2005 books So here is the list of books I seem to have read over the past year: Join Me by Danny Wallace Good Omen by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade: How to Survive Life's Smaller Challenges by Guy Browning Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism by Paul Collins 1 Out Of 10: From Downing Street Vision To Classroom Reality by Peter Hyman The Tipping Point by Matthew Gladwell Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another by Philip Ball Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine by Andrew Scull Writing your thesis Paul Oliver How to write a thesis Rowena Murray Getting a PhD : an action plan to help manage your research, your supervisor John A. Finn The unwritten rules of PhD research Gordon Rugg and Marian Petre Drawing A Cat by Clare Turlay Newberry Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005 by Phil Baines Nell by Nell McCafferty, Dreaming to Some Purpose by Colin Wilson, Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt A Letter of Mary by Laurie King The Minerart by Leila Aboulela The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats by Jeffrey Masson Have His Carcasse by Dorothy L. Sayers Justice Hall by Laurie R. King Cryptnomicon by Neal Stephenson Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft The Home Stretch by Erwin James A Prize for Sister Catherine by Kathleen Rowntree Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers angels and men by Catherine Fox Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan Caroline Minuscule by Andrew Taylor The short day dying by Peter Hobbs Going Buddhist: Panic and Emptiness, the Buddha and Me by Peter J. Conradi Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro The Scottish Enlightenment:The Historical Age of the Historical Nation by Alexander Broadie

2.1.06 19:55 Permalink / 2 Comments / comment

Buffy books I am/was a big fan of Buffy but have not watched a video in ages - however, I stumbled across a review of the first book on the list and it reminded me of my love of Buffy and of reading lots of stuff into it - hence this list of books! "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (BFI TV Clasics S.)  Anne Billson Blood Relations: Chosen Families in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel"; Paperback ~ Jes Battis Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the "Buffy" Fan  Lorna Jowett Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"?; Paperback ~ Rhonda V. Wilcox (Editor), David Lavery (Editor) What Would Buffy Do?: The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide  Jana Riess "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale  James B. South (Editor) Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show  Glenn Yeffeth (Editor) Reading the "Vampire Slayer": The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to 'Buffy' and 'Angel'  Roz Kaveney (Editor) Read any? Any I have missed?

18.12.05 19:54 Permalink / comment

Open University courses Some OU courses I would like to take - mostly around Social Policy D218 Social Policy: Welfare, Power and DiversityThe course examines the social relations and organisation of social welfare in contemporary Britain. It explores questions arising from the changing nature of the welfare state in the UK, bringing out the processes of social inequality and differentiation and their implications for social welfare. It also emphasises the ways in which social problems and their solutions have been socially constructed and are subject to historical change. The course takes a social constructionist perspective which means that it looks at the connection between the meanings associated with social behaviours, social groups and social conditions and the welfare policies and professional practices designed in response to them. DD305 Personal Lives and Social PolicyThis course explores the complex and changing interconnections between social policy and people’s lived experiences of welfare. Four themes – sexualities, care, work and citizenship – provide a route through the course. These examine ‘new’ sites of interest in social policy, such as sexuality, as well as ‘taken-for-granted’ topics, like women’s caring roles. This course invites you to look critically at how personal lives have shaped, and been shaped by, policy-making processes past and present through the core concepts of the personal, social policy and their mutual constitution. These core concepts are explored across the course themes through five major theoretical perspectives. The course also critically examines issues of evidence, and its place in understanding the relationships between personal lives and social policy. There are a variety of assignment formats and tasks, including undertaking your own small research project, which involves doing three research interviews. D315 Crime, Order and Social ControlWhat exactly is a ‘crime’? Has society entered a period of escalating violence and public disorder? Do the media irresponsibly glamorise criminals? What should be done to calm the public’s growing sense of insecurity and vulnerability? Can we expect our criminal justice system to be both fair and effective? To approach questions like these the course examines the nature of crime and the various means, from policing and imprisonment to prevention, community safety and restorative justice, which have been designed to control and respond to crimes. Other courses of interest DD203 Power, Dissent, Equality: Understanding Contemporary Politics DD201 Sociology and Society D318 Culture, Media and Identities

