What It Is Like To Go To War
By Karl Marlantes
Corvus Books – £17.99

War, along with all its vile and harrowingly wasteful implications are herein broached with a severe and brutal honesty. An honesty that I have never encountered before; but then Karl Marlantes does write from elongated, explosive experience; which is to say he writes from the inside out, as opposed to the outside in: ‘’Killing someone will affect you. Part of you will think you’ve done something wrong. It’s drilled in from babyhood. If, however, you’re prepared ahead of time for it, you’ll suffer less because this knowledge and structure will add a thin layer of armour. Why put on the armour after the war? This is what I did.’’

As dark, barbaric and fundamentally male induced as war is, What It Is Like To Go To War is surprisingly humane and in parts, even delicate. As such, much of what Marlantes writes traverses the anaesthetized acquiescence of war, as if a literary heat-seeking missile. This is particularly true of the fourth chapter, ‘Numbness and Violence,’ wherein the author not only usurps the psychological human nature of war by quoting both Nietzsche (‘’I am by nature warlike. To attack is among my instincts’’) and Kierkegaard (‘’It is not good works that make a good person but the good person who does good work’’), but penetrates the solipsistic stasis of the benison acceptance of war, by just telling it as it needs to be told.

And it’s the truth in the telling, just like that of Marlantes’ outstanding debut Matterhorn, which will separate this book from a plethora of (terribly average and misinformed) others. To be sure, there are a number of stark, uncomfortable home truths throughout that are simply laden with unspoken clarity and conscience.

For instance, on the subject of ever increasing weapons technology, he writes: ‘’The critical psychological issue about weapons technology is the ability to distance the user from the effects. A constant martial fantasy is the ‘’clean kill.’’ To kill someone with an almost effortless eloquent blow of the first two knuckles of the fist is aesthetically more pleasing than to bludgeon them to death with a rock. How much more pleasing, then, with a fine rifle? A precision-guided bomb? A ray gun that simply makes people disappear? One of the major horrors of war is the blasted bodies, rotting parts, bloated intestines, and the stench. In Vietnam I used to fantasize about a laser beam so fine that you could slice an airplanes wing off with no more than a hair-line cut – or man’s head, with no blood at all.’’

That Marlantes declines to deny his own acceptance of such fantasy, enables the reader to feel comfortable within the much sought after knowledge, that what one is reading, is the oft ignored truth of the matter. Or at least certain candour bequeathed by way of high-octane, resolute understanding. As he invariably continues: ‘’This clean kill fantasy avoids the darkness. It allows the hero trip without any cost, so of course we fantasize about it. And as we get more and more technologically advanced there are more and more policy makers tempted to live out this ‘’clean kill’’ fantasy. Even the language is getting neat and tidy, as in ‘’surgical strike.’’ There is nothing very surgical about maiming Khadaffi’s children, the children of Baghdad, or Taliban fighters, or Iraqi soldiers. Dealing with blood is a major problem in surgery. I don’t mind the activity nearly as much as the hypocrisy.’’

Hypocrisy within war is endemic. The two are almost a partnership. A bad marriage of sorts, whereby one feeds off the other; while in so doing, depleting every moral sense of balance and discrimination to such an extent that all that’s left is pure hatred.

Indeed, manmade hatred.
Not to mention outrage and remorse.

What’s more, political hypocrisy within the parameters of war, is surely amid the worst, and most shameful of its kind. Here again (and again), Marlantes commendably shines a light: ‘’A Congressional junket to a combat zone is one junket this taxpayer would feel good paying for – as long as the junket doesn’t stop short at headquarters. Unfortunately most of them do because most junketing members of Congress are there so that they can tell people back home they’ve been there, not to actually see the results or failures of their votes. Walk through a burned-out village where the dogs haven’t been fed and you hear them eating the dead. If this doesn’t snap through your conditioning, then smell human meat rotting. Listen to the wailing of the orphaned child and go mad with it because you can’t get it out of your ears until you either walk away or do away with the child. Pick up chunks of body and feel the true meaning of dead weight. These senses aren’t filtered and dulled by visual media. These channels are much more directly open to the heart. This is another reason why ‘’computer game’’ warfare has no natural checks on its violence.’’

It’s not often one reads such frighteningly fraught and forthright sanctity; laced with one literary power punch, after another, after another, after another. This is why What it is Like to Go to War will probably end up being not only one of the best books of 2012 (and it’s still only January), but also one of the best books ever written on the subject of war.

