Name: Nicholas Hoare reviews Circle Game by Joni Mitchell @NICHOLASHOAREBOOKS
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Nicholas Hoare reviews Circle Game by Joni Mitchell

Nicholas Hoare Books 2026-09-30 | Nicholas Hoare reviews Circle Game by Joni Mitchell

Where the Wild Things Are (3746 Highway 1, Annapolis Royal, N.S.)

Nicholas Hoare Books 2023-09-22 | This is a new series for us, describing what it's like to live in our unique property in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, starting with the wildlife surrounding us daily.

Click on the video FULL-SCREEN ICON for optimal viewing.

Music courtesy of Tony Banks: "Five" (Arr. N. Ingman): 11. Reveille c.2018

Take a look at our property with Sotheby's:

sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-2813055-sll3d4/3746-highway-1-annapolis-royal-ns-b0s-1s0

OUR PROPERTY IS EXEMPT FROM THE CANADIAN BAN ON FOREIGN BUYERS

This Old Hoare House is For Sale

Nicholas Hoare Books 2023-08-01 | Dear subscribers, one and all,

The phoenix riseth. After three long years of silence, two in lockdown, your correspondent emerges, bloodied, but unbowed, hundreds of PBS videos and a brutal pandemic having taken their long-term toll.

There is, however, life in the old dog yet. We have been dormant, not dead; and in the difficult interregnum, there have been books to catch up with, decisions to take, and changes afoot that prompt this brief report.

In deference to distance, age and offspring flying the coop, we have reached the sad conclusion, eighteen years in, that our much-loved manse in Nova Scotia, the site of all our videos, should be put up for sale (q.v. below), and that we return to the mainland.

It is, however, our intent to resume our missives, if not our videos, in the interim. We have a rich crop of potential reviews in the hopper that will bear fruit in the fullness of time.

Until then, those of you who have stayed the course are thanked for their astonishing patience. Those who have not are welcome to drop us a line, and their names will be promptly removed.

As to the house, those still interested are referred to the video above (for once not ours) and the listing link below:

sothebysrealty.ca/en/property/nova-scotia/region-northern-nova-scotia/annapolis-royal-real-estate/1093110

or send enquiries directly to:

thisoldhoarehouse@gmail.com

In the meantime, stay tuned. We shall return!

Nicholas Hoare

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Annals of the Hoare house: Googles view

Nicholas Hoare Books 2020-01-04 | New Year's resolutions being what they are, the advent of a new year and a new decade marks a doubly appropriate occasion in which to step down from the fray; and in deference to anno domini in your correspondent's case; production demands in that of his spouse (60-odd books last year alone); and our beloved PBS's decision to move gracefully on itself, we have resolved henceforth to review for fun alone, and that sporadically, rather than once a week.

As a result, ongoing salvos will be driven by enthusiasm, rather than deadlines, and will only appear if/as/when news and reviews warrant sharing.

Until then, by way of a parting shot, please enjoy Google's own view of our efforts (in which we have had no hand): a pastiche of videos past and present, somehow patched together - bloopers and all - by their all-seeing, and distinctly spooky, "algorithms".

In the meantime, on behalf of the Hoare house in general, and your correspondent in particular, a singularly happy new year and decade to come. It's been a delight to have you aboard, and we look forward to resuming our efforts when the occasion demands.

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Annals of the Hoare house: GILES - a British Christmas tradition

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-12-22 | The immortal cartoonist, Carl Giles, who died in 1995, remains a British institution 25 years later.

For those of us of a certain age, who grew up with him, he became such a fixture of Lord Beaverbrook's flagship newspaper, The Daily Express, that many a reader, not least both the Queen and Prince Philip, subscribed to it largely on his account, collecting his original drawings whenever he was willing to part with them (which he wasn't always: Prince Philip even wrote the forward to his memorial tribute, The Ultimate Giles, of which more anon).

But he was best known for his Giles Annuals, as much a Christmas tradition for grown-ups as Rupert was for children, and equally voraciously collected. The familiar, elongated, floppy format, which featured his output from the year before, was a bastion of British bookselling - as recognisable a shape under the tree as panettone or Christmas pud - selling by the hundreds of thousands right across the country.

Lord Beaverbrook's son, Sir Maxwell Aitken the second, was a close friend of your correspondent's family, and had a handsome house just outside Ipswich in Suffolk ("Swippich" to both our houses), itself Giles' hometown, close to where we lived ourselves. He and Carl became fast friends, as indeed did his beloved wife, Joan. On one occasion, having lunched with him at the Hyde Park Hotel (also part of the Beaverbrook empire), Max took him for one of his traditional walks - a Beaverbrook tradition - along Piccadilly, past the legendary Jack Barclay's emporium - in those days, the pre-eminent London dealer in Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Knowing Carl's affection for motorcars, he entered the premises, and asked him which car was his own favourite. Carl immediately pointed out a Bentley Continental. "Have you got a return ticket to Ipswich? Give it to me." He did. "Right. I'll keep this and you go home in that," and Max walked out.

The charm of Giles' cartoons, despite their vintage, is their timelessness. His wartime output, in particular, might seem dated at this point; but even now very little is obsolete when put in context by his famous explanatory placards and side-swipes.

His legacy, at least in book form, is the work of a friend and colleague at The Daily Express by the name of Peter Tory. In three books, entitled Giles at War; "Giles: a Life in Cartoons"; and the posthumous "The Ultimate Giles: an Illustrated Tribute to the Legendary Cartoonist" (the latter including 300 of Giles' favourite cartoons), the life and legend of this warm and merry man is fully and affectionately portrayed for successive generations.

All we need now is a biography proper!

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Edward James, part II: AT WEST DEAN by Jim Buckland & Sarah Wain

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-12-07 | The Edward James Foundation, to which we referred in an earlier post devoted to its munificently generous creator, did not merely endow the much respected West Dean College, devoted to Arts & Crafts and horticultural education, but also a glorious suite of interconnected gardens dating back to 1622, the latter revived and landscaped across fully 6,000 acres of lush, Sussex countryside, thanks in large part to the authors of this remarkable book: the newly retired husband and wife team of Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain.

Under such prefatory essays as "authors", "stage set", "players", and "the theatre", one is then guided to the body proper: an astonishing and colourful account of how this enormous, sadly neglected estate, in which Edward James hadn't lived for years (though he lies buried in his arboretum), was not only brought back to life over the quarter of a century the authors were in charge, but to full self-sufficiency, deploying an enormous vegetable garden, meticulously maintained glasshouses (fuelled by a biomass boiler), a sophisticated system of prunings (a profession in itself), more than a hundred varieties of heirloom apples, a pergola 300 feet long, borders galore, and a landscape filled to the brim with flora and fauna alike (sheep being the principal mowers).

West Dean offers degrees and diplomas for full-timers, and a rich array of courses and workshops for transients, at very reasonable rates by British standards. To accommodate an endless procession of guests (the gardens are among the most visited in Britain), it owns and lets over 150 cottages on and around the estate; but nothing and no one is allowed to detract from its overriding vision: that of executing "horticultural rigour and contemporary efficiencies, set against a Victorian backdrop".

What a place of learning!

This is not a book for horticultural neophytes; but as an adrenalin-generating, eye-popping example of one of the top ten such properties in Britain, where both house and garden are maintained to exacting standards (the specialist horticultural photographer, Andrea Jones, took the shots), this noble book reflects, through both photographs and text, a truly stupendous achievement.

Well worth the indulgence, for those so inclined - and a highly appropriate legacy from its creators, who should be given a 12-gun salute for their efforts.

