Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Alex Walters

Another week has zipped by and already it’s time to throw open the doors of the Decades Library and welcome a new guest curator who will shortly tempt your TBR with some new reading recommendations.

But before we get to the books its the obligatory recap. What’s a Decades Library and why do I have a guest curator?

Back in January 2021 I asked myself the question: if I had a brand new library but no books which books should I add to the Library shelves to ensure I had the very best reading options available for Library visitors? I knew this was far too difficult an undertaking to take on alone so I have reached out to my friends for help. Each week I invite a new guest curator to join me and I ask them to nominate new books which they feel I should add to the library. I want their favourite books, the “unmissable” titles or the books which left a lasting impression.

Why is it a Decades Library? I had to bring a little order to the chaos of asking booklovers to recommend some of their favourite books – seriously, two years later there’s a real danger we would still be listening to my first guest listing the books she loves. Instead I set two rules to govern the choices each guest makes:

1 – You Can Select ANY Five Books
2 – You Must Choose One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

So any five books but restricted to a fifty-year publication span. Easy? Have a go at selecting your own favourites, you may find you re-discover some old favourite reads.

This week it is a real delight to welcome Alex Walters to the Decades Library. I spent my teenage years in the Black Isle and Alex has written a series of books where I get to read about the characters walking down the streets of towns and villages I know so well. As a reader there’s nothing quite as exciting to me as seeing crime thrilers set in places I know. What a brilliant introduction that was to Alex’s writing and the bonus of discovering he had written lots of other books has meant I am enjoying playing catch up.

Time to pass the curator’s hat to Alex and let him guide you through the five books he wants to add to the library shelves….

Alex Walters is the author of twenty one crime and thriller novels, across several series. His first books were set in modern-day Mongolia. Since then, he has written two books set in and around Manchester featuring the undercover officer, Marie Donovan (Trust No-One and Nowhere to Hide), five books with a paranormal edge featuring DCI Kenny Murrain (Late Checkout, Dark Corners and Snow Fallen, Stilled Voices and Life Remains), and six books set in the Scottish Highlands featuring DI Alec McKay (Candles and Roses, Death Parts Us, Their Final Act, Expiry Date, For Their Sins and A Parting Gift). His most recent series is set in the Peak District featuring DI Annie Delamere (Small Mercies, Lost Hours and Bad Terms), with a fourth book, Old Evils, out later this year from Canelo.

He has also written two standalone thrillers – Winterman, a historical crime thriller set in the East Anglian fens in 1947 and his most recent book, Human Assets, a humorous spy thriller.

Prior to becoming a writer, Alex worked in the oil industry, broadcasting and banking and as a management consultant working mainly in the criminal justice sector. He now lives on the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands where he runs the Solus Or Writing Retreat with his wife, Helen, and a variable number of cats.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alex-Walters/e/B00528T2NG?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1675963265&sr=8-2

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexwaltersauthor

Website: https://www.alexwaltersauthor.com/

DECADES

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delany (1967)

My choices here are books that made a major impact on me on first reading. I was a huge science fiction fan in my teens – though I’ve rather lost touch with the genre now – and initially borrowed this from the library largely on the basis of its title and intriguing style. It’s an extraordinary book – a retelling of the Orpheus myth, set among the non-human inhabitants of a distant-future earth. The narrative is intriguingly interspersed with literary quotations, epigraphs and (real?) excerpt’s from the author’s own journal. The book is sparse, allusive, elliptical and endlessly thought-provoking.

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)

I first read Gravity’s Rainbow in my late teens, and I’ve re-read it several times since without ever getting close to fathoming its depths. It’s a huge compendious novel, almost impossible to summarise, set in the closing days of World War II. It combines real-life incidents with extraordinarily imagined, often hilarious fiction, addressing morality, science, war, sex and countless other themes in Pynchon’s unique and hypnotic prose style. Now, I need to read it again.

The Names by Don DeLillo (1982)

Like many people, I first came to DeLillo through White Noise, his breakout book in the UK. That sent my back to read his earlier books. Not all are to my taste, but the novel that stuck with me was The Names. It’s a tricky book to describe – a paranoid thriller, but with a plot that remains opaque, an exploration of the power of language, an examination of the nature of empire, even an atmospheric piece of travel writing, with a tone all of its own.

