The Books I Read In July

 Fiction

'The Sword Saint' by C.F. Iggulden

This is the concluding book in the Empire of Salt trilogy and is set two years after 'Shiang' (2018). The city of Darien is under threat once again, this time from a new militaristic state, the Kingdom of Feal, that has arisen to its north and is sweeping through regions conquering them. An embassy is sent to insist on trade and is soon trying to manipulate the negotiations with the city's ruling Twelve Families through bribery and assassination. Ultimately given the cruelty of Feal's ruler was proves unavoidable. Now the major characters from the previous two novels, some of which we have seen nothing of since the end of the first book, 'Darien' (2017) are all brought back together in a kind of Magnificent Seven way to defend the city through a series of commando raids against the advancing Feal forces and defending the city's walls, drawing on the various magical and physical abilities they have.

This trilogy is actually post-apocalyptic, there are occasional hints to it being Earth with some memories of our cultures, but with the magic involved it might as well be fantasy. There is some magically operated machinery, as well as pure machines, notably repeating pistols, and as might be guess from the titles of the cities, it draws on East Asian culture, with mainly Chinese elements blended with some Japanese. This is an adventure story so a lot of it is about action. It is gory at times. The main thing is Iggulden deftly dodges what you might expect to happen next. The fact that the Fagin-like character from the first book, Tellius who looks like he is going to not live long ends up running Darien and having an apparently loving relationship with Lady Sallet, head of one of the leading Darien Twelve Families. It is like if an aged Bronn had married Olenna Tyrell in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. There is something unsatisfying about these books, but in general they are sound fantasy and certainly go down unexpected routes with the story which is a refreshing change from reworking over-used tropes.

'Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade' by Oliver Bowden

While down the years I have read novelisations of movies and TV series, this was the first time I had read one of a computer game (though it is a shame no-one ever wrote one of the 'Lords of Midnight' game on the ZX Spectrum). It was also the first time in many years, perhaps decades, since I had bought a book from a supermarket, in this case Lidl. Having long been fascinated by the Crusader States, I got into playing the original 'Assassin's Creed' (2007) which is set across 12th Century Syria and Palestine. I managed to kill 7 of the 9 targets before getting a new computer. If you know the game then the book follows the story of the game, with Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad as protagonist, very closely though Bowden makes efforts that each of the nine killings is portrayed differently, some in retrospect. The decent attention to historical detail and the political scene of the region of the time is brought over from the game to the novel. Bowden manages to pull off a reasonably adventurous story which may appeal more if you have not played the game. 

The book continues as a bass for the extensive series of novels which followed this one. As a result the story continues for years beyond the game with Altaïr travelling to Cyprus and fighting for control the Assassins' society. Elements of the story are told by Niccolò Polo (Marco Polo's father) to his brother, Maffeo Polo, in the late 1250s, so as to provide a link for the spread of the Assassins to permit the successive stories. This section is almost like a second book. Again it has drama (and some romance) but feels a little rushed. Overall, not a bad book but may appeal more if looking for a decent medieval adventure without having experienced it already 'first hand' through playing the game.

'Death on the Riviera' by John Bude [Ernest Elmore]

This book was published in 1952, so 15 years after the last book by Bude that I read, 'The Cheltenham Square Murder' (1937): https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-books-i-read-in-may.html  It features a Chief Inspector Meredith but I cannot find out what relation he is to Superintendent Meredith who appeared in Bude's earlier novels. He might be that man's son. We do find out he was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940, so it seems likely he was a young man back then, as the average age of soldiers in the Second World War was 26. Anyway, he has much the same manner as his 1930s superior.

We start off seeing this Meredith and Acting Sergeant Freddie Strang trying to navigate their way out of Dunkirk which some 6 or 7 years after the end of the war is still very disrupted by war damage. They quickly motor through France to the area around Menton on the French Riviera (seeing the title and knowing the preceding books' settings I had imagined this one would be set on the English Riviera in Devon). As is typical I imagine in real life even now (and of course in fiction, if you watch 'The Tunnel' (broadcast 2013-17)) neither of the British detectives have anything more than 'schoolboy French' even though they have been sent to liaise with French counterparts seeking to take down a British money counterfeiter operating in southern France.

