Different Class by Joanne Harris

514 pages

Rating 3.⭐s

You can buy Different Class...here

You can follow Joanne Harris...here

• The Blurb...

After thirty years at St Oswald's Grammar in North Yorkshire, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go - the clowns, the rebels, the underdogs, and those he calls his Brodie boys. But every so often there's a boy who doesn't fit the mould. A troublemaker. A boy capable of twisting everything around him. A boy with hidden shadows inside.

With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new broom has arrived at the venerable school, bringing Powerpoint, sharp suits and even sixth form girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist this march to the future, a shadow from his past is stirring. A boy who even twenty years on haunts his teacher's dreams. A boy capable of bad things.

• Our Review...

I read this book as part of the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. For details click  here. The prompt for this weeks book was a revenge story.

Roy Straightly is an old latin master in a public school. For any readers outside the UK, a public school is actually a private, fee paying school.. I think they are called "public" (which they are definitely not) as part of a camouflage exercise to ensure outrage at their existence, and potential to be taxed is kept to a minimum. 

Anyway, I digress, back to the review  Roy is an archaic man in an archaic institution that is on the verge of collapsing into the abyss.. Onto this sinking ship is parachuted a pilot (I know, I'm mixing metaphors but what the heck!) in the form of crisis head John Harrington. He plans to modernise the school with paperless office, shiny new health and safety policies, customer focus and actually letting girls into the school. 

Roy is horrified and vows to fight the young upstart all the way, especially as Roy knows the new headmaster is a wrong 'un. The new head is a former pupil who, twenty years before, was part of a scandal that resulted in Roy's friend and fellow teacher, Harry Clarke jailed for sexual abuse of a minor and murder. So the battle lines are drawn.

The novel is written in alternating timelines 1980s and 2005. Both timelines are written in the first person. One viewpoint is from Roy's perspective the other is from a child only known as ziggy, who is writing to his diary. It's a clever method of getting in both protagonist and antagonists heads and follow their life experiences and to see why they are who they are. We are also drawn into the day to day running of the school and the characters of other masters and children. 

There is humour in the story but as befits the subject matter it is at times a dark book but never overly descriptive of the sexual abuse. The public school setting is a fairly unique one. You have power, privilege, money, innocence, depravity and to a large extent detachment from the real world. It is scary that these institutions produce our political leaders.

Roy is a sort of Mr Chips character who has devoted his life to the school for 30+ years. No wife or children, who never really felt attached to his now dead parents. He seems to me a strange a-sexual character. The story follows the increasing battle intensity between Roy and the head, while at the same time delving into the past history of the both of them. Could a clue from the past help Roy turn the tide?

It is an interesting novel in that it gives an insight into a world that I would never be part of. Some of the motivations seem a bit odd to me. One in particular, It seems to me that the scandal of sexual abuse and thus dragging the good name of the school through the mud is a a far greater crime than actually carrying out the abuse. The word "tolerated" keeps popping into mind. Which is food for thought. 

• Selected Quotes...

I don't believe God really cares what you eat, or what you wear, or whom you love. I think that if God made the stars, He must have a greater perspective.”

All schools have their skeletons. St Oswald’s is no exception. Most of the time, we try our best to keep them in the closet. But this time, the only recourse we have is to throw open all the closets, light as many bulbs as we can and catch the vermin as it comes out.

They change the sky, not their souls, that run across the ocean.

Progress through tradition

• If You Liked This Then You May Like This...

The History Boys by Alan Bennet

A Very Private School by Charles Spencer (9th earl Spencer and Lady Di's brother.)

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell.

• About The Author...

Joanne Harris (OBE, FRSL) is the internationally renowned and award-winning author of over twenty novels, plus novellas, cookbooks, scripts, short stories, libretti, lyrics, articles, and a self-help book for writers, TEN THINGS ABOUT WRITING. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Sheffield and Huddersfield, is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Her hobbies are listed in Who's Who as 'mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion of the system'. She is active on social media, where she writes stories and gives writing tips as @joannechocolat; she posts writing seminars on YouTube; she performs in a live music and storytelling show with the #Storytime Band; and she works from a shed in her garden at her home in Yorkshire.

She also has a form of synaesthesia which enables her to smell colours. Red, she says, smells of chocolate..

London Rules by Mick Herron

362 pages.

Rating...5⭐s

You can buy London Rules...here

You can find out more about Mick Herron...here

• The Blurb...

