|
Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys |
A fascinating read which tells the tale of a real life murder on board an ocean liner carrying people to Australia in the 1930s - people from all walks of life. The heroine is Lily who is adventurous and keen to escape drudgery at home. Life on board enables the social classes to mix and the central tale is a murder born of jealousy, loss, grief and betrayal.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
|
|
Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives by Katie Hickman |
This is a fascinating book which I really enjoyed. It's well researched and very well written, taking you through the details of diplomatic wives' lives; from how they shop in remote postings, wash and iron clothes and entertain Royalty. It also includes chapters on the emotional costs of being a diplomatic wife - leaving her children to be with her husband, being pregnant and giving birth far away from home and one's family. It's full of detail and witty too.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
|
|
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Alkala |
Akala - British rapper, journalist, author, activist and poet - takes his experiences growing up in London in a single parent household to investigate the reality of race and class in the UK. Exploring Black identity, both male and female, interweaving political history and autobiography - mixed race heritage, education, incidents with the police as a teenager and later as a young black man - he persuasively demonstrates that perceptions and attitudes are indelibly intertwined and shaped by the acquisition, expansion and finally the loss of the British Empire.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
|
|
The Langhorn Sisters by James Fox |
A real page turner chronicling the lives of Nancy Astor and her sisters, widely known in Virginia, U.S.A as the Langhorne Sisters. Both Nancy and her favourite, Phyllis, fled their first marriages with disastrous consequences for their children. On coming to England, both married husbands amongst the cleverest of their generation and were at the heart of the 1930's political elite centred at Cliveden House. Oh, and Nancy was the first female MP! Very interesting and written by Nancy's great-nephew.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
|
|
The Nearly-Weds by Jane Costley |
This is a bit of nonsense but enjoyable. I began it while waiting for a flight and had finished it by the time I turned out my light in the hotel I was staying in for the weekend on the first night! It's about a young woman, Zoe, who is jilted on her wedding day and seeks to forget him by taking a job in America. Many twists and turns later, not all of them predictable, she ends up with her American boss.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
|
|
The Seeker by S G MacLean |
A political crime thriller set in 1654 at the time of Cromwell's Protectorate. Plots and counter plots are told at a fast pace with interesting characters who evoke our sympathy; especially the women and the central character of Seeker. There are spies, exiles and assassins who conspire to topple the Protector and restore the King.
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
|
|
The Tattooist of Aushwitz by Heather Morris |
Lale Sokolov survived the Polish death camps by being assigned the task of tattooist. Feeling guilty because of his slightly better living conditions, he smuggled food and help to fellow prisoners and saved the life of the girl he later married. Morris details life in the camps, showing how hunger, violence and dehumanisation ground down the inmates and also explains very matter of factly how the Nazi regime's cruelty corrupted individuals: i.e the guards. Particularly timely with the rise of Islamophobia and intolerance globally.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018) |
|
|
The Wolf Hall Trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel |
The Mirror and the Light reaches the end of Mantel's trilogy describing the life of Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall covers his service to Wolsey whose decline and death results in Cromwell becoming Henry VIII's faithful right-hand man. In Bring up the Bodies we follow Anne Boylen's rise and Cromwell's part in her downfall. Throughout both books he is strangely absent from the action, moving behind the scenes fulfilling Henry's wishes no matter what they are. Henry is portrayed as a self-indulgent and spoilt despot, using and discarding people on a whim. In The Mirror and the Light Cromwell emerges from the shadows revealing the motives behind his actions: the success of Protestantism, the fall of the old Catholic families and the expansion of King and State. Beautifully written with such detail that you live, sleep and eat with Cromwell as he moves around London and S.E. England negotiating and plotting against his, the King's and the Country's enemies but eventually all to nought. His enemies win because Henry abandons him as he has abandoned Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves and a host of others. I've read many books about the Tudors but none captures like Mantel the darkness and bloodshed while describing the beginnings of national identity in the context of our complex relationship with Europe.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
|
|
White Fragility: why it's so hard for White people to talk about racism by Robin Diangelo |
Diangelo, an American academic, lectures about racism and white privilege. Her argument is that racism is not restricted to 'bad people'. White people are unconsciously racist because they are white in a society built on white privilege. She exposes racism in thought and action and calls for humility and vigilance. Humility to recognise our white racialised identities and its effects on our lives and behaviours and vigilance to prevent us from behaving as racists in our daily lives.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
|
