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Tuesday 17 July 2018

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Paperbacks

Steve Butler, Camilla Long, Lucy Beresford, Sophie Elmhirst, Matt Warman, Charles Osborne and Sally Cousins review the latest paperbacks.

My Trade: a Short History of British Journalism by Andrew Marr (Pan Books, £7.99)

Part history of journalism, part autobiography and part guide to how to read newspapers, the outgoing BBC political editor's tale is always intriguing. The story of the roots of Fleet Street is taken at a gallop, arriving in the modern world just in time for Marr to get his first job in Scotland and thence, eventually, to edit The Independent - terribly, by his own admission.

Throughout, he's self-deprecating, witty and informative. If, he suggests, a newspaper headline asks "Is this the true face of Britain's young?", try answering "No". Elsewhere he deals with political journalism, editing, broadcasting and foreign correspondents, analysing each of them incisively and providing revealing anecdotes. The original hardback lacked an index, which Marr says he hoped would "spur idle and time-pressed colleagues to actually read the book". One has since been added, and so My Trade is now as useful as it is readable. MW

His trade is journalism, and he tells us all about it. How do hacks get their scoops? How do television stations choose their news bulletins? What does a newspaper editor actually do all day? And how do journalists manage to look at themselves in the mirror after the way they sometimes behave? Marr answers these questions and many more in this sharp and witty insider's account that will be enjoyed by anyone who wants to know more about where journalism comes from. CO

Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman by Frances Stonor Saunders (Faber & Faber, £8.99)

The story of John Hawkwood says as much about the 14th-century shift from feudalism to the Renaissance as it does about the man and his reputation. He was an ordinary Essex boy who was promoted for his archery skills, and found his calling in the high-risk, high-reward world of the mercenary. By 1361, he'd held the Pope to ransom - the first of many audacious acts in a lifetime of bravery, brutality, political acumen and financial manipulation.

Far from being musty, this historical exposé has a lively, contemporary feel. Frances Stonor Saunders has an eye for the telling details that bring this turbulent age to life - such as the origins of the words "quack" and "freelance", as well as about honey's antiseptic properties. Military strategy sits alongside literary speculation (did Hawkwood inspire Chaucer's The Knight's Tale?). To read the book's pacy prose is to smell the stench of wars, plague and moral decay, and yet it also hurls you into an exciting and changing world. LB

Stephen Spender: the Authorized Biography by John Sutherland (Penguin, £8.99)

The great achievement of John Sutherland's biography is that it makes clear for the first time Spender's stature within English literature as a whole, rather than simply within poetry. While Spender's reputation as a "poet of the Thirties", for ever bracketed with Auden and co, results partly from his decision not to publish new collections after the war, his activities as an editor, contributor, campaigner and "literary ambassador" in the last four decades of his life were of unparalleled range and influence.

Between his unhappy childhood and dazzling undergraduate career, and his latter-day status as a sort of cultural diplomat, Spender seems to have known every figure of importance in English letters, from Arnold Bennett and Virginia Woolf to Ted Hughes and Margaret Drabble. Sutherland makes the case for Spender's poetry during the second half of the century, but this is no hagiography; instead, it is balanced, entertaining and comprehensive. SB

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (Puffin Books, £6.99)

If you liked Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, you'll certainly like Meg Rosoff's debut offering, which describes war through a teenager's eyes.

Daisy is a 15-year-old New Yorker visiting cousins in the English countryside when terrorists attack and cut Britain off from the rest of the world. Her aunt is stranded in Norway, so she is left to fend for herself with her cousins, with one of whom, Edmond, she has fallen in love.

At first, the prose is frustratingly simplistic, but it ends up as compelling as any childhood tale could be. The story of an incredible journey across war-torn England, it has all the elements of great suspense writing. Some readers may find the flimsiness of the narrative a little off-putting - the whole thing can be polished off in under three hours - but this does not detract from its lively dénouement. CL

The In-between World of Vikram Lall by MG Vassanji (Canongate, £7.99)

The exiled narrator of MG Vassanji's novel sits by Lake Ontario reflecting on his past as, according to rumour, one of Africa's most corrupt men. As a study in self-delusion, Vikram's story is intriguing. His career as a middleman between President Kenyatta and overseas donors or local Asian businessmen has its roots in his earliest years. When he was eight, his childhood sweetheart was murdered; later, he protected his communist uncle's secret involvement with the Mau Mau; and, as a teenager, he turned a blind eye to his sister's affair with their African friend Njoroge.

Various mixed-race relationships hint at the novel's major themes of disenfranchisement and the need to belong. Its historical context is fascinating, but the tension between the personal and the political that is needed to drive the narrative fails to materialise. Vikram's emotional detachment may be psychologically astute, but it sabotages the reader's ability to engage fully with his story. LB

The Next Step in the Dance by Tim Gautreaux (Sceptre, £7.99)

Tiger Island, Louisiana, is one of those towns where the heat shimmers, fights break out and couples dance the jitterbug as the sun goes down. Or at least it was. Tim Gautreaux charts the demise of the small-town, deep-South way of life through a young married couple, Paul and Colette. Colette - the best-looking girl in town - is sick of Paul's addiction to dancing and his unambitious obsession with ancient machinery. She heads to California to find a better life, Paul follows, and the story slowly unfolds as he works to win her back.