At Regent's Park, the Intelligence Service HQ, its new chief Claude Whelan is learning the job the hard way.

Tasked with protecting a beleaguered Prime Minister, he's facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble. Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks.

Over at Slough House, the last stop for washed up spies, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - making a bad situation much, much worse.

• Our Review...

I read this book as part of the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge. See here for details.

This weeks prompt was a book with a sticker on the front. 

London Rules is the 5th of a series of 8 (so far) novels set in slough house (see photo)

Slough house is basically a holding pen for washed up has beens or  the never will be of MI5 who, for one reason or another, can't be sacked but the aim of Slough house is to drive them to quit by making their lives one of mind numbing tedium and zero respect. They are known collectively as the Slow Horses. They are made up of alcoholics, coke addicts, gamblers, grief stricken loners, a disgraced relative of a former famous agent, an agent who is possibly having a mental breakdown and a computer nerd who is, well... just a bit of a dick. 

The man is charge is an ageing, slovenly, farting, smoking, drinking, viscous tongued bully. named Jackson Lamb. And he is our hero! I love the character of Jackson Lamb. He is vastly experienced in the spy world, he's been there, done that, shot the guy in the head and got the T shirt and  he literally knows where all the bodies are buried. He spews vitriol onto his charges and verbally abuses them at every opportunity. However, when someone goes after his band of waifs and strays he springs into action, defending them like a mother lioness ( all the while still being a horrible person.) 

An deadly terrorist attack occurs and suspicion of a leak from Slough House that instigated the attack ensures that Lambs nemesis, MI5 big wig Lady Di Taverner, swoops in to attempt to shut down the Slow Horses and take over first chair of MI5.

All the while the PM is battling to save his job from a Farrage-a-like carpet bagger of a back-bencher who has press support. (Sound familiar?) The PM enlists Claude Whelan the grey, low profile head of MI5 to help. When I picture Claude Whelan in my head I keep getting John Major 🤷

And we are off and running...

I must admit I love the writing of Mick Herron. The plots are fascinating, the political intrigue and quest for power is up there with I Claudius and The Godfather. However the best part is that he intertwines serious spy narratives with an outrageous blend of acerbic, sarcastic and cynical humour. I work in heavy industry on the shop floor and this type of "banter" has been my life for 35 years and he does it so well. Think Jack Dee and Al Murray as low level agents. It is a heady mix that just hits the sweet spot with a sledgehammer, 

Henry Ford once said "If you think you can or if you think you can't your'e probably right." A Mick Herron is exactly that, If you read it as a houmourus book youre 100% right and if you read it as a serious spy thriller again you are 100% right. To be 200% right, now that is a seriously good author. My only regret is that I have read books 1 and now book 5, I just wish I had read them all in in order.

• Selected Quotes...

Circles were traditionally vicious. Catherine suspected other shapes had teeth too, but better PR.

"you're all crazy," Flyte said.
"we prefer the term"Alternatively sane".”

State education was for chemists and the grubbier sort of poet.

The biggest threat Parliament faces is democracy. It's been a necessary evil for centuries, and for the most part we've been able to use it to our advantage. But one fucking referendum later and it's like someone gave a loaded gun to a drunk toddler

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John LeCarre

Berlin Game by Len Deighton

Blott On The Landscape by Tom Sharpe

NB it is very difficult to recommend books similar in style to Mick Herron's, because I truly believe he is a one off. So I have tried to deconstruct his appeal. The first two recs are out and out classic spy thrillers with all the dark intrigue of Herron but lacking in his trademark wit. 

While the last rec maybe a little out of left field but is an hilarious expose of the political manoeuvrings ruling class similar to Whelan/Lady Di but without Herron's jeopardy of the world of the spy catchers. 

• About The Author...

Mick Herron is the #1 bestselling and award-winning novelist and short story writer, best known for his Slough House thrillers. The series has been adapted into an Apple TV series, Slow Horses, starring Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb.

 

Raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, Herron studied English Literature at Oxford, where he continues to live. After some years writing poetry, he turned to fiction, and – despite a daily commute into London, where he worked as a sub editor – found time to write about 350 words a day. His first novel, Down Cemetery Road, was published in 2003. This was the start of Herron’s Zoë Boehm series, set in Oxford and featuring detective Zoë Boehm and civilian Sarah Tucker. The other books in the series are The Last Voice You Hear, Why We Die, and Smoke and Whispers, set in his native Newcastle. During the same period he wrote a number of short stories, many of which appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

 

In 2008, inspired by world events, Mick began writing the Slough House series, featuring MI5 agents who have been exiled from the mainstream for various offences. The first novel, Slow Horses, was published in 2010. Some years later, it was hailed by the Daily Telegraph as one of “the twenty greatest spy novels of all time”.

