Someone must have hacked my phone as that wasn’t me! Or at least I don’t remember doing it…. I’ve undone the rating and changed it to a “like”. AFAIK, although I have some Welsh and Irish ancestry, I have no Scottish ancestors. However, I do have a saltire on the numberplate of my motorhome which was there when I bought it and which I’ve left in situ as I love wild camping in the Highlands and I reckon it probably helps deter complaints from locals and harassment from McPlod. That’s kind of like honorary citizenship isn’t it @finm ?
I didn’t see the dislike. I hope you took it as the massive compliment it was meant to be. Once we get our own passports sorted out I’d be happy to sponsor you.
Not too many books can make you laugh out loud but some of Tom Sharpe's probably can. Not at all PC but 'The Throwback' and 'Porterhouse Blue' I remember were brilliant, and 'Riotous Assembly' and 'Indecent Exposure' based on his time in South Africa, are equally funny.
Another very funny book. However, it is brutally graphic and incredibly, but hilariously offensive. Imagine a darkly comic version of American Psycho where the main character is an A&R man in a British record company during the 90s, and he’s a racist, sexist, in fact you-name-it-ist misanthrope sociopathic sex and drug addict, but he is also very very funny indeed. There was a film made of it a few years ago starring Nicholas Holt, but while it’s pretty good, it’s not a patch on the novel which is brilliant, so I wouldn’t recommend you watch it in lieu of reading the book.
Filth, Irvine Welsh Scheming Bruce Robertson a bigoted and corrupt policeman, is in line for a promotion and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Enlisted to solve a brutal murder and threatened by the aspirations of his colleagues, Bruce sets about ensuring their ruin, right under the nose of unwitting Chief Inspector Toal. As he turns his colleagues against one another by stealing their wives and exposing their secrets, Bruce starts to lose himself in a web of deceit that he can no longer control. His past is slowly catching up with him, and a missing wife, a crippling drug habit and suspicious colleagues start to take their toll on his sanity. A particularly nasty read that made me feel physically ill
I’ve read all his stuff. Kill Your Friends was what got me started. His latest, O Brother, is his best work yet. It’s beautifully written. He about 4 or 5 years older than me, but this book is basically his biography and it’s remarkable. edit: just checked, he’s a year older than me!
Thanks for this. Interesting that he wrote this (his only) book while working in the Lister factory in Dursley, Gloucestershire. +1 for World of Books.
I had the pleasure of being a neighbour to one of the Lister family for a number of years, looking at their family history made me stumble upon this book.
I’ve recently binge listened my way through Annie Jacobsen’s (audio)books about various aspects of the American secret state. Highly recommended.
Not sure if this counts... pretty much read all of it bar the Style supplement - I think I've gone beyond any help there...
