bookswelike

Books reviewed by Jeremy Miller

A Delicate Truth by John le Carré

Classic le Carré - the good and the not so good. The engaging plot centres on a top-secret mission to Gibraltar recounted in typical racy style. But half-way through, something goes wrong with the mission, and consequently the plot. Without spoiling the story, the premise that drives the second half is somewhat weak and surprisingly, he pulls his political punches. As usual, the ending comes quickly, perhaps too quickly but it is suitably enigmatic and bleak.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013)

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership by James Comey

Don't expect to learn much more about Trump's dismissal of Comey as FBI Director than has already appeared in the press: indeed the events surrounding his firing comprise less than 5% of the book, the remainder being a résumé of his public service and an explanation behind some of his earlier controversial decisions e.g. the Clinton emails. He comes across as principled, truthful and honest - more than can be said for his antagonist.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018)

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré

This is le Carré back to his very best. Brilliantly drawn, most characters will be very familiar to readers of his earlier work. Acquaintance however only enhances the intrigue. But like so many of his novels, the plot is not fully resolved; appropriately for the genre, he again leaves us in a state of suspended ambiguity. He says this is George Smiley's last outing. Addicts will be begging for more. How clever is that!
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017)

A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East by James Barr

Metaphorically, a line in the sand means a point beyond which one should proceed no further. But in reality, the line, from Acre to Kirkuk, drawn up by Sykes and Picot in secret in 1916 ended nothing. Indeed, it started the bitter rivalry between France and Britain for Middle Eastern dominance which, Barr argues, is the root cause of most of today's troubles in this most troubled of regions. Altogether, a shocking, and grubby tale.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012)

A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré

A failing British banker, a half-starved Russian and an idealistic civil rights lawyer; only le Carré can weave such disparate characters into an intriguing and claustrophobic tale. le Carré has always been 'good' on Germany. In this novel, the action takes place almost entirely in Hamburg - but a Hamburg that becomes the focus of the rivalry between American, British and German intelligence. A return to form after some recent disappointments.
(bwl 52 July 2009)

Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré

Le Carré shows he remains the master of dialogue. Although he takes a waspish but highly enjoyable swipe at contemporary politics, the core of the piece is surprisingly parochial. Aficionados of spy fiction will be amused that Le Carré's Haven, a defunct substation of 'London General' has uncanny echoes of Slough House, central to Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb stories (see bwl 94 review of Joe Country). Ragtag spies are in vogue. The king is alive thank goodness, but his successor is named.
(bwl 95 Winter 2020)

An Uneasy Inheritance by Polly Toynbee

The author comes from a long line of radicals and rabble-rousers whose progressive views in support of the working classes were espoused from the prosperous middle-class purlieus of academia and journalism. Rather than succumbing to the guilt of inherited privilege, she explains her personal quest to eliminate its inherent contradictions. What shines through in this moving and absorbing memoir is her intellectual honesty where so much of what she writes is highly pertinent today.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alan Riding

Meticulously researched, this book paints a disturbing picture of collaboration and artistic co-habitation. Crushed militarily, Petain's Vichy government was eager to show that France was not defeated culturally. Riding provides a roll call of the famous and not-so-famous actor, writer or artist who had to choose whether to stay or go. The show did go on, but not so as to displease Hitler, who chillingly remarked "Let the French degenerate. All the better for us."
(bwl 65 Summer 2012)

Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the road to war by Tim Bouverie

A brilliant debut by a young historian, this is a compelling account of the disastrous years of indecision and failed diplomacy that allowed the Nazis to dominate Europe. The thirties have been covered extensively elsewhere but never in such forensic detail and with such contemporary resonance. Countless times it felt as though he was talking about the baleful behaviour of today's politicians. There's a lesson for all of us. It didn't end well.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019)

August 1914 by Barbara Tuchman

There could be no better time to read this definitive and vivid account of the first thirty days of the Great War by a masterful and highly accessible historian. Though Tuchman wrote this in 1963, it hasn't dated except in one instance. Modern historians are perhaps more forensic about the horrific atrocities committed during the German invasion of Belgium, sensitised by contemporary stories of ethnic cleansing. Hopefully, history in this regard, will not repeat itself.
(bwl 72 Spring 2014)

