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 Customer Reviews
Fascinating Times, 14 Dec 2007
If we think that it's a new thing, the way that the gutter press and gossip mags now are obsessed with celebrity, we're wrong. The Bright Young People were there first. I bought this book after reading a review, because I'm interested in one particular person in one particular photograph. I found it enlightening and amusing. The Bright Young People that Taylor writes about were few; no doubt a lot of hangers on described themselves as Bright Young People during and after the event, but this book is about the epicentre, the small group of partygoers who started the trend then either took a back seat, left the country or were destroyed by it. The book concentrates on the essence of the movement, if that's what it was, the people at the heart of it, actual events and the people the newspapers wrote about. It doesn't truly describe a whole generation, just the ones who defined it and the waves they made.
Reading about them, I can see the influence they had on my working class, northern great aunt who gave up a good job as a cook to train as a secretary in London so she could go out dancing in the 1920s. She must have read about them in the press and wanted a part of it. She went on to run the factory that made rivets for Spitfires, then to help at a refugee camp in Italy, spoke four languages and judged dogs at Crufts. The Bright Young People seem to have unleashed a spirit of defiance of convention that spread amongst their generation then was crushed by mid century hardship and censorship. It makes me want to reread Waugh and watch Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things with a better understanding of their list of players.
There have always been upper class scoundrels, fritterers, debtors, drunks, sluts and fallen angels; for me, the way the press and contemporary novelists documented this particular group has the most relevance to present times.
a thoughtful view, 14 Nov 2007
I really enjoyed this book, which uses a large amount of original material - letters, diaries of the subjects and their families, as well as more public sources, to discuss this flamboyant and often tragic group in a very sensitive and thoughtful manner, with a good idea of the contemporary context and how this changed with the 1930s. Nice use of language, with something of a flavour of the times.
A shocking waste of paper, 19 Oct 2007
Puerile, petty and hopelessly misguided, this amateur, opinionated attempt at social history seems to have been researched by a browse through a couple of old magazines and trawl of wikipedia. DJ Taylor makes no attempt to derive any interesting or insightful thoughts from the material but as the book is packed with his usual shoddy research and its concomitant factual errors, this doesn't matter much. Save your money.
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Customer Reviews
Fascinating Times, 14 Dec 2007
If we think that it's a new thing, the way that the gutter press and gossip mags now are obsessed with celebrity, we're wrong. The Bright Young People were there first. I bought this book after reading a review, because I'm interested in one particular person in one particular photograph. I found it enlightening and amusing. The Bright Young People that Taylor writes about were few; no doubt a lot of hangers on described themselves as Bright Young People during and after the event, but this book is about the epicentre, the small group of partygoers who started the trend then either took a back seat, left the country or were destroyed by it. The book concentrates on the essence of the movement, if that's what it was, the people at the heart of it, actual events and the people the newspapers wrote about. It doesn't truly describe a whole generation, just the ones who defined it and the waves they made.
Reading about them, I can see the influence they had on my working class, northern great aunt who gave up a good job as a cook to train as a secretary in London so she could go out dancing in the 1920s. She must have read about them in the press and wanted a part of it. She went on to run the factory that made rivets for Spitfires, then to help at a refugee camp in Italy, spoke four languages and judged dogs at Crufts. The Bright Young People seem to have unleashed a spirit of defiance of convention that spread amongst their generation then was crushed by mid century hardship and censorship. It makes me want to reread Waugh and watch Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things with a better understanding of their list of players.
There have always been upper class scoundrels, fritterers, debtors, drunks, sluts and fallen angels; for me, the way the press and contemporary novelists documented this particular group has the most relevance to present times. a thoughtful view, 14 Nov 2007
I really enjoyed this book, which uses a large amount of original material - letters, diaries of the subjects and their families, as well as more public sources, to discuss this flamboyant and often tragic group in a very sensitive and thoughtful manner, with a good idea of the contemporary context and how this changed with the 1930s. Nice use of language, with something of a flavour of the times. A shocking waste of paper, 19 Oct 2007
Puerile, petty and hopelessly misguided, this amateur, opinionated attempt at social history seems to have been researched by a browse through a couple of old magazines and trawl of wikipedia. DJ Taylor makes no attempt to derive any interesting or insightful thoughts from the material but as the book is packed with his usual shoddy research and its concomitant factual errors, this doesn't matter much. Save your money. a fantastic novel, 23 Apr 2008
i have just this second finished the last page of this and i was so sorry it had to end, although it finished at exactly the right time. This writer has a gift, a gift that makes the reader want to love and experience things that they wouldn't normally. He digs deep into the human condition and shows exactly how it feels for a love affair to go wrong, i think Ross is brilliant and i look forward to reading more of his work! A brilliant evocation of a cold, grey England between the wars, 09 Feb 2008
Of Love and Hunger is one of the finest examples of the literature of the pre-war years. Its setting is a cold, grey England in which the danger of war is seen as secondary to the danger of a postal order not arriving, where the money for every round in the pub has to be borrowed off a mate and the best hope of covering your rent is a winning bet against a sucker.
Richard Fanshawe is a deeply human character, scraping a living as a vacuum-cleaner salesman while dreaming vaguely of being a writer. Every day he must indulge in another petty chisel or minor con in order to get by. The worst happens to him when the friendly and decent Derek Roper asks him to look after his wife, the dark and desirable Sukie. The pair embark on an unsatisfactory affair that seems to precipitate a series of crises in Richard's life as he loses his job and his home.
Containing fabulous comic set-pieces, including Richard and Sukie's date at a dismal, small-town zoo, Richard's eternally-thwarted attempts to avoid his landlady and wonderful interludes at the school for vacuum-cleaner salesmen, Of Love and Hunger is both a witty and sensitive evocation of a world now passed. Beautifully written and stunningly convincing, 08 Sep 2005
I have just finished reading this book and found it enchanting and one of the finest novels I have read in a long time. The characters are wonderfully constructed, especially the two central characters Fanshawe and Sukie, whose affair comes about in such an understandable and believable way that I felt each emotion in the pit of my stomach. Julian McClaren Ross never tries to do too much with his writing or the story itself and his style reminded me of Charles - it's easy to believe that he was perhaps an influence on Bukowski. I wish there was more of JMR's writing available, on this evidence everything he ever wrote should be published. Atmospheric slice of pre-war England., 18 Feb 2004
I was drawn to this book because it sounded similar to Patrick Hamilton's "Hangover Square", a book I like so much I re-read it every couple of years. I wouldn't personally say it was as good as Hamilton's novel, simply because it doesn't possess the same seering emotional intensity which runs through "Hangover Square", and which can at times make it such a disturbing read. "Of Love And Hunger" is an engaging piece though, about a guy called Richard, newly back from working in Madras, with a secret yearning to be a writer, but instead having to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door in a dreary seaside town. When a colleague, Derek Roper, gets a job on a cruise liner he asks Richard to keep his attractive wife Suki company whilst he's away (which seems an incredibly naive thing to do!). At first Richard doesn't like Suki, but soon finds that he's actually in love with her, which is usually the way. Like "Hangover Square" this is set in the months running up to the Second World War. It was written in 1947 though and this can make some of the pre-war references sound overtly self-conscious. We get a lot of references to "that Hitler" and "that Mussolini". Perhaps it's just me, but I found that with it being written in 1947 it didn't quite have the immediate feel of people living on the edge of the abyss, not knowing exactly what horrors were to come. Nevertheless this gives an intricate detail of day-to-day life in a bygone age. A time when there was nowhere to go after 10 o'clock at night, where one of the sales reps is so hard-up he lives off raw onions and has to keep his coat on all the time because he's sold part of his suit, where people lived in genteel but shabby boarding-houses, and where wealthy people living in more upmarket suburban villas still had live-in servants. I like this kind of book because it's a good riposte to all the oldies who would have us believe that this era was some kind of golden utopia for "Daily Mail" readers, where there was no crime or dodgy dealing, and everybody was thoroughly clean-living and highly moral! It's also laugh-out-loud funny in parts, particularly the dismal small-town zoo where Richard takes Suki on a date, and the training-school for vacuum cleaner salesmen. Think of a sort of 1930s version of "The Office"!
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Customer Reviews
Fascinating Times, 14 Dec 2007
If we think that it's a new thing, the way that the gutter press and gossip mags now are obsessed with celebrity, we're wrong. The Bright Young People were there first. I bought this book after reading a review, because I'm interested in one particular person in one particular photograph. I found it enlightening and amusing. The Bright Young People that Taylor writes about were few; no doubt a lot of hangers on described themselves as Bright Young People during and after the event, but this book is about the epicentre, the small group of partygoers who started the trend then either took a back seat, left the country or were destroyed by it. The book concentrates on the essence of the movement, if that's what it was, the people at the heart of it, actual events and the people the newspapers wrote about. It doesn't truly describe a whole generation, just the ones who defined it and the waves they made.
Reading about them, I can see the influence they had on my working class, northern great aunt who gave up a good job as a cook to train as a secretary in London so she could go out dancing in the 1920s. She must have read about them in the press and wanted a part of it. She went on to run the factory that made rivets for Spitfires, then to help at a refugee camp in Italy, spoke four languages and judged dogs at Crufts. The Bright Young People seem to have unleashed a spirit of defiance of convention that spread amongst their generation then was crushed by mid century hardship and censorship. It makes me want to reread Waugh and watch Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things with a better understanding of their list of players.
