battiwallah
Value only - buy cheap & keep
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I can recommend Henning Mankel. He writes about a Swedish police detective and his novels are very inventive with plot twists that make for excellent reading.
battiwallah said:I can recommend Henning Mankel. He writes about a Swedish police detective and his novels are very inventive with plot twists that make for excellent reading.
imajica said:Favourite Books
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
Interesting reading - half way through it myself.coyotte said:Just started :
" The GOD Delusion "
By Richard Dawkins
Cheers
Mate - I've never been fox hunting in my life.chops_a_must said:'Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man' by Siegfried Sassoon.
P.S. 20/20, what do you think of Sassoon's poetry?
HERO By: Siegfried Sassoon
'JACK fell as he'd have wished,' the Mother said,
And folded up the letter that she'd read.
'The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
She half looked up. 'We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers.' Then her face was bowed.
Quietly the Brother Officer went out.
He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt.
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.
He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried
To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
Except that lonely woman with white hair.
IF THE WAR HADN’T GOT IN THE WAY
Its just a wee skirmish child over in France,
Dad’s back in six months or a year,
A skirmish? Well that’s where grown men do a dance ,
With canon and rifle and spear,
Six months? The time child to read you the tale
of Alice’s Wonderland queer,
And look after your Mum cos she’s just a bit pale
And try not to learn the word fear.
Mustard gas son? Why it’s yellowish green
And drifts down on you in the trenches
Blisters? Those things on your lungs and your spleen
As you splutter on blood-muddied benches,
But don’t worry my boy, Daddy’s got this mask,
and this armour, and bulletproof dentures
And this halo (I wish) that solved the task
Of Living through such misadventures.
Here’s a gift to keep you amused my boy
Till I run back one bright sunny day,
But in case I don’t then remember this toy
Each night when you kneel to pray,
How we planned to do all those things so keen
When fathers and children play,
And the miriad things that might have been
Had the war not got in the way.
I go now my child though I’d much prefer
To watch you sleep and just stay,
Your small babe’s dreams and your sleeping purr
And your tiny nest of hay,
And I go now child though my heart is in two,
And I go to meet my frey,
And if I should die with my hair so dark
It’s that you may grow to be grey.
They say that give “our all”, my son,
but y’know… that’s not quite true
For our spirit becomes ten feet tall, my son
And a part of it lives on in you,
And I’ll be there to answer your call, my son
If it’s nigh-on the last thing I do,
But I’d much rather “be there” my small, .. wee, .. son
And to teach you to tie your shoe.
That was a really good read, thanks for that!2020hindsight said:I tell a lie, I have read about him ... including some gruesome stuff, a man in the first war being hoisted into the air by a bomb, only to land in the rotting corpse of a fallen soldier - o boy - it was gruesome - and he went mad for a while of course -
Sassoon ended up writing poetry in convalesence, yes?
too gruesome for my taste mate
Here's one of my poems about the first war:-
Regeneration is a prize-winning novel by Pat Barker, first published in 1991. The novel was a Booker Prize nominee and was described by the York Times Book Review as one of the four best novels of the year in its year of publication. It is the first of three novels in the Regeneration Trilogy of novels on the First World War, the other two being The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road. The novel is based on the real-life experiences of British army officers being treated for shell shock during World War I at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Scotland.
Sassoon's periods of duty on the Western Front were marked by recklessly brave actions, including the single-handed capture of a German trench in the Hindenburg Line. He often went out on night-raids and bombing patrols, and demonstrated ruthless efficiency as a company commander. Deepening depression at the horror and misery the soldiers were forced to endure produced in Sassoon a paradoxically manic courage, and he was nicknamed "Mad Jack" by his men for his near-suicidal exploits. Despite having been decorated for bravery, he decided, in 1917, to make a stand against the conduct of the war. One of the reasons for his violent anti-war feeling was the death of his friend, David Cuthbert Thomas (called "Dick Tiltwood" in the Sherston trilogy). He would spend years trying to overcome his grief.
Having thrown his Military Cross into the river Mersey at the end of a spell of convalescent leave, Sassoon declined to return to duty. Instead, encouraged by pacifist friends such as Bertrand Russell and Lady Ottoline Morrell, he sent a letter to his commanding officer titled A Soldier's Declaration, which was forwarded to the press and read out in Parliament by a sympathetic MP.
Rather than court-martial Sassoon, the military authorities decided that he was unfit for service, and sent him to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh, where he was officially treated for neurasthenia ('shell shock').
