Books I Read In July

 Fiction

'The Demon Within' by Byron Nadgie

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I often do not enjoy the books I read. However, this must be the worst book I have read in many years. One major problem is that it reads like a first draft of someone who has not written fiction before. Even online reviews note there are 'editing issues' with the book. I have noted how even published books these days seem to let errors through and picked up a number with 'Four Days in June' (2006): http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/10/books-i-readlistened-to-in-october.html?m=0  However, this book is riddled with errors that should have been addressed at some stage by the author or the publishing house.

There are numerous, very long sentences sometimes lasting an entire paragraph. They are strung together with commas where in fact there should be a new sentence. Reading the book aloud shows you just how chaotic such writing becomes. There is also the beginners' error of jumping point of view in the narrative very abruptly. From one paragraph to the next you can be switched from seeing through one character's eyes to seeing in an instant through those of the person they are talking to. We see a lot of the characters' thoughts, that is fine. However, Nadgie seems uncertain how to handle these. He puts them in italics but then often mixes long sentences in among the narrative, jumping back and forth between the forms.

Another problem is he often ends a scene outlining what the characters have put in place or triggered for days, sometimes even years into the future. This seems a bit foolish given this is supposed to be the first book in a series. It seems as if Nadgie is so desperate to reveal what he has planned that he cannot hold back. His narrator is not simply omniscient but out of time. Nadgie seems to have missed that this reduces the dynamic of the narrative and may also cause him problems in writing subsequent books in the series.

One jarring problem is simply the number of grammar errors and sound-alike mix ups. There are repeated areas of "impenetrable fog" that characters actually walk through and one character actually is said to have "silently thought" presumably as opposed to the usual loud form of thinking. I did wonder if  Nadgie had dictated the book to someone and had not checked the actual spelling their transcriber used. I know it is common in life these days to see an apostrophe used for a plain plural and yet no apostrophe used where it should be for a possessive. However, Nadgie does this repeatedly (though not even consistently) throughout the books. We get "uncle's", "ninja's", "magician's", "brother's", "pagoda's", "katana's" and "captains'" as plurals, yet also get "wolfs", "skins surface", "the lands life", "the Kings ear", "cities", "ambassadors" and "families" masquerading as possessives. Is it the case that our language has mutated so far in this contrary direction that these things are now not actually considered to be mistakes but the the correct versions?

In terms of sound-alike errors we see "tenants" when "tenets" is meant; many characters have "spurned" on their horses rather than "spurred". There is the mix-up of accept/except, bought/brought, hyperthermia/hypothermia - so actually reversing what is intended; never/nether: insure/ensure; patients/patience; captor/captive - again the wrong word used reverses the meaning; stagnate/stagnant; blazoned/blazed; cast/caste; corp/corps; puss/pus; anti-chambers/antechambers and tare/tear. Often he makes the wrong choice between two legitimate words: sessions/seasons; exerts/excerpts; sort/sought; gunnels/gunwales - gunnels are a fish, not a part of a boat; aligned/lined; lopped/loped; fair/fare; preying/prying; choose/chose; chaff/chafe, poised/posed; gleam/glean and "ultraviolent" rather than "ultraviolet" and so on. There is a mix-up of dammed/damned leading to even a Legion of the Dammed. This all suggests a real lack of care; not even running a grammar checker over the text, let alone having it edited. These are just some of the examples, I could spend a lot longer listing all such mistakes.

This is a fantasy novel with the typical kind of medieval technology even if much of it is Japanese rather than Western European. It is not a post-apocalyptic model, yet Nadgie seems unable to sift out terms that none of the characters could even conceive. They speak of "intel", they "fire" arrows from "firing positions". "Picket fences" are set up rather than pickets or piquets, giving a comic impression of lots of American white-painted garden fences everywhere. There is reference to "corrugated iron", a "minefield", an "atomic cloud", a "net of lasers", something being "bomb proof" and something else "at critical mass". These are not only anachronistic aspects, in a world without such technology how can a character even have a concept of what an atomic cloud would be let alone a net of lasers? 

There are typical GCSE English level errors like a character who "might of" done something rather than "might have" and there are simply passages that have not been read over so characters put a candle in "a carved niche that the shepherds had carved" and "find somewhere to find food"; others "had set false positions, fires had been set". As for "excite their will" I could not work out what was intended, perhaps "exercise". Do not let anyone tell you that published books are better quality than self-published ones, certainly by 2017 when this book was published (costing £10.99 new), it was not the case.

