Authors know everything
In a week in which a wine merchant running the London marathon attempted to identify a different vintage handed to him every mile (and generate a bit of attention for himself)...
“Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.”
...so said humourist and universal disapprover Fran Lebowitz – not impressed, Mr Wine Guy!
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All That Glitters by Orlando Whitfield. Profile, £20
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I know I've gone on about this as if it is the only book published this year, but it is actually out on Thursday, should you wish to contemplate its unprincipled merits for yourself. It's the story of high-flying art dealer/recently released fraudster Inigo Philbrick, written by his posh university chum who realised early on that he was never going to be able to maintain the pace set by his ultra-ambitious partner. At the deep end of the art world, the obscene rich were too busy trying to out-art each other and move their money around profitably to follow the bewildering ownership frameworks Philbrick had manoeuvred them into. By the time they realised they weren't as clever as they'd assumed, the charming and impeccably connected swindler had had it away with tens of their millions. Buy this book
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The Strong Words Hot List Create a refined silhouette by heading into May with some quality fiction… |
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5. Levitation for Beginners by Suzannah Dunn Abacus, £20
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The last lap of primary school for a class in 1972 is thrown into disarray by the late-stage arrival of new girl Sarah-Jayne, bringer of disturbing news from the future (bras, vodka), commander of all spare attention with her charisma and knowing, and unlikely claimant of an ability to levitate. Amidst all the Angel Delight, Deborah (current obsession: Tutankhamun), is not taken in by this outrageous show-off, and an invitation to Sarah-Jayne's huge house affirms she may be right to be suspicious. Buy this book
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4. The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston John Murray, £16.99
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For two rival shepherds in ruggedly irresistible but foot-and-mouth plagued Cumbria, the sheep-sitting industry has collapsed. Their solution is to join forces and head south to rustle some prize-winners from a grand flock, but an unstable third wheel in their enterprise brings his disturbing ways back to the fells with them, and with it a level of violence that echoes the hillside-cleansing slaughter they were trying to move on from. Buy this book
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3. The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes Oneworld, £18.99
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A geology professor at the University of Galway takes her students on a field trip to the coast – and disappears. Her three sisters, each also attempting to carve a distinctive path in the world, reunite to form a search party. When they track her (and her liquor) down to an off-grid farmhouse, their inquest prompts grave concerns for the planet's wellbeing, reflections on their having been orphaned overnight as children, and a certain amount of mutual resentment. Buy this book
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2. The Damages by Genevieve Scott Verve, £10.99
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Arriving at university in Ontario in 1997, Ros does what anyone in their right mind would, and tries to ditch her entire personality in a stab at reinvention as a cool type. This means giving the cold shoulder to her nerdy roommate Megan, who goes missing during an ice storm. Ros, more focussed on curating her new self, gets the blame for not looking after her. Twenty years on, a former partner who also knew Megan is accused of a sexual assault. This development causes a major review of events leading to Megan's vanishing. Buy this book
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1. How to Make a Bomb by Rupert Thomson Apollo, £20
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Stylistic contempt for convention ahoy! On the journey to the airport following a conference in Norway, an academic is seized by a disorder of such unsettling force that he abandons the return leg to his wife and child in London and instead diverts to Cádiz, the home of a fellow academic with whom he had forged a connection. After that, Crete, and a burst of exposure to no-nonsense nature. What on earth is he up to? Midlife crisis? Fighting intellectually against the suffocating grip of convention? Delusional cliché personified? All unfolds in blank verse (not nearly as alarming as it sounds). Buy this book
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A belated farewell to a legendary journalist
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I'm a little bit late to this, but much sadness on learning of the death of the magnificent foreign correspondent Hella Pick earlier this month, at the age of 96. I spoke to her three years ago for issue 27 of Strong Words when she published her memoir Invisible Walls (W&N, £9.99), about a stellar career in journalism. It was made all the more remarkable by her possessing just a single word of English – “goodbye” – when she arrived at Liverpool Street in 1939 aged 11 as a refugee from Vienna. She used the entirety of her vocabulary to introduce herself to her new foster parents on the platform. Although she met many of the world's leaders, one in particular stood out: Nicolae Ceausescu – for being so mediocre. Hella was sent to Bucharest in 1978 to interview him for the Guardian, as part of a diplomatic push to sell Romania some aircraft. Even the process of negotiating which questions she could ask took three days. When the interview finally took place she was denied both a tape recorder and an interpreter, and not speaking Romanian, had no idea what he said in answer to her questions. After a couple of his impenetrable responses, she felt “the theatre had gone far enough”, so like the Maitlis of her day, deviated from the script and added a new one. This threw the Great Leader into an unhappy frenzy of prompt card-shuffling, although when the official translation arrived two days later, in answer to her enquiry about