Monday, October 01, 2007

Jeffrey Archer

Hardly the most novel of blog posts coming up, but (I can't remember why) on Amazon I saw this review of Jeffrey Archer's "cat o' nine tails":

'Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining ...Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories.' - "The Times".

It's repeated everywhere, so clearly came from the publishers. A Times website search, however, doesn't bring it up. There are two main references to the Archer book, one mainly about the cartoonist who illustrated it, and contains a passing complimentary reference to Archer as a person and a few negative ones, and this review:

CAT O’NINE TALES
by Jeffrey Archer
Pan Macmillan, £16.99

Will nothing stop this man? According to Archer, some of these stories are based on yarns heard from fellow cons in prison. Whatever. They are all vastly boring and apparently written by a team of trained chimps. Who reads this stuff? His books are bestsellers, yet strangely invisible. I’m starting to suspect that Lord A buys them all himself. This has the redeeming feature of illustrations by the great Ronald Searle, but even these do not justify the price. Sadists take note — a special “gift edition” is available. Ooh, the pain.

The price suggests the hardback, i.e. orginal, edition, and doesn't contain the words 'stylish' or 'constantly entertaining'.

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Monday, February 12, 2007

NOT SO SOON, HOME SECRETARY

John Reid dismisses claims that Britain is turning into a Police State. Yet at Paddington Stations this morning, I heard the announcer say over the tannoy:

The people being held outside the station are being held their for their own safety and protection


"Safety and protection". Those are the weasel words of Police States througout history and across the world.

ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION HOME SECRETARY?

This wasn't a small group of criminal, but instead a large number of commuters, honest hard-working people.

ARE YOU STILL READING HOME SECRETARY?

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