Whoz Crazee Now

I have finally got round to reading my son-in-law's copy of Whoz Crazee Now the autobiography of Slade front man Neville Holder better known as Noddy. Much of the Slade story has been told in various publications since the group broke through to become one of the most popular acts of the "Glam Rock" era. Even today Merry Christmas Everybody is still the number one Christmas anthem. Noddy's story begins on a council estate in Walsall, the heart of England's Black Country so called because of the pollution caused by the mining and other heavy industries. His long struggle through the familiar path of gigs at pubs, clubs and campuses until teaming up with Dave Hill and Don Powell, bringing in Jimmy Lea and being brought under the experienced wing of ex-Animals bassist Chas Chandler kept me glued to the page. The book was originally published in 1999 and is, no doubt, out of print but Noddy's no holds barred tale of the dedication and hard work that it takes to succeed and the problems that accompany success are well worth tracking down a copy. Unusualy for me I devoured this fascinating book in one sitting but then, I always thought Slade were the greatest!

The Girl in the Cellar

The Girl in the Cellar by Patricia Wentworth is another of her Miss Silver mysteries which intrigue me because of the miniscule part that the name detective plays in the story. The Girl in the Cellar is a mystery of murder and lost memory. It was published in 1961 and so holds to the standards of the so-called "Golden Age" of detective fiction that is; just one murder, no excessive violence, no coarse language and moderately good manners all round. How refreshing it is ! In this book it is the telling of the story rather than a labrynthine plot that keeps the pages turning for Miss Wentworth gets away with rather more in the way of coincidence than would be allowed a modern writer. Nonetheless this is another first class entertainment that well stands the test of time.

Rapscallion

Mathew Hawkwood is a Bow Street Runner. He is rough, tough, and dangerous to know and even more dangerous to cross. When the authorities in Regency London have a serious problem Hawkwood is the man they send to sort it. He is street wise to PhD standard and fought his way through the ranks to become a captain in The Rifles. Starting to get the picture? That's right, Hawkwood is Sharpe in civvies and you can't say fairer than that. Rapscallion is the third Hawkwood adventure from the pen of James McGee and it is every bit as good as it's predecessors. French prisoners in the Napoleonic wars are sent to the Hulks, decommissioned men-of-war turned into floating prisons with a reputation for appalling conditions and reckoned escape proof. However, word has reached the Admiralty that escapes are being effected in a way that has to have an extensive organisation behind it. A young Lieutenant is sent undercover to investigate. He winds up dead. Another is sent. He disappears. It is time to send for Hawkwood. This is a first class adventure story with our hero constantly confronted by danger and death, a page turner par excellence. I look forward to Hawkwood's next outing.

The Affair of the Thirty-Nine Cufflinks

The Affair of the Thirty-Nine Cufflinks by James Anderson is the third murder mystery that this author has set at the country home of the Earl of Burford. The central characters are again the Earl and Countess, their daughter Lady Geraldine and Chief Inspector Wilkins. The Burford's are playing host to nine members of the familly following the funeral of Great Aunt Florrie. The will is read and her daughter-in-law Clara, incensed at being virtualy cut out of it, issues threats of disclosure of personal secrets of other familly members that could ruin their reputations. That night she is murdered and circumstances dictate that the killer must be from among the assembled guests. James Anderson drives the action along at a handsome pace whilst creating an amusing country house atmosphere which, allied to his light brisk dialogue, has just the right overtones of Wodehouse. This is another first class entertainment from this author and is sure to please any fan of the Agatha Christie school of detective story.

Blood on the Strand

Blood on the Strand is the second investigation by Susanna Gregory's Restoration spy Thomas Chaloner. The title comes from the opening scene where Mathew Webb, a wealthy merchant, is murdered as he returns to his home in The Strand following a dinner given by the Guinea Company at Africa House. The killing of a beggar outside Westminster Abbey during a service celebrating the third anniversary of the restoration of King Charles the Second whilst Chalenor is on security duty diguised as a street sweeper could not possibly be connected to the muder of Webb or could it? Why are members of the wealthy and powerful Company of Barber-Surgeons so often found where Chaloner is searching for answers to the complex riddles of which Restoration politics is composed? The Surgeons are allowed to disect corpses of felons for scientific purposes but as the faces are always covered who can be sure which corpse is which. As Chaloner digs deeper into the morass of plot and counter plot he is constantly beset by the quandary of spies through the ages - who to trust. Once again Susanna Gregory leads us through a labyrinth of inventive schemes via a narrative that keeps the pages turning until we arrive at a satisfying conclusion. One thing does have me puzzled. Why does Chaloner, and presumably Miss Gregory, look back with nostalgia to the brutal, dour and bigoted regime of Cromwell. True, King Charles may never have won prizes for efficient administration but surely he had to be an improvement on what went before!

