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Transcript

READING ROOM AUG 26 · The Reading Room

0:16
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to this month's reading Room. I'm here
0:20
Christa with Barry. Hello, and we got Sue. Hello, Welcome
0:26
to the show. Right, we're going to discuss the last book,
0:29
which was Gabriel's Moon by William Boyd, written in twenty
0:34
twenty four. So I'm going to start with you, Barry.
0:38
That's okay, what do you think?
0:40
Speaker 2: Okay, good start. I liked it up to a point.
0:48
I thought it was fairly lightweight, is the truth. But
0:54
in saying that, it was easy reading, and I did
1:00
enjoy it as a sort of not a throwaway thing,
1:03
but just as a sort of a lightweight summer read.
1:06
Speaker 1: Okay, Sue, Well.
1:09
Speaker 3: This is my choice of book because because after reading
1:14
Any Human Heart, I wanted to read some more of
1:18
this work. I mean, I would never have come across
1:20
in other than for the reading room. And I will
1:25
say it's I agree with burying the sense that it's
1:29
not meant to be a deep tom. It is quite
1:33
light weight, but sometimes that makes a nice change. And
1:37
I found that there was elements in this book which
1:40
reminded me very much of Any Human Heart, because it
1:44
turns you into a fictional world, but because it's so
1:48
realistically written and researched. It seems like fact.
1:52
Speaker 1: Well, I know what you mean. I absolutely loved it,
1:54
and it is like reading. I liked the fact that
1:57
it was a modern book because I still of historical novels,
2:01
but we read so many that it was nice and
2:03
refreshing for me to have a modern book. And I
2:07
just like that era of the nineteen sixties. And I
2:10
don't usually read spy books, but I might change that
2:14
because I found it really gripping in part and very clever,
2:18
and I really enjoyed the story as well. A bit
2:22
confused at the end. I usually am confused at the
2:24
end of novels, and I had to kind of reread
2:26
it to find out what exactly happened. But I thought
2:31
the characters were very interesting, really good characters. And I
2:35
loved the way he was traveling, and you know, a
2:37
bit of a traveler like you, So I just quite
2:40
excited when he said things like I could understand when
2:43
he said I'm planning another trip, which made me feel better.
2:45
I thought, yeah, I know how that feels. Or I've
2:47
just arrived in a place and he goes for dinner
2:49
by himself to Madrid, and I think, yeah, I know
2:53
how that feels. Okay, buried back on to you anymore
2:57
you can, Yeah.
2:59
Speaker 2: I think some of the things which you which you
3:01
mentioned are some of the things which which I don't
3:03
really get along with. I mean, I found the same
3:05
thing I remember saying the same thing about any human heart,
3:08
is that when you bring real life situations into it
3:14
in terms of quite well known things, it does tend
3:18
to blur, you know, whether you're reading history or fiction
3:23
in certain cases, I mean, just for people who are
3:28
familiar with the book, it starts off really in terms
3:32
of the main narrative.
3:33
Speaker 4: There are several subplots.
3:34
Speaker 2: Which we'll probably get to, but in terms of the
3:37
main narrative, he actually goes and interviews Patrese La Mumba,
3:42
who was the Prime Minister of the Congo shortly after
3:46
he'd been elected, and I mean he was a real character,
3:52
and he interviews him and he tells him that he's
3:55
under threat of death and subsequently ends up being assassinated,
4:00
and in real life that the his his death was
4:06
was was held responsible apparently by the CIA and by
4:10
six and by the Belgian intelligence people, so there's there's
4:13
truth in it. And then he constructs his own fiction
4:18
around it, So that can be a little bit confusing,
4:21
I think.
4:23
Speaker 4: Just for me, you know so.
4:27
Speaker 3: Well, yes, I think because by it does so much
4:33
painstake and research. I think he thinks of every detail
4:37
in the book to try and convince you that it's real,
4:41
That Dax is real. Gabel Dex is the title character,
4:45
and it goes so far at the end of the
4:47
book to list to the works of this fictional author
4:51
called Gabrielle Dax, and the list even goes to the
4:55
extent of saying rivers rackets in preparation and that the
5:00
book that Dex is working on in Gabriel's Moons. So
5:04
he actually does his best to make you believe that
5:09
these characters are real. And I think that he has
5:13
a gifted making very very unreal situations feel like fact.
5:18
So I felt that sometimes when I was reading this book,
5:21
I felt that it was based on personal experience, and
5:26
it reminded me of another reading room book, Carl Sumerstland's Ashington, Ashington,
5:33
which is actually based on true facts. And I'd love
5:36
to know what inspires Boyd to write this material.
5:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, actually looked into Boyd and he was born
5:43
I think in Nigeria, and then wealthy family went to
5:48
university and an English lecturer, so get quite an interesting life.
5:53
I think well traveled as well, so that's probably part
5:56
of the knowledge. But I didn't actually realize that the
5:59
president of Congo was a real character, which is very interesting.
6:05
But there was so much going on in the book.
6:07
I think lots of different stories entwined, which I did
6:11
really like. I like that, and I liked the way
6:16
it was interesting because Gabriel Dax's he always thought about
6:21
the clothes that Faith Green wore, and I thought that
6:24
was kind of an interesting touch. Every time he met
6:26
her he mentioned her clothes, what she was wearing.
