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Group Read -> April 2018 -> Nomination thread (A book set in, or about, the 1960s, won by The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré)
There are a few fans of spy novels in the group, many of which date from the '60s. We could try reading about James Bond, but I would prefer to nominate The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré.The 'Cold War' has been going on for several years, with both sides involved in espionage and counter-espionage. It is not shown as either glamorous or clean, but that is probably what is was like at the time.
Mod
Well, think Sixties London and scandal and the Profumo Affair comes to mind. THE scandal of Sixties Britain. So, I will nominate:
An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo
WINNER OF THE POLITICAL BOOK AWARDS POLITICAL HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014.
Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Profumo scandal, An English Affair is a sharp-focused snapshot of a nation on the brink of social revolution.
Britain in 1963 – Harold Macmillan was the Prime Minister of a Conservative government, dedicated to tradition, hierarchy and, above all, old-fashioned morality. But a breakdown of social boundaries saw nightclub hostesses mixing with aristocrats, and middle-class professionals dabbling in criminality. Meanwhile, Cold War paranoia gripped the public imagination.
The Profumo Affair was a perfect storm, and when it broke it rocked the Establishment. In ‘An English Affair’, the author of the critically-acclaimed ‘Titainic Lives’ Richard Davenport-Hines brings Swinging London to life. The cast of players includes the familiar – louche doctor Stephen Ward, good-time girls Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, and Secretary for War John Profumo himself. But we also encounter the tabloid hacks, property developers and hangers-on whose roles have, until now, never been fully revealed.
Sex, drugs, class, race, chequebook journalism and the criminal underworld – the Profumo Affair had it all. This is the story of how Sixties England cast off respectability and fell in love with scandal.
Out of interest, Stephen Ward is also on the fringes of our Ruth Ellis read this month.
Mod
I read The Spy Who Came In from the Cold last year and loved it. A masterpiece in my opinion.
An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo is also, as you say, Susan, another suitable sixties subject.
I am struggling so far to identify a nomination. I was considering The Ipcress File by Len Deighton but I'm really not sure. Now we've got The Spy Who Came In from the Cold I am even less sure.
I'd like to identify a good novel that takes place in 1960s London, or perhaps revolutionary Paris, which evokes a really strong sense of place.
'Eureka' by Anthony Quinn takes place primarily in London during the Summer of 1967 and, like the previous two novels, has a superb sense of time and place. It's the last book in Anthony Quinn’s loose 20th century trilogy: (1) ’Curtain Call', (2) 'Freya' and (3) 'Eureka' - but can easily be read as a stand-alone.
'Eureka' is probably my best idea so far but I am actively researching, so it's not a nomination.
Watch this space.
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
Mod
Can we nominate American fiction? I'm thinking the Vietnam war as a defining experience for a generation of young men - not just the effects of combat but the fact that they were drafted (conscripted).
If US fiction is ok, I'll nominate The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. It's a book which blurs the lines between memoir and fiction, and is concerned with issues of memory and trauma, as well as comradeship and courage.
It has received multiple awards such as France’s Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger Award and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, as well as being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. It also appears on many lists as one of the best books on the soldier's experience of Vietnam.
Here's the Penguin blurb:
One of the first questions people ask about The Things They Carried is this: Is it a novel, or a collection of short stories? The title page refers to the book simply as "a work of fiction," defying the conscientious reader's need to categorize this masterpiece. It is both: a collection of interrelated short pieces which ultimately reads with the dramatic force and tension of a novel. Yet each one of the twenty-two short pieces is written with such care, emotional content, and prosaic precision that it could stand on its own.
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and of course, the character Tim O'Brien who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear. They miss their families, their girlfriends and buddies; they miss the lives they left back home. Yet they find sympathy and kindness for strangers (the old man who leads them unscathed through the mine field, the girl who grieves while she dances), and love for each other, because in Vietnam they are the only family they have. We hear the voices of the men and build images upon their dialogue. The way they tell stories about others, we hear them telling stories about themselves.
With the creative verve of the greatest fiction and the intimacy of a searing autobiography, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war. It is also a mirror held up to the frailty of humanity. Ultimately The Things They Carried and its myriad protagonists call to order the courage, determination, and luck we all need to survive.
Let me know if we're not doing America and I'll have a think about a different suggestion.
Paris 1968? The only one I can remember is No Telling by Adam Thorpe, but that might be too obscure - he doesn't get many reviews here...