14.2.05 23:15 Permalink / comment

my essential clothes a list of lists... has been a bit quiet - but here is a list called my essential clothes underclothes - bra, knickers - same colour - either black or white (for rare occasion I wear light coloured top). Bra has to be as plain as possible and fit well. No underwires. tops - simple, black, good quality - prefer t-shirts to shirts/blouses - plainer, no buttons to get pulled out, no gaping at the breast, no tightness around the stomach thin, long-sleeved jumpers in a range of my preferred colours (see below) coat - black, hooded, inside chest pocket, roomy, warm without being suffocating. scarf can be a bit more colourful (see below for preferred colours) and even a simple pattern is ok. No gloves, no hat. plain straight black trousers, with pockets - chinos or jeans are my favourites socks - mostly black but a pair or two in bright colours - red, green, orange, purple shoes - simple, lace-up - Doc Marten the standard to which all other footwear is to be compared. Boots to be a reasonable alternative. Note All clothes to be plain, no detail, no slogans, no stripes, nothing like that at all. And the material has to be natural cotton or linen or wool - or a mix - no polyester etc. And simple to wash, dry and maintain. Black is the best colour, but brown, green and rust are tolerable alternatives. Not too many clothes. But when it comes to buying them, buy 3 or 4 of each item - I know what I like, so buy a few. I'll wear them. clothes designed to be worn by men tend to be better quality and suit my criteria than women's. Men's trousers are generally a good fit. Only exception is underwear and tailored jackets. But I do not tend to wear tailored jackets.

12.2.05 22:22 Permalink / comment

top 10 Modern Delusions Francis Wheen's top 10 modern delusions 1. "God is on our side" George W Bush thinks so, as do Tony Blair and Osama bin Laden and an alarmingly high percentage of other important figures in today's world. After September 11 2001 Blair claimed that religion was the solution not the problem, since "Jews, Muslims and Christians are all children of Abraham" - unaware that the example of Abraham was also cited by Mohammed Atta, hijacker of the one of the planes that shattered the New York skyline. RH Tawney wrote in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism that "modern social theory, like modern political theory, developed only when society was given a naturalistic instead of a religious explanation". In which case modern social and political theory would now seem to be dead. 2. The market is rational Financial sophisticates in the 21st century smile at the madness of the South Sea Bubble or the absurdity of the Dutch tulip craze. Yet only a few years ago they scrambled and jostled to buy shares in dotcom companies which had no earnings at all nor any prospect of ever turning a profit. To justify this apparent insanity, they maintained that such a revolutionary business as the internet required a new business model in which balance sheets were irrelevant. In short, they thought they had repealed the laws of financial gravity - until they came crashing down to earth. 3. There is no such thing as reality Hence the inverted commas which postmodernists invariably place round the word. They see everything from history to quantum physics as a text, subject to the "infinite play of signification". But if all notions of truth and falsity cease to have any validity, how can one combat bogus ideas - or indeed outright lies? There is, for instance, a mass of carefully empirical research on the Nazi extermination of the Jews. As Professor Richard Evans points out, "To regard it as fictional, unreal or no nearer to historical reality than, say, the work of the 'revisionists' who deny that Auschwitz ever happened at all, is simply wrong. Here is an issue where evidence really counts, and can be used to establish the essential facts. Auschwitz was not a discourse." 