Roland Butter

I've just started Richard Moore's "The Dirtiest Race in History". It's the story of the 1988 Olympic men's 100m final, which as everyone knows Ben Johnson won, only to be disqualified after testing positive for steroids. Moore's book looks behind the bare facts: it traces the development of Johnson's career in parallel with that of his bitter rival Carl Lewis, the "good guy", as well as examining the climate in the sport during the 1970s and 1980s and the pressures on the athletes which, some would say, made the widespread abuse of drugs almost inevitable. Johnson has generally been regarded as one of track and field's outcasts, but this book gives a fair and balanced picture of what was going on in the sport at that time, and surprisingly, I'm finding myself more sympathetic towards Johnson than I'd ever have imagined.

You're probably thinking of the wonderful Jas. Smith and Sons in Holborn. Don't do swordsticks any more, I'm afraid - they're illegal, I'd think - but it's still worth a visit if you're in the area, as some of the photos here suggest: http://www.james-smith.co.uk/

I have that one on the pile. How was it?

Used to love the Moomin books! A couple of years ago I read Jansson's "The True Deceiver", which is a cracking (or kraken!) book. Very different from the sort of stuff we normally associate with her, but a thoroughly dark, brooding and absorbing tale. If you haven't read it yet, Kylie, I'd recommend it. I'm sure you'd enjoy it. I've just started "A Child of the Jago", by Arthur Morrison. Published in 1896, it's a fictionalised account of life in a London slum. The "Jago" was based on an area of Shoreditch in East London called the "Old Nichol", which was notorious as the most squalid and desperate of Victorian London's many slums. So appalling were the conditions that the London County Council was prompted to raze the area and build the Boundary Estate, a model estate of tenements that opened in 1900 and was one of the earliest - some say the first - social housing projects. There's a brief overview of it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Estate I'm going on a guided walk of the area next week, so I thought I should do a bit of homework!

This is as good as most: "You Really Didn't Mean It" by the Sweet Inspirations, with Cissy Houston (Whitney's mum) on lead vocal.

I'm reading "Up in the Old Hotel" by Joseph Mitchell. Mitchell was a journalist who joined the "New Yorker" in 1938, and this is a collection of the pieces that appeared in the magazine. The final piece here was published in September 1964, and bizarrely, Mitchell went into the office almost every day for the next 31 years but didn't submit another piece for publication. Mitchell specialised in writing about outsiders - the people who wandered the city's streets, lived in the waterfront flophouses, haunted the dives and all-night restaurants. It's an excellent book, packed with vivid description and engrossing anecdotes, and, although many of the characters Mitchell describes are living on the very outermost fringes of society, his warmth and lack of condescension shine through.

Well, I've finished Thomas Keneally's "The Daughters of Mars" and can thoroughly recommend it. I've now started "Diamond Street", Rachel Lichtenstein's exploration of Hatton Garden, London's renowned jewellery district.

There are few finer places to be on a summer's day than Cornwall, Sedge, I'll give you that.

I'm reading "The Daughters of Mars", Thomas Keneally's latest novel. It tells the story of two Australian sisters, Naomi and Sally Durance, who enlist as nurses during World War One. United yet divided by a terrible secret, they find their relationship tested and forged in the horrors of Gallipoli and the Western Front. I'm a huge fan of Keneally's work. There are few better living novelists in my view, and "The Daughters of Mars" is up to his usual high standard. It's a hefty book at around 500 pages, but Keneally is an engrossing story-teller with a real knack for drawing interesting and sympathetic, if flawed, characters. Highly recommended, this one.

Aaah, the real first round of the FA Cup! I used to love the random nature of the draw, you'd get some unusual trips to places you didn't normally play at. Don't think I ever played in the Extra Preliminary Round though!

Excellent review of Estates, Alexi. Hanley's particularly good on the development of social housing after the War. Somehow the myth has grown up that social housing is for welfare cases and scroungers, and it's a myth that's been promoted, to their eternal shame, by both political parties. As you say, it's a worthwhile read. I'll stop there, I feel a rant coming on ......

I'm currently reading London Fictions, edited by Andrew Whitehead and Jerry White and published by the excellent independent Five Leaves publishing house. It's a collection of short essays in which 26 contemporary writers talk about ... a novel they love or admire or maybe hate, to tell us something of plot and character and just what makes it special in the London canon, and to dwell briefly on how the city described there differs from the London of 2013. It's a fascinating read for anyone who loves London as I do, one that throws a new light on what are often quite familiar books and has certainly made me want to explore some of those I'm not familiar with. It's not cheap, but it's a worthwhile investment and a book that I, certainly, will want to keep and go back to. Highly recommended!

I'm on the last few pages of A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah's account of his experiences as a child soldier in the bitter civil war in Sierra Leone a decade or so ago, and of his eventual rehabilitation. It's a harrowing and disturbing book that reinforces what we already know about the brutality of that conflict and others in the region.

That really is an excellent book, Alexi. I can bore for Britain on the folly of this country's housing policy (or lack of one), but Lynsey Hanley is far more entertaining than I am! I know you'll enjoy it - it's thought-provoking but very readable at the same time.

I'm on the last lap of Sorry by Zoran Drvenkar. I'm not a huge fan of thrillers these days, but it was well-reviewed and, even allowing for the odd lumpy translation, it certainly is a chiller. To quote the blurb: Kris, Tamara, Wolf and Frauke set up an agency called Sorry. An agency to right wrongs. Unfair dismissals, the wrongly accused: everyone has a price, and Sorry will find out what it is. It’s as simple as that. What they hadn’t counted on was their next client being a cold-hearted killer. But who is the killer and why has he killed? Someone is mocking them and hell is only just beginning. Show More Show Less

Then move it up the queue a bit, Kay ... you won't regret it, I promise.

If you haven't read Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's not exactly contemporary - it tells the story of a Jewish family's flight from occupied Paris and is more or less autobiographical - but it's one of the most powerful and moving books I've read.

You're the only person I've come across who's ever read that (apart from me, of course!). I bought it on holiday a couple of years back because it had a nice bright cover and because I'd never read any Gallico. I thought it was OK but a bit forced - Cockney accents don't transfer well to the page, do they, particularly in the hands of an American writer!

You have some great stuff there! The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is a real classic, and if you have the Persephone edition of Miss Pettigrew you've done well - it's a beautiful object as well as a thoroughly charming story.

The Pickwick Papers is one of my favourite books of all. I re-read it a couple of years ago and still found myself laughing out loud. Good choice!

I'd certainly second Tom-All-Alone's. Excellent book, particularly once you have Bleak House under your belt.

I've just started "Through A Glass Darkly", Nigel Jones' biography of the novelist Patrick Hamilton, who wrote so brilliantly about life in pre-war London in books like "Hangover Square" and "20,000 Streets Under The Sky".

I actually read this when it first came out about 15 years ago. My son bought it for himself a while ago, and I thought I'd re-visit it. If you enjoyed The Wire, I'm sure you'll love King Suckerman. Happy to pass it on when I've done, if you're interested.

I'm working my way through King Suckerman, hard-boiled crime fiction set in 1970s DC, by George Pelecanos, who went on to become a scriptwriter on The Wire.

Another book you may like - and one that I'm currently dipping in and out of - is London You're Beautiful by the artist David Gentleman. It's a month-by month collection of his sketches of the capital throughout the year, along with his commentary. It's a beautiful book, although quite expensive (like me, try dropping birthday hints, perhaps). Definitely one that you can cherish and go back to time and time again.