The book choice for the next meeting on Thursday 4 August is  When we were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro who was also the writer of The Remains of the Day, which was made into a film.  He studied at UEA and this book was short listed for the Booker Prize in 2000.  We meet in the Workhouse Bar at 7.30 p.m. and new members are always welcome.

July Review - The Thirty- Nine Steps by John Buchan
The book was written in 1915 and starts with the main character, Richard Hannay, bemoaning the fact that “having made a modest pile” as a mining engineer in South Africa he has returned to London in his early 40’s with nothing to do except “luncheon” and “dine” in various upper class establishments.
Luckily for him, on his return home one night, he is approached by a total stranger, an American agent called Scudder, who informs Hannay that Europe is on the brink of an enormous diplomatic incident should a proposed assassination attempt on a senior figure be successful.
Hannay invites Scudder to seek refuge and on returning home the following evening finds him murdered on the drawing room floor. Intent on solving the riddle of who is behind the impending assassination attempt, Hannay takes Scudder’s little note-book of secrets (not so secret that Hannay could not easily find it however!) and instead of going to the police (which would have made it an extremely short story) he flees London and finds himself a desperate man on the run hotly pursued by both the police and the vigilantes behind the proposed assassination attempt.

The book is full of derring-do in a Famous Five sort of way and although he doesn’t have “lashings of ginger beer” he does make comments like “he seemed an honest stout fellow – I liked the cut of his jib” or words to that effect!  The language used was incredibly dated and the plot totally implausible –that so many strangers should unquestioningly take in and feed a man clearly on the run… and, my favourite, where he crashes in on a dinner party, accuses the assembled company that they are a bunch of murderous spies and, after they deny it, sits down for a glass of brandy and hand of bridge with them to deliberate.

Our verdict – a very quick read, you’ll enjoy it is you like Boy’s Own type stories and a good laugh (unintentionally) if you don’t. You will be disappointed, as we were, that only the film version has him he climbing Big Ben’s tower and hanging perilously off the hands of the clock.

Come and join us on the first Thursday of each month. You will see from this review that some of us don’t always take the books very seriously. All you need is a few moments to read a book and a few hours on the first Thursday of each month to spend in the Old Workhouse Bar drinking and discussing it….or drinking and listening to others discuss it! 
 Kay Gordon