Cassie McCullagh

The most recent book I read was on a plane coming back from the States, and it was written by Nicky Meredith.

It was called The Manson Women and Me, and it was an examination of this woman's 25-year relationship with Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krinkwekel, if I pronounce that right, who were members of Charles Manson's family.

And so she consistently visited them in jail and observed their parole hearings and everything, and she was trying to

to come to terms with what causes your quote-unquote normal average person to commit such horrible acts of violence.

And it's partly successful, but the giveaway in that book is, you know, the Manson women and me.

There's a bit too much of Nicky Meredith.

and not enough of the Manson women for my liking.

And I'm also reading at the moment a book called God Save Texas, which is subtitled The Soul of the Lone Star State.

And it's about the state of Texas and how it shapes what happens in American society.

Their behaviour is still pretty extreme and pretty crazy.

I mean, I think they're reflecting back throughout this book on what they were like in Trainspotting Days and how their journeys have carried them through all of those books and all of those years.

But I wouldn't say that as characters they're...

they're different but without being mellowing.

I mean, I think they're still on the edge, you know.

Maybe their extremities have been pushed to even more extremes in some cases.

They're kind of still pretty out there.

They haven't become nice, middle-class, middle-aged men.

Yeah.

Well, you know, I hadn't followed these characters chapter and verse.

Neither had I. No.