Bad Actors by Mick Herron

This is the eighth in the Jackson Lamb series, centring around demoted and de-motivated spies from Slough House, the slow horses. This is his most political novel to date, wickedly so since not much imagination is needed to identify the real-life Westminster inspirations for his characters. Bad actors, you see, bend the rules for their own gains. Can the slow horses outwit them? Herron's pacy and comic genius leads to a thrilling and anarchic conclusion.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022)

Brick: A World History by James Campbell

and with co-author: Will Pryce
A somewhat prosaic title for the most fascinating of books. This gloriously illustrated study by Thames & Hudson shows examples of brick buildings from 5,000BC to the present day, from ziggurats of the ancient world, through perhaps the more familiar basilicas of ancient Rome to modern masterpieces by Renzo Piano. Of equal interest is a comprehensive review of brick-making and bricklaying. Surely impossible to read without wanting to visit such wondrous buildings near or far.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010)

Britain against Napoleon: The Organisation of Victory 1793-1815 by Roger Knight

This unique study focusses on the backroom boys (alas all boys) such as Inspectors of Telegraphs, Transport Office Commissioners and Secretaries at War. Without them, better known Admirals and Generals could not have pursued and eventually delivered (from a British perspective) the successful outcome of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Despite the degree to which the whole nation was involved, we came close to losing. There are lessons in all of this for today.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015)

Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux

Theroux is a keen observer of human behaviour but I find his fictional biography of George Orwell somewhat thinly drawn, repetitious and rather dull. We read about the Orwell’s height and school (Eton) endlessly though neither have a direct bearing on his growing disaffection with the apparatus of colonial power. This ‘novel’ only really comes to life when Theroux injects Orwell’s alter ego, John Flory, the central character of Burmese Days into the narrative.
(bwl 112 Spring 2024)

Burmese Days by George Orwell

A modern classic which has since become required reading for anyone travelling to Burma, this shocking portrait of British colonial life was Orwell's first, and somewhat stilted, novel. He based it on his experience as a policeman in the 1920's. Some say that the bigotry and corruption he paints were contributory factors behind Aung Sang's decision to take the country out of the Commonwealth on gaining independence in 1947. That may be overstating the case.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010)

Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack by Richard Ovenden

Kafka's executor refused to destroy his notebooks: his literary masterpieces were saved for posterity. Virgil asked for his unpublished epic, the Aeneid, to be burnt on his death. These and other examples of the written word under attack are brought together by the Bodley's Librarian in a fascinating tour d'horizon of the actions of librarians and archivists to collect, organise and preserve knowledge in libraries and archives as essential reference for ideas, facts and truths.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021)

Castles of Steel - Britain, Germany and the Winning of the Great War at Sea by Robert Massie

A worthy successor to his masterful Dreadnought (qv). Massie turns his attention to the unfolding story of naval warfare during WW I. Culminating in the titanic struggle that was the Battle of Jutland, the debate that followed this tactical defeat but strategic victory for Britain pays as much attention to the personal rivalry between Jellicoe and Beatty as it does to the broader conflict between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet.
(bwl 45 April 2008)

Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings

Familiar territory - yes; capitalising on the centenary - also yes! But Hasting's willingness to challenge accepted wisdoms and his excoriating critique of British military leadership in general and Sir John French in particular are both refreshingly honest and surprising. He is good on the French, and especially good on the Serbian campaign. By bringing it all together in a work of considerable scholarship, he has set a new benchmark for WW I military history.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

Clear Waters Rising - A Mountain Walk across Europe by Nicholas Crane

Inspired by Leigh Fermor's epic journey to Constantinople in the thirties, Crane decides to walk from the Atlantic to Istanbul along the continuous chain of mountains that dissects southern Europe. Fanatical to avoid mechanised transport, he succumbs only once, crossing by ferry from Romania to Bulgaria near the Iron Gates where the Danube cuts a swathe through the lower Carpathians. The latter part of his mammoth hike, being perhaps less familiar, is the more interesting.
(bwl 50 March 2009)

Code of Conduct: Why we need to fix parliament and how to do it by Chris Bryant

No one is more qualified to expound on this tale of corruption, sleaze, misdemeanours, lying, nepotism, cronyism and conflicts of interest amongst our elected legislators than the Chair of the Committees on Standards and Privileges. That he can do so with humour, lack of personal rancour and much good sense is the reason why this short but pithy tome is compulsive reading. Whatever you've read about recent scandals, this will tell you exactly what happened.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

