Roland Butter

I've started The Bohemian Girl by Kenneth Cameron, which looks like a sort of Holmes-and-Watson parody, if the first couple of chapters are anything to go by. Also, as "dip-in" reading, a rather wonderful book that my daughter bought me for Christmas, The Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Not Visited And Never Will by Judith Schalansky: Judith Schalansky was born in 1980 on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. The Soviets wouldn't let anyone travel so everything she learnt about the world came from her parents' battered old atlas. An acclaimed novelist and award-winning graphic designer, she has spent years creating this, her own imaginative atlas of the world's loneliest places. These islands are so difficult to reach that until the late 1990s more people had set foot on the moon than on Peter I Island in the Antarctic. On one page are perfect maps, on the other unfold bizarre stories from the history of the islands themselves. Rare animals and strange people abound: from marooned slaves to lonely scientists, lost explorers to confused lighthouse keepers, mutinous sailors to forgotten castaways; a collection of Robinson Crusoes of all kinds. Recently awarded the prize of Germany's most beautiful book, the Atlas of Remote Islands is an intricately designed masterpiece that will delight maplovers everywhere. Judith Schalansky lures us across all the oceans of the world to fifty remote islands – from St Kilda to Easter Island and from Tristan da Cunha to Disappointment Island – and proves that some of the most memorable journeys can be taken by armchair travellers.

Yep, Jon Ronson's stuff is always entertaining - The Men Who Stare At Goats is definitely worth a read. He's your "go-to" man if you like reading about conspiracy theorists.

I finished Mark Thompson's The White War earlier this week. It took me about four weeks, but it was well worth it - a fascinating account of a little-known WWI campaign. I'm now working my way through Trespass by Valerie Martin, which is also excellent and highly recommended. I couldn't remember why I'd bought this, 'cos it's been hanging around for a couple of years and I had a sudden horror that it might turn out to be "chick-lit". It's a good book, and maybe I'll post a bit more about it when I'm done. A mysterious copy of C J Box's Out of Range turned up in the post a couple of days ago - no idea where from, but it looks like a publisher's freebie. On the basis that there's no such thing as a bad book (if it's free, anyway), thank you, whoever ....

I agree with all of these. Carl Hiaasen is probably my favorite crime novelist, but Nature Girl wasn't one of his best - in fact, I think it was one of his weakest. Skinny Dip, though, is a good 'un, as are Lucky You, Native Tongue and Striptease (who could resist a character called Urbana Sprawl?)

Absolutely, Hayley! A spot-on analysis.

Yep ... still British, still British ....

Oh, I know that feeling! I've just found a book about George W Bush (remember him, anyone?) that I remember buying in 2005 - well, it was topical then ....

Kate Atkinson's most recent is Started Early, Took My Dog, which I've got staring at me from the shelf. It sounds like a good read, I just have to get round to it.

If you're interested, Catherine O'Flynn's What Was Lost is set in a West Midlands shopping centre, inspired by her time working in the Merry Hill Centre in Dudley. It's also a great book in its own right - I haven't met anyone (including quite a few BCF members) who hasn't thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yes, I actually remember the Donald Crowhurst story from when it happened, Katie, and it's an interesting story, as you say - a good example of truth being stranger than fiction!

I love any musicals, too, Ruth, but Singin' in the Rain is one of the best. Went to see our neighbours' daughter in an am-dram production of it just a week ago. It was pretty decent, apart from the leading man, whose voice was awful. But to be fair, we later found out he'd developed tonsilitis after four nights of ... er ... singin' in the rain We've got tickets for a new Sondheim musical, Road Show, which premieres in London next week. Looking forward to that one!

I bought Henrietta Lacks a few weeks ago, too. It looks like a really fascinating story. If you get round to reading it before I do - enjoy!

I grew up with Kenneth Williams, poppy (figuratively, that is, not literally!) and even now I can't name a better comic actor, but the books shed light on someone who was a very troubled soul, full of self-loathing and unable to come to terms with his own sexuality, capable of acts of wild generosity and of appalling cruelty towards others. I'd still recommend reading the dairies and/or the letters, though. For every dark moment there's a flash of genius that will have you laughing out loud. (And if you can imagine it being declaimed in that voice as you read, it'll be even better

Interested to know what you make of Labyrinth. It's set in the time of the Cathars, isn't it, which is a fascinating story in itself, but most of the reviews I've read haven't been especially flattering about this book.

I've just received Pretty Birds by Scott Simon, a novel set in the 1990s Balkan wars. To quote the blurb: In the spring of 1992, Irena Zaric is a star on her high school basketball team - a tough, funny teenager who has taught her parrot, Pretty Bird, to do a decent imitation of a ball hitting a hoop. But while Irena rocks out to Madonna and shoots baskets with her friends, her beloved Sarajevo becomes a battleground. When the violence and terror of "ethnic cleansing" against Muslims begin, Irena and her family, brutalized by Serb soldiers, flee for safety across the river that divides the city. If once Irena knew of war only from movies and history books, now she knows its reality. She steals from the dead to buy food, dodges bullets in her own home, and risks her life to communicate with an old Serb school friend. But soon, under the tutelage of a cast of rogues and heroes, Irena becomes a sniper - leading to complex and cataclysmic consequences for herself and those she loves.

D'accord!

Barry Hines' book was turned into the film Kes, which both takes me back and dates me. Very much worth seeing if you get the chance, although I don't know what you'd make of the Northern accents. You could pretend they're Queenslanders, maybe ...

Marina Hyde is a very good writer, Ruth. She does the occasional sports column for The Guardian, and it's always worth a read.

Well, there's nothing like a change, I always say ...

Kenneth Williams' letters and diaries are well worth a read, although at times they do make very uncomfortable reading indeed.

*sigh* I wish I was almost forty ....

Which is a very nice county, may I say? I once spent a great holiday near Gorey.

I have been to Hyde Park Barracks, Kylie. It was pretty grim. Mind you, later that day I went to watch Manly play Parramatta, and that was even grimmer ...

The lack of security is because we're a fundamentally honest race, Kylie. We shipped all our criminals off to ...er.... where was it now? Er ... er ... it's on the tip of my tongue ...