He's really good in The Sea Wolf - and so, so evil.

"Blog" of "interest" to "persons" fascinated by "overuse" of "quote marks."

Curses! Blocked again!

Ok, who's read too much crime lately? Me. Cause I leapfrogged right to "Persons of interest" and was, like, "Huh. What'd he do?" Tunnel vision much?

Buffistas!

Uncle by J.P. Martin is now back in print.

It's one of Neil Gaiman's favorite children's books.

They go for upward of 100 pounds in the UK.

Recommended.

Read more here.

The wonderland of Martin's books is reminiscent of Carroll's, but far more modern and seedy, with lumps of industrial archaeology lying about the landscape. Its central character Uncle is a vastly rich elephant who affects purple dressing-gowns and lives in an improbable edifice called Homeward -- half Gormenghast and half Disneyland. Scenic railways abound; there are museums with entire floors devoted to flamingo bird-baths or treacle bowls through the ages. Most of Homeward's inhabitants are alarmingly eccentric, and would pass unnoticed in the Goon Show. An epic pitch of fear is reached during an overnight stay in the Haunted Tower, where "The White Terror" proves to be a small ghost about a foot high, which stands disagreeably on the bedside table muttering, "I did it! I took the strawberry jam!"

But facing the hundred-towered glory of Homeward is the dark side of the farce: the filthy stronghold Badfort, ruled by Uncle's arch-enemy Beaver Hateman. The Badfort crowd spend their days lounging around dressed in unclean sacking, swilling Black Tom and Leper Gin, writing down bad thoughts in their Hating Books, and hatching terrible schemes to entrap Uncle. They revel in evil. They are the sort of wretches who would say snide things about The X-Files.

Hil asked for spy novels?

I can't recommend Alan Furst highly enough: he writes dense, smart novels set in and around WWII. Usually they involved complicated political situations and uncertain loyalties. He knows his Soviet history really well, so there's often stuff where the Communists are simultaneously fighting the Nazis (or the Franco-ists in Spain) while at the same time positioning themselves for post-war power. Possibly my favorite is Dark Voyage, which is about a Dutch shipmaster who gets strongarmed into working for British intelligence during the war.

The down side of Furst is that the women are usually kind of 2-D and weirdly othered to the men. Even when they have agency, they're pretty opaque and incomprehensible, and almost always operate as sexual objects. That said, he's still really really good.

Spy Novels? THE RUSSIA HOUSE. Love it love it love it (and the movie, though it takes a slightly different angle). It's also a great romance novel (and moreso in the movie), IMO.

If you have never read Eric Ambler you might consider him - at least the stuff before 1970. A Coffin for Dimitrios, Cause for Alarm

Also for one of the all time great anti-heroes, though it is in the caper genre rather than spy - "The Light of Day".

Anyone ever read anything by Allan Mallinson? I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to get my historical war story fix once I run out of Sharpes (I've been rationing myself to one a month and will finish the series in December), and I happened across his name while looking at my LibraryThing recommendations.

Incidentally, I'd be glad for any other recommendations in the Age of Sail/Flintlock vein. Of the ones I've read so far, here's my scorecard:

O'Brian-Aubrey/Maturin - LOVE
Cornwell - Sharpe - Love, and have read the Starbucks and plan to get around to his other historical series (what's the plural of series--serieses?) in due course
Forrester - Hornblower - Meh. Boring. Didn't like Hornblower.
MacDonald - Flashman - I can see how they're brilliant, but they're not my thing.

And, in newer/more obscure series....

Campbell - Matty Graves - Love
Humphreys - Jack Absolute - Good swashbuckling fun

The best job ever [link]