Right, as to the story, in some ways it is a real shame that the book is weighed down with so many teenaged grammar and creative writing errors. The concept of a fantasy world in which magic is a 'river' which individuals can tap into but has immense mental and physical side effects is fresh. The character of Mauread who is one of the main ones in the book, having to flee when her magician father is caught up with, and trying to save her son who may, like her be tainted with magic, is dramatic and engaging. There are epic scenes of battling both the elements and an assortment of demons as well as the magic itself.

The other thread of intrigues in a very Japanese culture, is confused and far less engaging. We see too much of all sides of the different conspiracies and too many of the characters spend ages giving us 'info dumps' in their thoughts. One thing that fantasy writers (and indeed those creating role-playing game scenarios) are advised from the start is never to say 'oh, that's Japanese/Indian/Russian/English culture' in a fantasy setting. In another world it cannot be those things as they are unique to Earth. You can have cultures which have similar traits but to shift things wholesale into what is supposed to be a different world just looks weak. While Nadgie names different people and places, he makes use of ninjas, called "ninjas"; he does admittedly have more than one Shogun but they are all termed "Shoguns";  the samurai are called "samurai" and they wield "katanas" and "wakizashis" (in fact "katana's" and "wakizashi's"), there are ninja throwing shuriken ("ninja's" throwing "shuriken's"), just as they would in our medieval Japan. There is even the Shinto religion in this world. I could accept if somehow there was a portal to Earth and people had brought across these things to this other world, but there is no sign of that. The author seems to have wanted to write a samurai drama and rather than write that novel too, simply plonked it into this one.

Nadgie's strength is in describing places and conditions. There are good scenes in a flooded mountain river and when soldiers go through cursed graveyards. However, these stand out among text which you often feel the author is not in control of. I know some advisors on writing fantasy tell beginning authors to read as much fantasy fiction as they can. I do think that is unnecessary, but in Nadgie's case it does seem as if he needs to read some; or in fact just read decent books written in English and think about how they are written, how things are spelt, grammar, etc. What is galling is that I know a lot of excellent fantasy authors producing top quality books and yet they struggle to get agents, let alone publishers and yet this book which a GCSE teacher marking it would not pass, somehow is published and on sale at £10.99. I do see that the publishers are one that offer a partnership deal which means that some authors cover costs themselves. However, it does say they employ proofreaders and editors, so it is rather surprising that they let this book through without serious amendment. There is a decent novel in here but it is lost among all the writing flaws and a firm editor could have really brought it out.

'XPD' by Len Deighton

This was the first fiction book by Len Deighton, aside from 'SS-GB' (1978), that I have read. It was published in 1981 and is set in 1979 with the Thatcher government coming to power. I know Deighton is renowned for his lean, taut spy thrillers but I am not surprised that this one is not included among his best. Far too much is going on. Deighton seemed keen to have a story involving Hollywood so has film makers producing a movie about an incident in the closing days of the Second World War about various valuables sent to a Thuringian salt mine. These were looted by US servicemen who used the funds to set up a bank. Among the documents in the haul is one detailing a meeting in May 1940 between Churchill and Hitler in which the former tried to bribe the German leader not to continue his advance into France.

It is a typical set-up of action novels of the period. Not only is there Nazi gold, but there is a group trying to establish the Fourth Reich. Deighton's 'hero' is a British agent concerned to get the documents about the Churchill-Hitler meeting. However, there are also Soviet agents involved too. There is simply so much deception and various groups involved that you get very bored. There are quick jaunts between the USA and Switzerland even when one of the characters has been harmed in a serious car crash. The whole book is very laboured. It feels that Deighton felt compelled/was compelled to write a trendy thriller for the era. Saying that the clothing which many of the characters wear is incredibly ostentatious and seems more suited to what characters in a 'blaxploitation' movie of the early 1970s would wear. I can understand why this is not a well known one of Deighton's book. It is over-egged with far too many aspects and ultimately comes over as not taut, but laboured.

Non-Fiction

'Harold Wilson' by Ben Pimlott

I met Pimlott in the late 1990s a few years after this book was published in 1992. It is immensely detailed, covering 811 pages including endnotes and references. At times you feel he digs too deep into not only Wilson himself but associated people. We read all about his ancestors and those of his wife Gladys/Mary. As Mary she became a successful poet, but really this is not a biography of her, so I do not know why her poems are featured. At times, Pimlott gives a blow-by-blow account of rows within the Labour Party, making sure to include as many different viewpoints as possible. This does highlight the benefit of writing a biography when not only is the person themselves alive, Wilson did not die until 1995, but a lot of those they interacted with are and in a fit state to be interviewed. A lot of them have also produced memoirs, autobiographies or have biographies too. However, such detail does not really add much to our understanding of Wilson the man.

