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A Life of my Own by Clare Tomalin |
I have just read or rather devoured this lovely memoir. Her life of high achievement, literary editor, biographer has been marred by personal tragedy which places her on an almost heroic level. She is married to Michael Frayn and they are in my humble opinion a class act. I am lucky to have met them both.They have enriched our cultural life. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
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A Spy Named Orphan: The enigma of Donald McClean by Roland Philipps |
McClean had a brilliant mind and was a top trusted official at the Foreign Office. Or so it appeared. Actually he was a Communist who betrayed his country not to some form of ideal state but to a dictatorship under monster and mass murderer - Joseph Stalin. McClean did great damage to the West. Realising the game was up he was exfiltrated to Russia with Guy Burgess. To assuage his guilt he drowned himself in alcohol. I can think of nothing good to say about him. A beautifully written and researched biography.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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A Strange Eventful History - The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families by Michael Holroyd |
Holroyd brilliantly illuminates the complex story of these two interlocking families, giants of Victorian theatre: the Irvings and the Terrys. Stars of their era, the Lyceum Theatre was their arena and Irving's fiefdom. Their productions with their over elaborate sets would seem old-fashioned now, but they packed the punters in. Fame comes at a price and both they and their gifted offspring paid their dues. To all theatre lovers, I highly recommend this book.
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of Virginia Hall, WWII's Most Dangerous Spy by Sonia Purnell |
This is the riveting story of a heroine of the second World War and a truly remarkable woman. Crippled in an accident and left with one usable leg this American lady risked her life spying for the allies in the war with her deeds of derring-do behind enemy lines. After her return to America and marriage she continued serving her country in the service of the CIA. As a story of valour this requires some beating. I salute her.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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Agent Sonya: Lover, Mother, Soldier, Spy by Ben MacIntyre |
The story of a deeply flawed woman who in the name of a twisted ideology betrayed her country. A devoted Mother she was an equally devoted servant of Russia and The KGB. I find it hard to find a good word to say for her. When someone is gripped by a fervent belief in a cause any moral compass goes out of the window. As with The Spy and the Traitor (see bwl 90), this detailed study of infamy is a riveting read.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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Another Day in the Death of America: 24 Hours. 8 States. 10 Young Lives Lost to Gun Violence by Gary Younge |
A searing indictment of the lack of effective gun laws in America due mainly to a supine Congress and the malign influence of the National Rifle Association. The victims portrayed are mostly black, or mixed-race, from broken families mired in poverty in this the richest country in the world. Obama tried to push through a mild bill to mitigate the senseless slaughter to no avail. This brilliant book ends with a cry of rage and rightly so. Read and mourn.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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Becoming by Michelle Obama |
It would be an understatement to say that I enjoyed this book. This is a wonderful memoir by a wonderful woman beautifully written and in parts deeply moving. If only she and her husband were still in The White House.
(bwl 97 Summer 2020) |
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Bermondsey Boy - Memories of a Forgotten World by Tommy Steele |
Born into a loving poor East End family in the 1930s, Tommy Steele tells of a tough but secure childhood; his life in the Merchant Navy; his gradual awakening and love for music and the theatre; his explosion onto the scene as a pop idol; and his lasting fame. The book is rich in incident and characters and a good read. This man can write.
(bwl 49 January 2009) |
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Bernard Shaw by Michael Holroyd |
Following his masterly biography of Lytton Strachey, Holroyd has given us a definitive work on the great GBS which I cannot see bettered. Dramatist polymath he strode the world of letters like a whirlwind and became one of the world's most famous men. His dream of the socialist society under which his lifestyle would have been curtailed proved a chimera.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin |
Claire Tomalin's biography of Charles Dickens is a joy to read. An illuminating journey through the remarkable life of a great writer. Of demonic energy he shot like a meteor across the firmament of English literature. To read the book impels one to reread his works.
(bwl 63 Winter 2012) |
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Churchill by Andrew Roberts |
It is difficult to think that a better book on the life of this great man will be written. It is long and well researched. The man was a colossus whose life spanned the Boer war and two world wars. In the latter he inspired the nation with his mighty rhetoric suffused with impish humour. He subsisted on cigars and copious drafts of alcohol.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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Coda by Simon Gray |
This book written under the shadow of death meditates movingly with courage and wit about his beloved Greece his wife and the trio of doctors who preside over his treatment and fate with varying degrees of detachment and awkwardness. Being Simon Gray it is beautifully written while he was still puffing away on the cigarettes that were to end the life and career of this talented man.
