Talk:Venetian Blind (novel): Difference between revisions
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"(I)ts worst fault is that it is one of those smart thrillers which exude self-satisfcation about their milieu -- in this case cabinet level top-security and milliomaire industrialist high-life -- and treat the reader as a sort of gawking poor relation. The plot is mildly ingenious but highly improbable" - Anthony Cronin, Times Literary Supplement | "(I)ts worst fault is that it is one of those smart thrillers which exude self-satisfcation about their milieu -- in this case cabinet level top-security and milliomaire industrialist high-life -- and treat the reader as a sort of gawking poor relation. The plot is mildly ingenious but highly improbable" - Anthony Cronin, Times Literary Supplement | ||
In Venetian Blind (Lashburn, $2.95), William Haggard effectively draws a larger-than-life engineer-tycoon, a modern magnifco who lives in the grand manner unoppressed by codes and conventions. When such a man is concerned in the British quest for negative gravity, the problems of the Security Executive are obviously acute. International malefactions and private motives for murder combine to make a quiet, colorful, intelligent thriller. NYT, Anthony Boucher Criminals at Large, Jan 24 1960 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/01/24/119094050.html?pageNumber=139 | |||
Revision as of 17:27, 30 September 2020
Stuff from the book to eventually put in the article or into the Colonel Charles Russell article
Russell has said he will retire in six months. No one in his department really qualified to succeed him. the Home Secretary (who IS a Minister), Gabriel Palliser, says that Russell "was something special. He had it both ways: he ran the machine, and ran it beautifully -- the files, the dossiers, the interminable cross-checking. All that is essential, it's nine-tenths of the job, and it wouldn't be difficult to find a man to carry it. But it's the other tenth, nowadays, that counts in the pinches, and for that Russell had a flair. A nose. He smelt things...Colonel Russell is... something exceptional. He has a nose for the suspect but he detests suspicion; he's a humanist, a liberal in the oldest, best sense... you can't trust many when it comes to that sort of power." pages 12-13
Russell's room: untidyness; Benares brass and silver trophies; excellent Persian rugs; admirably attended mustache; soldierly but slightly donnish == page 34
Still smokes a pipe (54) and cigarettes when offered (60): champagne didn't agree with him... but he seldom declined it -- page 54
Says he's "an indifferent bridge player" (61)
has sherry and biscuits for lunch when too busy to go out (63)
"He was a churchgoer by mild conviction, but not a moralist." His vicar is a High Churchman. (64)
"I'm sixty" page 123
"A sad falling-off after Mr. Haggard's admirable first attempt with Slow Burner." - Christopher Pym, The Spectator
VENETIAN BLIND
BY WILLIAM HAGGARD ‧ RELEASE DATE: JAN. 20, 1960
The ramifications of a search for security leaks bring barrister Wakeley into the official orbit that is circling give-aways on ""Negative Gravity"", take him from England to Venice, and prove he is not perfectly equipped for the job. But it does prove the loyalty of suspected persons, the recent qualities of conscious treason, and the unexpected intricacies of Wakeley's own personal life.
Pub Date: Jan. 20, 1960
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Ives Washburn
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1960
"(I)ts worst fault is that it is one of those smart thrillers which exude self-satisfcation about their milieu -- in this case cabinet level top-security and milliomaire industrialist high-life -- and treat the reader as a sort of gawking poor relation. The plot is mildly ingenious but highly improbable" - Anthony Cronin, Times Literary Supplement
In Venetian Blind (Lashburn, $2.95), William Haggard effectively draws a larger-than-life engineer-tycoon, a modern magnifco who lives in the grand manner unoppressed by codes and conventions. When such a man is concerned in the British quest for negative gravity, the problems of the Security Executive are obviously acute. International malefactions and private motives for murder combine to make a quiet, colorful, intelligent thriller. NYT, Anthony Boucher Criminals at Large, Jan 24 1960 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/01/24/119094050.html?pageNumber=139