Posts by Richard Llewellyn
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RB
I'd argue that the seeds for cultural change in the police force were likely planted even earlier, during the Springbok tour in 1981.
While the likes of the Red Squad certainly weren't changing their colours in a hurry, the sheer social division caused by the tour I am sure (I hope) would have started a lot of young police recruits to question what they were doing, how they were doing it, and how they were perceived by Joe Public.
As those same young police came through the ranks, attitudes within must have started to change - albeit with the old guard standing firm in many instances.
Certainly from my own perspective, how I viewed the police started to change immeasurably in 1981.
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And on the 'difficult to do well non-fiction' front, some of the best sports books I've read ....
Mud in your Eye - Chris Laidlaw, written at a time when All Blacks spoke, if at all, in monosyllabic terms, here was a book that opened the lid on rugby in NZ, from the point of view of a brilliant, if slightly dotty, non-conformist
Fever Pitch - enough said
All Played Out - Pete Davies following the English footy team and Gazza on their doomed 1990 World Cup bid - personally resonant because I was lucky enough to be there
Dark Trade: Lost in Boxing - Donald Macrae is an excellent South African journalist who always finds the sad reality underneath the sporting hype - almost a boxing version of the superb Hoop Dreams
Only a Game?: Diary of a Professional Footballer by Eamonn Dunphy, a brilliant and sardonic look at life as a pro footballer
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Hey, that was the name of my first dog too! :)
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Question: What did the poet say to Luke Skywalker?
Answer: “Metaphors be with you.”Gnarf gnarf ...... Sorry.
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And yet more guilty pleasures ...
Harry Harrison and the Stainless Steel Rat
George MacDonald Fraser and Flashman
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Oh yeah, Ghost Story! - that was great. Wasn't that also made into a cheesy movie?
And speaking of Douglas Adams ...........
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Jeremy - I've read the 'Raw Spirit' Iain Banks love letter to whiskey, I'm not a big whiskey fan, but its well worth reading - particularly if you know Scotland, and definately if you like whiskey .....
And on the 'please don't let the movie suck' and 'what I want my kids (also 7 and 5) to read when they are older', the Phillip Pullman 'Dark Materials' trilogy .......
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Ahem, what EE Doc Smith books? (cough)
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Gosh, theres just so many that could come to mind ....
Fever Pitch - Nick Hornby, best book ever on the highs and lows of being an obsessed fan
Into Thin Air - a gripping cautionary tale about commerce at the roof of the world - the death of Rob Hall is incredibly moving.
Bob Needs Slack - an introduction to the Church of the Sub-Genius - I didn't realise you were allowed to parody religion until this (and of course the Life of Brian)
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks, strong wild celtic stuff with a twist - stuck with me for ages
The teenage fodder of sci-fi (Heinlein, Asimov, PK Dick) and fantasy (Thomas Covenant, Tolkein etc).
The books that made you want to go out on the road, Kerouac, Hunter Thompson, Bruce Chatwin etc
The classics, Greene, Harper Lee, F Scott Fitzgerald, Marquez, Vonnegot, Pynchon, etc
The pulp, O'Donnell, Connelly, Frank Miller, Richard Price, Mosley, etc
I guess thats the beauty of the printed word - somewhere out there is the perfect book for every occasion.
A bit like food really. While its good to eat gourmet as often as you can, sometimes you just feel like fish and chips.
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Heh - thats a ripper of a press release.
Almost pythonesque. My favourite line, "At least MetService deals in the real world of observation of actual weather events".
Coming to you from the reality based community of weather observers.