Authors know everything
After a week in which an Air Alaska plane unexpectedly freshened the cabin mid-flight...
“When one door closes, another window opens.”
Julie Andrews, legend of musical theatre and author of the memoirs Home and Home Work, spookily anticipates the Air Alaska debacle when discussing the challenges of being deprived of her legendary singing range many years earlier.
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The Great Post Office Scandal by Nick Wallis. Bath Publishing £13.99
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Fresh reading material will be coming through the pipe later this week as the publishing industry stirs from what football likes to call “the winter break”. In the meantime, fight the cold by stoking your outrage further with journalist Nick Wallis' 2021 exposé of the Post Office Scandal. Although the press, most notably Private Eye, have been all over this story since the first decade of the century, only now, with the ITV dramatisation of how the Post Office implemented a faulty computer system then covered up their incompetence by blaming and prosecuting innocent subpostmasters, have the fires of indignation properly got out of control. As no one – but no one – can fail to see the obscene injustice of this life-wrecking business solution, the true scandal is where were all the “let me be quite clear” politicians and smooth, bonus-harvesting executives who could have stopped this many years ago? Buy this book
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The Strong Words Hot List Had it with the stupid cold snap? Five great books about escapes. |
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5. Papillon by Henri Charrière (1969) Harper, £9.99
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When French writer and rogue Charrière found himself in the care of the harsher, South American branch of the French penal system on being falsely accused of murdering a pimp in the 1930s, he responded by devoting his years of incarceration to escape. Building to his signature early departure from Devil's Island by coconut raft, Charrière supposedly demonstrated weaknesses in more than half a dozen jails by breaking out, although the truth has since also been accused of absconding at times from the still excellent Papillon. Buy this book
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4. Icebound by Andrea Pitzer (2021) Simon & Schuster, £5.99 (Kindle)
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In the great age of Dutch maritime curiosity, explorer William Barents set off in 1596 to see if it were possible to sail over the top of the globe. His voyage got as far as the island of Nova Zembla, off Russia's north coast, where shipwreck deposited the sailors to spend 15 months among the polar bears at less than zero. Facing another winter, Barents and crew chose to gamble on escape – several hundred ocean miles of deadly ice floes and towering waves – by rowing boat. Buy this book
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3. Educated by Tara Westover (2018) Windmill, £10.99
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Raised in isolation on an Idaho mountainside in a survivalist Mormon family, Tara's childhood is spent labouring in the family junkyard well away from modern fripperies such as education and doctors. When an abusive brother, Old Testament father and her own appetite to learn combine to prompt her escape, classrooms and universities become her sanctuary. Buy this book
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2. Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman (2021) Hodder, £10.99
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In 1962, East Berlin had become one of the great destinations to escape from, thanks to the appearance of the wall a year earlier. Student Joachim Rudolph had already made it to the west, but decided to construct a tunnel back under the wall to help a few others make the crossing. Limited engineering skills and rising water made it unlikely even the tunnel itself would survive the experience, and with the Stasi closing in on the other side, those using the service faced a variety of possible destinations: West Berlin, prison or entombment. Buy this book
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1. The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland (2022) John Murray, £9.99
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Sent to Auschwitz in 1942, Rudolph Vrba quickly worked out what the Nazis were doing there, and on what scale. Together with another inmate, he hid in a logpile for three days, using tobacco soaked in petrol to make them undetectable to the search dogs, and broke out, only to then face the challenge of escaping from Nazi-occupied Poland. His objective was not just to get out, but to carry a headful of detailed evidence that would expose the atrocity – yet would anyone listen? Buy this book
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The US election season is open, and here comes an old man to bore you to death.
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This week will see the first votes cast in the process of selecting the next US president, with the Republican presidential caucus in Iowa.
Much is traditionally made of an event that may provide no clues as to who will win in November, but at this first-match-of-the-season stage, all runners like to imagine themselves as still in with a chance, a little like Connor Roy in Succession.
