Paradoxically, the festive
bombardment of electronic
'entertainment' can be a
mind-numbing experience.
But no-one doubts the
relaxing qualities of a good
book. So what are you about
to give, receive or even
re-read for Christmas? We
asked passers-by, stage
stars, and a few bookselling
professionals for their views
* CHRIS MATHEW (below), who lives in Crieff and works in computers,
says: ''Roy Castle's autobiography (Then And Now, Robson Books, #16.95)
would top my list. He has been very brave for the past two years while
fighting cancer -- I'd be interested in learning about how he saw his
final struggle. I'd also be interested in Finding Peggy by Meg Henderson
(Transworld, #5.99) for its detail about Glaswegian life in the forties.
I've no interest in anything connected to the Royals. We have been
saturated with all these stories, and there's no way I would endure more
Royal gossip.''
* ALISON TAIT, SARAH LONG, NOELLA EDELMANN (from left) are students at
Strathclyde University. Sarah says: ''I'm an English student, so most of
my reading is coursework and I've hardly any time for casual reading.
But two books that interest me this Christmas are Iain Banks's
Complicity and Meg Henderson's Finding Peggy. I've read Banks's other
books, and the new one seems promising. I'd buy Finding Peggy for my Mum
-- she's into all that 1940s Gorbals stuff.'' ALISON: ''I don't usually
buy many books, but I think I'll get Roy Castle's autobiography for my
Mum. She adored the guy, and it's a Christmassy sort of thing.'' NOELLA:
James Kelman's How Late It Was, How Late is about the only book out at
the moment that seems worth buying. The Royals are everywhere and I have
no interest in them and even less for what they do with their private
lives. Kelman is more my thing -- Scottish realism.''
* BILL MAGEE (44), an Edinburgh-based business writer, says: ''I
wouldn't normally buy -- or want to be given -- books for Christmas, but
for once I am tempted by Iain Banks's Complicity (Abacus, #6.99).
''He combines a very Scottish style of writing with the 'biggie' air.
He's a very dark writer, though -- not exactly the festive type. I would
recommend it to friends but not really to relatives.
''I've heard that Forrest Gump (Transworld, #5.99) is very clever
technically, but I'm not drawn to it.
''Ruth Rendell is too squeaky clean -- her stories don't get me scared
for a minute.''
* PAUL HYDE (26) is a manager with Pizza Hut in Edinburgh -- and
obviously a fan of the late comedy actor Kenneth Williams. He says:
''There's only one book on the market for me at the moment and that's
Kenneth Williams' Diaries (HarperColins, #9.99).
''I recently saw him in a television interview and it seems he had a
fascinating lifestyle -- I'd be very interested in finding out more.
''I'm not really into novellas, or anything too heavy. The way Kenneth
Williams separated his private and public life was quite astonishing --
his real life interests me far more than any fiction.''
* CONRAD CALVERT (25), a Health Service administrator from Bath, says:
''Though his latest book isn't soaring up the best-seller lists, I'm a
great fan of Joseph Heller after reading Catch 22.
''His latest novel, Closing Time (Simon and Schuster, #14.99), is far
and away my first choice for Christmas. I haven't seen many reviews, but
if it's anything like Catch 22, it will be a classic.
''But there is one book that no household can afford to be without --
Delia Smith's Christmas (BBC Books, #8.99). If I hadn't bought it
already, I'd be straight down to the bookshop. It gives an essential
run-down of all the key culinary preparations, especially for the before
Christmas. I don't know what I'd have done without it -- it's a
masterpiece.''
* DOROTHY PAUL, whose one-woman show is going out on BBCTV on
Hogmanay, is so fascinated by Finding Peggy by Meg Henderson
(Transworld, #5.99) she has bought half a dozen copies as Christmas
presents. ''It's a harrowingly funny story set in Blackhill, Glasgow,''
she says. ''It's really Meg's own story . . . about a family who were
rehoused there after their old Glasgow tenement collapsed in the 1950s.
This is just a fine matriarchal family and the ordeals they have gone
through and survived.