4. We mustn't be "judgmental" In 2002 the Guardian revealed that Christian fundamentalists had taken control of a state-funded school in Gateshead and were striving to "show the superiority" of creationist beliefs in their classes. When Jenny Tonge MP asked Tony Blair if he was happy that the Book of Genesis was now being promoted as the most reliable biology textbook, he replied: "Yes. . . In the end a more diverse school system will deliver better results for our children." This is the enfeebling consequence of unthinking cultural and intellectual relativism. If some schools start teaching that the moon is made of Swiss cheese or that the stars are God's daisy chain, no doubt that too will be officially welcomed as a healthy sign of educational diversity. 5. Laissez-faire capitalism is the prerequisite for trade and prosperity The International Monetary Fund may say so, as it imposes Thatcher-style solutions all over the world, but its own figures tell a different story. Its report on The World Economy in the 20th Century", published in 2000, includes a graph - printed very small, perhaps in the hope that no one would notice - which shows that the pre-Thatcherite period between 1950 and 1973 was by far the most successful of the century. This was an era characterised by capital controls, fixed exchange rates, strong trade unions, a large public sector and a general acceptance of government's role in demand management. The average annual growth in "per capita real GDP" throughout the world was 2.9% - precisely twice as high as the average rate in the two decades since then. 6. Astrology and similar delusions are "harmless fun" Those who say this never explain what is either funny or harmless in promoting a con-trick which preys on ignorance and anxiety. Yet even the Observer, Britain's most venerable and enlightened Sunday newspaper, now has a horoscope page. 7. Thin air is solid Charles Leadbeater's book Living on Thin Air (1999), a starry-eyed guide to the "weightless economy", was described by Peter Mandelson as "a blueprint for what a radical modernising project will entail in years to come". The dustjacket also carried a tribute from Tony Blair, hailing Leadbeater as "an extraordinarily interesting thinker" whose book "raises criticial questions for Britain's future". Three years later, after the pricking of the dotcom bubble, industry secretary Patricia Hewitt admitted that "industrial policy in [Labour's] first term of office was mistaken, placing too much emphasis on the dotcom economy at the expense of Britain's manufacturing base...The idea of Living on Thin Air was so much hot air." Tactfully, she forgot to mention that the chief hot-air salesman had been her own leader. 8. Sentimental hysteria is a sign of emotional maturity The psychotherapist Susie Orbach interpreted the 'floral revolution' outside Kensington Palace after Princess Diana's death as proof that we were "growing up as a nation". Will Hutton, radical social democrat and republican, said that the collective genuflection before a dead aristocrat showed that the British were "freeing ourselves from the reins of the past". The assumption is that emotional populism represents a new kind of collective politics. In fact, it is nothing more than narcissism in disguise. 9. America's economic success is entirely due to private enterprise In the 19th century, the American government promoted the formation of a national economy, the building of railroads and the development of the telegraph. More recently, the internet was created by the Pentagon. American agriculture is heavily subsidised and protected, as are the steel industry and many other sectors of the world's biggest "free-market economy". At times of economic slowdown, even under presidents who denigrate the role of government, the US will increase its deficit to finance expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. But its leaders get very cross indeed if any developing country tries to follow this example. 10. "It could be you. . ." This was the advertising slogan for the National Lottery, that monument to imbecility, which was introduced (fittingly enough) by John Major. And millions of British adults apparently believed it, even though the odds on winning the jackpot are 13m to one. It could be you. . . but it bloody well won't be.

