The Complex: An Insider Exposes The Convert World of the Church of Scientology by Jon Duignan with Nicola Tallant

The Complex: An Insider Exposes The Covert World


of the Church of Scientology


John Duignan with Nicola Tallant


Merlin €13 318pps


THOSE of you who read Ishiguro's 'Remains of the Day', in which a butler realises, too late, that he has squandered decades of his life serving a fascist-appeasing, British lord, will be reminded of that novel coming to the close of this Irishman's exposé. After 22 years of devoted service to the Church of Scientology, a numbing reality slowly seeped into Duignan; he had no pension, no security, and he had just discovered on the internet (internet access is denied to all members of the 'church'), that the man behind the 'church' was Lord Xenu who lived 75 million years ago on the galactic… blah, blah. Very skilfully, and dispassionately, Duignan provides a step-by-step account of how he became ensnared in the cult – recruiting officers seek out deeply unhappy or chronically depressed people and fix them through "auditing sessions" (brain washing) – and how he escaped with great difficulty. Look out for the session on Past Life Therapy in which Duignan was informed that he had been a military officer on patrol in the Tunisian desert 8,000 years earlier. He realised that if he had believed that, he would believe anything. And what's at the core of all this? Well, when founder L Ron Hubbard died, he left behind $640m. Of course he would need that much in his Future Life on the Planet Pluto, to where he was heading...


Bird's Nest Soup


Hanna Greely


Attic Press, €10 138pps


THERE was nothing seriously the matter with Hanna Greely when she was 'placed' in a psychiatric institution in the Irish midlands in the 1940s. This was a period in our history when 'troublesome' people were placed in institutions. Hanna had trained as a nurse in London during the Blitz and when she returned home to Ireland, she suffered some form of breakdown and was placed in a 'home'. This was common practice. What was unusual was Hanna's disappearance off the writing scene after this book was first published in 1971, for she writes in a beautiful pliant style. Her account of life inside the institution is not to be missed. Her humiliations, particularly at the hands of one nurse, will make some readers feel nauseous. You get a feeling here that a good number of the patients were more humane than some of the staff, all brought to colourful life here in the black and white world of those times.


The Essential Guide to TV on DVD


Jo Berry


Orion Books, Stg£15, 486pps


MOST readers' initial move will be to go to the index to see if their favourite series is included, and while the guide does not claim to be comprehensive – how could it be? – some of the inclusions and omissions will leave them open-mouthed. Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, the Dukes of Hazzard and the accursed American Idol which is "utterly compelling", so there you have it, that's an example of Berry's artistic sensibilities. Therefore, all you can do with this guide is to use it to see what is available. I see that the 15-hour German epic Heimat is available, but I don't know where.


Gentlemen of the Road


Michael Chabon


Sceptre, Stg£8, 204pps


YOU will be reminded here of Kipling's marvellous yarn 'The Man Who Would be King'. Which means we have the questionable pleasure of enjoying two con artists at work. Two swords for hire, Amran, a colossus of an Ethiopian, and his fellow blade Zelikman, a Jewish physician, team up with exiled Prince Filaq. Filaq's father has been murdered by a despot and the two blades set out to re-install him on the throne. They form a raggle-taggle band of brigands and march across 10th century Caucasus to the shores of the Caspian, a wriggly route, and there are as many twists to the journey as there are to the novel.


A Scandalous Man


Gavin Esler


Harper Stg£8 415pps


BEST known as a chief political correspondent for the BBC, Esler knows whereof he speaks. The scandalous chap here is Robin Burnett, a former defence minister in the Thatcher government who resigned when the 'red tops' placed him at the heart of a sex scandal. In a parallel narrative, it flits from 1982 to the 2005 invasion of Iraq and here we are reminded how the US supported Saddam. Watch out, too, for the highly authentic surveillance of a fundamentalist by an M15 officer. Wonderfully veracious.