BillF

Frost was always a great favourite.

Ring Lardner Phil Fone Mary Ann McCall

Tom Thunb Hitch Hutch

Salford Van Hire Dick Van Dike Laurie Lee

Found this difficult to read - even when I had to read it at university. Didn't have that problem with Jane Eyre BTW. I like the cover illustration on that Penguin edition - something French from a British collection - Corot? Barbizon school?

Beelzebub Bubba Miley Venus de Milo

Sorry to hear the news. Well remember him playing with Joe Harriott c.1960.

The Squeezed Middle Alan Pinch The Little Nippers

Ann of Cleves Clever Clogs The Cloggies

Richard Wetherall Trio at Malcolm Fraser's house this afternoon.

The Good Soldier Schweik David Schwimmer Oedipus Schmoedipus

Happy Birthday, Ken!

"Short Wave" (arr. Shorty Rogers) from this:

Wilkie Collins Wynken, Blynken and Nod Noddy Holder

Leonard Feather Gene Quill The Ink Spots

Paul Calf Eric Heffer Frank Byers

Frank Skinner Skinnay Ennis Bones Howe

Goofy Ann Coffey Colonel Buffy Frobisher

Whispering Bob Harris Vernon Croker Toad of Toad Hall

Alec Guinness Ron Stout Tubby Hayes

Track 1: Richie Cole?

I read a Lowell biography about 10 years ago, but don't recall if this was the one. Fascinating - and disturbing - life. Loved the bit where he, briefly imprisoned as a conscientious objector, rubbed shoulders with the boss of Murder Inc, leading to a conversation something like this: "What are you in for?" "Killing people. What are you in for?" "Not killing people." Love his poetry and Life Studies sits on my bookshelf. He did live an interesting life. In America, once Lowell and Allen Ginsberg died, sad to say, the "public poet" disappeared from the US scene (one could also make a case for Maya Angelou), much to our loss. With the passage of time, Lowell is becoming the 20th. Century American poet, the quality of his body of work is hard to beat, though Theodore Roethke has to be up there also. Roethke is another I read and liked, though it's many years ago now.

I read a Lowell biography about 10 years ago, but don't recall if this was the one. Fascinating - and disturbing - life. Loved the bit where he, briefly imprisoned as a conscientious objector, rubbed shoulders with the boss of Murder Inc, leading to a conversation something like this: "What are you in for?" "Killing people. What are you in for?" "Not killing people." Love his poetry and Life Studies sits on my bookshelf.

Just got to the end of this 770-page tome! Liked it at first, but the larger-than-life sensationalist tone palled on me eventually. Was far more impressed by The Secret History which I read some years ago.