14.11.04 22:59 Permalink / comment

Top 10 Irish Novels Frank Delaney's top 10 Irish novels Frank Delaney is the author of eight novels, as well as several non-fiction books (including James Joyce's Odyssey) and a number of screenplays. He has been a judge for both the Booker and Whitbread prizes and chairman of the Book Trust. In his latest work, Ireland: A Novel, Delaney tells the history of his native land through a young boy's search for an itinerant storyteller. 1. Ulysses by James Joyce Obviously Ulysses has to be first. On another day in another room in another town my top 10 Irish novels might be different - but there are 'given' novels, the bibles of the country, without which no reader worthy of the nationality 'Irish' can proceed. Joyce hammered a job on the novel so complete that he became a category unto himself. Every literary style was mist to his grill, as he might have said, and his plotting, if such it can be called - two men who take all day to meet each other - paved the way for, among others, Samuel Beckett. Above all he taught every writer the importance of naturalistic dialogue; with his fine tenor voice Joyce knew better than most that we read not with the eye but with the ear. 2. The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen Chosen as much to represent Bowen rather than merely for the novel's own powers. Which are none the less significant. The year is 1920; Sir Richard Naylor and his family await in their great house the final onslaught of the 'Risen People' - meaning that the twilight of the Anglo-Irish has begun to fall as the native Irish begin to take back their land. In that anxious gloaming, relationships advance and retreat like sad and fearful dancers; some have possibilities, some never had, some will cause death. And always the clear, cool and nervous voice of Bowen herself comes through the fog of years as it does in all her novels. 3. Troubles by JG Farrell It seems right that a number of any top 10 Irish novels should address the emotional and physical violence that formed modern Ireland. Farrell wrote superbly; all his books had a quality that hallmarks great literary talent - he could 'do' texture. This album - which is what Troubles feels like - records the same Anglo-Irish as Elizabeth Bowen knew and belonged to. As with Bowen, this feels like the real thing (which is all a novel has to do). Always judge a writer by his grasp of what he doesn't know: Farrell died young yet his old people are almost his best creations. Buy it at Amazon.co.uk 4. Thy Tears Might Cease by Michael Farrell This Farrell wrote only one book, spent all his life doing so, told everybody about it incessantly, didn't live long enough to finish it and startled everybody with its excellence when it appeared. The book centres on the 1916 period and addresses the confusion in the minds of young men who have not yet discriminated between the relative importance of patriotism and personal survival. One of the most irritating questions that all novelists have to field is, "How autobiographical is your book?" In Michael Farrell's case the answer feels as though it must be, "totally" but as he's not here to speak for himself let us accept it for the stirring fiction he intended to create. 5. Fools of Fortune by William Trevor Fools of Fortune makes it into this list because of its rightful place among great books that deal with the Irish question. I would also have chosen Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel and cited it as exciting because it appeared early in Trevor's writing life and heralded the wonderful powers of observation and characterisation that appear like flashes of lighting in his short stories. Fools of Fortune, however, displays a further and to me even more arresting Trevor hallmark: nobody has written better about each nationality in the other's country - the Irish in England or the English in Ireland - and certainly never in a single volume. In this novel he again makes tragedy, if not bearable, at least comprehensible. 6. The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan I recall the excitement when this book was published in the late 1970's - and then discovered (not always the case) that the book merited it. Flanagan, an American history professor of Irish descent, pulled off a substantial coup in that he brought a historian's training to bear upon a romantic moment, the period when the French landed in the west of Ireland in 1798 and all Ireland thought liberation was at hand. His research never lies around the novel in pools, it stains the entire fabric, so that when his character's point of view is emerging from a dispossessed farmer's clay hovel or a small town merchant's table in the local hotel, we smell them - their clothes, their breath and (this is Ireland after all) their politics. 7. Amongst Women by John McGahern Other than Ulysses I wish that lists such as this did not also suggest hierarchy of choice. McGahern has written the finest novel of what might be called the 'rural bourgeoisie,' the small to middling farmer with emotions and opinions. I have heard that when the manuscript first reached his publishers it was more than twice as long as the book that eventually appeared and that McGahern himself insisted on cutting it back. Given the spare power of what appeared here - the farmer and his family and their subcutaneous, needless, heedless anguish - I know that I am perhaps making a literary misjudgment but I merely wanted more and more of this wonderful writing. 8. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien Just as pure and compelling today as when it first appeared 45 years ago. Simple in the extreme, it tells the story of Kate and Baba who have made it to Dublin from the deep and damp parish countryside and find that, in all the excitement, hypocrisy remains a constant. The book's place in my heart was copper-fastened by the banning of it; so how, then, did the natives of Miss O'Brien's home village in County Clare get enough copies for the bonfire they held to burn it? It was her first novel, not her finest but her most innocent - and see how she grew her talent. 9. Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor Which is more exciting - to see a writer arrive in one bound or to see a promising writer flesh out his talents? In a sense O'Connor did both; his earlier books always had flash and sparkle, especially when examining young humans, and we should not be surprised that he suddenly pulled out this astounding work. But we'd have been surprised at anyone suddenly leaping to this height. In 1847 many ships crossed the Atlantic, ferrying the fleeing Irish from hunger to the new promised land and many have written about it, fiction and fact. But never like this; here, you catch your breath on every page. Judging by the payload O'Connor delivers, I can only marvel at the emotional demands the writing must have made upon him. 10. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce Chosen because James Joyce did writing and reading (and literary Ireland) the ultimate service; he took nothing for granted. The Wake calls down myriad responses - derision, fawning respect, confusion, ennui; but why not enjoyment? Read it aloud and read it slowly; read it while thinking of a man who loved language and who loved mankind and who loved - above all, perhaps - mankind's use of language. More poetry lurks in here than in 10 verse anthologies. I don't claim you should read it every day like some sort of Celtic missal; best to approach it once in a while, and approach it as though quarrying - this is Joyce's diamond mine.

