phespirit.now:   words archive

Year 2006 reading matter

THEODORE STURGEON
"Thunder And Roses - Volume 4: The Complete Stories Of"

Volume four of ten in chronological order sees a greater richness and sophistication emerging in Sturgeons's concepts and characters. "Maturity", "Tiny and the Monster", "Largo" and "The Professor's Teddy Bear" are all wonderfully original. How interesting it is, too, that Sturgeon's "The Sky Was Full of Ships" was published in June 1947 - a whole year before Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sentinal", forerunner to "2001: A Space Odyssey". Could Clarke have seen it?

LEE KUAN YEW
"The Singapore Story"

First volume of the memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew, the man who became Prime Minister of Singapore on 5th June 1959, aged just 35, and remained in post until November 1990. In that time, Singapore was transformed from being a tiny colony in a dying empire to a wealthy independent nation. This book covers the period from Lee's childhood up to the split from Malaysia in 1965. Naturally it is a completely one-sided take on the tumultuous events that lead to nationhood but this makes it no less an interesting or worthwhile read. The sheer number of premier league international politicians who have contributed eulogies to the opening pages is testimony to the respect that Lee still commands.

SIMON FORD
"Hip Priest - The Story Of Mark E Smith And The Fall"

Drawing from the recollections of innumerable ex-members of The Fall, plus friends and collaborators from the past quarter of a century, Simon Ford has produced an account of one of the greatest bands ever and its genius driving-force. Sadly, the genius himself would not co-operate with the book, so the wisdom of Mark E Smith is lifted entirely from press-cuttings. Still, these are a ready source of gems:

"I had a computer about two years ago. I'm not against computers. But I got rid of mine after about a year 'cause I was trying to write songs on it and shit. And I wrote prose on it and stored me lyrics and stuff like that. And I just hated the way this thing'd dictate how I should paragraph things and how things should be said and punctuated. It wouldn't obey me at all. I write in a really weird way. I misspell words and I write half sentences then leave a thing and complete the sentence like I do in me songs. I like to play around with it, it's part of the fun. And this computer wouldn't have it, man. It'd fucking put it back up there, like a letter. I fucking gave it away!"
Scott Breaker, 'Wordsmith', Option Magazine, July/August 1986

"I was once on a train with, among others, Mark E. Smith. Tired of playing Pictionary, I announced that I could sense, simply by looking, whether oranges contained pips. 'I can tell people's religion just by looking at their faces,' countered Smith. A VIP had just entered the carriage and eager to muck in, said to Smith, 'What am I then?' The whole carriage hushed. Smith looked him up and down. 'You're a cunt, pal,' he said."
Andy Darling, FHM, May 1993

As a work of literature this book is not of the very highest quality. It relies a bit too heavily on record reviews from the music weeklies of the day rather taking the opportunity to offer original retrospective appraisal. Devotees of The Fall can't go wrong, though. Outside of the incomparable attentions of the late, great, legendary John Peel, the band has never been elevated or diminished by forces external to its own wonderful and frightening world. It's always a pleasure to receive nuggets from the periphery.

ALAN WHICKER
"Whicker's War"

The Saturday edition of 'The Independent' newspaper comes with a travel supplement called 'Traveller'. Each week on the back page of this supplement a supposedly well-known person provides answers to a standard set of fifteen questions about their own personal travel experiences. One of these questions is simply "Worst travel experience?", which usually elicits gripes about flight delays, lost luggage, stomach upsets, and so forth. When Alan Whicker's answer was published on 5th November 2005, he had not drawn from the vast and diverse catalogue of his experiences in filming 'Whicker's World' over many decades. Instead he offered up: "It's always a bit unnerving when your plane loses an engine, which happened a few times during the war on the C119 transports. I spent one journey pushing shells out of the back of the plane, which was due to crash, which wasn't much fun. I'd rather sit back and have a glass of champagne." ..... a superb answer that no other 'celebrity' has come close to competing with before or since.
The book 'Whicker's War' is a modest-sized recounting of Whicker's participation in the Sicily landings (1943) and his subsequent slow progress, via the nightmare of Anzio, to the Alps and finally on to Venice. Always interesting, it finds the right balance between amusing anecdotes and grim realities, with colourful opinions on the major players that Whicker himself encountered along the way - Mark Clark in particular receives a sustained battering, and rightly so. Most pleasingly, Whicker's words speak from the page in that very distinctive voice of his and in that same laid-back, champagne-sipping manner with which he had casually reminisced about throwing shells from a crashing plane. No plane crashes in the book, but plenty of character.

