What are you doing?

Yep, absolute classic. Catch 22 always reminds me of a British war pilot called Eric Brown, who later became a famous test pilot for fighter Jets. He was a classic mix of that steely stiff upper lip, mixed with complete insanity given the situations he found himself in. He flew for many years in the Navy and I remember him recalling a story about taking off from the flight deck of his carrier, going off on his bombing mission and then couldn't find his ship again. There was no radio contact between planes and ships as that would give away their position to the enemy.

He flew around until he was almost preparing to ditch and then spotted it on the horizon. When he got to the ship it had been torpedoed and was listing badly. The account he recalls of trying to land his plane on a deck listing at 45 deg with no fuel left in his tank is incredible. Many pilots were lost at sea simply because they never found their way back to the carriers that they left. Crazy times.

 

It's a brilliant book. Bought it for holiday and read it when ever the kids stopped mothering me.

The Cartel looks an epic, won't have as much time to spare in reading that one as I'm no longer on bloody holiday!

 

You might like Cormack McCarthy?

The Road is a good read. We'll, good is probably the wrong word. Grim probably better.

I only ever read the Naked Lunch of Burroughs and that was enough!

 

Part of my degree was American Literature. Pretty cool subject to study!

 

Reading The Orchard Keeper by McCarthy at the moment, I've read most of his stuff.

 

Yeah, I'm a massive fan of Fante, Bukowski, Brautigan and others not such a fan of Kerouac, thought On the Road was dull as hell.

 

I'm currently half way through The Best of Readers Wives Volume 98

 

Literature? Really?

Still, that's better than what I thought. I had you down as a cert for a sociology degree.

 

Is that the hard back version?

 

Does Any of the big fat lumps live around the M3 corridor?

 

Straight A subject HIAG. They only took the best of the best

Top grades required.

@Watford_R will understand.

 

I think you're being spiteful Stan, are you trying to make him feel more inadequate than he really is?

 

I'm a Cambridge man, as you know.

What was yours, Lightning? Open University?

 

Manchester Poly?

 

Nice place to grow up Cambridge. Where did you go to Uni?

I went to Oxford, then Harvard, then Yale, then Goldman Sachs, then Slaughter & May before retiring at the age of 34 to count my billions.

 

By the way, difficult to believe you have a degree at all given your wife drives a £750 car...

 

Owned

 

****ing Heathen !

 

It cost more than that, as you well know. It was her choice, as a tide-me-over, until we can find something a bit better (not that it isn't a great little car - very nippy, and extremely economical).

She now has her eye on a three year old Scenic Halhambra.

 

I studied Black american women's literature, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Frances Harper etc but that's got me into Beat writing to be honest.

I met Ken Kesey, back in 1999 when he was touring with his band of merry pranksters in Cornwall. They were doing a re-enactment of the trip across the US in their bus Further at the Minack theatre. The bus was there (not sure if it was the original), I got to write some graffiti on it and hang out with Kesey and his gang. Big party on the beach in the evening, some nice LSD to go with it too. There was a bloom of bioluminescent plankton in the water that night too, just to add to the visuals