Goes very nicely with the matching Unfinished Tales edition.

God, my Folio Society The Book of the New Sun set is quality control issue bingo full house - damaged coloured edge, scrapes on the covers, slipcase damaged on corner, ink from the coloured edges bleeding into pages. The last one's not actually a deal-breaker for me but this is really disappointing at this price point. I'm gonna ask for another copy but I really hope Folio Society limit their non-western Europe printing to eastern Europe in future (I've had a few books from various publishers printed in Slovakia and they've all been nice) as it doesn't seem the quality control coming out of China is a good fit for their brand at all.

davyK wrote:

The Man on the Moon from Folio I was eyeing up is sold out already.

Back in stock by the end of May apparently.

@ERE I got lucky and got a pretty unscathed copy, but TBotNS seems to have become the poster boy for how Folio shouldn’t do it. I assume it’s due to availability of resource rather than cost as they don’t exactly shy away from using the better European firms.

Folio have published  The Master and Margarita.

Looks great.

Another tempter

Yeah that’s the only one that has caught my eye.

Mythical Beasts in printed in China apparently. :/

The Master and Margarita is a bonkers but wonderful book about the Devil coming to town with a giant cat as a companion; causing mayhem and leaving a lot of embarrassed people in his wake.

Was quite a while ago when I read it and there's probably some clever analogies I missed but the pure spectacle is entertaining in itself and there is the best account of a hangover I have ever read or watched or heard.

Was hard to get physically for a long time - I read it on Kindle - but I have nice softback edition I picked up a few years ago in Waterstone's  ...   but I fancy the Folio edition.

My mother is clearing out my Dad's old books. A long time due - he died 8 years ago.

She handed me his copy of Spike Milligan's Where have all the bullets gone? which is Vol.5 of his war memoires. He was in Italy.  By this volume, Milligan has been taken from the front line after showing signs of what would now be PTSD or some mental health issue. Italy was a blood bath - he was at Cassino so it comes as no surprise.

He makes light of it though and amusing anecdotes are delivered skillfully with jokes woven in. The general chaos of the war was definitely a major influence on his humour later in his career. Safe to say he didn't entirely recover. This book includes his first meeting with Harry Secombe who himself was invalided off the front line after his post took a direct hit from a shell. Going by Milligan's description, he is completely bonkers at this point.

He is in an army entertainment group and plays trumpet and guitar in some jazz trios etc. and does a post VE day tour of Italy. The book also covers a couple of weeks leave he gets back on Blighty. Post war Britain doesn't sound like a great leave destination.

Milligan shows his writing skills when he drops the humour and genuinely reflects on how he felt at the time and it's a touching work. I think I'll be looking for the other books in this series.

I found a few dried out leaves in the book - it was a habit my Dad had and he also used them as bookmarks.  Bittersweet.

Have also completed a re-read of The Master and Margerita.  I was prompted to do this by the recent release of a Folio edition.

It's amazing how much one forgets of a book sometimes.  This is a masterpiece and I thoroughly recommend it.  I don't want to spoil but essentially, The Devil comes to Moscow with a band of demons and causes chaos but seemingly with a purpose for good - there's a parallel tale involving Pontius Pilate and his guilt which is captured in a novel that was burned by an author who went mad - and the Devil's visit is wrapped up in that.

Stupendous , fantastical scenes are described in beautifully translated prose. Wonderful , colourful and thoughtful stuff.

I finished reading Star Wars: Ahsoka today and it was a 360-page WASTE OF TIME.

if you have a kindle Nina, I can probably *ahem* find you the others.....

Questor wrote:

if you have a kindle Nina, I can probably *ahem* find you the others.....

Nah I'm reading the paper things. Find I sleep better that way. Thanks though!

tigersgogrrr wrote:

The 4th and final one is out soon. I'm really looking forward to it.

Is it worth trying to find them for a good price? I struggled with the business of writing in the beginning, there was so much info and it felt so dense to read / imagine at times that I found it hard to read much. It started to grab me around

This is written by a pal, has been getting outrageously great reviews since it came out, and is going for 99p on Kindle today.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YLBBNM3

I’ve just bought it, some of you might fancy it too.