DENZIL MEYRICK
The Mirror and the Light – Hilary Mantel The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol I) – Robert A Caro
On the Road: American Adventures from Nixon to Trump – James Naughtie
It’s been a strange, and for many a tragic, period. As a writer, I can’t count the times I’ve been happily informed on social media how much more time I have to pen my books. I’m not sure what they thought I was doing before Covid-19, but for those who toil at my profession, the notion of ‘lockdown’ isn’t an unusual one. But of course, this is different – very different. It’s one thing choosing not to go out, and another knowing you can’t.
Reading has, as always, been an escape. My body may be trapped in a house on the bonnie banks, but my mind has roamed free. From a journey to Tudor England, to a meander through the early career of one of Scotland’s finest journalists, I’ve crossed time and continents thanks to great writers.
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel is the conclusion to a fabulous trilogy. The machinations of Thomas Cromwell under the beady, capricious and often deadly eye of Henry VIII is utterly compelling. Thoughtful, tragic, well observed, witty (yes there are very funny passages), it has been a joy. I’m only sad we’ve come to the end of Cromwell’s journey.
Then to America of the late 1800s, the background to another brilliant
sequence of books: Robert A Caro’s ongoing study of the life of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Beginning with The Path to Power (1982), we have the tale of another real life individual, but this time told through the prism of biography. Vanity Fair called the series, ‘Harry Potter for adults’ and there is no doubt that Johnson’s life is – if not magical – equally enchanting as that of the teenage wizard.
Lastly, to James Naughtie, a much missed voice on Radio Four’s Today Programme. In On the Road: American Adventures from Nixon to
Trump, a chatty, wry and very accessible memoir, Naughtie takes us again to the USA, neatly following on from LBJ’s era. A lover of the USA and its politics, the observant Aberdonian tells stories of the elections, trials and tribulations of Presidents Nixon to Trump, all of which he has experienced in one way or another, first as a peripatetic student, then as the fine journalist he became. I heartily recommend them all. Denzil Meyrick’s new novel Jeremiah’s Bell, the latest in the million-selling DCI Daley series, is published by Polygon.