book chatA Thousand Splendid Suns by KhaledHosseini, Bloomsbury £16.99 (£13.99)Set in war-torn Afghanistan, at thisharrowing but uplifting novel's heartis the friendship between twowomen. Mariam was forced tomarry an older man but sufferswhen failing to produce a son.Years later, pregnant orphan Laila'staken in as another wife. Afgan-American Hosseini showed hecould fly high with The Kite Runner; thissecond novel proves he's up there with thebest. The splendid Suns also shines.

Secret Diary of a Demented Housewifeby Niamh Greene, Penguin £12.99 (£10.99)This is a Bridget Jones style diary ofa yummy, crummy, oh lummymummy that seems all too familiar.Mum-in-her-thirties Susie strugglesto keep sane while surrounded bythe usual suspects of lively toddlers,selfish husband, best friend with alivelier life, lecherous lone dad and all therest. Nicely penned first novel... but IrishGreene needs to show her range of colours.

Cultural Amnesia by Clive James,Picador £25.00 (£20)At 876 pages you might think thiswas written by Clive of Windier.Don't be deceived. The Londonbased Aussie wizard with aphorismsoffers an original A-Z compendiumof more than 100 essays on heroesand villains, ranging from Camusand Tony Curtis to Miles Davies and Mao.He argues that our cultural amnesia meanswe are forgetting our champions of human-ism. Now, remind me again, who's this fel-low Clive James?

A History of Modern Britain by AndrewMarr, Macmillan £25 (£20)Ex BBC news top honcho Marr looksat post-war Britain and the triumph ofshopping over politics. He coverseverything from our Cold War vulner-ability to the oil boom and migra-tions, looking at the great visions ofeach decade's governments... andthe way the stroppy British failed to followthem. Wry but engagingly down to earth...even though it came from Marr's.

ED PERKINS

with Borders of Bournemouth

Top 10 music books

Borders, The Square, Bournemouth,BH2 6DT Tel: 01202 589736 or

bordersstores.co.uk

June 9, 2007 7

PEOPLE have been gripped by twofascinating history programmesshowing on BBC this month.One is former BBC political editorAndrew Marr’s History of ModernBritain. And the other is Peter andDan Snow’s programme aboutTwentieth Century Battlefields.Now, the Daily Echo has teamed upwith Borders, the bookshop inBournemouth Square, to offer the twobooks that accompany the two seriesas a prize in our weekly competition.

This week’s prize books are:■ A History of Modern Britain byAndrew Marr, published byMacmillan at £25.■ Peter and Dan Snow’s TwentiethCentury Battlefields, published byBBC Books at £18.99.To have a chance of winning these

two books, all you have to do isanswer the following question:What was Andrew Marr’s job from2000 to 2005 at the BBC?The first correct answer drawn froma hat will win.Send your entries by Saturday June16 to Magazine BordersCompetition Number 11;Promotions Department, DailyEcho, Richmond Hill, BournemouthBH2 6HH.Usual Echo rules apply.

1. BBC Proms Guide – 20072. Seriously Bad Album Covers – Nick Difonzo3. No One Gets out Alive – Biography Of JimMorrison – Jerry Hopkins4. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison – MichaelStreissguth5. Redemption Song – The DefinitiveBiography of Joe Strummer – Chris Salewicz6. Bring the Noise-Simon Reynolds7. Rough Guide to Jazz-Rough Guide 8. Changeling - Autobiography Of Mike0ldfield- Mike Oldfield9. Slash –Surviving Guns 'N' Roses – NickMiddles10. Easy Piano Songbook – Andrew LloydWebber

moved to Maida Vale, but beforelong most of the Ash Grovecommunity had gravitated to within

a few streets of his new westLondon abode. Some lived ashousing association tenants, others –Joe included – in squats.It was around this time that Joe gotmore serious about music,particularly when he started singingand playing on the pub-rock circuitwith The 101-ers.“They were seriously good and weused to follow them around. In fact,we saw an early Sex Pistols gig[November, 1975] when they got agig supporting The 101-ers whothey know would pull a crowd. Iwasn’t impressed – thought they

sounded like a bad VelvetUnderground – but I rememberJohn Lydon leaping off stage to havea fight with someone.“Joe was living in this damp, mankybasement squat – I went to see himonce but couldn’t stay more thanfive minutes. I saw him singHeartbreak Hotel around that time,solo. He was so into that moment,so consumed by passion that he wasspitting the words out. He used hisguitar more like a prop than aninstrument and it was astonishing.That was when I knew he hadsomething really special.“He came round to see me andMaggie the night after one of theirnot so great gigs. He was troubledbecause he wasn’t sure their saxplayer was up to it and asked what Ithought.“I asked him straight out: ‘Joe, areyou in this for the fun, or do youwant to go to the top?’ ‘To the top!’he came straight back with that.Soon after the sax player was gone,so he had that ruthless streak but hefelt bad about it.”It was same drive that saw Joe turnhis back on the The 101-ers infavour of The Clash. Sold a dream,an ideology and the promise ofregular money by Clash managerBernie Rhodes, Woody Mellor wasconsigned to history as JoeStrummer bleached his hair and setabout changing rock music forever.“Joe was never a leader as such, buta lot of us were disappointed whenThe 101-ers broke up. They were atthe centre of the social scene for us;they felt like ours. Punk wassomething younger, the audiencewas a crowd not a community.“Maggie and I wanted to start afamily, but not in London, and weloved Dorset so we came back andstarted Spill the Beans in 1976. I sawa Clash gig in Bournemouth at theStateside Centre, but didn’t thinkmuch of it, maybe I was stillsmarting at the loss of The 101-ers. Inever saw Joe again, although Ifollowed his music and whenLondon Calling came out it wasobvious what it had all been about. “I heard the real Joe in later songslike The Magnificent Seven and inthe music he made after The Clash,but our paths never crossed again.“I heard about his death on thenews and thought: ‘Well, he reallymust have been famous andtouched a lot of people’s lives.’ Itwas sad, so terribly sad.”

■■ Eric and Maggie Drennan, and inset, in the mid-1970s

■■ Joe Strummer on stagewith The 101-ers

■■ Eric (far left) with Joe Strummer (far right) and various mem-bers of The 101-ers

Chance to win a book and get to grips with history