The Road to Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon

Sassoon seems to one of the less-well-known of the war poets, at least nowadays (which makes me want to read him more).

The Road to Ruin is a poem published in 1933. In it Sassoon visualises what might happen over the next 10 years. His nightmare vision is obviously concerned about war coming again, but it is written in the vocabulary of the First World War, with London succumbing to gas. It's ironic that the next war was to end with a weapon more terrible than he was able to imagine.

Day 293; Book 283

Cock-a-Doodle Doo by Robert S McLeish

This is "a Scots comedy in one act" published in 1990 but set before the First World War. It's an amusing farce and looks as if there would be plenty of laughs if you saw it performed. The dialect is consistent but it looks like Glaswegian to me - still maybe the farm where it's set was near Glasgow ...

Day 293; Book 282

In which I am put in the shade by a lady of 91!

Thanks to Jo for alerting me to this news item, which is all about Louise Brown, 91, who joined her local library in 1946 and since then has borrowed at least 6 books every week, recently increasing it to about 12 every 7 days! Mrs Brown, I salute you!

Bodily Secrets by William Trevor

This was a book of short stories by the Irish writer William Trevor. The prose seemed very spare at first and not really my sort of thing but fortunately I persevered. The stories are fairly dark but not completely pessimistic. I'll look out for more of his books now.

Day 292; Book 281

Byron and Japan

First up was a short book, Byron and Women Novelists by Caroline Franklin. Good: it featured one of my favourite literary bad boys, Byron of course. Bad: I don't like any literary analysis featuring the word "intertextuality". Good again: the last 6 pages were references so I didn't feel obliged to read them. Also good: finding out how Byron's scandalous affair with his half-sister rebounded later on the innocent writer, Harriet Beecher Stowe!

Shashin: Nineteenth-Century Japanese Studio Photography was much more interesting. Who knew there was such a craze for photography in Yokohama after 1853? The craze was partly fuelled by tourists buying views of Japan which they collected in beautiful albums to show off to their friends. Originally the photographers were Western, but then the Japanese took it up as well. The photographs in the book were beautifully hand-tinted, sometimes using brushes with a single hair. Some of the women in the book look much more modern and natural than their counterparts in Victorian photographs from Britain. An interesting book about a little-known aspect of photography.

Day 292; Book 280

Kate Atkinson

I finished When Will There Be Good News. It's great! The beginning is attention-grabbing (though sad) and then there's quite a bit where you don't exactly know who all the characters are and exactly what's happening. (Several of the characters are very appealing though). Then the author wraps it up with a masterful flourish - very satisfying.

I also read Hue and Cry, which is a new novel by Shirley McKay. It's set in the 16th century in St Andrews and it was fascinating to read about the places that you know. The book is very readable too and apparently it's the start of a series featuring Hew Cullan. An intriguing mystery with a humane attitude.

I started the latest John Connolly but I didn't get far because I decided to spend time sorting out my paperwork (mountainous). And in other news I got a phone call from my credit card company alerting me to fraud on my card! Well done to the card company for being on the ball and picking this up - and hopefully I won't be liable for any of the spending! Will keep you posted.

Day 291; Book 278

Quick Reads

I read The Observer Book of Scandal, all about scandals in the news from serious ones to frivolous ones. From Bill Clinton to Oscar Wilde it was all here.

Change the World, 9 to 5 was a book about improving your working life. Some of it was kind of predictable, but I liked the page about remembering to praise people (it came with a sheet of gold star stickers).

Still reading When will there be Good News ... and wondering how it will turn out. It jumps back and forth a bit and plays with the reader's expectations.

Day 288; Book 276