6:30
Speaker 3: Yes, I think that's true. Christ I've found the description
6:36
as the character, characters and situations was incredible. The way
6:41
he describes food and drink to such an extent that
6:44
Academis tastes of food, and his descriptions of people make
6:49
them see me when he's talking about what women are wearing,
6:53
which is the unusual for me, Lauth that he goes
6:55
into such detail, such as naming specific fashion self fashioned houses. Yeah,
7:01
and I think that adds to the reality of the
7:05
of the characters and the observational powers.
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Speaker 1: Of Das yeah, and he went right down to the
7:11
shoes that they were wearing. Well, yes, he's wearing the
7:13
pumps today.
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Speaker 4: And I have to say I found exactly the opposite.
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Speaker 2: I thought that it was a bit weird and so
7:20
and I was surprised that he would be as familiar
7:23
with different design houses. There was nothing suggested in his
7:27
background which would give him that sort of knowledge. And
7:30
I just found that it was like a certain like voyeurism,
7:34
which I found a bit unsettling, and which actually occurs
7:38
later on when he's actually stalking the faith Green who
7:42
is his spy handler in the m I six. I mean,
7:46
there's there's no there's no good way of saying it. Really,
7:49
the fact that he actually rents a bike and stakes
7:53
himself out by a house with a pair of binoculars
7:56
is really is probably the deaf en of stalking rather
8:01
than just suggestion, you know. So I found I found
8:05
that that part of it.
8:09
Speaker 4: Unbelievable.
8:09
Speaker 2: And the fact that she knew that he was doing
8:12
that and still chose to go into bed with him,
8:14
I found also very very unbelievable. But I mean these
8:18
are only just bits. It's I mean, it's not I
8:20
don't think it's meant to be taken too seriously. I
8:23
think it's a sort of a sub genre of John Lecarrey.
8:28
It doesn't go into enough detail and it isn't clever enough.
8:31
I don't think for for for the John Lacaray type thing,
8:35
and it's it's it's a bit like James Bond, but
8:38
without the sort of glitz and glitter.
8:40
Speaker 1: Really, I think he was trying to. I think he's
8:42
written the James Bond.
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Speaker 4: Solo.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a thing which I saw which he
8:49
me if I can, he said. Boyd described his youthful
8:53
enthusiasm for the James Bond novels and their heady but
8:57
slightly toxic cocktail of snobbery set ex ludicrous violence, exotic travel,
9:02
and superior consumer goods.
9:05
Speaker 4: And one of the reviewers I read made the point
9:09
that he.
9:09
Speaker 2: Didn't follow that, but I thought that he did in
9:12
some ways in his own in his own way, you know,
9:15
like a sort of inverted snobbery in as much as
9:19
you know, he was an ex public schoolboy and his
9:22
girlfriend was a young girl who worked it worked in
9:25
wimpy and then when he goes to Poland, there's a
9:29
there's a scouse reporter for the Daily Worker, and I
9:32
felt that those sort of things we were fairly pointed
9:36
rather than just random.
9:37
Speaker 1: You know, And I quite like that what about you, Sue.
9:40
Speaker 3: But to go back to when he starts talking faith,
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I felt that that was kind of completely out of character.
9:49
I mean, when he killed them out on the boat,
9:52
I thought that was out of character, but I could
9:55
reason that that was self defense. But when he employed
9:59
ty into Trail thirty reminded me a bit of the
10:03
film Theirty Go and Scottie, who was played by James Stewart,
10:09
was following his you know, the woman he was obsessed
10:12
with around and that's when I think I began to
10:16
think of s Gabriel as somewhat troubled, obsessed, and maybe
10:21
a dangerous man. And I felt that I would have
10:25
to read the next two books to find out.
10:28
Speaker 1: I want to read the next two books.
10:29
Speaker 2: That's funny you should say that, because I actually, after
10:32
having read the book, I went online on Amazon and
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the second book in the series was five pounds, So
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because I've got Amazon Prime, it doesn't cost for postage.
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So I've read that since as well. All right, and
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there's there's there's a third one. Which is actually due
10:55
for release in September, all right, which will be in
10:59
hard in hard cover. But the second, the second part
11:03
of the book, The Predicament, is available in paperback because
11:08
they're only fairly recent as well, and it's it's more
11:11
of the same.
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Speaker 4: And it does.
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Speaker 2: I mean, I found I had to go back and
11:16
read the first one again because it all blurred into one,
11:20
you know, because it's like one long story, really, I
11:22
suppose has a lot of trilogies are but I found
11:25
that there were certain things about it which became even
11:29
stranger because the other part of the story, probably the
11:32
major subplot, is that he's an insomniac because his mother
11:37
died in a house fire and he was there when
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he was six years old, and so he was adopted.
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But then he had insomnia and was constantly waking up
11:47
and seeing fire and what have you. So he goes
11:50
to a psychoanalyst, and the psychoanalyst, it turns out, is unqualified,
11:57
just decides to be a psychoanalyst, and he ends up
12:01
telling her everything, and he tells her he's working for
12:03
MI I six and all sorts of things. In the
12:05
most implausible sort.
