I wouldn't know where to start to be honest...I have enjoyed a few of Michael Connelly's novels..Jonathon Straud's Bartimaus trilogy was excellent...Tolken's Lord of The Rings...George Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series (what Game of Thrones is based on) is the latest books I'm reading and I can't wait for the next one...I could go on for ever, but could not pick a single favourite..
Slaughterhouse 5 and Mort were very much favourites of mine. The whole Disc world serious by Terry Pratchett is a good laugh and right up my street. Although best book by far was War and Peace, the details about the war and the whole Russian feel of the book was excellent. And while I type I've just remembered I loved the Damned United as my favourite football book.
To pick out two that I have especially enjoyed: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks. Both really defy description, so just read them. Books that I stopped reading half way through The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco A Feast for Crows Just to explain the Feast for Crows one, I really enjoyed the first few books (Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, Storm of Swords), but by Feast for Crows I realised that virtually everyone I liked from the first books was now dead, and I just lost interest. The book I did finish, but regret making the effort, The Silmarillion.
My 2 favourites. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image one that i didn't like please log in to view this image
A hangmans tale by Albert Pierrepoint Albert-Pierrepoint.jpg Born 30 March 1905[1] Clayton, Bradford,[2][3] West Riding of Yorkshire, England Died 10 July 1992 (aged 87)[1] Southport, Merseyside, England Occupation Executioner, publican Employer HM Prison Service Spouse(s) Annie Pierrepoint, née Fletcher (1905–1998, aged 93)[4] Parents Henry Albert Pierrepoint and Mary Pierrepoint (née Buxton) Relatives Thomas Pierrepoint (uncle) Albert Pierrepoint (30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was a long-serving hangman in England. He executed at least 400 people, including William Joyce (one of the men dubbed "Lord Haw-Haw"), and John Amery, whom he considered the bravest man he had ever hanged. He executed many people who had been convicted of war crimes. Pierrepoint was often dubbed the Official Executioner, despite there being no such job or title. In England, executions were the responsibility of the local sheriff; however, instead of officiating themselves, sheriffs used to delegate the job to a person of suitable character who was employed and paid only when required. Pierrepoint continued to work for years in a grocery near Bradford after qualifying as an Assistant Executioner in 1932 and a Chief Executioner in 1941, in the steps of his father and uncle. Following his retirement in 1956, the Home Office acknowledged Pierrepoint as the most efficient executioner in British history. He subsequently became a publican in Lancashire and wrote his memoirs, in which he sensationally concluded that capital punishment was not a deterrent. There is no official tally of his hangings, which some have estimated at more than 600; the most commonly accepted figure is 435.
I've met some truly disturbed people but the worst ever was Syd Dernley who was one of Pierrepoint's assistants. He was a hangman in his own right as well and was obsessed with his work. I had to serve some papers on him at his post office in Mansfield and list his assets. The man was absolutely insane and, while showing me around his 'souvenirs', would laugh hysterically and end up crying. That happened about 30 times in a 2 hour visit He had a full size gallows, locks of hair he'd cut from victims, one of Ruth Ellis's fingernails, a condemned cell spyhole, etc. I was ****ing terrified.
they used to team up on a regular basis Syd Dernley (29 December 1920 – 1 November 1994) was dubbed, as also has been Albert Pierrepoint, "the last British hangman", although in fact he was not (this title belongs jointly to Harry Allen and Robert Leslie Stewart). More accurately, he was the last surviving hangman, following the deaths of both Pierrepoint and Allen in 1992. He was a welder by trade, but was appointed assistant executioner by the Home Office in 1949, and participated in 20 hangings until he was replaced in 1954. Execution by hanging continued in Britain until 1964. In 1950 he assisted Albert Pierrepoint in the hanging of Timothy Evans for the murder of his family, although Evans was pardoned posthumously in 1966 when it was discovered John Reginald Halliday Christie was probably the killer, as Christie's murders all carried a similar modus operandi to the deaths of Evans's family. On 8 May 1951, Pierrepoint and Dernley escorted convicted murderer James Inglis to the gallows immediately adjacent, and hanged him without delay — the fastest hanging on record, taking only seven seconds from the time he was removed from his cell until his fatal 'long drop'.[1] On 27 April 1954, Dernley was removed from the Home Office Official List of Assistant Executioners. Dernley claimed that no reason was given for his removal but he suspected it was because of a crude comment he had made about the size of the penis of a hanged man, John Kenneth Livesey, after he had been executed at Wandsworth prison in London on December 17 1952.[2] Pierrepoint had alluded to such an incident (without mentioning Dernley by name) in his own autobiography. However, the real reason for Dernley's removal from the list was undoubtedly because in 1954 he had been convicted at the Nottinghamshire Quarter Sessions of publishing obscene material. The court sentenced Dernley to six months imprisonment plus a fine of £50, with costs of £25 awarded against him. Dernley's criminal conviction and subsequent imprisonment constituted firm grounds on which to dismiss him.
Do not ever read "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann, I had to as part of literature lessons and I still hate the teacher who forced us to read it Supposed to be some powerful literary work ("connection of erotic love to philosophical wisdom traced in Plato's Symposium and Phaedrus, and second the Nietzschean contrast between the god of restraint and shaping form, Apollo, and the god of excess and passion, Dionysus") but as far as I could ever work out, was a story about an ****philia artist who goes to venice, falls in love with a young boy, never does anything about it (thank god), then dies of cholera as he refuses to leave Venice even though he knows there is an epidemic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_Venice if you want to know more about it (which you really do not want to, believe me)
I love the Tom Sharpe & Spike Milligan stuff, hilarious. The Mark Billingham 'Thorne' stuff is great too. And, yes, I also like Dan Brown because of the fast pace he writes his stories at. The one I would recommend for fiction though is Wilbur Smith. He writes in such a way that your imagination fills in the gaps and you live the stories he tells. Brilliant writing. His books are the only ones I actually remember in some detail long after I've finished them.
Wilbur Smith is my favourite author. His first three novels about the Courtney's, When the Lion Feeds, A Sound of Thunder and A Sparrow Falls are brilliant.
I believe the state of mind you're in depends how well you rate a book, one of the best books I ever read was Alex Garland's The Beach, simply because I was so tuned into it through narcotics at the time I was in my element. If I picked it up today to read I'd probably sling it in the bin after a couple of pages.
Have a read of Pretty Boy mate. Roy Shaw was a very good boxer but lost his licence due to his criminal record & his thirst for violence. In a bare fist competition, he knocked Lenny McClean spark out - no mean feat. He came out of prison one time & found out his wife was shacked up with another bloke. He went to their tower block flat & chucked him out the window.
Default Re: Lenny Mclean v Roy Shaw, who actually won there fights? yeh they fought three bouts the first you wont find footage of but lenny did and roy will openly tell you that there was three, roy won the first by stoppage because roy was beating len silly with alot of un answered punches but couldnt knock him down, the second fight lenny knocked roy silly and punched him through the ropes , and the third was a knockdown fest where lenny tore roy apart and knocked him down and out twice!! did anyone every see roy shaw-donny the bull adams? roy knocked him spark out and was in such a rage he picked him up under his arm (whilst he was dead weight) and done him again! beautiful
The fight I'm on about was an illegal bare fist fight & as Roy quite clearly states in his book, he sparked Lenny out. Len does not deny this in The Guv'nor as far as I recall.
