The Books I Read In December

This year I read 59 books, the shortest being 160 pages and the longest being 634 pages.

P.P. 06/03/2025

I was interested to see where this put me in the survey of UK reading trends. Being a Remain and Labour voter, I do fall into the political category of greatest readers, but am not yet into the highest age bracket (over 65s) for reading. Women read more than men, though men are more likely to read non-fiction than women. Where I stand in terms of middle and working class is very difficult to determine nowadays. I always thought I came from a middle class family and was middle class. However, I have been strongly told that, largely because I am a tenant, do not buy new cars or have holidays, I cannot be middle class, so I do not know if I would boost the 66% of middle class people who said they read recently (there are few days when I do not read) or the 52% of working class people who say the same. I probably hang around outside the traditional class structure with elements from both. I do mourn the fact that the 'Fred Kite'/WEA well-read worker no longer seems to feature, certainly in analysis, maybe not much in society either.

I am in the 40% who have only bought second hand books in the past year, rather than the more than 50% who bought at least one new one. 23% of people pick an 'even' mix of fiction and non-fiction, whereas for me only 1-in-4 books is non-fiction, the other 3 are fiction. Due to commuting changes, I have stopped listening to audio books, so I am in the 61% who read physical books. I do not mind paperback or hardback, it is more what I can get second hand. I am in the only 29% who think listening to audio books is equivalent to reading a book. I am in the 4% of readers who read more than 50 books in the year and in the 24% who own more than 100 books.

Anyway, for these statistics see: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/06/new-poll-finds-40-of-britons-have-not-read-a-book-in-the-past-year

Fiction

'Tomorrow's Crimes' by Donald E. Westlake

Though he wrote across genres, I had not come across Westlake before. This is a science fiction anthology by him of stories published 1961-1984. Some, like 'Girl of My Dreams' are rather pat, more like a tale of the unexpected. 'The Winner' is a very grim dystopian story about future prisons. There is certainly a grittiness to Westlake's stories which I imagine he has brought over from his crime fiction. A couple of stories stand out. 'The Risk Profession' is a story of a loss adjuster going to investigate an asteroid mining camp, almost like in a Western but in space. The other is the novella at the end 'Anarchaos' about a man going to the eponymous planet which is tidally fixed to face its red sun to find out about the murder of his brother. It is very much a story about corporations and prospectors and for all the science fiction setting, also feels at times like a Western. Still, both are effective crime stories and also explore different science fiction concepts well. Again there is violence and suffering that makes the stories darker than you might expect even in a collection from that era. It is clear that there are quite a few books out there by Westlake but if I found one I would check it carefully to see what type it was, but if satisfied I would then give it a try.

'The Confessions of Arsène Lupin by Maurice Leblanc

I imagine like a lot of British readers I was drawn to the original Lupin stories, published 1905-23 (though with loads of follow-ons) by the French TV series, 'Lupin' (2021). That is the way 'Elementary' (2012-19) (and not 'Sherlock') was to the Sherlock Holmes stories, i.e. a modern take influenced by (late 19th Century/)early 20th Century stories. Unlike Holmes, Lupin is a thief, though one who is supposedly renowned even in his own time and loved subsequently as the TV series made clear. The Lupin books actually reference Holmes, but his closest British rival would be A.J. Raffles in stories by  E.W. Hornung (brother-in-law to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), 1898-1909. There is no indication who translated this particular collection into English.

This book was first published in 1913. The 10 stories show Lupin as amoral, with him as often stealing from other criminals as from ordinary people. Sometimes he comes up against his prime antagonist, Inspector Justin Ganimard of the Sûreté, though in 'The Red Silk Scarf' ends up effectively helping the police. In 'Two Hundred Thousand Francs Reward! ...' he tracks down a murderer and a disappeared woman after he catches sight of signals being flashed in his neighbourhood. He works out various mysteries such as 'The Invisible Prisoner' a thief who seems to have disappeared after raiding a house and for the benefit of others, 'The Sign of the Shadow' in which a strange painting is a sign towards a treasure of diamonds. There are stories which remind us of Conan Doyle's 'The Adventure of the Speckled Band' (1892) though perhaps not quite as bleak, such as 'Lupin's Marriage' with a very long con involved.

