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Update 20 January 2012

The next Bookclub meeting will be outside Bellamys at 12.30 next Wednesday 25th January.
If the area outside is taken before we get there, we’ll be inside Bellamy’s.

All welcome, please pass on to colleagues.

Caitríona Bearryman
Tel 020 7219 6327
email: bearrymanc@parliament.uk

Update 9 December 2011

The group met for a pre Xmas lunch at Bellamy's and caught up on a few books we've been reading in the past few months.

"Catch -22" - the classic? Discuss. Well we did and had to say many in the group admitted to not being able to finish the book. It seems perhaps more readable to 'male' book lovers because of the military links but Joseph Heller's novel still remains one of the Top Ten Books to read in many lists. Of course we were still desperate as to what the Catch 22 was and all amazed to see that something in literature - particularly more modern historical literature - has coined a phrase in our daily vocabulary. Shakespeare would be proud of him!

Gail Carregas and her Victorian themed "Soulless" brought fun and atmosphere into the topical vampire genre so devoured by many readers. It's fun, the characters lively but I still can't get my teeth into the whole idea ! (sorry about that)

Donna Leon's series of crime thrillers set in Venice are a joy. Short, evocative of that city and with a police Inspector who's not flawed but fun and spends much time with a happy family enjoying wine and food! What could be more Italian?

So now Christmas approaches and we've chosen some reads to curl up with by the fire whilst resting from the festive fare.

A S Byatt writes thoroughly researched, detailed but excellent novels. We are choosing "Possession" about the discovery of long lost love letters from two Victorian poets. It sounds like the tale of Elizabeth and Robert Browning but the whole story evokes a wonderful time for literature and for courting in the old fashioned sense.

For our crime lovers and staying in Italy - the excellent TV series "Zen" portrayed Rufus Sewell as the Detective. But the stories came from the novels of the late Michael Dibden and are also well worth a read. We recommend "RatKing" which won a number of awards.

And lastly Christmas; especially with 2012 and his 200 anniversary wouldn't be Christmas without Charles Dickens! He's everywhere including an excellent biography by Claire Tomalin but we've picked a classic which we hope is either a favourite or perhaps a first time read by the great story writer "David Copperfield".

Enjoy your Christmas and New Year!

Happy Reading

Next meeting will be on Wednesday 25th January meeting at the entrance to Bellamy's.

Philipa Coughlan

Tel 01424 220337

Update 10 November 2011

Unfortunately colleagues cancelled last weeks Book Club. I was ill so couldn't attend but the next one is already arranged so hope all well then: TUESDAY 6TH DECEMBER - 12.30 PM meet outside Bellamys restaurant for lunch and chat.

In case any of you have forgotten what we are reading: We chose half a dozen books for the summer break including Joseph Heller's classic "Catch 22", Donna Leon's crime series set in Venice and Gail Carriger's "Soulless", a vampire novel with class!

Philipa Coughlan email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com

James Naughtie's Bookclub newsletter - 07/11/2011

I’m fairly sure that Iain Banks is the first guest on Bookclub of whom I have asked the question: have you ever let yourself be psycho-analysed? I was therefore slightly disappointed when the answer was no, but it was worth a try. (Radio 4 Bookclub this Sunday 6 November at 4pm and Thursday 10 November at the new time of 3.30pm.)

If you know The Wasp Factory, the book that launched Iain’s serious writing career 27 years ago, you will know why the question arose. Frank’s story, which gives the book its shape and its spirit, is one of grotesque adolescent excess, particularly in the matter of violence. He has killed three people (at least, we’re told, one of them a sibling) and much of his delight while he is growing up comes from meting out undeserved punishment on any living thing that passes by. Take the alarm clock contraption which involves wasps being pinned to the hands and, as a consequence, being killed to a timetable set by Frank, allowing him to wake up to see his latest victim being squashed as the clock strikes the hour, with another one coming along behind. The book is a picture of disturbance, a kind of punk’s-eye view of the world, which is a place of gothic horror and badness. Yet, as Iain told us, “Frank thinks he is relatively normal – it’s as simple as that.”

You can see why I wondered if he’d ever had his head examined to see where the story came from, and he recalled happily a launch party for one of his books in Edinburgh when an American student asked him if he had experienced a very troubled childhood, expecting the answer yes. Iain pointed out his grey-haired mother in the crowd, who duly obliged with the truth: “Och no, Iain was always a happy wee boy.”

We were talking in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, where our readers had been re-reading the book, sometimes after several years, and returning to the themes that Iain has picked up in his overtly science fiction books (which he writes under the name of Iain M. Banks, a distinction which I think he now mildly regrets) and which have given him a cult following. The Wasp Factory presents a world where the certainties that Frank lives with are ones that would repel or terrify the average reader – burning dogs, tortured wasps, murders, a bizarre substitute religion in which he believes that the future is foretold by one of his grotesque killing machines, which kills its animal victims in a dozen different ways. So why was the book so popular?

His answer is that he thinks readers get the joke – “it was a hoot and a giggle” – in a way that critics certainly didn’t. A number of reviewers wondered how a publisher could stoop so low in letting the book onto the streets. Why can’t they get it, he wonders? “It’s a simple method, gross exaggeration. Being a science fiction writer helps – the term is extrapolation but it’s basically exaggeration.” When Eric, a brother whom Frank hasn’t killed, emerges from an old-style psychiatric hospital, it allows Frank to appear normal by comparison, but readers learn of the strange happenings in his past. By the end of the story, Franks makes a discovery that is clearly one of the most important of his life and will shape his future. We do mention in the course of the programme what this revelation is, simply because the book has been around for long enough for that to seem reasonable, but I won’t talk about it here, in case some of you are reading the book for the first time. Let’s just say that it changes his identity.

The story is set in a community in the far north of Scotland, which Iain knows well, on an island. Frank’s father Angus, an eccentric doctor, is part of the psychological puzzle of the novel, going every now and again to Inverness to sell drugs, which he makes at home, and perhaps sharing some of the Frank’s attitude towards women – in the absence of a mother in the house, he rails against the betrayals of women, even Mrs Clampy, the housekeeper, who is a bastion of sanity in the place. Iain is happy to describe it as a psychological study : Frank creates not just a physical environment that suits him, and his urges, but a mythological one too. Iain is as convinced as aetheist as you are ever likely to meet (he will acknowledgement that perhaps 1% of him is simply agnostic, but no more). Iain says, as you might expect, that he’s always found Frank a fascinating character, but he echoed the feelings of surely nearly every reader of the book when he said that he wouldn’t like to find himself living next door to him.

I don’t know if you agree with the reviewer who said that he found it incomprehensible that a publisher could have stooped to such levels of depravity (that was The Irish Times) or with one of our readers who said that, having not expected to enjoy it, she found herself reading the gory and funny bits to her husband on a long car journey and laughing out loud. Either way, it was a landmark book – a piece of gothic fiction and fantasy that established Iain Banks’ career and seem to fit happily into the early 80s punk-influenced popular culture. I hope you enjoy the programme.

Our next recording will be with the American writer Art Speigelman on his phenomenon, Maus, an allegory about the Holocaust in graphic novel form. That’s Wednesday 7 December.

And the following week on Tuesday 13 December, we’re discussing God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin, a young writer who’s considered one of our most promising authors. It was his first book, in 2008. So if you want to be one of the group of readers on either of these occasions, both in London, let us know via the website : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5sf.

The next programme on air will be with Sebastian Barry, author of The Secret Scripture, on December 4th (repeated on Thursday 8th) and I can promise you that it is a corker.

And just to remind you, the new time of our Thursday edition is now 3.30pm.

Happy reading

Jim

Visit the Book Club website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/ and the Radio 4 Homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/.

Update 18 October 2011

Reminder about our Book Club meeting on Tuesday 1st November 12.30pm at W1 off Westminster Hall and a link to the latest Radio 4 Book Club newsletter below as this is a book many have read.

Philipa Coughlan email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com

On Wed 5/10/11 james-naughtie@lists.bbc.co.uk wrote:

I do hope those of you who heard the first broadcast on Sunday of the Arundhati Roy discussion, on The God of Small Things, enjoyed it. There are very few books of this kind that come our way, so it was a natural for us. Sooner or later we had to come to it. The programme will be repeated, as usual this Thursday (October 6) at the usual time of 4pm, and as you will all know by now past programmes are available at the website : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5sf - a facility which I know many of you appreciate and use a great deal.

The God of Small Things is unusual in so many ways. As Arundhati Roy puts it, the story begins at the end and ends in the middle, and she is determined that she was never going to write a linear story. In our discussion she made it clear that the feeling of a book that has a circular wholeness, so that you can start the story almost anywhere with the same effect, springs from that part of her mind that made her want to be an architect, which is how she was trained. The result is that the book’s power comes not so much from the development of a story along conventional lines – a beginning in the first pages, and an end on the last page - but from the conception of the world in which the action (concentrated in a few days) is happening around you. The book that obviously springs to mind is Ulysses, but I find it hard to think of settings that are more different than Joyce’s Dublin and Roy’s Kerala, where the texture of life is built up of an impossible vast range of smells, c!
olours, tiny objects and competing cultures and religions. Your senses are assailed by the vividness of the world she describes.

And of course it is a story of love and loss, and therefore tragedy. But when we asked her if it was therefore a pessimistic novel, she said that she thought that the fact the kind of love she describes could have come about in a feudal society was in itself “a fantastically hopeful thing”. At the centre of the story, recollected by Rahel as an adult woman, is the love between her Christian mother and a carpenter who, by the rules of caste, is an Untouchable.

In her conversation, especially when we asked her why she had not written another novel since The God of Small Things was first published in 1997, Arundhati Roy revealed the depth of her political commitments : the extent to which she wants her story to reveal not just the intoxicating feel of India, and the way that the mystical and the practical are woven together in everyday life, but the unfairness and cruelties of a system that pitches different religions and cultures against each other. Since she wrote the book, which became a worldwide bestseller and won prizes, including the Booker, she’s devoted most of her energy to various campaigns which she feels to be more important that the writing of another story.

She told us: “I hope I will return to fiction. I don’t want to write books because that’s what the world expects me to do. I want to write a book when I have a book that needs to be written or wants to be written; not just because that’s a profession.” That moment has not yet come.

