Wednesday 26 August 2015

Any Human Heart by William Boyd


“I looked at the punters, the drinkers – my species sharers – and wished them all dead”


I feel ever so slightly fan-girlish for admitting that reading that this books was  a favourite of Tom Hiddleton‘s certainly pushed it in my direction. This is a lengthy and expansive journal style novel that traverses countless historical events and figures – Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Ian Fleming and others make intriguing cameos – along with the continents of Europe, America and Africa.

 Logan Mountstuart lives a life full of  love, lust, adventure and misadventure all with a somewhat Hugh Grant-esque persona. There is a sense that he is somewhat out of control and life is what happens when he isn’t even making any plans. Here is a man controlled by whim, who floats through life seemingly without a care and yet experiences intense pain and hurting many as he meanders through life. Most of the hurt he deals out is a result of his lack of fidelity, and when he finally finds the perfect mate, tragedy ensues.

Beginning with his school days, then progressing to University at Oxford, Mountstuart’s life is never dull, and never particularly financially secure. As he ages, a trace remains of the younger man, even when the body might not be quite able to keep pace.


5 out of 5 lives are full of the unexpected.

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