Overall the stories are brisk and successful conjure up a feeling of the late 19th Century France. Though there are some grim elements, at times the tone is playful. Certainly with this collection, the reader feels that Lupin is a hero more than a criminal. If I find any of the other Lupin books, especially ones in which he is more straightforwardly carrying crimes I would certainly pick them up.

'The Cornish Coast Murder' by John Bude [Ernest Carpenter Elmore]

This book, one of two that Elmore published in 1935, is another from the British Library Crime Classics series. As Martin Edwards who curates much of the series notes, Bude rooted his novel, his first crime one, in a locale rather than a fictional county, in this case on the Atlantic coast of Cornwall. Saying that, the town of Greystoke which is featured, is fictional as the only Greystoke in England is far further north in Cumbria. Still you really get a real feel for the headlands and coves of northern Cornwall.

An unpopular local magistrate and landlord, Julius Trethgarthan is shot dead standing at the French windows of his living room during a storm. There are few suspects beyond the man's niece, Ruth, an author in the village, Ronald Hardy; a local midwife, Mrs. Mullion, and a local poacher Ned Slater; perhaps Trethgarthan's two servants, Mr. and Mrs. Grouch. The clear clues, especially footprints, restrict the number of suspects but also allow for a range of speculations about how the murder was carried out. The behaviour of Ruth, Ronald and Mr. Grouch all further muddy the waters. Some readers might be irritated by how additional information keeps on shifting the perspective on the crime. However, in some ways, for a 'cosy' crime, it actually feels authentic and with its clear context maybe why it appealed to readers at the time.

There are effectively two detectives, the local uniformed Inspector Bigswell and the vicar Reverend Dodd who lives near the scene of the crime and knows the Trethgarthans well. Dodd along with his friend Dr. Pendrill, are eager consumers of detective fiction, meeting up each month to share novels. There are references to genuine contemporary authors and while a latecomer to the genre (he also wrote science fiction and was theatre producer and director) Elmore was a founder of the Crime Writers' Association. 

Effectively having two detecting protagonists is a bit unusual. Their paths overlap at times and close to the end they are looking for clues in exactly the same place. Again this might irritate some readers, especially in terms of flipping point of view, but in fact it allows the author to bring in different bits of evidence from different places without having a single character having to hare all over the place. Both men also work out explanations which have to be discarded in time and it is quite refreshing for them not to lock on to the correct one quickly. For all its cosiness, the motive for the murder turns out to be as bleak as any in a crime novel.

I have four more Bude books to read set in different parts of England and I am quite looking forward to his slightly quirky approach which rather makes his writing distinct from some of his contemporaries.

'Excession' by Iain M. Banks

As readers of this blog probably know by now, I am not a big fan of Iain M. Banks's Culture novels, rather feeling that their all-powerful civilisation is rather tedious. Perhaps I hoped for something a little different from this one. It features the appearance of an immensely powerful object in space which attracts the attention of Culture spaceships and another squid-like race, the Affront. A lot of the interaction in the book is between sentient spaceships, something Banks seemed to really like doing. However, for many readers, or maybe I am alone, it does seem all a little impersonal, especially given how powerful these vessels are, one literally manufactures a warfleet within itself. The object, the 'Excession', which may allow access to multiple universes, becomes part of a conspiracy by a cabal of spaceships. The novel basically covers a whole assortment of vessels and a few humans and Affront beings sent towards it. A war between the Affront and the Culture breaks out when the Affront seizes a Culture storage asteroid holding many vessels from the last war.

The skipping between the various characters so much, reduces our engagement with each, even the two humans, Dajeil Gelian a woman who has remained in a pregnant state in a replica of a planet she last worked on inside a spaceship for forty years and her former lover, fellow scientist and philanderer Byr Genar-Hofoen who is obsessed with the Affront. The ship holding Gelian wants them to reunite and for the child to be born. On the way, Genar-Hofoen encounters people set up to resemble Gelian, though they like some of the other characters such as Leffid and Gestra Ishmethit, the warden of the storage vessel Pittance for 150 years, seem to serve no purpose.