discrimination against minorities he had apparently said, “Romania is among the few countries which have solved the problems of their nationalities in a democratic humanist way.” Strong stuff. Interview wrapped, Ceausescu then headed to London to meet the Queen (possibly in a visit presaged by diplomatic warnings from Paris urging the royals to bolt everything down, as the Romanians had nicked absolutely everything they could carry from their official accommodation while on a French stopover. This is a half-remembered story and not in Hella's book.) At Buckingham Palace, the Queen found him such vile company that she took the unprecedented step of letting it be known “that it counted among the worst duties she had had to perform on behalf of the government. Under no circumstances would she pay a return visit to Romania.” Her majesty was too discreet to say what awful social infraction Ceausescu had committed, but she did get her own back. After Ceausescu was shot on Christmas Day, 1989, she rescinded the Order of the Bath she'd bestowed on him during the much-regretted visit. Bon voyage, Hella Pick. (Book Club insiders: any idea what Ceausescu did while a guest of the Windsors that caused his name to be written in palace infamy?) Buy Hella's memoir
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Readers – where are your table manners?Hi Ed, I was a little disappointed that the book club members didn't come up with more thoughts about recipes appearing in books since the mention of anchovies doing their disappearing act in the novel Piglet (by Lottie Hazell. Doubleday, £16.99. SW issue 49). It always feels like an excellent bonus to me when a book suddenly includes a recipe. I know you're also a big fan of Nora Ephron's Heartburn (“I have made a lot of mistakes in falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them”) which is a great example of how easy it is to slip a few recipes into a non-culinary book – could you urge the membership to share their favourites? I'd love to know what else is waiting to be discovered. Virginia G.Members – you have been urged. And if you can't think of any examples of recipes appearing on pages where you least expect them, please let us know how the potatoes were in your previous relationships. I recommend Stanley Tucci's Taste . It is virtually an order to get in the kitchen. One of my few remaining ambitions – besides living to see a copy of Strong Words in every home – is to make his timpano (as seen in the film Big Night, and included in Taste ). A pastry drum full of pasta, eggs, meatballs and a deli's worth of other delights, it takes three days to make and feeds 12-16. EdAnd in more hairy hand news...Ed, I have been fascinated in recent weeks by the comments about the mano peluda of Mexico, coming out from under the bed to terrify naughty children. I did a bit of investigation of my own and found this, on the website of a children's author, Alexandra Alessandri (alexandraalessandri.com). “Imagine lying in bed and feeling a big furry paw grabbing at your feet. La Mano Peluda (or “The Hairy Hand”) is said to belong to a man who was killed during the inquisition, and chopped up and buried in an old Indian cemetery. His hand is said to have come back to life to seek revenge on his enemies while they’re asleep. Our advice: Wear socks at night!” Lauren L.At last a solution to this supernatural menace – it can't cope with socks. EdAll other reports on the things that keep your bloodshot eyes fixed firmly on the ceiling during the small hours please, to info@strong-words.com.
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A message of serenity from the jewellery industry
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Tired of looking at things? Try green.
In Helen Molesworth's book Precious, about “The History and Mystery of Gems Across Time” (Doubleday, £30, coming next month), she discusses some of the restorative properties of gemstones. Especially emeralds.
As long ago as the fourth century BC, she says, the Greek philosopher (and jewellery writer) Theophrastus claimed that emeralds were “‘good for the eyes’, and that people would carry them around to see better” (although didn't apparently state quite how they helped improve pagan eyesight.)
Nero was said to use an emerald while watching the gladiators kill each other, although again, no clue is left as to how the jewels enhanced his viewing pleasure.
What all this emerald gazing did achieve though, is anticipate “a practice historically common among jewellers, who would place green bowls of water on their workbenches as a comforting contrast for their eyes after hours of painstaking work.”
This calm-inducing liquid was also the inspiration for the American surgeon Dr Harry Sherman, says Molesworth, who in the early twentieth century had his operating theatres “designed entirely in green”, to take full advantage of the colour's “soothing properties”.
Buy this book
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If you're not yet a subscriber to Strong Words, but have been so seduced by this newsletter that you think you might like to be, please step over to our subscription website and contemplate the various offers. Particularly fashionable for UK residents this season is the £4 a month deal. That's six issues a year of a useful and fascinating magazine about new books, for next to nothing – have you ever heard of such an irresistible offer? If you haven't, but prefer to conduct your business by telephone, you can call on weekdays at 01442 820580. For those who've never actually seen Strong Words and would like a flavour of it before taking the next step, or have seen it before but can't remember what it looks like, enjoy this brief showcase of recent pages here. And if you've always dreamt of one day belonging to an exclusive club, a subscription to Strong Words will see that dream achieved in no time. Thanks for subscribing!
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For all advertising enquiries info@strong-words.co.ukMost importantly of all, please share this email with anyone you think might like a weekly shot of lively book recommendations. Strong Words needs readers, so use this link to pass it on. Or to sign up to receive the newsletter weekly, go to the website at www.strong-words.co.uk. Strong Words receives a small percentage of the price of all books purchased via these links. All photos shutterstock.com, except where indicated.
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