Any Human Heart review

Any Human Heart, by William Boyd, is the fictional journal of Logan Mounstuart, who was born at the start and died at the end of the twentieth century.  When I started it, I thought it was very well written but nothing special.  By day two, I was so absorbed that I nearly missed my stop on the train in the morning and was reading the book every spare moment I had.  The protagonist inhabits the narrative so completely, I had to keep reminding myself that he wasn't a real person.  When he died at the end (not too much of a spoiler as it's obvious from the start that the book will end with his death), I almost felt as if I'd lost an old friend.

The book is a masterful blending of fact and fiction, imbuing various aspects of the 1900s with a personal touch that renders them much more affecting than if it was a history book.  Very, very good indeed.

The other thing about this book is that it brought back my resolve to write more.  The protagonist is a writer and he sums up his achievements each year by assessing how much writing he has done, and bemoans the fact that other things keep getting in the way of it.  I have four or five writing projects I'd like to progress at the moment, so I'm going to work on at least one of them in a serious way while I'm on holiday next week.