Gautreaux eases the reader along the gentle, winding narrative with sharp dialogue, cinematic imagery and an ability to observe the smallest, most poignant details of a strained relationship. The novel feels like a homage to the Southern dream of old-fashioned community values - a dream that is being shattered by consumerism. But the joy of this book is in the details - the twang of the Louisiana accent, the succulence of a Cajun dish. SE

Germs: a Memoir of Childhood by Richard Wollheim (Black Swan, £7.99)

In his account of a Surrey childhood in the 1920s and 1930s, Richard Wollheim describes a lurching encounter with a young, drunk Edward VIII. "He dived into what was the ladies' lavatory," writes Wollheim, "before re-emerging backwards… to take fresh stock of the world."

Wollheim's book is full of such comic touches. As the son of a German-Jewish theatre impresario and an ex-"Gaiety Girl" from the West Country, the worlds of oppressive suburban normality and artistic eccentricity are brought together. There are his mother's exhausting cleaning rituals - hence the title - and his father's faintly mysterious and rather outré career. There is also a trail of theatrical luminaries, and a refreshing grope into the world of the pubescent boy.

You might be surprised by such intimacy from a man who was eventually to become the Professor of Mind and Logic at UCL. But it is his meticulous, intellectual approach to his subject that makes the book so rewarding. CL

The Big House by Christopher Simon-Sykes (Harper Perennial, £8.99)

Here is the biography of Sledmere, a great country house which, despite its beginnings on a god-forsaken spot high up on the Yorkshire Wolds in the mid-18th century and its complete destruction by fire 250 years later, endures to this day. The Sykes family, who built the house and lived there throughout the entire period, were great eccentrics, and today Christopher Simon-Sykes resuscitates vividly the lives of his ancestors and their glorious home. CO

Mimi and Touto Go Forth by Giles Foden (Penguin, £7.99)

It was the First World War, the Kaiser had put two warships on Lake Tanganyika, and it was vital for Britain that those ships be destroyed. Step forward Geoffrey Spicer-Simpson, the oldest Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, an inveterate liar, tattooed fantasist and wearer of skirts. In this novelised account of the bizarre battle on the lake, Spicer-Simpson drags two gunboats through the Congo and engages an enemy with a few surprises still up its sleeve. An extraordinary tale, and delightfully told. CO

Big Bang by Simon Singh (Harper Perennial, £8.99)

Everyone has heard of the Big Bang theory, but how many can actually claim to understand it? With great clarity and a narrative peppered with anecdotes and personal histories of those who have struggled to understand creation, here is the story of the brilliant minds that deciphered the mysteries of the Big Bang, and why cosmologists believe it is an accurate description of the origins of the universe. Simon Singh belies that geniuses such as Einstein are not the only people able to understand the physics that govern the universe. We all can. CO

Ceaseless Turmoil by James Lees-Milne (John Murray, £14.99)

In this, the 11th volume of his diaries, Lees-Milne, who died in 1997, deals with the years from 1988 to 1992 when he was in his early eighties. He discusses architecture with the Prince of Wales and royal mistresses with Princess Michael of Kent. As the grand old man of country house conservation, he becomes a media celebrity, but he refuses to be photographed by Lord Snowdon. He learns of the death of the lad who had seduced him at Eton, and publishes a novel about a German nobleman who seduces both an English schoolboy and the boy's mother. Lively stuff. CO

The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson (Picador, £7.99)

Why have a hundred de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? Why are Iraqi prisoners of war forced to listen to Barney the Dinosaur's theme tune repeatedly, at top volume? Was the US Army associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego?

Jon Ronson finds answers to these and many other wacky questions, revealing some of the extraordinary beliefs at the core of George W. Bush's War on Terror. CO

The Fit by Philip Hensher (Harper Perennial, £7.99)

A man named John has just been left by his wife Janet.

It is a deliberately banal opening, but Philip Hensher embellishes it with mischievous skill. Apart from being suddenly wifeless, John has a nasty case of the hiccups. Drink champagne, say his friends. Take up smoking, say other friends. It is so damned confusing - especially for an orderly, neurotically logical man who, among his other accomplishments, is one of the best professional indexers in the business.

Serious themes are treated with such a light touch that it is easy to miss the artistry behind this engaging jeu d'esprit. SC

Darien Dogs by Henry Shukman (Vintage, £6.99)

Henry Shukman's fictional debut consists of a novella and four shorter stories. The stories are pretty slight, but the novella is a comic gem, heralding a writer of real promise.

It opens with a Manhattan banker pitching up in Panama and realising that, as he puts it, he "will not be able to resist its sordid allure." When a prostitute steals his wallet, containing a vital piece of paper, he finds himself on one those mad, meandering journeys that are the staple of comic fiction. The tropical setting, simultaneously gorgeous and debilitating, is expertly evoked. SC

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