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Speaker 5: Of subplot, I found the nineteen, which is not much
12:10
of a spy if he's telling everybody he's working for
12:13
MI six, you know, yeah, Sue, Yeah, I.
12:17
Speaker 3: Think I think that's what I think that he. I
12:22
think Boyd starts off with situations which are just believable,
12:30
and then I think as you read the book, it
12:33
becomes to it comes to the just unbelievable as you're
12:39
reading through it. But by that time I was hooked
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and I just wanted to read on.
12:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was hooked. I really enjoyed reading it. I
12:49
liked the bits of when he was so spontaneous, that
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kind of you know, I was kind of thinking I'd
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love to be like that. He just got into the
12:54
car and he drove to oh yeah, what was that place? Cadiz?
13:00
And yeah, I got that excitement through the traveling. And
13:06
then I was quite surprised as well when he tries
13:10
to help and rescue the double agent who turns out
13:16
not to be a double agent. Is that right?
13:19
Speaker 3: Yes? Yeah, it was a triple agent.
13:22
Speaker 1: It was a triple agent. Yeah, yeah, because and I
13:25
may know that he's rescued him. I found that a
13:26
bit confusing, but I liked it. I liked that little
13:29
twist in it too, because I was I was really
13:32
worried that he was going to get caught with this guy,
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and the guy left, and I think.
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Speaker 3: It was a test basically, I think it was his character.
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Speaker 4: I think it was set up.
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Speaker 2: I think I think that they wanted him to do
13:45
that to make the story plausible, and so they predicted
13:50
that he would do that. I've nicked a quote from
13:54
somewhere again here just because I think it's an Foster
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quote that it said, given the option of betraying of
14:04
betraying country or friend, you would hope to have the
14:07
guts to betray to betray the country, which I thought
14:10
was the You know, obviously somebody else had already put
14:16
that conclusion on that particular incidence. And I think, you know,
14:19
they set it up so that he is friends with
14:22
the guy, but only over a couple of days, and
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then you know, it's after he sort of seeses his
14:29
brother with faith Green, after they've all lied to him,
14:33
that he feels a bit betrayed by them. So in
14:36
a fit of Dudjney sort of, he helps the guy
14:41
who is turns out to be the Triple Agent and
14:44
gives his escape story plausibility, so it was quite convoluted.
14:49
But I think it's one of those things. Really, I
14:52
don't think it's meant to be taken too seriously. It's
14:55
a bit like the James Bond thing, you know, where
14:57
you see them in Mexico City blowing up hotels and
15:00
things like that, and the next thing he's somewhere else,
15:03
you know, And there isn't some major incidents, you know,
15:06
requiring him to be arrested, you know what I mean
15:08
that some of it is just so sort of superhero like,
15:15
you know that it's supposed to just be, you know,
15:17
suspend your belief for a little while, and if you're
15:20
enjoying it.
15:20
Speaker 4: There's nothing wrong with that.
15:22
Speaker 1: Absolutely not.
15:23
Speaker 2: I don't want to pick too many holtes in it because,
15:24
like I say, I read the follow up book, and
15:26
I'll read the third one, probably amazing.
15:28
Speaker 1: Do you think you know his brother was it brothers?
15:32
You know, we are giving stuff away on this book
15:34
program because we're discussing the book, so this is a spoiler.
15:37
But do you think his brothers it was suicide or
15:40
do you think he.
15:41
Speaker 2: Was I think do I think he was bumped off
15:43
by m I six, Yeah, I don't think there's any
15:45
possibility that it was suicide at all. Yeah, I think that.
15:49
I think that, you know, it's one of those things.
15:51
I mean, this is one of the things where that
15:52
you know, the truth is stranger than fiction.
15:55
Speaker 3: You know.
15:55
Speaker 2: You get these stories where it's like with m I six,
15:58
where we had that there was there was a guy
16:00
who was this is the truth, the true story not
16:03
in the book, where where the guy was in a
16:05
six and they found him locked up in a hold
16:08
all in his bath, you know, and and that they
16:11
came to the conclusion that he'd locked himself in the
16:14
hold all you know what I mean, after they'd cleaned
16:16
the room and everything like that. You know, I think
16:18
they just they tell you anything, you know, and I
16:21
expect you to believe it.
16:22
Speaker 4: Really, you know.
16:23
Speaker 1: So it's hard to believe that people do our spies
16:25
and lead toble lives and triple I.
16:28
Speaker 2: Mean, they tend to be posh people, you know, and
16:31
they tend to have been to the best universities. It's
16:33
like William Boyd himself went to Gordonstown, you know, King
16:39
Charles went to You know, we're not talking about a
16:41
sort of.
16:43
Speaker 4: From the streets author.
16:45
Speaker 2: Here, are we were talking about, you know, from a
16:47
world of privilege, you know, So can you add, Yeah.
16:52
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of the author in Jack
16:59
because Boyd as a writer took two years re searching
17:04
any human heart before he actually started writing it. And
17:08
I think sidly the book GaX has taken something like
17:13
two years to write full chapters of Rivers. So I
17:16
do think there's a lot of avoid in it, and
17:20
I do think that apparently it does hook you to
17:24
the point where when it says to be continued and
17:28
you read the prologue of the next book. I read
17:31
it and I felt for myself that Space Green had
17:34
hooked Gabriel William Broyd. That hooked me.
