Books
by Matthew Sweet
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Inventing the Victorians |
It often seems that the Victorians are used as a byword for negative and restrictive practices, whether repressed sexuality, hypocrisy, cruelty, working conditions, ostentatious sentimentality or even chintzy décor. But how true and accurate a picture is this of the age? And how much do these assumptions reflect upon our own? This entertaining and well-researched book shows our predecessors in a different light and dispels the 'modestly covered piano leg' myth once and for all.
(Clive Yelf - bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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The West End Front: The Wartime Secrets of London's Grand Hotels |
An account of the big London hotels during the war, this is full of sharp judgements and fascinating detail but it is what Sweet has unearthed about selected individuals - guests, staff, proprietors - that is the main attraction. A spotlight is turned on a series of hitherto mainly obscure lives at critical moments, illuminating a whole society in the process.
(Tony Pratt - bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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