I started watching Apple TV's Slow Horses a few weeks ago. No particular reason other than that I like Apple TV (Foundation, Invasion, The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, Severance, Shrinking, Silo, Monarch, others) and thought I'd give it a try. I was hooked after the first two minutes, and even though I don't devote a lot of time to tv viewing these days (other than NFL games), I quickly ran through the six episodes (each) of seasons one through three, and am currently on episode 4 of season four, which is the latest at the moment--though seasons five and six have been greenlit. It's an interesting series. Oftentimes funny, but usually the humour is of the black variety. Gary Oldman (yes, I thought he'd died as well) is brilliant as Jackson Lamb, who is the crude, disheveled, dirty, vulgar, alcoholic head of Slough (rhymes with cow) House...a place where MI5's fuck-ups are sent to cool their heels. All of the other actors are good, but the cherry on top for me was the appearance of Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright, an aging (and perhaps senile) retired MI5 legend, and grandfather to the loverly Jack Lowden as River Cartwright. I've been a Jonathan Pryce fan since I first met him in Brazil (still one of my Top Ten favorite movies) almost 40 years ago (1985), and have followed his career as it wound out...136 gigs to date per IMDb.
So I suppose it was inevitable that I'd have a look at the books, and since the first (Slow Horses) wasn't immediately available at the LFPL, I headed for Barnes & Noble and threw down some hundred dollar bills.
I've just started reading this morning, and it usually takes me 50 to 100 pages to really sink into a book, but this bit caught my attention on page 21:
A man has walked from pouring rain into a coffee shop carrying newspapers in a plastic bag. The humble narrator observes, "If his newspapers hadn't been in a plastic bag they'd have been a paper-mâché sculpture waiting to happen."
Now that's quite clever, ennit?
Must read more. Possibly tomorrow's new DDR?
Possibly the next six months' worth of DDRs, as:
The Slough House series
edit- Slow Horses (2010)
- Dead Lions (2013)
- The List (2015 novella)
- Real Tigers (2016)
- Spook Street (2017)
- London Rules (2018)
- The Drop (US title: The Marylebone Drop) (2018 novella)
- Joe Country (2019)
- The Catch (2020 novella)
- The Last Dead Letter (2020 novella)
- Slough House (2021)
- Bad Actors (2022)
- Standing by the Wall (2022 novella)
- Clown Town (announced, 2025)
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Herron)
Okay, gotta go read. You come too.
P.S. Several straightforward references to William Golding's Pincher Martin (which I've not read, though I do have it SOMEwhere in this bookstore pretending to be my house) and an oblique one to the Dead Kennedys. Not a bad start, that.
P.P.S. Here's a thing which cries out to be noted: "But there was nobody to tell her she was lovely any more, and it was doubtful they'd say so if there were. The scary moments had won. Which sounded like a definition of ageing, to Catherine. The scary moments had won." (56) I feel that one down to my numb toes.
And yes, I am still reading. Let's see: 328 pages of novel, then, since this is the 10th Anniversary printing, 52 more pages of Other Stuff--most of which is an Exclusive short story. How long do you reckon it's takes to read 380 pages? Oh, wait: minus 56, so 324 pages. I'm guessing three days, counting today as the first.
䷯👀.
P.P.P.S. Read to page 93. Can't stop won't stop, so this just became DDR.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,593) December 5, 2024
Read to page 180.
An emergency comes up (live feed of a kidnap victim with the threat of imminent beheading) and River asks, "What do we do?" Lamb responds that "we" won't do anything, and adds, "Did you think the Batphone was about to go off, Lady Di shouting all hands-on deck? No, we'll watch it on telly like everyone else. But we won't do anything. That's for the big boys. And you lot don't play with the big boys. Or had you forgotten?" (96)
Day 3 (DDRD 2,594) December 6, 2024
Read to page 219, but then had to stop for dad duties, which didn't end until after 5 pm. Sooo...hoping to read some more, but so. VERY. 😫.
When a beheaded corpse is first sighted, the narrator tells us, "The body sprawled across the kitchen floor had once been taller."(218) Oh, Mick, you wag!
Here's a casual sentence which blows a cold wind through my bones: "Like all the slow horses, Loy lived alone." (244) Yeah. Me, too, motherfuckers. It ain't much fun being a loser, let me tell you. Trust me, I know from LOTS of personal experience.
William Blake's grave was just mentioned, which makes at least the second time for that. So
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Attribution: Grindtxx (on Wikipedia)
Ah, William Blake. I've long loved that strange, strange man. So...nice to see him here in this novel.
Well now. Read to page 270 after all. And once again, it felt like no effort at all. I am going to have to re-watch the first season of the show after finishing this book off, though. And speaking of finishing off...it's quite possible that I'll be finishing this book off tomorrow, isn't it? That's pretty close to a record for me.
Fortunately, I've already procured Dead Lions from the library.
From the Show: Lamb says of the Slow Horses, "At least mine are epic fuck-ups--not run of the mill fuck-ups like yours."
And yep, just finished Season Four. 😍 🥰 😍
Day 4 (DDRD 2,595) December 7, 2024
Read to page Finished the novel proper (page 328) and a few pages of extras, and will now finish off the bonus shirt story ("The Last Dead Letter"). Which is only 32 pages lomg, and is followed by an excerpt from the next Slough House book, Dead Lions (20 pages). As I'll be reading that book next, however, I must subtract 20 from this book's page count, reducing it to 360 pages. Nothing is truer than truth, baby.
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