From 1967 eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen spent two years at the famous McLean Hospital (of Sylvia Plath fame) in a psychiatric ward for teenage girls after a short session with a psychiatrist she’d never seen before. Girl, Interrupted (first published in 1993) is a memoir of her time there and told in a series of short non-chronological vignettes in which we, and Kaysen, slowly try and piece together the events that led to her spending so long at McLean and get a portrait of life in this strange and sometimes disturbing environment. ‘People ask, how did you get in there?’ writes Kaysen. ‘What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well. I can’t answer the real question. All I can tell them is it’s easy. It is easy to slip into a parallel universe. These worlds exist alongside this world.’ The book ruminates on society’s definitions of what constitutes sanity or insanity with Kaysen herself, despite her circumstances and location, sometimes feeling like a sane person in an insane world.

Girl, Interrupted is a relatively short memoir (my paperback copy runs to only 167 pages) but an interesting and very readable book that has unfortunately been a little overshadowed by the fairly average film version featuring Winona Ryder as Kaysen.

memoir, Susanna Kaysen

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‘Brought up by parents who were fanatical supporters of Oswald Mosley, Trevor Grundy became the youngest public speaker for the Union Movement, giving a speech in Trafalgar Square at the age of seventeen. Soon after, Trevor began to question his family and their beliefs. He discovered a new moral framework – and the shocking secret that his mother, an anti-Semitic Fascist, was Jewish.’

Memoir Of A Fascist Childhood was first published in 1998 and written by journalist Trevor Grundy. My paperback copy is just over two hundred pages long and the book is very readable and accessible with much humour despite the sometimes disturbing themes. The heart of the book is Grundy’s relationship with his mother but it also serves as an interesting and authentic glimpse into ordinary working class London life in immediate post-war Britain.

British fascism, Oswald Mosley, Trevor Grundy

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‘A frightening and powerful story of loss of freedom and identity in a totalitarian world. V for Vendetta is the chronicle of a world of despair and oppressive tyranny. A work of sterling clarity and intelligence, V For Vendetta is everything comics weren’t supposed to be. England Prevails…’

V for Vendetta is a 286 page graphic novel by Alan Moore collected from the original series of strips he produced with illustrator David Lloyd. The story is set in the near future after a limited nuclear war that resulted in Britain being controlled by a fascist government. However, the careful control exerted over the country by fascist party Norsefire is threatened by a flamboyant lone anarchist/terrorist known as only as V. This theatrical and mysterious vigilante, who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and flowing wig and cloak, declares war on the the government and his personal vendetta seems to be especially bad news for anyone connected to a secret and now obsolete concentration camp…

Alan Moore, Comics, David Lloyd, Graphic novel

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‘It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the 10-year fight-back against the horde, World War Z brings the very finest traditions of American journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of civilization.’

‘World War Z‘ was first published in 2006 and written by Max Brooks – the author of ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’. The book is yet another riff on George A Romero’s classic ‘dead’ series of films and presents a scenario where the zombie epidemic was a worldwide phenomenon, leading to a protracted battle for control of the planet between the living and walking dead.

Max Brooks, world war, zombies

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‘Shattered by the murder of his wife at the hands of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond has gone to pieces as an agent. M gives him one last chance, sending him to Japan for a near-impossible mission. There Bond is trained in the fighting arts of Ninja warriors and sent to infiltrate a mysterious fortress known as the ‘Castle of Death’ – a place of nightmares where a lethal poisoned garden destroys all who go there – and awakens an old, terrifying enemy. You Only Live Twice sees Bond’s final encounter with an insane mastermind – one that could mean the end for 007…’

You Only Live Twice is the 12th of thirteen James Bond novels written by Ian Fleming and the last to be published (in 1964) while he was alive. The novel follows on from the shocking events of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – a book you should probably read before you pick up this one.

