Tower and Town, October 2025 (view the full edition)A Good ReadWriting for Tower and Town is not unlike being an elite athlete. No, stop sniggering. It's simply that after a break, because of injury or being benched for the September LitFest issue, one's fitness suffers. Picture me in the starting blocks, gazing up the track, wondering whether my writing muscles are up to the challenge. Can I stage a comeback? My training has suffered and I can't remember anything I've read. Well, obviously I have read a couple of books. I was delighted and smug to be given an advance copy of the latest Wyndham and Banerjee crime novel by Abir Mukherjee. (If you don't know this series, start with A Rising Man.) The Burning Grounds deals with a murder (duh!) and with the re-establishment of the strained relationship between Sam and Suren - out of favour with the Imperial Police Force, and back from self-imposed exile in Europe respectively. I really like this series, and they get better with each book. I was very pleased with myself for working out not whodunnit, but why. I got it because I know something about the Golden Age of Hollywood - and that's all I'm saying. I've also been dipping into Craftland by James Fox, in which the author journeys around Britain meeting people who are keeping alive old skills and making the things that were once part of all our lives. It's very readable, very informative (did you know there are thirty-four trades involved in watch-making?) and faintly melancholy - verging in fact on slightly panicky as he lists a selection of occupations, most of which are almost or entirely extinct. Breeze-riddlers, Calender-girls, Flashers and Flirters, Lurers, Mufflemen and Tingle-makers (I know, oo-er missis!) - all, or mostly, gone. He tells of one man, who looked like being the last practitioner of the art of withy pot- making, until - phew - he found an apprentice and achieved his goal of passing on his knowledge and craft before it was too late. And coming down the track are lots of books I'm looking forward to reading. The latest Robert Galbraith 'Strike' novel The Hallmarked Man (crime, not an endangered trade) is on my list, also Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan. I'm eyeing up Deadwood by Peter Cozzens ('Gold, Guns and Greed in the American West''; how can I resist?). I may dedicate a large chunk of the autumn to re-reading Mary Renault. With a rigorous training regime like that I'll be back in the running for medals in no time. Oh ha ha. Debby Guest |