POETRY PATTI SMITH Auguries of Innocence (Virago) ooo

In the recent Punk Night documentary on ITV4, John Lydon was being characteristically, boringly dismissive of the New York acts (Ramones, Television, Patti Smith) who arrived as the British wave exploded. They were just too educated, too well-off, too cultural for his tastes, with the grimy UK anarchists far more his bag. I find it difficult to imagine the drummer of Psykik Volts being able to spell ‘auguries’ never mind ever releasing a poetry book with the word in the title. For those guys, Rimbaud is probably a musclebound numbskull who singlehandedly won the Cold War.

So, what we get here from the rock legend who is gracefully approaching her 60th birthday, is her first collection of verse in over a decade. Being the political troubadour that she is, the ill-advised war tearing her country asunder plays a big part with ‘Birds of Iraq’ telling: ‘It is coming on a nerve storm/triggering the current source of suffering/stones pelting the human spring.’ Loss is everywhere. In ‘Fourteen’, childhood is trampled underfoot (‘How so and why sours the tiny bud’) while ‘Death of a Tramp’ is a piece inspired by a news story she read in Belfast and records ‘the stench and sense of aimless wrath’. With its ‘funny beaks . . . funny bones, no more’ the slight ‘Sleep of the Dodo’ is a warning to the human race. My dictionary tells me that an ‘augury’ is the pronouncement of a soothsayer. (Brian Donaldson)

Reviews

ADVENTURE TALE CHARLIE

HIGSON

Young Bond 3 (Puffin) 0000

Although his previous two Young Bond adventures have been successes in their own right. the franchise's revival thanks to Casino Royale should ensure that this third adventure by Charlie Fast Show

Y". exp-aim raw t bandit!

CHARLIE HIGSON

Higson eclipses those predecessors. Aimed at

48 THE LUST 14 Dec 2(X)6~4 Jan 700/

y0ung teenagers. these books are not cast in the same image as Daniel Craig‘s fraught and violent Bond. Yet Higson is clearly an aficionado of Ian Fleming's originals. and his efforts are characterised by a twisting plot which lies between a thriller and a mystery. and a prose style which is wordy but terse.

The 1930s milieu in

which he places his hero on the trail of a kidnapped professor with some crossword clues to lead him in the right direction is effectively played out. and this romp should also appeal to older fans of Fleming. It's worth noting that the book is untitled as yet. with an online competition (www.youngbond.com) allowing readers to choose the title.

(David Pollock)

SHORT STORIES JOHN MCGAHERN Creatures of the Earth (Faber) 0000

In his best-known novel. 1990's Booker shortlisted Amongst Women. John McGahern's protagonist Michael Moran reflects: ‘The best of life is life lived quietly. where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day. where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.‘ This epitaph COuld just as easily have referred to the characters that populate his low volumes of sparse. penetrating short stories. collected for the first time in 1992 and re-isSLied here in light of the Irish writer's death from cancer earlier this

year

Again and again. McGahern‘s wry authorial voice mulls over the constricting values of Irish society. from the role of the church to patriarchal politics. Yet. it's the author's guret. acute Sympathy for his characters which makes this collection so rewarding. From the man who confronts his father with his new wife to the teacher looking back with regret on a life spent in a sleepy

backwater. McGahern brings their dilemmas to life with incisive wit. (Allan Radcliffe)

TRAVEL DIARIES SARA SHARPE Going Where My Pig Is Headed

(Beautiful Books)

..":;A, h. . .. ' ~ Rather than prompting a return to short skirts or a fling with a man half her age. Sara Sharpe's midlife crisis took a more extreme twist. Packing in a lucrative job in London. she sold her house and all her furniture. and spent the next seven years travelling alone around Greece. Turkey. the Middle East and North Africa. soaking uplanguage. landscape. culture and cuisine as she went. This book is a collection of her diaries. written some 20 years later upon her return to the Mediterranean. Frothy language frequently lifts scenery and characters off the page. romanticising a part of the world then still largely unt0uched by mass tourism. Keeping track with her journeys proves a bit tiresome though with her narrative frequently becoming a blur of meals and bus trips. which never fully reveal what drives her on. Still. her spirit should be infectious enough to put a bomb under a few older readers' backsides at least. (Malcolm Jack)

BIOGRAPHY MANUAL DERREN BROWN Tricks of the Mind (Bantam) .00

What's the first rule among magicians? Surely it’s the one about never ever divulging the secrets of your chosen profession. So. what on earth is Derren Brown doing here telling the humble general public

5 PAPERBACKS

Martin Rowson Snatches The political cartoonist with his first fiction which takes an offbeat look at history. Vintage.

Simon Scamw Young Bloods The launch of a new historical fiction series which traces the young lives of Wellington and Napoleon. Review. TC Boyle Tooth and Claw A bunch of short stories about drop- outs. deadbeats and other assoned no- hopers. Bloomsbury. Wendy Jones Grayson Peny Subtitled “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl’ it traces the Turner-winning potter's early life and cultural awakening. Wntage.

Stephen Venables Ollie The top mountaineer writes about his son's autism and leukaemia. Arrow.

how to develop useful sleights of hand? Well. it's all a bit of harmless fun as. no matter how hard us mere mortals try. we can never come close to matching his staggering ability to bamboozle and befuddle. That's pretty much the subtext to this entertaining but often irritating journey into his world.

The story of how the man from Croydon developed a love of magic while simultaneously losing his religious faith and ended up pointing a gun to his head on (almost) live television would be more fascinating if told by a neutral without a smart alecky approach. Illusionist extraordinaire he may be; witty writer he's not.

(Brian Donaldson)