The novel, Regeneration, by Pat Barker, is a fictionalised account of this period in Sassoon's life, and was made into a film starring Jonathan Pryce as W. H. R. Rivers, the psychiatrist responsible for Sassoon's recovery. Rivers became a kind of surrogate father to the troubled young man, and his sudden death in 1922 was a major blow to Sassoon.
exactly - it's coming back.He does argue that he WASN'T mad. But it's kind of like the theme in Catch-22. If you refuse to fight due to "craziness" etc
misterS said:Cheating - want to share my favorite book of all time - not current reading. The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien. Bit perplexed at the start, turns into a hilarious, absurd, black comedy. It is impossible to imagine how this feller managed to make the English language do what it does in this book.
20th century author George MacDonald Fraser had the idea of writing a series of memoirs of the cowardly, bullying Flashman, portraying him as an antihero who cuts a swathe through the Victorian wars and uproars (and the boudoirs and harems) of the 19th century. Flashman - a self-described and unapologetic 'cad' - constantly betrays acquaintances, runs from danger or hides cowering in fear, yet he arrives at the end of each volume with medals, the praise of the mighty, and the love of one or more beautiful and enthusiastic women. Ultimately, Flashman becomes one of the most notable and honoured figures of the Victorian era.
......He describes his only two talents as a gift for horsemanship and languages (but sometimes makes it up to four by adding fornication and cricket). He also had the means to impress important people he met, usually with excessive toadying. His other gift was his success with women. The list of his sexual conquests (see below) is long and includes several famous women. Despite his natural abilities and imposing figure, Flashman was a coward, running from the danger he constantly found himself in. He was also a bully to his (supposed) inferiors and found joy in creating trouble for people he did not like.
After his expulsion from Rugby for drunkenness, (from the original novel by Hughes), Flashman looked for a way to an easy life. He joined the military, picking the fashionable 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons commanded by Lord Cardigan, later of Light Brigade fame, because the 11th had just returned from India and were not likely to go back soon. Flashman threw himself into the social life that the 11th offered and became a leading light of Canterbury society.
A duel over a lady of questionable morals led to his being stationed in Scotland, where he met and deflowered his future wife, Elspeth Morrison. Blackmailed by her family into a shotgun wedding, their marriage caused his forced resignation from the 11th Lights, and he was sent East to make a career. This he did in Afghanistan, unwittingly becoming a hero by being known as the defender and surviving officer of Piper's Fort. When found by the relieving troops, he lay wrapped in the flag and surrounded by dead enemy troops. The fact that he had been trying to surrender the colours rather than defend them was lost to history.
Needless to say, Flashman arrived at the Fort by accident, tried to avoid all suggestions of involvement in the conflict, had to be bullied into holding a rifle by his sergeant and had been 'rumbled' for a complete coward. Happily for him, all inconvenient witnesses perished in the battle. This seems to happen in many of the stories.
.......
Flashman (1969) ”” the First Anglo-Afghan War, 1839-1842 - Retreat from Kabul, Last Stand at Gandamak and Siege of Jalalabad.
...
Flashman at the Charge (1973) ”” the Crimean War's Charge of the Light Brigade and Tuva, 1854.
etcetc
Serafino Order of Purity and Truth, 4th Class lolFraser's research is extensive and the books illuminate the historical events they depict. The books are heavily annotated, with end notes and appendices, as Fraser (in accordance with the fictional existence of the memoirs) attempts to "confirm" (and in some cases "correct") the elderly Flashman's recollections of events; in many cases, the footnotes serve to aid the reader by indicating that a particularly outlandish character really existed or that an unlikely event actually occurred.
The half-scholarly tone has occasionally led to misunderstandings; when first released in the United States, ten of 34 reviews published took it to be a real, albeit obscure, memoir. Several of these were written by academics - to the delight of The New York Times, which published a selection of the more trusting reviews.
For the purposes of American publication, Fraser created a fictional entry of the 1909 edition of Who's Who. This lists Flashman's laurels as: VC, KCB, KCIE; Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur; Congressional Medal of Honor; San Serafino Order of Purity and Truth, 4th Class.
CanOz said:I would be very interested in this as well GF4, please let us know how they go with it.
Cheers,
the_godfather4 said:Two close friends just reported back to me on "The Secret" and the verdict was unanymous......... Garbage! :bad:
Basically what the author has done is "borrow" concepts from several other texts and combined them into his "own" concept...... All to do with the power of the mind and visualisation...... told me not to waste my time. Hope this helps.
Been a few weeks since I finished this one so can't remember specifics. It was definitely not as good as the other two books in the trilogy and far less thrilling and action packed. Still, well written and nice to read though.chops_a_must said:So yes, now reading, 'Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man' by Siegfried Sassoon.
Glad that is over, completed and achieved.chops_a_must said:Compendium of Dr. Vodder's Manual Lymph Drainage.
Physical state currently = shattered. Lol!
Mofra said:Interesting reading - half way through it myself.
He does make some compelling points, although I wasn't quite convinced by his arguement against agnostism.
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