The Virtual Pub
Come Inside... => The Library => Topic started by: Snoopy on December 26, 2007, 10:38:01 AM
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Have just finished "An Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennett ~ very funny and well worth the read.
Now moved onto "Diaries and Letters of Harold Nicholson" ~ interesting if you like 20th Century History
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I have never read Tom Dryburgh's Diaries. Supposed to be excellent. One for the book token, I think
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I have never read Tom Dryburgh's Diaries. Supposed to be excellent. One for the book token, I think
Neither have I ~ and I love diaries. May join you in the queue with token in hand.
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Out of print cry:
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Bugger!
Famously and outrageously queer but also married rubschin: Would make interesting reading methinks ~ I'll have to try the library.
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I spelt it wrong! redface:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ruling-Passions-Autobiography-Tom-Driberg/dp/0224014021/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198759720&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ruling-Passions-Autobiography-Tom-Driberg/dp/0224014021/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198759720&sr=8-1)There are many fabulous stories surrounding Tom Driberg. It’s no surprise given that this Lancing old boy managed to distinguish himself in so many fields: journalism, leftwing politics and cottaging.
By far the best story (and one which may even be true) has him fellating Labour party icon Nye Bevan after a bibulous lunch, Bevan responding with the immortal cry : “tell me a story Tom, tell me a story”. The Labour Party’s traditional leftists appear in a whole new light after this.
Like any true minor public school man, Driberg managed to balance a fizzing mass of contradictions with the constant threat of scandal throughout his life. He worked for the Daily Express as a gossip columnist whilst a member of the Communist party. He later became a left wing Labour MP who owned a mansion and was disgusted by the vulgarity of many of his party comrades. And, throughout his career, he defied conventional morality (and the more puritanical elements in his own party) through his prodigious appetite for casual gay sex.
It seems unlikely that his Essex constituents would have approved of his behaviour had they known, so (like some contemporary closeted politicos) he took the precaution of getting married. Otherwise he remained gloriously indiscreet throughout his life.
Although Driberg avoided any public scandal during his lifetime, it appears that the Kremlin was able to blackmail him into becoming a KGB agent – codename Lepage – after one blowjob too many in Moscow. He probably didn’t give them much useful information. He never achieved any real power and apart from a self-aggrandising year as chairman of the Labour party was kept largely in the background.
His autobiography, Ruling Passions, gives a racy account of his sexual behaviour but, alas, he died before he could finish the work and there are still many unanswered questions about this extraordinary man. To be honest, few people really care whether or not he was a Russian spy. What we want to know is: did he really try to seduce both Jim Callaghan and Mick Jagger?
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Ordered!
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Winston Churchill said of him, "Tom Driberg is the sort of person who gives sodomy a bad name."[
eeek:
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I can't wait to read it.
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I am off to Borders in the morning with my book tokens clutched in my hot little hand!
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Will they have it? Amazon could only do it second hand from a "dealer" @ £2.49 + p&p of course.
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I hope so, if not there is Francis Wheen's biog or many other books to tremblingly handle
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I hope so, if not there is Francis Wheen's biog or many other books to tremblingly handle
When I tried a search for it at Borders on-line I got shot over to Amazon double quick eeek:
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Ahem...
http://www.alibris.com/
whistle:
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Ahem...
http://www.alibris.com/
whistle:
And the advantage of that over the one ordered from Amazon?
Given that I have a one click account with Amazon and that Borders have several branches well under an hour's drive from either Nick or me where we can browse among real books, handle real books and read bits of real books before spending our tokens.
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Ahem...
http://www.alibris.com/
whistle:
And the advantage of that over the one ordered from Amazon?
Given that I have a one click account with Amazon and that Borders have several branches well under an hour's drive from either Nick or me where we can browse among real books, handle real books and read bits of real books before spending our tokens.
Oi! Don’t get all shirty… ‘tis just a good place to find second-hand books and I’ve bought a number there that were not available on Amazon. Banghead
Apology accepted. whistle:
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Ahem...
http://www.alibris.com/
whistle:
And the advantage of that over the one ordered from Amazon?
Given that I have a one click account with Amazon and that Borders have several branches well under an hour's drive from either Nick or me where we can browse among real books, handle real books and read bits of real books before spending our tokens.
Oi! Don’t get all shirty… ‘tis just a good place to find second-hand books and I’ve bought a number there that were not available on Amazon. Banghead
Apology accepted. whistle:
Sorry wasn't being shirty ... Beagles don't wear shirts ~ not like those softy Yorkshire Terriers
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I can recommend Anthony Burgess's Little Wilson and Big God. A cracking read!!
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Decided that Harold Nicholson could be the bedside book so have been reading "The Life and Adventures of William Cobbett" by Richard Ingrams. Very good indeed but again only to lovers of British history, politics and biographies.
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I went in here when we arrived in Cromford this morning.
http://www.scarthinserver.co.uk/
Nick/Snoops you would love it. Like the Tardis. Rack after rack of books in a convoluted maze of tiny aisles. I actually lost Mrs TG for a few minutes in a space not much larger than a big front room.