Coffee with Hitler: The British amateurs who tried to civilise the Nazis by Charles Spicer

Another take on appeasement during the thirties sounded interesting. By focussing on the little-known Anglo-German Fellowship and its Berlin counterpart, the Deutsch-Englische Gesellshaft, the author does indeed bring some new insight into the historical narrative. But to me this is just journalism dressed up as history. He overworks the use of the ablative absolute and annoyingly, he introduces many characters by what they would become in the future. Neither make for a very satisfying read.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022)

Danubia: A Personal History of Hapsburg Europe by Simon Winder

Try as I might, and I have tried really hard, I cannot get into this book. The author eschews the idea of family trees and chronological narratives which makes life quite difficult. Danubia has been hailed as extremely funny. Have I missed the joke? For me it is just too quirky and confusing and he takes the reader's knowledge too much for granted. Better perhaps to read this on holiday in latter day Hapsburg dominions.
(bwl 72 Spring 2014)

Disraeli: or The Two Lives by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young

Ironically, it takes a former Tory Foreign Secretary (with help) to change our perceptions of his most illustrious Victorian forebear. This short study is a complete hatchet job of the icon of one-nation Toryism (Dizzy didn't ever espouse this). In real life Disraeli was vain, unprincipled and treacherous. In death, until now, history has treated him well. This is a wonderfully compelling and refreshing re-evaluation. What next - a Clegg exposé of Gladstone's shortcomings?
(bwl 72 Spring 2014)

Dominion by C J Sansom

A problem with historical fiction is the necessity to explain an 'alternative history' either through narrative or the spoken word. So counter-intuitive is the premise of this novel - England has become a vassal state of Germany, having surrendered in 1940 - that the explanation becomes burdensome and sometimes almost overwhelming. But there are some wickedly delicious flights of fancy e.g. a 1952 cabinet comprising Beaverbrook, Mosley and Enoch Powell. And Sansom's extensive research is impressive.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013)

Dreadnought - Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War by Robert Massie

Despite its nautical title, this immensely readable book gives a breathtaking overview of European history, from the rise of Bismarck to the eve of WW I. It also answers the legendary Schleswig-Holstein question which Palmerston famously said only three people understood: "The first was Albert, the Prince consort and he is dead; the second is a German professor, and he is in an asylum: and the third was myself - and I have forgotten it!"
(bwl 45 April 2008)

Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth by Kieron Pim

The author seamlessly weaves together Roth’s mercurial, self-mythologising personality with summaries of his extensive writings to produce a forensic analysis of the tortuous peripatetic existence of the author of The Radetzky March (bwl 80). Both Roth’s religion and birthplace (Jewish and Galicia respectively) haunted him, compelling him to deny, and escape from, both in endless self-deception and ultimately to a sad early death. A proper recognition of his exceptional literary brilliance was alas only achieved post mortem.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023)

Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever by Rick Wilson

This is a full frontal attack on Trump the person from an unexpected quarter - the right. Wilson - a lifelong political activist for the Republican Party - weaves a torrent of invective against the 45th President. He doesn't hold back. It is deliciously funny in a black humoured way but also tragic in that he exposes the unbelievable things that are emanating from the White House. Laughter and anguish alternate throughout.
(bwl 91 Winter 2019)

Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin

The author's quest for Orwell takes her to all the places he lived and visited in the mid-1920's. She deftly combines political travelogue with literary appreciation, no more surprisingly than by suggesting that a trilogy of Orwell novels, Burmese Days (bwl 56), Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four are a tragic metaphor for the recent history of this benighted country. She also highlights the disparity between Orwell's early colonial behaviour and his later socialism.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010)

Flash Boys: Cracking the money code by Michael Lewis

Read this short but shocking tale if you want to understand why a man from Hounslow allegedly caused the flash crash of 2010, wiping billions of dollars off the value of America's biggest companies in a matter of seconds. Written in a somewhat breathless style, it introduces us to the frightening world of high-frequency trading. By the end, we might just understand what an algorithm is but, I venture, not how it works.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015)

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

This wonderful caprice, first published in 1884, follows the adventures of geometric characters in a two-dimensional world where the number of sides an inhabitant has indicates social status. Women are represented by straight lines – how un-PC is that! But then this is a Victorian jeu d'esprit. Workers are triangles, professional men are squares and so on. You get the drift. The excitement comes when a three-dimensional object invades Flatland - I mustn’t give away any spoilers!
(bwl 112 Spring 2024)

Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War 1929-1945 by David Kennedy

FDR dominated this convulsive period, made many mistakes but admitted them and was prepared to change course, surely the mark of a truly courageous and great leader. It is salutary to re-read this lengthy volume in the excellent Oxford History of the USA at this time to remind oneself that how even the most seemingly unsurmountable problems can eventually be overcome. I wouldn't, however, bet on a New Deal from the current White House incumbent.
(bwl 96 Spring 2020)

Germany: Memories of a Nation by Neil MacGregor

This is the companion volume to the British Museum's much lauded exhibition of the same name and accompanies the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series in which MacGregor illustrates, as it were, the history of Germany in 30 episodes (still available as downloads*). It is easy to understand why people say that there should be an export ban on MacGregor. His lightly-worn but nevertheless erudite scholarship shines through everything he does. Floreat Neil!
*The website address is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04dwbwz
(bwl 75 Winter 2015)

Going Dutch: How England plundered Holland's glory by Lisa Jardine

Sadly in almost her last full-length history before her untimely death, Professor Jardine - an inspirational communicator and a renowned historian - tells the less well known story of the Dutch coup d'état that brought William and Mary to the English throne in 1688 in a somewhat muddled fashion. The historical narrative becomes quite difficult to follow through her constantly moving backwards and forwards in time and between England and Holland.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

Golden Days by Norman Lewis

Describing some fraught journeys through war-torn Burma in the early 1950's, Lewis paints an affectionate portrait of a country redeemed from awfulness by the gentle and often wonderfully eccentric Burmese people. Nothing has changed in sixty years, neither the people's stoical resistance nor the regime's implacable authoritarianism. Anyone considering visiting the country now should read this heartening account. The continuing triumph of the human spirit which we witnessed is the most positive reason for going there today.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010)

Harold Macmillan by Charles Williams

The author questions the appropriateness of another biography of Macmillan, already the subject of many books, not least his own 6 volume autobiography and whether now is the right time for one. This fascinating but somewhat flawed book is proof that the answer to both questions is 'yes'. We read how Macmillan approached the art and practice of politics and how he tried, and sometimes failed, to balance the demands of public and private life.
(bwl 63 Winter 2012)

Hitler: A Study in Tyranny by Alan Bullock

This 1952 work was for a long time considered the definitive biography of the architect of the Third Reich. Many historians have revisited the subject but few have matched its rawness, originality and awful power to shock. Why should one read this again now? Fearfully, we are witnessing signs of returning to nationalism in Europe (and elsewhere). It was Churchill who famously said "Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it."
(bwl 92 Spring 2019)

Homelands: A personal history of Europe by Timothy Garton Ash

The author brings unprecedented first-hand experience as an academic, as a political commentator, and as a friend of many of the leading players in Europe over the last 30 years to shed light on Europe's spectacular progress and the subsequent uncertainty following the 2008 financial crisis, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Whilst he stops short of expounding a road to recovery, his memoir gives us a profound sense of what Europe could be.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

How to Make the World Add Up: Ten rules for thinking differently about numbers by Tim Harford

Has there ever been a more readable, or more entertaining, book about economics that this? The author, better known perhaps for his Radio 4 programme More or Less, takes his crusade against disinformation and obfuscation so much further with amusing analysis of everyday scenarios. He challenges us to evaluate claims by politicians and others such as lobbyists, inviting us to treat them with healthy scepticism, thus helping us to see the world as never before.
(bwl 101 Summer 2021)

I, Maybot: The Rise and Fall by John Crace

John Crace's political sketches for the Guardian have provided much needed comic relief from the desperate events that have overtaken the UK since the Brexit vote. His invention of the Maybot to characterise the Prime Minister's demeanour and behaviour have struck a chord and will be remembered long into the future when hopefully the sorry mess will have been resolved one way or another. This curated selection of his acerbic sketches is a 'must read'.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

In Tearing Haste - Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor by Charlotte Mosley (edited by)

