Friday 17 April 2009

The Sacred Art of Stealing by Christopher Brookmyre

Brookmyre worked his magic again when I read on to the second part of this novel. There was a hilariously filthy scene in a museum and the various strands were woven together in a most satisfactory manner. I would say that Mr F was right again but I don't want to encourage him.

I've read a lot of books but there seems to be no end to the classics which have escaped me up until now. One of these was 1066 and All That by W C Sellar and R J Yeatman. This is a humorous take on British history as it is taught and (mis)remembered. If you like schoolboy errors you will love this, although the joke is rather thin for a whole book, even a short one. As it was written in 1930, the authors can refer to Britain as "top nation" (which of course it still is). One of the best jokes is about Richard the Lionheart, who "whenever he returned to England ... always set out again immediately for the Mediterranean, and was therefore known as Richard Gare de Lyon".

Day 190; Book 187