Lawrence Donegan

Maybe I should start a Lawrence Donegan fan club. Only of his books though; I'm no great fan of his weekend scribblings for the Herald. I've just finished No News At Throat Lake which is just a great read. I'm not surpised as Four Iron In The Soul was just the absolute definition of unputdownable. Maybe I'm overdoing the hyperbole but I think the man is the master of making the prosaic memorable. It's been a good number of years since I read Four Iron In The Soul, nine or more in fact, but the pleasant memory lingers on. I also read California Dreaming and, although I didn't think it had the depth that Four Iron had, it too was an unfailingly good read.

I love non-fiction of the class that Donegan can produce. Although he is not a travel writer in the same way that you could describe Paul Theroux or Eric Newby, in my humble opinion he is their equal in the art of human study. I see, looking at the fly-leaf, that he wrote Throat Lake in 1999 and I wonder at his lack of such good product since. Am I being unfair? I see there is something called Quiet Please about marshalling at the Ryder Cup. It's not brilliantly reviewed on Amazon but if I can find a second hand copy I'll be happy to read it.

My real point here is that I wonder if there are other readers out there who think that Donegan is under-achieving? Let me know; in fact, Lawrence, please pitch in. You're too good to be languishing in whatever place you are just now. I love your writing and I need more.