RARA-AVIS: Alexander Baron

From: John Williams (johnwilliams@ntlworld.com)
Date: 19 Nov 2009

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    Sean Shapiro wrote:
    >
    >
    > Alexander Baron's 'King Dido' has come back into print. Haven't read
    > it yet. Takes place in East London in 1911. Any rara avians come
    > across this?
    >
    > Sean Shapiro
    >
    >
    >
    Yes, Baron was a terrific writer who I was fortunate enough to know in his last years. He's best known for his WW2 trilogy - From The City,
     From The Plough, There's No Home and The Human Kind (filmed as The Victors by Carl Foreman) - they have the verisimilitude that came with having fought through the war - both in Italy and in Normandy - and anyone with any interest in the subject should read them. The nearest thing he has to a rara-avis title is probably The Lowlife - a wonderful low-key story about an East End Jewish gambler in the years after the war. King Dido was his own favourite of his books, a big novel about crime and community.

    John



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