David Marx

The Skinny French Kitchen
By Harry Eastwood
Bantam Press – £20.00

Ever wondered why there aren’t that many fat French women?

Or why, when le palate is of paramount importance throughout France, that French women simply refuse to resemble a small tenement building (unlike so many of their les anglais counterparts)?

Might it have something to do with the fact young teenage French girls are simply incapable of drinking seven hundred pints of snakebite of a Friday evening – invariably followed by a mish-mash of sloppy love-bites and kebabs. Or more to do with the fact slapperesque behaviour just hasn’t yet caught on across the channel?

Either way, as a menagerie of minds ponder upon such sociological gastronomy, here’s a book that’ll hopefully retain many a waistline from potentially resembling that of a small caravan. That’s right folks, The Skinny French Kitchen – 100 light and delightful French favourites by Harry Eastwood, will both enable and procure even the most reticent of weight obsessed addicts, into (hopefully) lightening up and getting stuck in.

A self-confessed lover of snails and profiteroles – now there’s a topsy-turvy combination – the authoress succinctly writes in the book’s Introduction: ‘’I love French food. The only fly in the ointment is that traditional French food doesn’t love me. As someone who has struggled with putting on and losing weight for most of my life, French dishes (with all that butter) make me rather nervous. So, in The Skinny French Kitchen, I have combined my knowledge of French cuisine with my field of expertise: I’ve lightened up le menu and cut the calories from one hundred of my favourite French recipes.’’

So scattered amid these 248 pages, are such mouth-watering delights as ‘’guilt-free’’ Gratin Dauphinois, Calves’ Liver with Red Onions in a Raspberry Vinegar Glaze (for those who ‘’love eating meat that’s gutsy but lean’), Profiteroles au Chocolat (‘’hands down the best dessert in the world’’) and yet another best: The Best Roast Chicken Ever; beneath the title of which Eastwood writes: ‘’This is a bold claim, I know. But you haven’t tasted this chicken yet… I am one of many who feel that roast chicken is what the soul of a home would look, smell and taste like. I love it simply done with lemon and rosemary, I love it with a thousand garlic cloves slow-cooking alongside it, I love it hot or cold.

This recipe is what I would call the golden Mercedes of roast chickens. It’s a little more fiddly than simply bunging a beautiful bird in the oven with half an onion up its cavity and a grind of pepper over the top, but when you’ve tried it, you’ll understand what I’m on about…’’

Having lived in Normandy prior to moving to Berlin, I do know where she’s coming from, especially with regards actually having to put some effort into cooking, which, when all’s said and cooked, really is worth the effort!

Along with some truly wonderful colour photographs, this cookbook – like those of Jamie Oliver – is extremely user friendly. It addresses the reader by way of friendly, inviting, liner persuasion. This in itself makes The Skinny French Kitchen a very worthy addition to one’s kitchen library. Bon Appetit…

David Marx

Man’s Search For Ultimate Meaning
By Viktor E. Frankl
Rider/Ebury Publishing – £9.99

In the very first chapter of this unsurprisingly amazing book (‘The Essence of Existential Analysis’), there’s a quote from Vienna’s most famous poet and contemporary of Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzer: […] there are really only three virtues: objectivity, courage, and a sense of responsibility.’’ Not only is it nigh impossible to disagree with said substantiation of virtue, there’s no denying that Viktor E. Frankl – Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy and former inmate of both Auschwitz and Dachau – was, perhaps still is, one of its quintessential living embodiments.

Perhaps best known throughout the world for having written Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl has bestowed upon literally millions of troubled souls, a form of translucent, sincere understanding; the sort of which is as illusive to embrace as it is metaphorically awkward to define.

Hence, the countless diversionary tactics which are relatively easy to embrace and define, such as alcoholism, drug abuse and a wanton desire to be anything other than that which we truly are: human. To be sure, within the context of human nature, there are forces of good and forces of unspeakable evil. That Viktor E. Frankl and Adolf Hitler were both born in Austria within six years of each other is just one such instance – if not a juxtapositional, social calamity. As while the latter was all powerful yet deluded beyond any form of redemption, the former was a gentle intellectual; with more scope for human discernment and comprehension, than a thousand wretched Third Reichs’ put together.