 

The Slough House thrillers have won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, two CWA Daggers, been published in twenty-five languages. He is also the author of the Zoë Boehm series, soon to be adapted into a major TV series starring Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson. Mick is also the author of the highly acclaimed standalone novels Nobody Walks and The Secret Hours.

Artemis by Andy Weir

 

Rating 4⭐

320 pages

You can buy Artemis...here

You can find out more about the author...here

• The Blurb...

WELCOME TO ARTEMIS. The first city on the moon.
Population 2,000. Mostly tourists.
Some criminals.

Jazz Bashara is one of the criminals. She lives in a poor area of Artemis and subsidises her work as a porter with smuggling contraband onto the moon. But it's not enough.

So when she's offered the chance to make a lot of money she jumps at it. But though planning a crime in 1/6th gravity may be more fun, it's also a lot more dangerous.

When you live on the moon, of course you have a dark side...

• Our review...

I read this book as part of my 52books in 52 weeks challenge. You can find out more this...here. This week's prompt was futuristic technology.  I picked this book on the strength of the author (who had previously wrote The Martian) I did not read the blurb so I expected similar but on the moon as opposed Mars. Imagine my surprise on learning that this novel is very different. it  actually set in a moon city,  albeit a frontier city. It's more like Tombstone than Paris. In addition the protagonist is a woman of Saudi Arabian/Muslim descent and it's written in the first person. Kudos to the author for even thinking of taking that on in the first place. That could be a minefield.

Our heroine is Jazz a porter with a sideline in smuggling. But Jazz is also a genius with mad welding skills amongst other things. One day she is offered an industrial sabotage job that will set her up for life. However there are forces at work that Jazz knows nothing about. As Jazz struggles to stay alive and rectify the situation the stakes get higher and higher. She is forced to seek aid from a rag tag assortment of friends and her semi estranged father. 

While The Martian was Robin Crusoe in space, Artemis is basically Ocean's Eleven in space.

Weir's strength is two fold. Firstly world building. The details of his moon city and environs are both intensive and extensive. He is obviously a space nerd. After reading up a little on the subject apparently the science is also very accurate too. He spent a full year just researching the world building before even thinking about characters and plot. His genre has been described as "Science Fact" because there is not a lot of fiction involved. While this is a big plus in making the novel believable the amount of engineering terms and jargon can slow the flow of a non-sciencey (is that a actually a word?) reader. See first selected quote for example.

His second great quality is blending real life society with all its inherent ills and flaws into his futuristic world. There are prostitutes among the moon hotels, there is crime in the most scientifically advanced place in the universe. It's shiny in parts but your'e not far away from feeling dirty. In that way it's a bit like New York or London or any big city and this also adds to the credibility.

There is humour too although I must say if I didn't know Mr Weir was from the USA, just by reading, I think you could tell he is not a Brit. Not an ounce of sarcasm or cynicism. He seems a very optimistic person. Which I must admit I quite like. 

All in all a lively space heist romp. 

• Selected Quotes...

I hurried to the thermal control box. I unscrewed four bolts and took the access panel off. I yanked out the thermocouple management board and produced a replacement board from my duffel. Svoboda had spent the previous evening piecing it together. Pretty simple, actually. It acted just like the normal board, but it would lie to the computer about the bath temperature, always reporting it low. I inserted it into the slot.

It’s pricey to get here and expensive as hell to live here. But a city can’t just be rich tourists and eccentric billionaires. It needs working-class people too. You don’t expect J. Worthalot Richbastard III to clean his own toilet, do you?

Rudy DuBois is a seriously good-looking man. He’s two meters tall and blond as a Hitler wet dream.

People will trust a reliable criminal more readily than a shady businessman.

But no idiot-proofing can overcome a determined idiot.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Return by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes

Gunpowder Moon by David Pedreira

One Way by S.J. Morden'

• About The Author...

ANDY WEIR built a two-decade career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian, allowed him to live out his dream of writing full-time.

He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of such subjects as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail.

He lives in California.