''Just because their address is Blackhill, they are treated not as
third-class citizens. They were in this very hostile atmosphere. And it
shows the uncaring attitude of the Government. It's an excellent read --
funny, but covering the problems we face today.''
* VETERAN comedian Jack Milroy -- who is rejoining his old china Rikki
Fulton to bring a touch of west-coast kultyoor to the capital as Francie
and Josey at the Festival Theatre -- is quite a serious romantic behind
his stage mask.
''There are two books I will be re-reading,'' he says. ''The Thorn
Birds by Colleen McCullough (Warner, #5.99) and Kane and Abel by Jeffrey
Archer (HarperCollins, #5.99). I read them at the poolside, on holiday
in Majorca. The first, about a girl who falls in love with a priest, is
a quite-unbelievable piece of writing.
''Archer can be a brilliant story-teller, too, and his novel about a
family power saga is enthralling. I couldn't stop reading either of
these books once I had started.''
* RIKKI FULTON will not only be raising a laugh at Edinburgh's
Festival Theatre in the two weeks before Christmas, he will also appear
in his other famous (TV) role -- as the Rev I M Jolly -- on Hogmanay.
Does this mean he has little time to read?
On the contrary. He says: ''I'm currently ploughing through The Double
Tenth by George Brown (Arrow Books, #4.99), a gentleman I'd never heard
of. It's long, complex and turgid, but I'm determined to finish it. It's
spy-like, 007 stuff involving the Chinese -- obviously somebody's got to
replace the Russians!
''It's to do with our Foreign Office, Secret Service and God knows
what. Full of acronyms. They keep talking about K2 and F789, all that
sort of thing. By the time I read a couple of chapters in bed, I'm
out.''
* LES DENNIS, the Liverpool comedian starring in The Sleeping Beauty
at the King's, Glasgow, is reading The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd
(Penguin, #5.99).
''He's one of my favourite writers. This book is about a woman
architect in Los Angeles in the thirties -- who meets an older guy who
tells her he's her father. She believes him and is then taken by him to
solve a murder from his youth.
''I'm looking forward to the new Elmore Leonard book, Get Shorty
(Penguin, #4.99). I hear he's a really good crime writer. It's a Mafia
thriller set in the LA movie world.
''I also love John Irving's stuff. He writes very life-affirming
books. Kind of surreal but real! I read his quotes again and again
because they seem so relevant to life.''
* JOAN DOUGLAS says: ''My plan for Christmas Day is to forget about
turkey and tinsel and settle back on the sofa with my feet snug in my
new tartan slippers, to plunge into Alan Bennett's new book, Writing
Home (Faber #17.50).
''While I read, his voice will unavoidably sound in my head. That
disarming, gentle style of satire is just the perfect antidote after the
frenzy of Christmas in the Bookshop.
''My second choice is a touch greedy, but I really hanker after a set
of Bloomsbury Classics, 35 currently available (Bloomsbury, #9.95 each).
This series gathers together some of my favourite authors, of whom Brian
Moore, Virginia Woolf and Ethan Canin are just a few. Each volume is
beautifully produced in a 'midget' cloth pocket format, making it easy
to read in the bath without giving it a dooking.
''And finally . . . Michelangelo: The Medici Chapel (Thames & Hudson,
James Beck, #36) provides a stunning collection of black-and-white
photographs, cleanly and crisply representing the artist's most famous
sculptures.
''My Michelangelo fascination began 15 years ago when I read Irving
Stone's The Agony & The Ecstasy. Michelangelo's magnificent figures are
hewn from blocks of Carrara marble, in which he sensed the figures lying
within. This convinced me, at an impressionable age, that if I could get
my hands on such a block, creating a 'David' would be a dawdle. I now
apologise to my Dad for ruining his best chisel as I practised on
Kilpatrick sandstone!''
* Joan Douglas is general manager of John Smith's bookshop in
Glasgow's St Vincent Street.
