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The Little Grey Men

 

The Little Grey Men Go Down The Bright Stream

 

Both the above written by "BB" who I believe wrote a lot of fishing books

 

They are about a family of gnomes and their travels,

 

The second one has a dark side to it

 

:shaun:

BB lived in the Georgian rectory a few doors down from my current house. Im typing this overlooking his garden. Just bought an anthology of his various countryside writing for my Dad for Fathers Day.

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BB lived in the Georgian rectory a few doors down from my current house. Im typing this overlooking his garden. Just bought an anthology of his various countryside writing for my Dad for Fathers Day.

thats great ! what is the anthology and can I ask were you got it

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Another vote for Thomas Hardy...Not surprising he's popular here given that we are country enthusiasts.

 

Also recommend Wilkie Collins, and the "The Master", Patrick O'Brian - The quality of wrtiting, historic detail and vivid characterisation in his 21 volume "Aubrey-Maturin" series has to be read to be believed.

 

Emile Zola is another spellbinding writer.

 

Of modern authors I like Haruki Murakami a lot, and also John Updike.

Edited by Longchalk
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I've said it before here more than once, but the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series is a joy and a delight. I've read the entire series three times and I'm embarking on the audiobooks in the car.

 

Life can quite literally be bisected into two parts, before you experience them, and after. You will never be quite the same again.

 

A few more:

 

Flashman Series by George Macdonald Fraser

Most of Douglas Adams stuff

Ian Fleming

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Rum Diary by Hunter S Thompspn

 

For pure trash holiday reading Lee Child is a guilty pleasure.

 

For essays...Hunter S Thompson, PJ O'Rourke.

 

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Shantaram - cant remember who wrote it. A bit far fetched in places imo but what a book. True story spparently.

A gripping book about human strengths and frailties, even if you can't like him all that much at times. Apparently rewritten several times after the manuscripts were destroyed in various prisons the author languished in. Written by Gregory David Roberts, who is supposedly working on a second volume.

Edited by Longchalk
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A recent find which should appeal to most on here is a book called, Bird Brain by Guy Kennaway. Its a funny novel about a murder on a pheasant shoot, when the victim is reincarnated as a pheasant, and the gundogs are smarter than the humans. The description of the antis is particularly amusing...give it a try.

Downloaded this last night and read a few pages before nodding off,

When I first read your description I thought it would have been set at the turn of the century but its not,

It's set right up to date, they even have mobile phones :)

 

:shaun:

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thats great ! what is the anthology and can I ask were you got it

Its called "The Countryman's Bedside Book" and I got it at Watersones online. ISBN 978-1-873674-949 . Hardback, 12 chapters, illustrated with his own Beautiful woodcuts.

 

Would you believe, I bought soley it for the write up, as Dad is 82 and a proper Countryman, without knowing who BB actually, was or that I live two doors from his chidhood home...... Its a small world.

Edited by Longchalk
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I've just read Agent Zigzag by Ben McIntyre, about the wartime double agent Eddie Chapman. Absolutely fascinating reading and a real insight into the thought processes of (elements of) the Abwehr during the war..

 

I've got Operation Mincemeat from the same author yet to read. Operation Fortitude by Joshua Levine is very good too.

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Well, I've divided them up into novels and short stories as I couldn't decide!

 

To The Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

 

Short stories:

Stirrings Still, Samuel Beckett

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Rudyard Kipling

The Man Who Would Be King, also Kipling

Edited by chrisjpainter
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Glad to see I was not the only one.

 

Although 'The Throwback' is my favourite.

 

Ah, yes - that reminded me of the first to two books that made me laugh out loud when commuting on the train:

Tom Sharpe - "Riotous Assembly" and "Indecent Exposure".

Regards,

Mark.

Edited by Penelope
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Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

 

Snap, excellent book. But the best book on flying I've read would be Think Like a Bird by Alex Kimbell, who was an Army Air Corp pilot in the last days of fixed wing flight before they switched to helicopters. Imagine just dropping in (landing) on a Navy Carrier for a cuppa no red tape then.

 

Tom

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Thanks Thunderbird, but I have read it and enjoyed it. Difficult to relate nowadays that an 18 year old could be thrust into the Battle of Britain flying a plane. Guess they grew up quicker then. I have read most of the WW2 books by aircrew over the years that were available from local libraries, a good read all. So much so that I now look for something a bit different like Chickenhawk or Think Like a Bird.

 

Tom

Edited by TriBsa
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Keep looking through this list and taking notes of the books i will read and just remembed one of my favourites John Barth "the Sotweed Factor" also Flann Obrien The Third Policeman and The Dalkey Archive, The Third Policeman and The Sotweed Factor are both insane, and made me LOL

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I now look for something a bit different like Chickenhawk

I seem to remember that this book held the solution to that ol' chestnut*:

 

"You're piloting a Huey in a hover over a minefield but the helicopter is so heavily laden that it won't fly up over the fence. Waddaya do?"

 

Regards,

 

Mark.

 

* Disclaimer: it's been a looong time since I read that book. I may have got the scenario wrong or, in fact, it may have not have been it that book at *all*... :)

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