This case runs parallel with the intrigues at the French property of a wealthy Englishwoman,  Nesta Hedderwick, her niece and her various hangers-on some of whom in various ways are involved with the counterfeiting and have their own rivalries which ultimately lead to murder. They very much remind me of the set-up we see in Agatha Christie's 'The Mystery of the Blue Train' (1928) especially as it was dramatised in the TV series 'Poirot' in 2006. 

As is characteristic for Bude novels, a lot of theories are thrown up and there is satisfaction in following Meredith who aided by a pair of very capable French detectives chases up the various clues and decoys before being drawn into also investigating a killing in the Hedderwick household. That trait that Bude develops so well, is combined with his acute eye for place. In all the books of his I have read, the location is as much a character as the people and so it is here, really conjuring up an assortment of locations along the Riviera very atmospherically.

Naturally the story is of its time and some tropes, such as the speed of the romance would likely to be resisted by a modern author even writing about 1952, the fact that Bude does paint such a rich picture of location and provides such a surfeit of feasible options, means it remains engaging for a modern reader. Unfortunately this was the last of the Bude books that I have. I do still have quite a number of others from the British Library series or crime novel reprints.

'The Peripheral' by William Gibson

I have been reading books by Gibson, one of the 'fathers' of Cyberpunk since the 1990s. Back then while we admired his imagination, I did feel as if his story construction was rather 'clunky' as if you could see all the pieces being moved into place, very conscious of the author at work. This book, published in 2014, is almost at the other extreme and I would have been able to engage with it if there was more clarity and structure. As you would expect, the concepts are sound. 

A woman called Flynne lives in the USA in the early 21st Century but at a time when the economy has decayed so much that the only real rural employment is in synthesising drugs. She lives with her brother, Burton, who has lost lots of his body serving in the Marines and has a meagre pension.  The siblings make money by playing games on behalf of wealthy customers so they can advance without having to put in the grinding time. Flynne takes over one job from Burton and in the game has to fly around a futuristic building keeping miniature paparazzi drones away from a party being held in the building. While doing this she witnesses the murder of a woman guest by a man.

Subsequently Flynne finds out that this was not a game but effectively a portal into things happening in London 70 or so years into the future. People from that time, notably Wilf Netherton a publicist and Ainsley Lowbeer, a police detective, wanting to identify the perpetrator begin to connect to Flynne's time. By manipulating the economy back then they are able to produce equipment which allows Flynne, her brother and others to project themselves into synthetic human avatars (the so-called 'peripherals') in the future London and so interact. The objective is to 'correct' things so that the 'Jackpot' a slow-developing apocalypse does not occur or so severely, so creating a different timeline from the one Netherton and Lowbeer inhabit. In both times people are seeking to kill Flynne and those supporting her, which leads to various action scenes.

Gibson's portrayal of the society and its technology in the two times, is interesting. The sense of projection through a vivid computer scenario reminded me of Christopher Priest's novel 'The Extremes' (1998) and the movie 'Source Code' (2011) but Gibson's approach is fresh. His 'slow' apocalypse is very believable and in fact has become more so as things have steadily unwound in the world in the years since this novel was published. Despite these positives, the book is a nightmare to read. Even when you are familiar with which time the current chapter is focused on (and some are only 1-2 pages long) there are so many characters and then ones from one time slot appearing in the other or communicating surprisingly easy between the two that it is a real challenge to follow where the story is going. 

Gibson is great at thinking up corporations and slang, but often it makes the dialogue really difficult to follow. I suppose he wrote it for multiple readings because once you have finished it, you understand it well enough to start reading it. However, life is too short for such an approach, so what you have is a real mess with the odd gems shining out from it but for a lot of the time the reader is bewildered about what is going on and when. Thus, it is a very frustrating read.

