READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Stanley]

Good Woman! get well soon......

[Stanley]

I recommended 'The History of Unilever' by Charles Wilson to Uncle Bob yesterday after his piece on margarine. In turn he recommended Wilson's book 'England's Apprenticeship 1603-1763' which I haven't read so I ordered it on Bookfinder yesterday, £5 including postage.....
So many books, so little time.....

[Tizer]

When I was publishing a science journal I had an honorary editor who is a retired professor living in St Andrews. He's now about 90 and while in his 80s he took a course in speed reading so that he could fit more in!

[Stanley]

I know the feeling......

[Stanley]

Good clean hardback copy for £5. Should I stop buying and reading books?

[plaques]

Mervyn King, The End of Alchemy. (Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy). A very detailed book looking back into the history of money and banking. Eventually explaining how banks gradually expanded their loans and risks into areas that had never been seen before. Finally the increased leverage by raising loans against interest and previous loans that had yet to be payed back led to the collapse of the banks in 2007. This ability to put 'money' into circulation that never really existed he classed as 'alchemy'. He freely admits that economics is not an exact science and that central banks can only create conditions that would lead people to take actions down their preferred route. Equally he expects that there will be another banking crisis sooner rather than later and that in the current climate there is little deterrent to stop bonuses and quick profits to be put in front of what is an acceptable moral position.
This book is available in the Lancashire Libraries.

[Stanley]

Sounds good P but I am heavily into England's Apprenticeship at the moment. Not a lot of time for reading .......

[Stanley]

I got a pleasant surprise yesterday when a book plopped onto my doormat. It is 'The development of water power at Quarry Bank Mill and the conservation of the Fairbairn iron wheel', By David Sekers, 2016. David sent me his manuscript and asked for comments so I gave him my views which basically said that in its original state it was not very readable, too much like an official report. He used some of my pics as well. I'm happy to report that the finished book is much better and very readable. It is also a good account of what the title covers so I enjoyed reading it. There are no publication details so I'm not sure if it is for private circulation only.

[PanBiker]

Sally found a couple of books that she thought I might be interested in during her daily sorting and tidying of the Bosom Friends shop. She brought them home for me before we went down to Derbyshire for the week, I took them both with me.

The first is called "The Pegasus Diaries" and is written from the private papers of Major John Howard DSO by his daughter Penny Bates. The book was produced as a limited edition run of 1000 copies in aid of of Project 65 which was a fund raising campaign for a permanent memorial to "The Men in Gliders" to be erected at Benouville to commemorate the operation to capture the bridges over the Orne River and Caen Canal as the spearhead operation in the early hours of D Day the 6th of June 1944.

The book is numbered 414 of 1000 and bears a hand written annotation on the inside title page "Ex Sgt Tich Rayner, 22 Platoon 2nd Btn Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, Coup de Maine"

The book is more of a life story of John Howard and how he juggled his service in the Army and his home life with a wife and young family. He came from a large working class London family and served as a Police Officer in Oxford, in the mid 30's he Joined the Army. He rose through the ranks on his own ability and determination and was not from the same stable as the typical officer class of the time. I covers in depth the training regimes and planning that went into what became his battalions specialist mission in the opening minutes and subsequent hours of D Day. The actual mission is covered in detail and also Howard's disappointment and disbelief really that after the successful mission that he and his men were not immediately withdrawn. They were after all a specialist airborne team trained for the capture and defence of bridges, they had spent two years training and done months of exercises leading up to their mission. Instead, he and his men were sent a few miles up the line to what was called Hellfire Hill and used as backup infantry. He watched the gradual attrition of his men until they were finally withdrawn in September with only 40 men remaining from his original D Company of 180 that went in three months before. After repatriation to the UK with the majority of his team gone he made the decision to transfer to the Parachute Regiment.

His military career however was cut short though a few week later when he was involved in a Major RTA while driving a Jeep on a country road. He and some of his fellow officers were traveling one way with an American convoy of trucks going the other way, rounding a blind bend he was confronted with a truck on the wrong side of the road the driver of which had decided to overtake. He swerved but was still hit with the oncoming vehicle. He ended up with two broken legs and a fractured pelvis every one else walked away with minor cuts and bruises. He was immediately demoted to Captain and his pay reduced while he spent months in hospital learning to walk again. He had to use sticks for the rest of his life.

Raymond Hubert "Tich" Rayner was so called due to his small stature being the shortest soldier in the regiment and the book describes his claim to fame as "the only soldier to have been shot on D Day by a dead German!"

He died in April 2015 and I found this obituary among the Google search which was also written by Penny Bates. It covers the circumstance of his accolade quite well.

Obituary - Lance Sgt Raymond Hubert Rayner - known to all as Tich


The second book is by Paul Kennedy and is a weighty tome, "Engineers of Victory" the problem solvers who turned the tide in the Second World War. It describes in depth the five objectives decided at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 and how to make them happen. Nice big fat chapters:

"How to Get Convoys Safely Across the Atlantic"
"How to Win Command of the Air"
"How to Stop a Blitzkrieg"
"How to Seize an Enemy-Held Shore"
"How to Defeat the Tyranny of Distance"

I have read the first two and am about to take on Blitzkrieg defence. Like Captain Oates, "I may be sometime".