17:38
Speaker 5: Yeah.
17:39
Speaker 3: Having said that, I still felt that sometimes of reasons
17:43
for getting involved and staying involved were a bit weak.
17:48
And I also write know more about the death of
17:51
his mother than that to be resolved and somehow linked
17:55
to his situation today. Now I don't know, because I've
18:00
not read the second book, and obviously the third one
18:02
is in town, whether that actually happens. And it's part
18:05
of five skill as a writer, because going through it
18:10
there were so many characters. At certain points I felt
18:13
that the rain disappeared for so long I wondered what
18:17
happened to her, which means she was memorable in the
18:19
first place, But you think it's forgotten them, but he
18:22
always finds a way to bring them back into the
18:25
story seamlessly. Yeah. That's what I liked about it. That
18:30
sometimes you see things on television, or you see things
18:34
in terms or read books, and characters just disappear.
18:37
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, but with him, he.
18:40
Speaker 3: Does bring them back in. And also they've changed and
18:46
their lives have changed, so it's not just Dax's life
18:48
that's changed. Therain's life changed. So that part I liked
18:53
about the consistency of people reaving, you know, through life.
18:59
Wasn't just about him, it was about all the people
19:02
around him.
19:03
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean it was a very powerful beginning of
19:06
the book, wasn't it. When you're just going to open
19:08
the first few pages and then you find out all
19:10
that stuff his father had died, and then the house
19:14
fire and the lamp. So that was so I think
19:18
he was very clever, William Boyd the way he starts
19:22
to write the book and you are kind of cooked
19:24
from the beginning. What I was I wanted to know
19:26
what had happened and I'm right in saying that they
19:29
don't think the fire was caused by that lamp at
19:31
the end.
19:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's also I think intimated that it wasn't accidental.
19:39
I know, yeah, I got the fact that running through
19:43
it that it wasn't actually accidental. Now that might see
19:48
a red herring. I don't know, but I'd like to
19:53
think that there is more about that scenario to come.
19:56
Speaker 4: I'm sure that we'll find.
19:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, like without giving anything away at all,
20:02
you know, I mean, the plots and the subplots continue
20:05
you know, through the second book, and could presumably get
20:08
come to some form of denw Mont in the in
20:12
the third, which I think you might expect. I mean,
20:14
it's it's partly that thing where I suppose a trilogy
20:17
of books is really just one long book, you know,
20:20
I mean, and at some stage point in time you'll
20:23
probably join them together, you know, sort of for a
20:26
for a proper for a proper holiday read, you know,
20:28
because it's it's it's it's not particularly long. Is it's
20:31
only like something like two hundred and sixty pages or something,
20:35
you know, So I mean, if you had the three
20:36
books and they ended up being like eight hundred pages.
20:39
It might be a fairly weighty tone, but it would
20:41
still be a manageable holiday.
20:43
Speaker 1: Reader, and it'll be a great holiday read actually, and he.
20:46
Speaker 2: Does write, you know, it's fairly simple language and decent dialogue,
20:51
so you know, I wouldn't like I say, I think
20:54
it's lightweight, as I said at the start, but at
20:57
the same time it's not. It's not difficult read, and
21:01
therefore it can be distracting, you know, on a on
21:04
a sunny day sitting in the.
21:06
Speaker 4: Garden, you know.
21:07
Speaker 1: And I think so you were right, because the characters
21:09
were not. Sometimes books have so many characters that you
21:12
get lost in them, and there was quite a lot
21:14
of characters, but he didn't. He made it clear who
21:16
they were because he would bring them back in again
21:18
and he'd explain who they were, so you'd oh, yes,
21:20
that's his girlfriend, of course, and because it brings something
21:24
up that made you realize, yeah, that's that so and so,
21:26
that so and so so. I thought that was really good.
21:28
I thought his writing was really good.
21:30
Speaker 3: Yes, it's so descripted. I mean that there's some there's
21:35
some wonderful courts in it as well. When he says
21:40
some paste one hundred in his safe that memory is
21:43
like a dog that wants to please its master. And
21:46
I thought that was so such a good such a
21:49
good quotation, such a good place that is.
21:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought, I fold the corner over. I folded
21:55
the corner over at that and put an asterisk against
21:57
it as well. So yeah, I thought it was one
22:00
of those Yeah, you know, I'll remember that one.
22:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's such a such a good phrase. And as
22:08
you say, it's not sort of a serious, you know,
22:11
literature tone, but within that you find sort of quotations
22:16
like that which are absolute gems. And it's true as well.
22:20
It's not just a good quotation, it's so true when
22:22
you think about it.
22:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, very very wise. Yeah, yeah, sorry, you go on.
22:31
Speaker 3: He was traveling around that much that sometimes I ever
22:33
be subjected, like to be honest, trying to keep up
22:36
with him, because one minute, I think twenty seven, he's
22:40
actually gone to London at the beginning of the paragraph,
22:45
and then it's in Madrid and there's no scene break
22:48
or a new paragraph. Now, I did find that confusing,
22:51
and I had to reread it just to make sure.
22:54
But I do think his ability to control all these
22:58
characters in the plots and the silk plots. It's amazing.