I think Pimlott could have reduced the toing and froing of these incidents and dug more into why Wilson was seen in such contradictory ways depending on the people viewing him. Throughout the book you get these conflicting views of him as a loner and distant but a man with a lot of friends and amiable too. He is portrayed as being highly efficient and diplomatic but also as incompetent and divisive. He is shown as loyal but also as opportunistic; as idealistic but also highly pragmatic. It is clear that Wilson suffered from people imprinting on him rather than them often actually seeing the real man. Consistently because he was 'ordinary', though very capable and well educated, people seem to have insisted that there could not be the complexity to him that was actually the case.

Perhaps Wilson's greatest achievement was in keeping the Labour Party together despite the vicious internecine conflicts down the decades. In part you do come away wondering what the party could have achieved, especially when in government if he spent some less energy on fighting with itself, let alone with the unions. Wilson is shown as being very stubborn in not removing those who were doing harm. This could be of great detriment. Why George Brown was allowed to remain in significant posts for as long as he was, with all the harm he caused, is a mystery unless seen in the light of Wilson's dogmatic 'loyalty' to colleagues and the fact that his prime concern too often was balancing the various elements of the Labour Party rather than necessarily doing what was right for it or the country.

Still, Pimlott makes clear that even a united Labour government at any stage, could have achieved very little. Wilson had matured as a politician in the wartime and immediate post-war period when for a short time governments could actually get things done. However, by 1964, let alone by 1966 and 1974, they were largely powerless in the face especially of big business, increasingly in the form of multi-nationals and big finance. Very little of the Wilson governments' objectives were ever achieved, much to the detriment of the British economy. Pimlott shows that only areas in which big business was largely disinterested, such as personal behaviour, e.g. divorce and homosexuality and the expansion of higher education, including the Open University, were Wilson and his ministers able to make any headway.

Internationally, Wilson was like all the post-war prime ministers, perhaps even into the 1980s, in not really truly accepting the lessons of 1947, let alone 1956. Thus, while Wilson sought an international role and, as with most other things, did so assiduously, Pimlott shows how little power Britain actually had. One prime example over Rhodesia, a situation in which despite all his efforts, Wilson was able to achieve nothing. Similarly though he worked hard to develop channels of communication with the USSR and with Israel he was unable to alter the Cold War or Middle East situations and in fact such contacts aroused suspicions of him among the UK and US security services. Despite the highly restricted environment in which he was operating, both domestically and internationally, Pimlott never seems to criticise strongly Wilson's attempts to achieve something. Perhaps only in 1975/76 did he realise how he could make no headway that ran contrary to the wishes of the general right-wing context in which British governments are compelled to work.

Pimlott does a very good, sober analysis of all the conspiracies around Wilson, evidence for which has only grown as the years have passed. While dampening down outrageous claims, he shows that Wilson, despite his personal interest in the 'secret world' and his use of MI5 briefings was the victim of at least a faction within that body which sought to undermine him or even bring him down. The repeated burglaries of his and colleagues' homes and offices alone should be convincing. Wilson did not help matters by remaining loyal to 'dodgy' friends though their dubious standing was usually of a financial rather than traitorous nature. The fact that Wilson was able to endure and achieve something, despite not only the almost constant fighting in his own party but also efforts by some British and American intelligence officers to discredit him, re-emphasises the strength of the man. You certainly come away from this book feeling that while he did make mistakes and certainly over-estimated the ability of any non-right-wing UK government to achieve anything, that he was a 'battler' and that Britain would have been in far more grave situations than even it faced during his period if he had not been.

The Books I Read In October

Fiction
'Tales of Old Japan' by A.B. Mitford
This book was recommended in 'The Guardian' newspaper recently and I realised I had a copy. It is a reprint of a book published in 1871 by A.B. [Algernon Bertram Freeman-]Mitford (1837-1916) who was part of the British Legation to Japan at the time that it was opening up to the outside world.  He witnessed elements of the civil war which broke out between the forces of the Shogun and those of the Emperor, leading to the victory of the latter, the so-called Meiji Restoration.  Mitford consequently was witness to a period of immense change in which Japan shed much of the culture it had had effectively frozen since the 17th century and abruptly leapt into modernisation.  He also highlights the damage the civil war did. Thus, while the book is a collection of traditional stories, it is interspersed by Mitford's reflections on what he saw at this particular time.  Importantly he cautioned readers of the time not to make assumptions about Japan based simply on what they saw at ports open to foreigners.  Thus, you effectively have two books running in parallel, the stories as narrated by Mitford or another narrator he translated rather than us reading the story directly and a rather erratic commentary on mid-19th century Japan.  It is interesting to set Mitford's work beside that of Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904), similarly a traveller to Japan and a collector of its myths and legends.  Mitford is clearly a partisan of the Emperor and misses no opportunity to disparage the Shogunate even when described in far history.