[Stanley]

I haven't even managed to read Private Eye......

[Nolic]

Reading Beevor's Ardennes 1944. Meticulous and as good as his others. Nolic

[Stanley]

Anthony is a good man.......

[plaques]

The Great Tax Robbery. How Britain became a tax haven for fat cats and business. By Richard Brooks. (2014) Brooks is a contributor to Private Eye. (Available in the Lancashire Libraries.)
I'm not sure whether I can class this book as a 'good read' since it seems to bring on fits of rage and depression at about ten page intervals. He runs through the whole range of tax havens, tax avoidance. Non Dom status, and Image rights all of which you begin to wonder why the government write the rules with so many loop holes that they become meaningless. It also becomes evident that as far as tax is concerned the majority of UK based British owned forms are at a disadvantage to foreign owned firms. Looking into the future you can almost guarantee that any 'trade deals' will be laced with more tax concessions that will favour the rich and disadvantage the poor.

[Stanley]

P, there was a time when all our rulers needed was naked force (Feudalism) so the strongest had the wealth. When the monasteries were dissolved and we got an open land market the landed magnates had the power because they controlled the resources. This essential resource moved to industry and the industrialists became the new magnates, they were essential to the government because they provided the tax revenue. Then we allowed industry to go to the wall, it was easier and cleaner to rely on 'the service industries' which were largely the great financiers. That's the era we are in now and the Lords of the Universe have the power to influence the government so it is a no-brainer that money laundering and having mechanisms to avoid taxation are essential.
You knew all this, and all the book did was remind you what to be angry about! You are right to be angry, we have both read Piketty and Stiglitz and we have a fair idea that wed know which way the money is moving. Invest in companies making luxury goods..... They are doing quite well thank you. Ordinary people like you and I are on a hiding to nothing. They will feed us enough to avoid a revolution but no more. That's the modern economy in a nutshell for you.

[Stanley]

I have spent £20 on this rare 1973 edition. Only 60 pages but I shall enjoy it.....

[Stanley]

The postman delivered an impressive 1300 page lump this morning David..... The Cassell Dictionary of Slang. Thank you very much but you really must stop spending money on me like this...... Now I have to make room for it! Thanks again, lovely surprise.....

[Tripps]

The postman delivered an impressive 1300 page lump this morning David..... The Cassell Dictionary of Slang. Thank you very much but you really must stop spending money on me like this...... Now I have to make room for it! Thanks again, lovely surprise.....

Don't worry - I won't make a habit of it. all thanks to the wonders of the web, and an investment of 80 pence (+ modest P&P) . Mr Micawber would have been proud.

Mine arrived too. 'English Gipsies and Their Language' . It's a facsimile edition of 1969 of the original 19th century book. It's from an American publisher in Detroit. Try sourcing that say 20 years ago.

The story of the gipsy's dog

On a day a poor man had a dog that used to steal things and carry them home for his master-meat, money, watches and and spoons. A gentleman bought the dog, and made a lot of money showing him at fairs.

Where rich men can make money honestly, a poor man has to steal.

[Stanley]

You are right David, I like Bookfinder in particular, good books have never been more available at low prices if you go second-hand. I did notice the 80p price..... well done! Almost as good as your tip on Lea and Perrins......

[Tripps]

I knew you used Bookfinder - and I wondered if they were connected to Abebooks. They seem to do similar things. Well - yes Mr google tells me that Abebooks own Bookfinder. Abebooks - Bookfinder
I was surprised to see US ownership. I just assumed they would be British.

I've still got half a gallon of L & P for you, but it seems you've run out of patience, and sourced your own. It'll keep a while longer though.

[Tizer]

Abebooks own Bookfinder.

...and Amazon own Abebooks. The Abebooks web site says: "AbeBooks Inc. is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. AbeBooks, an online bookselling pioneer, was acquired in December 2008 and remains a stand-alone operation with headquarters in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and a European office in Dusseldorf, Germany." Everything seems to be owned by someone else these days. If he had his way, Rupert Mudrock would own them all!

[Stanley]

I hadn't forgotten the L&P David..... Tiz, I like Mudrock! And yes he almost does at the moment!
Very little reading at the moment. The Private Eyes and books are piling up on the other side of the kitchen table!

[Stanley]

Today and tomorrow will be reading days because I am held up until Monday dinnertime by lack of a piece of steel plate. My mate Terry is looking after me and normal service will be resumed on Tuesday!

[Stanley]

I've read one PE. One to go but today I shall read the history of the Protector Lamp Company.....(The miner's lamps.....) I'm catching up!

[Stanley]

There was no reading yesterday. Getting the bedplate and pressing household tasks too up the time.

[Wendyf]

Stanley, have you read "The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared " ? I think you might enjoy it.