23:04
Speaker 1: It was, Yeah, And I loved the fact that he
23:07
was doing his travel writing on the rivers. I thought,
23:10
what a good idea. Why didn't I think of that?
23:13
And then yeah, I started looking up rivers and I thought, oh, yeah,
23:17
you know, what a great idea. So he was like,
23:20
he portrayed to me as a very interesting travel writer.
23:24
And the fact that he always had his passport on
23:26
him I loved that too, the ability just to go
23:29
right to the airport and get on a plane. And
23:32
of course, with the Eastern Bloc in the sixties, with
23:35
the Cold War, I could relate to that because my
23:38
dad was from the Eastern Bloc and I could really
23:41
relate to that. And I thought, I know, the scout,
23:44
said lady who comes from the workers paper, and she's
23:47
very suspicious of her. And I liked that twist. I thought, yeah,
23:50
because this is such a left country city, I thought,
23:53
how how funny that he's put that in. So I
23:56
quite liked that.
23:57
Speaker 3: Really. Yeah, going it takes you into the real world
24:02
as it was then, so it's sort of dipping you
24:06
in and out of fact and fiction. And I think
24:09
his research to get that fee. I presume it's not
24:13
old enough to have experienced it.
24:16
Speaker 2: I think he's seventy. I think he's seventy four now,
24:19
so he would have been like a teenager in the sixties.
24:25
Speaker 3: Yes, so he wouldn't really have gone to the Eastern
24:28
Bloc in that kind of capacity. And I thought aware
24:32
that he plaid. You know, you described it and the
24:36
interaction between the characters and the difference between the restriction
24:40
of the characters in the Eastern Bloc and the freedom
24:44
of London in Spain that had been sort of under
24:48
you know, Franco's rein and I think it was a
24:52
contrast and it's also I think a contrast between countries
24:56
then and what's happened to those countries today.
25:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that changed.
25:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you were really righting it today, you'd have
25:08
to choose different being it up to date today, you'd
25:12
have to choose different countries for that kind of reaction.
25:16
Speaker 4: Yeah.
25:16
Speaker 1: I found it was a bit unbelievable when he got
25:18
the higher car when he was in the Eastern Block,
25:22
where was he again Poland? And then he just drove
25:24
through all those countries and he wasn't stopped, and it
25:27
was a rental car, so that was a bit unbelievable,
25:29
and then he just left it at the airport and
25:31
got on a plane.
25:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's some there's some of that. I
25:36
felt the same way. But I remember hiring a car
25:39
in Spain probably forty years ago and driving it into
25:42
France and it didn't cause a problem, you know, So
25:45
I think that, you know, there were you can't these days.
25:52
Speaker 4: The thing I.
25:52
Speaker 2: Found, which was which was difficult with that bit was
25:55
that he actually drove it to an airport in bit A,
26:00
Hamburg or somewhere, you know, and left it there, you know,
26:03
which I don't think he would get away with. It's
26:06
not as if he's not traceable as a person when
26:08
he was using his own passport and everything, you know,
26:10
so you know, he wouldn't. They wouldn't just say oh
26:14
that's fine, it's you know, I don't. I can't imagine
26:17
that there was another high like a Hurtz rent a
26:20
car office that you could just return it to.
26:22
Speaker 3: You know.
26:23
Speaker 2: He didn't go into any of that sort of detail.
26:25
So there was an element I think of it being
26:27
but that's part of the far fetched nature of it,
26:29
you know. It's like, you know, He's a bit like
26:32
a sub James Bond character, isn't he. And you know,
26:35
and so coincidence has happened which have seemed very unlikely
26:39
as well, you know, And everybody seems to be able
26:41
to find each other very easily and know where they
26:44
are within a matter of hours, you know, even the
26:46
guy who was on the boat with him, you know,
26:49
who managed to track him very easily, you know, without
26:51
the benefit of mobile phones and the Internet and what
26:54
have you. So it's just very convenient, but it's still
26:57
you know, makes the story read well.
26:59
Speaker 1: You know. And he wanted him dead because of the
27:02
names on the tape.
27:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was the only person apart from the people
27:06
who were involved, who had the names, and they were
27:08
incriminating President Eisenhower. So and that part of it, I
27:12
would guess was factual as well, you know, but you know,
27:16
because I mean, and then the thing about Patters la
27:18
Mumba was that he was a sort of a Marxist
27:20
and an anti colonial, you know, and so you know,
27:24
according to the book, you know, that was a bad
27:27
thing and he had to be bumped off. Were as
27:28
these days, I'd be on his side. I'd probably even
27:31
then to be honest, you know, I would have been
27:33
on his side. So you know, it's not as if
27:36
you know my country right or wrong or anything. You know,
27:39
the fact that they were complicit in murdering a guy
27:43
who meant well for his country, it is a bad thing.
27:46
Speaker 1: For me, you know, So go on, So can you
27:48
add anythink?
27:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just funny because Gergiel went into sort of
27:54
paranoid spy mode, and I felt myself going into the
27:58
mode as second guest in the plot. I'm wondering all
28:02
the time whether we've been set up that happen, had
28:05
it been set up obviously setting somebody else up. So
28:09
in that way, I think that was part of the
28:11
of the hooking process, that I can put it that way,
28:15
that you started, you started as he in the end
28:18
couldn't believe anybody I've found it sort of that I
28:22
was sort of thinking, now, if it's a setup, isn't
28:25
it a setup? Has he walked into this purposely or
28:29
is it just coincidence? So I kind of, I don't know,
28:32
reacting to the book, reacting to what was happening, rather
28:36
than just reading it and turning the page. I was
28:39
actually getting involved.
