Reply to: CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Doodlebugs: the dramatic story of the flying bombs of WWII" by Norman Longmate.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. It seemed long. The reference to the poor sod who was on leave from the Navy & was killed in a rowing boat on Regents Park Lake was ironic in a very ironic way: apparently Sub-Lt John "Jack" David Pook, his fiance escaping with her life though seriously injured.

Next: "SOE: 1940-46" by M.R.D. Foot (1984, BBC), purchased in April 2013 from the Scope charity shoppe which is now the Greyhounds charity shoppe: plainly it's matured well on the bookshelf since then.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Bruneval Raid: stealing Adolph's Radar" by George Millar. As is usual their engineering was a good deal more impressive than ours*, but there you go, it's probably down to using metric fittings or something. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Rather an inneresting book all in all.

Next: "The Doodlebugs: the dramatic story of the flying bombs of WWII" by Norman Longmate. (1981).

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "V2" by Robert Harris. The fictional version of a week or so in November 1944.

Done: off to Oxfam with it, having previously graced the Carmarthen free books centre and the Llys Nini greyhound rescue in Swansea. Rather good in its way. Ms YoungHusband is acknowledged in the post script.

Next: TBD.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Philby: the spy who betrayed a generation" by Bruce Page, David Leitch, Phillip Knightley, 2nd ed 1969.

Gosh. Don't have to read many pages before encountering such familiar names as Blunt (still looking after Liz's paintings at the time), Roger Hollis, Dick White, Guy Liddell.

Much too early (1969) for any mention of SpyCatching of course. .

Done: off to Oxfam with it. No mention of Nicholas Elliot but I suppose he was still an anonymous bureaucrat in 1969.

Next: "V2" by Robert Harris. The fictional version of a week or so in November 1944.

Goodness me: a lady who actually did it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-...%2C%20the%20V2.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-...wales-37265964

Unrecognised? I've never seen it referred to anywhere. Shocking.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "So long and thanks for all the fish" by D. Adams (1984). Talk about flogging a dead donkey.

Done, thank feck: off to Oxfam with it: a rereading after 40 years reveals how vacuous the 3rd & 4th books were. It would have been better if he hadn't bothered because they're not worth reading, they read exactly as if he'd been imprisoned in a room & compelled to write. .

Next: but it will have nothing to do with H2G2. I'd get rid of the VHS cassettes of the tv series* but no one has a player any more. .

Next: "The Life & times of the Thunderbolt Kid" by Bill Bryson.

Larf out loud funny at times. .

And mentions:

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS195604...t-txIN--------

.

Dunno why but the chemistry set tale was really really funny: I remember doing dumb things like that back in the day.

*The tv series is much better than the books, though not quite as good as the radio series, whilst being infinitely better than the truly dire film.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Life, The Universe, and Everything" by D. Adams. This being the 2nd radio series IIRC.

Meh. Off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "So long and thanks for all the fish" by D. Adams (1984). Talk about flogging a dead donkey.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by D. Adams. 1980. The last book that had any relation to the first radio series.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I remember it seeming better 40 odd years ago. . Adams chopped out & rewrote all the stuff that John Lloyd contributed to E5 & E6.

Next: "Life, The Universe, and Everything" by D. Adams. This being the 2nd radio series IIRC.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by D. Adams, 1979.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Can't say I enjoyed it all that much.

Next: "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by D. Adams. 1980. The last book that had any relation to the first radio series.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Long dark teatime of the soul" by D. Adams. More of the same.

Done: off to Oxfam with it: this one had a little sticky badge thing about tea with DNA's mum. Or something.

Next: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by D. Adams, 1979.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by D. Adams. Well it's not H2G2. Mildly amusing in parts.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I remember it being much more inneresting in 1988 or whenever. .

Next: "The Long dark teatime of the soul" by D. Adams. More of the same.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Wish you were here: the official biog of DNA" by Nick Webb.

Well it was there & once read can join the rest.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Print could have been a bit bigger.

Next: but it won't be H2G2 despite my desire to get shot of all five of the books

Stone me:

https://johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk/book...3ZyunoPgHv53Gm

My copy still has the leaflet for ordering the LPs. .

Feck me:

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/S...entlyadded=all


Next: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by D. Adams. Well it's not H2G2. Mildly amusing in parts.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "James May's Magnificent Machines: how men in sheds changed our lives". Dunno who wrote it.

Done & free of any reference to the Orange Mother****er: off to Oxfam with it. Inneresting enough in its way & easier to read than many.

Next: "The Bruneval Raid: stealing Adolph's Radar" by George Millar. As is usual their engineering was a good deal more impressive than ours*, but there you go, it's probably down to using metric fittings or something. .

*500MHz for the Bruneval dish vs our 30 to 40MHz for Chain Home.

Flt Sgt C. W. H. Cox, the radar technician:

https://wisbech.ccan.co.uk/content/tag/charlie-cox-mm

And another brave man:

https://ethw.org/Hans_Ferdinand_Mayer

Source of "The Oslo Report" November 1939.

https://www.militaryintelligencemuse...he-oslo-report

[b0redom]

"Too much and never enough"

I read that. She's obviously got an axe to grind, but it does sort of explain some of his behaviour. Some pretty shocking stuff in there, like the banks giving him an allowance to keep up the pretence everything is going OK.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Too much and never enough" by Mary Trump. More about the Moronic Orange psychopath.

Done: off to Oxfam whence it came. If only that kid had used a bolt action 30-06 instead of a pop gun. Ho hum.

Next: But it won't be about the orange draft dodging mother****er: "James May's Magnificent Machines: how men in sheds changed our lives". Dunno who wrote it.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Mare's Nest" by David "Hitler never knew" Irving. Revised slightly to acknowledge the existence of ULTRA (but not very much).

Well that's something I've not read about elsewhere: Hauptman Herbert "Peter" Cleff: the POW who told some inneresting tales.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. We should be eternally grateful for the resources wasted on the A4: it held up a lot of projects that might otherwise have caused more deaths & prolonged the war: £12k per V2 vs £125 per V1.

But there you go: he aimed for the moon & sometimes hit London. .

Next: "Philby: the spy who betrayed a generation" by Bruce Page, David Leitch, Phillip Knightley, 2nd ed 1969.

Gosh. Don't have to read many pages before encountering such familiar names as Blunt (still looking after Liz's paintings at the time), Roger Hollis, Dick White, Guy Liddell.

Much too early (1969) for any mention of SpyCatching of course. .