Photos courtesy of Andrea Jones and Ian Watt

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Edward James: A Surrealist Life by John Lowe

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-11-30 | That fabled eccentric, Edward James, who inherited two fortunes at the age of 25, and was rumoured to be Edward VII's son (the king was a frequent visitor, as was George V), is the stuff of legend, much of it of his own making. In this colourful book, published in 1991 and long out of print (there is, however, method to our madness), the frequently exasperated author, who knew James well in his dotage, struggled mightily to separate fact from fiction and, miraculously, largely succeeded.

Born into the lap of Edwardian luxury in 1907, James grew up, as the only boy amid three sisters, in a quite extraordinary setting. West Dean Park, a palatial house originally built for a son of the Duke of Norfolk in 1603, lies just outside Chichester, in Sussex. It is surrounded by 6,000 acres of lush, and very beautiful, parkland and gardens, all of which, with no heirs apparent, was left (hugely successfully, of which more anon) to the Edward James Foundation, along with a rich endowment.

In between, however, James lived a life that was as "capricious, undisciplined and eccentric as his wayward character." Neither a collector nor a writer, and at best a second-rate poet, he was nonetheless socially connected at the highest levels and could get away with murder. He supported the arts in general, patronising the equally capricious Salvador Dali, and other surrealists such as Magritte; and published the first collection of John Betjeman's poems through one of his many indulgences, the James Press. His main claim to fame, however, was to have given 100,000 pounds (at least 2,000,000 in today's terms) to Georges Balanchine, which effectively launched the latter's career and proved transformative.

After a brief, nightmarish marriage to the gold-digging dancer, Tilly Losch, which ended in a lurid divorce that made international headlines, he effectively abandoned England and became progressively more eccentric, leading a peripatetic existence abroad, with extended stints in France, Italy, the homosexual demi-monde of Hollywood, and finally Mexico, where he built a spectacular garden across a mountainside in the middle of nowhere, six hours from Mexico City.

Meanwhile, his unfortunate biographer, faced with having to cull trunkloads of disorganised records, diaries and letters (many vituperative and mercifully unmailed, often running 50 to 130 pages long), drawn from all over the globe, acknowledges his book could have easily run to 1,000 pages. Nonetheless, his self-indulgent subject, who grew up under the iron grasp of a fiercely controlling mother, only to thumb his nose at her for the rest of his life, shines through the pages we do have as the last British eccentric on the grand scale.

West Dean itself is next up. Stay tuned.

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Love Affairs with Houses by Bunny Williams

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-11-16 | The redoubtable Bunny Williams, four decades in, continues to turn out both books and houses with enviable regularity. In this, her 6th such effort - not to be confused with An Affair with a House, which covers her own (notably handsome) home - she analyses 15 of her favourite decorative projects, ranging from the deceptively simple to the grandiose, with a chapter devoted to each.

A cursory inspection might tend to suggest the book is a prime example of self-promotion, pitched solely at the well-heeled. Not so. A deeper look reveals the art and science, as much as the thought processes, behind each undertaking, the latter distinctive, no two alike, and all scaleable-downable.

To the lay reader, such a tome may appear daunting - it is, after all, 300 pages long - but that would belie its usefulness. Replete with tips and caveats (her bold-face inserts are particularly a propos), this is not only an easy, but graceful read; and if, as your correspondent so often retorts to friends baffled by an entire wall of such books, a tome of this type yields a single, original idea to act on, it pays for the entire purchase.

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Jeeves and the King of Clubs by Ben Schott

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-11-09 | With 80-plus books to its credit already, the P.G. Wodehouse Estate (unlike Agatha Christie's) is hardly anxious to add to its oeuvre; but on the rare occasions it has done so, its efforts have proved felicitous.

Sebastian Faulks, improbably, led the charge in 2013, with a pastiche entitled Jeeves and the Wedding Bells; but five years later, the inimitable Ben Schott, of Schott's Miscellanies fame, has bested him. In a bravura performance, of positively Wodehousian stature, this wicked author has created a cocktail of such distinction that even your faithful correspondent would be hard pressed to differentiate it from the Real McCoy.

In this particularly ridiculous conceit, our hero, Jeeves, has been pressed into service yet again, this time for British Intelligence. Not only does he become a spy, but he becomes sufficiently embroiled in the machinations of war that even he becomes confused. Enter airhead Bertie, who springs to both his defence and that of the nation, but not before fixing auctions, backing horses, and blackballing social rogues and vagabonds.

Vintage PGW from someone who clearly knows him well.

"Jeeves and Wooster" credits:
- photos Picture Partnership & Granada Television
- theme song Anne Dudley/WMG
- graphics Derek W. Hayes

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Priests de la Resistance! by The Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-11-02 | The irrepressible Assistant Curate of Liverpool Parish Church, the Rev. Fergus Butler-Gallie (and you thought Hoare was odd!), who wrote that uproarious classic of liturgical literature, A Field Guide to the English Clergy (q.v. our separate vignette, which is shamelessly recommended), has done it again.

Priests de la Resistance! (which is, inevitably, sub-titled Loose Canons Who Fought Fascism...) is, perhaps surprisingly, every bit as entertaining as its predecessor, requiring as much of a sense of humour, but no more of a religious predisposition, than its precursor. Singling out fifteen men and women of the cloth from World War II, of singular bravery and eccentricity, distinguished as much for their character as their courage, the inimitable Rev'd. Fergus has spun a distinctively odd, highly entertaining, and ineffably British memorial to them, which joins the Field Guide as a minor classic of its kind.

From the ever tipsy Father Kir, immortalised through his Kir Royale, by way of such luminaries as The Forger-Priest of the Esquiline Hill, The Feisty Nicotine Nun, and the immortal Archbishop Damaskinos, who, facing the firing squad, calmly protested: "Please respect our traditions! In Greece, we hang our Archbishops!", the anecdotes in this priceless little tome are as funny as they are fascinating, depicting, as they do, the indefatigable courage, humour and leadership of these truly heroic souls.

As to the irrepressible Rev'd. Fergus himself, one can but hope for more. Endowed as he is with not merely an astonishing facility for the pen, but degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge, behold a polymath with a sense of humour!

"The Scarlet and the Black" film clip courtesy of ITC Entertainment

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Annals of the Hoare house: A ghostly tale for Halloween

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-10-25 | The story of Stowe's infamous ghost is one that is frequently told, but for all its subtle variations, happens to be true: not from your correspondent's point of view, but certainly from his father's and that of his famous headmaster, the immortal J.F. Roxborough, who saw into being the conversion of Stowe House into Stowe School in 1923 and its subsequent metamorphosis into one of the top ten private schools in Britain.

With no wish to cannibalise our video, which may, superficially, appear to bear little relation to books (not so: try Nick Morris's "Stowe House: an Architectural Masterpiece" for size), this fully documented tale of a young man's sobering encounter with a spectre on Midsummer's Eve remains a family treasure, as does Stowe itself; and regardless of the video's significance, for those of our viewers with any interest whatever in British horticultural and architectural design, this astonishing property remains one of the most distinguished, and fully restored, in the country.

As an aside, at the risk of yet more name-dropping, my father was one of the boys who opened the school in 1923. He not only shared a study with David Niven, but they, as prefects, shared in turn a rather portly "fag" (read "runner") by the name of Prince Rainier!

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The Secret World: A History of Intelligence by Christopher Andrew

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-10-12 | The secretive world of spycraft extends far beyond what contemporary intelligence would have us believe. As far back as the Roman Empire, through Renaissance Venice, Sir Francis Walsingham, the Spanish Armada and the Napoleonic Wars, to the two World Wars and today, history is replete with, and redolent of, the endless whiff of political betrayal.

Present day intelligence boasts illustrious antecedents; and in this consistently fascinating magnum opus, Christopher Andrew, who is internationally acknowledged as an expert on the topic (his history of MI5, as an insider, remains the one to beat), has excelled himself, not only covering three millennia of intelligence, but doing so in the most revealing and readable fashion.

