What are you reading - Part II

[FalkeEins]

 

....although the last Inspekteur der Tagjäger Walther Dahl did get to write his memoir.....but it's never been translated into English!

[Neil.C]

I'm reading a PD James anthology and very good (and well written) it is too. 

[Billy54]

Just finished "Bad Actors" Mick Herron's latest book in the Slough House series.

 

Herron's plots are always well thought out with no loose ends and this book is no exception. It concerns an over ambitious political aid attempting to amass power and run the secret service with pressure being applied to the head of MI5. Jackson Lamb, while being involved in the plot, plays a small role here and several other characters are involved throughout the story line.

 

While you don't have to read the Slough House books in order you will gain a better understanding of the characters if you do.

[Quiet Mike]

£2 well spent at our local antiques market. There was a shelf full of RN/FAA/USN titles but this one with the Michael Turner cover jumped out. The reviews on the back cover describe it as one of the best accounts from a pilot during the Second World War, and it reads like a novel. I really couldn't put it down. Really highlights the dangers of carrier flying.

 

[Markh-75]

Yup, it was a dangerous undertaking!

[593jones]

Reading ''Beyond The Reach Of Empire' by Col. Mike Snook, about the failed expedition to save Gordon in Khartoum.  Outstanding book, as Col. Snook's books usually are, I've just reached his superb account of the battle of Abu Klea.  Col. Snook doesn't have a high regard for Lord Wolseley's organisation of the expedition, Wolseley apparently believed that what had worked on the Red River campaign in Canada in 1870 would work on the Nile, after all, 'water is water, and rock is rock.'  A great read.

[stevehnz]

21 hours ago, Quiet Mike said:

one of the best accounts from a pilot during the Second World War

Definitely so. I found mine a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Currently reading "Gone Bush" by Paul Kilgour, a  lifetime wanderer in the New Zealand outdoors & inveterate hut "bagger", ie, records all the huts he has visited if not stayed it, last score over 1200, I can manage a miserable 55 or so.  Very cheerful kind of read, twas a gift for a recent birthday.

Steve 

[Whofan]

@Billy54, 

 

Thanks for the heads up on the latest Slow Horses book.

 

I suspect you and I are among a large number of BM'er who are fans of Mick Herron's world!

[593jones]

5 hours ago, Whofan said:

@Billy54, 

 

Thanks for the heads up on the latest Slow Horses book.

 

I suspect you and I are among a large number of BM'er who are fans of Mick Herron's world!

 

You can certainly include me in that number.

[Billy54]

On 5/27/2022 at 12:48 AM, Whofan said:

@Billy54, 

 

Thanks for the heads up on the latest Slow Horses book.

 

I suspect you and I are among a large number of BM'er who are fans of Mick Herron's world!

 

On 5/27/2022 at 5:53 AM, 593jones said:

 

You can certainly include me in that number.

 

For you guys and others who enjoy Mick Herron's work you may be interested in another author, Colin Cotterill. They both share the same US publisher, Soho Press and both use the same characters throughout their books. Although I think Cotterill has retired his website is still up where you can gain an insight into his thinking He is English and lives on the beach somewhere in Thailand and he is very approachable, I have e-mailed him a couple of times and he has always be kind enough to respond. I can highly recommend his Dr Siri books starting with his first in the series, "The Coroner's Lunch". Dr Siri is 72 years old and has been appointed the coroner for all of Laos after the Communist takeover. I hope you get the same enjoyment from reading Dr Siri as I have. 

[Whofan]

56 minutes ago, Billy54 said:

For you guys and others who enjoy Mick Herron's work you may be interested in another author, Colin Cotterill.

Billy,

 

thanks for the heads up on this author. I'l certainly look out for his books.

[Vince1159]

Forgotten Voices of the Secret War - Roderick Bailey...

[stevehnz]

Started it last night & over half way through already, "Ice Cold in Alex". Last read 50+ years ago. my Dad had a copy which I read. I wondered if his tenure as a RAMC MO in the North African campaign was like the book, not quite he said with a grin. Subsequently I learnt it was likely more action packed. Enjoying it immensely second time around, it reads well & easily.

Steve.

[Markh-75]

I’ll bet the book is better and more detailed than the film; I rather liked the film but in my experience books tend to either parallel a film but mostly exceed the film because the story is laid out in black and white, in front of you.

I love to read but don’t always have the concentration for it, I mostly read in the autumn and winter when there’s not a lot going on outside but rain and wind.

[Quiet Mike]

45 minutes ago, Markh-75 said:

I love to read but don’t always have the concentration for it, I mostly read in the autumn and winter when there’s not a lot going on outside but rain and wind.