007, Ian Fleming, James Bond

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Larry Holmes: Against The Odds, the autobiography of the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was co-written with journalist Phil Berger and first published in 1999. Although Larry Holmes is generally regarded to be one of the ten greatest heavyweight champions of all time (holding some version of the title from 1978 to 1985), he never really escaped from the illustrious shadow of Muhammad Ali – who he succeeded as champion and once worked for as a sparring partner – and gained a reputation for being a somewhat bitter character who always seemed to have a gripe or complex about something. Holmes always seemed to resent the fact that he wasn’t as loved or appreciated as Ali and his reputation sunk to a low in 1985 when, after building a perfect 48-0 record and on the cusp of drawing level with Rocky Marciano’s famous 49-0 mark, he lost a close decision to underdog Michael Spinks and made an infamous and ill-judged comment after the fight about Marciano being unable to carry his jockstrap.

boxing, Larry Holmes

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‘A British Secret Service agent and his secretary have gone missing from their base in Kingston. M thinks this will be an easy case for 007, still recovering from his near fatal encounter with a Russian agent. Arriving in Jamaica to investigate, Bond learns that the reclusive Dr Julius No may be behind their disappearance. And when Bond and the exotic Honeychile Rider are caught trespassing on Dr No’s secluded island, they discover he has diabolical plans afoot that could threaten international security.’

Doctor No is the sixth book in the series of James Bond adventures written by Ian Fleming and was originally published in 1958. The story starts with 007 still recovering from the events of From Russia with Love and his poisoning at the hands of Rosa Klebb. M discovers that Bond has been given tetrodotoxin, a poison that derives from a type of Japanese fish. A combination of Bond’s friend Rene Mathis and a doctor well versed in poisons manage to save our hero and, despite a grim diagnosis, he recovers.

Dr No, Ian Fleming, James Bond

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‘Berlin: The Downfall 1945′ was first published in 2002 and written by acclaimed historian Antony Beevor. It tells the grim story of the last months of World War 2 in Europe and the bloody battle for Berlin. My paperback copy is 431 pages long and includes a large number of maps and a useful glossary. It begins at Christmas 1944. Berlin is being bombed by the Americans during the day and by the RAF during the night. The city is being reduced to rubble as the 3 million inhabitants struggle to find enough air raid shelters and realise that Hitler has led the country to ruin. But the thing that scares people most of all is the Red Army. The Soviet Union has 6.7 million soldiers on a front from the Baltic to the Adriatic and thousands of tanks, planes, heavy guns and the terrifying ‘katyusha’ rockets. They are 40 miles from Berlin and the only thing that stands between them and the capital are the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel; foreign SS, Hitler Youth, Luftwaffe pilots organised into army divisions because there are few planes left to fly, what is left of the Wehrmacht and the Volkssturm – Germany’s version of the Home Guard. The surreal and ruthless nature of Germany’s pointless resistance – orchestrated by an increasingly isolated and mad Hitler in a damp bunker – is shatteringly conveyed by Beevor who never forgets the human element to battles and carnage.

1945, Antony Beevor, Berlin, Downfall

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Ethel and Ernest is a graphic novel by the celebrated author and illustrator Raymond Briggs of The Snowman and Fungus the Bogeyman fame and was first published in 1998. The book is a tribute to his working-class parents and tells the story of their lives from the first meeting in 1928 through to their deaths in the early seventies. This is an immensely warm, nostalgic and sometimes poignant journey through the decades and provides a fascinating part social history of Britain as Ethel and Ernest meet, marry, and raise their son Raymond as the world gradually changes ever more around them. Through the often mundane but sometimes extraordinary lives of Ethel and Ernest we experience the first stirrings and eventual turmoil of war, the creation of the welfare state, the advent of television, doodlebugs, the bomb, indoor bathrooms, fridges, telephones, the blitz, rationing, Conservative and Labour governments, men on the moon, VE Day, and much more besides. As the blurb on the inside cover goes, ‘this is the reality of two decent, ordinary lives, of two people who, as Briggs tells their story, become representative of us all’.

family, Graphic novel, parents, Raymond Briggs

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The Complete Prose of Woody Allen is a bumper collection of comic fiction and essays and consists of the three Woody Allen books of humorous prose – Getting Even (1971), Without Feathers (1975), and Side Effects (1980). There are over fifty pieces of comic writing here which makes the book both great value for money (my paperback copy is 473 pages long) and a handy companion to dip into on a train or when you are stuck for something to read. The book is a good example of Allen’s versatility and comic flair and the pieces, mostly written for The New Yorker originally, are very much in the spirit of SJ Perelman and Groucho Marx, absurdist but with a cerebral comic twist courtesy of Allen and plenty of references to history and classic literature.

comic, Essays, Woody Allen

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