28:40
Speaker 1: But yeah, no, I was too. I was, yeah, at points,
28:43
I was like really stressed about him arriving on time.
28:47
But there's a couple of things like it. I'm not
28:49
clear about the painting in Spain, wasn't it in Cadesel
28:53
in the south of Spain. What was all that about?
28:56
Why did you have to get that painting?
28:57
Speaker 2: Because they were using it for in the old in
29:00
the in the days of previous and Cold war espionage
29:04
and what have you, that they had things called micro dots,
29:07
you know, which were like held plans and stuff like that,
29:12
and so the painting actually had a micro dot on it,
29:14
which was why he was getting how he was getting
29:16
secrets to the to the to the to the Russians
29:20
in this case, because he was acting as a double
29:22
agent to them. So that what happened was he'd pick
29:25
up a painting and would be like a plausible thing,
29:28
but then they would write on it and like in
29:31
the in the in the in the dot over the
29:33
eye would be a micro dot which was which held
29:36
all of the the secret plans and what have you,
29:40
and the photographs of the nuclear bombs that that the
29:46
Americans had had, which they wanted apparently too for them
29:52
to see the story being that the American nuclear bombs
29:56
had been proven to work and had worked in Hiroshima
29:58
and what whereas the Russians didn't have any nuclear bombs,
30:03
which they were necessarily very reliable. That's the story that
30:07
was given, and this is where when it sort of
30:10
wanders into that sort of territory what you believe or not.
30:13
You know, I'm not giving anything away at all about
30:15
the second book, because you know, at the start of it,
30:18
I think it's intimated. At the end of this is
30:20
Kennedy dies, you know, so you know, there's a lot
30:24
of that tied into it.
30:25
Speaker 4: It's that it is that Cold War. It's like the.
30:28
Speaker 2: Cuba stories that it's the it's the missiles and you know,
30:32
which was all at this time that the book set.
30:35
Speaker 4: It was all very recent stuff, really.
30:38
Speaker 1: It was, and it kind of brought back those memories
30:40
when I was too young. But to think people were
30:42
so terrified of the Third World War?
30:45
Speaker 4: Absolutely, so, can you add some more?
30:52
Speaker 3: I wore. I enjoyed it, and I'm glad I really
30:57
enjoyed it because sometimes when you read a good book
31:00
by an author and then you go to a second
31:03
book by the same author, it can be a disappointment,
31:07
But with this I didn't feel it was a disappointment.
31:11
It's kind of a standby author that if I want
31:14
to read something that I know, expect to enjoy and
31:20
has placed me in the past, not just one book,
31:22
but the test of two books, then I would go
31:24
to him and I'm going to get book two and
31:27
book to read. And I don't think there's very higher
31:30
recommendation in that question.
31:32
Speaker 1: Really, Yeah, I agree with you, Marry. Anything else you
31:35
can add for about the book.
31:38
Speaker 4: No, I think that it's right.
31:41
Speaker 2: The thing is, I don't want to sort of I
31:44
don't want to criticize it too much because I enjoyed it.
31:46
But no, I neither don't want to praise it too much.
31:48
And I in as much as the things I didn't
31:52
like about Any Human Heart or the things I did
31:56
like about Any Human Heart that the previous book that
31:58
we've done was I liked the espionage part of it,
32:01
where as I found like some of the other stuff
32:03
was was less believable. You know, when he was living
32:06
on the street with nothing, you know, and you know
32:10
the equivalent of cooking rat to eat, really when he
32:13
had when he'd already inherited a house of some poet
32:16
in south of France, do you know what I mean?
32:17
It was like there were elements of that which were
32:19
just sort of potting it in my view, and I
32:22
found that when he was like talking about this Cold
32:25
War espionage type thing, that it was enjoyable in the
32:30
same way I think as like Len Dayton, you know,
32:34
the Chris File and Funeral in Berlin, those sort of
32:37
things not not not absolute literature, but but joyful romps
32:43
if you like of that.
32:44
Speaker 4: Nature, you know.
32:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, So would you rank the other two books as
32:48
good as this one?
32:51
Speaker 3: S christ?
32:54
Speaker 1: I was asking Barri whether he'd ranked those the second
32:56
right second books as good as the first one. Oh?
32:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, it's the same, you know, it's it's another
33:02
of the same. And if you like that then that's fine,
33:04
you know. I mean, I suppose, you know, you'll get
33:07
you might get to a point where you think it's
33:09
you know, jumps the shark and you've had too many
33:11
of them, you know, But at this stage, certainly there's
33:13
a room for it.
33:14
Speaker 4: And as I say, I would.
33:15
Speaker 2: Read the third one as well, so you know, I
33:18
would look forward to just to read in that as well.
33:21
Speaker 1: Okay, so what were you going to say, then I was.