Do not be put off by the book's girth, still less by the prodigious extent of its sources. Making light of a dense topic is never easy, but in the 700-plus pages of riveting text, Professor Andrew's tone is never less than engaging, gripping and comprehensive, covering the full gamut of political skulduggery from antiquity to the present day.

Our vignette has singled out the infamous Zimmermann telegram for special treatment, but we might well have alighted anywhere.

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Shopfronts of London by Eleanor Crow

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-10-05 | If England is a nation of shopkeepers, London is a city of shopfronts. This delightful little book, which eschews the famous facades of London's West End in favour of her pretty and varied outlying "villages", is a singular addition to an illustrious procession of predecessors. The latter, which includes such illustrative jewels as "Edward Bawden's London", "Hugh Casson's London" and "London Sketchbook", all of which hold esteemed positions in the Hoare house library, and are discussed in the accompanying vignette, comprises an astonishing vade mecum to visitor and resident alike; but what sets this charmer of a book apart is its colourful attention to detail.

Whereas Sir Hugh Casson and, to a lesser extent, Graham Byfield, rely on a loose and feathery approach to their characteristic watercolours, Eleanor Crow deploys the same medium, but in warmer and richer tones. More particularly, she singles out the long-established, but largely unknown, shopfronts of neighbourhoods such as Hackney, Battersea and Shoreditch, which remain frequently - and lamentably - ignored.

May they no longer be. Dalston, Bethnal Green and Walthamstow (The East London Sausage Co., anyone?) remain hopelessly overlooked in the overall scheme of things; and this delicious little book sets us straight.

Your correspondent recognises more than a few of the author's selections (not least John Sandoe's remarkable bookshop on Blacklands Terrace), but is the first to acknowledge his shameful ignorance of others. Having already earmarked a shop or three to patronise on his next visit, however, this delectable little tome has whetted an ageing appetite for such things as little else of its type has in ages.

Hats off to Eleanor Crow. More, please! (Marylebone, perhaps?)

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Pippin inspects our private post Dorian bonfire-to-be

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-10-01 | Our intrepid Maine Coon surveys the tree branch pile after Hurricane Dorian - Nova Scotia, September 2019.

Annals of the Hoare house: Hurricane Dorian, revisited

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-10-01 | Our more observant readers may have noted an untoward gap between our traditional summer break and our re-emergence on Labour Day. This, however, was solely attributable to the brutal intrusion of Hurricane Dorian earlier this month, which, while hardly up to the level inflicted on the unfortunate Bahamas, wrought its own degree of havoc on our neck of the woods, as the snapshots attached will attest.

In its wake, dozens of our trees took a severe haircut, but comparatively few were lost. Not so neighbouring apple orchards and vineyards, which suffered either major setbacks or total write-offs; and it remains to be seen just how much fruit can be salvaged at this point.

In the meantime, we resurface for another season, bloodied but unbowed. And it bodes well so far. There have been discoveries and rediscoveries in almost equal measure over the summer, and advance copies from far and wide indicate a sterling season ahead.

Our regular Saturday release resumes this weekend. Until then, we sincerely apologise for our deafening silence and hope you will once again join us.

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Blowing the Bloody Doors Off by Michael Caine

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-07-06 | At the ripe old age of 85, Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, alias Michael Caine (a tale in itself) has written no less than a third volume of autobiography - this one, perhaps, the icing on the cake.

Unlike its splendid predecessors, however (What's It All About? and The Elephant to Hollywood, both a delight in their fashion), Blowing the Bloody Doors Off is much more anecdotal. Ruminative and reflective, a hundred films in, but as indulgent and humorous as ever, this frothy tome is precisely the sort of thing with which one would expect a grand old man of the movies to crown his career. Indeed, his wry and benevolent look at a bygone era (not ghostwritten, either!) matches any of its kind.

From poverty in darkest Camberwell, as the son of a fish porter, to Oscars, a knighthood and one of the most successful marriages in the canon, this colourful character regales us with an insider's account of what it's like to be still at the top, all these years later.

Not to be misconstrued as literature, this is nonetheless old-fashioned fun from a richly recognisable voice. It is also a revealing bonanza for film buffs and foodies alike. And as to the latter, the next time you visit London, don't miss Langan's, the legendary restaurant started by Michael Caine and Peter Langan, just off Piccadilly: a destination in itself, of which much is written, and which is still going strong.

"The Italian Job" film clip, courtesy Paramount Pictures

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The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-06-29 | One of the more remarkable books to have been published in 2019 is The Uninhabitable Earth, a daunting, matter-of-fact account of how we have crippled our climate and where it is headed from here.

Far from being a technical tract, written by some humourless professor, this is the work of a distinguished journalist, seasoned in his research, written by and for the layman. In chapters notable for their concision, each a topic within a topic, we are treated - if that be the word - to such issues as Cascades, Heat Death, Hunger, Drowning, Wildfire, Freshwater Drain, Dying Oceans, Unbreathable Air and Plagues of Warming; to which the author appends his own response: Storytelling, Crisis Capitalism, The Church of Technology, The Politics of Consumption, History After Progress, and Ethics at the End of the World.

In less than 300 pages, a vast array of climatic science has been compacted into a grippingly readable, sobering tale of global abuse that has not only come back to haunt the present generation, but will positively undo the next.

Greta Thunberg, meet your match. A monument of its kind, this is a wake-up call if ever there were one.

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The Knowledge: Train Your Brain Like a Cabbie by Robert Lordan

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-06-08 | In this fascinating book, our engaging author rightly observes that The Great Fire of London of 1666 blessed the city with a blank canvas: a golden opportunity to follow a grid in rebuilding, a la Paris and New York. But the surviving locals would have none of it, preferring to do so haphazardly on the sites of their former homes and businesses. The unfortunate spaghetti of streets, byways, squares, lanes, bridges, tunnels, alleys, passages and sudden dead ends that ensued, characteristic of London as they all may be, resulted in a labyrinthine web of such complexity that only the chosen few can find their way around without a map. As our author puts it, "a Jackson Pollock". Indeed.

Those few are London's cabbies, as famed for their fertile brains as their Cockney humour. The Knowledge is their extraordinary story. Written by the delightful driver of a black cab himself, we are informed that, in a marathon 30-odd "appearances" before an examiner, spread over a minimum of 4 years in the aptly named Corridor of Fear, with a 70% drop-out rate, an applicant is required to memorise not only the 25 thousand streets within a 6-mile radius of Charing Cross ("the epicentre), but their layouts, including "housing estates, parks and open spaces; government offices and departments; financial and commercial centres; diplomatic premises and town halls; registry offices, hospitals and places of worship; sports stadiums and leisure centres; airline offices, stations, hotels and clubs; theatres, cinemas and museums; art galleries, schools and universities; police stations; criminal and coroners' courts; prisons; and places of interest to tourists. In fact, anywhere a taxi passenger might ask to be taken."
Short of a photographic memory, who on earth can cope? The answer lies in this fascinating book. A creative combination of mnemonics, the alphabet, acronyms, capital letters, keywords, history, personal knowledge, and similar triggers, train the cabbie's brain as little else can.

Accompanied by a handsome collection of David Gentleman-styled drawings of individual routes, and "a glossary of Knowledge terms and cabbie slang", this astonishing tome is one of those minor classics of British publishing that warm the cockles of my ageing heart.

To all who read it, a ride in a black cab will never be the same again. Enjoy it. Cheap at the price.

