So generally the Kindle is for my mental snack food, post-apocalyptic fiction. Zombies, EMPs, viruses. I have Kindle Unlimited and I subscribe to Book Bub. For serious reading I prefer actual paper & ink books. I buy new & used and have library cards in Boston, the South Shore and Staunton.
But somehow I got a copy of "Long Summer Day" by R. F. Delderfield downloaded. As I was reading it there was something that seemed familiar. So I looked up the author. His other books include "God Is An Englishman" and "Diana". These were books my mother had read when I was young. I would guess ten or eleven.
Now I am enjoying the memory of trying to keep up with her books. It was hopeless. My mother was a voracious reader and very, very smart.
It feels good. After I finish this book and the series it's part of I'll move on to other Delderfield books and maybe some Taylor Caldwell. This book is set in Edwardian England with the main character being a soldier who was hurt in the Boer War so I'll also have to get hold of some non-fiction history of the Boer War. I know Great Britain, Africa, Kruger, the Zulus, "Men of Harlech", Natal, Roarke's Drift, Michael Caine, Burt Lancaster and "Breaker Morant".
It's supposed to be a cold winter this year and this will be considerably cheaper than a trip to the tropics.
That will make Yer Marine happy.
ReplyDeleteI do not love my Empire’s foes,
Nor call ’em angels, still,
What is the sense of ’atin’ those
’Oom you are paid to kill?
So, barrin’ all that foreign lot 5
Which only joined for spite,
Myself, I’d just as soon as not
Respect the man I fight.
Ah there, Piet! ’is trousies to ’is knees,
’Is coat-tails lyin’ level in the bullet-sprinkled breeze! 10
’E does not lose ’is rifle an’ ’e does not lose ’is seat,
I’ve known a lot o’ people ride a dam’ sight worse than Piet.