Diamond Geezer, Hard Case

After several months, I've finally finished listening to AudioGo's 007 Reloaded recording of 'Diamonds are Forever' by Ian Fleming, read by Damian Lewis.  Yay!

'Diamonds are Forever'
by Ian Fleming
Read by Damian Lewis
(AudioGo, 2012)

Millions of pounds worth of diamonds are being smuggled from West Africa to the United States via London and MI6 is investigating.  Suspicion has fallen on the anglo-American Diamond Corporation, but the authorities need to know the pipeline's route so they can close it down.  It's a tough job that needs a skilled agent, so M sends James Bond undercover to track who is handling the illegal gems.  But as Bond penetrates deeper into the organisation, he encounters harder and more brutal adversaries, until he's face-to-face with the Spangled Mob gangsters behind the Corporation and their psychopathic heavies Mr Wint and Mr Kidd.  Is Bond in too deep this time?  Can he convince the gang of his false identity?  Or will Britain's greatest spy end up in a desert shallow grave?

Like a number of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, 'Diamonds are Forever' suddenly gets going quite a way in, in this case about 100 pages from the end.  It starts well, with an intense description of the first link in the smuggling chain, then the initial investigations in the UK followed by Bond's first moves undercover and his introduction to the damaged Tiffany Case.  Then it all goes flat for a bit while there's some stuff about fixed horse races and gambling before Bond upsets his paymasters and finds himself in trouble.  To be honest, it almost felt like Fleming had suddenly developed an interest in equestrian events that he really wanted to (horse) shoe in, but I'm probably being a bit harsh.

As in 'Goldfinger', the gangsters are as repulsive a group as you could ever imagine, while Wint and Casino Royale'.  They are truly terrifying villains, prevented from becoming cartoonish by Fleming's tactile descriptions, which mean you can't stop yourself imagining them in three dimensions, conjured through every one of the five senses.

'Diamonds are Forever' by
Ian Fleming
(Penguin Modern Classics, 2004)

Kidd take sadistic torture to levels not read since '

For me, the books often hang on how I feel about the heroine and I must admit that I grew to like Tiffany Case.  She's tough with a heartbreaking back story, but had humour, playfulness and ambition.  She made her own decisions and made her own mistakes.

Overall, this was a pretty good Bond book, although it's not for the faint hearted.  If you like the others, you're going to like 'Diamonds are Forever', but I wouldn't recommended it as an introduction to the series.

Now, what next...

Related Posts

'Casino Royale'
'Live and Let Die'
'Moonraker'
'Goldfinger'
'From Russia with Love'
'Dr No'
'For Your Eyes Only'
'Thunderball'
'Octopussy, the Living Daylights and Other Stories'

People's History

Lots of people think that history doesn't matter. But it really does, very much indeed.  None of us can be entirely sure where we're going, but we can be absolutely certain, whether we knew them or not, that we had parents, who also had parents, who also had parents, going back to the very dawn of time.  So something of each of us has lived through every era, as empires rose and fell, rulers lived and died and wars were won and lost.

I've just finished 'My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me', the story of how a black, German woman came to terms with the shock discovery that she was descended from Nazi concentration camp commandant Amon Goeth. Although raised in an orphanage, Jennifer Teege did have some contact with her mother and grandmother as a child, but neither woman ever gave any hint as to Teege's dark family history.  It wasn't until she was in her late 30s, a happily married mother of two, that she found out by chance when she picked up an unknown book by her mother in Hamburg's central library. Suddenly she finds herself plunged into the shadow of one of World War II's most notorious psychopathic killers, the Butcher of Plaszow in Poland, slaughterer of thousands of Jews - and her grandfather.  As Teege struggles to comprehend what this means for her, her family and her many Jewish-Israeli friends, she summons the courage to face this family skeleton head on.  But is it possible to come to terms with such a chilling discovery?

This book is gripping, uplifting and thought-provoking from beginning to end.  Written from Mrs Teege's perspective, interspersed with supporting sections by journalist Nikola Sellmair, it explores how both a person and a people have had to deal with a past they would rather forget.  Some deny it, some ignore it, but I have great respect for Mrs Teege as she decided to tackle it head on and not give the past power over the present.

I think that this would make an excellent reading group book.  There is much to discuss and think about here.  It's not really a book about World War II, it's a book about family, national guilt and coming to terms with a shameful past.

I found it gripping from beginning to end and would thoroughly recommend it.

Now, what next...

Related Links

'My Nazi Grandfather, Amon Goeth, Would Have Shot Me' (BBC News Magazine, 03/10/2013)

Book Details

'My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me' by Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmair.  Translated by Carolin Sommer.  Hodder & Stoughton, 2015. Originally published in Germany as 'Amon: Mein Grossvater hätte mich erschossen', 2013.

Change Your Mind

Is it me, or are there an awful lot of really interesting sounding books being published at the moment?  Thanks to reviews in the weekend papers and the wonders of the LibrariesWest app, I have a lovely selection of non-fiction lined up covering everything from free speech to the NHS.  One fascinating book I was glad to read about was 'It's All in Your Head' by Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan.  I finished it earlier today.