Non-Fiction

'Charlie Brooker's Dawn of the Dumb: Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline' by Charlie Brooker

I had rather expected an analysis of UK or Western society along the lines of what Michael Moore produces. Instead this is simply a collection of short articles that Brooker wrote for 'The Guardian' newspaper, television review section 2004-07. If you know Brooker's style he has a weirdly amiable but acidic tone and outlines grave violence towards those he despises but in a way that sort of washes over you so you do not really take on board the severity of what he is saying (unless you were a US supporter of President George W. Bush in which case you felt Brooker should be executed). Looking at these articles from 18-21 years later, it is interesting how prescient they were. Brooker even starts mentioning Donald Trump. This book also reminds us how many of the traits we see in the Trump presidencies were already been established under the Bush administration, notably the apparent acceptance that the US President can be proud of his cluelessness.

Brooker spends a lot of time talking about reality TV programmes, which did not originate in this period but were really getting into their stride. Unsurprisingly what he was saying back then has simply continued to manifest, in fact going to greater extremes than he even cautioned in those days. You feel he loves to suggest he hates the people in the reality programmes but actually carries a lot of affection for the formats and at least some of the individuals in them, plus an enduring curiosity about them. The final thing to say about these articles is especially in the more pensive and speculative ones you see Brooker snagging on lots of developments which would go on to form the basis of the 'Black Mirror' (broadcast 2011-14 & 2016-) the dystopian TV series that has now run to 7 seasons with most episodes featuring a unique story/concept. Many of these are clearly grounded in what Brooker was thinking/writing about in the mid-2000s.

The Books I Read In April

Fiction

'Agent 6' by Tom Rob Smith

I picked up this book in a charity shop, but should really have looked back at my review of Smith's previous book, 'The Secret Speech' (2009) but it had been eight years since I wrote it: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-books-i-read-in-january.html so I had forgotten my previous warning. This book turned out to be as bad as I had expected back then. It is portrayed as the final book in a trilogy after 'Child 44' (2008) and 'The Secret Speech' featuring the former secret police officer Leo Demidov. As reviewers at the time noted, Smith fails to recapture the crispness and insight of the first novel. This book is a real mess. The premise is really contorted. Demidov has left the secret police but in 1965 his wife who we see him first encounter and pursue and his adopted daughters are permitted to travel to the USA to take part in a singing event at the United Nations. While there his youngest daughter and then his wife get mixed up in a successful plot to assassinate the black, Communist American singer Jesse Austin. This leads to the killing of both Austin's and Demidov's wives.

The rest of the book, taking place into the early 1980s is about Demidov trying to get out of the USSR so he can travel to the USA and find out who was responsible for the assassination and killing of the two women. However, this takes many years. There is a tiny chapter in which he tried to get over the border into Finland but a lot of the book is taken up with him operating in Kabul as an agent, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and then trying to get with a local agent and an orphaned Afghan girl to the USA where he finally finishes off his investigation before returning to imprisonment in the USSR.

The novel is effectively a series of fragments of story that are ill-connected. The portrayal of the situation in Afghanistan seems convincing but as Smith favours, very vicious in nature. Reviewers at the time commented on how it is often lifeless. The novel at 545 pages is far too long and like 'The Secret Speech' is gritty and yet really stretches credulity. Smith has gone on to write two other novels and has moved into scriptwriting for example for the TV series 'London Spy' (broadcast 2015). You often heard it said that 'everyone has a book in them' and it is clear that for Smith, 'Child 44' was that book and nothing he has produced since has come close to the quality of that. For some reason he lacks the ability to be in control of his material. He has the historical research but seems at a loss what to do with it and so goes for 'alarums and excursions' apparently with the view that these make a novel engaging, whereas in fact they reduce its coherence and feasibility. I will try to remember to stay well clear of his other novels if I see them on sale in a charity shop.