This might partly explain Frankl’s survival, not to mention his wisdom and heart-felt authorship of an extraordinary collection of books – among them: The Doctor and the Soul, The Will to Meaning, The Unconscious God and The Unheard Cry for Meaning. Lest it be revered within the thread that traverses throughout all of his writing(s), is the degree to which all of us really can discover meaning.

That life has so much more to offer than anyone can ever possibly imagine.
But here’s the deal: we have to make the effort to find it. What’s more, we won’t find it within the context of the needle and the damage done (or within the inexorable shopping malls of insanity).

That said, we might not find it in Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning either, but we will at least find the right questions. And what more could one possibly ask for, but to at least embark on one’s journey from the right place? As Michael Berenbaum, author of After Tragedy and Triumph has written, this book is to be ‘’treasured by… men and women who wrestle with ultimate questions and encounter God as often in the question as in the answer.’’

David Marx

30-Second Psychology
By Christian Jarrett (ed.)
Icon Books – £12.99

Who’d have ever thought there’d be a quintessential link between a certain strand of psychology and a certain configuration of crass rap; but in this exceedingly easy to read reference book, 30-Second Psychology – The 50 Most Thought Provoking Psychology Theories, Each Explained in Half a Minute, there is indeed a link as well as a considerable mention.

In the section on ‘Positive Psychology, one of the five contributors states: ‘’’That don’t kill me can only make me stronger.’ So sang rapper Kanye West in his 2007 track ‘Stronger.’ Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, put it similarly in the nineteenth century when he wrote, ‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.’ Their words would make an ideal motto for positive psychology – a movement that was launched by University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman […] in 1998. Seligman lamented the fact that psychology had for so long focused on mental ailments and distress. He called on the discipline to focus more on the positive – on people’s strengths and virtues.’’

So having taken psychology out of the dusty vaults of Viennese didacticism, Seligman, rather like the editor of these fifty theories, Christian Jarrett – award-winning journalist for The Psychologist – has endeavoured to deliver the discipline to that of a far wider audience. And not a moment too soon might I add. For as ever increasing numbers of young people opt for a Bachelor of Arts in media studies – by way of hit’n’run infamy for all the wrong reasons (myopic glamour and translucent depth by way of push-up bras and the thirty second sound bite) – such disciplines as science and maths are falling by the way-side.

To be sure, I’ve heard of a number of British universities offering free degree courses in science and maths – which really is a terrible state of affairs, especially considering the current economic crisis. So it’s all the more refreshing to stumble upon a book such as this, which somehow manages to depict what is more often than not considered a dry, dense, dichotomy of a subject, as being more than approachable, and dare I say it, somehow sexy.

As Jarrett writes in the Introduction: ‘’Each of the book’s 50 entries provides a plain English 30-second introduction, a 3-second ‘psyche’ for when you’re really in a rush, and a 3-minute analysis, which probes a little deeper. The chapters also include biographical profiles of some of the luminaries in this field, including Sigmund Freud and William James. Whether you choose to dip in or to study the book from cover to cover, you are about to learn about the most complex entity in the universe – the human mind. Have fun!’’

The overall layout and design of the book is most inviting – that its actual cover is reminiscent of an early Foo Fighters album is rather fetching to say the least! There’s lots of room to breath and generally reflect and cogitate upon what one may have read (which could be anything from Psychoanalysis to Milgram’s Obedience Study, Pavlov’s Dogs to Beck’s Cognitive Therapy). But the best thing about 30-Second Psychology is its simplicity and all round inviting manner.

David Marx

Chelsea
A Nostalgic Look at a Century of the Club
Introduced by Andy Sherwood
Haynes Publishing – £18.99

In the opening of this book’s Introduction, Andy Sherwood asks: ‘’What defines a football club? Is it the bricks and mortar that bind the stadium? Is it £100,000 a week salaries, trophies, WAGS and Sky Sports subscriptions? We’d argue that while football is all of these things now (some of them we like more than others), football’s identity and heritage lies in the past, and that’s no more evident than in the history of Chelsea.’’

The key word here of course is ‘history,’ for as current Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich, pumps ever more (alledgedly) embezzled funds into one of the Premiership’s top-flight football teams, one cannot help but wonder if he’s remotely aware of his requisition’s history. With desperate managerial turn-around and the buying and selling of players as if they were nothing other than used cars – which to a certain degree they are: sleek, glamorous and sexy one minute (a younger, hungrier, Didier Drogba for instance), scuffed, knackered and quintessentially over-rated the next (an older, bolder John Terry m’lawd) – it’s easy to think of Chelski PLC as somewhere along the line, having lost its way.