With so many characters, the narrative is really fragmented and you do feel as if you are going through the motions as the different groups and individuals work their way to the Excession, some directly, some getting very distracted. In fact the portrayal of some of the places along the way are far more interesting than what happens towards the end. As it typical with Banks, there is a lot of info dumping as if he really wants every reader to know everything about the Culture and other species. The ending is a real anti-climax and further reduces the value of what has gone before. There are some engaging scenes but too much of the book reads rather like a flight manifest.

'Hombre' by Elmore Leonard

I realised coming to this, an out-and-out Western that it was a genre that I had not read in since 'All the Pretty Horses' (1992) by Cormac McCarthy who is now in disgrace but was acclaimed at the time. I have read Elmore Leonard books, but more usually his 20th Century crime novels. This edition was produced by Orbit books to make available to people familiar with various movies, the books that they were based on. I assume this was why my late mother, a movie fan as well as an avid reader throughout her life, bought it. The movie 'Hombre' was released in 1967 and starred Paul Newman. The novel was published in 1961. 

It is a very contained story set in 1884. It mentions Florence but that is in South Carolina and the book also mentions Bisbee so seems to be set in Arizona, certainly close to the Mexican border and near to where the Apache tribes had been forced to live. With the rise of railways a stage coach company is being closed down. One employee, Carl Allen, a young man who surprisingly speaks no Spanish, is the narrator of the story. Along with his former boss, Mr. Mendez, as driver, Allen accompanies five other people in a specially hired coach out of the small town of Sweetmary. One of them is the 'Hombre' ['Man' in Spanish], John Russell who is perceived as part-Apache having lived with a tribe as a child and then with a Mexican before becoming part of the Apache Police. The others are Dr. Alexander Favor, an Indian Agent, i.e. liaison between the US government and tribes, his wife Audra; Kathleen McLaren who had recently been released from being captured by the Apaches and Frank Braden who proves to be a criminal.

The coach is held up by confederates of Braden looking to steal the money Favor swindled on supplying food to the Apaches. The rest of the novel is about the passengers trying to get clear without being killed by the bandits. Russell is very much in the mould of the strong, silent, rather cold hero, who always knows what to do that is right. Probably reflecting discussions around civil rights, there is much discussion about whether he should even be allowed to travel in the coach. Different perspectives on the Apaches and their treatment are aired in the tense periods when the passengers are trying to stay clear of the bandits. The book almost becomes philosophical at the end in discussions about what one should risk to help others and what defines a 'man' and a 'hero'. 

Overall, then, this has many of the elements of a classic Western. It really portrays the harsh landscape very well. In some ways it sticks to the archetype of the lone gunman, but in others especially in the discussions between the passengers, looks to engage with broader issues around race and though touched on euphemistically, violence towards women. While different to the other Leonard novels I have read, this one is as equally as engaging as those.

Non-Fiction

'Europe in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries' by Denys Hay

This is another of those Longman General History of Europe books that I have picked up down the years. Unlike the last one I read, by Franklin L. Ford, back in May 2020: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/05/books-i-read-in-may.html which covered only 50 years, this one as the name suggests straddles two entire centuries. In general Hay handles it well, starting with social and economic structures which can be referenced no matter which period or region he is focusing upon and this forms a sound basis. Religion, perhaps unsurprisingly gets a lot of attention and he is generally sound on the multiple Papacies and the often forgotten precursors to the Reformation which appeared in the preceding decades. The book is good on Eastern Europe, Russia and the Ottoman Empire which all tend to get neglected in terms of general histories. It is not bad on 'Italy' sensibly breaking this down into separate regions. It struggles a bit more with 'Germany' and really fails to communicate the Hundred Years War any more effectively than any other account I have read. However, the writing is brisk and explains mostly with sufficient detail yet without bewildering the reader with too much which can be the case with such a long time period with many complex especially geopolitical developments.

