Alison Combes
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(Arts Council of England observer)Alison's reading: follows
Patrick Conway (Vice Chair)
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(Director, Arts, Libraries & Museums, Durham CC)Patrick's reading:
Predictably, I am currently reading the new Roddy Doyle. The last novel I read was Angela Carter, A Night at the Circus, in reparation for a discussion I am supposedly leading in one of the prisons, as part of a reading development programme with inmates. I also recently returned to Milligan's Small Dreams of a Scorpion, as an antidote to the consultation guidelines on Best Value!
Lloyd Ellis (SCL Observer, Wales)
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(County Librarian and Information Officer, Neath Port Talbot CBC)Lloyd's reading: follows
Pat Flynn
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(Head of Libraries and Information, Leicester City Council)Pat's reading: follows
Viv Griffiths
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(Assistant Director, Libraries & Learning, Birmingham CC)Viv's reading:
I read Armadillo by William Boyd when I was holiday during this summer, although it was first published last year. I love William Boyd's sense of humour, which often has an element of pathos and darkness in it.
The main character, Lorimar Black, is a rather attractive, vulnerable man, with a freeloading family and a soft spot which inevitably leads him into trouble. The plot is intricate and some of the minor characters and settings recall the London of The Old Curiosity Shop or, more accurately, Bleak House.
The end is tantalising but ultimately satisfying.
Jane Hall
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(Head of Libraries and Information, Sunderland)Jane's reading: follows
Grace Kempster (Chair)
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(Head of Libraries, Essex CC)Grace's reading:
I have just read The Waiting Game, by Bernice Rubens, set in a genteel old folks' home - not a setting you'd associate with war crimes and suicide. With wit, panache and inspiring bleak laughter, Bernice Rubens tells a tale inspired by seeing someone crossing the road and realising you only get to live long if you look left and right before crossing. Enjoy!
Alasdair Macnaughtan
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(City Librarian, Plymouth)Alasdair's reading: follows
Gary McKeone
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(Arts Council of England Literature Officer, observer)Gary's reading:
I've recently read Evening, by Susan Minot, a wonderful novel about a dying woman's memory of her life, a novel about loss, about the road not taken, about the privacies at the heart of family life.
Also, Fernanda Eberstadt's novel, When the Sons of Heaven Meet the Daughters of the Earth. Easily the best title of any recent novel. Set in the New York art world of the 1980s, a wry, funny, utterly engaging book about art, about patronage, about excess and about love.
Bob Parsons
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(City Librarian, Coventry)Bob's reading: follows
Sue Stewart
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(Literature Officer, East Midlands Arts)Sue's reading: follows
Mark Taylor
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(Library Services Manager, Berkshire)Mark's reading: follows
Dina Thorpe
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(Head of Libraries, Information and Arts, East Sussex CC)Dina's reading: follows
Karen Tyerman
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(Head of Library Service)Karen's reading: follows
Bethan Williams
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(Principal Libraries Officer, Warwickshire CC)Bethan's reading: follows