Complicity by Iain Banks (1993)

I was keen to include something by Iain Banks because he’s one of the writers who has given me most straightforward pleasure over the years. I’ve chosen Complicity because it’s perhaps one of the less well-known of his books, but it’s a wonderful example of his ability to tread effortlessly the line between popular and literary fiction. Complicity is a terrific page-turning thriller, filled with memorable if often dislikeable characters, but it’s also a powerful meditation on politics and power.

Thursbitch by Alan Garner (2004)

Garner is probably the writer who has had most impact on me, from the early books I read as a child through to his more recent, often challenging works. He’s far from a prolific novelist, and every book feels as if it’s been chiseled from a mass of thought, experience and research. Thursbitch is characteristic of Garner’s later work in building unexpected bridges across time and between ideas. In this case, the death of Jack Turner, an eighteenth century ‘jagger’ or salt-trader, is told in parallel with that of a contemporary couple, Ian and Sal, a geologist dying of a degenerative illness, drawing us into ancient bull-cults, shamanism, sentient landscapes, and the nature of time. It’s hugely atmospheric novel, rendered all the more potent for me by my familiarity with its Peak District setting. And its epigraph is taken from Jean Cocteau’s film Orphée, which, accidentally but satisfyingly, takes me full circle back to my first choice.

For the first time in a long time I haven’t read any of the five recommendations. This is why I have enlisted guests to help me pick the best books for the library shelves. But it is also bad for my TBR as Alex has tempted me into two book purchases as I have been pulling this post together – both The Names and Complicity are soon to be winging their way here. I am weak but I love a good book.

Huge thanks, as ever, to Alex for taking time to make his selections.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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April 1

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with David Monteath

The second quarter of 2022 is upon us. As this latest Decades selection goes live it will be April and Decades will be in its sixteenth month of guests. I am grateful to each and every contributor and to you for returning, week on week, to see the latest books which are being added to my Decades Library.

The Decades Library I hear you ask? I am compiling a list of the very best books which my guests think would deserve a place in the Ulitmate Library. I started this project in January 2021 with zero books and each week I ask a guest to nominate five new books which they would want to see included in a collection of the finest writing.

When making their selections my guests are asked to follow two rules.

1 – Choose Any Five Books
2 – You May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades.

This week I am delighted to be joined my someone who reads my books for me. Or is that to me? David Monteath (@joxvox) will be a familiar voice to many audiobook fans and I am always fascinated to know which books stand out to someone who spends most of his waking hours focused entirely on the written word.

One of Scotland’s most popular voiceovers, David Monteath was born in Glasgow and started acting while at high school, he trained as an actor at Webber Douglas in London and has been an actor and voiceover for 25 years.

David’s early life was split between homes on the outskirts of Glasgow and the beautiful Spey Valley in the Highlands of Scotland. He also lived in central Perthshire near the popular tourist destination of Pitlochry with its world-famous Festival Theatre.

While training at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy in London, David met his future wife Lindsay. They have three children and all five of them have worked as voiceovers for clients across Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East.

David has put his voice to good use over the years and has vast experience of most aspects of being a voiceover from advertising for television and radio, ADR and dubbing on film and television, language tapes for learners of English, telephony and on-hold messages, character animation through to narration, commentary and audiobooks.

He has also produced and co-presented a weekly request show on Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio

DECADES

Most of my choices are made from books I have read for work, one of the downside of being an audiobook narrator is that I rarely have time now to read for pleasure, so in many ways my reading choices are dictated by my clients. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, this work has introduced me to many writers I would never have found otherwise.

The High Girders – John Prebble – 1956

This is an absolute classic and the first John Prebble I have read. It follows the story of the building of the Tay Railway bridge and its eventual collapse on 28^th December 1879. The story follows in detail the events of the night, and wherever the blame is felt to lie for the errors which caused the disaster and 75 deaths, Prebble’s book is a fascinating account of a terrible night and a compassionate recounting of so many very human losses.

