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Dennis Brain

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Dennis Brain: A Life in Music. Through another website I came into contact with Stephen Gamble one of the authors of this fascinating book about Dennis Brain, the famous British horn player. I asked Stephen Gamble if he would be interested in writing a piece about his book for this website and he kindly agreed to do so. The following is written by him:

Dennis Brain: A Life In Music
By Stephen Gamble and William Lynch
University of North Texas Press, April 2011
ISBN 978-1-57441-307-6

The authors embarked on this book as enthusiasts of the recordings, including film media, of British horn player, Dennis Brain (1921-1957), whose meteoric career, unrivalled as a horn virtuoso soloist in the sphere of classical music in his day, was cut short by a high-speed car crash on the Barnet bypass at Hatfield, in the early hours of 1 September 1957, driving back home in heavy rain and poor visibility from the Edinburgh Festival in his green Triumph TR2 sports car. Read the rest of this entry

The Worst Journey In The World

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The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard is the inspiring, hair raising and wonderfully written account of Scott's second expedition to the Antarctic. Apsley Cherry-Garrard was one of the youngest members of the team which set out in 1910.

The working title for the book was "Never Again, Scott, Some Penguins and the Pole" the author also toyed with the title "To Hell With Scott". "Worst Journey," "Never Again" and "To Hell" are all words which sum up this unbelievable Antarctic adventure.

In addition to being a scientific venture, Scott and four companions also hoped to become the first men to reach the South Pole. As we know they were beaten to their goal by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, only perished in a blizzard on their return journey only 11 miles from a food depot. Read the rest of this entry

Three Men In A Boat

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Jerome K. Jerome – Three Men In A Boat

No personal library should be without a copy of "Three men In A Boat." Although it was written in 1889 it is timeless. It is a book I find myself reading every other year or so. It is in the top three or four of my all time favourite good books to read.

This is also probably the funniest book you will ever come across. Although he wrote this more than a hundred years ago, Jerome K. Jerome's humour is something that we can all identify with, proving that a good sense of humour is ageless.

The book is based on events which actually happened, and as Jerome wrote in his preface to the first edition: "all that has been done is to colour them; and, for this, no extra charge has been made".

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Sniper One

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Sniper One by Sgt. Dan Mills

Thumbs up for Sgt. Dan Mills of The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, he has written a cracking book about his experiences as a sniper in Iraq in 2004.

Sniper One is Mills's first book and a must read if you are interested in what it was really like to be in Iraq following the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. If you where there I am sure that this you will find this book equally gripping.

At the time of writing Mills, at age 36, had been a soldier for eighteen years and a sniper for ten. Despite six tours of duty in Northern Ireland, one in Bosnia and one in Kosovo he had never had to fire his rifle in anger. All of that was to change for him and the fifteen man sniper platoon he headed soon after arriving in Iraq in April 2004.

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Annie Hawes

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Annie Hawes first book "Extra Virgin" refers to olive oil not to anything steamy. This is the first of three books that Annie Hawes wrote about her life in the small coastal town of Diano San Pietro in Liguria, Italy.

This is a marvelous book which belongs on the same shelf alongside books by Peter Mayle and France Mayes. If you have ever wanted to chuck everything in and flee to Italy to start a new life, this book will let you do that vicariously.

In Extra Virgin Hawes describes how her love affair with Liguria and Diano San Pietro began after she and her sister arrive from England in 1983 to take up a summer job grafting roses.

Wonderful Characters

After the grafting season the girls are somehow manouvered by a larger than life and crafty local into buying a derelict house and small piece of land amongst the olive trees in the hills above town. So begins an engaging and often hilarious story. The book is much more than just Hawes experiences trying to fix up the house, it is a wonderful and very affectionate look into everyday life in this part of Italy.

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Annie Hawes Ripe For The Picking

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Ripe for the Picking is Annie Hawes second book and is a follow up to her first one Extra Virgin. With this book Annie Hawes has produced another first rate read in which she updates us on her life in Liguria.

When I started reading it I felt as if I was back amongst friends in a familiar landscape. The eccentric and charming characters from the previous book are still around along with the odd new one.

Wood Beetles In The Beams

Annie Hawes is still repairing her house and now has to tackle wood beetles which have eaten the beams holding up the roof. Despite what must have been for her a very worrying experience she had me laughing out loud as she describes the beetle infestation and the recommended methods for dealing with the problem.

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Annie Hawes Journey To The South

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Journey to the South is Annie Hawes third book about life in Italy. So if you have finished "Ripe for the Picking" here is the next one. The tagline for this book is A Calabrian Homecoming.

As you will have discovered from the second book Ciccio's ( Annie's gentleman friend or fidanzato in Italian ) family is originally from Calabria, and so we get a taste of a part of Italy at the opposite end of the country from Liguria.

Annie, Ciccio, Francesca his mother, his sister and nephew drive down to Calabria to attend the funeral of Francesca"s brother. In the family's home town we meet a new group of characters and relatives. This is an introduction to a what in many ways turns out to be a completely different Italian culture from that in Liguria.

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Michela Wrong

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Michela Wrong is a brave and intrepid journalist who has spent many years covering events in Africa. Her most recent book is "It's Our Turn To Eat".

This book which carries the tagline "The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower" is a real life thriller which focuses on corruption in Kenya. In it Michela Wrong tells the story of John Githongo who was put in charge of tackling Kenya's notorious corruption by the new government of Mwai Kibaki when it came to power in 2002.

A Real Life Thriller About A Whistleblower

Despite assurances that the government was serious about putting a stop to corruption, Githongo discovered that despite his best efforts it was still "business as usual". When, two years after being appointed to his post he unearthed the Anglo Leasing scandal and blew the whistle he was forced to flee Kenya for his life.

The Anglo Leasing scandal that Githongo discovered centred around a company that did not really exist. It was just a mechanism through which contracts could be awarded with the money flowing back to officials.

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Tom Carver

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Tom Carver is a former foreign correspondent for the BBC and the step-grandson of Field Marshall Montgomery. In his fascinating book “Where The Hell Have You Been?” he writes compellingly about his father Robert Carver’s experiences in the Second World War.

Monty’s Stepson

Robert Carver was on “Monty’s” staff and fought under him in North Africa at El Alamein. A couple of days after the battle Carver was captured by the German Africa Corps when he was discovered reconnoitering too far ahead of the rest of the allied troops.

As Montgomery’s stepson, Robert Carver was careful not to divulge the nature of this relationship to the Germans, for fear that he would be sent to Colditz along with other prominent British prisoners of war. Instead, he was sent to a prison camp in Northern Italy, the same one from which Eric Newby escaped.

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Agent Zigzag

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Talk about an exciting and enthralling read! Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre is the incredible true story of Edward Chapman, World War II British double agent, crook, con artist and ladies man. Ben Macintyre wrote Agent Zigzag after being given access to the previously classified documents relating to Eddie Chapman.

MI5 started to release these documents 2001, they numbered over 1700 pages of detailed information including transcripts of interrogations, memos, photographs, wireless intercepts and more.

In these previously secret documents Ben Macintyre discovered information which described in detail Chapman's activities as a spy. More than that the precise case notes of his "handlers" allowed Macintre to paint an accurate picture of Eddie Chapman's personality with all of its contradictions. The documents also described the people and events surrounding Eddie

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