About her writing technique, which has dazzled so many critics and readers, she say that she knows no rules. She thinks or herself neither as a linear nor hierarchical thinker, and in describing the way she tried to capture the society in which her characters were caught, and the way they lived their lives, it became clear that she wanted to paint a picture of how difficult it is to pursue love – which always produces, she believes, vulnerability – in a society where class and caste impose rigid boundaries and exert hard punishment on anyone who tries to stray across them.

Just as she says that pessimism and optimism aren’t in a binary relationship – being opposites between which you have to choose – so she sees the pain of love as something that’s inevitable if the joy of it is going to be appreciated. She refused to choose between gloom and hope : they’re both there in the book.

I suspect that the reason why it was such a success is that the style in which she tells the story - its layers, the overlapping of time, the back-and-forth twists of the narrative, the idea of the compression of a long story into a brief moment in history – is utterly original. When you put that together with the sheer exultation in the physical presence of India – especially the smells and the colours – you have a powerful mix. One of our readers who had grown up in India said that when he read the passages in the pickle factory it made him want to go and wipe his hands afterwards.

The emotions in the book are very powerful – it deals with death, love that has to struggle to be fulfilled, and a touch of incest (because of a shared feeling of desolation) – yet they seem to sit naturally in a society where the natural world always seems about to overwhelm the people, and the rules that are forced upon them are often impossible to obey.

I’m glad we have come to The God of Small Things because in the end I think we had to.

Next month’s book is a cult novel of a quite different kind. Iain Banks wrote The Wasp Factory in the mid-eighties and it became something of a latter-day version of The Catcher in the Rye in the way that it tried to unpick the difficulties, the cruelties and the contradictions of the early teenage years. It divided readers then, and still does.

It’s our book for November – Sunday 6 November at 4pm - and I hope you enjoy it.

Could add sthing about Patricia Cornwell if I set it up.

Happy reading

Jim

Visit the Book Club website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/

Update: 13 September 2011

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 1st Nov 12.30 pm in W1 Room off Westminster Hall. It's the first of this Parliamentary year and we would welcome any new members who'd like to join the group. We chose half a dozen books for the summer break including Joseph Heller's classic "Catch 22", Donna Leon's crime series set in Venice and Gail Carriger's "Soulless", a vampire novel with class!

If you'd like more information about the group check out our webpage details of past meetings or call Philipa 01424 220337 / email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com

We had a nice email back from Peter James after he came to our June meeting:

From: Peter James <scary@pavilion.co.uk>            Subject: Re: Big thanks!
To: "P COUGHLAN" <pcoughlan@btinternet.com>    Date: Thursday, 30 June, 2011, 9:39

Dear Philipa

It was lovely to meet you too, and I really liked Frank, also.

Thanks so much for these kind words. I really enjoyed the event - what a truly delightful group of people you had there.

Do keep in touch.

All my best

Peter
Peter James (Hons) D.Litt   www.peterjames.com
Find and follow me on http://twitter.com/peterjamesuk
Dead Man's Grip was published in hardback on May 26th!
Perfect People, my standalone thriller, will be published in November.

Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. We all read and were moved by the thoughtfulness of this book and it has been interesting to see that it has often been more quality than quantity in relation to novels produced since 9/11. Perhaps in this case 'words couldn't quite describe our reactions'. Philipa

Here's Jim Naughtie's recent email about The Reluctant Fundamentalist:

From: james-naughtie@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: James Naughtie's Bookclub newsletter 2 September, 2011

The most striking thing about Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist is not that it took him seven years to write the 200 pages – there are plenty of writers who could match that pace – but that he completed it in the summer of 2001, before the attacks in New York and Washington.
(Radio 4 Bookclub this Sunday 4 September at 4pm and next Thursday 8 September also at 4pm, and online too.)

The book has become inextricably associated with those events...a kind of commentary on some of the feelings that we assume to have lain behind them.
Yet – and this is the second surprising fact about the novel – it is deliberately vague about what the protagonist (Changez) believes, how much of a religious element there may be in his thinking (except that we know there is not very much), and even leaves readers wondering about the character to whom he tells his story, who appears to be an American, but one who is not only quiet, but mysterious. The narrative, nonetheless, is gripping.

When we asked Mohsin at the recording whether The American's gesture to a pocket at the end of the book was an indication that he was carrying a gun (or something more innocent, like a cigarette case) our readers were in no doubt: it was a gun. So we asked the author. The answer? That it was neither a gun nor not a gun. He didn't know, and didn't want to. He wanted to leave possibilities unresolved, a space in which readers might think.

The ending is characteristic of the whole story. We know surprisingly little about Changez, even though he is the narrator, beyond the fact that he worked in high finance in New York, fell in love with Erica (Mohsin read us the passage in which Changez first ogles her on an island beach in Greece) and that he was profoundly affected by watching the assault on the twin towers, live on television. We meet him later in a tea house in Lahore, back home in Pakistan (without Erica), and it's there that he tells his story, in conversation with his shadowy interlocutor.

Mohsin explained how the mysterious quality of the conversation – would it really have unfolded like this? – was a deliberate device, "an unrealistic frame" as he put it. He wanted the reader to have space to play.

He made an interesting analogy with the John Ford Western High Noon in which nothing much happens until the gunfight at the end, the lone rider who comes to the town – the good guy – making us wait for the event. It is tense because it is slow. What's more, he thinks it is beautiful that the film – like his book – deals with events that are happening in real time. When you read The Reluctant Fundamentalist, you probably take about the same time to finish it as Changez takes to tell his story.

It makes the reader feel like a character in the story, he says, and that immersion is one of the ways in which he creates the sense of unease that floats up from the pages.

When his publisher first got the manuscript, in summer 2001, he said he couldn't quite get the story. What was the stuff about a Muslim spending time in the US, then going home and talking about his feelings? A few months later, after the twin towers were down, he asked Mohsin how quickly he could finish a final draft. The story seemed to fit the time, in part because it deliberately, doggedly, avoids simple explanations about motive and "fundamentalist" feelings. They swirl around, but they are ambiguous and hard to catch.

His view is that 9/11 changed the world because it was able to widen fractures that already existed. "It took a potential that was already there and made it manifest."

That potential is lurking in the story of Changez, who has abandoned the particular kind of fundamentalism that grips some Wall Street types, and gone back home, where he speaks in the elegant archaisms of the English that was an inheritance from colonial days for educated classes in the Indian sub-continent. We don't know the name of the man to whom he speaks, and we wonder about him. But his voice seems authentic, and that is the achievement of the book.

Mohsin said that it was only in the 6th or 7th draft that he "found" the voice of Changez. "I knew then I was done."

The reason why the book has struck such a chord around the world (he told us that he was surprised by the warmth of his reception when he spoke about it across America, even in Texas...) is probably that it uses the simplest of techniques to begin to explore the worries and questions that people had about the mindset that brought about 9/11 and had clearly affected many, many people of whom Americans knew very little and whose motives they could barely understand.

Above all, it avoids plunging into a miasma of religious belief. The Reluctant Fundamentalist himself appears to have no strong religious beliefs but he thinks as if he did. The point is made that fundamentalism attaches itself to many systems of belief, and creeps in to take a hold in some rather unexpected ways.

As you may have heard in the reading of the novel on Radio 4's Book at Bedtime this week, this is a book that manages to deal with the fact of 9/11 without ever descending into a clunky political plot or presenting set-piece debates about beliefs or violence. It stands back, and makes you think.

I do hope you enjoy the programme. Our next edition, incidentally, is with another writer from South Asia, Arundhati Roy, talking about The God of Small Things. Details on the website, as ever – www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 and follow the links to Bookclub on the programme menu. You can let us know there if you want to be a reader at one of our recordings. Coming up – Hunter Davies on his authorized biography (the only one) of The Beatles, which we'll be recording in Liverpool on the site of the Cavern Club. One for the oldies, like me. A treat.

Happy reading

Jim

Update: 9 August 2011

To All Readers via the Parliamentary Book Club:

As we have chosen Donna Leon as our crime writer of choice this summer recess you might be interested to catch up (below) with information about her and her detective Guido Brunetti via the excellent Radio 4 Bookclub which we have been involved with for some years.

If you are heading for that glorious city of Venice so much the better!

Philipa Coughlan

Subject: James Naughtie's Bookclub newsletter - 08/08/2011
Date: Friday, 5 August, 2011, 11:42

I’ve read the latest Donna Leon novel in Italy this week, with her Venetian detective, Guido Brunetti, ambling his way along the canals and through the markets. (Radio 4 Bookclub this Sunday 7 August and next Thursday 11 August both at 4pm, and online next week too.)

I like Brunetti, whom I think of as a kind of Italian Maigret, padding the streets with a weary understanding and an ear for the undercurrents. He goes home for lunch, where Paola, his wife, has a delicate way with pasta and good wine, and he finds his city reassuring and mystifying at the same time. How is it that under its crumbling, magnificent façade (“it’s never ordinary, is it?” one of his sidekicks says to him in the latest book) there lurks such violence? In fact, as Donna pointed out when we gathered to talk about the first novel in the series, Death at La Fenice, it is not in reality a dangerous city – more a quiet, provincial, early-to-bed place if you see it when the tourists aren’t filling every campo and the fleets of gondolas. Murders are few and far between, and usually solved in a trice. But her interest is in the death that is always round corner, no matter how unlikely that may seem. She has the feeling that the layers of the city conceal passions that you seldom see.

Our choice is the book that introduces Brunetti. Set against the high drama that is manufactured in the opera house, La Fenice, the death that sets the plot in motion is an exceedingly unexpected one. A world famous conductor is found dead in his dressing room in the course of a performance. The Bookclub rule is that we never give away the endings of thrillers, and I won’t break it. But Brunetti begins to probe, lifting up those layers, and finds himself in a world of passions that he hasn’t come across before.

Donna began to write relatively late, in her forties, when – to her great surprise – she won a thriller competition in Japan, and in our conversation she was revealing about her style. She writes straight through – “I’ve never planned a book” – and says that if she’s lucky she visualises an opening scene from which everything can flow, though she only discovers what it is as she moves through the story. Motive? Everything depends on that, but sometimes it comes later. “I’ve never known the ending to a book. All I need is motive.”

