The Frumplingtons

John Peel was — indeed, still is — considered by many to have been one of the world’s greatest radio presenters, although Peel himself would doubtless have shrugged off such wanton admiration.
Margrave of the Marshes is written in his familiar understated, at times whimsical style. Or at least, half the book was written by John; a computer problem resulted in his early drafts of the book being accidentally deleted, and he had to start all over again. Sadly, he did not live long enough to complete the book. The second half was written by Sheila, whom John affectionally dubbed ‘Pig’ and tells the story from John’s return to England from the USA (where he spent most of the 1960s) right up to his untimely death, at the age of 65, on holiday in Peru, which he had always wanted to visit. Familiar material to Peel fans maybe, but an absorbing read nonetheless.

Mitch Albom has achieved quite a difficult feat: he has written this book, The Five People You Meet In Heaven, which tells the story of an elderly fairground worker who is involved in an horrific accident. By bringing the various events of Eddie’s life into perspective, we see how everyone’s lives are intertwined in one vast fatalistic matrix. It is a sort of fable, a morality tale, if you will; what it essentially says is that even the lowliest member of society is important in the grander scheme of things. In less experienced hands, this story might have come across as sickeningly over-sentimental. But Mitch Albom has managed to avoid falling into that trap. And instead, this is a moving, thought-provoking story. Highly recommended.

When Wall Street Journal writer Stefan Fatsis decides to try to become a Scrabble champion, he has little idea of what he has let himself in for. Especially as he begins his mission by beating none other than John Williams. Who he? Only the top man at the National Scrabble Association, that’s all. Thus lulled into a false sense of security, Stefan sets off to explore the twilight world of competitive Scrabble. Word Freak is his story of his experiences along the way.

Scrabble has, some would say, more than its fair share of eccentric characters, and Stefan plays against them all: to name but a few, there’s pill-popping health nut, Matt; black rights activist, Marlon; the Man With a Thousand Allergies, GI Joel; and Scrabble supremo, Joe Edley, who used to sleep under a bush in his local park — because he believed it would be a character-building experience.

The scariest opponents though, were the many middle-aged women in Scrabble’s lower leagues; women Stefan nicknamed ‘blue-hairs’, and who were not all as mild-mannered as he at first suspected.

Stefan also explains how Scrabble developed over the years and why many players feel it is undervalued by the companies that make and sell it. And he meets the men who gave years of their lives to help produce Scrabble’s definitive dictionaries and word lists, only to receive virtually no reward for all their efforts.

But the big question is: Did Stefan Fatsis finally manage to become Scrabble Champion of the World?

All I will reveal is that he was present at the World Finals. If you want to know more than that you’ll have to buy the book and find out for yourself.