Books and Me

By Tom Sharpe (1971) For those with an exaggerated deference for the ruling classes, this satirical novel should prove the most powerful antidote - far more powerful than non-fiction works such as "The Establishment".   This because there are things you can say in fiction that are completely unsayable in factual books, but that really get to the nub of reality nonetheless.  You might be tempted to assume that most of the situations and characters in Riotous Assembly are hyperbolic, but actually humans are indeed awful.  Take, for example, the first few chapters of Matthew Syed's "Black Box Thinking" which demonstrate very clearly, albeit in far more measured tones, that humans, when given power and prestige, are indeed utterly ridiculous to the point of being stupid and pernicious to the nth degree.  Tom Sharpe actually isn't stretching a point very far. It is also riotous good fun and very funny in places. Rating 7/10

by Rod Liddle (2014). True to form, Rod continues to entertain and infuriate by turns .  Actually, if I'm honest, he never does manage to infuriate me, but regular headlines, including one  today , demonstrate that he does successfully irritate a large number of people.  The thing is, unlike the likes of Katy Hopkins, I suspect that being vexatious isn't Rod's entire raison d'etre.  Instead he primarily wants to say it as it is even when what it is he has to say completely unsayable in this day and age.  You have to respect that, even on the few occasions when you suspect that he might also be wrong.   And of course on the entertainment front, he is quite often very funny, turning out perfectly pitched, humorous ridicule annoyingly easily, which is always admirable. The stand out unsayable, the elephant that has occupied my particular room ever since I floundered around for most of my youth as my mother worked her socks off as a doctor, was the...