Lunchtime read: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

The book ends and it is only at the final few passages given in evidence by Dr Jones that the format of telling the story by documents starts to annoy you. There are some many unanswered questions that are left hanging there because of course for official reasons there would be no interest.

To a certain extent of course you can use your imagination and try to expand on the potential love story between Dr Jones and Harriet. In some senses that was a side issue to the political satire that culminates in the prime minister being swept away to his death. But after a while the politics starts to become a little bit clichéd.

The Alistair Campbell figure is distorted to an extreme and the prime Minister is also a two-dimensional caricature of Tony Blair’s worse bits – the cynicism and determination to win votes at almost any cost. But it is the questions of faith and love that are raised by the characters of the Sheik and Harriet that will be most memorable for me. This book leaves you wanting to know more about the power of one man’s vision to touch other people and wanting to forget about the politics.

A review will come soon…