There have always been upper class scoundrels, fritterers, debtors, drunks, sluts and fallen angels; for me, the way the press and contemporary novelists documented this particular group has the most relevance to present times. a thoughtful view, 14 Nov 2007
I really enjoyed this book, which uses a large amount of original material - letters, diaries of the subjects and their families, as well as more public sources, to discuss this flamboyant and often tragic group in a very sensitive and thoughtful manner, with a good idea of the contemporary context and how this changed with the 1930s. Nice use of language, with something of a flavour of the times. A shocking waste of paper, 19 Oct 2007
Puerile, petty and hopelessly misguided, this amateur, opinionated attempt at social history seems to have been researched by a browse through a couple of old magazines and trawl of wikipedia. DJ Taylor makes no attempt to derive any interesting or insightful thoughts from the material but as the book is packed with his usual shoddy research and its concomitant factual errors, this doesn't matter much. Save your money. a fantastic novel, 23 Apr 2008
i have just this second finished the last page of this and i was so sorry it had to end, although it finished at exactly the right time. This writer has a gift, a gift that makes the reader want to love and experience things that they wouldn't normally. He digs deep into the human condition and shows exactly how it feels for a love affair to go wrong, i think Ross is brilliant and i look forward to reading more of his work! A brilliant evocation of a cold, grey England between the wars, 09 Feb 2008
Of Love and Hunger is one of the finest examples of the literature of the pre-war years. Its setting is a cold, grey England in which the danger of war is seen as secondary to the danger of a postal order not arriving, where the money for every round in the pub has to be borrowed off a mate and the best hope of covering your rent is a winning bet against a sucker.
Richard Fanshawe is a deeply human character, scraping a living as a vacuum-cleaner salesman while dreaming vaguely of being a writer. Every day he must indulge in another petty chisel or minor con in order to get by. The worst happens to him when the friendly and decent Derek Roper asks him to look after his wife, the dark and desirable Sukie. The pair embark on an unsatisfactory affair that seems to precipitate a series of crises in Richard's life as he loses his job and his home.
Containing fabulous comic set-pieces, including Richard and Sukie's date at a dismal, small-town zoo, Richard's eternally-thwarted attempts to avoid his landlady and wonderful interludes at the school for vacuum-cleaner salesmen, Of Love and Hunger is both a witty and sensitive evocation of a world now passed. Beautifully written and stunningly convincing, 08 Sep 2005
I have just finished reading this book and found it enchanting and one of the finest novels I have read in a long time. The characters are wonderfully constructed, especially the two central characters Fanshawe and Sukie, whose affair comes about in such an understandable and believable way that I felt each emotion in the pit of my stomach. Julian McClaren Ross never tries to do too much with his writing or the story itself and his style reminded me of Charles - it's easy to believe that he was perhaps an influence on Bukowski. I wish there was more of JMR's writing available, on this evidence everything he ever wrote should be published. Atmospheric slice of pre-war England., 18 Feb 2004
I was drawn to this book because it sounded similar to Patrick Hamilton's "Hangover Square", a book I like so much I re-read it every couple of years. I wouldn't personally say it was as good as Hamilton's novel, simply because it doesn't possess the same seering emotional intensity which runs through "Hangover Square", and which can at times make it such a disturbing read. "Of Love And Hunger" is an engaging piece though, about a guy called Richard, newly back from working in Madras, with a secret yearning to be a writer, but instead having to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door in a dreary seaside town. When a colleague, Derek Roper, gets a job on a cruise liner he asks Richard to keep his attractive wife Suki company whilst he's away (which seems an incredibly naive thing to do!). At first Richard doesn't like Suki, but soon finds that he's actually in love with her, which is usually the way. Like "Hangover Square" this is set in the months running up to the Second World War. It was written in 1947 though and this can make some of the pre-war references sound overtly self-conscious. We get a lot of references to "that Hitler" and "that Mussolini". Perhaps it's just me, but I found that with it being written in 1947 it didn't quite have the immediate feel of people living on the edge of the abyss, not knowing exactly what horrors were to come. Nevertheless this gives an intricate detail of day-to-day life in a bygone age. A time when there was nowhere to go after 10 o'clock at night, where one of the sales reps is so hard-up he lives off raw onions and has to keep his coat on all the time because he's sold part of his suit, where people lived in genteel but shabby boarding-houses, and where wealthy people living in more upmarket suburban villas still had live-in servants. I like this kind of book because it's a good riposte to all the oldies who would have us believe that this era was some kind of golden utopia for "Daily Mail" readers, where there was no crime or dodgy dealing, and everybody was thoroughly clean-living and highly moral! It's also laugh-out-loud funny in parts, particularly the dismal small-town zoo where Richard takes Suki on a date, and the training-school for vacuum cleaner salesmen. Think of a sort of 1930s version of "The Office"!
Biological Bible, 01 May 2008
This book has accompanied me through A-Level's and an Access to Health course.
Although primarily and undoubtedly compiled for the Biologist the chapters on enzymes, introduction to biochemistry, diet, the human cell (especially the diagrams), diffusion, health and disease, skeletal systems, homeostasis, growth, reproduction, DNA and chemical effects of smoking have been an invaluable resource. There isn't one assignment where I have not referenced this book in Medical Chemistry, Chemistry or Biology.
A very detailed explanation of every subject. More than will be required of any syllabus so a brilliant recap for degree level also.
A heavy yet essential book. And when you have finished with it you can use it as a weapon.
Tailored to the Syllabus, 01 Oct 2003
This book is a definate essential for anyone taking a biology AS/A2 course. It goes into the depth needed for any topic needed covered, and then exceeds that amount to get you the extra grade. When I was asked to write an essay about membranes, the book had 6 pages dedicated to explainin every aspect of the structure and functions, including deatlaied diagrams, and brief summaries. It is not a study guide or revision book, but more of a course encyclopedia. It suffices for all background reading needed. What I found useful was that it included many micrographs from different microscopes. This is essential as it is an important skill to be able to interpret them. Universities tend to ask you to interpret them during interviews, and with the extra knowled given by this book, it will come much more naturally. This book is specially recommened if you are planning on continuing onto medicine, as the level of depth will keep this book an essential back up to any advanced course. The book is however in Black and White, which is fine if you don;t have a problem with learning from that, though can be quite tiresome when much background reading is needed!
A superb and invaluable work., 08 Sep 2002
Despite its somewhat unwieldy size, this is an oracle of Biological Science. It is suitable for both broad topic-based reading or, thanks to its comprehensive index, speedy consultation of specific points. The plentiful diagrams and tables are particularly valuable for their clarification and reinforcement of the accompaning text, which is lucid and fluent. However, the excellence of this book stems primarily from the accuracy, depth and relevance of the information it contains. 'Biological Science' is pitched at exactly the right level for serious A level study and beyond. I found the extra information one can glean from this text invalubale for convincing an examiner that one has done enough 'background reading' to merit a high grade (A with 98% overall). The book is also an essential text for those students taking the Advanced Extension Award (AEA) in Biology and Biology (Human).
I unresevedly and warmly recommend 'Biological Science' to students, teachers, and all those who are interested in science. Nathan Thomas, nathan_thomas@yahoo.com
Excellent, 15 Jul 2000
This book covers all the parts of any A-level course in Biology with tons of diagrams and loads of background of information. Despite the price, this is the only textbook you'll need for the course- essays, revision, and classroom practicals. In sort, I owe most of my grade to this book!
A well presented summary of the basics - ideal for Access, 11 Feb 2000
Tthe book is well laid out, each chapter divided into sections and each 'point' within the sections numbered making finding the facts you require simple. The text is pleasant to read and the figures clear and relevant. I have been able to find specific facts without too much effort or to sit and read through a chapter as appropriate. As a mature student on a science Access to H.E. course I would recommend this book to students on similar courses.
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Kept: A Victorian Mystery
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Customer Reviews
Fascinating Times, 14 Dec 2007
If we think that it's a new thing, the way that the gutter press and gossip mags now are obsessed with celebrity, we're wrong. The Bright Young People were there first. I bought this book after reading a review, because I'm interested in one particular person in one particular photograph. I found it enlightening and amusing. The Bright Young People that Taylor writes about were few; no doubt a lot of hangers on described themselves as Bright Young People during and after the event, but this book is about the epicentre, the small group of partygoers who started the trend then either took a back seat, left the country or were destroyed by it. The book concentrates on the essence of the movement, if that's what it was, the people at the heart of it, actual events and the people the newspapers wrote about. It doesn't truly describe a whole generation, just the ones who defined it and the waves they made.
Reading about them, I can see the influence they had on my working class, northern great aunt who gave up a good job as a cook to train as a secretary in London so she could go out dancing in the 1920s. She must have read about them in the press and wanted a part of it. She went on to run the factory that made rivets for Spitfires, then to help at a refugee camp in Italy, spoke four languages and judged dogs at Crufts. The Bright Young People seem to have unleashed a spirit of defiance of convention that spread amongst their generation then was crushed by mid century hardship and censorship. It makes me want to reread Waugh and watch Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things with a better understanding of their list of players.