(bwl 49 January 2009) |
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Collusion: How Russia Helped Trump Win the White House by Luke Harding |
This book shines a light on the Russia-Trump connections prior to the American election. It reads like a thriller enlivened with wit and insight and shines a light on the Putin regime. Is it possible that a foreign country can be instrumental in getting someone into the White House? This book says it can. A time bomb - a congressional investigation is under way. Its conclusions could be devastating for Trump. Watch this space and read this book.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018) |
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Darkest Hour: How Churchill Brought us Back from the Brink Film Tie-In by Anthony McCarten |
I devoured in a day this book which encompasses the events of May 1940 when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. He inspired the nation with his great oratory and turned back the appeasers and fainthearted who wanted to negotiate with Hitler. I lived through this time and this book is a testament to his greatness with copious references to his magnificent speeches. We shall never see his like again.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018) |
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Daughters of Jerusalem by Charlotte Mendelson |
This is a beautifully written story of a dysfunctional family set in the seething cauldron of Oxford academic life. It is a jolly tale of self harm, adolescent sex and marital betrayal laced with wit and the telling phrase. It makes me think how lucky I was to be spared the lofty spires and end up treading the boards.
(bwl 50 March 2009) |
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Dear Life: A Doctor's Story of Love, Loss and Consolation by Rachel Clarke |
This is quite simply a life enhancing wonderful book. The fact that it concerns the end of life is irrelevant. Rachel Clarke works in palliative care and she brings to the front line of death a vibrant moving and loving feeling. I could hardly believe that her workplace could be so heartwarming. I shall treasure this book as long as I myself draw breath.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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Disraeli: The Two Lives by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young |
An excellent book about an extraordinary and flawed man. He reached the top of the greasy pole and then there was only one way to go. The book is instructive amusing and entertaining.
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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East West Street:On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity by Philippe Sands |
This is a brilliant many faceted book. It takes us on a quest for the origins of international law and reads like a thrilling if sombre detective story. Don't let that deter readers. They are in for a treat.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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Educated by Tara Westover |
Born into a cult - her father a fanatic, her brother violent - Wilcox had no schooling but worked in her father's Wreaking Yard. She managed by a heroic effort to get an education. In her first class the Holocaust was mentioned and she had no idea what it was. Her dormant brain then came to life and academically she triumphed, ending with a Cambridge Ph.D. This memoir is also a testament to the triumph of the human spirit against almost impossible odds. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes |
This is a superb biography of a remarkable woman. She was Karl's favourite daughter. Multilingual self educated, writer, translator, radical organiser and possessed of heroic qualities. She sadly had a lifelong devotion to a worthless individual who exploited and then betrayed her. Her life ended in tragedy. She left a rich legacy.
(bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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Gone to Ground: One woman's extraordinary account of survival in the heart of Nazi Germany by Marie Jalowicz Simon |
This is a memoir of a young Jewish woman who during WW II lived underground in Berlin under an assumed identity. In constant fear of discovery, she was helped by anti-Nazi Germans at great risk to themselves. Her story is a triumph of the human spirit against impossible odds. She survived her ordeal and went on to a distinguished academic career.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015) |
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Hope against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam |
Her husband was the poet Osip Mandelstam who fell foul of the infamous Stalin with a critical poem which spelt doom for him. This is a classic memoir of heroic proportions. The regime tried to stamp out culture and memory. Her surviving testimony is proof of its abject failure to do so. Read it as a warning from history.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, from Berlin to Los Angeles by Evelyn Juers |
This brilliant book is a story of exile of the intellectual and artistic elite of Europe as a result of the Nazi tyranny. It is mainly told through the eyes of the Mann brothers,Thomas and Heinrich, and their families. Meticulously researched it also deals with the life work and suicide of Virginia Wolf. All the greatest literary figures of the last century are brought into imaginative life. To read it is an enriching experience.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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House of Glass: The story and secrets of a twentieth-century Jewish family by Hadley Freeman |
This magnificent book relates the story of a Jewish family in 20th Century France and its attendant story of tragedy and loss. I had to pause on occasion as it moved me so. France so rich in art and culture has, as its history shows, an ambivalent attitude to its Jewish citizens many of whom perished during The Holocaust dating back to the Dreyfus case which tore the country apart. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karma |
This is a beautifully written memoir of exile and loss. It covers the history of Palestine fromThe Mandate era to the present day and combines the personal with the political. I doubt if a better book has been written about the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian tragedy.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Injustice: Life and Death in the Courtrooms of America by Clive Stafford Smith |
Clive Stafford Smith is the founder and director of Reprieve dedicated to fighting the death penalty in America where he was based for years. The book concerns one case that of Kris Maharaj wrongly convicted in Florida for murder but is an eloquent and passionate indictment of an unjust system. The world desperately needs more Stafford Smiths. This book is a must read.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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Journal by Helene Berr |
This heartrending book by a young Jewish woman of high culture during the growing horror of the Nazi occupation of Paris, describes her inner life and turmoil with dazzling eloquence and honesty. To think that a life of such rich promise should be so brutally snuffed out is almost unbearable. To read this book is to enshrine her memory as long as we ourselves draw breath. Read it and weep.
