British Author Challenge 2024 Wildcard: Blast from the Past

In honor of our tenth BAC I thought we should revisit some of the authors we've previously featured. I've selected ten authors from which to choose.




1. Mary Renault from 2022
2. Bernard Cornwell from 2021
3. Bernardine Evaristo from 2020
4. Peter F. Hamilton from 2019
5. Zadie Smith from 2019
6. Simon Schama from 2017
7. AS Byatt from 2017
8. Hanif Kureishi from 2016
9. Andrea Levy from 2015
10. Salman Rushdie from 2015

I will try to get to all of them in 2024. I have something unread on the shelves by all ten. If you had picked 12 I would have done one per month!

I’ve been planning a reread of Possession by A.S. Byatt, so that fits. I’ve a couple of Rushdie books available, but not sure I’ll get to them. Next year promises to be a complicated reading year.

I'm leaning towards Bernardine Evaristo and Salman Rushdie for this year, as I have the most unread by them. Not a bad author in the bunch, though, obviously!

US Kindle sale: The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea by Mary Renault are on sale for $3.99 and $2.99 today.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LDR9M8M?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_s...

The Lion in the Gateway by Mary Renault, illustrated by C. Walter Hodges

A pretty good children's book about the battles of Marathon, Salamis, and Thermopylae. Renault has an obvious bias for the Greeks, but she doesn't show them as a perfect people and she makes the point that many of their accomplishments were possible because they had slaves doing a lot of the labor.

The Surprise by Zadie Smith & Nick Laird, illustrated by Magenta Fox

Eh. It's got the same message as a zillion other picture books, but isn't as well written as most of them. The pictures are cute, though.

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie, though long, was illuminating and will make non-fundamentalists

wish that he had continued with his heavy security protection.

I read The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie. It wasn’t my favorite of Rushdie but it does explore the music scene. That part was interesting.

US Kindle sale: Mary Renault's The Last of the Wine and Alexander Trilogy are on sale for $2.99 and $3.99 today.

The Last of the Wine link

Alexander Trilogy link

I also read The Buddha of Suburbia - Hanif Kureishi.

I read Kureishi's My Ear at His Heart: Reading My Father, which is partly about the author reading his father's unpublished novels, but it's also a lot of him sounding like a whiny adolescent.

>11 amanda4242:, Amanda, I can see that. Buddha of Suburbia is about a father who moved to Britain with his English wife and growing up as first British children not accepted as British.

I've read these this year so far;

☑3. . Bernardine Evaristo from 2020; Girl, Woman, Other Read May 19
☑8. Hanif Kureishi from 2016 Buddha of Suburbia read March 8
☑10. Salman Rushdie from 2015 The Ground Beneath Her Feet Read Feb 27

Just realized how long it's been since I posted here. Oops.

Bernard Cornwell
Sharpe’s Christmas

Two Christmas themed short stories featuring Richard Sharpe. Nothing deep here, but it's entertaining.

Bernardine Evaristo
Hello Mum

Eh. A quick read that seems like its sole purpose is to make the reader sad.

Peter F. Hamilton
The Queen of Dreams trilogy: The Secret Throne, The Hunting of the Princes, and A Voyage Through Air

A wonderfully imaginative fantasy series. The only reason I can think of for it not being more popular is the truly atrocious covers.

Simon Schama
The Global Refugee Crisis: How Should We Respond?: The Munk Debates edited by Rudyard Griffiths

A transcript of a debate over having open door immigration for refugees, with Louise Arbour and Simon Schama for, and Nigel Farage and Mark Steyn against.

As someone whose experience of debates is mostly American politicians insulting their opponents and monologuing, it was nice to see a debate that was well moderated and (mostly) stayed on topic; although the two sides were very much opposed, they were willing to concede when their opponents made a valid point.

As for my opinion of how well the debaters performed, I found the pro side to be well meaning, but generally blindly optimistic regarding cultural integration, while the con side made some valid points regarding security, but their arguments carried more than a hint of xenophobia.

AS Byatt
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye

A forgettable collection of fairy stories for adults. I recommend Angela Carter instead.

Andrea Levy
Six Stories and an Essay

Well written, although not terribly memorable.

Salman Rushdie
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

I'm sorry to say it, but I just don't think this is a good book. I'm sure writing this was cathartic for Rushdie, but for me it was just a lot of navel gazing.