There have always been upper class scoundrels, fritterers, debtors, drunks, sluts and fallen angels; for me, the way the press and contemporary novelists documented this particular group has the most relevance to present times. a thoughtful view, 14 Nov 2007
I really enjoyed this book, which uses a large amount of original material - letters, diaries of the subjects and their families, as well as more public sources, to discuss this flamboyant and often tragic group in a very sensitive and thoughtful manner, with a good idea of the contemporary context and how this changed with the 1930s. Nice use of language, with something of a flavour of the times. A shocking waste of paper, 19 Oct 2007
Puerile, petty and hopelessly misguided, this amateur, opinionated attempt at social history seems to have been researched by a browse through a couple of old magazines and trawl of wikipedia. DJ Taylor makes no attempt to derive any interesting or insightful thoughts from the material but as the book is packed with his usual shoddy research and its concomitant factual errors, this doesn't matter much. Save your money. a fantastic novel, 23 Apr 2008
i have just this second finished the last page of this and i was so sorry it had to end, although it finished at exactly the right time. This writer has a gift, a gift that makes the reader want to love and experience things that they wouldn't normally. He digs deep into the human condition and shows exactly how it feels for a love affair to go wrong, i think Ross is brilliant and i look forward to reading more of his work! A brilliant evocation of a cold, grey England between the wars, 09 Feb 2008
Of Love and Hunger is one of the finest examples of the literature of the pre-war years. Its setting is a cold, grey England in which the danger of war is seen as secondary to the danger of a postal order not arriving, where the money for every round in the pub has to be borrowed off a mate and the best hope of covering your rent is a winning bet against a sucker.
Richard Fanshawe is a deeply human character, scraping a living as a vacuum-cleaner salesman while dreaming vaguely of being a writer. Every day he must indulge in another petty chisel or minor con in order to get by. The worst happens to him when the friendly and decent Derek Roper asks him to look after his wife, the dark and desirable Sukie. The pair embark on an unsatisfactory affair that seems to precipitate a series of crises in Richard's life as he loses his job and his home.
Containing fabulous comic set-pieces, including Richard and Sukie's date at a dismal, small-town zoo, Richard's eternally-thwarted attempts to avoid his landlady and wonderful interludes at the school for vacuum-cleaner salesmen, Of Love and Hunger is both a witty and sensitive evocation of a world now passed. Beautifully written and stunningly convincing, 08 Sep 2005
I have just finished reading this book and found it enchanting and one of the finest novels I have read in a long time. The characters are wonderfully constructed, especially the two central characters Fanshawe and Sukie, whose affair comes about in such an understandable and believable way that I felt each emotion in the pit of my stomach. Julian McClaren Ross never tries to do too much with his writing or the story itself and his style reminded me of Charles - it's easy to believe that he was perhaps an influence on Bukowski. I wish there was more of JMR's writing available, on this evidence everything he ever wrote should be published. Atmospheric slice of pre-war England., 18 Feb 2004
I was drawn to this book because it sounded similar to Patrick Hamilton's "Hangover Square", a book I like so much I re-read it every couple of years. I wouldn't personally say it was as good as Hamilton's novel, simply because it doesn't possess the same seering emotional intensity which runs through "Hangover Square", and which can at times make it such a disturbing read. "Of Love And Hunger" is an engaging piece though, about a guy called Richard, newly back from working in Madras, with a secret yearning to be a writer, but instead having to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door in a dreary seaside town. When a colleague, Derek Roper, gets a job on a cruise liner he asks Richard to keep his attractive wife Suki company whilst he's away (which seems an incredibly naive thing to do!). At first Richard doesn't like Suki, but soon finds that he's actually in love with her, which is usually the way. Like "Hangover Square" this is set in the months running up to the Second World War. It was written in 1947 though and this can make some of the pre-war references sound overtly self-conscious. We get a lot of references to "that Hitler" and "that Mussolini". Perhaps it's just me, but I found that with it being written in 1947 it didn't quite have the immediate feel of people living on the edge of the abyss, not knowing exactly what horrors were to come. Nevertheless this gives an intricate detail of day-to-day life in a bygone age. A time when there was nowhere to go after 10 o'clock at night, where one of the sales reps is so hard-up he lives off raw onions and has to keep his coat on all the time because he's sold part of his suit, where people lived in genteel but shabby boarding-houses, and where wealthy people living in more upmarket suburban villas still had live-in servants. I like this kind of book because it's a good riposte to all the oldies who would have us believe that this era was some kind of golden utopia for "Daily Mail" readers, where there was no crime or dodgy dealing, and everybody was thoroughly clean-living and highly moral! It's also laugh-out-loud funny in parts, particularly the dismal small-town zoo where Richard takes Suki on a date, and the training-school for vacuum cleaner salesmen. Think of a sort of 1930s version of "The Office"!
Biological Bible, 01 May 2008
This book has accompanied me through A-Level's and an Access to Health course.
Although primarily and undoubtedly compiled for the Biologist the chapters on enzymes, introduction to biochemistry, diet, the human cell (especially the diagrams), diffusion, health and disease, skeletal systems, homeostasis, growth, reproduction, DNA and chemical effects of smoking have been an invaluable resource. There isn't one assignment where I have not referenced this book in Medical Chemistry, Chemistry or Biology.
A very detailed explanation of every subject. More than will be required of any syllabus so a brilliant recap for degree level also.
A heavy yet essential book. And when you have finished with it you can use it as a weapon.
Tailored to the Syllabus, 01 Oct 2003
This book is a definate essential for anyone taking a biology AS/A2 course. It goes into the depth needed for any topic needed covered, and then exceeds that amount to get you the extra grade. When I was asked to write an essay about membranes, the book had 6 pages dedicated to explainin every aspect of the structure and functions, including deatlaied diagrams, and brief summaries. It is not a study guide or revision book, but more of a course encyclopedia. It suffices for all background reading needed. What I found useful was that it included many micrographs from different microscopes. This is essential as it is an important skill to be able to interpret them. Universities tend to ask you to interpret them during interviews, and with the extra knowled given by this book, it will come much more naturally. This book is specially recommened if you are planning on continuing onto medicine, as the level of depth will keep this book an essential back up to any advanced course. The book is however in Black and White, which is fine if you don;t have a problem with learning from that, though can be quite tiresome when much background reading is needed!
A superb and invaluable work., 08 Sep 2002
Despite its somewhat unwieldy size, this is an oracle of Biological Science. It is suitable for both broad topic-based reading or, thanks to its comprehensive index, speedy consultation of specific points. The plentiful diagrams and tables are particularly valuable for their clarification and reinforcement of the accompaning text, which is lucid and fluent. However, the excellence of this book stems primarily from the accuracy, depth and relevance of the information it contains. 'Biological Science' is pitched at exactly the right level for serious A level study and beyond. I found the extra information one can glean from this text invalubale for convincing an examiner that one has done enough 'background reading' to merit a high grade (A with 98% overall). The book is also an essential text for those students taking the Advanced Extension Award (AEA) in Biology and Biology (Human).
I unresevedly and warmly recommend 'Biological Science' to students, teachers, and all those who are interested in science. Nathan Thomas, nathan_thomas@yahoo.com
Excellent, 15 Jul 2000
This book covers all the parts of any A-level course in Biology with tons of diagrams and loads of background of information. Despite the price, this is the only textbook you'll need for the course- essays, revision, and classroom practicals. In sort, I owe most of my grade to this book!
A well presented summary of the basics - ideal for Access, 11 Feb 2000
Tthe book is well laid out, each chapter divided into sections and each 'point' within the sections numbered making finding the facts you require simple. The text is pleasant to read and the figures clear and relevant. I have been able to find specific facts without too much effort or to sit and read through a chapter as appropriate. As a mature student on a science Access to H.E. course I would recommend this book to students on similar courses.
You can keep Kept, 13 Oct 2008
This is another one of those pastiche Victorian novels that are in vogue at the moment. Whilst 'Kept' might be set in Victorian times, it adopts the style and mannerisms of a 20th century novel with sections told from various different viewpoints and the interpolation of diary entries into the main text. A good Victorian novel has a good narrative structure; 'Kept' does not. It is a series of tableaux and there is little connection between the various plot strands. The denouement is rushed and flat. The best thing about the book is its description of scenery and interiors, which have a cinematic quality to them. There are nods to the styles of such Victorian novelists as Dickens and Eliot, but if you are going to use the language of the period, at least be consistent; for example, both the Victorian 'trowsers' and the modern spelling of 'trousers' are used. It could have been so much better.
Disappointing, 14 Aug 2008
I quite like DJ Taylor as an essayist and TV talking head, and I love Victorian mysteries, so when I came across this I reckoned it couldn't go wrong. It was a terrible let-down. In spite of the title there is not really any mystery at all, and despite the story being told from a dizzying variety of multiple viewpoints not much in the way of plot when you get down to it - and of the minor puzzles there are, several are simply not explained by the end. The climax is given away on the first page and not even fleshed out later.
The book is padded out with far too many scenes of characters schlepping around London on irrelevant or uninteresting errands, and vignettes that tell us things we already know. While there's no lack of Victoriana, and every locale is duly described as being miserable and dreary-looking, there is a deficiency of atmosphere. It is more an intellectual exercise in pastiche than a living novel and far too down-to-earth and mundane: a great detective who has been built-up offstage turns out when he finally arrives to be incredibly bland, and is enabled to unravel the case by a stroke of luck, of which the narrator slyly remarks that it would be tutted at in a work of fiction - well, yes. At another point the (unnamed but intrusive) narrator wryly notes the tendency of the novelists of the period to romanticise London types into loveable comic characters - 'London has been discovered'. One smiles, but the book would have benefited from a 'character' or so of its own.