 

Same rules apply to modelling for me!

[Markh-75]

My modelling has quietened down a bit, but I do make more models in winter!

[Neil.C]

Decline and fall by Evelyn Waugh.

 

I roared with laughter all the way through!

 

Improbably hilarious.

[Whofan]

Just started all hell let loose by Max Hastings, already found out in the first two chapters more about the Polish and Norwegian debacles (by the allies) than I ever knew before.

 

also on the bedside cabinet is Billy Summers, the new Stephen King book and I've been dipping into Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific war by Rene Francillon, for some background on the Ki-84 Hayate I've just bought and general browsing.

Edited June 27, 2022 by Whofan

[stevehnz]

The Haynes manual on Rolls Royce armoured cars. A really interesting read, covers a lot of ground albeit fairly superficially but a good overview of these big beasts.

Steve.

[stevehnz]

A  recent acquisition from our local Historical Parks annual book fair, "The Eagle Has Landed" by Jack Higgins. Not read it before  but seeing as he passed away recently, thought to rectify that. A very decent read & only a few gentle howlers.  I've the DVD on its way now.

Steve.

[Neil.C]

4 hours ago, stevehnz said:

A  recent acquisition from our local Historical Parks annual book fair, "The Eagle Has Landed" by Jack Higgins. Not read it before  but seeing as he passed away recently, thought to rectify that. A very decent read & only a few gentle howlers.  I've the DVD on its way now.

Steve.

 

Michael Caine as a German. 

 

The original idea and by far the best telling IMO was the 1942 film "Went the day well" which is truly gripping, sad and uplifting. 

 

A superb film, always worth watching and of course made at the time.

[Markh-75]

Now I'm back from my airfield tour of Norfolk I've started reading a book I bought while I was at the 100th Bomb Group Museum, by Harry H. Crosby, I got three books there and as I read them I'll put them on the group.

 

I saw a few other airfields and museums and went to the 93rd Bomb Group Museum open day on the 19th of June and bought a picture there.

Its 18" x 24" and I liked it right away, I hope to make my Hasegawa B-24D relatively soon and I have bought decals for it marking it as Hells Wench, a bomber from the 93rd bg that went to Ploesti 1st Aug 1943.

[Markh-75]

While I was in the 100th Bg memorial museum I also bought these two booklets, all written by people who were just little boys when they started excavating at Thorpe Abbotts, I found both of these quite fascinating as much of these airfields are gone (its 75 -80 years ago), Most things like hardstandings are gone, runways, perimeter tracks. are long gone, the tower has been rescued and totally refurbished to the standard its in today. I'm surprised that kids could get onto such dangerous places but then they didnt erect any tall fencing to keep people out, on Thorpe Abbotts there were (and probs still are) many little shortcuts across the field; many of the ground crews were very friendly towards the kids.! In the 'Memories' booklet there is a short piece about a ball turret gunner trying to remove a machine gun on the hardstanding and he accidentally triggered the machine gun, which had enough force to turn the ball turret around and it sprayed a couple of hundred bullets all over the field and beyond! In one of the buildings next to the tower, there are two big gouges in a wall where bullets ricocheted off the wall! The tower took a few hits too but over the years the bullet strikes were roughcasted over. This came from a bomber that was on a hardstanding 50 yds or so to the N/E of the tower; the gunner tried to run away but was killed by the bullets.

 

There is some quite fascinating stuff in these two booklets; such as the old Air Station at Pullham St. Marys nearby, it was a WW1 airship base but while the 100th were there all the bones of aircraft too damaged to fly were transported there and dumped; the RAF used it in a similar way too until 1958 when the buildings were knocked down and it all returned to farming.

Two cracking little books full of fascinating stuff!

 

[speedy]

I’ve just purchased Jaguar boys but currently reading British Phantoms magazine.

[TheBaron]

I'm currently re-reading Philp Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy of novels whilst trying to shake the effects of long covid:

If you ever wanted to wake up as a detective amongst the dark memories of a corrupted capital, this gets straight into your bloodstream within the first few pages. Raymond Chandler on the Unter den Linden, with set designs by the Nazi Party.

 

Recently finished was:

Occasionally you need to abandon yourself to a long journey. Robert Massie's precursor to Castles of Steel manages to blend politics, naval architecture/strategy and biography in a style so conversational and easy to read that this feels more like a novel in the way that it reveals the interactions of individuals and effects of character as drivers of events.

 

Mark Fisher's:

arrived in the post today and am looking forward to reading his thoughts on Nigel Kneale in particular. Quatermassive!