Moreover, much the same could be applied to numerous clubs throughout the Premiership, Manchester City in particular; whose recent spate of phenomenal success in England, although not Europe, many might contest as having fundamentally been won by that of the much maligned’n’misused chequebook. Plain and exceedingly simple, although in truth, not really a lot to do with football.

Suffice to say, there’ll be part-time pundits, the length and breadth of every football terrace in the land that’ll vehemently argue otherwise. But I cannot help but agree with the sentiment(s) in this absolutely fabulous book of an eye-opener, Chelsea – A Nostalgic Look at a Century of the Club.

Addressing the so-called beautiful game when it was still a working-man’s game, these 208 pages contain a varied collection of extensive photographs (selected from the Daily Mirror’s comprehensive archive of tens and thousands of images) and comprehensive anecdotes; such as Ted Drake’s ‘’Too many people come to Stamford Bridge to see a football match instead of cheering Chelsea. Let’s have people eating, sleeping and drinking Chelsea.’’

As the aforementioned Sherwood states in the Introduction: ‘’You won’t find yellow Nike footballs in this book. Or Lamborghinis. This is a history of Chelsea celebrating a more innocent time. A time when there was little difference between the lads who played for The Blues and the lads who watched them from The Shed. A time when the players and fans would often walk to the ground together, sometimes even drink together, and then part at the gates to take their respective places on the terraces and pitch.

Not all of these times are remembered through rose-tinted spectacles. Some periods have warts on them, including the decline of the 1970s and the rise of football hooliganism.’’ The latter of which is acutely aligned with the rise of that other late seventies phenomenon, the advent of punk music, in a wonderful book for which I wrote the Forward, The Wrong Outfit (Authorhouse) by Al Gregg

That said, if it’s an all round, historical overview of the West London Club you’re after, this book really does take some considerable beating.

David Marx

German National Identity in the Twenty-First Century – A Different Republic After All?
By Ruth Wittlinger
Palgrave Macmillan – £55.00

Given the current Euro-Crisis and Germany’s ever evolving position of financial strength by way of cohesive action – such as the bailing out of Greece yet again – it’s interesting to learn that it wasn’t so long ago: ‘’in terms of style, ‘’West Germany’s foreign policy was characterised by modesty, moderation, self-limitation and a ‘culture of restraint’ […] diagnosed as a ‘leadership avoidance reflex.’’’

Were such a ‘culture of restraint’ even remotely prevalent within the Reichstag of today’s (unified) Germany, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, would no doubt be leaping for joy, while perhaps not quite so many petrol bombs would be hurled at the police within the feisty parameters of Athens’ Syntagma Square. But as Mick Jagger once so prophetically sang: ‘’time waits for no-one.’’

And it most certainly won’t wait for the dithering manifestos as those espoused by such coalition governments as both Britain and now Greece to catch up, that’s for sure.

More to the point, this excellently written analysis of powerhouse Germany, substantiates the degree to which time, patience and subliminal guilt, will only be (nominally and nationally) excepted for so long – before making way for a revolution in reverse. Especially in terms of shedding the stigmatised skin of another’s barbarity.

As authoress Ruth Wittlinger writes in the fifth chapter (‘Germany’s New Foreign Policy Identity’) of this more than regal and refreshing investigation, German National Identity in the Twenty-First Century – A Different Republic After All?: ‘’The Bonn Republic by and large accepted a position of subordination with regard to its key bilateral relationships. As Adenauer had pointed out, ‘[w]e Germans should be clear, that we really do not count for very much in world history at the present time’ and when considering the international status of other countries such as Britain he acknowledged that ‘we Germans are really not in the same class.’’

As already mentioned, how times change. A mere thirty years down the line, finds Germany (closely followed by France) at the vanguard of European diplomacy. Just last week, Cameron was skulking back to London having been cunningly snubbed by the French President, Nikolas Sarkozy.