Mod
Talking of all things American, one of my other thoughts was Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, which I read decades ago, but which is grimly compelling and brilliantly written. Again though, it doesn't feel quite right.
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Certainly is - and they're certainly are
Hugh wrote: "Paris 1968? The only one I can remember is No Telling by Adam Thorpe, but that might be too obscure - he doesn't get many reviews here..."
A new name for me to conjure with - thanks Hugh
One of my favourite books about the 1960s is Days in the Life: Voices from the English Underground, 1961–1971 by Jonathon Green. A wonderful oral history by many of the key players in the London underground, but I am not sure there would be that much to discuss.
Another great book is White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s by Joe Boyd but perhaps too much about the music to the exclusion of other aspects of the decade.
Tricky isn't it?
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
I don't think anyone is biased against American books as such RC, just against some of the BYT niche books about obscure local events which were never published outside the USA and therefor nearly impossible to get hold of. Nobody would call the Vietnam War obscure or local.
Mod
I've read a couple of Adam Thorpes, Nigeyb: I liked Ulverton but never got on with the later books which became increasingly insular and and a bit self-referential.
Mod
I've just been reading more about The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and I must say it sounds superb.
Shades of the amazing Dispatches by Michael Herr, a book I was blown away by when I read it in the 1980s and one I would like to reread one of these fine days.
Perhaps I'll forget trying to find a suitable book as we already have three splendid nominations and I would struggle to choose as it is, without further muddying the selection water.
Mod
As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
It came out in 1973 however is getting reissued by Faber and Faber on 5 April 2018. I can only see a listing for a paperback edition which will sell at £9.99 - that's on Amazon UK. There is no sign, at present, of a Kindle edition.
Anyway, it looks very interesting and eminently suitable, here's more info from the Faber Social blog...
Some extremely exciting news to start 2018.
On 5 April we reissue As Time Goes By, the memoir of The Beatles publicist, Derek Taylor, first published in 1973. It features a new introduction by Jon Savage and new artwork.
‘When, in a generation or so, a radio-active, cigar-smoking child, picnicking on Saturn, asks you what the Beatle affair was all about––“Did you actually know them?”––don’t try to explain all about the long hair and the screams! Just play the child a few tracks from this album and he’ll probably understand what it was all about. The kids of AD2000 will draw from the music much the same sense of well being and warmth as we do today.’
Derek Taylor: sleeve note to Beatles for Sale, 1964
Arguably the first piece of classic literature to emerge from the much- documented lives of The Fab Four, As Time Goes By is a mischievous portrait of life as a PR Svengali at the high point of sixties pop.
One of the first sixties pop-cultural history books to be published, As Time Goes By is primarily about The Beatles and Apple but it also takes in Taylor’s sojourn in radical mid-sixties Los Angeles.
The twenty-six chapters include material about The Beatles’ frenetic summer 1964 World Tour, The Byrds and the Sunset Strip in 1966 and 1967, and the changes that occurred in Apple between its utopian beginnings in 1967 and The Beatles’ break-up in 1970.
With wit, warmth, insider knowledge and a healthy dollop of self-deprecation, Derek Taylor tells the essential story of those extraordinary years: this book is essential for anyone interested in experiencing the flavour of The Beatles and sixties pop and youth culture in a unique, contemporaneous voice.
“An authentic account of the psychedelic 60s and The Beatles from one of the coolest guys in the business.” – Neil Tennant
Derek Taylor was The Beatles’ Press Officer in 1964 and the Apple Press Officer between 1968 and 1970. Between times he represented many acts including The Beach Boys and The Byrds. He continued to work with The Beatles in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly on the Anthology book and film project. He published six books, of which this is the first.
http://fabersocial.co.uk/2018/01/08/t...
11 authors mentioned on this thread so far and all of them are male. Just saying...
Hugh wrote: "11 authors mentioned on this thread so far and all of them are male. Just saying..."There should be a few more female ones when we get to the '70s.
Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman is set in the 1960s. Here's the Penguin blurb:
The Edible Woman is the first published novel by Margaret Atwood. Rich in metaphor, deliciously comic, and glittering with insight, the story chronicles the fantastic and dramatic ego disintegration of Marian McAlprin, who seems at first to be a perfectly conventional young woman, with friends, a successful and attractive man in her life, and a reasonably good job working for a market research company. Everything in her life seems to fly out of control with her engagement, just as Marian seems ready to fulfill "every woman’s" dream of trading in her troublesome job for marriage and a new life at home with children. The manner of her collapse and the startling ending make for often hilarious reading.