In fact the book comes to seem like some pointless post-modern exercise in deflating the genre and thwarting the reader's expectations. A character one anticipates is going to be become the hero does very little even to advance the story. We are treated to an interminable chapter describing another character traipsing through the Canadian wilderness in some peril of his life - one has stopped expecting a hero by this point but assumes he must at least be vital to the plot. But no, he is promptly abandoned, re-appears when everything is wrapped up, does nothing and goes away again. A mistake by a keycutter hampers a villain's scheme, and renders the preceding ten pages spent obtaining the keys pointless. At times it is like that kind of arthouse fiction that deals in the things that happen in the interstices between the scenes of a normal story, the things that are usually and rightly kept offstage.
Wilkie Collins is a notable absence from the list of Victorian authors Taylor acknowledges as an inspiration in an afterword (although one of the villains has a pet mouse, perhaps a nod to Count Fosco, if so an entirely inappropriate one as the man in question has none of Fosco's intelligence, menace and charisma) and a touch of Collins is exactly what the novel lacks: a dash of romance, and above all a well-constructed, imaginative and exciting plot.
I imagine Taylor simply wasn't interested in writing the kind of book I had expected from the title. But what he was trying to do eludes me and I found the results unappealing. Even as a collection of slice-of-life Victorian scenes it is too superficial and fragmented to engage. If you're looking for a true homage to the great Victorian mysteries, get hold of 'Fingersmith' or especially 'The Quincunx'.
....a ponderous and pedestrian read., 05 May 2008
A rather ponderous and pedestrian read that does not bear a scratch on its Victorian antecedents. It also compares unfavourably with the work of other contempory writers of Victorian pastiche such as Michael Cox and Charles Palliser.
In some places the sentence structure is so tortuously convoluted that one has to read it twice before any sense or meaning is apparent. The plot line is also all over the place and lacks a sense of coherence. Perhaps the author ought to have limited the narrative voices to one or two instead of having several perspectives. On the whole a disappointing read and an overrated book.
Like pulling teeth, 05 Nov 2007
It is not often that I start reading a book and don't finish it but I came close with this one. Only a few chapters really held my interest but the next chapters did not follow on and some even seemed totally irrelevant to the story. The story didn't flow and was quite disjointed. I would recommend it as a bedtime read as it put me to sleep every time I picked it up. I will not be reading any more of D.J. Taylors work.
Impeccable, 09 Sep 2007
It is difficult to know where to start in reviewing this book, so many and varied are its qualities. First of all, the book teems with richly-painted, unforgettable characters from the lowest reaches to the very highest of Victorian society: billbrokers, parlourmaids, curates, noblemen, attorneys and whatnot, all of them described with often the most telling details.
Then there's the plot: the very first page of the book by way of newspaper obituaries reveals that 2 people will die (Henry Ireland and James Dixey), but although the next chapter goes back to a time when both are still alive this does not in the least diminish the tension built page after page. On the contrary, chapter after chapter you eagerly read on to find out how they will meet their end.
Next, I should mention the fascinating mix of literary techniques and points of view D.J. Taylor uses: excerpts from diaries, third-and first-person narrative, at times an (almost) omniscient author, it's all there and used to very good effect.
Last but not least, it's been quite a while since I came across a novel so rich and colourful in its use of the English language. Consider this: "a tall man, elderly but apparently vigorous, in a suit of black with a white stock tied around his throat and bony hands that, resting curiously on the desk before him, looked as if they might have concerns of their own and be about to go scuttling off across the veneer in defiance of their owner's wishes.". There's close to 500 pages of the same stuff waiting for you behind the cover of 'Kept', what's keeping you?
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Orwell: The Life
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Customer Reviews
Fascinating Times, 14 Dec 2007
If we think that it's a new thing, the way that the gutter press and gossip mags now are obsessed with celebrity, we're wrong. The Bright Young People were there first. I bought this book after reading a review, because I'm interested in one particular person in one particular photograph. I found it enlightening and amusing. The Bright Young People that Taylor writes about were few; no doubt a lot of hangers on described themselves as Bright Young People during and after the event, but this book is about the epicentre, the small group of partygoers who started the trend then either took a back seat, left the country or were destroyed by it. The book concentrates on the essence of the movement, if that's what it was, the people at the heart of it, actual events and the people the newspapers wrote about. It doesn't truly describe a whole generation, just the ones who defined it and the waves they made.
Reading about them, I can see the influence they had on my working class, northern great aunt who gave up a good job as a cook to train as a secretary in London so she could go out dancing in the 1920s. She must have read about them in the press and wanted a part of it. She went on to run the factory that made rivets for Spitfires, then to help at a refugee camp in Italy, spoke four languages and judged dogs at Crufts. The Bright Young People seem to have unleashed a spirit of defiance of convention that spread amongst their generation then was crushed by mid century hardship and censorship. It makes me want to reread Waugh and watch Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things with a better understanding of their list of players.
There have always been upper class scoundrels, fritterers, debtors, drunks, sluts and fallen angels; for me, the way the press and contemporary novelists documented this particular group has the most relevance to present times. a thoughtful view, 14 Nov 2007
I really enjoyed this book, which uses a large amount of original material - letters, diaries of the subjects and their families, as well as more public sources, to discuss this flamboyant and often tragic group in a very sensitive and thoughtful manner, with a good idea of the contemporary context and how this changed with the 1930s. Nice use of language, with something of a flavour of the times. A shocking waste of paper, 19 Oct 2007
Puerile, petty and hopelessly misguided, this amateur, opinionated attempt at social history seems to have been researched by a browse through a couple of old magazines and trawl of wikipedia. DJ Taylor makes no attempt to derive any interesting or insightful thoughts from the material but as the book is packed with his usual shoddy research and its concomitant factual errors, this doesn't matter much. Save your money. a fantastic novel, 23 Apr 2008
i have just this second finished the last page of this and i was so sorry it had to end, although it finished at exactly the right time. This writer has a gift, a gift that makes the reader want to love and experience things that they wouldn't normally. He digs deep into the human condition and shows exactly how it feels for a love affair to go wrong, i think Ross is brilliant and i look forward to reading more of his work! A brilliant evocation of a cold, grey England between the wars, 09 Feb 2008
Of Love and Hunger is one of the finest examples of the literature of the pre-war years. Its setting is a cold, grey England in which the danger of war is seen as secondary to the danger of a postal order not arriving, where the money for every round in the pub has to be borrowed off a mate and the best hope of covering your rent is a winning bet against a sucker.
Richard Fanshawe is a deeply human character, scraping a living as a vacuum-cleaner salesman while dreaming vaguely of being a writer. Every day he must indulge in another petty chisel or minor con in order to get by. The worst happens to him when the friendly and decent Derek Roper asks him to look after his wife, the dark and desirable Sukie. The pair embark on an unsatisfactory affair that seems to precipitate a series of crises in Richard's life as he loses his job and his home.
Containing fabulous comic set-pieces, including Richard and Sukie's date at a dismal, small-town zoo, Richard's eternally-thwarted attempts to avoid his landlady and wonderful interludes at the school for vacuum-cleaner salesmen, Of Love and Hunger is both a witty and sensitive evocation of a world now passed. Beautifully written and stunningly convincing, 08 Sep 2005
I have just finished reading this book and found it enchanting and one of the finest novels I have read in a long time. The characters are wonderfully constructed, especially the two central characters Fanshawe and Sukie, whose affair comes about in such an understandable and believable way that I felt each emotion in the pit of my stomach. Julian McClaren Ross never tries to do too much with his writing or the story itself and his style reminded me of Charles - it's easy to believe that he was perhaps an influence on Bukowski. I wish there was more of JMR's writing available, on this evidence everything he ever wrote should be published. Atmospheric slice of pre-war England., 18 Feb 2004
I was drawn to this book because it sounded similar to Patrick Hamilton's "Hangover Square", a book I like so much I re-read it every couple of years. I wouldn't personally say it was as good as Hamilton's novel, simply because it doesn't possess the same seering emotional intensity which runs through "Hangover Square", and which can at times make it such a disturbing read. "Of Love And Hunger" is an engaging piece though, about a guy called Richard, newly back from working in Madras, with a secret yearning to be a writer, but instead having to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door in a dreary seaside town. When a colleague, Derek Roper, gets a job on a cruise liner he asks Richard to keep his attractive wife Suki company whilst he's away (which seems an incredibly naive thing to do!). At first Richard doesn't like Suki, but soon finds that he's actually in love with her, which is usually the way. Like "Hangover Square" this is set in the months running up to the Second World War. It was written in 1947 though and this can make some of the pre-war references sound overtly self-conscious. We get a lot of references to "that Hitler" and "that Mussolini". Perhaps it's just me, but I found that with it being written in 1947 it didn't quite have the immediate feel of people living on the edge of the abyss, not knowing exactly what horrors were to come. Nevertheless this gives an intricate detail of day-to-day life in a bygone age. A time when there was nowhere to go after 10 o'clock at night, where one of the sales reps is so hard-up he lives off raw onions and has to keep his coat on all the time because he's sold part of his suit, where people lived in genteel but shabby boarding-houses, and where wealthy people living in more upmarket suburban villas still had live-in servants. I like this kind of book because it's a good riposte to all the oldies who would have us believe that this era was some kind of golden utopia for "Daily Mail" readers, where there was no crime or dodgy dealing, and everybody was thoroughly clean-living and highly moral! It's also laugh-out-loud funny in parts, particularly the dismal small-town zoo where Richard takes Suki on a date, and the training-school for vacuum cleaner salesmen. Think of a sort of 1930s version of "The Office"!
