Capsule Reviews

[Editorial Note: first written some time in 2004 I think; the last entry is a new one. These are all books I recommend most highly; some day I'll get round to writing full reviews of them all]

1. An Instance of the Fingerpost – Iain Pears
Rashomon meets The Name of the Rose. A historical murder mystery in four parts: four narrators describe the same set of incidents yet draw vastly different conclusions. Ingeniously contrived, and in the end quite moving.

2. The Great Game – Peter Hopkirk
The backdrop to Kim. Russia and England battle for power and influence in Central Asia, with all eyes on the main prize: India. History that reads like a thriller.

3. The Worst Journey in the World – Apsley Cherry-Garrard
My favourite travel book. Courage, idealism and fortitude in the face of impossibly harsh conditions. An inspiring book.

4. Arabian Sands – Wilfred Thesiger
The last of the great Victorian explorers tells of his years spent with the Bedu of southern Arabia. The harshness of the surroundings purifies and refines the soul; Thesiger says he never felt more alive than when he was in the desert.

5. The Snow Leopard – Peter Matthiessen
Less a travel book than a meditation: Matthiessen's twin quests, to spot the rare snow leopard and visit a hidden Tibetan monastery, are deeply moving, indeed almost spiritual in their intensity.

6. The Commitments – Roddy Doyle
Brilliantly funny, yet strangely touching story of a working-class band that invents a new sound: Dublin Soul.

7. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
A subtle and elegiac recounting of days gone by: nostalgia cannot mask the gradual dissolution of illusions long held. Ishiguro's creation of a distinctive "voice" for the narrator is a marvel.

8. The Untouchable – John Banville
A similar book to Ishiguro's: a man looks back at his life and questions his motives, his actions, his very thoughts. Beautiful, elegant prose – utter stylistic mastery.

9. Tell Me No Lies – John Pilger
A collection of journalistic exposes of governmental misfeasance or (more often) malfeasance, from Dachau and Hiroshima, through My Lai and Pol Pot, to Rwanda and Iraq. An angry book (and I mean that in a good way).

10. A Time of Gifts – Patrick Leigh Fermor
In 1933-34, Paddy Fermor, aged 19, walked from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. 40 years later he wrote a reflective, retrospective masterpiece chronicling his journey, in densely layered and utterly gorgeous prose.