33:25
Speaker 3: Just I was just about I was asking me to
33:28
compare it with any Human Heart, and I'd say that
33:34
they are bought as good for me. They're both to
33:38
make me want to turn the page and find time
33:41
to read it. So I think this sort of although
33:46
any Human Heart is much longer and it takes over
33:49
ten decades, which is obviously a lot more research, I
33:54
think that for me, they were both equal in enjoyment value.
33:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So I'll just read a little bit about
34:01
William Boyd then, okay. So he was born in nineteen
34:03
fifty two. He's a British novelist, short story writer, a
34:08
screenwriter and a film director. He's best known for novels
34:13
which include A Good Man in Africa, Any Human Heart,
34:16
and Restless, many of which have received critical acclaim and
34:20
literary awards. Excuse me So. Boyd has also written screenplays
34:25
for film and television, including Chaplain in nineteen ninety two,
34:30
and he directed the World War II drama The Trench
34:33
in nineteen ninety nine. Didn't realize he was the I'm
34:36
actually a director. His work is characterized by its narrative, fatality,
34:42
and range, earning him numerous accolades, including the Whitbread First
34:46
Novel Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the
34:52
cost A Book Award. A number of his works are
34:55
what he describes as whole life novels, which follow a
34:59
protagonist through the highs and lows of a varied and
35:02
often remarkable life. That sums it up really well. He
35:06
regularly fuses fact with fiction, and his lead characters encounter
35:10
well known historical figures. He was appointed Commander of the
35:15
Order of the British Empire in two thousand and five
35:18
for service to literature. John Self, writing for the Booker Prizes,
35:23
described Boyd's work as vigorous, entertaining novels produced by an
35:28
exceptionally fertile imagination, and praised his fiction as fully committed
35:34
to his stories and characters. So that's yeah, quite an
35:39
interesting person. Really lets to have a little look at
35:41
some of the work he's done. So he was Best
35:45
Young Novelist in nineteen eighty three and his novels are
35:53
A Good War in Africa is a study of a
35:55
disaster prone British diplomat operating in West Africa, for which
36:00
he won the Whitbread Book Award. Now that sounds like
36:03
an interesting novel. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, he likes to
36:07
have the background of World War One. Sometimes he's had, yeah,
36:12
he said, quite a few novels. And in any Human Heart,
36:16
which we've actually discussed on here, was written in the
36:18
form of a journal. Wasn't it a fictitious male? Yes? Yeah, memories?
36:23
Yeah yeah, okay. So out of ten, what would we
36:30
give it? Barry seven? Seven? Okay, Sue, I.
36:37
Speaker 3: Think, leaning to the en German said of it, I
36:40
think I give it nine.
36:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think i'd give it nine too. Yeah. Yeah,
36:45
for easy reading, like Barry said, a holiday, a good
36:47
book for a holiday. And you know it's nothing like
36:51
you know the great writers Thomas Hardy or anyone like that,
36:55
the poetic language. But yeah, it was easy to read
36:59
and easy to follow. So that was a real plus.
37:02
So before we choose the next book, so you have
37:05
an announcement about something you're doing in Lord Saint Helens.
37:09
Speaker 3: Yes, I have, Christopher, what it is I'm doing together
37:14
with Robert Evans, I'm doing an exhibition is called Rick
37:19
by the Rick, and it's an exhibition of concrete poetry
37:24
which is by myself and it's set photographs of St.
37:28
Helens by Robert Evans, and this is photographs of buildings
37:35
that are featured in the books and Terns in fifty buildings,
37:39
so the historical buildings, but some are more moderns what's
37:44
important to the fabric of the town. And this is
37:48
going to be at the Millennium Art Gallery, which is
37:52
in the Millennium Center in Corporation Streets and Helens is
37:57
free and we're actually putting it up tomorrow and then
38:01
it's going to stay up until five years of twenty
38:04
ninth of September, and it's opened the same hours as
38:08
the Millennium Center. And within the Millennium Center it's actually
38:13
an NHS Walking Center, so that's open, you know, quite
38:21
extensive hours, seven days a week, so there's plenty of
38:25
opportunity to go and see it.
38:28
Speaker 1: I was open, so seven days a week.
38:31
Speaker 3: It's seven days a week.
38:34
Speaker 1: Open.
38:35
Speaker 3: It's about eight o'clock in the morning and close at
38:37
nine o'clock at night because it's got to stay the
38:41
building's got to stay open because it's got the you know,
38:45
the walking center of the NHS Walking Center there, which
38:48
means you've got access to the exhibition. And it's actually
38:52
on the first floor of the Millennium Center.
38:55
Speaker 1: Is it near to the station to the train station?
38:57
Speaker 3: Is it's just around the corner from the train station.
39:00
Speaker 1: So that's easier to find.
39:01
Speaker 3: Then the trip over, we could where I wanted to
39:06
call it. You're most welcome.