Biological Bible, 01 May 2008
This book has accompanied me through A-Level's and an Access to Health course.
Although primarily and undoubtedly compiled for the Biologist the chapters on enzymes, introduction to biochemistry, diet, the human cell (especially the diagrams), diffusion, health and disease, skeletal systems, homeostasis, growth, reproduction, DNA and chemical effects of smoking have been an invaluable resource. There isn't one assignment where I have not referenced this book in Medical Chemistry, Chemistry or Biology.
A very detailed explanation of every subject. More than will be required of any syllabus so a brilliant recap for degree level also.
A heavy yet essential book. And when you have finished with it you can use it as a weapon.
Tailored to the Syllabus, 01 Oct 2003
This book is a definate essential for anyone taking a biology AS/A2 course. It goes into the depth needed for any topic needed covered, and then exceeds that amount to get you the extra grade. When I was asked to write an essay about membranes, the book had 6 pages dedicated to explainin every aspect of the structure and functions, including deatlaied diagrams, and brief summaries. It is not a study guide or revision book, but more of a course encyclopedia. It suffices for all background reading needed. What I found useful was that it included many micrographs from different microscopes. This is essential as it is an important skill to be able to interpret them. Universities tend to ask you to interpret them during interviews, and with the extra knowled given by this book, it will come much more naturally. This book is specially recommened if you are planning on continuing onto medicine, as the level of depth will keep this book an essential back up to any advanced course. The book is however in Black and White, which is fine if you don;t have a problem with learning from that, though can be quite tiresome when much background reading is needed!
A superb and invaluable work., 08 Sep 2002
Despite its somewhat unwieldy size, this is an oracle of Biological Science. It is suitable for both broad topic-based reading or, thanks to its comprehensive index, speedy consultation of specific points. The plentiful diagrams and tables are particularly valuable for their clarification and reinforcement of the accompaning text, which is lucid and fluent. However, the excellence of this book stems primarily from the accuracy, depth and relevance of the information it contains. 'Biological Science' is pitched at exactly the right level for serious A level study and beyond. I found the extra information one can glean from this text invalubale for convincing an examiner that one has done enough 'background reading' to merit a high grade (A with 98% overall). The book is also an essential text for those students taking the Advanced Extension Award (AEA) in Biology and Biology (Human).
I unresevedly and warmly recommend 'Biological Science' to students, teachers, and all those who are interested in science. Nathan Thomas, nathan_thomas@yahoo.com
Excellent, 15 Jul 2000
This book covers all the parts of any A-level course in Biology with tons of diagrams and loads of background of information. Despite the price, this is the only textbook you'll need for the course- essays, revision, and classroom practicals. In sort, I owe most of my grade to this book!
A well presented summary of the basics - ideal for Access, 11 Feb 2000
Tthe book is well laid out, each chapter divided into sections and each 'point' within the sections numbered making finding the facts you require simple. The text is pleasant to read and the figures clear and relevant. I have been able to find specific facts without too much effort or to sit and read through a chapter as appropriate. As a mature student on a science Access to H.E. course I would recommend this book to students on similar courses.
You can keep Kept, 13 Oct 2008
This is another one of those pastiche Victorian novels that are in vogue at the moment. Whilst 'Kept' might be set in Victorian times, it adopts the style and mannerisms of a 20th century novel with sections told from various different viewpoints and the interpolation of diary entries into the main text. A good Victorian novel has a good narrative structure; 'Kept' does not. It is a series of tableaux and there is little connection between the various plot strands. The denouement is rushed and flat. The best thing about the book is its description of scenery and interiors, which have a cinematic quality to them. There are nods to the styles of such Victorian novelists as Dickens and Eliot, but if you are going to use the language of the period, at least be consistent; for example, both the Victorian 'trowsers' and the modern spelling of 'trousers' are used. It could have been so much better.
Disappointing, 14 Aug 2008
I quite like DJ Taylor as an essayist and TV talking head, and I love Victorian mysteries, so when I came across this I reckoned it couldn't go wrong. It was a terrible let-down. In spite of the title there is not really any mystery at all, and despite the story being told from a dizzying variety of multiple viewpoints not much in the way of plot when you get down to it - and of the minor puzzles there are, several are simply not explained by the end. The climax is given away on the first page and not even fleshed out later.
The book is padded out with far too many scenes of characters schlepping around London on irrelevant or uninteresting errands, and vignettes that tell us things we already know. While there's no lack of Victoriana, and every locale is duly described as being miserable and dreary-looking, there is a deficiency of atmosphere. It is more an intellectual exercise in pastiche than a living novel and far too down-to-earth and mundane: a great detective who has been built-up offstage turns out when he finally arrives to be incredibly bland, and is enabled to unravel the case by a stroke of luck, of which the narrator slyly remarks that it would be tutted at in a work of fiction - well, yes. At another point the (unnamed but intrusive) narrator wryly notes the tendency of the novelists of the period to romanticise London types into loveable comic characters - 'London has been discovered'. One smiles, but the book would have benefited from a 'character' or so of its own.
In fact the book comes to seem like some pointless post-modern exercise in deflating the genre and thwarting the reader's expectations. A character one anticipates is going to be become the hero does very little even to advance the story. We are treated to an interminable chapter describing another character traipsing through the Canadian wilderness in some peril of his life - one has stopped expecting a hero by this point but assumes he must at least be vital to the plot. But no, he is promptly abandoned, re-appears when everything is wrapped up, does nothing and goes away again. A mistake by a keycutter hampers a villain's scheme, and renders the preceding ten pages spent obtaining the keys pointless. At times it is like that kind of arthouse fiction that deals in the things that happen in the interstices between the scenes of a normal story, the things that are usually and rightly kept offstage.
Wilkie Collins is a notable absence from the list of Victorian authors Taylor acknowledges as an inspiration in an afterword (although one of the villains has a pet mouse, perhaps a nod to Count Fosco, if so an entirely inappropriate one as the man in question has none of Fosco's intelligence, menace and charisma) and a touch of Collins is exactly what the novel lacks: a dash of romance, and above all a well-constructed, imaginative and exciting plot.
I imagine Taylor simply wasn't interested in writing the kind of book I had expected from the title. But what he was trying to do eludes me and I found the results unappealing. Even as a collection of slice-of-life Victorian scenes it is too superficial and fragmented to engage. If you're looking for a true homage to the great Victorian mysteries, get hold of 'Fingersmith' or especially 'The Quincunx'.
....a ponderous and pedestrian read., 05 May 2008
A rather ponderous and pedestrian read that does not bear a scratch on its Victorian antecedents. It also compares unfavourably with the work of other contempory writers of Victorian pastiche such as Michael Cox and Charles Palliser.
In some places the sentence structure is so tortuously convoluted that one has to read it twice before any sense or meaning is apparent. The plot line is also all over the place and lacks a sense of coherence. Perhaps the author ought to have limited the narrative voices to one or two instead of having several perspectives. On the whole a disappointing read and an overrated book.
Like pulling teeth, 05 Nov 2007
It is not often that I start reading a book and don't finish it but I came close with this one. Only a few chapters really held my interest but the next chapters did not follow on and some even seemed totally irrelevant to the story. The story didn't flow and was quite disjointed. I would recommend it as a bedtime read as it put me to sleep every time I picked it up. I will not be reading any more of D.J. Taylors work.
Impeccable, 09 Sep 2007
It is difficult to know where to start in reviewing this book, so many and varied are its qualities. First of all, the book teems with richly-painted, unforgettable characters from the lowest reaches to the very highest of Victorian society: billbrokers, parlourmaids, curates, noblemen, attorneys and whatnot, all of them described with often the most telling details.
Then there's the plot: the very first page of the book by way of newspaper obituaries reveals that 2 people will die (Henry Ireland and James Dixey), but although the next chapter goes back to a time when both are still alive this does not in the least diminish the tension built page after page. On the contrary, chapter after chapter you eagerly read on to find out how they will meet their end.
Next, I should mention the fascinating mix of literary techniques and points of view D.J. Taylor uses: excerpts from diaries, third-and first-person narrative, at times an (almost) omniscient author, it's all there and used to very good effect.
Last but not least, it's been quite a while since I came across a novel so rich and colourful in its use of the English language. Consider this: "a tall man, elderly but apparently vigorous, in a suit of black with a white stock tied around his throat and bony hands that, resting curiously on the desk before him, looked as if they might have concerns of their own and be about to go scuttling off across the veneer in defiance of their owner's wishes.". There's close to 500 pages of the same stuff waiting for you behind the cover of 'Kept', what's keeping you?
Too much irrelevant detail, 08 Jul 2008
After reading this biography I feel that I really do know Orwell now. This book is an extremely detailed portrait of a highly intelligent and principled man. A maverick not afraid to do what he thought was right rather than what was expected of him. A good biography should be jam packed with details that enable us to get inside the mind and times of the subject and for me this book is only rivalled in this regard by Ian Kershaw's two volume biography of Hitler.