This is refreshing stuff. No masterplans or grand designs, and indeed the beguiling quality of these thrillers is their simplicity – plots that move quite straightforwardly, without over-elaboration or clunky secondary stories and red herrings strewn everywhere. They progress in a Brunetti-like way, taking each day at a time, and building up a picture of the city – its people, the remnants of the aristocratic families (from one of which Paola comes), the corruption, the mystification of northern Italians about the dark south and its people. In police headquarters, the questura, he has to put up with a ridiculous boss, Patta (Donna thinks most people have one) but has the joy of his secretary, Elletra – not introduced until a later book in the series - who seems to know more about the city and its ways than anyone else, and can sort everything out with one phone call or a quiet word. Brunetti’s world, though it has the fantasy of Venice running through it, is one that we all recognize.

I suspect one of the attractions of the books, and Death at La Fenice is a good example, is Donna’s feeling for the spirit of Venice, which has so much to do with decay. The opera audience is elegant, the music perfect, the singers glamorous – yet there’s ugly violence lurking there. And in the streets, where the traditions of centuries hold sway and the buildings still inspire such awe, there is the feeling of a city that is holding on against the odds : increasingly aware that its golden age had passed away by the start of the seventeenth century. Brunetti reflects that ambiguity. He is utterly Venetian, and moves with the city’s rhythms, but he knows that what you see isn’t the whole truth.

Donna has lived there for thirty years, and you may find it surprising (as I do) that the books have not been translated into Italian. Why? “I don’t want to be famous where I live. I’m famous in a lot of places and I don’t like it.” Her decision.

The books keep coming, at a rate of about one a year, and I’m pleased to say that Brunetti and Paola (and their children) don’t age. They’re fixed in time, a little like their city. Long may that be the case.

Do enjoy Death at La Fenice.

Our next choice is an appropriate one for September, the month which marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It’s Mohsin Hamid’s the Reluctant Fundamentalist, which is also a Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 Monday 22 August – Friday 2 September at 10.45pm. You can hear our Bookclub at 4pm on Sunday, September 4th and again on Thursday the 8th.

And our next recordings in the autumn are with the Irish writer Sebastian Barry talking about his ghostly novel The Secret Scripture (12 October 12)and with celebrated journalist Hunter Davies on his biography of the Beatles. It was first published at the peak of their popularity in 1968, and appropriately enough we’re recording at the Cavern in Liverpool, on 19 November.

If you’d like to come along and meet either Sebastian Barry or Hunter Davies, tickets are free and available from our website : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5sf.

Until then, happy holiday reading.

Jim

Update: 26 July 2011

Our recent meeting laid to rest the original nymphet novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. Following on from the real tale of a young girl abducted as a sex object by an older man we thought we would compare it with the famous fictionalised account by the Russian author. There were similarities in exploitation - although whether being written by a man 'fantasizing through literature' makes it more acceptable than a true account from the girl's point of view is highly subjective was something more for psychology students than us simple readers.

So now it is recess - what to turn to read after the drama unfolding in newspapers.........

Something 'completely different ' as they say! So here is our selection:-

"Catch 22 " - Joseph Heller. On many a 10 greatest books of all time this classic it took Heller 8 years to write. An American masterpiece that both outrages and delights.

"Soulless " - Gail Carriger. Vampire tales seem now to be the preserve of screaming female teenagers but here our heroine Alexia Tarabotti is not just the classic spinster with no soul who was rudely attacked by a vampire but finds after she kills the vampire, she is being investigated by Queen Victoria! Very witty.

Donna Leon series of hero Commissario Guido Brunetti. Set in Venice these crime novels evoke the beauty and sinister mystery of that wonderful island - just right if you're planning to visit this summer!

"Brighton Rock" - Graham Greene. If your holiday resort of choice is closer to home on the south coast of Britain pack this one and revisit or treat yourself to the murky underworld of Pinkie and gangs amongst the piers and ice creams.

Enjoy your summer - we will organise our next meeting for October following the Conference weeks.

Philipa Coughlan

Update: 12 July 2011

It was certainly a gripping occasion in the Jubilee Room last month when the Parliamentary Book Club welcomed bestselling crime writer Peter James to a special event to celebrate 5 years of the group meeting in Westminster.

With the generous support of Frank Doran MP and his assistant Caitriona Bearryman we were delighted to host the June meeting of the Book Club in the Jubilee Room.

With his latest hardback "Dead Man's Grip" still amongst the top ten best sellers, James himself was both unassuming and inclusive in his discussions with us about his life and his writing. As early as aged 7, an inquisitive James wrote to Enid Blyton questioning her realism in children’s books, and he continued to be fascinated by the human condition and why 'people do what they do'. He had his first story published at school in 1966 and growing up in Brighton during the 1950s and 60s James read Graham Greene's 'Brighton Rock' and found it "changed his life".

Having studied originally at film school (James was one of the Executive Directors of 'The Merchant of Venice' starring Robert de Niro) and moving through script writing for children’s TV puppet shows, and spending some time in Canada learning the discipline of writing he returned to Brighton and became fascinated with the extraordinary world in which policemen live, "much I expect like the world of politicians" James commented. After he himself was burgled at home, having tried to write his first crime novel ' Dead Letter Drop' ("don't read it it's awful!" he laughed) a policeman investigating his burglary saw the book and asked if he would be interested in learning more about what the police 'really do'. The rest is history.

Brighton remains at the heart of his novels, with DS Roy Grace the familiar detective to lead us through James's fast paced stories. Based on a real life Sussex policeman who still helps reading through James's work to ensure the research is up to scratch, James is almost obsessive about investigating actual factual crimes too, never shirking from the real, often unpleasant things that policemen have to face all the time.

"Why are we so fascinated with crime?" asked someone in the audience. "Well do you like Shakespeare? Hamlet, Macbeth or other historical tragedies are all court room dramas with death, murder, discovery, justice. We could all kill, but why do those that do overstep the mark?"

Place is important in novels , particularly crime, so James laughed at the effect his writing might be having on the tourist industry for Brighton, like Oxford for Colin Dexter or Edinburgh for Ian Rankin Place is important and Brighton for James was "A stroke of luck. It has been the murder capital of the UK, with easy escape routes and a reputation for the more violent criminal underbelly of society, but my fans do always contact me after spending time in the town to say 'it's not really like that is it!" Those in the audience familiar with Brighton as a political conference venue could also I suspect vouch for the seediness of certain groups that end up in this seaside resort!

James is in the early stages of hopefully bringing his Detective Roy Grace to the small screen. Suggestions for possible actors were even welcomed from those meeting him! He is also working on a separate 'stand alone' novel about something very different which he hopes to publish later this year.

He writes in the evening, "probably not what most disciplined writers do, after checking emails, walking the dog and chatting to fellow author James Herbert who also lives in the same Sussex village - scary thought for the other residents I guess that both of us are writers who like death and horror!" Settling down after a large alcoholic drink he then sets to with his writing, reviewing the previous day's work and then another "70 pages at least need to be done".

Emailing James to thank him for coming along to talk to us the next day he was quick to respond. "I really enjoyed the event - what a truly delightful group of people you had there". It's not often someone who deals in mayhem, torture, murder and dysfunctional criminals can say that about a group in Parliament!

So do come along to our next Parliamentary Book Club event! Next meeting Thurs 21st July 12.30 pm Room M Portcullis House

We are currently reading "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov and would welcome suggestions for summer recess reading.

Contact Philipa Coughlan email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com

Update 23 June 2011

Parliamentary Bookclub - 5th Anniversary meeting
12.30pm on Wednesday 29th June - In the Jubilee room, Westminster Hall
With special guest crime writer Peter James

The meeting is being hosted by Frank Doran MP.

Peter is one of the UK’s most popular crime and thriller novelists, he will be talking about his books, including his recent novel ‘Dead Man’s Grip’, which was the No 1 bestseller for the first two weeks in June, see www.peterjames.com/. You are welcome to bring along copies of Peter’s books for signing at the meeting.

All who work on the Parliamentary estate are welcome, please do mention & forward to colleagues. Just for numbers, it would be helpful to know if any others are attending, if so, please email Caitriona at bearrymanc@parliament.uk.

The Parliamentary Bookclub meets every month and is open to all who work on the Parliamentary estate.

We look forward to seeing you all next week.

Update 17 May 2011

SOMETHING AMISS WITH AMIS AT PARLIAMENTARY BOOK CLUB!

Oh dear - either we are all literary misfits or just a group who could not see beyond the poor plot and characterisation in Martin Amis's new novel "The Pregnant Widow" but none of us as first time Amis readers feel at all inclined to reach for another of his books ever again! So are we missing something profound about this writer who is obviously well educated (and plants classical and literary references at many points in the novel) because there was nothing redeeming or memorable about either the people or the plot? Some viewed him as male chick lit with a superior tone, or even an autobiographical mid life crisis (one of the female characters is based on his sister we believe). So if you feel differently about Martin Amis let us know! As he's now left the UK with much grumbling about life here, to live in America we are sure he won't care what we think anyway!

Our second choice "Tiger Tiger" By Margaux Fragosa is a compellingly disturbing true memoir about her young life and relationship with a much older man who (and it doesn't spoil the plot) commits suicide after their relationship is revealed. It is hard to feel complete sympathy for Margaux yet she is blatantly being sexually abused. Perhaps this is because she is writing as an older sexually mature woman now. There are some difficult things to read and with which to try and understand but do try.

Because of the discussion this book raised we are now choosing Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" - written here from the male point of view where famously middle aged Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed with 12 year old nymphet Lolita. Food for thought..... and we will discuss this at our July meeting on Thursday 21st room tbc.

BUT NOW NEWS OF A SPECIAL GUEST AUTHOR IN JUNE!

On WEDNESDAY 29TH JUNE at 12.30 p.m in the Jubilee Room we are delighted to welcome best selling crime writer Peter James to the Parliamentary Book Club. So many of us our crime novel fans and Peter's modern take on the crime underbelly in Brighton has brought him great fame and us as readers great joy! Click here for more about Peter James.

Thanks to Frank Doran MP who has agreed to host the event for the Club we expect a good audience - so if you'd like to come along and work in Westminster to meet Peter and hear more about his books please contact Book Club member Catriona in Frank's office on email: bearrymanc@parliament.uk

Best wishes

Philipa Coughlan

Update 2 May 2011

This month's reading choices from the Book Club couldn't be more diverse.

