Thoroughly recommend this as a stormin' good read (it's better written than Black Wind too, not sure whether that's because BW was by Clive and Dirk Cussler, and this one's just by Clive?).
This time out, Dirk Pitt is up against an evil Chinese shipping magnate, traffiking in illegal immigrants, guns and drugs and up to no good on the Mississippi. It's got car chases, explosions, underwater derring-do, sunken treasure, and the assistance of a beautiful and resourceful (of course) Immigration agent.
"Birds, Beasts & Relatives" and "The Garden of the Gods" by Gerald Durrell
Most people are familiar with the book My Family and Other Animals, about Gerald Durrell's idyllic childhood on Corfu in the 1930's - for a start there was a series on TV in the late 80's, and they're doing another programme this Christmas. What fewer people seem to realise is that, feeling there was a wealth of stories as yet unexplored, he wrote two further volumes, Birds, Beasts and Relatives, and Garden of the Gods.
So here we have more stories of the young Gerry, with Mother, Larry, Leslie, Margo and Spiro, just as funny as My Family and often ruder. Whether it's impressions of the myriad animals he was variously watching, catching, rearing or just inflicting on his family, through scenes of Corfiot peasant life to their succession of bizarre houseguests and the various events that befell them, these are hilarious, highly recommended additions to anyone's library.
The new Merrily Watkins (Deliverance [exorcism] Consultant to the Diocese of Hereford) mystery, and well worth the wait. Set mainly in Ludlow, it revolves on one hand around a string of deaths at the castle and a mysterious ex-goth singer stalking the town after dark; and on the other about a panel of interfering advisors setting themselves up to control Merrily's Deliverance work. You've got ghosts, hidden family secrets, poison pen letters, misdirection, last minute dashes and a lot of timber framing. All you expect from a Merrily book really. Definitely recommended.
Midwinter of the Spirit, by Phil Rickman Having been laid up in bed for days with a self-pitying cold, I've also been re-reading the earlier ones. Midwinter Of The Spirit is the second Merrily book, and the first where she's officially the Deliverance Consultant. This is one of the more 'orrible tales, from an evil man's spirit attaching itself to Merrily as she ministers to him dying in the hospital, through weird and tragic happenings on Dinedor Hill above Hereford and desecration of churches, up to the climax in the cathedral during the installation of the Boy Bishop ceremony. All good stuff then.
The Crown of Lights, by Phil Rickman I think this is my least favourite Merrily book, partly due to some squirmingly uncomfortable scenes, and also, I've realised on re-reading it, because it hasn't got Lol Robinson in it, who I like a lot. Still a good read though, focussing on tensions between a group of Pagans who want to re-dedicate a decomissioned church in the Welsh Borders, and an evangelical minister who's whipping up the locals and media alike. Typically, influences on both sides are not what they seem at first, and the book does a good job of showing how fundamentalism on both sides of the religious fence can spiral into hysteria and violence. There's a sub-plot involving the sinister goings on of the local people, and I presume I first read this pre-League of Gentlemen because it's a lot harder to read bits of it with a straight face now. Still, events build to a pleasing finale, and I think I liked it more on the second read.
It's funny really, how you tend to avoid reading 'classics' because you think they're going to be dull. It's like anti-logic, or something. And then you read one, more because you think you should than for any other reason and you're vaguely surprised when it's really good. Odd, really. Happened with Treasure Island too.
Anyway, I'd managed to go nearly 29 years without not only not reading it, but also not seeing any tv/film versions (although I vaguely remember a theatre thing when I was about 7 and Toad definitely sounded like David Jason in my head so I must have got that from somewhere). So there was the added bonus of not knowing the plot, such as it is; it's an episodic little book, each chapter or couple of chapters being pretty much self contained stories in themselves.
Beautifully descriptive (with illustrations by Ernest Shepard who it turns out also did Winnie the Pooh, which I *had* read) and very entertaining, I rather wish I'd got around to it earlier. Still, better late than never I suppose, and if you haven't read it yet, go and do so. Or any other children's classic you've been avoiding, for that matter.
