1982-84 (collected 2002) / Ecomics / 208 pages / UK
***
Fresh from reimagining Marvelman, Alan Moore had his wicked way with another obscure and rather ridiculous hero, with less gusto. It's got the epic classical aspiration, sci-fi/magic dichotomy, madness and satire of his masterpieces, but turns out more a spattered mess. Its saving grace is a relentless killing machine that's properly chilling and makes the Terminator look like C-3PO.
1995 / Audiobook / 282 pages / USA
****
I still don't get why he's king of the travelogue, but this was an entertaining false-nostalgic primer for returning to Blighty, updating his '70s experiences to a '90s experience I was too young to be concerned about at the time. Presumably there have been some further changes since. Not giving the non-British audiobook narrator pronunciation notes was a major oversight.
2008 (updated 2010) / Ebook / 368 pages / Various
****
Various naturalists, writers and other public figures write very short odes to bits of the English countryside and tangentially related topics. It does the trick, but fewer voices saying more would have been more satisfying. Though also more of an ask, since it's for charity.
Shashi Tharoor, An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India (a.k.a. Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India)2016 / Audiobook / 360 pages / India
***
He's right; I studied history as far as AS-level and the atrocities of Empire were never touched on. I only pieced it together over time from extracurricular sources like Monty Python. "We" were unequivocally the baddies. How to atone for that?
2017 / Audiobook / 112 pages / UK
**
I didn't realise how lucky I was to grow up in a village, surrounded by the stench of cow pats. This book is for urban kids who only know the British countryside from books... so doesn't really help there. The audiobook presentation has a nice birdsong backing that's better than the poetry.