"Taxi" by Bryan Ferry, courtesy Virgin Records, 1993

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Normal People by Sally Rooney

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-06-01 | Some time ago, we had the pleasure of introducing a relatively unknown novelist by the name of Sally Rooney, whose very first work, Conversations With Friends, so captivated her audience that she was catapulted from obscurity to fame in a matter of weeks.
Despite a curious, and continuing, insistence on not attaching quotation marks to the dialogue for which she is known, two years later she's done it again. Normal People, also set in and around Dublin, with equally young protagonists, is every bit as good as its predecessor, and off to an even more stellar start. #1 in her homeland, and headed that way here, it concerns the ups and downs of two otherwise smart young people, Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron - she well off, from a good family; he impoverished from a poor one - whose natural shyness and different backgrounds belie their devotion to each other, and prevents them from letting down their defenses and declaring themselves.

Spread over four years, and building to an intense finale, the result is a succession of social setbacks that would normally ruin a relationship. The fact that they don't is our author's hallmark, which makes for a highly satisfying romance that appeals, once again, as much to the male of the species as the female.

Warmly recommended.

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Motown: The Sound of Young America by Adam White, Barney Ales and Andrew Loog Oldham

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-05-18 | Other than their hairdos, what do the likes of Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Lionel Richie, The Jackson Five, Gladys Knight, The "Temps" and The Commodores have in common?

Motown.

Those of our viewers who have come to expect a certain standard will be somewhat startled to note that, underneath your correspondent's deceptively elegant veneer, there beats the heart of an ageing rocker, given to wearing wigs (not!).

Nowhere is that more apparent than with Motown, whose peerless and prodigious musical output accounts for a large slice of the 8,000-odd LPs lurking in these precincts, many of them first editions, exported to Britain perforce (by the indispensable Sam Goody) when such things were only selectively issued there.

Thanks largely to Billboard, not a single issue of which has been missed in 50 years, the Hoare house collection is almost definitive. But so, too, is this book, which covers the rich history of the Tamla-Motown-Gordy group as a whole. Written by enlightened insiders - Adam White, Billboard's stellar editor at the time; the ineffable Barney Ales, who ran all three labels with the President, Berry Gordy; and Andrew Loog Oldham, The Rolling Stones' highly astute manager - Motown: The Sound of Young America is the book on the topic we've been awaiting for, lo! these many years.

In addition, until January 2020, the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, has mounted a parallel exhibit in tandem with this handsome book. Deploying the same title, it claims to be "the first major museum exhibition to embrace all facets - music, culture and politics - of the 1960s' biggest sounds in soul."

Comprehensive, smoothly written, pictorially perfect and consistently fascinating, this splendid tome is long overdue. Published, improbably, by the august house of Thames & Hudson in London, it is a musical sight for sore eyes; and the music, the history and the evocative context come roaring back as in a flood.

A timeless memorial to an indelible era when some of us still had hair!

While your correspondent's affection for classics and jazz remains happily unabated (6,000 recordings at last count and climbing), Motown's R&B holds a hallowed place by comparison to contemporary pop, little of which will has legs and much of which is atrocious.

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The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-05-11 | What on earth, one might ask, is the point of reviewing a book that is fully 80 years old? The answer, in a word, is simple: it's timeless.

Unlike contemporary humour, which ebbs and flows with the vicissitudes of fashion - and often seems sadly dated - Wodehouseian humour is as durable as the day is long, and indelibly funny.

The Code of the Woosters, in which the redoubtable Jeeves joins forces with his hapless employer in a misguided imbroglio, involving his beloved Aunt Dahlia, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Sir Watkyn Bassett, and Aunt Dahlia's indispensable Chef, Anatole, who is about to be swapped for an 18th-Century cow-creamer, is the purest of froth, the likes of which has never been emulated.
Wodehouse's oeuvre, which tots up to 80-odd volumes - most of which, amazingly, is still in print - remains vintage fare of classic stature and consistent delight. This particular volume is a notable example.

British humour at its best.

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Annals of the Hoare house: The lure of letters (2

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-05-04 | In our opening salvo devoted to letters, we cited the surprise hit of 2013, Letters of Note, in which its editor, Simon Usher, had culled and copied some of the most engaging personal letters of all time, thereby precipitating the extraordinarily successful stage show, Letters Live.

Its sequel, More Letters of Note, is equally intriguing, but covers a different range altogether; and while it doesn't include the authors cited here, handsomely complements its predecessor.

In our continuing series of vignettes devoted to letters, certain authors are standouts. Not only are they consistently readable (not always the case in a full-length book), but the letters themselves are varied, encompassing a vast range of topics.

One such writer is Nancy Mitford, whose Letters of Nancy Mitford remains an emblem of her literary career. Addressing the likes of her lover, Gaston Palewski, Cyril Connolly, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell and her innumerable, demanding sisters, this lovely, gossipy book, runs the gamut from humour to bathos with seemingly effortless ease.

So, too, the exchanges between one of her sisters, the Duchess of Devonshire, and her devoted, lifelong friend, Patrick Leigh Fermor, written across half a century and multiple continents. In Tearing Haste, handsomely edited by Charlotte Mosley (who is married to Nancy Mitford's nephew), is a humorous delight from start to finish.

Darling Monster - Diana Cooper's letters to her son, John Julius Norwich, in his youth - is equally inimitable; while the Americans, far from being outdone, are admirably represented by the peerless S.J. Perelman, whose Don't Tread On Me is a peerless anthology of some of the funniest letters ever written.

All in all, a handsome cross-section of the literary treasure trove that is the world of letters.

Video clip courtesy of Letters Live

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Nina Campbell Interior Decoration: Elegance and Ease by Giles Kime

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-04-27 | Since first she went to work for Colefax & Fowler, at the ripe old age of 19, that very British decorator, Nina Campbell, has risen (deservedly) to lofty heights and international acclaim.

Very much a Sloane Ranger - she was actually born on Sloane Street, and her shop has been at the same address, round the corner on Walton Street, for nearly 50 years - she has lived, from her birth, in a succession of elegant homes within walking distance, as has her daughter, Rita Konig, herself very much in the trade (she writes for House & Garden).

Nina Campbell's 3-year apprenticeship to her mentor, John Fowler, led to independence and almost instant success while she was still in her 20s. Her early partnership with Mark Birley in his 1963 revamping of Annabel's - London's louche and rather more elegant counterpart to New York's Studio 54 - proved both the litmus test and turning point in her fledgling career, which thereupon promptly took off. Deploying classic British style in true Colefax, floral fashion, but adding a distinctive layer of flair of her own, she soon branched out into fabrics, wallpapers and accessories, partnering with Peter Osborne and Anthony Little in their own, fledgling firm, now itself a legend.

Endowed with biting wit and an innate gift for repartee, Nina was, even then, a character. In a memorable encounter with Elena Bowes on November 18th, 2018, regarding the impending sale of the contents of 44 Berkeley Street (Annabel's has since moved next door), she engagingly recalled the following:

I remember when I had just been taken on by Mark to do the club…. I was about 19. I had never been to a urinal. I mean, why would you? And I was also trying desperately to sound intelligent. So we go into the men’s room which is beautiful because there’s this wonderful onyx on the wall and there’s a ticker tape in the corner with all the Reuters news coming in. And then there’s this wall of white porcelain urinals.

I really do find them quite unattractive… Everyone’s there. Mark’s there. The picture hanger’s there because we were thinking of hanging up pictures. I was struggling, thinking what could I add to this? I see that there’s no loo paper holder. And I say, “Oh, you don’t have a loo paper holder here.” … I had no idea that men just peed and shook themselves dry. And of course, the whole place collapsed in hysteria. I had clearly made the most unbelievably stupid remark. I’m quite amused that the urinal is being sold. I think if I had a huge house I might just buy one for memory’s sake.
Courtesy Elena Bowes - Nov 18, 2018

Connected to high society, internationally and in all its forms, but a highly astute businesswoman withal, Nina Campbell has now met her Boswell in Giles Kime, whose own experience as Executive Editor of Country Life, with a particular affection for interior design, stands him here in good stead. Colourful, expansive and thorough, his book is an ideal account of Nina Campbell's meteoric rise, and singular achievements, to date.

