While on the subject of John Wyndham, it may be worth pointing out that one of his novels, "The Midwich Cuckoos", is available on pdf in its entirety. Here's the link-
https://worldtracker.org/media/library/English%20Litera...uckoos.pdf
Not the last book I read, but the best.Erik Skyes If I don't write it no one will. Not only funny, serious and makes you want to share it with everyone in the room, but you see an insight in to a man that not only gave so much to Radio, Television, Theatre but the war effort too. He leads you through his life with laughter, sadness and every emotion you can sum up. I was left with wanting to know answers to my questions, sadly though they can never be answered....he will never receive my letter I so wanted to write and ask....who was she that play should an important part in the war? A must read, one book that I'll keep for life and happily read again and again. Yes Mr Skyes I am a fan, a massive fan, you great man x RIP. You and Spike must be up there splitting sides!!
Has anyone here actually been mentioned in a book? Obviously I have - otherwise I wouldn’t have brought the subject up.
Two are by Chris Harte, currently Managing Director of the National Sports Reporting Agency. In A Year in the Sporting Pressbox I managed three allusions. More poignantly, my wife and I appeared in A Sportswriter’s Year. Chris’s reference to my wife (under her maiden name) was quoted by John Lawless (Liverpool Echo) and Phil Hodgson (then of League Weekly, now of Rugby Leaguer & League Express), both of whom were kind enough to write obituaries about her in their respective newspapers.
Geoff Lee’s One Winter has been so successful that, after it sold out, its second reprint run was taken on by a London publishing house. It’s a novel, but I still appear in it - and not as a character.
I am particularly pleased to have turned up in Merging on the Ridiculous, by Ian Clayton (now of Yorkshire Television) and Ian Daley, as it goes some way to acknowledging the small but significant role I played in ensuring the survival of Wakefield Trinity, Castleford and (especially) Featherstone Rovers Rugby League clubs. It may sound strange these days, but in 1995 Featherstone became a centre of media attention, at one stage featuring as second lead on CNN bulletins. Exciting times.
I went to an interview with Bernard Cornwall, famous for the Sharpe novels. He signed my book Excalibur - 'To my Lord XKLYBR, your servant, Bernard Cornwall'.
Two goats on a rubbish tip. One of them sees a reel of old cinema film. So he eats it.
The other goat asks, "What was that like?"
"Not as good as the book."
I wonder why I never read Paul O’Grady’s “At My Mother’s Knee… and other low joints” before. It’s based mainly in the working class areas of Wirral, so I’m familiar with many of the locations to which he alludes - we both worked in the same hospital, although at different times. (So, horrifically enough, did Jimmy Savile at one stage, though this isn‘t mentioned in the book.) The accurate recollections of places which are recognisable to me are bound to strike a multitude of chords, but there’s more to it than that.
Paul’s accurate descriptions of his formative years are related with humour mixed with a certain degree of poignancy - there’s a sting in the tail - and references as to how he began to come to terms with his sexuality are surprisingly few. Furthermore, this is the only book I’ve heard of to have been reviewed by Private Eye without receiving a panning. A cracking read, and generally available at your local library.
Did anyone receive anything worth reading as a Christmas gift? Apparently on a whim, a girl at work presented me with a second-hand-but-in-good-nick biography of John Peel.
When I find the time to read it, I most certainly will. His only real connection with motorcycles seems to have been when he regularly rode a 125 cc Francis Barnett to Anfield to watch Liverpool’s home games while undergoing National Service in Anglesey. (He alluded to this during an interview with the football magazine When Saturday Comes [“WSC“]. The site once used by the Royal Artillery army camp where he was stationed is now occupied by the Anglesey motor racing circuit.) Nevertheless, he appears to have lived a fascinating life.
I’m hoping to find out more details about how he managed to gatecrash the first press conference featuring Lee Harvey Oswald, particularly as it has since emerged that Jack Ruby was also in the same room at the time. [There’s YouTube footage of this - Google “John Peel in Dallas (JFK)”.]
My daughter gave me an IOU for the paperback version of Owen Jones' "The Establishment" After reading "Chavs" and it ringing so true with me, and Owen's contributions in the Independent, I am looking forward to its release.
Any thing by James Patterson some of which have been made into films (along came a spider, kiss the girls) no where near as good as the books. Trudi Canavan The Black Magician Trilogy. David Gemmel - waylander chronicles
and of course biographys of Barry Sheene, Spike Millagan, Simoncelli and one of the 4 books im reading at mo is Guy Martin.
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