Review - P. J. Kavanagh: The Perfect Stranger

P. J. Kavanagh
The Perfect Stranger: A Memoir of Love and Survival (3*)

I felt I should take a look at this acclaimed memoir which was first published in 1966 and then again on no less than three subsequent occasions, latterly this year. It hurtles rapidly through school, Butlin's, post-war Paris, Korea, Oxford, Barcelona and Jakarta, all within a relatively short time span. In places I found it absorbing and moving, but other parts were a slog. Perhaps its aim (as expressed in the 1995 foreword) of sharing the universal facts of love and death is too literary for my quotidian tastes. 


Key to star ratings: 5*** wonderful and hope to read again, 5* wonderful, 4* enjoyed it a lot and would recommend, 3* enjoyable/interesting, 2* didn't enjoy, 1* gave up.

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Review - Roy Hattersley: Goodbye to Yorkshire

Roy Hattersley
Goodbye to Yorkshire (4*)

Many will remember Roy Hattersley as a senior Labour politician from Sheffield. His intelligence and erudition radiate from every metaphor, contrast and description in this collection of twenty two essays about the fading concept of Yorkshire-ness, first published in 1976. I enjoyed some of them immensely, especially the more autobiographical pieces, but others seem in places rather forced or even maudlin. Worthwhile if you make the effort.

Key to star ratings: 5*** wonderful and hope to read again, 5* wonderful, 4* enjoyed it a lot and would recommend, 3* enjoyable/interesting, 2* didn't enjoy, 1* gave up.

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