To be sure, this book traverses Germany’s political position in the world from the end of the Second World War, right up to the present. By re-examining the various component parts of Germany’s new identities, she leaves no awkward, sociological taboos unturned. For instance, in the very first chapter ‘German National Identity and the Nazi Past,’ she writes: ‘’[…] conservative historians sought to ‘draw’ the famous ‘line under the past’ (einen Schlussstrich ziehen) in order to enable Germans to develop a positive relationship with their nation, whereas (Jurgen) Habermas and his supporters were unwavering in their belief that it was only through making Auschwitz an integral part of German national identity and facing up to the historical responsibilities resulting from it, that Germany could go forward. In Habermas’s view a liberal political culture in Germany had only been able to develop ‘because of Auschwitz’ and ‘the reflection on the incomprehensible.’’’

Living in Berlin, I can clarify that Germany (or its capital city at least) is indeed facing up to the trajectory of its historical responsibility. It ought hardly be surprising that: ‘’West German governments continued to work within the parameters set by the bipolar world and the normative environment that emerged in opposition to the Third Reich’s destructive nationalism and relentless militarism. By becoming a reliable and predictable partner which was tightly integrated into the Western alliance system, West Germany thus managed to regain acceptance in the circle of civilised nations and ensured its security in the Cold War world.’’

For an insight into modern Germany, I couldn’t recommend a better book.
German National Identity in the Twenty-First Century is clearly written, concise, in the know, tough, explanatory and not afraid of the big stuff: ‘’The ‘probation period’ of the Bonn Republic came to an end with unification but the ‘probation period’ of the Berlin Republic has only just begun.’’

David Marx

Concise Oxford German Dictionary
Oxford University Press – £25.00

There are foreign language dictionaries that translate words succinctly (which is great) and then there are foreign language dictionaries that take said translation a step further. By analysing the origin and formation of words, some dictionaries – such as the Concise Oxford German Dictionary – succeed in depicting their translation(s) as so much more than what’s merely written on the page.

For instance, one can quite often look up a German word in a dictionary, and still not fully understand its translated meaning. Whereas herein, such lack of explanation absolutely isn’t the case. This is as a result of the countless examples given – that utilizes relative bold type throughout – which, if one doesn’t fully understand the translation or the explanation first time around, one is bound to stumble upon a literary direct hit cum realisation, second time around.

What’s more, certain translated examples inspire one to investigate ever further, which, if truth be known (or looked up), is what a really good dictionary is all about, isn’t it?

As Michael Clark has written in the Preface: ‘’For this new edition the Concise Oxford German Dictionary has been given a new visual presentation, making it even more accessible and easy to use. The text has been updated using the unparalleled language databases maintained and continually expanded by Oxford University Press and the Dudenverlag. New entries reflect scientific and technological innovations, particularly in the field of information technology, as well as changes in politics, culture, and society.’’

Also of equal importance, is the fact that the German language has continued to evolve and (from a spelling perspective) fluctuate! This is and was especially pertinent, following the unification of East and West Germany in 1990. As such, the influence of Germany’s unification upon its own language has been helpfully noted under the heading ‘German spellings in this dictionary’: ‘’German spellings in this dictionary are in accordance with the reforms in force since August 1998. Most newspapers and new books use the new spelling […]. To help the user who may not yet be familiar with the reforms, the German-English section of the dictionary gives both the new spellings and the old versions which became ‘invalid’ in 2005. The old spellings are marked with an asterisk and are cross-referred where necessary to the new […]. In a number of cases, however, implementing the new spellings rules has meant that just some, but not all, uses of a word have had to be transferred from one entry to another. In these cases the headword is not marked with an asterisk, but the entry is provided with a cross-reference to where the transferred information is now to be found.’’

Along with a comprehensive list of both German and English abbreviations used throughout the dictionary (and quite often, in everyday life), there is also a really helpful section on German electronic text messaging (SMS) that again, includes a glossary of appropriate abbreviations such as: 8ung for Achtung (warning), DAD for denke an dich (thinking of you) and ILD for ich liebe dich (I love you). Similarly, there is also a list of the English equivalent, many of which, I didn’t (and still don’t) know myself: F2T for free to talk, MYOB for mind your own business and NE1 for anyone (as opposed to an area of North London).

For all students of German, or anyone who’s just generally interested in the language, this is quite possibly, the best German dictionary on the market today.

