As summer sadly sails off in to the sunset, here’s what I’ve been reading.
Lynda La Plante – Above Suspicion
La Plante has a formidable reputation for the Prime Suspect series, and the 99p e-book deal on Above Suspicion, the first of the ‘Anna Travis’ detective series, was hard to turn down.
The evidence-gathering plotline had just about enough suspense to keep me hooked, but the killer’s confession as a finale felt rushed. Otherwise, his character was well-written, with a hint of Dorian Gray.
Protagonist detective Anna Travis felt disappointingly shallow as a character, in a near-constant state of unprofessional swooning over the suspect and her boss, whose character was also unfortunately a tired trope of a DCI.
I’m hoping these are merely teething issues, being the first of the series, and the characters do develop and feel more authentic and less like off-the-shelf stereotypes. In my copy, there were also odd Americanisms scattered throughout, which were slightly distracting.
Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell – Johnson at 10
Well, where to begin? In some ways, the lack of fitness to be Prime Minister is eye-opening. Yet also, sadly entirely unsurprising.
As with their other biographies, Seldon and Newell have unrivalled access to expose the extent to which Johnson was entirely unsuited to the job. It opens with the oft-quoted remarks from his headmaster (read out by former Tory leadership rival Rory Stewart at the fabulous ‘Letters Live’, below) and runs through his time as disgraced journalist, disgraced mayor, disgraced foreign secretary, and disgraced Prime Minister.
There will no doubt be a whole other biography to follow and judgements to be made once further revelations follow at the Covid Inquiry. A common thread throughout Seldon & Newell’s assessment of Johnson is that he simply wanted to please whoever he was talking to, and would dig himself – and therefore the country – in to a deeper hole with late reversals.
The one critique I have of their conclusions is that they, perhaps seeking to add some (false) balance to the general negativity, are quick to heap praise on Johnson for what I, and I hope most voters, think is the bare minimum. He is praised heavily for the occasional meeting where he actually bothers grasping the detail and asking the right questions, and for his support of Ukraine. In fairness, it is also pointed out that those meetings were the exception rather than the rule, and visits to Ukraine were often to provide a convenient distraction from chaotic domestic affairs.
An infuriating but important read.
George Pointon – Teacher Man
Mr Pointon went viral on Twitter (back when it was still called that, and not completely ruined) for sharing and reviewing jokes told to him by his Year 1 class (5-6 year olds).
I asked my Year 1 classes to tell me a joke;
— George Pointon (@GeorgePointon_) March 16, 2021
Here is my analysis.
A THREAD
I remember seeing and loving these tweets at the time, and his book is more or less an extension of this fun – talking about his route in to teaching, the importance of teaching assistants, the joy of supporting young people, and even some embarrassing TV work.
A quick read with plenty of humour mixed in to the serious stuff – I certainly hope he has time for another book between lessons!
