THE DEVIL AND THE
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‘ WATERSTONE’S ' . BOOKSIZIUZRS
: . GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH TWO CENTURIES : , OF SCOTTISH
STORIES
2 PETER CAREY’S 1988 BOOKER WINNER f
' edited by OSCAR AND LUCINDA Carl MacDougall IS NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK
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PETER CAREY will be reading from the ; . novel and signing copies i Wednesday let June at 7.30pm
ever mzule available.”
TII‘ l)’(l(I/._\l'//l'l
l £14.95 libk ; 0 86241 207 2 lb‘lune 1989
To reserve signed copies please telephone 031 225 3436
Refreshments Admission Free CANONGATE PUBLISH I N G
114—116 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH ,7 Wm
l-Zrlinlmrglrl-Llll mu To]; 0151-5575888
.\l(‘(lal)c.(}1‘ay.Dunn. . .
DOCUMENTAR FUZZY VISION
Talking Blues Roger Graef ((‘ollins Harvill £15). Talking Blues is a compendium ofshort. transcribed interviews chosen from among 500 or so carried out in 12 U K police forces including the RUC.
Officers ofvarious rank are afforded the opportunity to talk honestly about policework under the protection ofanonymity. The results are disturbing. whatever your political outlook.
Anyone approaching the book with a preconception will find material to support their point of view — from the notion that the force is a masonic conspiracy. riddled with corruption to the idea that the police deal well with a society sinking into an era ofviolence and amorality. But there are more important things to be drawn from the book than facts with which to beat each other.
Briefly. these might be said to be that; ‘the society of police‘ stands distinct from the public society that it exists to serve. that policing is an ill-defined ragbag of tasks probany subsumed under the job description by historical circumstance. and that the force is an entrenched state bureaucracy.
Only in the light of these and other truisms do the complaints. fears and opinions of individual officers begin to make a sense that can be set towards something.
Graef sails close to the wind here — possibly because he got too close to his subject. Talking Blue took a year to do and he earlier spent three years with Thames Valley police making the BAF'I‘A award winning documentary series Police (during which his marriage broke up).
Talking Blue is a good book to have. compiled by an individual with constructive police sympathies. The reader should however maintain a little more distance from the subject than the writer. (K.A. Davidson)
JUST PUBLISHED
I New Selected Poems Richard Murphy (Faber £5.99) Polished. intelligent verse from top Irish poet. I Across The Acheron Monique Wittig (The Women‘s Press £3.95) Mock-enormous feminist rendering of Dante‘s The Divine (‘omedy in modern-day dress.
I Good Guys, Bad Guys and other Lovers Shere llite & Kate (‘olleran (Pandora £3.99) The latest shocker (ifonly) takes the shape ofa relationship DIY guide. which probably concludes that DIY is best. I The Scent ol Eucalyptus Barbara llanrahan (Hogarth £4.99) Growing pains in surburban Australia from a girl‘s eye-view. Sweet and unpretentious.
I Prime Time Joan (‘ollins (Arrow £2.50) S & F (shopping and fucking) novel from arch-bitch takes five women in hot pursuit of all their sweaty little desires.
I Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey
68'l‘he List 16— 29June 1989