Magic lurks within this ball. Home, Geilston Bay, December 2010. I managed to finish three books this week, with middling satisfaction. First up is an interesting collection of Heinrich Böll’s early short stories Children are Civilians too . Written in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Böll’s remit is to capture the perspective of the peoples of a defeated country who have to reconcile that defeat, the misery of post-war deprivation with the notion of national culpability. Excellent writer that he is, Böll effectively manages it. As such, it is a very good read. As you would expect, it’s incredibly sombre in tone, and evokes a period that we don’t often hear about. Well worth a look. The second book was one that came highly recommended – Misadventures , by Sylvia Smith. The story behind Smith's first book is like something out of a book. Smith, born at the close of the Second World War in the East End of London. She has gone through life as an unmarried, career secr...