Leigh Fermor devotees may be surprised by this collection of letters between 'Paddy' and 'his Darling Debo' spanning the years 1957-2008. Whilst his letters often display the erudition that runs though all his books, this collection as a whole leaves one with a distinct distaste for the name-dropping and inconsequentiality of their intertwined literary-aristocratic lives. The excessive use of footnotes, though necessary, makes this an infuriating book to read. Overall, somewhat disappointing.
(bwl 49 January 2009)

India's War: The Making of Modern South Asia 1939-1945 by Srinath Raghavan

This is history from a completely different perspective. Through recounting India's reaction to, and action in, WWII, the author suggests these have been fundamental to the development of the modern Indian economy. He helps us to understand the tensions that led to the end of colonial rule throughout South Asia and concludes by proposing that a democratic India should revert to its former role as a pivot of security in Asia and the Middle East.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016)

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 by Christopher Clark

This is a somewhat academic account of a state that for good or ill has dominated European and world politics for centuries. Nevertheless, it is always readable and often utterly spellbinding. Where it works best is in the painstaking description of the advent of the Hohenzollerns from relative obscurity which in turn help to explain and give context to the exploits of a series of brilliant leaders, most notably, Frederick the Great and Bismarck.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019)

Italian Journeys by Jonathan Keates

The author defines himself as a traveller, thus his idiosyncratic Italian journeys are comprised mainly of eccentric episodes and meandering anecdotes that are fun to read, to a point, but they don't dwell long enough in any one area or city to give one more than a casual sense of place. What is extraordinary is that the tone changes as he moves from Lombardy, say, to Umbria. The flatter the countryside, the better he writes!
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021)

Joe Country by Mick Herron

The latest in a series of witty comic thrillers features the jaundiced anti-heroes of Slough House, dumping ground for errant British agents. They engage not with those that seek to undermine this country from without but rather within the closed toxic world of our own secret services. The result is self-inflicted chaos and suspicion and a plot that draws with topical savagery on the current national mood. Herron is the UK's new master of spy fiction.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019)

Land of Shame and Glory: Britain 2021-2022 by Peter Hennessy

How quickly we forget (or want to forget) the egregious behaviour of the Government during the latter period of the pandemic. The author studies the machinations of the state from the perspective of an eminent public historian, one who coined the concept of the ‘good chap’ theory of government. You can be quite sure he does not hold back on devastating criticism. His highly engaging account is very often extremely funny, but ultimately profoundly sad.
(bwl 111 Winter 2018)

Liberators: Latin America's struggle for independence 1810-1830 by Robert Harvey

This surely ought to be essential reading for anyone travelling to Central or South America today. Harvey recounts tales of adventure, courage and passion of seven larger-than-life heroes who led the continent to freedom from Spanish and Portuguese domination at the turn of the nineteenth century. Despite their ultimate success, all seven were to die in pathetic or tragic circumstances. However their stories give us a far clearer understanding of the geo-politics of the region.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013)

Liberty's Exiles: The Loss of America and the Remaking of the British Empire by Maya Jasanoff

A global diaspora, a refugee crisis. Jasanoff recounts the history of those 'loyalists' who sought to rebuild their lives outside the United States post independence. They sailed for Canada and further afield, notably India and the West Indies. She argues that the energy and self-reliance of those seeking the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness elsewhere was the making of the modern British Empire. A brilliant, original and enlightening book.
(bwl 63 Winter 2012)

Masters and Commanders - How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke won the War in the West by Andrew Roberts

It will come as no surprise to readers of Bryant's memorable Alanbrooke diaries that of the four titanic figures that shaped the progress of the Second World War, this unassuming Ulsterman should take the honours as the greatest strategist. Andrew Roberts' seminal work covers familiar territory and poignantly charts the waning of British influence as American might and manpower subsumes Churchill's almost mystical command of the transatlantic alliance.
(bwl 50 March 2009)

Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes

Not for the faint-hearted, this is a brilliantly uncompromising tale of the horror and confusion of the conflict in Vietnam. American readers may be more familiar with the language and behaviour of the main characters, members of Bravo Company, US Marines. To a non-American, what is quite shocking is the gulf of misunderstanding and distrust not only between officers and men but between the officers themselves. Was it really like this? I fear it was.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011)

Middle England by Jonathan Coe

Following in the footsteps of The Rotters' Club (bwl 34), this is a novel for our disturbing times. Coe writes beautifully about the intertwined lives of Benjamin Trotter, his family and friends, but everywhere, as in real life, there is despair, disillusion, bewilderment and barely suppressed anger. Closer acquaintance with his characters through reading earlier books might have made me more sympathetic towards some of them. Alas, based on this one alone, I was not very engaged.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019)