The Game of Kings (The Lymond Chronicles) Dorothy Dunnett – 1961

Ok, there is a tale behind this one…where else would tails be?…I was recording a quiet story of a country doctor when the producer asked if I would be interested in narrating another book for him, ‘it’s a bit longer than this one’ he said. ‘Of course I would.’ Now cut forward a few days and I was sent the pdf, most audiobook narrators work from iPads, it makes it much quieter as you don’t hear the dreaded page-turn noises that audio editors hate. Also making notes on character and scene etc are simpler on a screen. So, I opened the pdf and found a place at random a good few pages in. I read a rather lovely scene between our hero Lymond and a very young Mary Queen of Scots, set on an island in the middle of the Lake of Menteith, my area of Scotland…but more importantly where I was married. Of course I was completely drawn in and contacted the producer who said…’Um, this has changed slightly, you might have noticed that the book is a biggie, we think it’ll be around 26 hours when you’ve finished recording. Is that still ok?’. Oh definitely good for me. Then he muttered quietly as the phone was going down…’just one more thing…there are six of them, all pretty much the same length!!’ So, this quiet chat turned into 1.3 million words read, 146 hours of finished audiobooks and over 300 hours recording in my tiny studio during the very hot summer of 2018…it was HUGE…and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

I’m not going to try to precis the book or the series, if you’ve read or listened to them you know why…if you haven’t, the please, please do, you absolutely wont regret it. They are glorious.

The General Danced at Dawn – George MacDonald Fraser – 1970

IN the early 1990s, when I was on tour with the Oscar Wilde play ‘A Woman of No Importance’, I shared dressing rooms around the country with an actor called Stuart Hutchison, who was also a regular face on Westward Television in the Plymouth area. Stuart and I spent hours talking about books, art, music and pretty much anything but football which we both dislike. He bought me a copy of The General Danced at Dawn as I’d never read the stories and he wanted someone else to be able to laugh at them and love them as much as he did. I’ve been very fortunte in my career to work with some really kind, generous people and that was Stuart.

The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco – 1980

Hmmm, I’m beginning to sense a bit of a history theme in my reading. This book sort of crosses all of my working genres, history (albeit fictional) and crime. It’s a complicated disturbing romp through murders in a 16^th Century monastry in middle Europe, probably modern day Germany. The descriptions of ecclesiastical life and the conflicts in the church at that time are great, although if you saw the film first, I defy you not to hear Sean Connery every time Brother William speaks.

Iain Banks – Complicity – 1993

Right then, back to me again…this is a revenge story, brilliantly written by the always brilliant Iain Banks. Someone once asked me, if given a choice what books would you like to have narrated? Any of the Iain Banks would have been my choice. It’s even more annoying that the reader is a friend and a very good reader.

I worked in a bookshop in the early 1990’s and without exception all these authors were selling in great numbers in Inverness bookshops – I know this as I was selling them. Pure nostalgia for me and I loved these choices.

And not just those choices as David gave me two extras. I have taken an executive decision to move Montrose out of the 1970s and Morningstar out of the 1990s selections. I don’t mind the fact Montrose was originally written in the 1920s but it would mean dropping George MacDonald Fraser so rather than flex the rules I opted for the clear cut entry. I am being hard on David Gemmell by moving him to the subs bench but only one book per decade is the rule so I flipped a coin!

But I don’t hide the alternates so here are David’s thoughts:

Montrose – John Buchan – 1979 (from 1928)?

This might be a bit of a cheeky one as the book was originally published in 1928, but reissued in 1979. This was another audiobook project, but one far closer to my heart. My clan are the Graham from Stirlingshire and this book tells the story of the first James Graham, 1^st Duke of Montrose. My father was passionately interested in Scottish history, so this exploration of a turbulent time in Scotland was a particular favourite of his.

Morningstar – David Gemmell – 1992

OK, yes, actually I just like a good historical epic, this one was a thumping good read, glorious descriptions and a suitably complicated fantasy world. Its beautifully written and a great adventure.

A country in desperate need of heroes . . .

Angostin invaders surge through the Highlands, laying waste to everything in their path. Darkness follows in their wake as a mad necromancer resurrects the eons-dead Vampyre Kings.

Only the bandit Jarek Mace, and the magicker and bard Owen Odell, have the courage to fight the Angostins and the undead. Whispers soon spread that Mace is the legendary Morningstar, a saviour who will protect his country in its hour of need. Yet Mace seems nothing more than a thief and a liar.

As the final battle approaches, Odell wonders which of the two Maces will triumph: the self-serving rogue or the saviour of his people, the Morningstar.

DECADES WILL RETURN

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