David Marx

Prague in Black
Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism
By Chad Bryant
Harvard University Press – £16.95

As the title of this book suggests, a very decisive darkness had already descended upon much of Europe, long before the outbreak of World War II in 1939. The Munich Agreement had already delivered the Sudentland to Germany in the September of 1938 while six months later, Hitler’s troops marched (virtually) unopposed into Prague. Although Czechs outnumbered Germans thirty-to-one, Nazi leaders established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; and as a result, it became the first non-German territory to be occupied. The tumultuous trajectory of which evolved into a complex synthesis of ever evolving policies and laws, nationalistic euphoria(s) and lost identity(s).

Not too far removed from that of the dithering, deadly confusion that was allowed to take place due to dark clouds having ‘’descended over Europe’’ (following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo) in 1914; so too was there a European political shambles aligned to that of Hitler’s openly insatiable quest for Lebensraum, prior to his unprovoked invasion of Poland in September 1939.

As Chad Bryant makes perfectly clear in the third chapter (‘Plans to Make the Czechs German’) of this altogether in-depth and highly readable study Prague in Black – Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism, the annexation of Austria and aforementioned Munich Agreement (not to mention Kristallnacht), ought surely to have rung countless alarm bells throughout all of Europe: ‘’In the eyes of many nationalists, Germany was, borrowing from the widely popular novel by Hans Grimm, a Volk ohne Raum (a Volk without space), Hitler made the acquisition of Lebensraum central to his foreign policy objectives. References to the ‘’need for space’’ and Germany’s rightful Lebensraum abounded, first in Mein Kampf and even more often in his unpublished ’’second book,’’ written in 1928. ‘’Politics is the carrying out of a Volk’s struggle for existence,’’ he wrote. ‘’Foreign policy is the art of securing for a people the necessary quantity and quality of Lebensraum’’ ‘’I have taken it upon myself… to solve the German problem of space,’’ Hitler told his senior commanders in February 1939. ‘’Note that as long as I live this thought will dominate my entire being.’’ ‘’Germany needs 1,320,000 square kilometres of Lebensraum,’’ the Nazi propaganda sheet Volkische Beobachter proclaimed with suspicious accuracy, comparing the Volk’s spatial growth to a small child’s balloon that expands in the direction of least resistance.’’

Naturally, it’s easy to write such prophetic words with the fortunate benefit of nigh sibylline hindsight, but Bryant – who is an Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – has written no run-of-the-mill account of Czech social policy circa the 1930s. He has delved much deeper into the checkerboard of identities that remained so deeply embedded within the Czech psyche; to the degree that by the end of the book, one has a much clearer understanding as to why Hitler was in a position to both manipulate and distort the most innocent of differences: ‘’A healthy Volk needed to be purged of ‘’foreign’’ elements, the mentally ill, homosexuals, ‘’asocials,’’ and, most of all, Jews, who were condemned as parasites and the embodiment of everything Nazi ideology despised most. And, of course, the Volk was ‘’German,’’ perhaps the slipperiest of words in the Nazis’ vocabulary.’’

The brevity of the last statement alone, warrants the purchase of this critical and most committed of analyses.

David Marx

For Whom The Bell Tolls –
Light and Dark Verse
By Martin Bell
Icon Books – £9.99

Best known for his regal reportage from around the world, Martin Bell is the personification of considered calm. As a BBC reporter he has covered assignments in no less than eighty countries – which when you think about it, really is quite something in itself – and eleven wars, including Vietnam, Nigeria, Angola, Nicaragua, the Gulf and Bosnia (where as millions watched, he was wounded by shrapnel).

For Whom The Bell Tolls – Light and Dark Verse reveals an altogether different side to Bell the reporter; a side that must surely lurk just beneath the surface of many a war correspondent and reporter of strife. The difference herein being, he’s actually put (occasional poignant) pen to paper, thus revealing his thoughts on a variety of misfit notions and acts of abominable behaviour.

From an all-consuming media to duplicitous politicians to the curse of celebrity culture, these 154 poems traipse a thin line betwixt that of trenchant satire and an almost forgotten humanity – perhaps the most perfect example of which is ‘Haiti’:

Of course they show concern and sympathy;
Compassion is part of their stock in trade.
They will impress with their sincerity,
And if they can fake that, they’ve got it made

In such a scene a journalist at large
Once wrote a script that was a pack of lies;
The judges called it vivid reportage,
And then awarded him their highest prize.

With media reputations to be made,
Some would prefer the rescuers to fail;
Bad news is a commodity for sale,
And journalism is the cruellest trade.

