Book of the Week

One of the benefits of being back in the UK is that I'm doing alot more reading. Maybe it's got something to do with the fact my parents only having 4 TV channels. Can you believe that the fifth terrestrial channel, the one my parents don't get, is the only one that shows American football?

Luckily, the broadcasts move to a channel my parents have for the playoffs, otherwise I might have to cough up $30 to stay in a local hotel and watch the games on satellite TV!

Anyway, this is totally off topic, so back to books!

I've just finished reading "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" by Laurie Lee, the story of a young man from rural England going on the road in the England of the 1930's and then making his way to Spain, where he witnessed the first rumblings of the Spanish Civil War.

As I read the book I wondered what it would have been like if it had been written at the time rather than 30 years later. Is its lyricism a result of Lee's growing stature as a poet or would the young Lee have been able to describe his adventures with the same power. Whatever the answer, we'll never know but I do know that Lee's memoir holds it's own against contemporary writings such as Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia". I look forward to soon reading the follow-up volume of autobiography, "A Moment of War", in which Lee tells of his return to Spain to fight against Fascism with the International Brigade.

Orwel and Lee's books strike a chord with me because I was lucky enough, shortly after graduating from college, to meet several men who had fought with the International Brigade in Spain. Most of those I met were coal miners from South Wales whose stories are told in Hywel Francis's fascinating "Miners Against Fascism".

If anyone stateside would like to read "As I Walked Out ..." I would be happy to mail it to you ... first come, first served!

I'm now reading James Lee Burke's "Jolie Blon's Bounce". For those of you not familiar with him, Burke writes wonderful crime novels set in and around New Orleans. Believe me when I say 'crime novel' is nowhere near adequate to describe Burke's work. Try one ...

It's good to read ... more later!