The Blackstone Key

In 1795 Britain is at war with France but the east coast smugglers still ply their trade across the Channel. There is a ready market for Brandy, silk and other luxury items that they bring in but are they also providing a courier service for French spies? This is the plot of Rose Melikan's excellent first novel The Blackstone Key. Mary Finch received an invitation to visit an uncle she has never seen because of a familly feud started before she was born. On the road from Cambridge to Suffolk she comes on a man dying at the side of the road as a result of an accident. Whilst trying to render assistance she discovers that he is carrying a watch that is the twin of that which she inherited from her father and is engraved with her uncle's initials. She meets an Artilliary Officer, Captain Holland, who offers to escort her to her uncle's house which they find deserted and where they are set upon by smugglers. Mary and Captain Holland make their escape and are taken in by Mrs Tipton owner of a nearby house. The next day she sends for Mr Sommerville, the local magistrate, who arrives accompanied by Mr Deprez a mysterious character with more than a touch of Jane Austen's Mr Darcy about him. The smugglers are couriers for French spies who have penetrated the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich and are transmitting information back to Paris. Coded documents are discovered at her uncle's home, could he have been part of the plot? Captain Holland is stationed at Woolwich, Mr Deprez has contacts at the Admiralty and Bow Street but one of them is not all he seems. Rose Melikan drives the narrative along like a Revenue Cutter in full sail and negotiates the twists and turns of the plot with consumate ease. This is her first novel but I hope that it is the first of many.

Moriarty

Professor James Moriarty is in the words of Sherlock Holmes "The Napoleon of crime, organizer of half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected" in the Victorian underworld. In this book John Gardner continues the story of his exploits begun in the two previous volumes The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty. The Professor has been forced to spend some years abroad to evade capture by the police. Slipping back into London he finds that his criminal empire is being taken over by a new master villain Sir Jack Idell popularly known as Idle Jack. How he re-establishes his organisation and deals with one of his close associates who is betraying him to Idle Jack is the substance of this book and very entertaining it is as one would expect from such an experienced writer. This work is the third part of what was planned as a quadrilogy (it is the right word, I've checked) un fortuately John Gardner died in 2007 with the fourth part unwritten. As Gardner wrote some sixteen James Bond novels at the behest of the estate of Ian Fleming is it too much to hope that perhaps someone could be found to complete the final volume of this excellent series.

The Last Theorem

There are a great many books and films masquerading as science fiction when, in fact, they are nothing of the kind. Take Star Wars as a classic example. The basic plot of a small band of heroes versus nasty regime could have been set in any time or place. It is only marketed as science fiction because George Lukas chose to set it "long, long ago in a galaxy far,far away". Any pretence at science is solely in the hands of the set and costume designers. The true science fiction novel has a plot that stems from the science itself and the science must be either current developments or extrapalations thereof. The greatest exponent of this type of novel was the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke whose death in March of this year was a blow to all lovers of the genre. Sir Arthur was fascinated by science from an early age and joined the British Interplanetary Society when it was formed in 1933 and as an officer in the RAF worked on the development of Radar. With this background it is not surprising that his fiction works are based firmly on fact, a standard that he has maintained right up to this his final work. The Last Theorem is, like other of his later novels, a collaboration this time with Frederik Pohl another revered name among science fiction fans. Set mainly in Sir Arthur's beloved Sri Lanka it concerns a young man, Ranjit, who succeeds in developing a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, a goal of mathematicians since the seventeenth century. The fame that this brings him is not without it's dangers as international organisations seek to use Ranjit for their own ends. At the same time other species in the galaxy, alerted to the presence of the human race by the streams of photons generated by nuclear weapons tests, see Earth as a threat and set out to anihilate us. Like all good collaborations the narrative is seamless but one would expect no less from two such outstanding talents.

Fat Chance

In 1995 the play Cell Mates by Simon Gray opened at the Albery Theatre in London. It starred Stephen Fry and Rik Mayall and was about the friendship between the spy George Blake and the small time criminal Sean Bourke in Wormwood Scrubs prison. In "Fat Chance" Simon Gray details the trials and tribulations of getting the show on the road. It is the usual show business story of booze and egos and proves what I beieve most people suspect, that show business people in general and stars in particular are best viewed from a distance when they are playing a part.