Autumn 2019 - 'Adrift on the Tides of War'

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Autumn 2019 - 'Adrift on the Tides of War'

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1abbottthomas
Bearbeitet: Okt. 12, 2019, 1:26 pm

Books reviewed in this edition:

War Diaries by Lord Alanbrooke
Our Age by Noel Annan
Boy by Roald Dahl
The Last of the Light by Peter Davidson
The Means of Escape by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Scots Kitchen by F. M. McNeill
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
Ballet Shoes and The Whicharts by Noel Streatfield
The Eagle of the Ninth and The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliffe
In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Betsinda Dances, Sycamore Square and other Verses, The Modern Struwwelpeter and The Glassblower and Other Poems by Jan Struther
The Case of the Gilded Fly and eight other Gervase Fen novels by Edmund Crispin

5000+ copies of Roald Dahl's memoir, Boy, give him top slot among LT libraries with Gaudy Night not far behind (c. 4400). There are a couple of thousand copies of the popular children's books Ballet Shoes and The Eagle of the Ninth. Streatfield's other work, The Whicharts, hardly features with 32 although Sutcliffe's sequel, The Silver Branch, shows 900 copies.

Edmund Crispin is popular: The Moving Toyshop is top of the list with about 1100 copies and there are another 3100 copies of the other Gervase Fen novels. Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy is well known (c. 850 copies) with another 300 or so of the individual volumes.

Means of Escape (252), Lord Alanbrooke's diaries (168) and Tennyson's In Memoriam (140) come next, although In Memoriam has been much anthologised. Lord Annan, the Scots cookbook and Davidson's book on twilight manage double figures. Jan Struther brings up the rear with six copies of her four books of poetry: she is much better known, thanks largely due to the very popular film, as the author of Mrs. Miniver.

2ironjaw
Okt. 13, 2019, 8:32 am

Looks quite interesting reads. Read Boy by Roald Dahl last year and it was quite amusing.

3Willoyd
Okt. 16, 2019, 5:41 am

So, not always the hidden gems that SF reckon to focus on? Love the magazine, but do sometimes wonder what criteria, if any, they put on the books reviewed.

4abbottthomas
Okt. 16, 2019, 11:06 am

Both Boy and the Sutcliffe works are promoting forthcoming Slightly Foxed Editions in hardback. Understandably the books they choose to publish thus are mostly reasonably well known if sometimes rather old-fashioned. Do Edmund Crispin and Dorothy L. Sayers need a nudge? Maybe, for millennial readers.

I do like to be led to out of the way corners but I don't think I will seek out Jan Struthers poetry, although I might have a look at Mrs Miniver. After reading the review I am interested in Alanbrooke's diaries and I may have a go at The Balkan Trilogy, a work I am aware of without ever really been tempted to read. (only 99p for Vol 1 on Kindle although £3.99 each for 2 & 3)