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Post by benedictjjones on Feb 17, 2009 11:14:56 GMT
again i wish i had a scanner as this has a lovely cover (orange penguin book with a painted picture of piccadilly circus overlayed with a giant snowflake).
i'm three quarters of the way through so here is the synopsis:
tv producer Andy meets government official David and the two begin a friendship as the weather gets cold and is predicted to get colder - (an italian scientist finacelli (sp?) has predicted that it may usher in a new ice age). David begins an affair with Andys wife. Andys wife leave him and on Davids advice flees to Nigeria with Andys two sons. Eventually as the winter closes in and the government pull back to enclaves (pales) David gets Andy and his own wife (Maddie) out on a flight to Nigeria. By this point Andy is more than a little in lve with Maddie.
In Nigeria they suffer prejudice and affront as the africans make up for the years that they were second class citizens - white doctors now serve as waiters and businessmen as house boys. european currency is cancelled and Andy and Maddie find themselves with no money, the only job available to Andy is training the new nigerian army (who are planning for their eventual campaign against the south african whites) but he lacks the relevent dash (bribe) to join - Maddie works as a cleaner in a hospital and the two of them live in a shack in the slums. Andys wife (now the mistress of a nigerian business man fails to help them)
Luckily for Andy a TV films him shoeless in the market buying a green monkey pen!s from a juju stall (they pay him a pound...) and a young nigerian film worker who he helped in london spots him and raises him from the slum.
he works for a while as a TV producer (and his 'ex'-wife tries to worm her way back in) but when a letter arrives from David saying he shan't be leaving London Maddie returns to the frozen north. David and Abo (his nigerian saviour) join an expedition by Hovercraft squadron to the UK.
They are captured by guernsey men when their hovercraft breaks down but eventually escape and make it to the rest of the expidition on the mainland.
so far i'm really enjoying this book - the armoured car patrol out of the london pale and the events on guernsey are excellent as is the society in which Andy and Maddie find themselves in Africa.
I won't compare this to death of grass yet as my favourite parts of DOG lay in the last 70 or so pages and that is what i have left of WIW. bloody good read so far though- need to get it finished as 'wrinkle in the skin' is on its way!!!!
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Post by dem bones on Feb 17, 2009 20:09:57 GMT
Enjoying your review, Ben. You'll find cover scans of four different editions of The World in Winter (including the one you mention) at Terry Jenkins' John Christopher tribute site: www.jccavern.co.uk/ |
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Post by benedictjjones on Feb 18, 2009 0:01:57 GMT
cheers dem, third one down is mine - marked on there as a hardcover but mine is the PB. mistress stella grabbed me tonight so i'll try and finish WIW during my lunch break tommorrow and post up the results!
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Post by carolinec on Feb 18, 2009 10:13:41 GMT
mistress stella grabbed me tonight  Does your good lady know about that, Ben?  |
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Post by benedictjjones on Feb 18, 2009 12:09:07 GMT
^she left me to my cans and went to bed  |
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Post by carolinec on Feb 18, 2009 12:10:47 GMT
^she left me to my cans and went to bed Oh, CANS of Stella Artois - now I understand! I thought Ms Stella was your mistress!  |
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Post by benedictjjones on Feb 18, 2009 12:21:30 GMT
^i've barely got the time for the missus let alone a mistress!!
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Post by benedictjjones on Feb 19, 2009 9:54:31 GMT
well i managed to finish it and what an end!!
Abo fights it out for leadership of the expedition (and to protect
andy). the expedition is shot at from one of the bridges as they move into london.
Abo decides to set up in the houses of parliement as a base and revelas to andy that the supply ship has left lagos and is carrying more troops as well as napalm and helicopters.
attacks against the expedition increase and force them out ontot he frozen thames where they set their hovercrafts up ina lager (circling the wagons). eventually Andy is sent out to speak with the 'savages' and see why they are attacking. it was no surprise that david was the leader of the london mob but he has some really great quotes:
"gangsters today, government tommorrow"
"my writ stretches from Brixton to St Johns wood, we're thinking about asking the others if they fancy a game at lords next year"
i won't reveal the ending as it kept me guessing which side Andy would pick right until the end.
like the 'death of grass' ths book is as much about people (their relationships and emotions) as it is about the disaster. there's nothing cozy in it (cannibalism, racism, betrayl, mass murder). the characters are so fully fleshed that sometimes you know exactly what they'll do and at other times they are unscrutible like real people. 'a wrinkle in the skin' next!!!
edit-it also deals with colonialism and racism very well i now want to read 'fugue for a dark island' to compare the two.
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Post by benedictjjones on Feb 20, 2009 11:25:06 GMT
i started on 'a wrinkle in the skin' last night but only managed a couple of chapters - looking good though (the main character's already had to execute an injured donkey and has considered blowing his brains out - oh and the english channel has trickled away!!)
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