On the very fringe of the Republican pack is a candidate called Asa Hutchinson, who is as dull as porridge and would be better advised saving his energy for what remains of his old age.
But with American politicians of every generation, one thing is guaranteed – appalling books aplenty, often written by themselves.
In the literature on Hutchinson is a biography by one Marcia Espinal, which on the journalistic principle that if you want anyone to bother with your second sentence, you've got to give them something in the first one, begins with arguably the worst attempt ever to open a book.
“In the realm of governmental issues and public help, there are people whose names stand apart as signals of devotion, trustworthiness and a tenacious obligation to the improvement of their networks and country.”
If you can find any calories in that, well done.
But on the occasion of discovering this all-time low in the history of the English language, I'd like to encourage anyone writing a book (and unless told otherwise I'll assume that's everyone) to remind themselves that if this deadly tranquiliser can get into print, so can you. Fight on!
And if you think you are in possession of an even more boring sentence, from a politician or otherwise, please share at info@strong-words.co.uk.
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On the poetry/no poetry debate...
Dear Ed, might I recommend that you start your long walk toward the delights of poetry with the collection Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, edited by the late Anthony Holden and his son Ben? If there's not something in there that makes a connection then perhaps it's time to accept that the problem doesn't lie with the poets.
Carissa K (subscriber)
I certainly miss Anthony Holden, who I never met, but he was a keen subscriber and would often email to share his enthusiasm for the most recent issue of Strong Words. I'm quite willing to accept that there may be something wrong with me beyond versophobia, and also that it's never too late to change. My old boss the late publisher Felix Dennis became fanatical about poetry towards the end of his life, churning out volumes of it and being helicoptered around the country to read it publicly. He did have to overcome a quite serious addiction to crack cocaine first, a stage I have yet to embark on. Also on the subject of people not liking poetry, I quite like the micro-analysis of why they don't in the film The Big Short: “Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.” Ed.
More deep thoughts on the subject, in verse if you feel more comfortable that way, to info@strong-words.co.uk.
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Dear Ed, regarding your correspondent in last week's newsletter (Josef, residence unknown), who was wondering where he might find “the biggest supermodel Linda Evangelista”. As she once supposedly said “I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day”, I suspect that's where he'll find her.
Simon O, Brighton
For anyone like Josef who may be carrying a candle for Miss Evangelista, bear in mind her previous husbands include Francois-Henri Pinault, one of the world's richest men, should you be wondering if you meet the financial qualification. Also that she told the Sunday Times last year, “I don’t want to sleep with anybody anymore. I don’t want to hear somebody breathing.” And to the New York Times: “I don’t want somebody in my house.” High bar. Good luck, valiant adventurers. Ed
Thoughts on suitable romantic stratagems and anything else you'd like share, however tangentially related to books, please direct your enquiries to info@strong-words.co.uk.
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How dictators get the population behind them...“In 1964, the Haitian flag underwent further change when the dictator François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier held a referendum on two issues: to make himself president for life, and to change the country’s flag from blue and red to black and red, with the black band symbolising its ties to Africa. Conveniently, for the first question there was only one box to tick: ‘Yes’.” (From How the Tricolor Got Its Stripes, and Other Stories About Flags, by Dmytro Dubilet. Profile, £18.99) Buy this book
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How to subscribe to Strong Words
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If you've not yet subscribed but are inching towards commitment, now would be an excellent time to do it. The price of Strong Words will be going up shortly, driven by the hilarious pricing structure of the Post Office (boo) and the commercial agonies of the printing industry. If you'd like to slide under the wire, here's the hole in the fence. The process is entirely painless, and leads to a lovely issue of entertaining new book recommendations tapping you on the shoulder every other month. Take the leap!
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Got a story you’d like to share? Or a question that's bothering you? Send your gossip, tips, literary sightings and intel to info@strong-words.co.uk
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.
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