I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

Oscar Wilde

"Leave a hole 'cos you never know when you might
want one...useful things holes"

Unlike albums, books often don't lend themselves
to repeats. Here are a few thrillers I grew up
with and which have been read at least
twice - or earmarked for such:

John Le Carre - The Smiley/Karla trilogy
(Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; Smiley's People. Sir Alec Guinness was a splendid George Smiley, but why was the second novel not adapted for TV?)
Wilkie Collins - The Woman In White
(Victorian classic. Recommended by my dad - he was rarely wrong.)
Frederick Forsyth - The Day Of The Jackal
(tough one, just beating out The Devil's Alternative. Jackal gets the vote as I recall being surprised at how gripping the story was, though we obviously knew the sniper wasn't going to nail De Gaulle, didn't we?)
Bram Stoker - Dracula
(More than just a Hammer horror. Much more. A terrific thriller.)
Allen Drury - Advise And Consent
(first novel by the American writer. Another dad recommendation. Terrific yarn about intrigue at The White House. Better than Primary Colors)
Len Deighton - Game, Set and Match
(another great spy trilogy, and, like Smiley, well televised)
Leon Uris - Trinity
(One of those simply unputdownable books. Fond memories, too. I traded with an American student on a ferry from Cyprus to Greece. He gave me the doorstopper of a book and I coughed up 28 drachmas for two nights on the roof of an Athens hotel. Do they still let out roof space in Athens?)

 

 

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