14.11.04 22:51 Permalink / comment

Top 10 Fantasy Books Guardian Unlimited Books | Top 10s | Jonathan Stroud: fantasy books "Jonathan Stroud is the author of the bestselling Bartimaeus trilogy, a fast-paced fantasy series set in a modern-day London ruled by magicians and featuring an ambitious young apprentice magician and the djinni he summons. The second book in the series, The Golem's Eye, is out now in hardback (Doubleday, £12.99); the first, The Amulet of Samarkand, is available in paperback (Corgi, £5.99). 1. Grettir's Saga by Anon, 1320s (trans. Fox and Palsson 1974) Not a fantasy really, but the central encounter between Grettir and the monstrous blue-skinned revenant Glam is one of literature's most exciting and terrifying collisions of the fantastic with the human world. All the more effective because it is embedded in detailed realism. Also includes, as a side-show, a nasty barrow-wight: 600 years pre-Tolkien. 2. Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en, 16th century (trans. Arthur Waley 1942) Hugely entertaining mix of demons, gods, saints and sages; part fairy tale, part allegory, part satire. A literary adaptation of existing legends in much the same way as Malory's Morte D'Arthur, but with far better jokes. Monkey is the personification of charismatic energy, protecting Tripitaka with the same brio he employs to duff up the pious minions of Heaven. 3. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 1726 The archetypal narrative of extravagant far-flung societies, all of which reflect back the absurdities and follies of our own. Swift's humour and energy of invention allow him to smuggle coruscating satire past the gentle reader's guard: it is a mighty long stretch from the drolleries of Lilliputia to the bleak misanthropy of Gulliver's visit with the Houyhnhnms. 4. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, 1908 Perfect fantasy of the small-scale, given shape by the author's mystical devotion to the English countryside. Shrugs off conventional analysis (NB Toad has hair ... ) by means of precise and witty characterisation and by the wistful, frost-sharp evocations of nature, through which the anarchic Toad streaks like an arrow. 5. War in Heaven by Charles Williams, 1930 Another English mystic, but infinitely more odd. Williams's occult novels are imbued with his vision of neo-Platonic Christianity. Higher beings appear on Earth in genteel 30s suburbia; the dead and living mingle on London streets; some very unpleasant magicians go hunting the Grail. For Williams, the spiritual is more concrete than the physical; magic is perilous and souls are at risk. If Blake had written thrillers, they'd have been like this. 6. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, 1937 Whereas the monolithic scale and sobriety of The Lord of the Rings ultimately led fantasy into bad habits, The Hobbit keeps the focus firmly on the blossoming of Bilbo, the timorous everyman. The result is the finest quest narrative in children's literature, speedy and light of foot, with a perfect two-stage climax: the elation of Bilbo's solo encounter with Smaug put in immediate perspective by the final battle, in which several central characters die. 7. Titus Groan/Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, 1946/1950 Much fantasy revolves ponderously around good v evil; Peake brings us stasis v change. The endless, ancient rituals of Gormenghast are stultifying and meaningless; the urchin Steerpike rebels against them, bringing energy, ingenuity and patience to work in an effort to achieve power. Yet Steerpike is bad, a multiple murderer. We should not sympathise with him, but we do: he is mercurial and creative, the outsider within the system. Ideal teenage reading. 8. The Dying Earth by Jack Vance, 1950 In the far future, the old red sun is failing and Earth's inhabitants (human and inhuman) wander amid the ruins of the past. Vance's style is rich and ornate; he conjures a profusion of odd cultures, decadent magicians, predatory creatures chopping logic and trading verbal flourishes with their victims. The collection includes Liane the Wayfarer, a short story with one of the finest endings in fantasy. 9. The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones, 1974 DWJ was brilliantly fusing magic and humour for children 20 years before the current wave began. Here, warring step-siblings experiment with wonder-working chemistry sets. The invasion of the fantastical into drably ordinary lives is liberating, but also deeply unsettling, as it should be. The living, breeding toffee bars are unforgettable. 10. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, 1979 Recent developments have seen the divisions between folk-tales, children's fiction and adult fantasy blur more than ever, but Carter's collection is an unashamed reappropriation of fairy stories for a specifically adult audience. She revels in the carnality of Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, Bluebeard et al, re-energising the form, while doffing her cap to the traditions on which modern fantasy is based.

14.11.04 22:45 Permalink / comment

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