Books for bedtime...

[RichardAThackeray]

Adventure on the High Teas is the one I was thinking of! not actually read Pies & Prejudice...

you know he does a Sunday eve show called Freak Zone on BBC 6 Music?

Yes, I listen occasionally, but still miss the 'Saturday slot', with the features like his Northern Soul records
I'm not a big fan of the genre, but with him being a Wigan-ite, they fit right in (ie; Wigan Casino)

[Fat Bloke]

One Hill,

Following your theme, you might like The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sayer. A Franco-German teenager on the Russian front; it is hard to credit that after the years of war he experienced he was still only Al Fowlers age. Really well written and not at all negative - aside from the daily horrors of war in Russia clearly.

Yep, corkin' book that one.

Currently reading The Od Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux. *Sort of* a travel book covering his journey, by train from Massachusetts to Patagonia (I s'pose, he hasn't quite got there yet...) in the late 70's, I think.

Recommended.

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[N-dubya]

Just finished Ian Mcewans' The cement garden, a strange story if ever there was one anybody else read this

[Fnstein]

Just finished Ian Mcewans' The cement garden, a strange story if ever there was one anybody else read this

Very claustrophobic. I think it was his first novel - and seemed designed to shock. Reminded me of Ian Banks' The Wasp Factory in its insularity.

[N-dubya]

Claustrophobic is a great way of describing it FNSTEIN

ive not read Life of Pi title sounds familiar, give us a synopsis

Anyone read "the end of mr y"

[ZootHornRollo]

I think what has become so much better in books in my adult lifetime has been serious-but-readable non-fiction: whether it's history or science or philosophy, whatever.

The genre has spawned a lot of crap imitators - and a lot of stuff pretending to be rigorous that is actually a bit sloppy. But there's been some superb stuff published in the last ten years that must've broadened lots of minds.

[N-dubya]

I think what has become so much better in books in my adult lifetime has been serious-but-readable non-fiction: whether it's history or science or philosophy, whatever.

The genre has spawned a lot of crap imitators - and a lot of stuff pretending to be rigorous that is actually a bit sloppy. But there's been some superb stuff published in the last ten years that must've broadened lots of minds.

Totally agree there, Cloud spotters guide, A short history of nearly everything, universe in a nutshell (I almost understand what wave function is)

[swift]

I've just finished Nine Lives, by William Dalrymple.

He is a brilliant writer. Anyone else read any of his books?

Southern Softie, I have had the hard book version of Birds Without Wings, under my bed for ages. I've just started it and it's great so far.

For Seb Faulks readers the most recent one I've read is Engleby which is fascinating. Couldn't put it down.

[Derby Tup]

I thought you only read maps swift

[ZootHornRollo]

I've just finished Nine Lives, by William Dalrymple.

He is a brilliant writer. Anyone else read any of his books?.

yeah he's very good - read a couple of his travel / reportage books on India and central Asia.

Came back to this cos I listened to an enthralling documentary last night on R4 about this bloke called George Ewart Evans, who spent his life recording and documenting the life stories of Suffolk villagers, just after the war:

Ask the Fellows that Cut the Hay

Horse-whispering, changing social and sexual rules, harvest traditions and superstitions, music and shepherding lore, the squire-farmer-tenant system, the blacksmiths' trade - amazing stuff all told first-hand by people born into the last decades of the 19th Century and the first couple of the 20th.

Anyone who's read Akenfield by Ronald Blythe will recognise the similarities - but Ewart Evans came earlier and apparently strongly disapproved of Blythe's fictions and his success.

But anyone who's interested in the oral history of this country - a history that's rapidly disappearing - should listen to this prog.