Windsor Books

This memoir of a young English man who volunteers to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War describes in detail much of the squalor of that war. He departs from France and crosses into the Republican areas of Spain illegally with no preparation and no plan. He just walks across the border with a violin in his backpack and his actual passport. Once he arrives, the Republican forces assume that he is a spy, as his passport stamps prove that he was in Spanish Morocco shortly before the insurrection began.
He barely escapes from being shot and he becomes one more motley man in a motley crew of international volunteers. They have come from England, Belgium, Sweden, Russia and France, thinking that the Republican cause was a great crusade against fascism. However, disillusionment sets in very quickly as his adventure can be summed up with the phrase, `cold, ragged, dirty and hungry."
Lee captures the despair and pathetic destruction of the Spanish countryside during the war. The war has transformed the Spanish people into a ragged bad, on the brink of starvation and subject to death from artillery or aerial bombardment at any time. Eventually, he is put into battle and kills at least one member of the Franco forces. It gives him no joy and it is clear to all that he is such a poor soldier that not even the Republican forces, so desperate for fighting men, has a use for him. In a conclusion typical of this man's try for glory, he is arrested when he tries to go back to France, only to be rescued from prison by another British man.
The Republican forces in the Spanish Civil war accepted many idealistic young men and turned them into cynical men struggling to survive or a pile of rotting flesh. Lee captures many aspects of the conflict and unlike other authors such as Hemingway, who portrayed it as a great cause, describes it as a simple destroyer of men.

My word, the elderly gentleman who wrote Paddington Bear, the excellent children's series, wrote this? Monsieur Pamplemousse will soon become your favorite sleuth, and you will have a secret desire to buy a bloodhound. Decidedly grown up humor, beautifully written, a great mystery, and a laugh-out-loud story. Trust me, after you read this book, you will want the whole series. Go for it. Start with Monsieur Pamplemousse (1983.) Amazon carries them all!

A great book-Scary, clever and clever!

...Vera and Irene are matronly English women of a certain age who get up to all sorts of picaresque adventures aided and abetted by a cast of dysfunctional offspring, psychics, thieves, ageing lotharios and authority figures. They communicate entirely by letter and these were originally read (rather brilliantly) on UK radio by Prunella Scales and Patricia Routledge. They work very well on the page too and you can really appreciate the superb writing. I think this book would appeal to anyone who likes the sort of observational comedy of UK writers such Alan Bennett or Victoria Wood.

I found this book to be absolutely wonderful because the suggestions are things that anyone can apply for pennies. I recommend this to anyone and it is things that will not become outdated. Just common sense decorating for any age.

Four babies are missing in the town of Mitford, New South Wales. The babies were all male, all healthy, under 3 months old, and apparently all neglected or unwanted. The local police have given up. Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte is called in after a fifth baby goes missing, and this time, the mother is killed. Of all the cases he's worked, this one has him entering a foreign world of infants. He calls in an assistant on this one, Police Constable Alice McGorr for a little female insight.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a treat to see Bony working with a partner. But the domestic side is never allowed to overshadow the mystery. It's not at all warm and fuzzy, just a pleasant change and setting for this book. Highly recommended and worth searching for.

CMB

The twenty memebers on the Bird Watchers Society's African safari looked forward to seeing rare and exotic bird life. They didn't expect to become sitting ducks themselves. An aging and hated company president drinks liqueur laced with cyanide, His arrogant son is found trampled among the hippos. His daughter-in-law is strangled in her designer clothes. A bookkeeper dines - as the main course - with hungry crocodiles. What mania for murder lies behind the innocent eyes of a bird watcher? Assigned to cover the safari, New York reporter James Addison knows he's got one killer of a story. He hopes he lives long enough to write it.

This is a very well written book, updated with new information. Details the trails of the greek royal family since the start of the 20th century

I could not put this book down - I loved it. This is a story that is sordid but delicious and true. A MUST for anyone who likes to read about the royals and English aristocracy.

Originally written in 1930. A murder takes place in a hunting lodge. Five years later the daughter of the murder victim invites all who were there back to the hunting lodge. Unknown to the guests she invites a private detective to figure out who did the murder. Then a snow storm hits and they are all trapped inside the lodge for three days. As the detective is questioning everyone a guest dies while he is alone in his room. A mysterious note, poison missing from the pantry, a radio that will not work. This book was very well written. If you enjoy Agatha Christie mysteries you will also enjoy this mystery.