READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Stanley]

Deep into James Nasmyth's autobiography (edited by Smiles). I remember how pleased I was when I went into the museum in Washington DC and the first thing I saw was a Nasmyth steam hammer!
Nasmyth talks about a man called John Drain in Birmingham who made very good lathes and from the sound of it they were ornamental turning lathes. I have searched but found no trace of him. Anyone heard the name?

[Stanley]

Still plugging away at Smiles. At the moment I'm reading the second, expanded version, of Telford's life. So rewarding to go back and remind myself yet again of how important these men were and Smiles was by far the best chronicler of their work. By the way, the book I am reading now was published in 1967, so nice to be able to use a book so old and as good as the day it was printed. Puts some modern books to shame.

[Stanley]

Finished Telford, not sure which to go for next. Could be Smiles on George Stephenson, perfect 5th edition copy printed in 1857.... They made good looking books in those days!

[plaques]

A group of streets in Burnley round the Padiham Rd area are named after famous engineers. Stephenson, Watt, Brassey, Brunel, Arkwright, Romford, Rendel, Newton, Faraday, and Telford. Somehow I can't see this being repeated in modern times.

[Stanley]

P. I'm afraid that most people's knowledge of the early engineers is limited to Watt and Brunel. Mention Smeaton, Rennie or Metcalfe and you'll get a blank stare. I love being reminded of the way they dragged us into the modern world. How many people realise that Blind Jack (Metcalfe) of Knaresborough laid out the road from Skipton to Burnley? Go even further back to Vermuyden and Myddleton and they are unknown.

[Stanley]

Have sucked the juice out of Brindley, including Boucher's modern book on him. Well into George Stephenson now.

[Tripps]

I'm dipping into "1940 Myth and Reality" by Clive Ponting at the moment. (He was tried but was found not guilty under the Official Secrets Act, for leaking documents concerning the Belgrano). I thought this excerpt was interesting. An early example of "We're all in this together" ?

"The consequence was that the privileged few were able to send their children to safety in North America while the rest of the population had to face the rigours of bombing and the threat of invasion. Chips Channon, who sent his son Paul (later a Conservative cabinet minister) to the United States, described the scene at Euston Station, as the boat train for Liverpool and safety prepared to depart: 'There was a queue of Rolls-Royces and liveried servants and mountains of trunks. It seemed that everyone we knew was there.' The list of those who left Britain for the United States covers every area of the top of British society. Lord Mountbatten sent his wife and two children on 4th July. Members of the government such as Duff Cooper who sent his son (John Julius Norwich), were prepared to take advantage of private arrangements while stopping publicly funded schemes. From the aristocracy, the names include the children of the Countess de Borchgrave, Lady Margaret Barry, Lord Radnor, Viscount Bayham, The Earl of March, many of the Guinness family, and Viscount Bethell. The City of London was represented by four Rothschilds and the children of Sir Charles Hambro. The press baron Viscount Rothermere took his son Vere Harmsworth out of Eaton and sent him to Connecticut. Minor politicians such as Hely-Hutchinson, the secretary of the back bench 1922 committee, did the same. Other well connected children such as Jeremy Thorpe (a later leader of the Liberal Party) and Vera Brittain's children (among whom was Shirley Williams) also left for the United States. Most of the children returned in 1942, once the danger of defeat and invasion had disappeared."

[Stanley]

A good reminder David. Funnily enough one of my mentors advised me to read Chips Channon's diaries/biography only the other day.

[Stanley]

I decided I needed some light entertainment so I'm re-reading Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies. If you've never read them get hold of a copy and be entranced.

[Stanley]

Lovely day with Puck yesterday, started on Rewards and Fairies, that will be one of today's treats!

[David Whipp]

Have just finished An Officer And A Spy by Robert Harris; excellent, fictionalised, account of the Dreyfuss affair.

[Stanley]

That sounds interesting. I know the bare bones of the affair and have heard the latest theories about what was behind it. A shameful episode indeed! Am still deep in Rewards and Fairies.....

[Stanley]

Having a change. I saw the BBC version of Tinker Tailor on the TV and decided to read the next two books in the final Smiley trilogy again, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. Wonderfully complicated plots and the more you read the stories the more you get out of them. Possibly the best spy stories ever written, I never tire of them.

[David Whipp]

Having read the latest Robert Harris, have started to re-read his previous books. Imperium, the story of Cicero's rise to become a Consul of Rome, completed and have started on Lustrum. Harris writes very good historical fiction.

[David Whipp]

Re-reading of Lustrum, dealing with Cicero's Consular and post Consular career, completed. Have begun Pompeii, which is a new read for me. One of the characters is a (civil) engineer...

[David Whipp]

Not only is there an engineer in Pompeii, he's the hero of the novel. Excellent thriller. Vesuvius about to erupt.

[Stanley]

I'm on the last Smiley book, Secret Pilgrim. Easy reading.....

[Stanley]

Finished the Smiley books. Remember me getting the latest Le Carre books so I could catch up? I'm reading them again because Le Carre is so complicated you always get more out of them when you go back to them. I suppose this complicated plot line is one of the reasons many prefer Len Deighton. I enjoy both but Le Carre is so rewarding if you persevere and read all the books in order because there are always echoes of his previous work in the next book. It becomes fictional history and the same rules apply as real history. You have more understanding if you know what went before.

[David Whipp]

Pompeii completed. Would you like to borrow it Stanley? Not only is its hero an engineer, but there's lots of culverts as well...

Sticking with Richard Harris, probably going to re-read Fatherland and then Enigma.

[Stanley]

No thanks David, enjoying my spies too much! Finished the Night Manager, Private Eye next and then 'Our Game'.

[Tripps]

I've just bought "History of Oldham Parliamentary Elections 1832 - 1852" by Benjamin Grime.

The constituency was started in 1832 following the great Reform Act of that year. The legendary William Cobbett - he of the "Rural Rides" was elected during this period, and later one Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill first entered Parliament from this constitiuency in 1900. It was published in MDCCCLXXXVII or 1887, and the introduction includes . . .

"In commencing a few sketches of of these local incidents, we are obliged to say that the the ordinary rules of conduct are set aside on the occasions of these contests. There is little regard for veracity, less for consistency, and no regard whatever for civility and courtesy. The principles and professions of one contending party are reviled by their opponents. One party extols and exaggerates the the importance of its own past political achievements, and at the same time represents the past exploits of its opponents as mischievous and wrong. Meanness the most base is resorted to, and personal abuse is is indulged in without the least restraint. However spotless the character of an opponent may be, whether candidate or agent, he is subject to the most virulent abuse. Supporters and friends are alike held up to public obloquy. Under the circumstances, this ridicule and abuse, which are resorted to alike by one party as the other are tolerated so long as they don't become utterly unendurable."

[Stanley]

So, not a lot of change then....

[Stanley]

I've re-read all the late le Carres and have gone back to Len Deighton’s Bomber. Remember the programme they did based on it?

[Stanley]

I'm enjoying my re-reading of the late Deightons....
Hilary Mantel's 'Bring out the Bodies' is in the most borrowed list. Looking forward to the last book in the trilogy about Thomas Cromwell.

[Stanley]

As it's the centenary year of the start of the Great War I've decided to read Hew Strachan again, 'The First World War'. A good 1200 page read!