(bwl 49 January 2009) |
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Just Send Me Word: A true story of love and survival in the Gulag by Orlando Figes |
Just Send Me Word is based on a cache of letters held by Memorial, a Russian archive of the Gulag. They recount the undying love of Svetlana and Lev serving a 10 year sentence on a trumped up charge. No obstacle was too great to keep them apart. The tyrant Stalin's death eventually brought an end to their ordeal. They were to be reunited at last in a memoir wonderfully realised by Orlando Figes.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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Language of War, Language of Peace: Palestine, Israel and the Search for Justice by Raja Shehadeh |
This book by a distinguished Palestinian who lives in Ramallah eloquently describes the ongoing conflict. This and the author's other book, Palestinian Walks, should be read by anyone interested in the background of this tragedy.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015) |
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Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt by Richard Holloway |
This is an engaging and beautifully written memoir by a man of faith and the gradual loss of it. His innate goodness shines throughout the book and no doubt will continue to do so now that he is free of the constraints and dogmas of the church.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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Love Game: A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon by Elizabeth Wilson |
This is a well researched and written book on the history of tennis. From its early beginnings to the present day. Fascinating about the great players of the past. For anyone interested in the game this is a must read.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown |
This is a very funny account part real part fiction of Princess Margaret. The lady was difficult and led a racy life She burnt the royal candle at both ends. Very conscious of her status. In many ways a sad book.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018) |
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My Fathers Fortune: A Life by Michael Frayn |
In this moving and painfully honest memoir, Michael Frayn traces in detail his family background and gives a starring role to his Father who worked all his life as a salesman and sacrificed much to support his family. He didn't leave much material wealth but produced one of our finest writers and dramatists. Through this book we remember him fondly. He did his best.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit |
For anyone interested in this intractable conflict this is an essential book. By turns humane, moving and honest; it could hardly be bettered.
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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No Man's Land by Pete Ayrton |
This book contains extracts both English and European of the literature of The First World War. If it has one common denominator it is of the futility waste and horror of that conflict. It is both moving and savagely eloquent and deserves a wide readership.
(bwl 72 Spring 2015) |
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Nothing To Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick |
A detailed and devastating account of the life lived by the ordinary citizens in the nightmare that is North Korea. Written from observation at first hand and from the testimony of defectors, it illustrates what happens when a criminal clique, ruling in the name of a perverted form of socialism, lead a country back to the dark ages, but cannot quite quench the human spirit. The book has deservedly won the Orange Prize.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last years of Edward Thomas by Matthew Hollis |
This is by any standards a wonderful biography. Edward Thomas was a troubled soul. Writer, critic, friend of Robert Frost who urged him to write poetry and what a treasure he has left us. This so unwarlike man volunteered for service in the British army in WWI, was commissioned and was killed in that slaughter of a generation. In this book he is brought to vivid life as is the life of a vanished era. The closing pages tear at the heart.
(bwl 64 Spring 2012) |
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Red Notice: How I Became Putin's No. 1 Enemy by Bill Browder |
Browder - an American with huge investments in Russia - discovered that a large amount of tax he had paid had been stolen by the Russians. His lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, investigating the case was arrested and murdered by the corrupt police. Divesting himself of his funds, Browder has devoted his life to bringing justice to his slain friend and persuaded Congress to pass The Magnitsky Act which to Putin's fury blacklists the culprits. Browder now lives in London under protection. A riveting account of a corrupt and venal regime.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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Sashhenka by Simon Sebag Montefiore |
The author is a renowned historian and on the evidence of this novel of fiction too. The story of Sashenka, born into wealth and Bolshevik by conviction, spans decades and charters the Soviet Union's descent into mindless, all-embracing tyranny which consumed millions and was presided over by the malignant, devious, murderous Joseph Stalin. The legacy of this wonderful novel is the present day Russia, a hugely unequal society ruled by an ex KGB apparatchik and with freedom a distant mirage.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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Siegfried Sassoon by Max Egremont |
This must surely be the definitive biography of this remarkable man. A man born into privilege who found lasting fame as a First World War hero and a great poet of that war with his savage anger at the horror and waste. His book Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man with its searing descriptions of the conflict is a standard work.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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Six Minutes in May: How Churchill Unexpectedly Became Prime Minister by Nicholas Shakespeare |
A riveting account of the turbulent period in 1940 when the political establishement was convulsed as to who should succeed Neville Chamberlain. From the Royal family down, Lord Halifax - despite not sitting in the Commons - was the hot favourite. He refused to be nominated while the man of destiry waited in the wings and the Nazis were at the gates. Fate at the last minute intervened. The rest is history. I lived through it. It was a damned close run thing.
