The Cry of the Halidon - Robert Ludlum

Date: Jan 31, 2008
Meeting venue: George & Dragon, Batheaston
Present: Neil, Steve, Rob, Ras, Chris, Mark T

Rob's notes:

So Robert Ludlum got the thumbs down by unanimous acclaim (with Mark Th and Will's comments and scores to come - though Mark's email comment implied he concurs). Ras (who nominated it in the first place) was however keen to assure us that this was the worst Ludlum he has ever read by him and the rest are good. In brief: no depth of writing, shallow characters (all based around the Agatha Christie style reason for being in the novel), unbelievable plot (how could they simultaneously kill eminent people all over the world and then fall under a car whilst failing to get one person in a London night-club), poor writing style (using different words for the same thing just for the sake of it) and lots of little points for us to pick at in terms of accuracy, language etc. (My favourite was the incorrect geographical directions when leaving the Savoy, which would have got him into Covent Garden and not on Waterloo Bridge). Some thoughts that it might make a good film, questions about how (when we all thought it was such crap) he managed to get it published in the first place as it wasn't published under his own name, and then a debate about whether books written by Americans that are set in Britain should use the English language rather than American to describe things e.g. just what is a 'Britisher'? I'm not sure there was a lot more to say - probably the shortest discussion we've ever had on a book.

In terms of scores - the lowest ever by a long way, at 2.21/10 (less than half the next lowest). The only notable factor on the personal scores front is that Mark Th is now the annual most easy to please - but he hasn't scored Halidon yet which I suspect may change that and result in Richard and I having that questionable honour - with three decimal points not separating us. For those to whom this means nothing, just wait until we find a way of posting the holy spreadsheet of BBBC for general consumption...