The Lonely Londoners

I found this book in the house the other day. It was given a way with The Times a few years ago. It is well written but in a convincing West Indian style, sometimes with little punctuation. The scope is too thin for it to be a great novel and the unsavoury nature of certain parts was unhelpful. It captures the WIndrush generation's experience to some extent and is very interesting. Sam Selvon died in 1994.

10 Fictional Ships

1. Dawntreader (Voyage of)
2. Pequod (Moby Dick)
3. Hispaniola (Treasure Island)
4. The Unicorn (TinTin)
5. The Poseidon
6. SS Patna (Lord Jim)
7. HMS Thunder Child (War of the Worlds)
8. Jolly Roger (Peter Pan)
9. African Queen
10. Nautilus (20,000 leagues under the sea)

10 hats named for fictional characters

1. Fedora (from the title of an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou, written for Sarah Bernhardt)

2. Trilby (from the 1894 novel by George du Maurier)

3. Pamela hat (from a 1793 play based on the novel by Richardson)

4. Tam o' shanter (from the eponymous hero of the 1790 poem by Burns)
5. Mickey Mouse hat

6. Gatsby cap (from The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald 1925)

7. Dolly Varden (from a character in Dickens Barnaby Rudge of 1840, 1841 based on earlier events)

8. Santa hat

9. Mad hatter hat (from the character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures 1865)

10. Cat in the hat top hat (from the Dr Zeuss character)

10 Fictional Professors

1. Peter Venkman (Ghostbusters)
2. Henry Jones Sr (Indiana Jones)
3. Abraham van Helsing (Dracula)
4. George E Challenger (Conan Doye stories)
5. Charles Xavier (X men)
6. Digory Kirke (Narnia)
7. Henry Higgins (My Fair lady)
8. Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter)
9. Cuthbert Calculus (Tin Tin)
10. James Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes)

The Appeal John Grisham

One unmentioned penchant is the novels of John Grisham. Some years ago we stayed in a house that had a collection of novels by John Grisham and I read The Testament partly for its religious content (Grisham has a Southern Baptist background). I enjoyed it and being obsessive I went on to read most of his other novels. I'm slightly behind at present (I've missed the factual one and the non-legal Playing for Pizza one but have read the others). I recently read his latest novel The Appeal which is written in his usual easy undemanding style but raises interesting issues regarding Christians and involvement in politics. it traces the machinations that lead to changes on the Mississippi Supreme Court so that an evangelical Christian comes to power. Grisham's own liberal Baptist agenda intrudes a little but it is a thought provoking piece and good fun. The final line is very good - "now that he had three billion, he really wanted six." For more on Grisham see here. The line "His extended vacation from hard-hitting fiction is over" sounds about right for me. More here.

10 Famous bears (fictional)

Paddington was in the news this week. They're reviving him and in a cynical move he's eating marmite sandwiches as well as marmalade (bad move).

1. Paddington
2. Rupert
3. Bungle (Rainbow)
4. Fozzie Bear
5. Biffo
6. Baloo
7. Barney
8. Yogi
9. Winnie the Pooh
10. Old Bear