More wot I have read…

My Name is Daphne Fairfax by Arthur Smith

I rattled through this book as it was a very entertaining read. I could hear Arthur Smith’s distinctive voice in the words as I read about his interesting life.

'My name is Arthur Smith, unless there's anybody here from the Streatham tax office. In which case, I'm Daphne Fairfax'. This has been Arthur's opening line at hundreds of stand-up comedy performances. In fact, he is neither Daphne nor Arthur. Friends and family know him as Brian. One of the 'alternative comedians' who shook up light entertainment in the eighties and nineties, Arthur (and Brian) is also a broadcaster, an opening bat for Grumpy Old Men, a West End playwright (his plays include An Evening with Gary Lineker) and a guest on innumerable radio and TV panel shows. In "My Name is Daphne Fairfax", he reflects on the nature of comedy and his days as a scruffy kid on the bombsites of Bermondsey, a wild-haired undergraduate, a road sweeper, an English teacher, a failed rock star, a boozed-up sexual adventurer and an intensive care patient who has been told never to drink again. Hilarious, scandalous and rude, his memoir incorporates a tender tribute to his parents and a vigorous account of the peculiar business of being alive.’


Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

The fourth book in the series that ties up the storylines for all the major characters nicely. This book got some bad press from the puritans as it celebrates the union between boy and girl, though I can’t see a problem with it as there is nothing graphic and the passion is highly romanticized.

It is an easy read, written as it is for young adults, but it is still entertaining and compulsive. Different in its approach from the previous books it allows the story to viewed from two characters point of view fleshing the second character out more while giving us a relief from the insecurities of the lead.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ I murmured. ‘We belong together.’

I was abruptly overwhelmed by the truth of my own words. This moment was so perfect, so right, there was no way to doubt it. His arms wrapped around me, holding me against him…It felt like every nerve ending in my body was a live wire.

‘Forever,’ he agreed.