The stories that Mitford covers includes the famous 'The Forty-Seven Ronin' and other stories with very convoluted tales of revenge.  However, these stories indicate much about the caste nature of Japanese society; many are tragic.  He also includes fantastical stories which highlight the importance of animal spirits, notably badgers and foxes, but also hares, in Japanese stories.  These are the equivalent of the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm.  Of less interest, indeed rather tedious are the odd bits from Japan of Mitford's time.  He includes a number of Buddhist sermons from the Nichiren sect which drag on.  This, I imagine, is because Mitford states that with exposure to the West he anticipated Buddhism being entirely eliminated from Japan within a matter of years.  This might also reflect the revival of Shintoism at the time which was in part to be the basis of developing Japanese militarism.  Similarly tedious are his translated accounts of seppuku, ritual suicide.  I imagine he included this as it was something that shocked contemporary readers.  His account of the one he witnessed in 1868 is far better than the guidebook he translates, the same can be said for the sections on weddings and funerals.

One gripe I have is that he renders the shorter Samurai sword, the wakizashi as 'dirk' which in my experience is more like a dagger and would equate to the Japanese tanto.

This is an engaging book on the two levels that I have highlighted.  It tells us as much about British Victorian views of Japan as it does about the country itself at the time.  However, it does provide a range of quick stories which remain important even today in Japan as can be seen from the numerous movies of 'The Forty-Seven Ronin' and reference to them even in our culture.

P.P. 06/12/2015
I caught a bit of the time-travelling drama, 'Outlander' (2014) that the woman in my house has been watching.  The series is not to be confused with the movie of 'Outlander' (2008), which is about an alien with high-tech landing in Viking-age northern Europe.  The series is about a woman travelling in Scotland between the late 1940s and in the mid-18th century. I quickly got put off by the series because, despite being set in these two time periods not known for liberal sexuality, the characters seem to leap at having sex of all sorts, at every possible occasion.  I suppose the series is aimed at the 'mummy porn' market.  These fantasies are characterised by dominant males carrying off women and yet fulfilling their sexual needs, rather than abusing and exploiting them as would have actually been the case in 1948 as in 1745.  Anyway, one of the scenes I saw before the protagonists went for sex behind a bush and I left, was the heroine being equipped with an 18th century dirk.  Assuming that the programme makers have striven for historical accuracy, despite being a dagger, it was long and broad enough to be an equivalent of a wakizashi.  I realised I had only seen modern versions which are far smaller.  So, I have to forgive Mitford.  At the time he was writing, a dirk would indeed be the nearest British equivalent of a Japanese short sword.

Non-Fiction
'Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk' by Len Deighton
Deighton is primarily known for his spy fiction.  However, this book and 'Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain' (1977) he produced popular non-fiction books that specifically challenged many of the myths of these events of the Second World War.  He did this at the right time because in the late 1970s people who had taken a leading role in what happened were still alive.  Deighton's book published in 1979, benefits from the input from men who had been involved in the fighting of the first year of the war, indeed the foreword was written by General of Panzertroops Walter Nehring (1892-1983) who had served as Chief of Staff to Colonel General Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (1888–1954), the leading general in terms of what we see as Blitzkrieg tactics.  Interestingly, Nehring focuses on the chance that was missed to crush the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk, whereas Deighton's book primarily demonstrates how much of a gamble the German invasion of France was and that success came from a combination of generals, notably Guderian, disobeying orders; good luck and defeatism on the part of the French commanders and hence the men beneath them, leading them often to surrender or flee when there was no need.

Deighton shows both how the principles of Blitzkrieg go back to Prussian military principles of the 19th century, but also how rare the method was.  He demonstrates that the invasion of Poland and of Norway; indeed the German advance beyond Dunkirk to finally defeat France owed very little to the Blitzkrieg concept.  He certainly emphasises how many missed chances there were to halt the German advance in the Ardennes, at the Meuse and even on the advance to the Somme.  This could have brought the war to an end far earlier than in our world.  The book is excellent in terms of the technical details of tanks, aircraft and other weapons and how they were used.  It is well illustrated with simply maps, images of tanks and photographs.  It is written in a brisk style well broken up, so it does not become a heavy text.  Some sections, however, are too generic and add little.

