SS-GB, BBC1, Sunday 9pm

Deighton gave up writing far too early - '96? - mind you, City Of Gold was a stinker - I guess he got rich enough.  Colin Dexter still alive - why last Morse 1999?  Diabetes no excuse. We need to be entertained - if only for a few hours.  How can we live with ourselves otherwise?

Have you tried Buddhist chanting?

Does it involve stabbing Buddhists while you chant?

Nam-iy-yo-ho-reng-gey-kyo

Nam-iy-yo-ho-reng-gey-kyo

.....repeat

Dictaton guesses as :

Only your whole range a cure

Nelly O'Hara JQ

No meal arrange a keel

Now Neil Horan JQ

Nanny you're going to make you

Are you always take you

No meal already to you all

PS ....no stabbing necessary

So you say ...

His last three books were Faith, Hope and Charity, the final trilogy in the Bernard Sampson story. He completed that set in 1996, as you say, and that was it. He seems to have been researching and writing a history of aero engines ever since, which might one day see the light of day.

On balance I'm content that he stopped writing when he did, at the age of 67. There's more to life than doing your job. And Charity was such a flat ending to such a monumental body of work - a real contractual-obligation album. Oddly enough, the preceding one, Hope, the one set in a frozen Poland, I found brilliant. I think he must have realized then that he'd used up all the inspiration he was going to have.

He's never had the recognition he deserves as a historian imo. One of the very few English-language writers who have understood how morally ambiguous WW2 was from the point of view of events in Eastern Europe (which is what kicked it all off after all). I hope the TV version of SS-GB doesn't gloss over one of the vital strands of the plot - the fact that Russia was by far the most reliable and enthusiastic ally Nazi Germany ever had, fighting by its side to carve out their respective empires and supplying Hitler with all the resources and support it could.

I'm afraid, I've been put off by the endless ads for this aired every break between programmes on the BBC. Seems too glossy  and ott in the CGI stakes.
Over hyped.

bodil
19 Feb 17 00:59
Joined: 27 Feb 03
| Topic/replies: 11,233 | Blogger: bodil's blog
Deighton gave up writing far too early - '96? - mind you, City Of Gold was a stinker - I guess he got rich enough.  Colin Dexter still alive - why last Morse 1999?  Diabetes no excuse. We need to be entertained - if only for a few hours.  How can we live with ourselves otherwise?


Bodil, today is your lucky day because very soon I'm going to publish my blockbuster.  I'm doing a final proof over the next few days and it will on Amazon at the end of the week.
Of course I'll put a post up on chit chat to give you all a chance to buy a copy at reduced chit chat prices.
You'll love it if you like good literature (apart from the prolific use of split infinitives ... I thought, WTF, I'm in the mood to split an infinitive).
PS Alun2005 helped and played a small, but significant part with my research and deserves a mention.

the fact that Russia was by far the most reliable and enthusiastic ally Nazi Germany ever had, fighting by its side to carve out their respective empires and supplying Hitler with all the resources and support it could.



Yep , they actually applied to join The Axis.

Fair enough, Facts. A review I've read by someone who's seen episode one praised it for the lack of gloss - "the colour palette and feel are just right - lots of browns, smudgy dirty streets, under-lit pubs and kitchen parlours, all just right for a country struggling under the yoke of the Nazis." Also the lack of reliance on CGI, by means of keeping the camera at the characters' eye level, making you see the city from the point of view of a detective looking for clues.

Could turn out not to be like that, of course. Still a book worth reading though.

For ' Glossy' read hi definition digital film. hth

"Hth" ...