'Shiang' by C.F. Igguden

This is the second book in the Empire of Salt trilogy and is set two years on from 'Darien' (2017) which I read in February: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-books-i-read-in-february.html  However, most of the main characters from the first book are only mentioned or encountered briefly. Only the Fagin-like character Tellius and his now lover, Lady Sallet, head of one of Darien's Twelve Families feature to any real extent. Most of the novel is about two groups of swordsmen travelling from Shiang to Darien. One lot led by sword saint Hondo are seeking revenge on Tellius for sharing the Mazer form of sword fighting, with people of Darien. 

The second group is led by a man called Gabriel who has been brought back from the afterlife to inhabit the body of a leading swordsman who was suffering a cancer and was being experimented on using one of the powerful stones which fuel a lot of magic in the world. As a result, Gabriel and the three others returned from the afterlife with him are gifted with superhuman powers. Gabriel seizes control of Shiang before moving to take Darien.

As with the first book we receive a passing comment which shows us that this is Earth, but clearly some distance into the future when so much has changed. It is not made clear but Darien [Dalian] and Shiang [Xi'An] are old Western names for actual cities in China. 

Both groups venture through mountainous regions, bickering among themselves and with people they encounter, with this breaking out into violence, especially for Gabriel's group. Hondo's group faces more casualties. In sequence both reach Darien where with the help of a premonition from an elderly noblewoman the city has been prepared to face some kind of grim invasion. Eventually Hondo's group allies with Tellius and the Families of Darien to fight the superhuman attack of Gabriel and his group. The final battle is substantial.

The fact that only a few elements are carried over from the first novel, makes this one really feel like standalone. It would have been nice to find out what had happened to many of the other characters in that first book as Tellius for much of it was on the sidelines. Overall, it rather feels a bit like a Marvel movie, with two groups of super-powered  rivals working their way to a final showdown. It is not bad for that though none of the major characters are sympathetic. Really the only person who is engaging is Marias a slave and admirer of the man whose body Gabriel possesses.

The novel is not bad and has some fresh ideas. It is mature rather than YA in the way it does not pull its punches in terms of the viciousness of what the characters suffer or how challenging working relationships can be especially with two men who 'know' they are the best at what they do. I do have the third book, 'The Sword Saint' (2019) to read and hope it recaptures the freshness of the ideas, situations and characters seen in 'Darien'.

Non-Fiction

'The Crossman Diaries. Condensed Version' by Richard Crossman, edited by Anthony Howard

Note this is the condensed version covering just the period of the two Labour governments, 1964-70. Unusually for the time Crossman made audio recordings rather than wrote a diary. In full as Howard notes, these run to 3 million words. Of these 1.06 million have gone into the published 3-volume version of his diaries. This version still runs to 300,000 words (compared to about 90,000 words for an average novel) and in my edition, including references, ran to 764 pages, the longest book I have read this year so far. When published in the 1970s they attracted a lot of attention and indeed condemnation, but were seen as the best insight into the running of the UK government that had been made available.

Richard Crossman (1907-74) entered Parliament in 1945 as a Labour MP and rose to be a Cabinet minister when Harold Wilson came to power. He was successively Minister of Housing, Lord President of the Council/Leader of the House of Commons and finally Secretary of State for Health and Social Services. The fact that Crossman recorded his thoughts means that the text flows in a brisk way when compared to the  'The Robert Hall Diaries, 1947-1953' (1989) which I read in February. However, this does settle down as the diaries progress through the years and it is clear Crossman who was 63 by the time Labour fell and an elderly father of young children, was becoming tired. 