This brilliant and witty early work by one of the most admired novelist of our time contains the hallmark themes in the body of work that inspired Vogue magazine to call Atwood "one of the most intelligent and talented writers to set herself the task of deciphering life in the late twentieth century."
Mod
Good point Hugh. I did consciously check through the work of Beryl Bainbridge, Muriel Spark and Doris Lessing for a suitable book, but drew a blank.
At least we've now got Margaret Atwood, to slightly redress the balance.
And, across the whole group, I think we have already celebrated many fine female writers, and I am sure we will continue doing just that going forward.
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
Mod
As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
It came out in 1973 however is getting reissued by Faber and Faber on 5 April 2018. I can only see a listing for a paperback edition which will sell at £9.99 - that's on Amazon UK. There is no sign, at present, of a Kindle edition. I hope between now and April we will get news of a Kindle edition too.
Either way, As Time Goes By seems to be another enticing choice to add to the growing list of splendid nominations, and it also seems likely to provide everything I am hoping for in a book to encapsulate much of what was significant about the 1960s....
Derek Taylor's iconic memoir is a rare opportunity to be immersed in one of the most whirlwind music sensations in history: Beatlemania. As Time Goes By tells the remarkable story of Derek Taylor's trajectory from humble provincial journalist to loved confidant right at the centre of the Beatles' magic circle.
In charming, conversational prose, Derek Taylor shares anecdotes and reminiscences so vivid and immediate that you find yourself plunged into the beating heart of 1960s counterculture.
Whether watching the debut performance of 'Hey Jude' in a country pub or hearing first-hand gossip about a star-studded cast of characters, Derek Taylor's unique narrative voice forges an autobiography like no other.
Reissued here in a brand new edition with a foreword by celebrated writer Jon Savage, this long-admired memoir is a cult classic of the genre awaiting a new readership.
As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
NIGEYB: As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
Mod
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I just finished The Things They Carried last night - I had mixed feelings about it, but a really interesting book.
I would like to nominate The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier. Per Wikipedia:
The House on the Strand has a supernatural element, exploring the ability to mentally travel back in time and experience historical events at first hand - but not to influence them. It has been called a Gothic tale, influenced by writers as diverse as Robert Louis Stevenson, Dante, and the psychologist Carl Jung,[3] in which a sinister potion enables the central character to escape the constraints of his dreary married life by travelling back through time.[4] The narrator agrees to test a drug that transports him back to 14th century Cornwall and becomes absorbed in the lives of people he meets there, to the extent that the two worlds he is living in start to merge.
It is set in and around Kilmarth, where Daphne du Maurier lived from 1967, near the village of Tywardreath, which in Cornish means "House on the Strand".
It also gives a good picture of the pernicious effects of addiction. Really good novel!
Mod
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
NIGEYB: As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
LYNAIA: The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
Joanna wrote: "I just finished The Things They Carried last night - I had mixed feelings about it, but a really interesting book."
I just found your review - thanks for posting it
Roman Clodia wrote: "Paris 1968 would be great, Nigeyb, but I can't think of a good book that 'does' it. Maybe you'll find something.Can we nominate American fiction? I'm thinking the Vietnam war as a defining experi..."
"The Things They Carried" is very good. I would second that.
Mod
I am very keen to read more Daphne du Maurier. I didn't realise that The House on the Strand was rooted in the 1960s. Splendid.
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
NIGEYB: As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
LYNAIA: The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
Mod
Mod
The House on the Strand just squeaks in. Published in 1969.Also, Twiggy definitely is a 1960s icon here in the states as well. And I agree, that's a great picture of her.
I also considered The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks but it seemed less available.
Mod
That's a wonderful book.
I hadn't realised that Twiggy's fame extended to the US too. She was probably one of the first global supermodels.
I just checked the library catalogue for An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo and realised how much the figure on the cover looks like John Cleese about to break into a silly walk.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wippo...
Twiggy was well known here. And she was in the movie The Blues Brothers.And he does resemble John Cleese about to do the silly walk.
Mod
Mod
Every month we will discuss a book on a specific era or a theme. This book will be the winner of a group poll. Our fourth theme is the 1960s and we will be reading and discussing the winning book in April 2018
If you feel inspired, please nominate a book set in, or about, the 1960s that you would like to read and discuss. It can be either fiction or non-fiction.
