”SS-GB” by Len Deighton (published by Penguin Books)
If Nazi jackboots had tramped down Whitehall
SS is an abbreviation of Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron), the black-uniformed elite corps that was one of the most feared organisations in Nazi Germany. GB is short for Great Britain. ”SS-GB” is Len Deighton’s 1978 novel imagining what might have happened if Germany had fought its way across the Channel and subjugated the island in World War II.
Bradley-Farrell’s book on Hungarian politics presented in New York
A book analysing Hungarian politics by Shea Bradley-Farrell, the head of the Counterpoint Institute, was presented in New York on Thursday.
"The Mask of Dimitrios” by Eric Ambler (published by Penguin Books)
Digging around in the past can be a bad idea
This 1939 book is sometimes rated as the best of Eric Ambler’s novels, which can be taken either as a big plus considering that he wrote 18, or as a very subjective judgement for the exact same reason. Overall, Ambler forged a considerable reputation, ...
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“The Black Lizard” by Edogawa Rampo (published by Penguin Books)
A horror in more ways than one
The 20 paperback books republished this year by Penguin Random House in their Crime and Espionage series were written from 1928 to 1978 by 15 authors from the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium and Japan, all dead now except one, some that we recognised, ...
“Brat Farrar” by Josephine Tey (published by Penguin Books)
A suicide reappears, or does he?
That’s a fairly terrible title for a book –“Brat Farrar” – but, as someone somewhere once said, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and no doubt this applies equally to titles too. Still, this one came out in 1949, and it’s a ...
"Game Without Rules" by Michael Gilbert (published by Penguin Books)
Even the dirty world of spies can entertain
A senior partner in a firm of London solicitors at Lincoln's Inn, Michael Gilbert made good use of the 50-minute commute by train from his home in Kent to write some 500 words each day. This was an art he had learnt in World ...
“The Franchise Affair” by Josephine Tey (published by Penguin Books)
Monstrous lie turns town against ‘odd’ women
Seemingly a fairly straightforward crime book, this one is actually deeper on a couple of levels, including that it is based on a true case in 1753 and it slips in some social commentary on media responsibility and accountability, and the way communities take ...
“Beast in the Shadows” by Edogawa Rampo (published by Penguin Books)
Mystery and imagination at play again
Considerations arise when reading a 1928 Japanese crime novel. On the plus side, we stand to learn something of a unique culture in pre-global village days. But we are in the hands of a translator – will any of the author’s style be lost? ...
“Call for the Dead” by John le Carré (published by Penguin Books)
Telephone sets alarm bells ringing
People who have enough spare time to enjoy themselves ranking an author’s books – and you’d need to have read all 26 of John Le Carré’s to do so – don’t often include this one among the very best. But it still fares well ...
"Fall Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner” by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore (published by Telos)
Why a TV program continues to captivate
What a program that was. British TV viewers had never seen anything quite like it when "The Prisoner” aired for 17 episodes in 1967-68, each as inscrutable as the last. What was it – spy story, sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, allegory, dream? A bit of ...
"The Night of the Hunter” by Davis Grubb (published by Penguin Books)
A good bloody yarn, or a bloody good tale
Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel about slayer Harry Powell is based on real-life Dutch-born American five-time killer Harry F. Powers, who was hanged in Moundsville, West Virginia, in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children, earning him nicknames such as "the lonely ...
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“The Black Lizard” by Edogawa Rampo (published by Penguin Books)
A horror in more ways than one
The 20 paperback books republished this year by Penguin Random House in their Crime and Espionage series were written from 1928 to 1978 by 15 authors from the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium and Japan, all dead now except one, some that we recognised, ...
"The Mask of Dimitrios” by Eric Ambler (published by Penguin Books)
Digging around in the past can be a bad idea
This 1939 book is sometimes rated as the best of Eric Ambler’s novels, which can be taken either as a big plus considering that he wrote 18, or as a very subjective judgement for the exact same reason. Overall, Ambler forged a considerable reputation, ...
“Brat Farrar” by Josephine Tey (published by Penguin Books)
A suicide reappears, or does he?
That’s a fairly terrible title for a book –“Brat Farrar” – but, as someone somewhere once said, you can’t judge a book by its cover, and no doubt this applies equally to titles too. Still, this one came out in 1949, and it’s a ...
Most commented articles Books
“A Promenade in Parc Munkácsy” by Alexander York (published by Austin Macauley)
Colourful characters twist and turn in crime caper
Debut novelist Alexander York has seemingly gone for filmic atmosphere rather than minor style issues such as crossing the “t”s and dotting the “i”s, and Hungarians can be along for the scenic ride as the action sets out from England and passes numerous Magyarország ...
“Greyhound” by C.S. Forester (published by Penguin Books)
Dogged by death in the deep
C.S. Forester died in 1966 and he is not forgotten in The Budapest Times office, where we have a nice little collection of 18 of his books. But they don’t include “Greyhound”, and in fact we were a bit puzzled when it was published ...
“John Lennon 1980. The Last Days in the Life” by Kenneth Womack (published by Omnibus Press)
The world read the news that day, oh boy
John Winston Lennon, born in Liverpool, UK, on October 9, 1940, would have been 80 years old on October 9, 2020. The world knows he only got half-way there, and despairs, but will always remember who John Lennon was. His life ended on December ...