At first he is a very clear admirer of Harold Wilson, but his impression, especially due to Wilson's persistent prevaricating and game playing with a range of ministers, erodes this. Him pressing on with the necessary but highly flawed 'In Place of Strife' approach working really just one-to-one with Barbara Castle alienated so many. Crossman's portrayal of the ministers notably of George Brown, but also people like Michael Stewart, Peter Shore, Fred Peart, Ray Gunter and especially James Callaghan highlights just what poor quality there was in the higher levels of the governments. So much of what he outlines shows the government floundering, ironically even more so after it had achieved a decent majority in 1966 than when it had a tiny one 1964-66.

While the Starmer government coming into office in 2024 had a much larger majority it is interesting to note how many of the same problems it faced compared to what the 1964 Labour government and its successor had to tackle. Notable was how far Labour were constrained by the Conservative approach to the economy of the previous 13 years and to a large part this choked off any real new directions in terms of policy and this is something true in 2024 as it was sixty years earlier. Of far less concern these days is the balance of payments and the exchange rate. However, there was recognition back then how the IMF and Swiss bankers had far greater control over the UK economy than the government itself. These days multinational corporations fill that role. 

Though Johnson was far from being a Trump there was a difficult relationship throughout with the USA as it threw itself ever deeper into Vietnam. The issue of immigration as now, was also a big topic at the time, in part of the expulsion of Kenyan Asians with British passports.  There was Enoch Powell's explicitly racist rhetoric in place of nowadays Farage and the online bigots, but still presenting a challenge at elections both for Labour and the Conservatives. As a result the good intentions of Wilson and his ministers, for Crossman especially around reform of parliament, particularly the House of Lords, but also in public housing and the health system were simply drowned in these other 'crises'. Crossman barely touches on what are seen as the successes of the period in terms of rights such as abortion, homosexuality, divorce, etc.

It is an insightful but disheartening read. As has become apparent with the current government, those of 1964-70, we hemmed in so much by Conservative economics and right-wing rhetoric which was amplified by such a large portion of the media. Reading it gave me the clear impression that Starmer, even with a decent majority from the outset, will be unable to achieve anything substantial and will be channelled in to being simply a watered-down version of the preceding Conservative governments and serving the needs of those already with immense wealth rather than the mass of the population, whose appropriate ire at how they continued to be treated is distracted by the focus on immigration. Of course, times have changed a great deal, but there is much in these diaries which can be seen as a warning to the current government and Labour supporters of how little success they should anticipate.

The Books I Read In February

 Fiction

'Six of Crows' by Leigh Bardugo

This is a good grimdark novel set in a fantasy world with mid-19th Century technology (though tanks appear later on, so maybe it is intended, in part as Edwardian) and forms of magic that allow some people to control the tides or machinery or the human body. In some countries they are hunted down and executed. The world consists of a number of countries which unfortunately seem to have been lifted with little modification from our world, for example, Kerch where the novel starts makes use of a lot of Dutch names and styles, nearby Shu is clearly Chinese, The Wandering Isle is very Irish and Ravka has Russian influences. Setting that weakness aside, the book is a very gritty heist story about six criminals hired to recover a Shu scientist who has developed a drug which greatly heightens the abilities of magic users. They travel to the Nordic country of Fjerda to overcome all the security around the Ice Court to get their target out. There are naturally tensions between the six, especially Nina who can work body magic and Matthias previously her captor and a man she betrayed but may love.

There is a real grittiness to the street gang culture and you have a feel very much of  'Gangs of New York' (2002) and unsurprisingly some of 'Oliver Twist' (1837/38) to it. However, the characters and the world building are well developed and the story had real pace and tension to it. We move to see through the perspective of different characters throughout the book, but generally this is handled competently allowing us to see not only into their back stories but also different facets of the heist itself. I enjoyed the book and certainly would pick up more novels by Bardugo in this trilogy or other sequences.