Yet unlike some of the biographies that I have most enjoyed only the character of Orwell really seems to come to life here. For me the joy of biography is not just finding out about the man or woman in the title but also all the people they were connected with during their life. Orwell was closely linked not just to the literary giants of his time such as Anthony Powell but also people who must have been fascinating such as anyone he fought with in the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately none of these people are portrayed very vividly. They are all foils for Orwell's story. These people are merely masks that enter the stage to give us some comment or other about Orwell and then move on.
In addition to the lack of detail given to others involved in the story is the overwhelming and at times trivial detail given to Orwell himself. At one point in the book Taylor takes time out to describe a stapler that he bought which was supposed to have belonged to Orwell himself. As if this were not tedious enough later on in the afterward the author tells us how mortified he was to learn that somebody else also claims to own Orwell's stapler. I suppose it never occurred to him that Orwell may have owned more than one during his life.
Observations such as this come mainly in the short essays which punctuate the main chapters of narrative. Some of these are very interesting such as Orwell and the Rats while others such as Orwell in View are very much less so. Who really cares that there is no film footage of Orwell?
Having said this the book does have its merits. You do learn a lot about Orwell. I never realised before how productive he was. Although I knew he was very ill when he wrote Nineteen Eighty-four I never comprehended how much the effort shattered his health and forced him into the final decline. He was obviously a man of principle who would even subordinate his own health for the welfare of his art.
Taylor does an extremely good job of describing what was going on in Orwell's life and mind when he was writing his novels. We get a good portrait of a growing artist going through trials and experiments before he finds his own distinctive voice.
Like many biographies I like, this one builds up to a climax at the end. We can feel Orwell racing against time to finish Nineteen Eighty-four and also the growing realisation of the people around him that the world was about to lose a writer in his prime.
This is the tragedy of Orwell that he shares with other artists as varied in stature and genre as Mozart, Jimi Hendrix and Heath Ledger. He died when he had so much more he could have given us.
Overall then this is a good book for the serious Orwell fan but for most people it probably contains too much detail that many would see as superfluous.
One of the most inadequate biographies I have ever read, 29 Mar 2008
DJ Taylor is an accomplished writer and writes well. But this is a very poor excuse for a biography of Orwell. Considering that Orwell was born in colonial India, attended Eton college, was the subject of Soviet and British secret service files and had two very successful books published within living memory, one might think there would be a fair amount of information about him. But Taylor has unearthed a pathetic amount of it.
He repeatedly resorts to feeble lines like "nothing is known about Orwell's life at this time" and seeks to fill in the gaps by rolling on a bunch of other literary figures, with lesser or greater attachment to Orwell. So instead of telling us what Orwell did or thought, Taylor chucks in a bit of opinion from people like Malcolm Muggeridge, Cyril Connolly or Evelyn Waugh. I didn't buy this biography to know what they thought. I bought it to know about Orwell. Taylor is caught up in the literary world of the time and he expects us to know who these people are. In one sentence, for example, he wheels on "Francis King" and "J.R. Ackerley's sister Nancy" without explaining who they are or ever mentioning them again.
Orwell's family, on the other hand, gets short shrift. His sister Avril barely features. Why not? Where was she? Had she fallen out with him? At one point Taylor tells us that Orwell's father has been "four years dead" - er... did this event not merit a mention at the time? If not, why not? Had Orwell fallen out with his father so badly that his death made no impact? If so, shouldn't we be told? What kind of biography can leave out the death of the author's father, especially a father whose class, career and temperament provide interesting insights into the subject?
The biography also fails us in its photographs. The collection of photographs is pretty inadequate. There are not enough illustrating the people and events of Orwell's life, and too many mugshots of people with walk-on parts who we don't really need to see. Peter Vansittart, for example. He barely features in the book. Do we need his pic? I would have preferred a bit more on Orwell. One of the Orwell pictures is a blurred, cropped, it's-probably-him snap of people doing exercises in the park. What a waste.
Taylor also shoots himself in the foot about motion pictures. He bangs on about how there is no surviving motion picture of Orwell, but lo! in an appendix he describes how one has now been found. Oops.
I could go on.
There must be a better Orwell biography than this. Actually, this is written in a nice enough style, it's just that it's almost completely devoid of any facts and very thin on enlightening research, despite the fact that Taylor says he spent four years on it. The only thing that got me to the end was the fact that his biggest successes (Animal Farm and 1984) came right at the end of his life, coupled with my curiosity to see if Taylor would redeem himself at the last minute. Take my advice, and don't bother with this book. You'll find out a lot more from Wikipedia.
Don't waste your money, 25 Apr 2004
One asks little of a literary biography except serious literary andhistorical research. This is more than simply reading some, not all, ofthe author's books and conjecturing some wild surmises. But this is allthat Taylor seems to have done in this so-called biography.
There have been books on Orwell before, and no doubt there will be othersin the future, and almost any would be better than this badly written,quickly thrown together, lazy piece of work. The worst thing in the worldis in Room 101. One can't help thinking that Room 102 might be reservedfor the worst book in the world, which is where you will find a copy ofOrwell: A Life.
Avoid like the plague.
A strange literary world, 03 Sep 2003
As you would expect from such an experienced biographer, DJ Taylor has brought a detailed insight to Orwell the man, possibly more accurately and comprehensively than others have done before. However, for me, what separates Taylor's book from his predecessors is his lifting the lid on the political positions taken by members of the pre war literary world in London. Orwells own excursion to fight in Spain was marred by internicene rivalry between various parts of the radical left, and the overtly political stance of publishers of the day just goes to show that nothing has changed. DJ Taylor's style drew me easily into Orwell's world of contradictions and predjudices and I'm left with the feeling that he would have been a very uncomfortable man to know. A compelling, if sometimes challenging, read.
A solid account of a great writer., 26 Jun 2003
D.J. Taylor is not the first biographer of Orwell. This is a pity, as reading his new biography of the author of 'Animal Farm', you may rather wishe it was. Taylor seems to have built on the less than complete earlier books about Orwell. However, Taylor come across as a much better biographer and you are left feeling that he should have started from scratch rather than appearing to build on the work of others.
At times, certain major issues seem to be covered only briefly, whilst other (perhaps) more trivial factors are given a great degree of detail. For example, we read so little of the actual writing of 'Animal Farm' and so much more of seemingly trivial relationships that surround at the time. Simply because new material relating to the subject has been uncovered seems to be no good reason for inclusion, particularly if such material adds little or nothing to our understanding.
These are minor criticisms in a solid and readable account of Orwell and his life. The hype surrounding Orwell's centenary has perhaps indulged some books more than it should have, but this remains a good account of this influentioal and important writer.
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Customer Reviews
Fascinating Times, 14 Dec 2007
If we think that it's a new thing, the way that the gutter press and gossip mags now are obsessed with celebrity, we're wrong. The Bright Young People were there first. I bought this book after reading a review, because I'm interested in one particular person in one particular photograph. I found it enlightening and amusing. The Bright Young People that Taylor writes about were few; no doubt a lot of hangers on described themselves as Bright Young People during and after the event, but this book is about the epicentre, the small group of partygoers who started the trend then either took a back seat, left the country or were destroyed by it. The book concentrates on the essence of the movement, if that's what it was, the people at the heart of it, actual events and the people the newspapers wrote about. It doesn't truly describe a whole generation, just the ones who defined it and the waves they made.
Reading about them, I can see the influence they had on my working class, northern great aunt who gave up a good job as a cook to train as a secretary in London so she could go out dancing in the 1920s. She must have read about them in the press and wanted a part of it. She went on to run the factory that made rivets for Spitfires, then to help at a refugee camp in Italy, spoke four languages and judged dogs at Crufts. The Bright Young People seem to have unleashed a spirit of defiance of convention that spread amongst their generation then was crushed by mid century hardship and censorship. It makes me want to reread Waugh and watch Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things with a better understanding of their list of players.
There have always been upper class scoundrels, fritterers, debtors, drunks, sluts and fallen angels; for me, the way the press and contemporary novelists documented this particular group has the most relevance to present times. a thoughtful view, 14 Nov 2007
I really enjoyed this book, which uses a large amount of original material - letters, diaries of the subjects and their families, as well as more public sources, to discuss this flamboyant and often tragic group in a very sensitive and thoughtful manner, with a good idea of the contemporary context and how this changed with the 1930s. Nice use of language, with something of a flavour of the times. A shocking waste of paper, 19 Oct 2007
Puerile, petty and hopelessly misguided, this amateur, opinionated attempt at social history seems to have been researched by a browse through a couple of old magazines and trawl of wikipedia. DJ Taylor makes no attempt to derive any interesting or insightful thoughts from the material but as the book is packed with his usual shoddy research and its concomitant factual errors, this doesn't matter much. Save your money. a fantastic novel, 23 Apr 2008
i have just this second finished the last page of this and i was so sorry it had to end, although it finished at exactly the right time. This writer has a gift, a gift that makes the reader want to love and experience things that they wouldn't normally. He digs deep into the human condition and shows exactly how it feels for a love affair to go wrong, i think Ross is brilliant and i look forward to reading more of his work! A brilliant evocation of a cold, grey England between the wars, 09 Feb 2008
Of Love and Hunger is one of the finest examples of the literature of the pre-war years. Its setting is a cold, grey England in which the danger of war is seen as secondary to the danger of a postal order not arriving, where the money for every round in the pub has to be borrowed off a mate and the best hope of covering your rent is a winning bet against a sucker.