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Could it REALLY be .... SPRING?!

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-04-26 | Turn up the volume!

Toe-toe, our six-toed tabby, is taunted by the spring blue jays and robins residing in our Nova Scotia garden.

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Thenford: The Creation of an English Garden by Michael and Anne Heseltine

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-04-20 | Near the pretty town of Banbury, on the borders of Oxfordshire and Northants, lies the tiny village of Thenford. With a population of less than 100, this otherwise unremarkable spot conceals an astounding property, owned by Michael Heseltine and his redoubtable wife, Anne.

Over the 40-plus years they've owned it, Thenford House and its formerly tatty gardens have been systematically restored. Redesigning almost from scratch (the parterres were inspired by the Chateau de Villandry), and with a further 30 acres of farmland added over the years as neighbouring properties became available, the Heseltines have steadily designed and built a first-class, fully-fledged, 70-acre arboretum of both rarity and distinction.

Lanning Roper, whom they seconded in 1977; and developing it through Sir Harold Hillier, the Chairman of Hillier's Nurseries (which still houses the largest collection of woody plants in the world: over 12,000 at last count), this determined couple, despite Lord Heseltine's demanding ascendancy through the corridors of power in the Thatcher government (he rose to become Deputy Prime Minister), proceeded to exact both horticultural and arboreal miracles, amassing en route some 5,000 species of trees, shrubs and plants, including 400 different roses, almost as many oaks, 350 cotoneasters, and no less than 350 varieties of snowdrops (His Lordship's personal passion, not altogether shared by his wife).

Under Darren Webster, their amiable head gardener of long standing, this noble arboretum continues to develop unabated (it even sports its own nursery and a complex of greenhouses); and despite disasters both predictable and unforeseen - not least the influx of an undislodgeable flock of Canada Geese, with which your correspondent sympathises - Thenford has become the object of intense - and international - horticultural interest.

While it remains a private garden (the Heseltines plan to pass it on to one of their children), it is nonetheless open to the public, on a contained, ticketed basis, 4 times a year.

For those sufficiently interested in, but unwilling to indulge, the extravagance of the book itself (which Lord and Lady Heseltine wrote, personally and revealingly, in pleasantly adjoining chapters), you are referred to that bastion of bucolic living, Country Life, whose issue of April 3rd, 2019, features a most excellent article by the horticultural journalist, Charles Quest-Ritson.

Altogether a highly unusual garden, with a suitably handsome book to match.

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Annals of the Hoare house: The lure of letters (1)

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-04-12 | A few years ago, the esteemed British actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, was invited to join a fledgling group of actors, writers, poets, and musicians in an obscure church in London, where a common passion for other people's letters could be indulged and shared from a public platform.

Taking a leaf from Sean Usher's surprise hit, Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, published in 2013, Letters Live became a critical and cultural smash. Drawing both letters and listeners from all walks of life, these literary evenings became rapid sellouts from the start, frequently doing so in 90 minutes flat. So successful did they become, in fact, that their audiences overflowed the church's banks, soon to include the much more distinguished, and very much larger, Royal Albert Hall. Luminaries such as Ben Kingsley, Olivia Colman, Gillian Anderson and Ian McKellen have joined such originals as Juliet Stevenson, Thom Yorke and Cumberbatch himself, forming a phalanx of distinguished readers, who now perform, over a dozen a time, as far afield as Edinburgh, New York, Los Angeles and Venice.

Letters do, indeed, live - and read remarkably well live. As Mr. Cumberbatch himself has memorably noted, "Letters are grenades!"

In the first of a series (the next being diaries), your correspondent now embarks on a literary mission of his own: that of slowly, but steadily, salvaging and reviving a largely lost art. The writing, reading and sharing of letters - highly personal at the time, but openly public now - is an underrated passion that deserves the fullest literary indulgence, covering as it does a vast array of topics, styles and moods, involving writers of all ages, origins and eras.

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April Fools Day

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-04-01 | Normally, our weekly videos are released on Saturdays; but to mark April Fool's Day, 2019, which falls on a Monday, your correspondent has prepared a one-off devoted exclusively to bloopers.

As clients of old will recall, Nicholas Hoare Ltd was both a wholesaler and retailer of books, with our beloved libraries accounting for the bulk of the family business. Over four decades of mutual support, our order department amassed a colourful collection of library typos, many of which are classics of their kind.

In the spirit of both affection and humour, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

No fooling!

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Love Is Blind by William Boyd

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-03-30 | William Boyd is a consistently reliable novelist of the first water, whose richly varied output includes such gems as A Good Man in Africa, An Ice-Cream War and your correspondent's personal favourite, Any Human Heart, which became a delectable television series, starring Jim Broadbent in a masterstroke of casting.

As usual, Boyd's 15th novel, Love Is Blind, differs totally from its predecessors, but is equally enjoyable. Set in the 1890's, its hero is one Brodie Moncur, a tall, good-looking Scotsman, whose firebrand of a father occasions him to leave house and home at an early age for Edinburgh, where he joins a firm of piano manufacturers and trains to become a piano tuner.

Channon pianos are the Steinways of Scotland. Soon recognised for his extraordinary talent in tailoring instruments to their players, and not above doctoring their keys, Brodie is soon brought to Paris and poached by a professional performer, an Irishman by the name of John Kilbarron, who promptly takes him on a concert tour across the continent.

The plot thickens, however, when Brodie poaches in turn Kilbarron's spectacular Russian mistress, Lydia - Lika, for short - who falls as hard for him as he for her. Unlike his paramour, however, Brodie under-estimates the extent of Kilbarron's vengeful, vindictive and altogether nasty appendage, his brother, Malachi, whose relentless pursuit of the two lovers propels this suspenseful tale.

Ranging from Paris, where Brodie is diagnosed with consumption, to St, Petersburg, Nice, Biarritz and Trieste, this elaborate, evocative tale is vintage Boyd and thoroughly commended. (And if you have neither read nor seen Any Human Heart, an enormous treat awaits.)

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The Literary Review, reviewed

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-03-22 | Your correspondent is frequently asked how and where his books are chosen. And thereby hangs a tale, involving, as it does, a motley crew of lesser entities, rising to a single, dominant source.

The Literary Review was founded in 1979 by an Edinburgh academic. Directed at a tiny audience of similarly sophisticated readers hungry for intelligent book reviews in the face of ever declining newspaper coverage, it went through a succession of worthy editors until an improbable encounter between its subsequent owner, a sophisticated Palestinian emigre, named Naim Attallah, whose day job was that of Managing Director of Asprey's, a Bond Street landmark, and Evelyn Waugh's son, Auberon, as a result of which the magazine became a landmark itself.

The two men became fast friends; subscriptions doubled and doubled again; and for the last 15 years of his life, after a much respected career as both author and journalist, Auberon Waugh became an editor himself. He succeeded brilliantly. On his humorous, benevolent and indulgent watch, his magazine became a monthly treat, not merely for the quality of its reviews, but for the quality of the reviewers themselves. Peer reviewing peer, expert reviewing expert, most endowed with a very British sense of humour, has become the hallmark of an increasingly respected paper, whose present editor, Nancy Sladek, more than lives up to her illustrious predecessors.

It is this remarkable organ that spawns so many of our own vignettes, and deservedly so. British-based, but cosmopolitan to the core, it appeals to an international base of loyal readers, whose affection for it is as reliable as the excellent books it selects.

