Having just suggested 1066 And All That as a crib for the sort of school history studied by older Times xwd setters, I then remembered i_am_magoo’s recommendation of the Hornblower books for naval vocabulary, over at Tony Sever’s RC blog. Then a comment today from 7dpenguin reminded me about another handy book, and so did something in the second championship qualifier published today.
So let’s see if we can build up a list of nifty books. Serious tomes don’t get in – the point is to pick up the necessary knowledge while having fun. That doesn’t mean a book that’s intended to teach is excluded, just that it must entertain as well. The book must be in print too. Add your own suggestions in the comments …
History: 1066 And All That – Sellar and Yeatman.
Other miscellaneous old Brit schoolroom stuff: Molesworth – currently on offer from Amazon with 1066 and all that – they saw us coming!
Nautical / historical: Hornblower – C S Forrester. Ten books in three omnibus editions from Penguin, each about £10 – The Young Hornblower, Captain Hornblower, Admiral Hornblower.
Bluffer’s Guides: Series of small paperbacks, about 100 pp, which give you light-hearted intros to all sorts of topics.
Language, travel, science, American popular culture , and whatever he turns his hand to. Anything by Bill Bryson.
Travel, history, food … read your holiday guide books. I have a soft spot for Cadogan guides which give you good coverage of the cultural side without getting too serious about it.
Sport: David Wallechinsky’s Complete Book of the Olympics. Not a huge help for the xwd, but great for finding out what the commentators are on about if they mention someone like Paavo Nurmi or Boris Onishchenko.
Poetry: Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled which explains iambs, anapaests, trochees and all the others.
Books added to the list much later ….
Nature: Johnson P. Johnson’s The Armchair Naturalist. A short guide intended to help you identify plants and creatures that you might encounter in the British countryside. Sample: The thing to remember about shrews is that they possess extraordinary noses seemingly fixed like drill bits onto chubby bodies, thus giving them the appearance of miniature tunnelling machines.
I suspect that a grammar school education of the 1950s has been very useful: high standards set and expected; a good all round education and the development of an enquiring mind.
It was my English teacher that helped me to move from The Telegraph to The Times when I was 15. He gave me two pieces of advice: always read the paper every day before doing the xword – it will expand your general knowledge; when you check something in a reference book such as a dictionary always read and inwardly digest not just what you have looked up but the two entries on either side – same reasoning. Jimbo.
Tom B.