Martin Amis is one of the contemporary novelist heroes (or hates!) depending on your past reading of him, so we were surprised to find many in the group who hadn't even attempted any of his novels before. Choosing his latest "The Pregnant Widow" certainly might raise a few eyebrows. Upmarket 'male lit' perhaps? but you can't avoid his obvious literary talent so let us know what you think of this one.

Alongside we chose Margaux Fragosa's chillingly frank memoir "Tiger, Tiger". Many are familiar with the classic Lolita story - exemplified with Vladimir Nabokov's tale of a young girl entranced and loved by an older man. But to hear the story from the girl and to know she is speaking from experience? Tough, tragic and thought provoking.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 11th May 12.30 in Room O Portcullis House - all welcome and we've got some forthcoming news about a bestselling author - so keep an eye on us!

For more information:
Philipa Coughlan
tel 01424 220337
or email pcoughlan@btinternet.com

Update 11 April 2011

At our recent get together we all agreed the small but perfectly formed "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid was excellent. Some even considered it up there as one of their best books and we see now how it was one of the novels chosen to be passed onto new readers on the recent World Book Night.

Subtle and descriptive we observe the transition by a young Pakistani man arriving with hopes and plans to achieve his 'American Dream' into a changed victim of the 9/11 terrorist plot. His feelings, his homeland now change place for all of us to see.

This month's reads to enjoy we hope over your Easter recess are Martin Amis's "The pregnant Widow" and Margaux Fragosa's "Tiger, Tiger".

Next meeting is on May 11th - 12.30 in a Portcullis Room to be confirmed. Do come along as we have news of a bestselling visitor very soon!!!

Philipa Coughlan
email pcoughlan@btinternet.com

Update 8 March 2011

Our recent meeting had two almost unanimous conclusions: first, our wonderment at quite who or what was the purpose of Philip Pullman's "THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST" and our, second, overwhelming appreciation and praise of Ariana Franklin's "MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH"!

Pulman as we know is an atheist but quite what he wanted to achieve in retelling the Bible through the dual imagined characters of Mary's TWIN sons Jesus AND Christ was slightly lost on us. Easy to read it certainly is - and you think this is a novel twist on the oldest story in the world but was it meant for his usual reading group - young teenagers or questioning believers? Either way it doesn't really seem to have made an impact in sales or in controversy and perhaps as Pulman normally deals in fantasy tales that's exactly perhaps the premise on which he wants us to decide on this novel!

Saddened to hear that just after choosing Ariana Franklin's first tale in her medieval trilogy that the author has sadly died, and we all concluded it was such a shame she hadn't begun her career in novels much sooner. The Mistress in the title is an Italian female doctor who studies dead bodies. Tasked by the King of Sicily who himself is approached by Henry II she leads a small group to Cambridge where children are being murdered and the local Jews are being blamed and imprisoned- thus cutting off valuable taxation to the King. It's atmospheric without feeling overly researched, frighteningly gory but keeps you interested from page one to the end. Her second book in the trilogy "THE DEATH MAZE" also worth a read.

This month we've chosen a book that featured as one of 'giveaways' on the recent World Book Night - so if you were given a copy get reading! It's Mohsin Hamid's "THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST" - where in one evening our narrator (?) Pakistani Changez tells a nervous American about his love affair with and eventual abandonment of America following 9/11.

Also following the medieval crime theme for those who have not already discovered CJ Sansom, we return to his first (2003) published novel set in the reign of Henry VIII, introducing hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake. In "DISSOLUTION" Shardlake works on a commission from his employer Thomas Cromwell to solve the murder of a commissioner in a south coast monastery. 'Has the sights, voices and even smells of the turbulent age ' said PD James - so on that recommendation alone enjoy!

Next meeting Thursday 7th April 12.30 - venue to be confirmed possibly outside Bellamy's for lunch for a change.
If you'd like to join the Book Club or know more contact Philipa: pcoughlan@btinternet.com.

Jim Naughtie's Book Club link is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/.

Update 27 February 2011

World Book Day takes place this week on Thursday 3rd March and what could be more appropriate than the next meeting of the Parliamentary Book Club taking place that day. Meeting at 12.30 in Room N Portcullis House everyone is welcome to join us to discuss 'your favourite books'. At the moment we are overwhelmed with articles, programmes and book shop offers about reading and the interesting revelations of those interviewed by Anne Robinson in 'My Life in Books'. So have a think about what books map out your life and let us know.

For our group we've been reading Arianna Franklin's gripping "Mistress of the Art of Death" and Philip Pulman's modern fable " The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" and dipping into J Cleland's "Fanny Hill"!

Do come along - you don't need to have read these books but would like to be involved and spend some enjoyable time discussing books, theatre and any other topic but politics!

We also have some exciting news about a best selling author coming to speak to us in the future which could prove as memorable as our lovely meeting with P D James!

For more information email Philipa: pcoughlan@btinternet.com

Update 3 February 2011

At our first meeting this year we reviewed our ghostly/crime choices over Christmas. Susan Hill's modern twist on a gothic ghost story "Woman In Black" was short and definitely moulded in the classis Victorian style so familiar to readers of Bram Stoker and Henry James (who we also chose) . Highly successful as a West End show Woman In Black is also being made into a movie. The atmosphere can be delivered in the written word in some ways but perhaps doesn't have the 'jump out of your seat factor', and the particular cruel images of children dying in terrifying circumstances is always an emotive trigger for fear.

Worth a read if you've not done so before Peter James is now as famous as his namesake PD on the crime fiction shelves. His fast paced and often terrifyingly gruesome trail of murders are overseen by highly likeable DS Roy Grace who has himself an intriguing life story (yet to be resolved) concerning his missing wife. In his latest "Dead Like You" Grace is concerned that a previous killer 'The Shoe Man' has begun to murder again leaving all the same evidence. Always set in Brighton James's books have this time put his murders in areas where we in the political world will be all too familiar with - starting scarily in the Metropole Hotel on Brighton's seafront. The murders and rapes are very detailed in this book and many women in the group did flinch at the descriptions and sometimes felt uncomfortable about the author's male view of the fallout from sexual crimes. But as usual James sets up a vast amount of red herrings that you must stick with, and want so to resolve - a page turner to the end!

The classic Henry James "The Turn of the Screw" is just that - a classic atmospheric use of narration and setting to turn a simple Governess into a terrified observer of fear and death again with children linking murder jealousy and Victorian isolation. Keep a copy on your shelves for cold stormy evenings.

This month we've chosen RELIGION, MURDER AND SEX! (Well politics is so day to day!) CHOOSE ONE OR ALL THREE...... Well what can you say about Philip Pulman? Established children's author of classics such as 'His Dark Materials' who now in his latest novel controversially produces a modern fable ingeniously retelling the life of Jesus and the sources of the Bible "THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST" - is a story of belief - could it also have been the truth?

Secondly we've been recommended "MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH" by Ariana Franklin and were saddened only a few days after our meeting to hear of her death. Wife of Barry Norman and well respected journalist (the youngest in Fleet Street when she started her career) Franklin tapped into the growing interest in the Middle Ages with this first of a trilogy which is gaining many admirers. In medieval Cambridge four children have died and the Catholic townsfolk blame Jewish neighbours. Fearing the breakdown of law and order King Henry II searches for a leading medical examiner to investigate. There is one in Italy - but there is a problem - she is a woman, and at this time in history women had no influence here in England in such positions. But could she solve the crime?

And lastly the first pornographic novel! (or became so because it was banned!) John Cleland's "FANNY HILL" (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) stripped bare - in all senses Georgian polite society as the age of anxiety about sexual practices and the revelations about prostitution were told through the confessional eyes of young (15 years) Fanny, an innocent orphan in the brothels of London. Soon that innocence takes a different direction- enjoy!

NEXT MEETING on World Book Day -Thursday 3rd March 12.30 -1.30 p.m. in Portcullis House - Room N. New members always welcome - bring your favourite read along to share!

Philipa Coughlan

Update 14 January 2010

Hi All and a Happy New Year to those of us who come along to meetings or follow our book choices - but also to any new staff across Westminster who'd be interested in joining the popular group that has been running successfully since 2006.

We're a cross Party informal group that has encouraged a wide selection of book choices to whet interest beyond the huge amount of poltical reading so many of us have to do. Please check out our past reads here below on our own Book Club page with many thanks to W4MP again for their great support for us.

Our chosen books over the Christmas/New Year break were a crime thriller "Dead Like You" from popular Brighton based writer Peter James; "Woman In Black" by Susan Hill, west end hit ghost story with Gothic theme and a dip into the classic ghost story by Henry James "The Turn of the Screw". Books with which to curl up by a warm fire on cold winter evenings - so apt with the recent snow!

But even if you haven't managed to read all (or any!) of these recent choices you'd be welcome to join us at our next meeting on Thursday 27th January - 12.30 for your lunch break perhaps? in Room N Portcullis House.

Look forward to seeing you - armed with book choices for our next read!