Please supply the title, author, a brief synopsis, and anything else you'd like to mention about the book, and why you think it might make a good book to discuss.
If your nomination wins then please be willing to fully participate in the subsequent discussion.
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
NIGEYB: As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
LYNAIA: The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
Mod
Published in 1965, this is set in Swinging London and was made into a famous film, as well as inspiring the Seekers' song. I read it as a teenager and would like to revisit, as I have enjoyed later books by Margaret Forster.
The start of the Amazon/Goodreads blurb:
Georgy is young, gregarious and fun - she is also large, self-confessedly ugly and desperate for love. Georgy bears her fate bravely as she alternates between playing the fool and humbling herself before Meredith, her pretty, callous flatmate, although when James, middle-aged socialite and self-imposed 'Uncle', asks Georgy to become his mistress, she is tempted to accept...
Mod
Hey there Georgy Girl, There's another Georgy deep inside, Bring out all the love you hide, and oh what a change there'd be, the world would see a new Georgy Girl
I'd be very interested in reading the book having only ever seen the film - which always strikes me as somewhat bizarre
Nominations so far...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
NIGEYB: As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
LYNAIA: The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
JUDY: Georgy Girl by Margaret Forster
Mod
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https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
Here are the nominations for a book set in, or about, the 1960s...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
NIGEYB: As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
LYNAIA: The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
JUDY: Georgy Girl by Margaret Forster
Mod
Mod
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold 4 votes, 23.5%
An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo 4 votes, 23.5%
Georgy Girl 3 votes, 17.6%
The House on the Strand 2 votes, 11.8%
As Time Goes By 2 votes, 11.8%
The Things They Carried 1 vote, 5.9%
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
The nominations for a book set in, or about, the 1960s...
VAL: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
SUSAN: An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo by Richard Davenport-Hines
ROMAN CLODIA: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
STORYHEART: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
NIGEYB: As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor
LYNAIA: The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier
JUDY: Georgy Girl by Margaret Forster
Mod
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold 5 votes, 27.8%
An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo 4 votes, 22.2%
Georgy Girl 3 votes, 16.7%
#breakingnews
#pollwatch
Mod
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold 5 votes, 25.0%
An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo 4 votes, 20.0%
Georgy Girl 4 votes, 20.0%
The House on the Strand 3 votes, 15.0%
As Time Goes By 2 votes, 10.0%
The Things They Carried 1 vote, 5.0%
The Edible Woman 1 vote, 5.0%
#pollwatch
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Thanks to everyone who nominated, voted and got involved
The associated Mod-Led read for our theme of the 1960’s will be:
The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover by Sybille Bedford
This short book, of less than one hundred pages, tells the story of one of the most famous trials of the 20th century. When Penguin released a new, unexpurgated edition of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960, they were charged with the crime of publishing obscene material and made to defend the book’s literary merit in court.
Sybille Bedford presents us with a play-by-play of the trial: from the prosecution’s questioning of the novel’s thirteen ‘unvarying’ sex scenes and 66 swear words, to the dozens of witnesses who testified – including the Bishop of Woolwich and E. M. Forster. Bedford gives us a timeless and dramatic account that captures one of the most fascinating and absurd moments in both legal and publishing history, when attitudes and morals shifted forever.
Thanks again - I am really looking forward to these discussions
I voted for this because I was distressed at not having read any le Carré! Also, I am reading Len Deighton's The Ipcress File at the moment, and the comparison should be illuminating.
Mod
Mod
And very interested in the Lady Chatterley trial, as well - I'll try to get hold of the Bedford but, if not, there's another book in the library which might include the trial transcripts.
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
Les Années d'utopie (other topics)Les Années d'utopie (other topics)
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (other topics)
A Murder of Quality (other topics)
Call for the Dead (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jean-Claude Carrière (other topics)Jean-Claude Carrière (other topics)
John Le Carré (other topics)
John Le Carré (other topics)
Sybille Bedford (other topics)
More...
1st of the month - request nominations
6th of the month - publish poll
12th of the month - announce winner
Our fourth theme is the 1960s and we will be reading and discussing the winning book in April 2018
If you feel inspired, please nominate a book set in, or about, the 1960s that you would like to read and discuss.
It can be either fiction or non-fiction.
Please supply the title, author, a brief synopsis, and anything else you'd like to mention about the book, and why you think it might make a good book to discuss.
If your nomination wins then please be willing to fully participate in the subsequent discussion.
Happy nominating.