I'm going back tomorrow.
cloud9:
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I went in here when we arrived in Cromford this morning.
http://www.scarthinserver.co.uk/
Nick/Snoops you would love it. Like the Tardis. Rack after rack of books in a convoluted maze of tiny aisles. I actually lost Mrs TG for a few minutes in a space not much larger than a big front room.
I'm going back tomorrow.
cloud9:
To find her? lol:
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Hey! That looks good ~ and not too far from here ~ thanks!
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I went in here when we arrived in Cromford this morning.
http://www.scarthinserver.co.uk/
Nick/Snoops you would love it. Like the Tardis. Rack after rack of books in a convoluted maze of tiny aisles. I actually lost Mrs TG for a few minutes in a space not much larger than a big front room.
I'm going back tomorrow.
cloud9:
To find her? lol:
drumroll:
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I went in here when we arrived in Cromford this morning.
http://www.scarthinserver.co.uk/
Nick/Snoops you would love it. Like the Tardis. Rack after rack of books in a convoluted maze of tiny aisles. I actually lost Mrs TG for a few minutes in a space not much larger than a big front room.
I'm going back tomorrow.
cloud9:
And don't forget the sale at Brocklehurst's of Bakewell. Have a tart for me while you are there n'all
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Hey! That looks good ~ and not too far from here ~ thanks!
I went back today, but it was closed until midday. However, outside the door is a couple of bookshelves with perhaps 100 second hand books accompanied by a notice saying basically "take what you want and put money through letter box" eeek:
I don't know about you lot but where I come from that would have lasted about 5 minutes before the books would have been scattered and the shelves unscrewed from the wall and gone.
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Hey! That looks good ~ and not too far from here ~ thanks!
I went back today, but it was closed until midday. However, outside the door is a couple of bookshelves with perhaps 100 second hand books accompanied by a notice saying basically "take what you want and put money through letter box" eeek:
I don't know about you lot but where I come from that would have lasted about 5 minutes before the books would have been scattered and the shelves unscrewed from the wall and gone.
So what have you done with the shelves? whistle:
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Firewood, thereabouts noooo:
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Have any of you ever been to Hay on Wye? I can thoroughly recomend that all book lovers visit. Amazing place.
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Yes. Far too many bookshops evil:
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It was rather an overabundance of choice. There were a couple of good tat shops and an extrememly good fudge emporium though.
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Have any of you ever been to Hay on Wye?
Haven't mastered the Sat Nav yet then?
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It was rather an overabundance of choice. There were a couple of good tat shops and an extrememly good fudge emporium though.
[snigger] Imagine working there... redface:
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It was rather an overabundance of choice. There were a couple of good tat shops and an extrememly good fudge emporium though.
[snigger] Imagine working there... redface:
In "goods out" perchance?
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It was rather an overabundance of choice. There were a couple of good tat shops and an extrememly good fudge emporium though.
[snigger] Imagine working there... redface:
In "goods out" perchance?
Indeed...
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Have any of you ever been to Hay on Wye? I can thoroughly recomend that all book lovers visit. Amazing place.
sad24: I was banned after my last visit, apparently it is bad form to bring home more books than the local library could hold. angry041: I didn't, he exaggerated as normal, I have told him a million times not to, but does he take any notice.
Sister wench would like some of the books I found up there, quite rare and difficult to source. I love Hay on Wye or as the locals call it in the summer Way on Hi! cloud9:
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"Diaries and Letters of Harold Nicholson" very good with many behind the scenes peep at key events of the first half of the 1900's.
Moving onto "Portrait of a Marriage" written by his eldest son Nigel. Fascinating insight into how life was for the priviledged, answering the whys and wherefores of Nicholson and, of course, Vita Sackville West (His wife). Some good pictures of Sissinghurst Castle too.
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Postie has just delivered Tom Diberg's book. Wife has gone to visit her mother on the East Coast, won't be back until tomorrow evening. The Boys are watching a stack of DVDs they got for Christmas and the Teenage Hormone Heap is in her bedroom, laptop over heating, as she tries to do three weeks worth of homework before Tuesday.
I think I shall light a fire in the sitting room, order a pizza for their lunch and settle down for a read. cloud9:
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Let me know what you think. I haven't bought it yet. Bought Charles Nicholl's The Lodger, instead
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lodger-Shakespeare-Silver-Street/dp/0713998903/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199449724&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lodger-Shakespeare-Silver-Street/dp/0713998903/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199449724&sr=1-1)
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They did that one on the Beeb (Radio Four) either as the "Book at Bedtime" or the "Woman's Hour serial" a couple of weeks before Christmas. Enjoyable and intriguing I thought at the time but then forgot it until now.
The Tom Driberg is very mush a used book but for £2.49 what can one expect. It has come from a "library sale" (Kirkleess to be exact) at some time in its history.
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I read it in one sitting. Fascinating!!