FREDERICK BURNABY
"A Ride To Khiva"

Entertainingly-told tales of Frederick Burnaby, Captain in the British Army, who used his own funds to travel from St Petersburg to Khiva at the heart of Central Asia in the winter of 1875. His motive for going: the city had been taken by the Russians and was closed to all European travellers. The Russians said "no", so Burnaby said "go". The man stood six foot four, weighed fifteen stone, was reputedly the strongest man in the British army, and was fluent in seven languages including Russian and Arabic. An excellent man for the job, who would return to write an excellent account of his adventures. Here are some choice extracts:

"It appeared that the man of commerce was the only one of the party who knew the road. Having discovered this fact, he determined to make use of his knowledge by refusing to show the way unless the proprietor of the horses, who drove the vehicle containing our luggage, would abate a little from price he had demanded for the hire of the horse in his, the pedlar's, sleigh. "A bargain is a bargain!" cried our driver, wishing to curry favour with his master, now a few yards behind him. "A bargain is a bargain! Oh, thou son of an animal, drive on!" "It is very cold," muttered my companion. "For the sake of God," he shouted, "go on!" But neither the allusion to the pedlar's parentage, nor the invocation of the Deity, had the slightest effect upon the fellow's mercenary soul.
  "I am warm, and well wrapped up," he said; "it is all the same to me if we wait here one hour or ten;" and with the most provoking indifference he commenced smoking - not even the manner in which the other drivers aspersed the reputation of his mother appearing to have the smallest effect. At last the proprietor, seeing it was useless holding out any longer, agreed to abate somewhat from the hire of the horse."

"Formerly, and even in European Russian, passengers were sometimes detained for days waiting for horses at the stations, the inspectors not troubling their heads about any traveller, unless he happened to be an officer. There is a story to the effect that a Frenchman, who had been kept waiting for a long time for post-horses, and who could not induce the inspector to give him any, was much astonished by the behaviour of a Russian captain. The latter, on asking for a fresh team, was told that there were no animals in the stable. However, he at once procured a whip, and chastised the official, the result of the whipping being the instant discovery of some horses.
  The Frenchman seized the idea, and taking his cane followed the example set him, which he found to be a most marvellous specific in the course of his travels through Russia."

"I now proceeded to Morozoff's hostelry to see what could be obtained for dinner, as I felt excessively hungry, the keen air of the steppes having produced a most healthy appetite. On asking the same domestic who had greeted me in the morning what there was to eat-
  "Anything you ask for," was the immediate reply.
  This, when submitted to investigation, proved to be slightly incorrect, for some cabbage soup and cold mutton were the sole contents of the larder.
  "We have magnificent wine," observed the servant, producing a bottle of port as black as ink, and which appeared to be a concoction of Russian spirits, thickened with soot. "Delicious! taste it; our wine is famous all over the country." "

An inspiration for both land and time travel, if ever inspiration were needed.

ROMAN DIRGE
"Lenore: Noogies", "Lenore: Wedgies" and "Lenore: Cooties"

To celebrate the arrival of Cooties - "Lenore, the cute little dead girl" (volume 3), collecting issues 9-12 of the original comics - Phespirit digs out the previous two compendiums and enjoys some back-catalogue nostalgia plus whole new adventures. Evermore thanks, Amy.

HUNTER DAVIES
"The Glory Game"

"In the foyer of the Intercontinental Hotel it was the usual jokes from the players, followed by groans, as lots of complicated forms had to be filled in. Usually they don't have to do anything. Bill signs them in. But now they were behind the Iron Curtain. Joe Kinnear was putting on his idiot abroad look. As an official was telling him where to fill in his passport number Joe kept repeating 'But I don't smoke. I've told you. I don't smoke.' The official gave up in the end and went away."
Throughout the 1971/1972 English Football League season, Hunter Davies was granted a degree of access to a top flight club that was unprecedented at the time and has never been repeated since. The lack of repetition is largely due to this book, in which Davies freely describes his own experiences, along with those of the players, staff, directors and fans at all levels. In this era of commonplace media manipulation, such candid reporting would be unthinkable. The Glory Game was, is, and will probably always remain, a landmark book. Despite echoing from a bygone era it ought to make fascinating reading for any football fan; as the top flight club in question was Spurs it made particularly fascinating reading for Phespirit.

