The Minister of Evil – The Secret History of Rasputin’s Betrayal of Russia by William Le Queux
The Minister of Evil: The Secret History of Rasputin’s Betrayal of Russia is a very strange book. I read itContinue Reading
Tag: alcohol
Filth by Irvine Welsh
Recently I’ve been very much enjoying Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong*’s Channel 4 police drama, Babylon. This under-watched TV showContinue Reading
Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Isabel Allende is brilliant, an under-rated writer of supreme skill,Continue Reading
Lonesome Traveler by Jack Kerouac
Last Summer, whilst twatpacking* around the Mediterranean, Tunisair lost my backpack between Casablanca and Tunis. Though it contained nothing ofContinue Reading
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is, I must begrudgingly admit, a great Haruki Murakami novel. One ofContinue Reading
Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was one of the first writers I ever truly loved. When I was an undergraduate, many years ago,Continue Reading
A Dead Man In Deptford by Anthony Burgess
I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks and will continue to be horrendously so for the next few. I’ve beenContinue Reading
Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry by George Bowker
I took a week to read this harrowing, depressing, heart-wrenchingly awful* biography of one of the most troubled, confused andContinue Reading
Lunar Caustic by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry’s books are all about depression and alcoholism. And most of them he was too drunk and sad toContinue Reading
On Going To The Football
Last Saturday I did something utterly unprecedented and attended a professional football match. It feels like it happened ages ago,Continue Reading
Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
Without a shadow of a doubt, Big Sur is the best book by Jack Kerouac I have ever read. It wasContinue Reading
Hear Us O Lord from heaven thy dwelling place by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry died in 1957, having published only two books (both novels) in his lifetime: the youthful Ultramarine (1934, myContinue Reading
The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene
Right. My blog is back in business, back to books. (As I’m sure you can see, my hair is far,Continue Reading
Mykonos, My Parasitic Anal Infection & My Binge Drinking Shame
I’m pretty certain, as I sadly sit at my faithful kitchen table back on England’s silage strewn shores, that somewhereContinue Reading
Having a Riot in Athens: Passing Out on the Floor, Pube Trimming, Heavy Drinking, Self-Harming AND Visiting the New Acropolis Museum
My second day in Athens I woke up, fully dressed, contact lenses in, on the floor. A chair I mayContinue Reading
Under The Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry was a tragic figure. A hugely talented writer, yet an alcoholic of such self-destructive proportions that he diedContinue Reading
Ultramarine by Malcolm Lowry
This book took quite a bit of searching to find. I first read about it in Jonathan Coe’s Like A FieryContinue Reading
Triumph Of The Now 