Reflections on Reading

As some of you who have been with us over a number of years will know, we do not have a television. This is not for any puritanical reason, it is simply that decades ago we came to the conclusion that it took up too much of our time, time that could be spent on other, although not necessarily more worthwhile, things. Reading.

A somewhat bemused Teddy contemplates books to be read.

Books are, in our view, one of life’s greatest pleasures. Not only do they inform, but they offer the reader the opportunity to enter into other worlds, to encounter different characters, to experience unfamiliar or unknown situations, to consider ideas from a fresh perspective even, for which there should be no apology, to indulge in pure escapism. They encourage thinking.

A selection of novels by William Boyd.

William Boyd is a writer whose work we greatly enjoy and which is, at least certainly for us, always worth re-reading. Whilst ‘A Good Man in Africa’ was his first novel, it was only much later that we came to read that having initially been hooked by ‘An Ice War’ - an unusual take on the First World War set in the heart of Africa.

Recently published and ready to be started.

And only this week we were advised by Bestsellers, our English language bookshop here in Budapest, that William Boyd’s latest novel, ‘The Predicament’, was awaiting collection. Apparently, although we have yet to see, a character met previously in an earlier book is set to reappear. But it is not all fiction.

An ideal stocking filler for Christmas.

Our friend, Petroc Trelawny, and following on from his fascinating account of growing up in Cornwall, ‘ Trelawny’s Cornwall’, has this week had published his ‘Classical Music Puzzle Book’ which is, having already dipped in, an absolute delight.

An insightful account of two very controversial figures.

The Duke and Duchess of York, by which titles they were known until very recently, are the subjects of Andrew Lownie’s ‘Entitled’ in which, drawing upon the accounts of some 300 people, he appropriately describes their lives in terms of ‘The Rise and Fall’. Whatever anyone’s feelings about the couple, and everyone will have his or her opinion, it is impossible not to wonder at, indeed marvel at, the hugely excessive sums of money that have passed through their hands during the course of their marriage and divorce.

Lance Hattatt and ‘Dark Runs the River’.

And to conclude on a personal note, we are so appreciative of the compliments we have received for ‘Dark Runs the River’ as well as the good wishes for its success.