There was no real reason to repeat everything about the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party.  It would have been better to have started with the annexation of Austria, because of the use of various tank units and worked from there.  It would have been better if he had continued properly until the surrender of France as it seems to come to an abrupt halt which does not really demonstrate how the use of Blitzkrieg in France ceased and was replaced by traditional tactics, even though Deighton asserts that this happened.  Deighton has some strange obsessions and goes on extensively about the SA and Ernst Röhm's homosexuality, which really has nothing to do with the focus of his book.  On such occasions you see the novelist seeking out interesting characters, getting in the way of the historian.  Overall, an engaging book which effectively challenges many myths about Blitzkrieg and the military strength of both Germany and France, which you still see too commonly today.  Certainly recommended for anyone with an interest in the first phases of the Second World War and a model of how a popular history book can be produced, but unfortunately seems to be neglected as an example of good practice.

Rehabilitating John Buchan

There are many things which come back to irritate me at regular intervals, that probably seem trivial to the bulk of the population, but for some reason grate me. One purpose of these 'lead tablets' is to get them out in the open and so lift some of that irritation from myself and to show people my particular perspective on these things, a perspective they are free to agree with or challenge or ignore as they feel fit.

Now, whenever a version of 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' (there were versions made in 1935, 1959 and 1978) is shown on television, someone writes in the review 'based on the book by the anti-Semitic author John Buchan'. I have no time for anti-Semites (i.e. people who hate Jews) and I once dumped a friend immediately when she spouted anti-Jewish views (I stand up equally strongly for Arabs not to be prejudiced against either), but I do have time for John Buchan (1875-1940). In some ways he stood for things I am opposed to, the nobility (he ended his life as Baron Tweedsmuir) and imperialism, but certainly in the novels of his I have read I have not detected anti-Semitism which is why I get irritated when he is labelled constantly that way. He acted as a journalist and as an intelligence officer, being UK Director of Intelligence at the end of the First World War. He was a Conservative MP 1927-35 and ended his life as Governor-General of Canada. He published almost 30 novels, 7 collections of short stories and about 60 historical books, political tracts and even a tax guide. You can find one of his short novels, 'The Power-House' in available in its entirety online and extensive extracts of his other novels are also available if you surf for them.

Buchan is best remembered for his Richard Hannay books, 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' (1914), 'Greenmantle' (1915), 'Mr. Standfast' (1919), 'The Three Hostages' (1924) and 'The Island of Sheep' (1936). These stories drew on his own expertise as an intelligence officer, from South Africa and living in London. They are of their period and exhibit attitudes of the time such as a hostility to foreigners (though this is one that has persisted in the UK into the 21st century). Hannay is a so-called 'clubland hero' but unlike the heroes of other similar authors of the time such Dornford Yates and Sapper, he is more of a self-made man, a mining engineer originally from Scotland, (a country which influenced Buchan's work, for example also in 'Castle Gay' (1930)) who though he has experience in intelligence and warfare from the Boer War (1899-1902) is in fact an amateur who gets drawn into conspiracies. Buchan manages to bring excitement and realism to his plots, including incidents during the First World War which must have been difficult given so many people were affected by it at the time he was writing. The well written adventure of these stories often with themes that chime with us today is one reason why they have outlived many of their contemporaries. Even in 1988, Thames Television produced two series of dramas entitled 'Hannay', set in 1912, two years before 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' and based just on Buchan characters not actual stories, shows the kind of appeal the concepts retained. 'The Complete Richard Hannay' an anthology of the five original books was published as late as 1993.

To some extent, though an amateur, Hannay able to charm ladies (though as was typical of the time he marries and has a son in the later books) and mix in different levels of society he forms a link between Sherlock Holmes and James Bond and his legacy runs on into spy novels of the 1960s and 1970s such as the 'Harry Palmer' novels of Len Deighton and Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne character recently seen in movies ('The Bourne Identity' (2002), 'The Bourne Supremacy' (2004)). These later characters are professionals but like Hannay are important for readers in an age when we feel we are at the mercy of faceless conspiracies and the machinery of governments and their networks (as people really began to feel for the first time during the First World War, a sense that peaked again during the Cold War), the individual, though at times cynical of what he can achieve, can make a difference through cunning, good humour and with a moral sense too of what is ultimately good and bad for the world.

So, this is really an appeal for television reviewers, next time, do not write 'John Buchan - anti-Semite', read the books and see that he was a man of his age with attitudes of his age, no less attractive than those of many authors today, and see that he wrote exciting but realistic stories that decades afterwards people were keen to film (another screen version, probably for television, of 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' is being discussed, apparently).