Richard Fanshawe is a deeply human character, scraping a living as a vacuum-cleaner salesman while dreaming vaguely of being a writer. Every day he must indulge in another petty chisel or minor con in order to get by. The worst happens to him when the friendly and decent Derek Roper asks him to look after his wife, the dark and desirable Sukie. The pair embark on an unsatisfactory affair that seems to precipitate a series of crises in Richard's life as he loses his job and his home.
Containing fabulous comic set-pieces, including Richard and Sukie's date at a dismal, small-town zoo, Richard's eternally-thwarted attempts to avoid his landlady and wonderful interludes at the school for vacuum-cleaner salesmen, Of Love and Hunger is both a witty and sensitive evocation of a world now passed. Beautifully written and stunningly convincing, 08 Sep 2005
I have just finished reading this book and found it enchanting and one of the finest novels I have read in a long time. The characters are wonderfully constructed, especially the two central characters Fanshawe and Sukie, whose affair comes about in such an understandable and believable way that I felt each emotion in the pit of my stomach. Julian McClaren Ross never tries to do too much with his writing or the story itself and his style reminded me of Charles - it's easy to believe that he was perhaps an influence on Bukowski. I wish there was more of JMR's writing available, on this evidence everything he ever wrote should be published. Atmospheric slice of pre-war England., 18 Feb 2004
I was drawn to this book because it sounded similar to Patrick Hamilton's "Hangover Square", a book I like so much I re-read it every couple of years. I wouldn't personally say it was as good as Hamilton's novel, simply because it doesn't possess the same seering emotional intensity which runs through "Hangover Square", and which can at times make it such a disturbing read. "Of Love And Hunger" is an engaging piece though, about a guy called Richard, newly back from working in Madras, with a secret yearning to be a writer, but instead having to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door in a dreary seaside town. When a colleague, Derek Roper, gets a job on a cruise liner he asks Richard to keep his attractive wife Suki company whilst he's away (which seems an incredibly naive thing to do!). At first Richard doesn't like Suki, but soon finds that he's actually in love with her, which is usually the way. Like "Hangover Square" this is set in the months running up to the Second World War. It was written in 1947 though and this can make some of the pre-war references sound overtly self-conscious. We get a lot of references to "that Hitler" and "that Mussolini". Perhaps it's just me, but I found that with it being written in 1947 it didn't quite have the immediate feel of people living on the edge of the abyss, not knowing exactly what horrors were to come. Nevertheless this gives an intricate detail of day-to-day life in a bygone age. A time when there was nowhere to go after 10 o'clock at night, where one of the sales reps is so hard-up he lives off raw onions and has to keep his coat on all the time because he's sold part of his suit, where people lived in genteel but shabby boarding-houses, and where wealthy people living in more upmarket suburban villas still had live-in servants. I like this kind of book because it's a good riposte to all the oldies who would have us believe that this era was some kind of golden utopia for "Daily Mail" readers, where there was no crime or dodgy dealing, and everybody was thoroughly clean-living and highly moral! It's also laugh-out-loud funny in parts, particularly the dismal small-town zoo where Richard takes Suki on a date, and the training-school for vacuum cleaner salesmen. Think of a sort of 1930s version of "The Office"!
Biological Bible, 01 May 2008
This book has accompanied me through A-Level's and an Access to Health course.
Although primarily and undoubtedly compiled for the Biologist the chapters on enzymes, introduction to biochemistry, diet, the human cell (especially the diagrams), diffusion, health and disease, skeletal systems, homeostasis, growth, reproduction, DNA and chemical effects of smoking have been an invaluable resource. There isn't one assignment where I have not referenced this book in Medical Chemistry, Chemistry or Biology.
A very detailed explanation of every subject. More than will be required of any syllabus so a brilliant recap for degree level also.
A heavy yet essential book. And when you have finished with it you can use it as a weapon.
Tailored to the Syllabus, 01 Oct 2003
This book is a definate essential for anyone taking a biology AS/A2 course. It goes into the depth needed for any topic needed covered, and then exceeds that amount to get you the extra grade. When I was asked to write an essay about membranes, the book had 6 pages dedicated to explainin every aspect of the structure and functions, including deatlaied diagrams, and brief summaries. It is not a study guide or revision book, but more of a course encyclopedia. It suffices for all background reading needed. What I found useful was that it included many micrographs from different microscopes. This is essential as it is an important skill to be able to interpret them. Universities tend to ask you to interpret them during interviews, and with the extra knowled given by this book, it will come much more naturally. This book is specially recommened if you are planning on continuing onto medicine, as the level of depth will keep this book an essential back up to any advanced course. The book is however in Black and White, which is fine if you don;t have a problem with learning from that, though can be quite tiresome when much background reading is needed!
A superb and invaluable work., 08 Sep 2002
Despite its somewhat unwieldy size, this is an oracle of Biological Science. It is suitable for both broad topic-based reading or, thanks to its comprehensive index, speedy consultation of specific points. The plentiful diagrams and tables are particularly valuable for their clarification and reinforcement of the accompaning text, which is lucid and fluent. However, the excellence of this book stems primarily from the accuracy, depth and relevance of the information it contains. 'Biological Science' is pitched at exactly the right level for serious A level study and beyond. I found the extra information one can glean from this text invalubale for convincing an examiner that one has done enough 'background reading' to merit a high grade (A with 98% overall). The book is also an essential text for those students taking the Advanced Extension Award (AEA) in Biology and Biology (Human).
I unresevedly and warmly recommend 'Biological Science' to students, teachers, and all those who are interested in science. Nathan Thomas, nathan_thomas@yahoo.com
Excellent, 15 Jul 2000
This book covers all the parts of any A-level course in Biology with tons of diagrams and loads of background of information. Despite the price, this is the only textbook you'll need for the course- essays, revision, and classroom practicals. In sort, I owe most of my grade to this book!
A well presented summary of the basics - ideal for Access, 11 Feb 2000
Tthe book is well laid out, each chapter divided into sections and each 'point' within the sections numbered making finding the facts you require simple. The text is pleasant to read and the figures clear and relevant. I have been able to find specific facts without too much effort or to sit and read through a chapter as appropriate. As a mature student on a science Access to H.E. course I would recommend this book to students on similar courses.
You can keep Kept, 13 Oct 2008
This is another one of those pastiche Victorian novels that are in vogue at the moment. Whilst 'Kept' might be set in Victorian times, it adopts the style and mannerisms of a 20th century novel with sections told from various different viewpoints and the interpolation of diary entries into the main text. A good Victorian novel has a good narrative structure; 'Kept' does not. It is a series of tableaux and there is little connection between the various plot strands. The denouement is rushed and flat. The best thing about the book is its description of scenery and interiors, which have a cinematic quality to them. There are nods to the styles of such Victorian novelists as Dickens and Eliot, but if you are going to use the language of the period, at least be consistent; for example, both the Victorian 'trowsers' and the modern spelling of 'trousers' are used. It could have been so much better.
Disappointing, 14 Aug 2008
I quite like DJ Taylor as an essayist and TV talking head, and I love Victorian mysteries, so when I came across this I reckoned it couldn't go wrong. It was a terrible let-down. In spite of the title there is not really any mystery at all, and despite the story being told from a dizzying variety of multiple viewpoints not much in the way of plot when you get down to it - and of the minor puzzles there are, several are simply not explained by the end. The climax is given away on the first page and not even fleshed out later.
The book is padded out with far too many scenes of characters schlepping around London on irrelevant or uninteresting errands, and vignettes that tell us things we already know. While there's no lack of Victoriana, and every locale is duly described as being miserable and dreary-looking, there is a deficiency of atmosphere. It is more an intellectual exercise in pastiche than a living novel and far too down-to-earth and mundane: a great detective who has been built-up offstage turns out when he finally arrives to be incredibly bland, and is enabled to unravel the case by a stroke of luck, of which the narrator slyly remarks that it would be tutted at in a work of fiction - well, yes. At another point the (unnamed but intrusive) narrator wryly notes the tendency of the novelists of the period to romanticise London types into loveable comic characters - 'London has been discovered'. One smiles, but the book would have benefited from a 'character' or so of its own.
In fact the book comes to seem like some pointless post-modern exercise in deflating the genre and thwarting the reader's expectations. A character one anticipates is going to be become the hero does very little even to advance the story. We are treated to an interminable chapter describing another character traipsing through the Canadian wilderness in some peril of his life - one has stopped expecting a hero by this point but assumes he must at least be vital to the plot. But no, he is promptly abandoned, re-appears when everything is wrapped up, does nothing and goes away again. A mistake by a keycutter hampers a villain's scheme, and renders the preceding ten pages spent obtaining the keys pointless. At times it is like that kind of arthouse fiction that deals in the things that happen in the interstices between the scenes of a normal story, the things that are usually and rightly kept offstage.
Wilkie Collins is a notable absence from the list of Victorian authors Taylor acknowledges as an inspiration in an afterword (although one of the villains has a pet mouse, perhaps a nod to Count Fosco, if so an entirely inappropriate one as the man in question has none of Fosco's intelligence, menace and charisma) and a touch of Collins is exactly what the novel lacks: a dash of romance, and above all a well-constructed, imaginative and exciting plot.
