Oblomov

It is very intriguing (I think both of us got it right!). As I mentioned, the book was written in 1962 and set in 1950, but it has an oddly contemporary feel to it with its cheerful, bawdy and yet poignant approach. At the time of its publishing, it became an immediate bestseller in 19 countries, but has had just one reprint 5 years after the first publication and is very hard to find now. Also, I cannot believe that no one tried to make a film out of it although the plot was simply crying out for it. All that makes me wonder whether 'certain forces' suppressed any further publicity to avoid offending the British Royalty. I think this link might explain it. It is an extract from 1965: THE CONSORT by Anthony Heckstall-Smith. 181 pages. Grove. $4.50. "Should they really have banned this story?" asks the book jacket. Well, nobody really did. After printing several thousand copies of this ribald and frisky little fantasy of royal family life, the British publishers accepted the anguished advice of their barristers and chickened out. Although Author Heckstall-Smith halfheartedly twists a few facts, there is never any doubt about who his consort is meant to be. After all, how many royal consorts are there who are handsome and charming, notoriously impatient with stuffy protocol, and married to serious-minded queens who love horses and receive government documents in red dispatch boxes? If there was any doubt, the publishers archly turned out the book with two jackets, the outer showing the consort with his queen in full British-style ceremonial robes, the inner replacing the queen with a lush brown maiden.

I do it quite often as a matter of fact, but then I read a lot of non-fiction, short story collections and anthologies. I have read some full-size stories in instalments simply because I could not get 'into' the plot right away. For example, it took me 3 months to finish Ken Follet's Night Over Water and even longer to get through the translated version of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf.

I avoid any book with extreme violence, cruelty to animals and human depravity in any shape or form. Also, I have to be really honest and say that I don't feel comfortable with homosexuality and avoid any book (or movie) with it as the principal theme. I apologise if this offends anyone, but I am merely stating my view as asked and not moralising in the least.

In a perverse sort of way, I'd say yes, it was. If you start reading the book, the parallels to the then contemporary personalities and situations will be obvious, but that in itself would not be surprising. But what is 'prophetic' is our 'inverse comparison' of the main character in some respects with Diana, though the author meant to identify him with someone else (also obvious). I cannot say more without revealing the plot, but the story is considerably more lighthearted than reality and ends on a happier note.

One of the most unusual and oddly prophetic books that I have ever read is an obscure little number called "The Consort", a romantic fantasy by Anthony Heckstall-Smith. I found a copy of this book by pure accident a few years ago while waiting for something from another shop in Old Town of Swindon. To pass the time, I stolled out for a walk and found some old paperbacks left out in a basket outside a secondhand shop. Thumbing through some of them, I idly picked this one up for 50p and it tuned out to be a great buy. The book was written in 1962, but set in 1950. It is about the new Queen of an unnamed "European Country" and her Prince consort....you can guess where the similarities came from. But what I found most fascinating was that the plot had some inverse parallels with the then ongoing Princess Diana & Dodi saga ...... it was a few months before their death. I recommend the book to anyone with a bit of imagination .

Not necessarily. If a book is well written with well-rounded characters, it can be enjoyable even if you are familiar with the storyline. For example, I have read so many murder-mysteries in my time that I instinctively make the correct guess as to the identity of the culprit in most books, but don't mind reading on if the story is written well. By the same token, too much unpredictability can ruin a story by bordering on the illogical.

I think a lot of us readers have almost accidentally stumbled across stories by some relatively unknown author - one that captured our imagination and made us go all out to try and get his ot her other works. If you have any such hidden favourites, please let us know about them. My own is an obscure Canadian writer called Thomas H Raddall, who lived and worked in Nova Scotia in the first half of the 20th century. He was actually born in Kent, but his family moved to Halifax around the turn of the 20th century. Raddall is well known and respected in Nova Scotia (there is a Library and instiute dedicated to him in Halifax), but hardly anyone knows him outside his province. His stories are mostly short fictional and non-fictional works of early to middle white Canadian settlers and their interaction with each other and the 'Micmac' natives. Despite this narrow field from which he operated, Raddall had a very human way of depicting his characters (similar to Somerst Maugham in some ways) that I found (and still do) fascinating. He gave the impression of being distinctly ahead of his times in his attitude to racial and sexual discrimination and often wove interesting stories around wafer-thin plotlines (there is one centered completely around a river ferry crossing, for example). I first read one of Thomas Raddall's stories in a 1982 issue of Reader's Digest where his "The Reluctant Bride" was published as a fiction feature. It took me almost 15 more years to find another story by him, but I now have a good collection.

I read a lot of different types of books and while some people might raise their eyebrows at certain aspects of my "taste", I can honestly say that I personally have enever been embarassed about admitting the indulgence. For example, I have a big collection of 'Silver Age' American comics which I still read and enjoy; likewise, I am a fan of old (1950s & early 60s) Science Fiction short stories, often edited by the likes of Groff Conklin or Judith Merrill. I am unashamedly addicted to the very sexist and gloriously politically incorrect thrillers by James Hadley Chase - a legacy of growing up in India in the 60s.

On my opinion, an unusual author's name (one that is not established) can occasionally lead to a psychological barrier while buying what seems to be an otherwise good book. It has happened to me on a few occasions - most notably with World's Fair by E L Doctorow. The subject of a young boy growing-up with his dreams in the depression era New York of the 1930s fascinated me, but I hesiteted because the author's name was so unusual and one that I had never heard of. In the end, I went ahead and bought the book - and am very glad that I did. I heartily recommend it to all my fellow readers.

Please help me to find the details of a Kids' (Age 9 to 12) science book (not a magazine) that I had in the early to mid 1960s. It was to do with scietific inventions & discoveries that made the modern world and had colour picures and text. I recall a few details of the contents, mostly pictures; here they are: 1. A picture of the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in Goobang Valley, Australia 2. A picture of the sinking Titanic. This was to illustrate the part Radio played in communication and there was a picture of Marconi alongside. 3. A hypothetical picture of a London Street with solar-powered streetlights (demo for practical use of a photo-electric cell) 4. On the very last page, there was a futuristic picture of cars and other vehicles being able to drive off-ground through magnetic 'tunnels'. In the foreground was a car with father & son driving along the 'street'. I have tired desperately to guess the title for the past 2 years and failed. I have promised my niece to try and find it for her. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi! I am Arun Vajpey, originally from Bangalore, India but now living in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. I am a GP by trade. I have been a voracious reader of all kinds of books since I learned to read and have a massive collection. I cannot understand why I have not become a member of a Book Forum beforehand, especially since I subscribe to other forums for movies, diving, comics. photography etc. My taste in books range from comics to sci-fi anthologies to old fashioned thrillers to esoterica to specific interests like the Titanic, Martin Bormann, JFK assassination and astronomy. My absolute favourite place on the surface of the Earth and Venus is Hay-on-Wye, for very obvious reasons. We go there every other year and come back with a bootful of books.