* HANS VAN DER GRIJP says: ''An article in Homes and Gardens in the
1960s coined the phrase 'books furnish a room'. In our case, books
furnish all the rooms, including the smallest! If you add to these all
the tempting stock in our shop, you will understand what a difficult
task it is to pick out a few.
''A genre of fiction I enjoy greatly is the 'comedy of manners'.
Anything by E F Benson or Nancy Mitford could have been one of my
choices; but I have settled for Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
(Black Swan, #5.99).
''This is the first of a series of six novels set in San Francisco
during the 70s and 80s. They are peopled by wonderful, lovable
characters who find themselves in humorous and dramatic situations --
which make the books very difficult to put down.
''Cookery books are another passion of mine and they are ideal to dip
into. I find Cookery Year (Reader's Digest, #21.95) the most useful for
accessibility and layout. In fact I have just used it and think we could
do with a replacement, as ours is worn out!
Having a house with a big garden, I have taken up gardening in a big
way. It's time-consuming but rewarding -- and for me, nothing can better
the Royal Horticultural Society's Enclyclopaedia of Gardening (Dorling
Kindersley, #29.95) for information and instruction. I constantly refer
to it for tips on buying plants or seeds, or advice on pruning or
dividing. If only it came with a free conservatory . . .''
* Hans Van Der Grijp is manager of the language and travel department
at John Smith's main bookshop.
* ALISON STROAK says: ''I used to love receiving books at Christmas.
Now that I work in a bookshop, nobody buys them for me any more, as they
don't have a clue what I already have. So, here are three helpful hints:
''Jack Vettriano's Fallen Angels (Pavilion, #16.99) combines his
paintings -- which evoke a 1940s feel for me, like Bogie and Bacall in
To Have and Have Not -- with accompanying stories and poems from an
impressive selection of writers. A perfect gift!
''Alice Munro's stories about life and human relationships are
magical. Her new book Open Secrets (Chatto and Windus, #14.99) is being
talked about as being her strongest collection yet -- can she really get
any better?
''Lorrie Moore's Who Will Run The Frog Hospital? (Faber, #14.99) is
brilliant. I've never read anything by her before and this is a
revelation.
''Her previous novels -- Self Help, Anagrams and Like Life -- have
been reissued to coincide with the publication of the new work and, if
it is anything to go by, I'm really looking forward to reading them.
''Frog Hospital is a book I will be recommending to everyone and
buying for all my friends.
''Those, like me, who loved Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (Faber,
#7.99) but are irate at the censor's refusal to give it a video release,
could always buy the screenplay to compensate for having to fork out
every time it reappears at the cinema. A brilliant script, realistic and
at times hilarious.''
* Alison Stroak is manager of the Byres Road (Glasgow) branch of John
Smith.
* JOHN HUTCHINSON says: ''Being asked to choose your own Christmas
present can be, in reality, either an extremely liberating or inhibiting
experience for a multitude of reasons. But in this instance I'm choosing
purely in the spirit of wishful thinking as no-one would ever consider
giving me a book as a present, thinking I would find it an unimaginative
gift.
''One book I'd love to receive is the new Terence Conran Essential
House Book (Conran Octopus, #25). Anyone with even a vague interest in
design knows Conran is the guru of British home-furniture retailing but
he is also the guiding influence behind many highly-regarded design and
lifestyle books. This book is a comprehensive text and lavishly
illustrated. Tragically, owning it as as close as most of us are likely
to get to perfection.
''Enormous encyclopaedic film guides have always struck me as having
more than a little 'anorak' appeal but the coolest is probably the Time
Out Film Guide (Penguin #12.50). If someone were to give me this for
Christmas, I would feel quite confident about finally dumping my
carefully-filed collection of GFT calendars.
''Quentin Tarantino is, of course too hip to be true but I would still
be delighted to find screenplays for Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs in
my Christmas stocking. Published by Faber and Faber at #7.99 and #9.99
respectively, these allow the opportunity to savour every nuance of
Tarantino's virtuoso scripts -- and they have great jackets into the
bargain.''
* John Hutchinson is manager of the paperback department at John
Smith's main bookshop.
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