(bwl 88 Spring 2018) |
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Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell |
At 58 this lady began to suffer from dementia and this remarkable memoir details her journey. Its insight is both frank and humbling. Supported by her two devoted daughters she tells her story without an ounce of self pity. Out of a visitation of a cruel fate this book is testament to courage and will to survive.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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Stage Blood: Five Tempestuous Years in the Life of the National Theatre by Michael Blakemore |
Following his excellent book Next Season, Michael has come up with a riveting account of his career at The National Theatre when the drama's behind the scenes almost matched those on stage. I was a member of the company at the climax of this period and I devoured this beautifully written account of a great actor - Laurence Olivier - at the end of his life and reign.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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Stoner by John Williams |
This is quite simply a wonderful novel. Written in spare, simple, brilliant prose it is the story about an academic at an American university. It is also universal in its tragic eloquence. Stoner is in his life an heroic, flawed man who fights the good fight. A must read.
(bwl 72 Spring 2014) |
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The Choice: A true story of hope by Edith Eger |
This book is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit over unimaginable horror and adversity. Rescued by an American soldier from under a pile of bodies in Auschwitz she rebuilt her life in the USA to become a top psychologist and devoted her life to healing the bruised lives of others. One can only marvel at such a life which makes ones own life's problems shrink to the size of a pinhead. Thank you Edith Eger for this introduction to your life and work - reading it has been an education . . .
(bwl 91 Winter 2019) |
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The Great Romantic: Cricket and the golden age of Neville Cardus by Duncan Hamilton |
This a delightful and beautifully written book of a wonderful man. Neville Cardus wrote about cricket with poetic eloquence and a deep love of the game. He did the same for music. He wrote for the Guardian for many decades. The description National Treasure is an overworked phrase but in his case the phrase is apt and just. Anyone who reads this book is in for a treat.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal |
Edmund de Waal a potter and Professor of Ceramics has written a lovely memoir of the Ephrussi family originally from Odessa who achieved great wealth in the grain business and established themselves in Vienna and Paris. De Waal has interwoven through this narrative the story of a collection of Netsuke, Japanese wood and ivory carvings, gathered by Charles Ephrussi in Paris. The second world war and Nazi savagery smashed up this world; told with moving eloquence by this gifted writer.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street by Charles Nicholl |
This is a masterly evocation of Shakespeare's London during which he was a lodger in a house owned by one Mountjoy a French tire maker. He was involved in a matrimonial lawsuit in which the great playwright was a witness. His signature is on his witness statement, Charles Nicholl gives one a vivid sense of the man and his world. Mountjoy is a character in Henry V. Not a coincidence surely.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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The Long Take by Robin Robertson |
The author is a Scottish poet and this novel written in verse and prose is a lyrical reflection on his Canadian protagonist's experiences in WW II and his struggle to adjust to an America riven by political strife under the malign shadow of Senator McCarthy. It is a moving, beautifully written book and one that I urge book lovers to devour . . .
(bwl 92 Spring 2019) |
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The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes |
Dimitri Shostakovich, the great Russian composer, spent most of his creative life under Stalin's terror with his bags packed at the ready in case of his arrest. Julian Barnes brilliantly evokes this terrible era and gives us a picture of a creative soul in torment which make his achievements all the more remarkable.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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The Ravine: A family, a photograph, a Holocaust massacre revealed by Wendy Lower |
An important book detailing terrible events in Poland and the Ukraine in 1941. Humanity has achieved great things in the arts and music but also has a darker side when an evil regime takes over a nation and carries out acts of the utmost depravity leaving an everlasting stain on a generation. This book is a stark warning on the fragility of society and the need to be constantly on our guard and to keep decency and reverence for life and treasure it.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between by Hisham Matar |
This memoir deals with a search for the author's Father a leader of the opposition to the Gaddafi regime who was handed over to them by Egypt and then disappeared. It is beautifully told and is a labour of anguished love. The author is also a fine novelist and will point readers to his other work. Libya is now free but broken.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017) |
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The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben MacIntyre |
The thrilling, unputdownable story of Oleg Gordievsky, double agent, who revealed the KGB's inner secrets to British Intelligence, not for financial gain but from a high, moral imperative. His defection was an enormous coup for MI6. In an act of outstanding bravery he returned to Russia and underwent a harrowing ordeal before being rescued by the British in an epic escape. He was honoured by the Queen and now lives in a free country. What a story!