Edited by MILJENKO FORETIC
"Dubrovnik In War"

"Perhaps the example of the Second World War contributed to our hopes, our expectations, that Dubrovnik might have missed the tears, human sacrifices and victims, bombardments, the destruction or devastation of whole regions. We believed that we could have threaded our way peacefully through the Scylla of the decadence of communism and the Charybdis of the "second Yugoslavia" which had been built on communist ideology. For we had been educated in the values of Dubrovnik: Dubrovnik, which had been recognised not only in Europe but throughout the wider world as a pearl of civilisation, a jewel of architecture, the unification of the harmony of nature; and an Athens of the spirit, of culture, civilization, traditional values, tolerance, openness, and mutuality. Thus we were secure in the belief that Serbian extremism and chauvanism could not subdue us. How wrong we were."
This book is a collection of articles that were written between autumn 1991 and spring 1992 - period of the most intense warfare over the city of Dubrovnik following the break-up of the old Yugoslavia. As it is on sale in many bookshops throughout the old city, it is only to be expected that the writing would be heavily pro-Croat, anti-Serb. To its credit however, the consistent theme is pro-human, anti-war. It will doubtless be one of the first of many important recordings of this tragically pointless conflict .....

Summary of Data Concerning the Human Victims and the Damages to the Buildings and Property During 1991/1992
According to the data collated in the Dubrovnik Museum's department of contemporary history, enemy guns killed 92 civilians and wounded 225 during the most intensive aggression against Dubrovnik and the settlements in the Dubrovnik area in 1991/1992. 129 members of the Croatian Army, or the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the Civilian Guard were killed and 282 wounded defending their own homes and the sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia from the attacks of the Yugoslav Army, the Serbs and Montenegrins. In the same period 361 persons were imprisoned in the enemy camps at Morinj an Bileca, 6 people died as a result of beating and torture.
33,826 banished people, mostly women, children and the elderly from the surroundings of Dubrovnik sought rescue in Dubrovnik from enemy aggression. Some of them were taken care of in other parts of Croatia, so that 11,214 banished persons and 892 refugees were living in Dubrovnik by the end 1992.
By stealthy plunder and the destruction of human lives and natural resources the aggressor damaged a total of 7757 dwellings (1,353,501m2 of space) stretching from Konavle to the Ston littoral. 539 buildings were totally burned down, and 1051 buildings were heavily damaged. Numerous static cultural objects (churches, monasteries, cemeteries, museums, local collections, fountains, city walls, etc) were destroyed or heavily damaged, as well as numerous portable monuments of priceless value to the Croatian heritage. The attackers destroyed 750 assorted vessels and 863 vehicles, and the stole 593 cars.
2272 unexploded mines were removed and destroyed from the nearest to the city area (11km2). It is estimated that 14,000 shells of various calibre fell in that area.

NORMA FARNES
"Spike - An Intimate Memoir"

  "There were only two nights left and on the last one there was a heckler in the house. Spike loved that. It gave him the opportunity to quick fire, unrehearsed retorts and there was nobody better at that than him. That night's heckler brought out all the old chestnuts.
  'If you really want me to be funny lend me that shirt your wearing,' said Spike.
  The heckler did not like that and tried several more sallies until the audience told him to shut up. Spike continued the show and got a standing ovation. When the curtain came down the audience refused to leave. So he came back and played his trumpet with asides to the audience. They lapped it up and he glowed in their warmth.
  As it was the last night Spike invited the crew and the impressario, good old Ronnie Quibell, and his family to a party at the hotel across from the theatre. Spike had a glass or two of wine in the dressing room with someone he had met in town so the pair of us were the last to leave. Outside the stage door there was a man big enough for a Springbok forward, about six feet seven and menacing. The heckler. He jabbed a fat finger at Spike and said, in a thick Afrikaans accent, 'Hey, you! Are you the guy who thinks he's funny?'
  Without a heartbeat's hesitation Spike replied, 'Yes, are you the cunt that paid to see me?'
  Then he took my hand. 'Run, Norm!'"
Norma Farnes was Spike Milligan's personal assistant and then manager from 1966 until his death in 2002. In this book she recounts experiences from five decades in which she was unarguably closer to him than anyone else. It is never without affection but such was the man it is dominated by tales of tantrums, rants and unpleasantness. It is not the hatchet job that it might sound; as the book's title suggests, it is a memoir of much-loved yet notorious public-figure, a man of extremes, which paints in the details that could only come from an intimate. Indeed, that could only come from Norma Farnes. Essential reading for fans of Milligan and anyone interested in what was going on behind the scenes when British comedy made some of its most brilliant leaps forward.