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The Gardens of Bunny Mellon by Linda Jane Holden

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-03-16 | In at least 100 of the 103 years she was with us, the recently deceased doyenne of American gardening, Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, had her heart in the garden and her fingers in the soil. Quite untrained, and fiercely amateur, this extraordinarily tasteful lady, who was the widow of one of the richest men on the continent, designed and developed some of the most sophisticated contemporary landscapes (to say nothing of houses) in private hands today, within an assortment of handsome homes in New York, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Antigua and Virginia.

A lady of decorative parts, her botanical antennae were so acute that she also designed for her friends, including JFK, who wisely dragooned her into overhauling two White House favourites, the Rose Garden and the East Garden. In conjunction with her principal couturier, Hubert de Givenchy, to whom she was devoted (he even designed her gardening smocks), she also supervised the restoration of Louis XIV's Potager du Roi at Versailles.

In this distinguished tome - the first such to focus on both her public and private designs - her personal drawings, plans and watercolours, together with archival records, are coupled with a stunning array of snapshots specifically taken for the book. The result is horticultural lust: aspiration vs. reality personified, but sheer inspiration throughout.

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Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World by Adam Tooze

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-03-09 | Of the droves of books covering the financial shambles - and scandals - of recent years, most make dour, technical and less than gripping reads. Not so Adam Tooze's masterwork, Crashed, a monumental, single-volume survey of the lead-up to the 2008 economic meltdown and its continuing repercussions today.

Written by an acknowledged expert, from a refreshingly global, as opposed to Wall Street, perspective, and complete with a dramatis personae drawn from a vast international canvas, this riveting tome holds the reader from the very first page and never lets go. Written for laymen - colloquially and well - it addresses the labyrinthine twists and turns of contemporary politics and finance in measured, chronological tones, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions.

A fascinating, if sobering, pre-mortem on an ongoing crisis that will not be helped by either BREXIT or Brussels, and is as slippery as mercury, this makes a gripping counterpart to Michael Lewis' immortal The Big Short, clips of which are teasingly appended.

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Melmoth by Sarah Perry

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-03-02 | Regular readers have long since noted that your correspondent is not a great reader of fiction. But he is a reader of great fiction, of which Melmoth is a prime example.

This spooky, gothicky tale, written by the author of The Essex Serpent (separately reviewed), concerns a malevolent, ghostly woman, clad in flowing black with bleeding feet, who is condemned to walk the Earth for all eternity in search of souls similarly tormented by guilt or despair, to whom she clings like a leech until their inevitable demise.

One such prospective victim is an expat British translator, in her thirties, who flees from England to the cobblestoned city of Prague under a cloud, having committed what she feels is a totally unforgivable sin. Donning the equivalent of a hair-shirt, and living like a pauper by way of self-flagellation, she accidentally befriends a local named Karel, himself the unwitting inheritor of Melmoth's curse. The evocative, if sinister, tale that ensues, which is fashioned refreshingly around a female anti-heroine, is what sets this remarkable tale apart.

Inspired by Robert Charles Maturin's 1820 novel, Melmoth the Wanderer, this is nonetheless highly original gothic fiction - of such a standard, in fact, that it prompted Susan Hill, of The Woman in Black fame, to inform the author that she had had to move the book physically from her bedside table in order to be able to sleep at all. It involves mysterious letters, a confession, a manuscript, an unwanted legacy, and the constant presence of a ghostly figure lurking in the background, endlessly waiting and watching for her next opportunity to pounce.

Sarah Perry has done it again. As contemporary ghost stories go, one of the best.

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The other side of Jeremy Clarkson

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-02-23 | Jeremy Clarkson is a British institution. Renowned on these shores for his colourful antics on such programmes as Top Gear and Grand Tour, there is, however, another side to him that is less well known on this side of the water, but equally entertaining.

He writes for The Sunday Times.

His hilarious newspaper columns, which run once a week, to national acclaim, are periodically compiled, forming first-rate collections of brief and pithy essays, on a battery of topics, that have consistently captivated Britain and sold in the millions; and it is these that bear discovery over here.

Beginning with The World According to Clarkson, and progressing through such gems as How Hard Can It Be?, Round the Bend and Driven to Distraction, his latest is If You'd Just Let Me Finish, but any one of them is a dabbler's delight.

British humour at its brightest and best.

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Inspired Design: The 100 Most Important Interior Designers of the Past 100 Years by Jennifer Boles

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-02-16 | Decorating a home tends to make the eyes glaze or the adrenaline flow: there's lamentably little between. For aficionados, however, there's nothing more inspiring than other people's work; and in this highly imposing tome, the doyenne of decorative blogging, Jennifer Boles, has pulled off a unique achievement, boiling down a daunting choice to what she deems to be the 100 top designers of the past century, with commensurate illustrations.

And her selection is exemplary.

In pocket biographies, a page apiece, led by her personal favourite, Albert Hadley (whose concept for Brooke Astor's memorable library was shamelessly poached by your correspondent, three houses ago, to resounding success at the time), famous names such as Billy Baldwin, David Hicks and Cecil Beaton are joined by relative newcomers like Alexa Hampton and Michael Smith. There are inevitable omissions - Tom Parr springs instantly to mind - but if the author's task was unenviable, the results are quite the reverse.

In such chapters as "The Big Six", "A Century of Women", "The Influencers", and "The English Masters", we have as elegant a parade of professionals as ever graced the pages of the glossies. We also have one of the more handsome examples of the genre, splendidly printed and bound (and designed).
In the meantime, for those who have yet to explore it, Ms. Boles' blog, The Peak of Chic, which is now well into its 13th year, remains an indispensable source of inspiration, design and decorative history, some of it visible in the house where these lines are written; and for those whose appetite is whetted by this book, the individual designers included can be explored in much greater detail therein, along with many another.

In the meantime, hats off to Ms. Bowles. A notable achievement by any standards. And hers are high.

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Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-02-09 | Almost exactly 100 years ago, the legendary Lytton Strachey startled his stuffy contemporaries by publishing Eminent Victorians, a masterpiece of subtle wit that punctured a hole in the myths and shibboleths attached to such luminaries as Dr. Arnold and Florence Nightingale. It was an instant succes de scandale and has never gone out of print since.

A century later, openly poaching the same technique, the young historian, Andrew Roberts, published Eminent Churchillians, poking an equally revisionist hole in several pretenders to the prime ministerial throne, all of whom had hitched their coattails to Churchill's wagon, for largely selfish reasons, and gone along for the ride (including the late unlamented Lord Mountbatten, the case for whose impeachment your correspondent most heartily agrees with).

25 years after that, Mr. Roberts has now gone one better, by tackling the man himself. In so doing, he has written a veritable masterwork that not only crowns his own career, but neatly supplants its legion of predecessors in one fell stroke. Of these, the late Roy Jenkins, whose own study, "Churchill: a Biography", met with similar accolades in 2001, becoming a classic itself at the time, did not have access to the rich trove of additional data released over the intervening 17 years, to which the author had privileged access.

It is this material that differentiates Andrew Roberts' biography from the pack. Diaries, letters, transcripts and even some unpublished memoirs of Churchill's contemporaries, all only lately released, have greatly enriched a tale of such stature that it bodes well to becoming definitive.

Churchill's lasting monument is, of course, his consummate handling of World War II, without which the entire world would have taken a nasty turn. Here, too, Andrew Roberts rises to the occasion; and in "What Might Have Been", his anthology of "alternate histories", written by the likes of Amanda Foreman and Antonia Fraser, published in 2004, one such essay covered a German-Japanese victory, most recently (and brilliantly) addressed in a TV series called The Man in the Castle (q.v. below, and warmly recommended).