(bwl 90 Autumn 2018) |
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The Stalin Epigram by Robert Littell |
This remarkable novel is built round real people caught up in Stalin's Great Terror. Its central character is the martyred poet Osip Mandelstam and his heroic wife Nadezhda whose great memoir Hope Against Hope defines the period. As does this powerful book encapsulating the triumph of the human spirit over a perverted ideology masquerading as the socialist promised land. I cannot praise it too highly.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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The Vanishing Man: In Pursuit of Velazquez by Laura Cumming |
This book is about the great painter Velazquez. Also about the obsession of John Snare who acquires what he thinks is a masterpiece by the great man and ruins himself in the process. It is a beautifully written detective story and makes one want to discover this genius once again.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017) |
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The Wall by William Sutcliffe |
This is by any standards a beautifully written and important novel. Anyone wanting to gain an insight into the tragedy of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict should read this book. It is seen through the eyes of a young Israeli boy who through an adventure has his eyes opened to the world beyond the real wall. A high price is paid for that insight.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes |
This magnificent book details the testimony of the countless ordinary Russians who were consumed into Stalin's murderous tyranny in the name of a perverted form of socialism. It sapped the moral fibre of the state. Its poisonous residue remains. Recently the offices of Memorial in which these records were kept was raided. No doubt by shadowy organs of the state. Plus ça change.
(bwl 51 May 2009) |
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The Woman who Stole Vermeer: The True Story of Rose Dugdale and the Russborough House Art Heist by Anthony Amore |
This is the story of Rose Dugdale a woman born into wealth and privilege who threw it all over and became a revolutionary and was involved in a famous art heist in Ireland of the great Dutch painter Jan Vermeer for which she served a prison sentence. It is a riveting read. She is for me not
a person to admire. Now an ancient-of-days she lives quietly in Ireland.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig |
A memoir to treasure. A wonderful evocation by one of Austria's and Europe's finest writers of a lost world of the Austro-Hungarian Empire destroyed in the Great War. Zweig is the essence of the best in European culture. He knew all the great writers of his day about whom he recalls with eloquence. His world was to be destroyed by the Nazis and his exiled wanderings were to end tragically. To read this book is to feel human.
(bwl 55 Winter 2011) |
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Tolstoy: A Russian Life by Rosamund Bartlett |
The author takes the reader on a journey through the life of this titanic figure, who was not only a literary giant but arguably the greatest and most controversial man in Russia. Deeply aware of his privileged position in society, he spent the last third of his life at war with the Orthodox Church and attempted to radically change the education system and eliminate the evils of serfdom. No other writer has had such an influence on the life of a nation. We shall never see his like again.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope by Megan Phelps-Roper |
A searing tale of a child of a cult whose raison d'être is to love God and hate everyone else outside. It resonated with me because I also was raised in an ultra orthodox faith where fear of transgression was a constant threat. After a great struggle I escaped to drama school and acting set me free. The author of this fine book also broke free and found some peace in marriage and family but remains haunted by her past. A powerful illustration as to where blind faith leads.
(bwl 95 Winter 2020) |
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Vasily Grossman by Alexandra Popoff |
A wonderful biography of the great author of Life and Fate which deals with Stalin's dreadful crimes in which countless people, including the cream of Russia's intelligentsia, died. Grossman's book took decades to see the light of day in Russia. He compares Stalin with Hitler the difference being that Stalin murdered millions of his own people. The lessons of history have not been learnt in that country and the infamous Stalin is now enjoying a revival. Read this book and count your blessings.
(bwl 93 Summer 2019) |
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William Morris: A Life for Our Time by Fiona MacCarthy |
It would be hard to read a better account of this remarkable man. It is 700 pages long and I raced through it. He dissipated his energies in later life in the political sphere. His achievements in poetry and design was huge. A great man!
(bwl 89 Summer 2018) |
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