An account of George Blake, largely based on a two-hour interview with him in his old age. It's really mostly worrying away at how and why. The authorAn account of George Blake, largely based on a two-hour interview with him in his old age. It's really mostly worrying away at how and why. The author struggles to reconcile the two sides of Blake--a nice old man, genuine believer that Communism could have made the world better, non violent, whose actions directly and deliberately led to the killing of at least forty British agents at the hands of the KGB and Stasi. It pretty much sounds like Blake simply decided not to see those consequences.
In the end it feels sordid, futile, and kind of depressing. Not the book, which is well written and thoughtful, but the whole damn thing. ...more
The memoir of a posh gay British man across the 20th century, of which the main takeaway is HE BOINKED SEAN CONNERY. Oh my God.
This could easily haveThe memoir of a posh gay British man across the 20th century, of which the main takeaway is HE BOINKED SEAN CONNERY. Oh my God.
This could easily have been intolerable as a depiction of a life of incredible privilege (the author constantly refers to himself as hard up for cash while being an Etonian waiting for a whacking inheritance, he's a gay man in pre Wolfenden times who entirely avoided the law, etc). It's not intolerable largely because of the immense likeability of the author, who comes across as the kind of person who'd monologue at you for hours but you wouldn't mind. He also has a strong sense of responsibility, even if in an extremely old fashioned paternalistic way, plus a profoundly relaxed attitude to sex (his only criteria is 'consenting adults', can' argue) and a cheery acceptance of human foibles. It's very long (apparently cut down from 700,000 words, dear god) but it kept me busy through a long flight/train journey very happily. Lots of name dropping, he went to school with Christopher Lee, lodged with Jackson Pollock, and did I mention he boinked Sean Connery.
Basically, if you're interested in the minutiae of life as it was lived by posh gay Brits in the 20s to 60s, with lots of travel, this is great. Falls off a lot once we get into the 70s and after. ...more
A very late Christie, mostly notable for her (and thus her viewpoint characters') intense dislike of men with long hair and bright clothes, women liviA very late Christie, mostly notable for her (and thus her viewpoint characters') intense dislike of men with long hair and bright clothes, women living alone, and the indignity of being an old person having to deal with young people. A time passer. ...more
An extraordinarily chilly tale, set in Japan in the 1960s. Honda is a married man who makes a hobby out of seducing women. He's very much a predator--An extraordinarily chilly tale, set in Japan in the 1960s. Honda is a married man who makes a hobby out of seducing women. He's very much a predator--gets them drunk, lies about his identity, insistent advances--and he really sucks as a human being. However, when someone takes exception to his behaviour and decides to do something about it, the course they choose is to murder three of his conquests and frame him for the killings. Mate.
It's all about the raging miserable misogyny of the time and place, the sexual double standards, the misery caused in multiple directions by rigid cultural expectations and gender roles. (I have often considered how many mystery novels would have gone unwritten if everywhere had easy divorce.) There's an interesting trip to a Tokyo gay bar/brothel, although with pretty homophobic language at least as translated. (NB that the author was both a woman and a gay icon in Japan.) Everyone is awful and everything is grey. It's bleak, basically, though good. ...more
1980s written book on the actual spy career of various authors. Bought it primarily for the Dennis Wheatley chapter (uninformative if you've read the 1980s written book on the actual spy career of various authors. Bought it primarily for the Dennis Wheatley chapter (uninformative if you've read the excellent Baker bio) and also the incredible title which, props. My version also has an excellent cover.
I'm kind of running out of good things to say here because honestly this just reeks of old boys network. The entire British intelligence community was basically jobs for the boys: ridiculous numbers of relations and chums who went to school together, a fact that is made abundantly clear in the book, right up to the chapter on John le Carre who is presented as a vaguely unpatriotic meanie for writing about, er, how the place was run by old school chums. The author is basically revelling in his personal connection to all the authors still alive (wtf was the Len Deighton section except fluffing). It reeks of snobbery and low level homophobia. Bah, basically.
Also, let's be honest, the only author who comes out of this sounding like you'd trust him to run a whelk stall, still less an intelligence department, is John Buchan, a man of actual major talents and moral fibre, who gets sneered at for his 'Boys Own' stories throughout. (I would say the authors featured here couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery but actually it's fairly clear heavy drinking was well within their capability.)...more
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