Books I Read In September

 Fiction

'Look to Windward' by Iain M. Banks

I am not a big fan of Banks's Culture-set science fiction stories. The concept of an super-powerful civilisation creating vast structure and seeking to moderate the galaxies always comes across as rather worthy and quite unexciting. Having grown up reading Moorcock and Priest, then the Cyberpunk authors, I am more interested in a closer focus and a lot more grittiness. Having put in that caveat, I must say I enjoyed this book, I think because it is largely around one (admittedly vast) space station and focuses on two Chelgrians, two feline-like humanoids. Mahrai Ziller is a composer who has gone into self-imposed exile on a Culture Orbital (effectively an artificial planet), Masaq' in protest at the Chelgrian caste system. Embittered army officer Major Quilan IV with the personality of a dead senior officer in his head too. The Chelgrians have suffered a civil war, which it has been revealed that, while not started by the Culture was expanded by their intervention. Quilan is ostensibly meeting with Ziller to try to persuade him to return to Chel. In fact Quilan has an ulterior mission which intentionally he only recalls as he progresses on Masaq'. There is a sub-plot about another character discovering the objectives of Quilan's mission. However, typically for Banks that element is not resolved until after the main action has occurred.

There are a couple of Banksian traits that can rile. He loves describing vast structures though with Ziller and Quilan touring Masaq' this is less of an info dump than it can be in later Culture novels. As I noted with 'Matter' (2008): https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/01/books-i-readlistened-to-in-january.html he tends to baulk from actually writing the climax of the novel. Instead it fades to black and then we pick up things some while later to see the consequences and that happens in this novel too. However, overall, by keeping focused on two characters (and a supplementary one for part of the time) Banks seems more in control of this novel. He can show his ideas and attitudes without you feeling you are attending a lecture. The characters of Ziller and Quilan to me - and I accept I may not be common among SF readers - are more engaging than descriptions of yet another intelligent spaceship or vast artificial structure.

'Transcription' by Kate Atkinson

The first thing I must say is this is the first book I have read by Atkinson but I would be tempted to try others. She is very deft in her writing and I was really swept along by the prose even when she is describing grim scenes, e.g. a woman strangled and dumped in a coal hole; the problems of killing a woman who has surprised you, using a small calibre pistol. The novel is based on a true operation by MI5 during the Second World War to monitor British Nazi sympathisers who might pass intelligence to the Germans or indeed in the case of an invasion, collaborate with the German forces.

Juliet Armstrong is recruited to transcribe the conversations between the Nazis and an MI5 agent provocateur at a bugged flat in London. However, she is soon drawn into becoming and agent herself, in particular trying to get hold of the 'red book' which has a list of these people. The novel goes between 1940 when she is 18 and 1950 when she is back in London working for the BBC producing Schools radio programmes. She is still temporarily in the employ of MI5 and begins to encounter people from her war years and face threats connected with them. The stories run in parallel so that we discover what is impacting her in 1950 as she recalls and details more from 1940.

The assortment of characters is well drawn. There is a real feel for London in the two time periods. Juliet is a reliable but naïve narrator. The balance between her eagerness for sex and her naïvety are handled well. The only disappointing element I felt with the novel was the twist at the end. It was entirely unnecessary and was really rushed. It did not really add to our understanding of Juliet and seemed to be something that an agent or publisher had pressed for, whereas the book up until that stage had had a real deftness, a good combination of thriller and slice of life, very much embedded in its times and bringing out the differences and similarities between 1940 and 1950 in London better than many authors would have done.

'Freaky Deaky' by Elmore Leonard

I was unsurprised that this 1988 novel had been turned into a movie in 2012, not that I have seen it. However, Leonard's tautness of writing is often commended. Reading this book, you certainly feel that with its restricted number of characters it could be a stage play. Set in Detroit in the late 1980s, it draws on the counter-culture terrorism of the late 1960s, through Robin (a woman) and Skip (a man) who were involved in setting off bombs during that period. It also features Donnell, a former Black Panther who is now a factotum to Woody Ricks a very wealthy man who is losing a grip on reality due to alcohol abuse. Also featuring are Chris Mankowski, a suspended bomb disposal cop and Greta Wyatt, a sometime actress raped by Woody Ricks. Mark Ricks, Woody's brother also turns up. Robin and Skip are looking for revenge on the Ricks brothers who they believe betrayed them to the authorities leading to imprisonment. Donnell is looking for as much money as he can get out of Woody; he knows Robin and Skip from the past. Ultimately all the characters are looking to see what money they can get from Woody as their paths cross and re-cross and there is a lot of double dealing and betrayal.