I remember when the devastating earthquake hit ‘’the poorest country in the hemisphere’’ in January 2010, and I also remember the inevitable swarm of the world’s media descending on the country – all too late to save yet all too early to truly, truly care. A dire cacophony of a situation, which, as Bell concisely writes, evolved into nothing other than ‘’a commodity for sale.’

And while said cacophony of death was measured in the appalling screams of far too many orphaned children, England continued its vile lap-dance of venal vacuity; that again, Bell has captured all too well in ‘Cheryl’:

I see the nation is entranced by Cheryl
And ask, is she a singer or an actress?
A princess, patron saint or benefactress?
A businesswoman, owning many factories?
An editor perhaps or a redactress?
And am I ignorant of her at my peril?

Like music, verse and poetry is one of the few mediums that can connect both immediately and succinctly – which so many of these poems clarify. From ‘Vukovar’ to ‘Holiday in Sarajevo,’ from ‘New Labour’ to ‘Absurdistan,’ For Whom The Bell Tolls is a brave and altogether candid collection of verse from one of Britain’s finest news reporters.

David Marx

Elvis – My Best Man
By George Klein
Virgin Books – £8.99

What I quite like about this book is the fact that its author George Klein decided to write it many years after Elvis’s death – thirty-three to be precise, which in itself is commendable. As he writes in the Author’s Note at the outset of Elvis – My best man: ‘’After Elvis’s death, I was offered a fair amount of money to write a ‘’tell-all,’’ but that wasn’t the story I had to tell. Now, though, I’m old enough to know that I won’t always be around to speak of the Elvis I knew, and so it feels right to set my memories down in a more permanent form. I also feel that, as much as Elvis has been examined as a pop-culture icon, some important things about him have been missed.’’

Suffice to say, said ‘things,’ depending on ones’ point of view, may well have already been said, written about, re-written about and twisted beyond any remote form of lucid declaration. From Jesus to Jagger, John the Baptist to John Lennon, countless words have been written on countless icons and religious leaders, painters, warriors, writers and musicians of almost every shape and size. ALL of which pertain to be in the know.

But are they?
And if they arern’t, how would we know anyway?
Ought we to even care?
After all, do any of us really give a toss about what Rio Ferdinand was like as a schoolboy? Or the degree to which Lily Allen was probably a smugged up little madam during school assembly? It’s all about escapism by way of diversion, and let’s face it, Elvis and (the) Elvis (industry) PLC, bequeaths oodles of both in oodles of departments.

Hence the sheer number of books that have been written, most of which have been deplorable. Then again, not everyone is as astute and as erudite as Greil Marcus, whose own book, Mystery Train, quite possibly contains some of the most intelligent and imaginative writing(s) on Elvis Presley ever written.

So, given all of the above, one need’s to read this particular book with an open mind and, given the opening quote, a modicum of considered balance. I mention this because on the one hand, there’s the usual mayhem as (in the chapter ‘Pan Pacific’), Klein writes: ‘’Elvis had gone from being singing star to becoming an absolute national sensation […], he could create a commotion just about everywhere he went. As our Memphis train headed into some remote stretches of the American West, hundreds of people would show up at tiny depots to watch us speed by […]. At a couple of stops, when they didn’t get the glimpse they were after, the crowd decided to try to shake Elvis out […]. I wanted to assume that there was no way as crowd could tip a whole train over, but the panicked look on the faces of some of the conductors made me think otherwise.’’ While on the other hand, there’s the all too expected depiction of Elvis as being something other, where later in the book (during the chapter ‘Talent Party’) the author writes: ‘’Once, outside of Graceland, he held his hand over some bushes and asked me to watch carefully.. His hand stayed still, but damned if the bushes didn’t start moving a little bit. Then he told me to focus on a cloud, and he did some hocus-pocus with his hands and it seemed like he was making the clouds move. Elvis didn’t make a big deal out of it – he wasn’t trying to show me that he had special powers, just that there were powers we all had that we didn’t understand. I wasn’t so sure […].’’

So there you have it. From the nigh tipping over of a train to the ‘’hocus-pocus with his hands’’ and the reformation of clouds – there’s no-way that these 294 pages can possibly fail to entertain. Of course, whether or not you choose to believe it all is an altogether different matter. The assortment of black and white photographs are great though, especially the one – of Elvis and Klein leafing through some newspapers – right at the very beginning.

David Marx