I imagine Taylor simply wasn't interested in writing the kind of book I had expected from the title. But what he was trying to do eludes me and I found the results unappealing. Even as a collection of slice-of-life Victorian scenes it is too superficial and fragmented to engage. If you're looking for a true homage to the great Victorian mysteries, get hold of 'Fingersmith' or especially 'The Quincunx'.
....a ponderous and pedestrian read., 05 May 2008
A rather ponderous and pedestrian read that does not bear a scratch on its Victorian antecedents. It also compares unfavourably with the work of other contempory writers of Victorian pastiche such as Michael Cox and Charles Palliser.
In some places the sentence structure is so tortuously convoluted that one has to read it twice before any sense or meaning is apparent. The plot line is also all over the place and lacks a sense of coherence. Perhaps the author ought to have limited the narrative voices to one or two instead of having several perspectives. On the whole a disappointing read and an overrated book.
Like pulling teeth, 05 Nov 2007
It is not often that I start reading a book and don't finish it but I came close with this one. Only a few chapters really held my interest but the next chapters did not follow on and some even seemed totally irrelevant to the story. The story didn't flow and was quite disjointed. I would recommend it as a bedtime read as it put me to sleep every time I picked it up. I will not be reading any more of D.J. Taylors work.
Impeccable, 09 Sep 2007
It is difficult to know where to start in reviewing this book, so many and varied are its qualities. First of all, the book teems with richly-painted, unforgettable characters from the lowest reaches to the very highest of Victorian society: billbrokers, parlourmaids, curates, noblemen, attorneys and whatnot, all of them described with often the most telling details.
Then there's the plot: the very first page of the book by way of newspaper obituaries reveals that 2 people will die (Henry Ireland and James Dixey), but although the next chapter goes back to a time when both are still alive this does not in the least diminish the tension built page after page. On the contrary, chapter after chapter you eagerly read on to find out how they will meet their end.
Next, I should mention the fascinating mix of literary techniques and points of view D.J. Taylor uses: excerpts from diaries, third-and first-person narrative, at times an (almost) omniscient author, it's all there and used to very good effect.
Last but not least, it's been quite a while since I came across a novel so rich and colourful in its use of the English language. Consider this: "a tall man, elderly but apparently vigorous, in a suit of black with a white stock tied around his throat and bony hands that, resting curiously on the desk before him, looked as if they might have concerns of their own and be about to go scuttling off across the veneer in defiance of their owner's wishes.". There's close to 500 pages of the same stuff waiting for you behind the cover of 'Kept', what's keeping you?
Too much irrelevant detail, 08 Jul 2008
After reading this biography I feel that I really do know Orwell now. This book is an extremely detailed portrait of a highly intelligent and principled man. A maverick not afraid to do what he thought was right rather than what was expected of him. A good biography should be jam packed with details that enable us to get inside the mind and times of the subject and for me this book is only rivalled in this regard by Ian Kershaw's two volume biography of Hitler.
Yet unlike some of the biographies that I have most enjoyed only the character of Orwell really seems to come to life here. For me the joy of biography is not just finding out about the man or woman in the title but also all the people they were connected with during their life. Orwell was closely linked not just to the literary giants of his time such as Anthony Powell but also people who must have been fascinating such as anyone he fought with in the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately none of these people are portrayed very vividly. They are all foils for Orwell's story. These people are merely masks that enter the stage to give us some comment or other about Orwell and then move on.
In addition to the lack of detail given to others involved in the story is the overwhelming and at times trivial detail given to Orwell himself. At one point in the book Taylor takes time out to describe a stapler that he bought which was supposed to have belonged to Orwell himself. As if this were not tedious enough later on in the afterward the author tells us how mortified he was to learn that somebody else also claims to own Orwell's stapler. I suppose it never occurred to him that Orwell may have owned more than one during his life.
Observations such as this come mainly in the short essays which punctuate the main chapters of narrative. Some of these are very interesting such as Orwell and the Rats while others such as Orwell in View are very much less so. Who really cares that there is no film footage of Orwell?
Having said this the book does have its merits. You do learn a lot about Orwell. I never realised before how productive he was. Although I knew he was very ill when he wrote Nineteen Eighty-four I never comprehended how much the effort shattered his health and forced him into the final decline. He was obviously a man of principle who would even subordinate his own health for the welfare of his art.
Taylor does an extremely good job of describing what was going on in Orwell's life and mind when he was writing his novels. We get a good portrait of a growing artist going through trials and experiments before he finds his own distinctive voice.
Like many biographies I like, this one builds up to a climax at the end. We can feel Orwell racing against time to finish Nineteen Eighty-four and also the growing realisation of the people around him that the world was about to lose a writer in his prime.
This is the tragedy of Orwell that he shares with other artists as varied in stature and genre as Mozart, Jimi Hendrix and Heath Ledger. He died when he had so much more he could have given us.
Overall then this is a good book for the serious Orwell fan but for most people it probably contains too much detail that many would see as superfluous.
One of the most inadequate biographies I have ever read, 29 Mar 2008
DJ Taylor is an accomplished writer and writes well. But this is a very poor excuse for a biography of Orwell. Considering that Orwell was born in colonial India, attended Eton college, was the subject of Soviet and British secret service files and had two very successful books published within living memory, one might think there would be a fair amount of information about him. But Taylor has unearthed a pathetic amount of it.
He repeatedly resorts to feeble lines like "nothing is known about Orwell's life at this time" and seeks to fill in the gaps by rolling on a bunch of other literary figures, with lesser or greater attachment to Orwell. So instead of telling us what Orwell did or thought, Taylor chucks in a bit of opinion from people like Malcolm Muggeridge, Cyril Connolly or Evelyn Waugh. I didn't buy this biography to know what they thought. I bought it to know about Orwell. Taylor is caught up in the literary world of the time and he expects us to know who these people are. In one sentence, for example, he wheels on "Francis King" and "J.R. Ackerley's sister Nancy" without explaining who they are or ever mentioning them again.
Orwell's family, on the other hand, gets short shrift. His sister Avril barely features. Why not? Where was she? Had she fallen out with him? At one point Taylor tells us that Orwell's father has been "four years dead" - er... did this event not merit a mention at the time? If not, why not? Had Orwell fallen out with his father so badly that his death made no impact? If so, shouldn't we be told? What kind of biography can leave out the death of the author's father, especially a father whose class, career and temperament provide interesting insights into the subject?
The biography also fails us in its photographs. The collection of photographs is pretty inadequate. There are not enough illustrating the people and events of Orwell's life, and too many mugshots of people with walk-on parts who we don't really need to see. Peter Vansittart, for example. He barely features in the book. Do we need his pic? I would have preferred a bit more on Orwell. One of the Orwell pictures is a blurred, cropped, it's-probably-him snap of people doing exercises in the park. What a waste.
Taylor also shoots himself in the foot about motion pictures. He bangs on about how there is no surviving motion picture of Orwell, but lo! in an appendix he describes how one has now been found. Oops.
I could go on.
There must be a better Orwell biography than this. Actually, this is written in a nice enough style, it's just that it's almost completely devoid of any facts and very thin on enlightening research, despite the fact that Taylor says he spent four years on it. The only thing that got me to the end was the fact that his biggest successes (Animal Farm and 1984) came right at the end of his life, coupled with my curiosity to see if Taylor would redeem himself at the last minute. Take my advice, and don't bother with this book. You'll find out a lot more from Wikipedia.
Don't waste your money, 25 Apr 2004
One asks little of a literary biography except serious literary andhistorical research. This is more than simply reading some, not all, ofthe author's books and conjecturing some wild surmises. But this is allthat Taylor seems to have done in this so-called biography.
There have been books on Orwell before, and no doubt there will be othersin the future, and almost any would be better than this badly written,quickly thrown together, lazy piece of work. The worst thing in the worldis in Room 101. One can't help thinking that Room 102 might be reservedfor the worst book in the world, which is where you will find a copy ofOrwell: A Life.
Avoid like the plague.
A strange literary world, 03 Sep 2003
As you would expect from such an experienced biographer, DJ Taylor has brought a detailed insight to Orwell the man, possibly more accurately and comprehensively than others have done before. However, for me, what separates Taylor's book from his predecessors is his lifting the lid on the political positions taken by members of the pre war literary world in London. Orwells own excursion to fight in Spain was marred by internicene rivalry between various parts of the radical left, and the overtly political stance of publishers of the day just goes to show that nothing has changed. DJ Taylor's style drew me easily into Orwell's world of contradictions and predjudices and I'm left with the feeling that he would have been a very uncomfortable man to know. A compelling, if sometimes challenging, read.
A solid account of a great writer., 26 Jun 2003
D.J. Taylor is not the first biographer of Orwell. This is a pity, as reading his new biography of the author of 'Animal Farm', you may rather wishe it was. Taylor seems to have built on the less than complete earlier books about Orwell. However, Taylor come across as a much better biographer and you are left feeling that he should have started from scratch rather than appearing to build on the work of others.
At times, certain major issues seem to be covered only briefly, whilst other (perhaps) more trivial factors are given a great degree of detail. For example, we read so little of the actual writing of 'Animal Farm' and so much more of seemingly trivial relationships that surround at the time. Simply because new material relating to the subject has been uncovered seems to be no good reason for inclusion, particularly if such material adds little or nothing to our understanding.
These are minor criti | | |