As you would expect from Leonard, it is gritty and seedy. The characters are believable and the scenes and locations well portrayed. Perhaps he goes a little too far with how intertwined the five main characters are (he effectively lifts Woody out of this by having him clueless) and it begins to grow tiresome as to who is working with or betraying whom, but overall not bad. The movie is portrayed as a kind of comedy. Things do go wrong, especially with the bombs set, but this book is straight without any comedic elements.

Non-Fiction

'The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848' by Eric Hobsbawm

I actually met Hobsbawm on two occasions but embarrassingly was really at a loss as to what questions to ask him. This book was published in 1961 though has been reprinted may times since. Hobsbawm was a Marxist historian and so brings a perspective on to what he describes which is working at the high level, focused on the big trends in society rather than detailed accounts of what happened next. This perspective is now rare even in general survey history books that can, as Hobsbawm eschews, effectively end up as a list of a sequence of events. Even if you do not subscribe to Marxist viewpoints, the approach Hobsbawm adopts in this book is a very useful one that I feel current students can benefit from to balance against the history survey books which in many ways go into too much detail. Maybe historians aside from people like Ferguson, Fukuyama and Hutton do not feel they have the 'right' to draw such sweeping points from the history.

Hobsbawm's premise in this book is of the dual revolution, i.e. the Industrial Revolution initiated in Britain and the French Revolution. These two, he feels, combined shaped the development of societies. He does make some efforts not to neglect the world outside Europe and North America and indeed shows how these revolutions impacted, e.g. the destruction of Indian textile manufacturing by British factories and how Egypt tried to make the industrial leap only to be stymied. Thus, while focusing on the broad sweeps of history, he never goes full Marxist in portraying anything as 'inevitable' and indeed highlights when actions by leaders and business people divert or prevent what otherwise might have 'naturally' happened. 

The book is organised thematically with the trends that happened, not just from the two revolutions but also as a result of peace, nationalism, etc. Then looks at the impact. He is good on belief, whether religious, philosophical or political. He highlights trends in land usage and in the ability to 'get on' in society before looking at the arts and scientific developments. Many of these aspects, particularly on a thematic basis rather than as a sequence of events, are neglected too often. This is why I feel, despite its age, this book is a useful addition for people looking at this period alongside more recent books.

My one gripe is that as a Marxist writing in the period of the Cold War, Hobsbawm is desperate to find any seed of revolution that he can amongst what he is describing. In contrast, a reader living since the Cold War ended and with so much authoritarianism rolling back what any revolution achieved, even in democratic countries, is liable to find such scouring for these 'seeds' as rather pathetic. The groups mentioned are typically tiny and achieved nothing. Going in so tight seeking these things jars with the broad sweeps adopted elsewhere in the book which are its strengths. Almost without recognising it, Hobsbawm shows that for all the revolutionary energy, the different plans of the various stages of the French Revolution were betrayed and monarchy restored. The Industrial Revolution brought gain to very few and suffering for millions more.

It is a shame that more general surveys are not written with Hobsbawn's approach these days and thus, this relatively rare perspective means the book remains of value even more than sixty years later.

The Books I Read In November

Fiction
'Stick' by Elmore Leonard
This proved to be much better than 'Cuba Libre' which I read last month. It focuses on ex-convict Ernest Stickley who quickly becomes wrapped up with successful drugs dealers in Florida and seeks revenge through a confidence trick.  It moves along very briskly dealing with a small set of characters who are well presented.  It really captures the atmosphere of early 1980s Florida having been published a few years later.  Many of the characters are ambivalent but they are credible.  The only bit I did not accept was when 'Stick' as he is nicknamed, has sex with three women in the course of a single evening.  I imagine that the strength of this novel is that it stuck to what Leonard knows best, though again it seems to violate his own rules about being very terse and includes description that allows you to really get a feel for the times and the setting.