For more information do contact me
Philipa Coughlan
pcoughlan@btinternet.com



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Parliamentary Book Club Latest Information Last updated: 20 January 2012 The Parliamentary Book Club was set up in July 2006 and you can read about the books they have been reading below. At the top is the latest information from them and below that are earlier updates. LATEST INFORMATION Update 28 January 2012 The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 7th March - 12.30pm meeting at Bellamy's for lunch and chat! New members always welcome. Meeting late in January we all found our Christmas and New Year breaks had provided less - not more - time to read! However between the group we covered those last suggested 2011 choices. "Ratking" by Michael Dibden - Famously adapted to the recent 'Zen' crime series on TV, the original books are set back in the 1980s and portray Detective Aurelio Zen as less of a smouldering Rufus Sewell but more an older well worn policeman! However it's a good tale with Zen sent to Perugia to investigate an industrialist's kidnapping plot and coming across family intrigue, official complicity and corruption- in Italy? surely not......... "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens - Now we are celebrating Dickens' bi-centenary in February 2012 and seeing lots of adaptations and celebrations for the author this is always a good choice for one of his many novels. Seen as the most autobiographical of all his works, here young David faces family trauma and hardship, finally escaping to meet a host of well known and loved characters - Betsy Trotwood, Peggoty and Mr Micawber. David's life ends in happiness with a second wife and this reflected, it is thought, the often covered up controversy surrounding Dickens' separation from his wife to end his years with a younger woman. Fact or fiction? Take a dip in this classic. "Possession" by AS Byatt - The author's love and research on poet Robert Browning was central to the creation of this novel that won the Booker Prize in 1990.She was working on the 'wonderful letters' of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and had the idea of two pairs of lovers, one modern and one high Victorian. In the novel Browning serves as the model for fictional poet Randolph Ash whose relationship with fellow Victorian poet Christabel La Motte is tracked by two present day academics Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. Intricate detail but well written it sweeps you along with the love story. By coincidence the National Portrait Gallery has a section on VICTORIAN CONNECTIONS which has a lot of exhibits around the 1812 bicentenary of Dickens alongside a link between AS Byatt (with an awful modern painting of her!) and a more traditional display featuring Browning. Worth a visit. Next month the chosen books are: "ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT" by Jeanette Winterson "RIVERS OF LONDON " by Ben Aaronovich For more information contact Philipa Coughlan - email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com EARLIER UPDATES Update 20 January 2012 The next Bookclub meeting will be outside Bellamys at 12.30 next Wednesday 25th January. If the area outside is taken before we get there, we’ll be inside Bellamy’s. All welcome, please pass on to colleagues. Caitríona Bearryman Tel 020 7219 6327 email: bearrymanc@parliament.uk Update 9 December 2011 The group met for a pre Xmas lunch at Bellamy's and caught up on a few books we've been reading in the past few months. "Catch -22" - the classic? Discuss. Well we did and had to say many in the group admitted to not being able to finish the book. It seems perhaps more readable to 'male' book lovers because of the military links but Joseph Heller's novel still remains one of the Top Ten Books to read in many lists. Of course we were still desperate as to what the Catch 22 was and all amazed to see that something in literature - particularly more modern historical literature - has coined a phrase in our daily vocabulary. Shakespeare would be proud of him! Gail Carregas and her Victorian themed "Soulless" brought fun and atmosphere into the topical vampire genre so devoured by many readers. It's fun, the characters lively but I still can't get my teeth into the whole idea ! (sorry about that) Donna Leon's series of crime thrillers set in Venice are a joy. Short, evocative of that city and with a police Inspector who's not flawed but fun and spends much time with a happy family enjoying wine and food! What could be more Italian? So now Christmas approaches and we've chosen some reads to curl up with by the fire whilst resting from the festive fare. A S Byatt writes thoroughly researched, detailed but excellent novels. We are choosing "Possession" about the discovery of long lost love letters from two Victorian poets. It sounds like the tale of Elizabeth and Robert Browning but the whole story evokes a wonderful time for literature and for courting in the old fashioned sense. For our crime lovers and staying in Italy - the excellent TV series "Zen" portrayed Rufus Sewell as the Detective. But the stories came from the novels of the late Michael Dibden and are also well worth a read. We recommend "RatKing" which won a number of awards. And lastly Christmas; especially with 2012 and his 200 anniversary wouldn't be Christmas without Charles Dickens! He's everywhere including an excellent biography by Claire Tomalin but we've picked a classic which we hope is either a favourite or perhaps a first time read by the great story writer "David Copperfield". Enjoy your Christmas and New Year! Happy Reading Next meeting will be on Wednesday 25th January meeting at the entrance to Bellamy's. Philipa Coughlan Tel 01424 220337 Update 10 November 2011 Unfortunately colleagues cancelled last weeks Book Club. I was ill so couldn't attend but the next one is already arranged so hope all well then: TUESDAY 6TH DECEMBER - 12.30 PM meet outside Bellamys restaurant for lunch and chat. In case any of you have forgotten what we are reading: We chose half a dozen books for the summer break including Joseph Heller's classic "Catch 22", Donna Leon's crime series set in Venice and Gail Carriger's "Soulless", a vampire novel with class! Philipa Coughlan email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com James Naughtie's Bookclub newsletter - 07/11/2011 I’m fairly sure that Iain Banks is the first guest on Bookclub of whom I have asked the question: have you ever let yourself be psycho-analysed? I was therefore slightly disappointed when the answer was no, but it was worth a try. (Radio 4 Bookclub this Sunday 6 November at 4pm and Thursday 10 November at the new time of 3.30pm.) If you know The Wasp Factory, the book that launched Iain’s serious writing career 27 years ago, you will know why the question arose. Frank’s story, which gives the book its shape and its spirit, is one of grotesque adolescent excess, particularly in the matter of violence. He has killed three people (at least, we’re told, one of them a sibling) and much of his delight while he is growing up comes from meting out undeserved punishment on any living thing that passes by. Take the alarm clock contraption which involves wasps being pinned to the hands and, as a consequence, being killed to a timetable set by Frank, allowing him to wake up to see his latest victim being squashed as the clock strikes the hour, with another one coming along behind. The book is a picture of disturbance, a kind of punk’s-eye view of the world, which is a place of gothic horror and badness. Yet, as Iain told us, “Frank thinks he is relatively normal – it’s as simple as that.” You can see why I wondered if he’d ever had his head examined to see where the story came from, and he recalled happily a launch party for one of his books in Edinburgh when an American student asked him if he had experienced a very troubled childhood, expecting the answer yes. Iain pointed out his grey-haired mother in the crowd, who duly obliged with the truth: “Och no, Iain was always a happy wee boy.” We were talking in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, where our readers had been re-reading the book, sometimes after several years, and returning to the themes that Iain has picked up in his overtly science fiction books (which he writes under the name of Iain M. Banks, a distinction which I think he now mildly regrets) and which have given him a cult following. The Wasp Factory presents a world where the certainties that Frank lives with are ones that would repel or terrify the average reader – burning dogs, tortured wasps, murders, a bizarre substitute religion in which he believes that the future is foretold by one of his grotesque killing machines, which kills its animal victims in a dozen different ways. So why was the book so popular? His answer is that he thinks readers get the joke – “it was a hoot and a giggle” – in a way that critics certainly didn’t. A number of reviewers wondered how a publisher could stoop so low in letting the book onto the streets. Why can’t they get it, he wonders? “It’s a simple method, gross exaggeration. Being a science fiction writer helps – the term is extrapolation but it’s basically exaggeration.” When Eric, a brother whom Frank hasn’t killed, emerges from an old-style psychiatric hospital, it allows Frank to appear normal by comparison, but readers learn of the strange happenings in his past. By the end of the story, Franks makes a discovery that is clearly one of the most important of his life and will shape his future. We do mention in the course of the programme what this revelation is, simply because the book has been around for long enough for that to seem reasonable, but I won’t talk about it here, in case some of you are reading the book for the first time. Let’s just say that it changes his identity. The story is set in a community in the far north of Scotland, which Iain knows well, on an island. Frank’s father Angus, an eccentric doctor, is part of the psychological puzzle of the novel, going every now and again to Inverness to sell drugs, which he makes at home, and perhaps sharing some of the Frank’s attitude towards women – in the absence of a mother in the house, he rails against the betrayals of women, even Mrs Clampy, the housekeeper, who is a bastion of sanity in the place. Iain is happy to describe it as a psychological study : Frank creates not just a physical environment that suits him, and his urges, but a mythological one too. Iain is as convinced as aetheist as you are ever likely to meet (he will acknowledgement that perhaps 1% of him is simply agnostic, but no more). Iain says, as you might expect, that he’s always found Frank a fascinating character, but he echoed the feelings of surely nearly every reader of the book when he said that he wouldn’t like to find himself living next door to him. I don’t know if you agree with the reviewer who said that he found it incomprehensible that a publisher could have stooped to such levels of depravity (that was The Irish Times) or with one of our readers who said that, having not expected to enjoy it, she found herself reading the gory and funny bits to her husband on a long car journey and laughing out loud. Either way, it was a landmark book – a piece of gothic fiction and fantasy that established Iain Banks’ career and seem to fit happily into the early 80s punk-influenced popular culture. I hope you enjoy the programme. Our next recording will be with the American writer Art Speigelman on his phenomenon, Maus, an allegory about the Holocaust in graphic novel form. That’s Wednesday 7 December. And the following week on Tuesday 13 December, we’re discussing God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin, a young writer who’s considered one of our most promising authors. It was his first book, in 2008. So if you want to be one of the group of readers on either of these occasions, both in London, let us know via the website : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5sf. The next programme on air will be with Sebastian Barry, author of The Secret Scripture, on December 4th (repeated on Thursday 8th) and I can promise you that it is a corker. And just to remind you, the new time of our Thursday edition is now 3.30pm. Happy reading Jim Visit the Book Club website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/ and the Radio 4 Homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/. Update 18 October 2011 Reminder about our Book Club meeting on Tuesday 1st November 12.30pm at W1 off Westminster Hall and a link to the latest Radio 4 Book Club newsletter below as this is a book many have read. Philipa Coughlan email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com On Wed 5/10/11 james-naughtie@lists.bbc.co.uk wrote: I do hope those of you who heard the first broadcast on Sunday of the Arundhati Roy discussion, on The God of Small Things, enjoyed it. There are very few books of this kind that come our way, so it was a natural for us. Sooner or later we had to come to it. The programme will be repeated, as usual this Thursday (October 6) at the usual time of 4pm, and as you will all know by now past programmes are available at the website : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5sf - a facility which I know many of you appreciate and use a great deal. The God of Small Things is unusual in so many ways. As Arundhati Roy puts it, the story begins at the end and ends in the middle, and she is determined that she was never going to write a linear story. In our discussion she made it clear that the feeling of a book that has a circular wholeness, so that you can start the story almost anywhere with the same effect, springs from that part of her mind that made her want to be an architect, which is how she was trained. The result is that the book’s power comes not so much from the development of a story along conventional lines – a beginning in the first pages, and an end on the last page - but from the conception of the world in which the action (concentrated in a few days) is happening around you. The book that obviously springs to mind is Ulysses, but I find it hard to think of settings that are more different than Joyce’s Dublin and Roy’s Kerala, where the texture of life is built up of an impossible vast range of smells, c! olours, tiny objects and competing cultures and religions. Your senses are assailed by the vividness of the world she describes. And of course it is a story of love and loss, and therefore tragedy. But when we asked her if it was therefore a pessimistic novel, she said that she thought that the fact the kind of love she describes could have come about in a feudal society was in itself “a fantastically hopeful thing”. At the centre of the story, recollected by Rahel as an adult woman, is the love between her Christian mother and a carpenter who, by the rules of caste, is an Untouchable. In her conversation, especially when we asked her why she had not written another novel since The God of Small Things was first published in 1997, Arundhati Roy revealed the depth of her political commitments : the extent to which she wants her story to reveal not just the intoxicating feel of India, and the way that the mystical and the practical are woven together in everyday life, but the unfairness and cruelties of a system that pitches different religions and cultures against each other. Since she wrote the book, which became a worldwide bestseller and won prizes, including the Booker, she’s devoted most of her energy to various campaigns which she feels to be more important that the writing of another story. She told us: “I hope I will return to fiction. I don’t want to write books because that’s what the world expects me to do. I want to write a book when I have a book that needs to be written or wants to be written; not just because that’s a profession.” That moment has not yet come. About her writing technique, which has dazzled so many critics and readers, she say that she knows no rules. She thinks or herself neither as a linear nor hierarchical thinker, and in describing the way she tried to capture the society in which her characters were caught, and the way they lived their lives, it became clear that she wanted to paint a picture of how difficult it is to pursue love – which always produces, she believes, vulnerability – in a society where class and caste impose rigid boundaries and exert hard punishment on anyone who tries to stray across them. Just as she says that pessimism and optimism aren’t in a binary relationship – being opposites between which you have to choose – so she sees the pain of love as something that’s inevitable if the joy of it is going to be appreciated. She refused to choose between gloom and hope : they’re both there in the book. I suspect that the reason why it was such a success is that the style in which she tells the story - its layers, the overlapping of time, the back-and-forth twists of the narrative, the idea of the compression of a long story into a brief moment in history – is utterly original. When you put that together with the sheer exultation in the physical presence of India – especially the smells and the colours – you have a powerful mix. One of our readers who had grown up in India said that when he read the passages in the pickle factory it made him want to go and wipe his hands afterwards. The emotions in the book are very powerful – it deals with death, love that has to struggle to be fulfilled, and a touch of incest (because of a shared feeling of desolation) – yet they seem to sit naturally in a society where the natural world always seems about to overwhelm the people, and the rules that are forced upon them are often impossible to obey. I’m glad we have come to The God of Small Things because in the end I think we had to. Next month’s book is a cult novel of a quite different kind. Iain Banks wrote The Wasp Factory in the mid-eighties and it became something of a latter-day version of The Catcher in the Rye in the way that it tried to unpick the difficulties, the cruelties and the contradictions of the early teenage years. It divided readers then, and still does. It’s our book for November – Sunday 6 November at 4pm - and I hope you enjoy it. Could add sthing about Patricia Cornwell if I set it up. Happy reading Jim Visit the Book Club website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/ Update: 13 September 2011 Our next meeting is on Tuesday 1st Nov 12.30 pm in W1 Room off Westminster Hall. It's the first of this Parliamentary year and we would welcome any new members who'd like to join the group. We chose half a dozen books for the summer break including Joseph Heller's classic "Catch 22", Donna Leon's crime series set in Venice and Gail Carriger's "Soulless", a vampire novel with class! If you'd like more information about the group check out our webpage details of past meetings or call Philipa 01424 220337 / email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com We had a nice email back from Peter James after he came to our June meeting: From: Peter James <scary@pavilion.co.uk> Subject: Re: Big thanks! To: "P COUGHLAN" <pcoughlan@btinternet.com> Date: Thursday, 30 June, 2011, 9:39 Dear Philipa It was lovely to meet you too, and I really liked Frank, also. Thanks so much for these kind words. I really enjoyed the event - what a truly delightful group of people you had there. Do keep in touch. All my best Peter Peter James (Hons) D.Litt www.peterjames.com Find and follow me on http://twitter.com/peterjamesuk Dead Man's Grip was published in hardback on May 26th! Perfect People, my standalone thriller, will be published in November. Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. We all read and were moved by the thoughtfulness of this book and it has been interesting to see that it has often been more quality than quantity in relation to novels produced since 9/11. Perhaps in this case 'words couldn't quite describe our reactions'. Philipa Here's Jim Naughtie's recent email about The Reluctant Fundamentalist: From: james-naughtie@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: James Naughtie's Bookclub newsletter 2 September, 2011 The most striking thing about Mohsin Hamid's novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist is not that it took him seven years to write the 200 pages – there are plenty of writers who could match that pace – but that he completed it in the summer of 2001, before the attacks in New York and Washington. (Radio 4 Bookclub this Sunday 4 September at 4pm and next Thursday 8 September also at 4pm, and online too.) The book has become inextricably associated with those events...a kind of commentary on some of the feelings that we assume to have lain behind them. Yet – and this is the second surprising fact about the novel – it is deliberately vague about what the protagonist (Changez) believes, how much of a religious element there may be in his thinking (except that we know there is not very much), and even leaves readers wondering about the character to whom he tells his story, who appears to be an American, but one who is not only quiet, but mysterious. The narrative, nonetheless, is gripping. When we asked Mohsin at the recording whether The American's gesture to a pocket at the end of the book was an indication that he was carrying a gun (or something more innocent, like a cigarette case) our readers were in no doubt: it was a gun. So we asked the author. The answer? That it was neither a gun nor not a gun. He didn't know, and didn't want to. He wanted to leave possibilities unresolved, a space in which readers might think. The ending is characteristic of the whole story. We know surprisingly little about Changez, even though he is the narrator, beyond the fact that he worked in high finance in New York, fell in love with Erica (Mohsin read us the passage in which Changez first ogles her on an island beach in Greece) and that he was profoundly affected by watching the assault on the twin towers, live on television. We meet him later in a tea house in Lahore, back home in Pakistan (without Erica), and it's there that he tells his story, in conversation with his shadowy interlocutor. Mohsin explained how the mysterious quality of the conversation – would it really have unfolded like this? – was a deliberate device, "an unrealistic frame" as he put it. He wanted the reader to have space to play. He made an interesting analogy with the John Ford Western High Noon in which nothing much happens until the gunfight at the end, the lone rider who comes to the town – the good guy – making us wait for the event. It is tense because it is slow. What's more, he thinks it is beautiful that the film – like his book – deals with events that are happening in real time. When you read The Reluctant Fundamentalist, you probably take about the same time to finish it as Changez takes to tell his story. It makes the reader feel like a character in the story, he says, and that immersion is one of the ways in which he creates the sense of unease that floats up from the pages. When his publisher first got the manuscript, in summer 2001, he said he couldn't quite get the story. What was the stuff about a Muslim spending time in the US, then going home and talking about his feelings? A few months later, after the twin towers were down, he asked Mohsin how quickly he could finish a final draft. The story seemed to fit the time, in part because it deliberately, doggedly, avoids simple explanations about motive and "fundamentalist" feelings. They swirl around, but they are ambiguous and hard to catch. His view is that 9/11 changed the world because it was able to widen fractures that already existed. "It took a potential that was already there and made it manifest." That potential is lurking in the story of Changez, who has abandoned the particular kind of fundamentalism that grips some Wall Street types, and gone back home, where he speaks in the elegant archaisms of the English that was an inheritance from colonial days for educated classes in the Indian sub-continent. We don't know the name of the man to whom he speaks, and we wonder about him. But his voice seems authentic, and that is the achievement of the book. Mohsin said that it was only in the 6th or 7th draft that he "found" the voice of Changez. "I knew then I was done." The reason why the book has struck such a chord around the world (he told us that he was surprised by the warmth of his reception when he spoke about it across America, even in Texas...) is probably that it uses the simplest of techniques to begin to explore the worries and questions that people had about the mindset that brought about 9/11 and had clearly affected many, many people of whom Americans knew very little and whose motives they could barely understand. Above all, it avoids plunging into a miasma of religious belief. The Reluctant Fundamentalist himself appears to have no strong religious beliefs but he thinks as if he did. The point is made that fundamentalism attaches itself to many systems of belief, and creeps in to take a hold in some rather unexpected ways. As you may have heard in the reading of the novel on Radio 4's Book at Bedtime this week, this is a book that manages to deal with the fact of 9/11 without ever descending into a clunky political plot or presenting set-piece debates about beliefs or violence. It stands back, and makes you think. I do hope you enjoy the programme. Our next edition, incidentally, is with another writer from South Asia, Arundhati Roy, talking about The God of Small Things. Details on the website, as ever – www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 and follow the links to Bookclub on the programme menu. You can let us know there if you want to be a reader at one of our recordings. Coming up – Hunter Davies on his authorized biography (the only one) of The Beatles, which we'll be recording in Liverpool on the site of the Cavern Club. One for the oldies, like me. A treat. Happy reading Jim Update: 9 August 2011 To All Readers via the Parliamentary Book Club: As we have chosen Donna Leon as our crime writer of choice this summer recess you might be interested to catch up (below) with information about her and her detective Guido Brunetti via the excellent Radio 4 Bookclub which we have been involved with for some years. If you are heading for that glorious city of Venice so much the better! Philipa Coughlan Subject: James Naughtie's Bookclub newsletter - 08/08/2011 Date: Friday, 5 August, 2011, 11:42 