Oli Beard

Book 1 of 2026. 'Prophet Song' by Paul Lynch. Booker Prize 2023 winner Gut-wrenching dystopian thriller set in contemporary Dublin. The fragility of democracy, descent to tyranny, the end of the world as a local event, the need for empathy as it could one-day be you.

'Picaresque justice' by Anthony Burgess A review of 'Henry Fielding: a biography' by Pat Rogers 'Professor Rogers's brief biography must primarily be read as a most vivid, sympathetic and humorous evocation not only of a remarkable character but of an astonishing age.'

'Sleight-of-hand fiesta' by Anthony Burgess A review of 'Cervantes: a biography' by William Byron 'It was a hard life, and Byron recounts it with empathy and gusto. The smells of the age steam from the page, and the prose rumbles like an empty stomach.'

Happy New Year, happy new book project (I haven't had a daily dose read for a while). Today I start 'Homage to QWERT YUIOP' by Anthony Burgess, a selection of his journalism, with the intent to read one a day through the year.

'Made in Manchester' by Brian Groom, foreward by Andy Burnham. A people's history of the city that shaped the modern world. What a city, what a history of people, sport, music, literature, and protest, what a book.

'A room with a view' by EM Forster, introduced by Sarah Winman. Brought back to this purely for Winman's introduction after enjoying her 'Still Life' inspired by Florence and particularly Forster's Florence. I found 'A Room' as delightful as the first time, but also funnier.

Book 1 of 2026. 'Prophet Song' by Paul Lynch. Booker Prize 2023 winner Gut-wrenching dystopian thriller set in contemporary Dublin. The fragility of democracy, descent to tyranny, the end of the world as a local event, the need for empathy as it could one-day be you.

@IrwellEdition Thank you. Fascinating. QWERT YUIOP is a true gateway to more Burgess as well as a whole world of other works.

@OGWBeard Burgess loved Rabelais -- he owned the 2-volume Everyman edition -- and he borrowed the technique of list-making for the key scenes in Tremor of Intent.

'Mothering Sunday' by Graham Swift. Jane Fairchild, an 'orchid' in service, uses her day off on Mothering Sunday 1924 for a tryst with a soon to be married man. So many brilliantly interwoven themes: storytelling, fiction, truth, liberty, class, equality, loss, but never love.

Bookpost, bookcident, uncontrolled book buying in the making? Either way it arrived today.

But thankfully not that of the apostrophe x.com/i/status/17560…

Oh no! I have fallen foul of the dd crime x.com/i/status/14458…