'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett
I have been reading the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett since coming across a hardback version of the The Colour of Magic' back in 1983.  This is the worst in the series that I have read.  People said that because it was towards the end of his life, being published in 2011, just four years before his death, he was both running out of inventiveness and was a man in a hurry so, perhaps, conflating a number of stories into one book.  Having enjoyed 'Unseen Academicals' (2009) I was particularly disappointed.  The book begins with Commander Sam Vimes, head of Ankh-Morpork's police holidaying at his country retreat.  He has been made a duke, but the house and lands were his wife's inheritance.  The first third of the book, as one of the reviewers quoted on the back highlights, is reminiscent of a book by P.G. Wodehouse or Evelyn Waugh.  It is a very laboured attempt to make humour out of what is effectively an English village of the Victorian era.  It is full of stereotypes and stately home whimsy which was probably not humorous even in the 1920s.  There are some minor references to Jane Austen books which make a reasonable point about expectations for young women and provide the only funny line in the book, unfortunately the last sentence.

Then the book returns to one of the themes which Pratchett focused on in his later novels, especially 'Thud!' (2005), which is race relations and treating all humanoids well.  It looks at treatment of goblins who are largely defined in Discworld as vermin and so open to slavery and slaughter.  One can easily see analogies to the black population of the USA and to Jews in 1930s Europe.  The trouble is, that such important issues offer no humour, so the book is very grim.  There is a gruesome description of dismemberment of a pregnant female goblin.  The book has a very nasty tone throughout.  Pratchett unfortunately seems to have no problem with the consumption of tobacco, which features far too much for a book which will be read by children.  There are more expletives in this book than previous ones too.  However, it is the repeated reference to the death penalty as being something appropriate, whether judicial or even extra-judicial, which saps any chance of humour from the book.  There is a frantic race after slavers which is chaotic to read and then there is an over-extended wrapping up of every single loose thread and more examples of people being deemed suitable to be murdered for what they have done.  Bizarrely this runs contrary to what is often said in the book about the police needing to not become as bad as the criminals.  Pratchett does not seem to have made his mind up really on which side he stands in that argument.

Overall, too much goes on in this book and the reader is jarred as they move between different sections in it.  The central problem is that it lacks humour and instead peddles bleak situations and very, very tired supposed satire of the British countryside.  Overall, very unsatisfactory.  I only have one further book from the mainstream Discworld series to read and am not particularly relishing it.

'The Winter King' by Bernard Cornwell
This book, published in 1995, is the first in a trilogy by Cornwell seeking to 'historicise' stories of 'King' Arthur.  He has used what traces there were of the man in ancient chronicles and then puts him into a realistic context of Britain in 480CE trying to cope with the end of the Roman Empire and invasions both from northern Germany and from Ireland, plus internecine conflicts between the various kingdoms of post-Roman Britain.  It is written from the perspective of a monk recalling all the events, many of which he participated in directly, from decades later.  I am ambivalent about the book, but will start by saying it was a great deal better than the Starbuck tetralogy by Cornwell (published 1993-96), set during the American Civil War, that I read earlier in the year.

In this book, Cornwell not only handles battles in the Early Middle Ages very well, but also everything else that is going on.  The characters move through a very well described landscape with the remains of Roman settlement littering the place.  I enjoyed seeing Weymouth portrayed as the Isle of the Dead and what is now Mont St. Michel in Brittany, where many Britons had fled, as a kind of Camelot. 

Christianity and Pagan beliefs - not just British ones but some left by the Romans such as Isis and Mithras - exist side-by-side each jostling for predominance among nobles and rulers.  A friend of mine says that Cornwell is anti-Christian, an aspect he dislikes.  I do not think it is the case.  I feel that Cornwell is contrasting the Arthur story to later portrayals in which he and his knights are bastions of Christianity which would not be likely in the setting of the 5th Century CE.  He treats all the religions equally, so each has vain and greedy practitioners.  I guess for Christians who feel they are right, this would be hard to swallow, but does feel appropriate for the times portrayed.    There is 'magic' in the form of rituals and especially superstitions. This is not a fantasy novel, but it shows cleverly how people of the time believed what they were seeing was magic even if we would not.
 