'Blackout in Gretley' by J.B. Priestley

J.B. Priestley was a mid-20th Century author, playwright and broadcaster, perhaps best known now for the play 'An Inspector Calls' (1945). He wrote across genres including thrillers. This book published in 1942 is a kind of thriller, indeed it was one of those revived in the Classic Thrillers series republished by Everyman in the 1980s. However, while it does feature. Humphrey Netley, a Canadian widower and engineer employed by MI5 to carry out counter-espionage work in Gretley, a fictional industrial town in the northern Midlands, it is as much a study of the British Middle Class (and some Working Class but far fewer than I had expected given the picture of a factory on the front) and different characters within it. There seem to be a range of male and female characters especially around the nightclub 'The Queen of Clubs'. After Netley's contact at one of the town's two engineering factories is killed, Netley has to both identify the German agents and find who among the sometimes rather bizarre set of characters is the other main contact.

Priestley does not really manage to build up a sense of tension. I imagine readers of the time would have felt it more. His portrayal of an ordinary town, especially during the nightly blackout is atmospheric, but overall the novel is rather workerlike and and at times more a study of manners and behaviour than anything more tense. Some of the characters like the supposed nightclub owner, Mrs. Jesimond and a former art dealer, Mr. Perigo, are almost camp in their portrayal. I suppose in some ways Priestley was trying to show that impressions, especially of larger-than-life people can be misleading. Netley is a plodder and does work out who the culprits are but only after another killing. It terms of atmosphere and insight into the time and a type of place, the book works well, but it is more a curiosity than an engaging thriller.

'Stasi Wolf' by David Young

This is the sequel to 'Stasi Child' (2015) which I read last month: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-books-i-read-in-january.html It picks up the story of Oberleutnant Karin Müller of the East German Vopo as a case takes her to Halle-Neustadt, a large new town built close to the city of Halle to provide workers for chemical factories. The disappearance of twins and then the discovery of a body of one of them, draws her and a couple of her staff from East Berlin, into a number of cases of murdered babies with no clarity of how they might or might not be connected. In addition to the continuation of Müller's story this case like that of 'Stasi Child' is hampered by the interference of the secret police, the Stasi. In addition as in that novel, we have flashbacks and perspectives from a woman who is involved in the crimes. This does not give the answers, but does indicate motives on the part of the perpetrators. 

In parallel, Müller now divorced, not only is quickly drawn into a rebound relationship but quickly gets pregnant largely because she believed an illegal abortion in her youth had prevented her conceiving. This combined with her finding out why her supposed mother showed no affection for her and another highly coincidental meeting with someone she knew as a child, is rather levering in a bit too much. It was not all necessary. There is a sense that Young did not believe he would be published again with this series so had to tie off every loose end by the end of this book. These incidents mean that the case is stretched out over many months, including the whole term of her pregnancy and more. Thus, while there are interesting investigations and deductions and are tense scenes with a dramatic conclusion like the first book, overall much tension is reduced by all that Young felt compelled to include.

'Darien' by C.F. Igguden

This is another fantasy novel which combines sort of early 19th Century technology with magic. There are revolvers firing brass-cartridge bullets but still a lot of swords in use.  There is a real 'Oliver Twist' (one main character is called Nancy and she is a thieving prostitute) with Tellius an elderly man from a kind of Russian like country, like Fagin running a band of street thieves but also training in the so-called Mazer moves which are a kind of fencing kata. There is also a Dutch references with characters being addressed as 'meneer'. For much of the book you believe the story is set on a fantasy world but towards the end there are clear references to Christianity which indicate it is actually Earth in the distant future.

There is magic in various devices including armoured battle suits, a golem in the shape of a 10-year old boy, 'Arthur Quick' (reminds me of the movie 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' (2001)), dangerous wards around a tomb in the desert and the ability of one to cast fireballs. In addition to Tellius we see the story through the eyes of Elias a hunter with an ability to see a short way into the future which he uses to try to get medicine for his family but is forced to be an assassin for a general seeking to pull of a coup d'etat.

