“Mens sana in corpore sano is a contradiction in terms”, wrote A. J. Liebling (1904-63), “the fantasy of a Mr Have-your-cake-and-eat-it”. (Liebling, the reader soon learns, always chose to eat it rather than have it). “No sane man can afford to dispense with debilitating pleasures; no ascetic can be considered reliably sane.” This is the…

Bookstalling

26.03.2024

Anthony Horowitz – The Blurred Man | Bookstalling

Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series landed among the late millennials like a drop pod of Space Marines, which we were all collecting. They were, to quote Blackadder, full of capture, torture, escape, and back home in time for tea and medals. Even the cool kids at my school, the casual, uncommitted bullies, were reading Stormbreaker,…

Bookstalling

27.07.2024

Charles Sprawson – Haunts of the Black Masseur | Bookstalling

Tastes may change, but surely some things are eternal? Apparently not. Take Love, our one common bond, our human birthright (right?). A medieval fabrication, thought C. S. Lewis: no one falls in love in the Aeneid. Charles Sprawson’s Haunts of the Black Masseur does not talk about Love, but it does talk about swimming –…

Bookstalling

20.08.2024

Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep | Bookstalling

From one point of view, reviewing The Big Sleep is a bit like reviewing a Raphael Madonna, albeit with fewer virgins. Nevertheless, even the most hallowed cases can be reappraised, especially when they are so frequently and shamelessly revisited. Evaluating one author’s mistimed jump on the Chandlerwagon, Martin Amis wrote: “it is no great surprise…

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Books & Literature

A. J. Liebling – Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris | Bookstalling

Anthony Horowitz – The Blurred Man | Bookstalling

Charles Sprawson – Haunts of the Black Masseur | Bookstalling

Raymond Chandler – The Big Sleep | Bookstalling

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