There are all the familiar characters - Arthur, Galahad, Lancelot, Guinevere and Merlin.  However, they are more 'realistic' than in many Arthurian tales and each is flawed.  Throughout, everything is very gritty and often decaying.  You really feel that these characters, even the various kings, live a hard life.  The deceptions and the politics are handled well too.  Given all these positive qualities I do not know why I do not love this book.  Perhaps it is because it is too realistic and none of the characters, even Arthur himself, let alone Lancelot, is a 'hero'.  However, I am interested to read the two following books, pleased that Cornwell proved able to recapture his skill after the disappointment of the Starbuck books.

Non-Fiction
'Tyranny: A Study in the Abuse of Power' by Maurice Latey
My edition was the one published in 1972 of the book first released in 1969.  It looks very thoroughly at tyrannies and seeks to establish models and then give examples of how different regimes have fitted them, taking on aspects such as coming to power, relationship with intellectuals and religion and the fall from power.  Latey draws primarily on the dictatorships of mid-20th century Europe, Napoleon's regime, that of Mao Zedong and then of Ancient Greece and Rome.  There are some mentions of dictators in Latin America, but unfortunately there are some gaps.  In particular he references what he sees 'Oriental despotism', in fact meaning regimes in ancient West Asia, without giving details of these.  He also fails to show how in both Russia and China, histories of strict, authoritarian regimes through the centuries laid very solid foundations for their totalitarian states in the 20th century.

Despite these gaps in what otherwise is very good use of historical examples, Latey does succeed in making a model with which readers can judge tyrannous regimes.  Even reading it 45 years later, I think this analysis is applicable today when you look at what is happening in China, Turkey, Zimbabwe and even the Islamic State - he has a section on millennial religious movements which works very well in that case.  An updated version of this book would be very useful.  I do not know if 'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century' (2017) by Timothy D. Snyder works as well; I am unlikely to reach reading it before I die.  However, people who have read it may be interested in finding out a copy of Latey's book as a comparison.  I certainly feel it has useful intellectual tools for helping in decode what is happening in many countries around the world today.

The Books I Read In October

Fiction
'Random' by Craig Robertson
This is a crime novel written from the perspective of a serial killer.  It is set in Glasgow, but unlike the Malcolm Mackay trilogy I read earlier this year, you really get a feel for different parts of the city and the people living in them.  Obviously it is difficult to elicit sympathy for a serial killer.  Robertson manages to pull it off, in part through revealing as the book continues what motivates the apparent random killings and by having many of the victims being people that many would see as needing punishment anyway.  I would not say I enjoyed the book and some of the deaths, let alone the torture that a local crime boss carries out to try to find the killer, are hard.  However, I guess I admired the book more than I expected.  There are certainly well written moments of tension both for the killer in escaping justice and for different individuals that come within his purview as he uses various devices to ensure they are selected at random.  It is certainly a lot better written than the Mackay series which surprisingly received so much acclaim.

'A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow' by George R.R, Martin
This is the third book in the series and is broken into two.  This means this particular volume comes in at over 600 pages, but is a third shorter than the preceding one.  As I have already noted with the Song of Ice and Fire series, it is as if it is a single very long story or in fact parallel stories.  Thus, after the first book, each volume is a slice from the very long narrative.  It is not bad, but it does mean that there is no resolution.  Many of these characters in this book are still on journeys they started in the previous book and in other ways this is the aftermath of the battles seen about two-thirds through 'A Clash of Kings' though Martin makes it clear at the start of this third book that readers should understand that the different parallel stories are not in chronological sequence, so in fact there is some overlap in narrative with the previous book.  Many of the narrative lines are largely independent of the others, even when you have the narratives for Tyrion Lannister and Ser (later Lord) Davos Seaworth who fought on opposing sides in the Battle of Blackwater in the previous book.

Though there is hardship for all of the characters some of the misery quotient has been dialled back in this book which makes it easier to swallow.  This is one aspect in which the book differs from the television series made of it, 'A Game of Thrones'.  In contrast, however, characters end up more mutilated than in the series; many began much uglier in the first place.  To his different coloured eyes and misshapen head, Tyrion now has lost much of his nose.  Davos has had parts of his fingers cut off before the story begins.  Jamie Lannister has his right hand cut off as in the television series, but being able to see inside the characters' heads, a strength of the book, we know how much longer the pain goes on for him and how the loss of his sword hand makes him feel emasculated in a way which is not conveyed on television.

