Hamm Court Book Club – Page 14 – For the enjoyment of friends, books and wine …

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre

A thrilling Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain’s greatest historians – now with a new afterword

On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket.

The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying. Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever..

Elaine 7, Cai 8, Christine 8, Pauline 8, jane 8, Janet 8, Sally 7, Rebecca 9, Trude 8, June 7

Xmas Read

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Forced to flee the scandal brewing in her hometown, Catherine Goggin finds herself pregnant and alone, in search of a new life at just sixteen. She knows she has no choice but to believe that the nun she entrusts her child to will find him a better life.

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or so his parents are constantly reminding him. Adopted as a baby, he’s never quite felt at home with the family that treats him more as a curious pet than a son. But it is all he has ever known.

And so begins one man’s desperate search to find his place in the world. Unspooling and unseeing, Cyril is a misguided, heart-breaking, heartbroken fool. Buffeted by the harsh winds of circumstance towards the one thing that might save him from himself, but when opportunity knocks, will he have the courage, finally, take it?

June 4, Jane 7, Christine 7, Trude 9, Pauline 9, Ccai 8, Reb 8, Sally 8, Janet 6, Elaine 3

The Artist by Sebastian Stone

Unpublished and written by a friend of June’s we wait to see what its all about.

It turns out we have our own super-duper author on Hamm court and all was revealed by June at last night’s book club. The book was well received, as were the pictures (you have several potential buyers Mike). June insisted we scored before we knew the author.

Elaine 7, Christine 8, Sally 8, June 7, Janet 8, Rebecca 7, Cai 6, Trude 7, Pauline 8, Jane 8

In Extremis by Lindsey Hilsom

Marie Colvin was glamorous, hard-drinking, braver than the boys, with a troubled and rackety personal life. She reported from the most dangerous places in the world, going in further and staying longer than anyone else. Like her hero, the legendary reporter Martha Gellhorn, she sought to bear witness to the horrifying truths of war, to write ‘the first draft of history’ and to shine a light on the suffering of ordinary people.

Marie covered the major conflicts of our time: Israel and Palestine, Chechnya, East Timor, Sri Lanka – where she was hit by a grenade and lost sight in her left eye, resulting in her trademark eye-patch – Iraq and Afghanistan. Her anecdotes about encounters with dictators and presidents – including Colonel Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat, whom she knew well – were incomparable. She was much admired, and as famous for her wild parties as for the extraordinary lengths to which she went to tell the story, including being smuggled into Syria where she was killed in 2012.

Written by fellow foreign correspondent Lindsey Hilsum, this is the story of the most daring war reporter of her time. Drawing on unpublished diaries and interviews with Marie’s friends, family and colleagues, Hilsum conjures a fiercely compassionate, complex woman who was driven to an extraordinary life and tragic death. In Extremis is the story of our turbulent age, and the life of a woman who defied convention.

Elaine 6, Janet 6, Jane 6, cai 5, June 5, Rebecca 6, Trude 7, Christine 10, Pauline 8