Written by a consultant neurologist, 'It's All in Your Head' explores the complex and misunderstood subject of psychosomatic illness with a combination of compassion, pragmatism and professional experience.  Throughout her working life, Dr O'Sullivan has encountered patients suffering symptoms with no clear biological cause.  They have often endured countless invasive and comprehensive tests and spent decades taking heavy duty medication, yet their lives have been destroyed by apparently incurable illness.  Visiting a neurologist can be the last step on a journey that includes everything from debilitating headaches to epileptic-type seizures to complete blindness to chronic fatigue.  But once all the tests have been done, the results analysed and every physical cause ruled out, is it really possible it could all be in your head?

This book was absolutely fascinating.  Dr O'Sullivan's expert deployment of case studies to illustrate her points made the book both readable and humane,  In this economic climate, it would have been very easy for someone to go on a political rant and use this as a platform for blaming clearly ill people for wasting money and destroying the NHS.  Even the reviews I read used it as a stick to beat people with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome because there is one paragraph in which the writer sticks her neck out and suggests that psychological factors may contribute to the prolonging of some cases of ME/CFS.  She's a scientist for crying out loud, she's looked at the research and evidence and drawn a logical conclusion.  She freely admits she could be wrong, but she's made a judgement on what information is currently available and in no way belittles the suffering of others.  Whether influenced by psychology or not, these patients are clearly suffering through no conscious choice of their own and need help, support and understanding, not blame.

Reading the heart rending stories of different patients, sometimes angry, sometimes pitiful, always relatable, made it easy to understand the subject and recognise how serious the consequences of stress and trauma can be for certain people.  According to Dr O'Sullivan, at the root of all psychosomatic symptoms lies some undealt with and unrecognised cause, buried away in the mind but making itself felt in the most terrifying way.

Doctors are frightened to diagnose such psychological causes for physical illnesses because they might have missed something or a new test in the future could prove them wrong or the patient might simply get angry (a common and understandable response).  Meanwhile the patient thinks they're being called a liar, a faker or a fantasist.  And all this in the context of a society that has so firmly separated the mind from the body that mental health is neglected and everyday twinges are over medicalised.  It's a toxic cocktail that lets many people down.

My only complaint about this book is its subtitle; 'True Stories of Imaginary Illnesses'.  In the very least, the jury is still out on that.  These patients are clearly suffering from something, their symptoms are involuntary and do exist.  The cause may be in the mind, but 'imaginary' suggests a stereotype that the author clearly wanted to undermine, that of the patient who is making it all up.

Before jumping to conclusions, I encourage you to read this book.  Whether right or wrong, it is genuinely fascinating and full of ideas that could really change your mind.

Now, what next...? 

Why I Owe Andy Cope £10.99

Just under a year ago, I read the superlative 'The Art of Being Brilliant' by Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker.  My employer had booked Mr Cope to do a Brilliant workshop with us and I was a bit sceptical, so I decided to do the swotty thing and read the book to find out what it was all about.  I enjoyed the book so much that I had to say something to our guest speaker at the end of the workshop.  Being brilliant and realising who I was (blush), he kindly gave me a free copy of the sequel, 'Be Brilliant Everyday' - with a cheeky smile as he asked for a good review in return.  Skipping back to my office, I felt sure I could keep my side of the bargain.  Oops.

'Be Brilliant Everyday' aims to develop on the theories and themes of 'The Art of Being Brilliant'.  It draws on the slightly more complex ideas Mr Cope is exploring for his PhD on happiness, ranging from Occam's Razor (basically, the simplest theory that makes the fewest assumptions is usually the best) to Quantum Physics (don't ask!) and a variety of things in between.  Above all, it wants to reinforce what readers learnt from 'The Art of Being Brilliant' - beginning with that to be happier, you have to decide to change.

I loved the first book.  It was quirky, funny and full of simple things that could make a real change to your life and attitude.  It made a genuine difference to my outlook, helping me realise why I felt more positive sometimes and not others without making me feel like a fool or a failure.  And once I understood where I was going right and where I was going wrong, I could do more of the right things and fewer of the wrong ones.

If 'The Art of Being Brilliant' was a lovely, light, fluffy sponge cake, 'Be Brilliant Everyday' was a dense, heavy, fruit cake that sits on the stomach and makes you realise you've literally bitten off more than you can chew.

I found it really heavy going and far too easy to put down.  It felt as though there wasn't an overall structure, like the authors were just dashing off another chapter when they had enough ideas to fill it.  While there were some great ideas in there, I found it hard to put them together into something cohesive and applicable.  In fact, I feel that both Brilliant books are at their best when they're relating theories to ordinary lives and experiences.  To me, the title just screams of something practical that helps readers find a way to attack each day, rather than letting each day attack them.  I'm hoping that will be book three.  Or better still a handy desk calendar!

You often hear about the 'difficult second album', forced out of the artists at the demand of the record label, and that's pretty much what this book feels like.  So, sadly, I can't give 'Be Brilliant Everyday' a good review and feel that I owe Mr Cope the £10.99 RRP.

On the plus side, I would thoroughly recommend both the workshops and the first book - I've given copies to so many people already! Read it. Think about it. Do it. It will change your life.

Related Links

'The Art of Being Brilliant' by Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker

Andy Cope on Twitter
Andy Whittaker on Twitter

The Art of Brilliance website