Thanks to Bruce Anderson

Tuesday, 20th October 2009

I didn't think I'd ever find myself uttering the words in that headline, but I'm afraid those looking for further evidence of my ideological drift to the dark side will be disappointed. I do have to express my heartfelt gratitude to the old curmudgeon, however it's for his guidance as a literary rather than an ideological mentor.

Shortly after I left the New Statesman, I found myself wandering through Waterstones on Trafalgar Square. I find bookshops very comforting in times of trouble. I was in something of a daze and found myself in the detective fiction department. Now this something unusual for me, as I rarely read the stuff, considering myself a little more high brow in my tastes.

It was at this moment, lost and directionless in a part of a bookshop where I rarely tread, that I bumped into big Bruce. "Hello, Martin," he boomed, full of the bonhomie my comrades on the left seem to find so difficult to muster at the moment. We discussed briefly his genius at his early championing of the cause of David Cameron, I told him of my sadness at leaving the NS and then he noticed where we were.

"Aha," he said (or the posh Scottish version of the same). "You like crime novels do you?"

I couldn't quite bring myself to tell him that I had wandered into that section of the bookshop in a daze and murmured something that could have been taken either way.

"Well, son, do you know the work of Reginald Hill," he said. "He's a socialist too. You'll love him." He reminded me that Hill invented the detective duo Dalziel and Pascoe and I vaguely remembered the TV series. Swept along with his enthusiasm, I asked him to recommend a title. "You could do worse than "On Beulah Height."

Now I'm hooked. I could indeed have done worse than On Beulah Height, the bleakest of murder mysteries with a backdrop of corporate greed that suited my mood.

I'm now reading a great set of short stories, There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union (the title story, set in 1980s Moscow is cracking).

So thanks Bruce. I owe you one.

Filed under: Bruce Anderson (1 more articles) , Reginald Hill (1 more articles) , Socialist (5 more articles)

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Rhoda Klapp

October 20th, 2009 10:43am Report this comment

Please don't leave the dork side for the dark side. We have no need of people with no intellectual rigour but a lot of blind loyalty. We have plenty already.

Sulis

October 20th, 2009 11:35am Report this comment

Reginald Hill is wonderful. You have many happy hours ahead of you. It helps if you have some of the background story - starting with A Clubbable Woman and then An Advancement of Learning... My particular favourites are Bones and Silence, and Dialogues of the Dead...

Sarah

October 20th, 2009 8:49pm Report this comment

Martin - if you like Reginald Hill (and he's jolly good though the last couple have been a little disappointing) you should also try Peter Robinson, Mark Billingham (a recent discovery) and Val Mcdermid (sp?). But perhaps you have already ...

Fergus Pickering

October 24th, 2009 4:25am Report this comment

Too HIGHBROW for detective fiction? Another black mark for you lefties. Are you too highbrow for novels in general or are you a booker luvvie? Somehting dark about the third world, I'll be bound.

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