4. Ideas Illustrated;

James Brown created the modern men's magazine market with the launch of Loaded magazine in 1994, and currently runs Sabotage Times. James was one of four guests to contribute a list of literary likes to the Relocated issue of Ideas Illustrated. Read it below

One of a series of accompanying illustrations by Martin Nicolausson and Clara Terne can be seen below. Enjoy them all on the page in the latest issue.

'Junior Officer’s Reading Club' by Patrick Hennessy (Penguin Group 2009)

Insight and adrenalin appear hand in hand in this brilliant front line report from the emails of a British Army captain. After the trials of Sandhurst and the boredom of being stationed in London, he eventually encounters active service in Helmand. His writing takes you there, so much so that when you finally put the book down you expect to find yourself battle bearded and covered in the dust of conflict. I think both the public and military historians will still be reading this in a hundred years time.


'The Last Narco' by Malcolm Beith (Penguin Group 2010)

An investigation into the life of El Chapo, Mexico’s leading drug trafficker and the blood soaked world he, his friends and enemies inhabit. A portrayal of a country slaughtering its own, where political corruption is prevalent, private and state armies are controlled by the cartels and the gunfights are interrupted by beauty pageants and a rolling news service performed by narco-corrido musicians.


'The Gangs of New York' by Herbert Asbury (Thunder’s Mouth Press 1998)

The film is far more famous than the book and it took a while to track down. As a history book it’s unique in explaining life at the bottom of Manhattan’s social scale during the second half of the last millennium. I had no idea about the riots that saw nearly all of the island under mob rule and alight. A relentless list of crime, criminals, their houses and their associations.


'The Secret Pilgrim' by John Le Carre (Sceptre 1999)

John Le Carre is an intensely soothing writer. Reading his classic spy fiction is like dropping into a long literary bath. Very few authors can make a small, pudgy man in glasses and a Crombie overcoat a hero of espionage, but Le Carre has with George Smiley. This is a series of short stories told in the form of a lecture by Smiley and captures the pain, power plays and seemingly inevitable betrayals of the security services. Despite being written decades ago in the current political climate they seem more relevant than ever.


'They Made America: From The Steam Engine To The Search Engine' by Harrold Evans (Brown & Company 2004)

Fascinating and inspiring portrayals of America’s post-civil war innovators and inventors, stylishly told by the former Sunday Times editor. He has the ability to ensnare you in subjects you might otherwise turn away from. Engineering? The most common trait shared by the people he profiles is determination. His autobiography, ‘My Paper Chase’, is superb too.


As originally published in the 'Relocated' issue of Ideas Illustrated.

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