One significant difference in the book compared to the series is the marginalisation in the novel of Caitlin Stark, the matriarch of the Stark family; a widow from the end of the first book believing that two or three of her children have been killed and supporting the bid of her eldest son, Robb for the throne.  On television Caitlin travels with her son's army and offers him council.  In the book she spends her time at the castle of her dying father only hearing about events at a distance.  The one big decision she makes, to try to trade Jamie Lannister for her eldest daughter, Sansa Stark, held by the Lannisters at court, is heavily criticised.  On television, Caitlin is heavily involved in the difficulties caused by Robb's love for Jeyne.  Their marriage leads to a crisis with the Frey clan which controls the strategic crossing from the North to the South of the continent of Westeros.  In the book, there is no such discussion.  Robb simply turns up back at his grandfather's house, a married man.  There are none of the qualms and discussions seen in the programme and this weakens the story and especially the point of having Caitlin in it.

A further point which I touched on when reviewing the first book is how young many of the leading characters are when they have sex.  Robb Stark is 16 when he marries as is his wife.  His sister, Sansa Stark is 13 when she is married to Tyrion Lannister.  Daenerys Tagaryen was 14 when she was married and had a miscarriage; she is not much older in this book when she reveals herself as bisexual.  Only Sansa does not have sex and that is in part as some kind of way to show that Tyrion is amoral rather than purely immoral.  Saying that, he still makes regular use of prostitutes.  I have long defended George R.R. Martin from criticism which, ironically, is often strongest from his most loyal fans.  However, the more I read his stand-out series the more I am coming to see that he is largely a dirty old man, filling his books with inappropriate fantasies.  Yes, compared to many fantasy authors, he writes well.  Yes, he wants to reflect behaviour which is of the kind seen in our Middle Ages.  However, there is too much of it and too much detail to make for comfortable reading.  The television series does minor adjustment to apparent ages and works better for it.  I guess I am going to continue with the books, but I do think they should have some 'trigger warnings' to indicate that the stories will be distasteful for some and that teenagers should not take them as any suggestion of what they should be attempting to do.

'Cuba Libre' by Elmore Leonard
I know Leonard's reputation and have come to resent, even oppose, his precepts for writing.  He favours a style which is incredibly pared down and which, in my view, does not aid clarity.  I looked for it in reading this book, but found he breaks many of his own rules.  The book is set in Cuba in the months leading up to and during the Spanish-American War of 1898, though the concluding part of that war is gone over very briskly.  It is focused on a handful of Americans, including the mistress of an American sugar plantation owner, a horse dealer, a journalist and a marine who survived the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana's harbour.  The first part of the book is very messy as we are introduced to these various characters and the Cubans on both sides of the conflict trying to liberate Cuba from Spanish control.  There are a lot of nasty people in the book, both from the revolutionary and the authorities' side.  Too often they behave in a way which seems irrational for the people of the time and place even with the prevalent level of violence.

The book improves in the last third around various parties trying to secure ransom for the release of the plantation owner's mistress, against the backdrop of US intervention on the island.  There are some excellent points of tension and I guess this is because Leonard, despite the exotic setting, is back on his home ground, dealing with double-dealing.  Even then, there are some jarring sections like two Americans simply sending a semaphore message with roughly constructed flags which leads to them being picked up off a beach by the US Navy despite it being in the middle of shelling Cuban installations.

Though the book improves towards the end, you have to have the patience to get through the very scrappy, disjointed earlier sections to reach it.  Yes, the setting is interesting and the landscape and what went on it is well portrayed.  However, Leonard has all these different parts that he seems unable to reconcile.  The political background sits very uncomfortably with the main story and either needed to be more distant or brought fully into the narrative.  I guess it was good that Leonard tried a different context for this novel, but it really only works when it comes closest to his more typical setting of crime in 20th century US cities.