader - the joy of their language - their joy for books. I feel that this is my program, this is something that I can totally connect to and love (not so much on the TV for me like this anymore).

I hope the BBC keep this program (maybe once a week). Its OK if it is on at a later, even obscure time, those of us who love it will find away.

The program is part of World Book Year (Week?) and has made me think about which books I would talk about on the program - so here is my list of My Life in Books (in no particular order).

The Colour Purple by Alice Walker - I studied this book and though to some it may be obvious this is the first time anyone told me that Jesus may not have been white, he was not the white man with beard and long hair that I had seen on the cross all my childhood. It made me think about what faith was really about - how we all fit in the world of God. It made me think about status and position and pain and suffering and survival and love. It made me think and for that I will always be truly thankful.

The Sea by John Banville - I love this book because of the way it is written, the pure beauty of the writing - I read it with just pure jealously and wishing I could write words this beautifully. I have to say I never really loved the main character, not sure he is really that nice a person, not sure I totally thought the plot and storyline were brilliant but all that is forgiven for such beautiful words. Just to read with pure envy and admiration is an amazing experience.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig - I read this book when I was a teenager and loved it, I guess maybe I wasn't totally sure what it was saying, that I didn't have the knowledge or experience to truly understand his words, but I read it again whilst I was at Uni and really understood why it had impacted on my so much. A basic story weaved around a philosophy for life, a philosophy of loss and love. I tried to explain this book to my college classmates and failed dismally - something I will always regret.

Rebecca by Daphine Du Maurier - I am not really a huge classics fan, really not into the angst and annoying women of many of the Austen, Bronte clans but I love the second Mrs De Winter. (Think that is right???). I love her outsideness, how she lives in the world she feels she doesn't understand and doesn't fit with. Her gentle soul that is so easily hurt and bruised but yet in the end is strong. The wonderful picture of the awful first wife, written so well she appears in the readers mind like some awful beautiful witch, the weak husband, the wonderful scenery and house. I revisit this book often to remind myself of its beauty.

The Essential Spike Milligan - I love Spike Milligan, I particularly love his poetry. I wish I had got to know his work when he was alive, had been able to watch him on TV and explore his older work. I didn't. I read his poetry as much as possible, I buy anything of his I see second hand and am trying to get a full catalogue of his work (particularly his poetry). It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me think about so much. To me he was so underrated, possibly so misunderstood by his peers and certainly be later generations. I think readers will return to his work in the future and see something new, something wonderful. That it what I see.

Amy Johnson Queen of the Air by Midge Gillies - this is a very personal book and one which I will never forget. Amy Johnson flew with my grand father - we have family photographs of them together and family stories of their relationship! I never really knew who she was, and still might not (this is a biography) but read this book to see if I could understand how my grandfather got to fly planes, what got him there. It was so interesting and I searched the pages for what might have been a clue to him, a mention of him, a feel of him. (There is a piece that might be about him but I can't tell and the author was unable to identify this man either - that I believe is a story for the future). This book is well written and interesting and helped me try to understand a man I never knew, who died in his plane crash in 1936 but has always seemed so exciting to me.

At the end of the show they are asked which book is their guilty pleasure, which of these would they take on holiday if they could only take one. Of course I would take them all but I suspect my guilty please is the Spike Milligan because he can evoke some many emotions and I can see something different each time I read them.

There are many more books I could list here (the obvious omission being Harry Potter) but these are the ones I have chosen here and now.

I would love to know what your life in books is, what is your little list of books and why? Care to share?

Dix

Broken New Years Resolutions

I

I always make New Years Resolutions (NYR's) - normally the same old stuff, do more; lose weight; be more; write more; write everyday; get a better job etc, etc, etc.

This year I didn't do all those things - well I did in my mind but mainly I concentrated on two NYR's - one was to be more positive, more optimistic about life. I have tried really hard to do this and apart from when I have been feeling crappy and ill, have tried to keep to it. I feel better for although I still have to regularly remind myself, I like it, I life living life to the positive - it helps - it make life better, it makes life easier.

The other NYR's was to stop buying books. This was really about saving money. As anyone will know who regularly reads my blog, money is tight and in the main I have stop being a consumer - I have had to. But somehow I have kept buying books, normally cheaply new or second hand but was still regularly buying books. In fact I have a massive pile to read and keep thinking one day I will have the time and the energy to just sit and plough through them.

I have failed miserably. It is not yet the end of February and I bet I have purchased the best part of twenty books - some second hand (I am still indulging my passion for second hand poetry books), some cheaply new (the pound shop has some pretty amazing hard backs and I picked one up the other day that was actually signed by the author), some in the Supermarket where £4 can buy a good current novel and today I went to Waterstones and 'bloo' £25 quid on new full price and reduced books.

And you know what I don't feel guilty, I really don't. I love books, I love reading them, I love owning them, I love looking at them and touching them, I love talking about them - I LOVE BOOKS.

So I will continue to buy books (luckily my local town does not have a decent book shop so the opportunity for new books is not so often), I will continue to trade and sell my read books, I will continue to love them. I will continue to find new books, to find other people with the same passion to talk about them. I will continue to buy books.

For what is life without a good book?

Dix

BR - The Man Who Disappeared by Clare Morrall

This book was an impulse by from Waterstones on the buy 2 get one free offer but I really enjoyed it. It was well written and explored the storyline of a woman who is left with nothing when her husband just disappears after being implicated in a money laundering operation. It is interesting that he is always about - the author shows what is happening to him and what he is thinking but mainly the story focuses on the wife and her children.

I think she shows so well how children can be effected by their parents, how hard it is to avoid the press and the reality of going from well off to poor. I think she showed the anger, upset and just abject fear but I also think somehow in places it does quite work.

As the reader is always aware of the husband there is the feeling he will come back, and he does. There is always the feeling, even at her lowest point that she will get her MA and things will get a whole lot better, that there is an end to it. Whereas reality for some people is there would be no way back out of the hole he has created.

I generally liked the book, enjoyed and would definitely read others of her work. I would recommend it, if you are looking for something better than a holiday novel this is definitely worth a go.

Dix

BR - the Fry chronicles an autobiography - Stephen Fry

I really enjoyed this book. My biggest fear was that I would read it and find out that I really didn't like Stephen Fry at all. I read the Paul O'Grady and hated him - his morals particularly put me off. But not so with Dear Stephen. He comes across as a lovely gently kind man and still very much top of the list in people I would like to meet. Strangely his Norfolk home is probably not so far from here and I often hope that I would be walking around a town and meet him. Highly unlikely but I have seen Rick Wakeman twice so I suppose anything is possible.

I realise that Mr Fry comes from a very different social class and background to me, the private school, the top rate University and just the way his life has panned out but somehow that upper crusty ness does not put me off him. I recognise his feelings about himself, confidence problems, I was surprised but pleased to read about his attitudes to sex (sometimes it feels so old fashioned not to want to sleep with everyone you meet) and his family.

There were parts of the book that I found, well a little boring, full of posh bit I guess, but I loved the way he only had nice things to say about people and how he showed real love and respect for his friends. I enjoy watching him on TV, QI is a really favourite (although I hated it at first), even watching the endless repeats. Mind you the fact that I fancy Alan Davies has something to do with it.

I don't think I will read this book again. But I did enjoy it and I am glad I read it. An enjoyable Christmas present. Must admit I will probably pass it on - part of my new years res to move on some more book and stop hoarding.