39:07
Speaker 1: You've read my thoughts. Okay, my thoughts. I'm going anyway,
39:11
so I'm just going to because we've got some more time,
39:13
I'm going to read actually, just a little synopsis about
39:15
the book before we choose the next one. Okay, for
39:17
those of you who are a LUs who don't know
39:19
what the book is, so Gabriel's Moon. Gabriel's Moon is
39:23
the eighteenth novel by British author William Boyd, published in
39:28
twenty twenty four by Viking Penguin. Set against the backdrop
39:32
of the Cold War in the early nineteen sixties, the
39:36
book follows Gabriel Dax, which is a fantastic name, by
39:39
the way, I love that name. All the names were good,
39:42
like faith Green, they were just great names. Sefton, that
39:47
was his brother anyway, a travel writer who becomes inadvertently
39:52
entangled in international espionage. The narrative explores themes of memory, identity,
39:59
and trail. The story includes Boyd's regular blend of historical
40:04
and fiction, fictial people and events. It is the fourth
40:08
Boyd novel to heavily feature espionage, following Restless, Waiting for
40:13
Sunrise and Solo, his James Bond continuation novel Okay, that
40:18
was written in twenty thirteen. The novel begins in nineteen
40:23
thirty six with a traumatic house fire that kills young
40:26
Gabriel Dax's mother, leaving him haunted by confused memories and
40:31
chronic insomnia. By nineteen sixty, Gabriel has established himself as
40:36
a successful travel writer. While on assignment in Leopoldville, he
40:42
surprisingly secures an interview with Congolese Prime Minister Patrise Lamumba,
40:47
who tells Gabriel that he fears assassination and implicates Western
40:52
intelligence agencies. On his return to London, Gabriel finds himself
40:58
under surveillance, and his notes from the Lumumba interview become
41:02
the target of interest from both Six and the CIA.
41:07
His approach by faith greed an egmatic, enigmatic thank you
41:15
Six handler who recruits him for a covert operation in
41:19
Spain involving the retrieval of a surrealist artwork as Gabriel
41:24
delves deeper into the world of espionage, he uncovers unsettling
41:28
truths about his past and his family. In interviews, Boyd
41:34
has discussed his fascination with the espionage genre and its
41:38
capacity to explore complex human behaviors. He remarked, I feel
41:44
that the world of espionage is actually the human condition
41:49
writ large. We're all betrayed people, We've all lied to people.
41:55
Boyd also revealed that Gabriel's Moon is the first in
41:58
a planned trilogy for featuring Gabriel Dax, indicating his intention
42:03
to further explore the character's unwitting involvement in the espionage landscape.
42:09
The second Dax book, The Predicament, was published in twenty
42:13
twenty five, so the reception it got, Marcel Threux wrote
42:18
that the book skillfully performs double duty, working as a
42:23
satisfying standalone story and setting Gabriel up for a further
42:28
for further escapades. The book is a vivid recreation of
42:33
the early nineteen sixties, and one of the pleasures it
42:36
offers is a feeling of agreeable time travel to fascinating
42:41
corners of a vanished world. These are conveyed with a
42:44
filmic vibrancy. Malcolm Forbes commented that the novel is at
42:50
its most compelling when Gabriel is either interacting with his
42:55
mesmerizing and fiendishly shrewd handler or doing her bidding in
43:01
foreign Lands, Boyd routinely impresses with his portrait of an
43:07
individual who is in too deep emotionally and in the
43:11
dark as to what is going on around him. In
43:14
a largely negative review in The New York Times, Daniel
43:18
nay bemoans the way that Boyd conveys these plots, these
43:23
plot points in expositor expository dialogue, insulating the narrative from
43:31
any real sense of danger. Okay, yeah, I like those reviews. Actually,
43:39
I think they were quite good. It's true he does.
43:41
He puts these these positions of danger so commonly that
43:47
you it just seems like it's just an everyday thing,
43:50
like when he kills the guy on the boat and
43:54
stuff like that. Anyway, we will now look for the
43:57
next book. So they've got the r R selection is here, Barry,
44:02
do you want to grab one of those and see
44:04
what's the next book for I'm just going to shuffle
44:12
them a little bit. D This is the exciting time
44:16
I've got one. Let me see who is this? The
44:23
Tenant of Wildfell Hall by who is it? By Bronte
44:30
and Bronte. That's it. Yeah, the Torrent the Tenant of
44:33
Wildfell Hall by A Bronte. That is the book for
44:36
next month. So anybody out there who's listening is very
44:39
welcome to join us on this once a month reading room.
44:44
So I'm just going to repeat that book. It's the
44:45
Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Am Bronte, and that'll be
44:50
our next book that we discuss. So we'll be back
44:53
in a month and we hope that you join us.
44:57
You can come into the studio, you can send us
45:01
a recording of what you think, so whatever you The
45:04
phone number is OH seven seven six one nine O
45:09
eightto six three. That's Liverpool Community Radio oh seven seven
45:15
six one nine oh eto six three. So we'll say
45:19
oh goodbyes, and I hope you will all catch you
45:22
all next month. I hope you've enjoyed the show. I've
45:25
certainly enjoyed, have you. Barry, I've enjoyed it and.
45:28
Speaker 3: Sue absolutely, Christ it's been really good.
45:31
Speaker 1: Well, it's so good doing this because we just get
45:33
to read a book every month and it really just
45:36
it kind of makes you read it. And it's great
45:38
to read all these fantastic books.
45:41
Speaker 3: So the five exciting arcis as.
45:43
Speaker 1: Well that you'd never imagine you'd read.
45:45
Speaker 3: That's right, absolutely.
45:47
Speaker 1: Okay, buy everyone and see you all in a month.
45:51
Speaker 3: Bye bye bye bye bye.
46:01
Speaker 1: Write very