I’ve read the latest Donna Leon novel in Italy this week, with her Venetian detective, Guido Brunetti, ambling his way along the canals and through the markets. (Radio 4 Bookclub this Sunday 7 August and next Thursday 11 August both at 4pm, and online next week too.) I like Brunetti, whom I think of as a kind of Italian Maigret, padding the streets with a weary understanding and an ear for the undercurrents. He goes home for lunch, where Paola, his wife, has a delicate way with pasta and good wine, and he finds his city reassuring and mystifying at the same time. How is it that under its crumbling, magnificent façade (“it’s never ordinary, is it?” one of his sidekicks says to him in the latest book) there lurks such violence? In fact, as Donna pointed out when we gathered to talk about the first novel in the series, Death at La Fenice, it is not in reality a dangerous city – more a quiet, provincial, early-to-bed place if you see it when the tourists aren’t filling every campo and the fleets of gondolas. Murders are few and far between, and usually solved in a trice. But her interest is in the death that is always round corner, no matter how unlikely that may seem. She has the feeling that the layers of the city conceal passions that you seldom see. Our choice is the book that introduces Brunetti. Set against the high drama that is manufactured in the opera house, La Fenice, the death that sets the plot in motion is an exceedingly unexpected one. A world famous conductor is found dead in his dressing room in the course of a performance. The Bookclub rule is that we never give away the endings of thrillers, and I won’t break it. But Brunetti begins to probe, lifting up those layers, and finds himself in a world of passions that he hasn’t come across before. Donna began to write relatively late, in her forties, when – to her great surprise – she won a thriller competition in Japan, and in our conversation she was revealing about her style. She writes straight through – “I’ve never planned a book” – and says that if she’s lucky she visualises an opening scene from which everything can flow, though she only discovers what it is as she moves through the story. Motive? Everything depends on that, but sometimes it comes later. “I’ve never known the ending to a book. All I need is motive.” This is refreshing stuff. No masterplans or grand designs, and indeed the beguiling quality of these thrillers is their simplicity – plots that move quite straightforwardly, without over-elaboration or clunky secondary stories and red herrings strewn everywhere. They progress in a Brunetti-like way, taking each day at a time, and building up a picture of the city – its people, the remnants of the aristocratic families (from one of which Paola comes), the corruption, the mystification of northern Italians about the dark south and its people. In police headquarters, the questura, he has to put up with a ridiculous boss, Patta (Donna thinks most people have one) but has the joy of his secretary, Elletra – not introduced until a later book in the series - who seems to know more about the city and its ways than anyone else, and can sort everything out with one phone call or a quiet word. Brunetti’s world, though it has the fantasy of Venice running through it, is one that we all recognize. I suspect one of the attractions of the books, and Death at La Fenice is a good example, is Donna’s feeling for the spirit of Venice, which has so much to do with decay. The opera audience is elegant, the music perfect, the singers glamorous – yet there’s ugly violence lurking there. And in the streets, where the traditions of centuries hold sway and the buildings still inspire such awe, there is the feeling of a city that is holding on against the odds : increasingly aware that its golden age had passed away by the start of the seventeenth century. Brunetti reflects that ambiguity. He is utterly Venetian, and moves with the city’s rhythms, but he knows that what you see isn’t the whole truth. Donna has lived there for thirty years, and you may find it surprising (as I do) that the books have not been translated into Italian. Why? “I don’t want to be famous where I live. I’m famous in a lot of places and I don’t like it.” Her decision. The books keep coming, at a rate of about one a year, and I’m pleased to say that Brunetti and Paola (and their children) don’t age. They’re fixed in time, a little like their city. Long may that be the case. Do enjoy Death at La Fenice. Our next choice is an appropriate one for September, the month which marks the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It’s Mohsin Hamid’s the Reluctant Fundamentalist, which is also a Book at Bedtime on Radio 4 Monday 22 August – Friday 2 September at 10.45pm. You can hear our Bookclub at 4pm on Sunday, September 4th and again on Thursday the 8th. And our next recordings in the autumn are with the Irish writer Sebastian Barry talking about his ghostly novel The Secret Scripture (12 October 12)and with celebrated journalist Hunter Davies on his biography of the Beatles. It was first published at the peak of their popularity in 1968, and appropriately enough we’re recording at the Cavern in Liverpool, on 19 November. If you’d like to come along and meet either Sebastian Barry or Hunter Davies, tickets are free and available from our website : www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5sf. Until then, happy holiday reading. Jim Update: 26 July 2011 Our recent meeting laid to rest the original nymphet novel "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. Following on from the real tale of a young girl abducted as a sex object by an older man we thought we would compare it with the famous fictionalised account by the Russian author. There were similarities in exploitation - although whether being written by a man 'fantasizing through literature' makes it more acceptable than a true account from the girl's point of view is highly subjective was something more for psychology students than us simple readers. So now it is recess - what to turn to read after the drama unfolding in newspapers......... Something 'completely different ' as they say! So here is our selection:- "Catch 22 " - Joseph Heller. On many a 10 greatest books of all time this classic it took Heller 8 years to write. An American masterpiece that both outrages and delights. "Soulless " - Gail Carriger. Vampire tales seem now to be the preserve of screaming female teenagers but here our heroine Alexia Tarabotti is not just the classic spinster with no soul who was rudely attacked by a vampire but finds after she kills the vampire, she is being investigated by Queen Victoria! Very witty. Donna Leon series of hero Commissario Guido Brunetti. Set in Venice these crime novels evoke the beauty and sinister mystery of that wonderful island - just right if you're planning to visit this summer! "Brighton Rock" - Graham Greene. If your holiday resort of choice is closer to home on the south coast of Britain pack this one and revisit or treat yourself to the murky underworld of Pinkie and gangs amongst the piers and ice creams. Enjoy your summer - we will organise our next meeting for October following the Conference weeks. Philipa Coughlan Update: 12 July 2011 It was certainly a gripping occasion in the Jubilee Room last month when the Parliamentary Book Club welcomed bestselling crime writer Peter James to a special event to celebrate 5 years of the group meeting in Westminster. With the generous support of Frank Doran MP and his assistant Caitriona Bearryman we were delighted to host the June meeting of the Book Club in the Jubilee Room. With his latest hardback "Dead Man's Grip" still amongst the top ten best sellers, James himself was both unassuming and inclusive in his discussions with us about his life and his writing. As early as aged 7, an inquisitive James wrote to Enid Blyton questioning her realism in children’s books, and he continued to be fascinated by the human condition and why 'people do what they do'. He had his first story published at school in 1966 and growing up in Brighton during the 1950s and 60s James read Graham Greene's 'Brighton Rock' and found it "changed his life". Having studied originally at film school (James was one of the Executive Directors of 'The Merchant of Venice' starring Robert de Niro) and moving through script writing for children’s TV puppet shows, and spending some time in Canada learning the discipline of writing he returned to Brighton and became fascinated with the extraordinary world in which policemen live, "much I expect like the world of politicians" James commented. After he himself was burgled at home, having tried to write his first crime novel ' Dead Letter Drop' ("don't read it it's awful!" he laughed) a policeman investigating his burglary saw the book and asked if he would be interested in learning more about what the police 'really do'. The rest is history. Brighton remains at the heart of his novels, with DS Roy Grace the familiar detective to lead us through James's fast paced stories. Based on a real life Sussex policeman who still helps reading through James's work to ensure the research is up to scratch, James is almost obsessive about investigating actual factual crimes too, never shirking from the real, often unpleasant things that policemen have to face all the time. "Why are we so fascinated with crime?" asked someone in the audience. "Well do you like Shakespeare? Hamlet, Macbeth or other historical tragedies are all court room dramas with death, murder, discovery, justice. We could all kill, but why do those that do overstep the mark?" Place is important in novels , particularly crime, so James laughed at the effect his writing might be having on the tourist industry for Brighton, like Oxford for Colin Dexter or Edinburgh for Ian Rankin Place is important and Brighton for James was "A stroke of luck. It has been the murder capital of the UK, with easy escape routes and a reputation for the more violent criminal underbelly of society, but my fans do always contact me after spending time in the town to say 'it's not really like that is it!" Those in the audience familiar with Brighton as a political conference venue could also I suspect vouch for the seediness of certain groups that end up in this seaside resort! James is in the early stages of hopefully bringing his Detective Roy Grace to the small screen. Suggestions for possible actors were even welcomed from those meeting him! He is also working on a separate 'stand alone' novel about something very different which he hopes to publish later this year. He writes in the evening, "probably not what most disciplined writers do, after checking emails, walking the dog and chatting to fellow author James Herbert who also lives in the same Sussex village - scary thought for the other residents I guess that both of us are writers who like death and horror!" Settling down after a large alcoholic drink he then sets to with his writing, reviewing the previous day's work and then another "70 pages at least need to be done". Emailing James to thank him for coming along to talk to us the next day he was quick to respond. "I really enjoyed the event - what a truly delightful group of people you had there". It's not often someone who deals in mayhem, torture, murder and dysfunctional criminals can say that about a group in Parliament! So do come along to our next Parliamentary Book Club event! Next meeting Thurs 21st July 12.30 pm Room M Portcullis House We are currently reading "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov and would welcome suggestions for summer recess reading. Contact Philipa Coughlan email: pcoughlan@btinternet.com Update 23 June 2011 Parliamentary Bookclub - 5th Anniversary meeting 12.30pm on Wednesday 29th June - In the Jubilee room, Westminster Hall With special guest crime writer Peter James The meeting is being hosted by Frank Doran MP. Peter is one of the UK’s most popular crime and thriller novelists, he will be talking about his books, including his recent novel ‘Dead Man’s Grip’, which was the No 1 bestseller for the first two weeks in June, see www.peterjames.com/. You are welcome to bring along copies of Peter’s books for signing at the meeting. All who work on the Parliamentary estate are welcome, please do mention & forward to colleagues. Just for numbers, it would be helpful to know if any others are attending, if so, please email Caitriona at bearrymanc@parliament.uk. The Parliamentary Bookclub meets every month and is open to all who work on the Parliamentary estate. We look forward to seeing you all next week. Update 17 May 2011 SOMETHING AMISS WITH AMIS AT PARLIAMENTARY BOOK CLUB! Oh dear - either we are all literary misfits or just a group who could not see beyond the poor plot and characterisation in Martin Amis's new novel "The Pregnant Widow" but none of us as first time Amis readers feel at all inclined to reach for another of his books ever again! So are we missing something profound about this writer who is obviously well educated (and plants classical and literary references at many points in the novel) because there was nothing redeeming or memorable about either the people or the plot? Some viewed him as male chick lit with a superior tone, or even an