Tower and Town, October 2023 (view the full edition)A Good ReadHaving a month off from Tower and Town duties probably isn't good for me, I've been idling, and now the writing (and reading) gears are crunching and grinding alarmingly. Bear with me. I've spent a lot of time asking "Is there a book called Get an RHS-worthy Garden Without Having to Move From the Deckchair?", but I think we all know the answer to that. I asked Angus what he was reading and he loftily said "Turgenev", so I made a rude noise, and carried on talking to Gabby who has recently read I Capture the Castle for the first time, and absolutely loved it, as I've been telling her for years that she would.. Of course, October brings an abundance, a surfeit, a plethora of new titles, with daily deliveries of stacks of boxes, with something for everyone. (I don't expect you'd dream of parking on the single yellow line outside the shop, but please don't, it makes the drivers'[ lives so much harder, and they're all lovely and we don't want to break them.). There are new titles from Big Name Novelists, and this year I'm noticing lots of political auto/biographies. Depending on the party and the author's current position on the political wheel of fortune, I cynically predict they'll be self-justifying, accusatory, smug, and in most cases obvious stall-setting-out manifestos. That's politics, folks, though let's be fair, they might also all contain kernels of principle and big ideas. Roll up ladies and gentlemen, and take your pick, there's a General Election looming. (And before that, Christmas.) Time to stop burbling and tell you about something I have actually read. Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra is set in 1940s Hollywood where studio heads accused of creating pro-interventionist movies clash with isolationist senators. The author weaves historical fact and characters into his evocation of a Hollywood peopled with immigrants, refugees and Jews whose connections with a Europe under fascist dictatorships are personal and tragic. Dealing with how art and journalism can be manipulated to serve government propaganda, it's densely written with a big cast of characters, who trade Golden Age of Hollywood-worthy repartee, tragic, but with a seam of sardonic humour all through it, and very readable. I can't say too much about The Secret Hours by Mick Herron, simply because if you've read the Slough House series I don't want to risk spoiling it for you. If you haven't read them you can safely start here and enjoy a clever, twisty thriller. It's not exactly part of the series, but it is connected, and.........oooh! Debby Guest |