Lengthy, but brilliantly written and remarkably smooth to read, behold a classic in the making.

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Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-02-01 | In the 19 years since his death, the inimitable Edward Gorey has lacked an appropriate biographer, leaving a literary gulf of the first water. This book finally fills the gap; and while it is no means perfect, it goes a long way toward assuaging his many admirers' innate curiosity about this wildly witty and intelligent man, whose immense output of ominous, albeit humorous tales, in Victorian-Edwardian settings, have become, deservedly, classics.

With rings on his fingers and bells on his toes, to paraphrase the nursery rhyme (let alone full-length fur coats, which he sported regardless of season), his sartorial eccentricities alone rendered this mythical character unique. Yet his shy benevolence and sheer amiability made him a very close friend, within a narrow circle, of male and female alike. Imperturbably asexual, surrounded by his beloved cats, his inimitable drawings, latched to a perennially dry and very Harvard humour, he led a monastic life, yet created a prodigious archive of books and illustrations that live on long after his death (some have still to be published).

T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats", and John Bellairs' many books for children, all sport Gorey jackets. But his own works, anthologised in such wonderful works as "Amphigorey" and "Amphigorey Too", remain the touchstones by which his art is judged.

An excellent biography, long overdue, of a great and lasting character.

Video thumbnail © The Avedon Foundation

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The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons: Mankoff, Bob ed.

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-01-26 | In 2004, The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker made its welcome initial appearance: a massive, 650-page tome, featuring all 68,647 cartoons, in a combination of disks and text, that had ever been published to that point.

Fourteen years later, to equal acclaim, a sister publication has arrived, this time in the form of an encyclopaedia. Featuring the same editor, Bob Mankoff - a celebrated cartoonist himself - one can now enjoy an anthology, well over twice the length of its predecessor, sans CDs, laid out by topic as a 2-volume set; and highly amusing it is. Including hundreds of period classics from the likes of Peter Arno, Chas. Addams, Price and the inimitable Booth, it also sports such later luminaries as Chast, Sempe and Koren, 150 in all.

While this is not the sort of thing to take to bed with you - it weighs 14 pounds and runs a full 1500 pages in length - as a compendium of hilarity, it can hardly be beat. A notably humorous celebration of an incomparable institution that will soon be a hundred years old (and a bit of a bargain to boot: the book, that is).

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Daphne de Maurier, revisited

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-01-19 | The redoubtable Daphne du Maurier, whose perennially popular novels never go out of print, was every bit as intriguing as her fiction.

As a handsome assortment of books will attest, several reviewed here, she was a member of a famous family, which included her theatrical father, Sir Gerald, and grandfather George, both of whom left an indelible mark on their own times. But the touchstone by which she herself was judged was her lifelong love for Cornwall, which radiates and illuminates her fiction.

Of the latter, her classic remains Rebecca, closely followed by My Cousin Rachel, Frenchman's Creek, and your correspondent's personal favourite, Hungry Hill. But when it comes to film, it is Rebecca that dominates. After no less than three versions to date, beginning with Alfred Hitchcock's, yet a fourth is being cast even as this is written, featuring Lily James, of Downton Abbey fame, as the second Mrs de Winter, and Armie Hammer as Max (the dreaded Mrs Danvers has yet to be cast). It already bodes well to becoming the one to beat.

But through it all, Daphne du Maurier lives durably on, and the story of her life remains as fascinating as her fiction. In that regard, a few handsome suggestions herewith.

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Roll Over! A Counting Song by Merle Peek

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-01-13 | "10 in the bed and the little one said: 'Roll over! Roll over! They all rolled over and one fell out..."

Learning to count backwards might seem counter-productive, but not if it's all in fun and you learn along the way. This simplest of simple bedtime tales, first published in 1981 and reissued in multiple formats since, remains a rhythmic, timeless delight for tinies and parents alike.

But stick to the board book: it will be used to the point of collapse.

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Annals of the Hoare house: The Sunday edition, feline version

Nicholas Hoare Books 2019-01-13 | Dear, indulgent reader:

Usually, our reviews arrive in your inbox on Saturdays. Not so this time. In shameless obeisance to the CBC's much respected 3-hour programme, "The Sunday Edition", which prompts this particular "post", your correspondent has finally composed an overdue paean to the beloved feline of the species: one which dominates the Hoare house and, to a lesser extent, this website.

In the wake of a particular "essay" in a particular episode of this remarkable programme (q.v. the January 6th, 2019 edition, available online at CBC.ca/radio/thesundayedition, or on SIRIUS XM), entitled "What Happened When the Cat Died," the bereaved owner of Sir Hamish, her beloved orange tabby, delivers a humorous, yet rueful requiem to a feisty, recently deceased beast of considerable character and charm, whose demise at the ripe old age of twenty prompted an outpouring of community sympathy and support at a level that simply floored her.

As the devoted owner of multiple cats over four decades myself, dotted about both domestically and in our four retail stores, said essay was a show-stopper, prompting me to ruminate on cats both past and present, and to dig out some favourite tomes on the topic.

Some (but not all) of these feature in the accompanying video (or, as our friends at PBS would term it, vignette): a mess of literary pottage that comes to you with no apologies (most of the titles concerned are out of print, but readily available second-hand), having secured the feline equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from the paws of the Hoare house's present pair of incumbents, to wit:

PIPPIN: Maine Coon, female, photogenic, age 10; and

TOETOE (she of the six toes, Hemingway-style: not to be confused with a certain pop group): "rescue" cat, somewhat portly, origins indeterminate, age 9

As to "The Sunday Edition" itself, all 1,000-plus episodes of which are assiduously archived for online delving, this delightful, durable and consistently refreshing institution has been a Sunday morning tradition at the Hoare house for lo! these many years, and is warmly recommended to listeners both north and south of the border. Indeed, as Michael Enright, its distinguished and amiable host of long standing, records at strategic intervals, "Don't go away!"

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France: A History from Gaul to de Gaulle by John Julius Norwich

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-12-31 | Lady Diana Manners, the ravishing daughter (officially, anyway) of the 8th Duke of Rutland, married the rising political star, Duff Cooper in 1919, instantly forming a golden couple who captivated London society between the wars.

Their only son, the late lamented John Julius Norwich - a consummate writer like themselves - was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. Endowed with no less than seventeen godparents, including the likes of Lord Beaverbrook and the Aga Khan, this redoubtable author, who left a string of first rate histories behind him, bequeathed one last work for publication after his death.

Known as A History of France in its American edition, this warm and affectionate book is a charmer. Covering two millennia of history of a frequently exasperating country in 400-odd pages would seem a daunting task (the witty footnotes warrant a review of their own), but Lord Norwich addresses it with typical flair, urbanity and humour.

As the crowning touch to a stellar career, this is popular history at its best.

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A Field Guide to the English Clergy: A Compendium of Diverse Eccentrics, Pirates ...

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-12-22 | You don't have to be religious to enjoy this hilarious book. England is notorious for its clerical oddballs, many of whom populate the pages of this vastly entertaining tome. Written with splendid felicity and high good humour by an Anglican curate himself - he blessed with the appropriate name of the Rev. Fergus Butler-Gallie - this hilarious compendium of batty, colourful and extremely British eccentrics has the makings of a modern classic, and is on no account to be overlooked.

A delightfully unorthodox stocking-stuffer. Anglican follies at their finest, most enthusiastically recommended.

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A Wayne in a Manger by Gervase Phinn

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-12-15 | Out of the mouths of babes...