The world building is pretty good in what is clearly becoming a favoured fantasy approach rather than all knights, wizards and castles as it would have once been. The fact that the protagonists do not really know the skills they have and one is killed off in the middle of the book, with the others crossing paths in the chaos which ensues in the city of Darien, does make it engaging and the twists unexpected. The context of the Twelve Families who effectively rule the city is well set up for the next two books which follow. Elias, Nancy and Arthur are generally sympathetic well-intentioned, if misled characters which tempers the severity of the book and means it is a bit less grimdark. I have the other two books in the trilogy.

'The Levanter' by Eric Ambler

In contrast to 'Cause for Alarm' (1938): https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-books-i-read-in-december.html and 'The Mask of Dimitrios' (1939): https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-books-i-read-in-may.html this novel came much later, in 1972. Ambler does show by that fact that he moved with the times and was able to set thrillers which fitted the contemporary context. This gives a feel of authenticity to them. 'The Levanter' coming out just before the Yom Kippur War of 1973 is set in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean of the time. It centres around Michael Howell, a partly British man who runs a family business now into its third generation, involved in manufacture in Syria and shipping across the Eastern Mediterranean. He is unfortunate to be forced to work for a Palestinian terrorist Salah Ghaled who heads a fictional breakaway group planning a large-scale outrage against Tel Aviv.

Ambler is know and admired for his attention to detail but in this novel almost goes too far. While the PAF that Ghaled leads is fictional, the reader is told a great deal about genuine Palestinian groups and their leaders from 1948 up to the 1970s. In addition as Howell is drawn in there is a lot of technical discussions around everything from metallurgy and ceramics, through triggers for bombs, to diesel engines and coastal navigation. I accept he had to inform the readers but at times in contrast to those other earlier novels, in this case this detail means the actual drama is lost sight of. There are a couple of other challenges. Not everything is shown from the perspective of Howell, at times we see from the viewpoint of a journalist. Lewis Prescott, writing at a time after the main story and in one chapter from the angle of Teresa Malandra, Howell's Italian assistant. This all rather takes some of the tension off.

 Perhaps the strength of this novel is Howell squirming in the face of a range of nasty or at least obstreperous characters, in addition to Ghaled, there is a Syrian secret police colonel, a Syrian government minister, an uncooperative Mossad agent and various stroppy staff in theory employed by Howell, but very much men (it is a very male dominated novel) of their own mind. This combined with the technical detail does make it very heavy going. While like Ambler's other books it provides a fictionalised feel for the time and actual people and events, in this one things go rather too far and at times despite being fiction it is more like a non-fiction book or magazine article from the time.

Non-Fiction

'The Robert Hall Diaries, 1947-1953' ed. by [Sir] Alec Cairncross

These are the edited first volume of the diaries of Robert Hall who was head of the Economic Section in this time period and then was Economic Adviser to the government until 1961. It looks at very difficult times for Britain following the Second World War, dealing with a lack of dollars, forced convertibility, the compelled collaboration with European partners, deciding what to do with the Sterling Area in this context and then the impact of the Korean War. There is a lot of repetition as there are repeated meetings with officials and ministers to tackle the various economic problems. Perhaps most fascinating is Hall's views on those people around him. He was a big fan of Sir Stafford Cripps (Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1947-50) and tended to see his successors as much lesser men. He does not hold back on his criticisms of Wilson, Gaitskell and Butler. He also gripes about much staff who are not well known, rating their capabilities and vanities. His relationship with Edwin Plowden, Chief Planning Officer, 1947-53 (who I met in the 1990s) was very productive despite Plowden's growing lack of confidence.

The heading off of 'Robot' the plan to make the pound convertible again in the 1950s following the grim previous attempt in 1947 and the backsliding from the Americans who promised aid to help Britain be involved with the Korean War provide interesting insight. Most striking however is somewhere beyond halfway through when Hall suddenly realises what power he actually wields and he revels in the fact that his words with ministers have really shaped British economic policy and saved it from the harm that Robot and some other reckless policies some ministers favoured, had been implemented. Though from a different era it does provide an interesting context in which to consider the power of civil servants in a democracy.