"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".
Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"
So here is version 2 of the Top 10.. still a work in progress... no rankings yet, as I'd like to get the list of entries first.. and having said that I'm not sure I even will rank them - the beauty of a book is that it's effect on you can change with the times and moods, and so it's ranking can also change... maybe a list will do... it's also hugely difficult to even stick to just 10, never mind having to rank them! 😏
- 'Pied Piper' - Nevil Shute - so many Nevil Shute books could go in the list but if I had to chose just one this would be it (next would be 'Trustee from the Toolroom')
- 'Winter in Madrid' - CJ Sansom - another author with so many good books - he is the author who wrote the Shardlake series - but I am choosing one, and this one is set in Madrid at the end of the Civil War and when we were all holding our breath to find out whether Franco would come in to the war.. if not this, then 'Dominion'
- 'Day of the Jackal' - Forsyth - for all the reasons previously mentioned but mostly because this was a genre defining book
- 'Captain Correlli's Mandolin' - Louis de Bernières - an absolute tour de force that I kick myself repeatedly for not having read sooner, and will read again soon (in fact as of writing I've just finished it 😀)..
- 'Lord of the Rings' - Tolkien of course - not fair you shout, as there are three books, so if I had to choose one it would be for the first one 'The Fellowship of the Ring'
- Jack Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian.. 21 books in all but if I had to pick one it would be 'The Reverse Of The Medal'.. the "off hats!" passage causes the eyes to go blurry every bloody time... utter genius..
NB. To set the scene Aubrey has been arrested and sentenced to the pillory on politically motivated charges of financial exploitation of the Stock Market (he's too trusting by half when on land! 😏)
“Jack was led out of the dark room into the strong light, and as they guided him up the steps he could see nothing for the glare. 'Your head here sir, if you please,' said the sheriff's man in a low, nervous, conciliating voice, 'and your hands just here.'
The man was slowly fumbling with the bolt, hinge and staple, and as Jack stood there with his hands in the lower half-rounds, his sight cleared: he saw that the broad street was filled with silent, attentive men, some in long togs, some in shore-going rig, some in plain frocks, but all perfectly recognizable as seamen. And officers, by the dozen, by the score: midshipmen and officers. Babbington was there, immediately in front of the pillory, facing him with his hat off, and Pullings, Stephen of course, Mowett, Dundas . . .
He nodded to them, with almost no change in his iron expression, and his eye moved on: Parker, Rowan, Williamson, Hervey . . . and men from long, long ago, men he could scarcely name, lieutenants and commanders putting their promotion at risk, midshipmen and master's mates their commissions, warrant-officers their advancement.
'The head a trifle forward, if you please, sir,' murmured the sheriff's man, and the upper half of the wooden frame came down, imprisoning his defenceless face. He heard the click of the bolt and then in the dead silence a strong voice cry 'Off hats'. With one movement hundreds of broad-brimmed tarpaulin-covered hats flew off and the cheering began, the fierce full-throated cheering he had so often heard in battle.”
- 'Secret Water' - Arthur Ransome - part of his 'Swallows and Amazons' series (from which I could probably have chosen any book), but I think on balance this is the one I liked the most, and from a series which for me kick-started a life long love of sailing..
- 'Wolf Hall' - Hilary Mantel - part of the fictional trilogy on Thomas Cromwell - what a stunning imagination she had... a close run thing with 'The Mirror and the Light' which I may still nominate instead..
- 'An Officer and a Spy' - Robert Harris - another master storyteller - a host of good books to his name but this one (and perhaps the latest one about Asquith) is his tour de force.. in my opinion anyway 😏
- 'Mohawk Valley' - Ronald Welch - as a young teen with an insatiable interest in all things military history and wargaming, Welch was my go-to writer - I could have nominated any one of a half dozen of his other books ('Knight Crusader' and 'Sun of York' in particular) but this one I waited over 40 years to get a copy of, and that says it all!
- 'Dark Materials'/'Book of Dust' series by Phillip Pullman - my goodness WHAT an imagination.. five books so far, waiting on the third in the 'Book of Dust' series as we speak but if I have to choose one though, for me it would either by the 'Amber Spyglass' or 'The Secret Commonwealth' - the skill and ability to conjure up an entirely believable, and entirely separate, reality, and then weave in a story with many characters is a rare, rare skill...
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“Those whom the gods love, die young.” (Menander)
“Man is a dream of a shadow.” (Pindar)
“Even the gods cannot change the past.” (Agathon - possibly Homer)
“Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.” (Homer, The Iliad)
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Laters, as the young people are want to say...