The famous "Yorkshire Vet", James Herriot, who was lionised in a hugely successful PBS series, based on his book, "All Creatures Great and Small", and various sequels, left some mighty big shoes to fill. But filled they have been - improbably, by a benevolent, humorous and wildly popular Yorkshire school inspector, named Gervase Phinn, whose hilarious encounters with small children, bemused teachers and tiny country schools during his peregrinations have been immortalised in a series of very funny (and very successful) books.

One of these is the memorable A Wayne in a Manger, in which our hero records some highly amusing, improvised performances of Nativity plays that bear little resemblance to the original, but are all the funnier for it.

A Christmasy classic. Sheer delight from start to finish - and a brilliant stocking-stuffer.

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Mr. Willowbys Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-12-15 | A Christmas classic.

Wealthy Mr. Willowby orders a Christmas tree so tall it can't even fit under his lofty ceiling. Enter butler, who simply lops the top off and discards it. Enter bear, in turn, who makes off with the latter, only to discover it's too tall for him, too. More loppings; more latters; until, several increasingly small creatures later, a family of mice purloins the very tippy-top - right under Mr. Willowby's own floorboards.

A rhyming tale with a recycling message that is as valid today as it was when it was first published - almost seventy years ago.

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Annals of the Hoare House: the years 10 best

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-12-08 | Please visit bookreviewsandvideos.com
for more book recommendations.

Happy Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-12-01 | The redoubtable novelist, Kate Atkinson, is greatly respected for the breadth of her topics, which range from reincarnation (Life After Life) to social history (Behind the Scenes at the Museum) to this one, involving the settling of debts between spies and their prey in the wake of the Second World War.

At the ripe old age of eighteen, Juliet Armstrong is an attractive, highly educated, but impecunious young woman, who latches upon a lowly job, at the outset of war, as a paper-pusher in the Secret Services. Here she is "spotted" by MI5 and unwittingly groomed for stardom to infiltrate the British Union of Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosley's infamous league of Nazi sympathisers. The ensuing tale of avengers and avengees forms the basis of the tale.

A lighter version of John Le Carre, with a much more feminine twist, this is nonetheless robust and textured Atkinsonian fare, involving double agents, derring do, obscure Czechs, and flashbacks (the book begins with our heroine's demise), the whole anchored by a foggily evocative London setting, during and after the Blitz.

Slow to build, but steadily rewarding, this refreshingly clean spy novel, with its prodigious period detail (Baby Bellings, anyone?), is lightly infused with humour (an unusual amount of it in ruminative brackets), and is ideal for light, intelligent reading, involving a wartime plot, an engaging heroine, and plenty of period atmosphere.

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The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at The Tower of London by Christopher Skaife

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-12-01 | Written by the illustrious Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife, of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress The Tower of London, member of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, to give him his full title, this is a truly astonishing book.

The hand-picked soldiers, veterans all, who compose said Guard, include one distinctive warder responsible for the royal, nay regal, ravens - seven in number - who, by purported decree of King Charles II, continue to preside over life at the Tower, to the delight and amusement of visitors and warders alike.

As ravenmaster, our hero not only lives in the Tower, but holds a unique office, involving the care and maintenance of his highly intelligent charges. Two-and-a-half feet long, with wingspans up to four feet wide, and three times the size of crows (who fly in colonies, not pairs), these imposing birds are patently dear to the heart of their host, whose peerless humour and ceaseless patience radiate the pages of this totally splendid work.

This is not to be confused with a book merely for for bird-lovers. As much a mixture of English history as avian behaviour, this is one of the best books of the year, with immense appeal to readers of all stripes, whether British or not. And through it all, the irrepressible Merlina, our hero's favourite, regal, raven presides: wickedly mischievous, wildly intelligent and improbably endearing.

Warmly recommended for children of all ages, particularly those who never grew up.

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Esmeralda and the Children Next Door by Jenny Nimmo (Paul Howard, ill.)

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-11-24 | Children's books about bullying are usually sanctimonious affairs that sail right over the heads of their intended audience. Not so Esmeralda, a tale involving a circus family, an outsize heroine of formidable strength, and her contemptuous contemporaries next door. Despite a heart of gold, she is shunned for her size and becomes sad and lonely - until, that is, a wicked wind blows in, bringing potential disaster with it.

One of the least moralistic tales of its type, and highly enjoyable in its own right, this remains an old favourite of the Hoare house.

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The Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-11-24 | Once in a while, a book appears of such singular oddity that it becomes almost instantly collectible. Such was the case with this curiosity, which was first issued by an obscure publisher named Zuleika, promptly to vanish as fast as it had appeared. Enter then a mainstream publisher, who printed many more copies - in record time - and catapulted it internationally.

The background to this extraordinary book is almost as intriguing as its subjects. In 1956, James Pope-Hennessy, who stemmed from a famous family himself and was extremely well connected (his mother, Lady Una, was herself a successful author, while his brother, Sir John, was the Director of both the V&A and The British Museum), was retained, unusually, by the Crown to write an official biography of Queen Mary, who had died three years earlier. Three years later, the resulting thumper, entitled simply Queen Mary, was published to international acclaim, and became a biographical landmark, selling in the thousands.

But therein lies the rub. In the three years it had taken to conduct his aristocratic interviews and write the book, the author had amassed a positive treasure trove of personal notes, as perceptive as they were indiscreet. Under strict instructions that they not be released for fifty years, for obvious reasons, it was only in 2009 that they finally saw the light of day, at which point Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on royalty and a well known author himself, took over, editing them, interviewee by interviewee, and providing social background to each.

The result is royalty exposed: a rare inside glimpse of frequently comical everyday life in the aristocracy, observed by an insider himself. Each chapter is devoted to individual interviews, many one-on-one, ranging from Dukes and Duchesses to Grosvenors and Gloucesters; the disarmingly frank to the downright puerile; from comedy to farce. But throughout, a common thread emerges: genuine affection for a very German, singularly unmaternal, but rock-solid Queen, whose contribution to the reign of George V was undisputed, openly acknowledged and handsomely memorialised.

Great fun for gossips and royalists both.

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Blooper: reviewus interruptus!

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-11-22 | Pippin adds her own critical note to Nicholas' review of Geoffrey Robertson's autobiography, "Rather His Own Man".

Click below to see finished book review video.

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Rather His Own Man: In Court with Tyrants, Tarts and Troublemakers by Geoffrey Robertson

Nicholas Hoare Books 2018-11-16 | Australian-born, British by adoption, the legendary lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, QC, who has acted both for and against such luminaries as Julian Assange, Vaclav Havel, George Harrison and General Pinochet, has written a ruminant, riveting and consistently witty memoir that belies many a dry biography that precedes it. Gone the frequently earnest texts of such tomes, replaced by a refreshingly optimistic, matter-of-fact account of a legal life well lived.

As founder of the much respected Doughty Street Chambers, which sports 150 lawyers and is the largest human rights practice in Britain, he oversees a hugely successful venture that prides itself on fairness, decency and humanity. As such, he has encountered an enormous range of cases, ranging from individuals to the State (e.g. Margaret Thatcher, whose typical intransigence over the Spycatcher case is here exposed for the first time).

He has also encountered a broad range of characters, many of whom have become personal friends. He courted Nigella Lawson and married Kathy Lette; befriended Jeremy Hutchinson (who himself pleaded such cases as Christine Keeler and the Great Train Robber); invited Kylie Minogue to dine with the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in a misguided effort to loosen him up (an event that was noted with some amusement at the time, and even discussed in Parliament); and acted for the much maligned Salman Rushdie. But, perhaps most of all, he joined forces with Amal Alamuddin, a human rights barrister of great distinction herself, whose manifold talents were such that he was able to persuade her to join the firm, and whose later introduction to George Clooney was effected by a mutual friend.

This is an engaging, rewarding and sociable book, written with flair and humour, and is warmly recommended, as much for the general reader as the trade.

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