Rock on...

Chris Cleave is a pretty smart dude. He of Incendiary and The Other Hand among others, writes a blog and has a faithful following on Twitter. Cleave recently came across George Orwell's 1939 essay on Charles Dickens ,which is well worth a read. He's included an excerpt here, or check out the full essay here. It is kinda cool, enjoy!

Manna from heaven

Look! The universe gifted me with two literary treasures today: 

The latest LRB landed in my letterbox from London and I discovered Patrick White. 

Neither of which will in any way fan the flames of self-confidence in a wannabee writer but both should inspire nonetheless...

And, if you happen to pass by my favourite local second-hand bookstore, drop in and ask to see Desire Books' latest acquisition, a 1958 first British edition On The Road, one of only 3000 in the original print run. Don't need to tell you how much I love a bit of Jack.

Best books - a French delicacy

My Top Three books of the year are in no particular order but today's choice is a French story that crept up on me and quietly captured my imagination, then held me hostage right through to the unexpected and macabre but hilarious ending.
It's The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. 
Set in a très ooh la la apartment block in Paris, the story is told through the eyes of the humble concierge who witnesses all the comings and goings of the elite residents, while concealing from them a fascinating intellect and a surprising private self.
It's a great character study as well as a quirky story, told as only the French can - with an exterior seriousness but an underlying, kooky humour that cracked me up. 
I love the 12-year-old kid who forges a bond with the concierge, she reminds me of Hank's daughter in the TV series Californication with her premature darkness, insight and deadpan honesty.
This book made me laugh out loud.
For that, for the original voices of its characters, and for its unpredictable plot, it was always going straight to my Top Three.

Best books countdown - an aviatrix and a seductress

Christmas rain is fantastic for two reasons. 
Because our great, thirsty land desperately needs it. And it's the perfect excuse for enjoying a post-Christmas cook-up repose with a new book straight out of Santa's sack.
With only three (!!) days left of 2009, I've come up with my three best books of the year... 
Today's choice is a brilliant biography which I've loved for years but it gets a mention because I re-read it this year and it was no less gripping. Sign of a true classic I say.
The book is The Lives of Beryl Markham, by Errol Trzebinski and the front cover tags her as 'Out of Africa's hidden seductress'. (Try a secondhand bookstore - it was first published in 1993.)
Beryl Markham grew up in Kenya and throughout her tough, primitive, glamorous and often amoral life she stirred the feathers of the colonial elite in East Africa, courting fame and admiration across the globe. As well as a fair dose of scandal.
In 1936 Beryl was the first woman to fly solo west across the Atlantic. 
She was also a champion horse breeder and, on earning her wings, ran the first airmail runs across Africa in the days when pilots still repaired their own aircraft on the fly and the plains of the Serengeti were blanketed by magnificent herds of wildlife roaming free from the scourge of poaching and land-grabbing.
This is the story of someone who took life by the horns and rode it to the edge of the earth, constantly challenging herself and those she influenced to seek out new horizons both internally and externally.
In a captivating twist, one of the great loves of her life was safari hunter Denys Finch-Hatton, famously portrayed by Robert Redford in the film Out Of Africa. It appears Karen Blixen was not Denys' only mistress...
If you like a great bio and are looking for something un-put-downable - this is it!