BOTM: J. Gardam, Old Filth (2004)
R. Adams, The Iron wolf and other stories (1980)
J. Berger, G (1974)
L. Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketer's Almanack (2022)
J.A. Brillat-Saverin, The Physiology of Taste (1825)
M. Berkmann, Berkmann's cricketing miscellany (2019)
J. Gardam, The man in the wooden hat (2009)
---------, Last Friends (2013)
K. Hughes, George Eliot: the last Victorian (1998)
D. Levy, Real Estate (2021)
I. Mortimer, The fears of Henry IV (2007)
P. Ross, A tomb with a view (2020)
I do like a good summer's worth of reading, even though this one was almost entirely random, built on things I borrowed, recent presents and things coming out of recommendations and reviews. They were mostly good though, with one notable exception. Berger's G is terrible. With it, I've now read every Booker winner. It was amongst the very worst.
Gardam's trilogy was entirely impromptu and based on Anna's immediate recommendation. There are diminishing returns in the trilogy, though people less obsessed with proper chronology would enjoy them more than I did, but Old Filth itself is exceptionally good - precise, controlled, and very well done. It's incompleteness is far more affecting than the coloured in sections in the follow up books. is It should have been highly competitive for the 2005 Booker, but didn't even make the longlist.
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