autobiographical mid life crisis (one of the female characters is based on his sister we believe). So if you feel differently about Martin Amis let us know! As he's now left the UK with much grumbling about life here, to live in America we are sure he won't care what we think anyway! Our second choice "Tiger Tiger" By Margaux Fragosa is a compellingly disturbing true memoir about her young life and relationship with a much older man who (and it doesn't spoil the plot) commits suicide after their relationship is revealed. It is hard to feel complete sympathy for Margaux yet she is blatantly being sexually abused. Perhaps this is because she is writing as an older sexually mature woman now. There are some difficult things to read and with which to try and understand but do try. Because of the discussion this book raised we are now choosing Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" - written here from the male point of view where famously middle aged Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed with 12 year old nymphet Lolita. Food for thought..... and we will discuss this at our July meeting on Thursday 21st room tbc. BUT NOW NEWS OF A SPECIAL GUEST AUTHOR IN JUNE! On WEDNESDAY 29TH JUNE at 12.30 p.m in the Jubilee Room we are delighted to welcome best selling crime writer Peter James to the Parliamentary Book Club. So many of us our crime novel fans and Peter's modern take on the crime underbelly in Brighton has brought him great fame and us as readers great joy! Click here for more about Peter James. Thanks to Frank Doran MP who has agreed to host the event for the Club we expect a good audience - so if you'd like to come along and work in Westminster to meet Peter and hear more about his books please contact Book Club member Catriona in Frank's office on email: bearrymanc@parliament.uk Best wishes Philipa Coughlan Update 2 May 2011 This month's reading choices from the Book Club couldn't be more diverse. Martin Amis is one of the contemporary novelist heroes (or hates!) depending on your past reading of him, so we were surprised to find many in the group who hadn't even attempted any of his novels before. Choosing his latest "The Pregnant Widow" certainly might raise a few eyebrows. Upmarket 'male lit' perhaps? but you can't avoid his obvious literary talent so let us know what you think of this one. Alongside we chose Margaux Fragosa's chillingly frank memoir "Tiger, Tiger". Many are familiar with the classic Lolita story - exemplified with Vladimir Nabokov's tale of a young girl entranced and loved by an older man. But to hear the story from the girl and to know she is speaking from experience? Tough, tragic and thought provoking. Our next meeting is on Wednesday 11th May 12.30 in Room O Portcullis House - all welcome and we've got some forthcoming news about a bestselling author - so keep an eye on us! For more information: Philipa Coughlan tel 01424 220337 or email pcoughlan@btinternet.com Update 11 April 2011 At our recent get together we all agreed the small but perfectly formed "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid was excellent. Some even considered it up there as one of their best books and we see now how it was one of the novels chosen to be passed onto new readers on the recent World Book Night. Subtle and descriptive we observe the transition by a young Pakistani man arriving with hopes and plans to achieve his 'American Dream' into a changed victim of the 9/11 terrorist plot. His feelings, his homeland now change place for all of us to see. This month's reads to enjoy we hope over your Easter recess are Martin Amis's "The pregnant Widow" and Margaux Fragosa's "Tiger, Tiger". Next meeting is on May 11th - 12.30 in a Portcullis Room to be confirmed. Do come along as we have news of a bestselling visitor very soon!!! Philipa Coughlan email pcoughlan@btinternet.com Update 8 March 2011 Our recent meeting had two almost unanimous conclusions: first, our wonderment at quite who or what was the purpose of Philip Pullman's "THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST" and our, second, overwhelming appreciation and praise of Ariana Franklin's "MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH"! Pulman as we know is an atheist but quite what he wanted to achieve in retelling the Bible through the dual imagined characters of Mary's TWIN sons Jesus AND Christ was slightly lost on us. Easy to read it certainly is - and you think this is a novel twist on the oldest story in the world but was it meant for his usual reading group - young teenagers or questioning believers? Either way it doesn't really seem to have made an impact in sales or in controversy and perhaps as Pulman normally deals in fantasy tales that's exactly perhaps the premise on which he wants us to decide on this novel! Saddened to hear that just after choosing Ariana Franklin's first tale in her medieval trilogy that the author has sadly died, and we all concluded it was such a shame she hadn't begun her career in novels much sooner. The Mistress in the title is an Italian female doctor who studies dead bodies. Tasked by the King of Sicily who himself is approached by Henry II she leads a small group to Cambridge where children are being murdered and the local Jews are being blamed and imprisoned- thus cutting off valuable taxation to the King. It's atmospheric without feeling overly researched, frighteningly gory but keeps you interested from page one to the end. Her second book in the trilogy "THE DEATH MAZE" also worth a read. This month we've chosen a book that featured as one of 'giveaways' on the recent World Book Night - so if you were given a copy get reading! It's Mohsin Hamid's "THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST" - where in one evening our narrator (?) Pakistani Changez tells a nervous American about his love affair with and eventual abandonment of America following 9/11. Also following the medieval crime theme for those who have not already discovered CJ Sansom, we return to his first (2003) published novel set in the reign of Henry VIII, introducing hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake. In "DISSOLUTION" Shardlake works on a commission from his employer Thomas Cromwell to solve the murder of a commissioner in a south coast monastery. 'Has the sights, voices and even smells of the turbulent age ' said PD James - so on that recommendation alone enjoy! Next meeting Thursday 7th April 12.30 - venue to be confirmed possibly outside Bellamy's for lunch for a change. If you'd like to join the Book Club or know more contact Philipa: pcoughlan@btinternet.com. Jim Naughtie's Book Club link is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/bookclub/. Update 27 February 2011 World Book Day takes place this week on Thursday 3rd March and what could be more appropriate than the next meeting of the Parliamentary Book Club taking place that day. Meeting at 12.30 in Room N Portcullis House everyone is welcome to join us to discuss 'your favourite books'. At the moment we are overwhelmed with articles, programmes and book shop offers about reading and the interesting revelations of those interviewed by Anne Robinson in 'My Life in Books'. So have a think about what books map out your life and let us know. For our group we've been reading Arianna Franklin's gripping "Mistress of the Art of Death" and Philip Pulman's modern fable " The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" and dipping into J Cleland's "Fanny Hill"! Do come along - you don't need to have read these books but would like to be involved and spend some enjoyable time discussing books, theatre and any other topic but politics! We also have some exciting news about a best selling author coming to speak to us in the future which could prove as memorable as our lovely meeting with P D James! For more information email Philipa: pcoughlan@btinternet.com Update 3 February 2011 At our first meeting this year we reviewed our ghostly/crime choices over Christmas. Susan Hill's modern twist on a gothic ghost story "Woman In Black" was short and definitely moulded in the classis Victorian style so familiar to readers of Bram Stoker and Henry James (who we also chose) . Highly successful as a West End show Woman In Black is also being made into a movie. The atmosphere can be delivered in the written word in some ways but perhaps doesn't have the 'jump out of your seat factor', and the particular cruel images of children dying in terrifying circumstances is always an emotive trigger for fear. Worth a read if you've not done so before Peter James is now as famous as his namesake PD on the crime fiction shelves. His fast paced and often terrifyingly gruesome trail of murders are overseen by highly likeable DS Roy Grace who has himself an intriguing life story (yet to be resolved) concerning his missing wife. In his latest "Dead Like You" Grace is concerned that a previous killer 'The Shoe Man' has begun to murder again leaving all the same evidence. Always set in Brighton James's books have this time put his murders in areas where we in the political world will be all too familiar with - starting scarily in the Metropole Hotel on Brighton's seafront. The murders and rapes are very detailed in this book and many women in the group did flinch at the descriptions and sometimes felt uncomfortable about the author's male view of the fallout from sexual crimes. But as usual James sets up a vast amount of red herrings that you must stick with, and want so to resolve - a page turner to the end! The classic Henry James "The Turn of the Screw" is just that - a classic atmospheric use of narration and setting to turn a simple Governess into a terrified observer of fear and death again with children linking murder jealousy and Victorian isolation. Keep a copy on your shelves for cold stormy evenings. This month we've chosen RELIGION, MURDER AND SEX! (Well politics is so day to day!) CHOOSE ONE OR ALL THREE...... Well what can you say about Philip Pulman? Established children's author of classics such as 'His Dark Materials' who now in his latest novel controversially produces a modern fable ingeniously retelling the life of Jesus and the sources of the Bible "THE GOOD MAN JESUS AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST" - is a story of belief - could it also have been the truth? Secondly we've been recommended "MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH" by Ariana Franklin and were saddened only a few days after our meeting to hear of her death. Wife of Barry Norman and well respected journalist (the youngest in Fleet Street when she started her career) Franklin tapped into the growing interest in the Middle Ages with this first of a trilogy which is gaining many admirers. In medieval Cambridge four children have died and the Catholic townsfolk blame Jewish neighbours. Fearing the breakdown of law and order King Henry II searches for a leading medical examiner to investigate. There is one in Italy - but there is a problem - she is a woman, and at this time in history women had no influence here in England in such positions. But could she solve the crime? And lastly the first pornographic novel! (or became so because it was banned!) John Cleland's "FANNY HILL" (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) stripped bare - in all senses Georgian polite society as the age of anxiety about sexual practices and the revelations about prostitution were told through the confessional eyes of young (15 years) Fanny, an innocent orphan in the brothels of London. Soon that innocence takes a different direction- enjoy! NEXT MEETING on World Book Day -Thursday 3rd March 12.30 -1.30 p.m. in Portcullis House - Room N. New members always welcome - bring your favourite read along to share! Philipa Coughlan Update 14 January 2010 Hi All and a Happy New Year to those of us who come along to meetings or follow our book choices - but also to any new staff across Westminster who'd be interested in joining the popular group that has been running successfully since 2006. We're a cross Party informal group that has encouraged a wide selection of book choices to whet interest beyond the huge amount of poltical reading so many of us have to do. Please check out our past reads here below on our own Book Club page with many thanks to W4MP again for their great support for us. Our chosen books over the Christmas/New Year break were a crime thriller "Dead Like You" from popular Brighton based writer Peter James; "Woman In Black" by Susan Hill, west end hit ghost story with Gothic theme and a dip into the classic ghost story by Henry James "The Turn of the Screw". Books with which to curl up by a warm fire on cold winter evenings - so apt with the recent snow! But even if you haven't managed to read all (or any!) of these recent choices you'd be welcome to join us at our next meeting on Thursday 27th January - 12.30 for your lunch break perhaps? in Room N Portcullis House. Look forward to seeing you - armed with book choices for our next read! For more information do contact me Philipa Coughlan pcoughlan@btinternet.com To view all the earlier 'Latest Information' bulletins up to the end of 2010 click here	You can also See other Essential New Information items


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