THEODORE STURGEON
"Killdozer! - Volume 3: The Complete Stories Of"

This, the third of ten volumes collecting all of Sturgeon's short fiction from the period between the latter part of 1941 and early 1946. It covers his 'bulldozer' period - stories influenced by the time he spent operating heavy plant for the US military at Fort Simonds and on Puerto Rico. The title story, "Killdozer!", is the indisputable star here.

BANKSY
"Wall And Piece"

A coffee-table compilation of classic works by Britain's greatest graffiti artist, unsurpassed for his originality, audacity and sheer damn quality. Indeed, Banksy is arguably one of the finest British creative artists working in any media today. His ingenious and spectacular vandalism of the Israeli's land-snatching segregation wall along the Palestian West Bank has taken graffiti onto a whole new level. The man is a living legend. The power of his book is in the pictures, with a few sage comments scattered here and there. Such as:
"You can win the rat race but you're still a rat.
The human race is an unfair and stupid competition. A lot of the runners don't even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water.
Some runners are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side.
It's not surprising a lot of people have given up competing and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk food and shout abuse.
What we need in this race is a lot more streakers."

CHRISTOPHER ANDREW & VASILI MITROKHIN
"The Mitrokhin Archive"

A full and fascinating tome on the KGB (and predecessor organisations), its history and operations. For example, on operations inside the Soviet Union:
"On 4 October 1972 KGB directive no. 150/3-10870 instructed FCD Illegals Directorate to investigate the mood of the population and the activities of Western tourists in the Baltic republics. The Centre's analysis of the reports received from ARTYOM, FYODOROV, SEVIDOV and VLAS was uniformly depressing. Posing as Western visitors, all four illegals noted inefficient administration; an apathetic workforce 'just sitting out the appointed [working] hours, with no pride in their profession'; intolerance between ethnic groups; and widespread drunkenness. The population of Baltic republics were, however, 'well informed about events in the West and in the Soviet Union'. Letters were taken to the West by foreign tourists, frequently written by people anxious to enter into marriages of convenience with Westerners to provide pretexts for emigration: 'Many people of either sex marry ethnic Jews, although they themselves are not Jews; their only aim is to leave the USSR.' As frequently occurred with analyses of internal dissidence, the main scapegoats were the Jews."
On operations in continental Europe:
"During his visits to Moscow, Saar-Demichel also provided the Centre with regular reports on de Gaulle's foreign policy. He claimed that after the signature of the co-operation treaty between France and West Germany in 1963, which had been badly received in Moscow, de Gaulle had said privately, 'We extend our hand to the Germans so that we could at least be sure they were not holding a knife in theirs.'"
On operations in the U.K. and U.S.A.:
"Soviet intelligence penetration of the West reached its apogee during the Second World War. Never before had any state learned so many of its allies' secrets. At Tehran and Yalta Stalin was probably better informed on the cards in the hands of the other negotiators than statesman at any previous conference. Stalin knew the contents of many highly classified British and American documents which Churchill and Roosevelt kept even from most of their cabinets. ULTRA, though revealed to only six British ministers, was known to Stalin. So was the MANHATTAN project, which was carefully concealed from Vice-President Harry Truman until he succeeded Roosevelt in April 1945. (Truman was then also informed of ULTRA for the first time.) There is a peculiar irony about Truman's decision at the Potsdam conference in July 1945 to reveal to Stalin that 'we had a new weapon of unusual destructive power'. Stalin seemed unimpressed by the news - as well he might, since he had known about plans to build the American atomic bomb for fifteen times as long as Truman."