My Father's Country - The Story of a German Family by Wibke Bruhns

You know the dreadful conclusion from the beginning. Only 6 when her father was executed for his part in the 20 July Hitler assassination plot, this is Bruhns' painful, deeply moving account of his life and death. Her journalistic style, so full of often unanswered questions, might seem detached. It has the opposite effect, drawing us into the lives of a provincial German family and thereby revealing more about this turbulent period than many conventional histories.
(bwl 46 June 2008)

Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts

Such a comprehensive account of this enigmatic man should stretch to many volumes but Roberts has managed to capture the essence of Napoleon's incredible life in a little over 800 pages. He is particularly good on Napoleon's upbringing in Corsica. By accessing over 33,000 of Boney's extant letters, Roberts has managed to bring new perspectives to someone about whom more books have been written than the number of days since he died. Altogether masterful.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

Napoleon's Last Island by Thomas Keneally

Keneally imagines the touching relationship between a high-spirited English girl and the 'Ogre' that is Napoleon during his final exile on the mid-Atlantic island of St Helena. He perfectly captures the claustrophobia of life on such a remote colony, eliciting great sympathy for the two main protagonist through their unlikely friendship, but disdaining both the French hangers-on and the British rulers as personified by a vindictive new governor. The denouement is both shocking and sad.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

Old Glory by Jonathan Raban

Raban rides the river from Minneapolis to New Orleans. A romantic journey? Yes but fraught and dangerous too. The Mississippi is just there in all her old glory, rolling down through middle America with her cargoes of wheat, cotton, iron and coal. Raban gets the better deal. Following the river by land, it can rarely be seen for the hundred feet high levees. This old favourite, like the river, is both timeless and eternal.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016)

On the Shores of the Mediterranean by Eric Newby

This was written in 1984 when I first read it. During the pandemic, travel restrictions made me turn to it again and journey with him in my mind as he meandered around the Mediterranean coast. In the last 40 years, I too have shared some of the joys and frustrations he writes so charmingly about. Now as restrictions are lifted somewhat, he still inspires me to discover the all too many places as yet unvisited.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022)

Other Men's Flowers by A P Wavell (compiled by)

This anthology evokes memories, real and imagined - of the poems themselves of course since as children to recite Browning and Keats from it was commonplace - and of the darker days of WW II. Published in 1944 (the dedication in my War Economy Standard copy is dated 22nd March), one realises now how important poetry was to our parents' generation helping them to cope with the awfulness of their times. The same might apply today.
(bwl 49 January 2009)

Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré

In a novel that promises much but sadly delivers little, le Carré returns to the murky and confused post cold war demi-monde where one never really knows on which side characters belong or even if there are sides. He writes very well but the biggest problem I have with this latest book is that he takes over 300 pages to tell what is, essentially, a very small story. Regrettably, another disappointment.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011)

Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper

This long-awaited biography has, apparently, transformed some anti-PLF'ers into fans. For me it has done the exact opposite. Freya Stark described him as "a Hellenistic lesser sea-god of a rather low period", Somerset Maugham as "a middle-class gigolo for upper-class women". 'Paddy' emerges as a man determined to live life on his own terms but on other people's money. Does this book spoil my appreciation of him as a writer? Sadly, the answer is 'yes'.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013)

Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832 by Antonia Fraser

This book is curiously disjointed, repetitive and somewhat patchily written. I suspect the author relied too heavily on her research assistants and failed to bring her accustomed flair to the narrative account of what was a very dramatic episode in British history. Too harsh? Perhaps a little but I was left with an empty feeling after reading her book and although better informed, I was no more engaged by the subject.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013)

Prisoners of Time: Prussians, Germans and Other Humans by Christopher Clark

This series of essays covers aspects of Germany, from the serious - the attempts to convert Prussian Jews to Christianity, to the more capricious - a virtuous meditation on the nature of political power down the ages. Each raises questions about how we think about the past and about the pitfalls of history as a discipline. Clark, one of our finest living historians, has produced a work of such entertainment and value that only he could have written.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021)

Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848-1849 by Christopher Clark

In this magnificently researched work, the author describes the many revolutions that eclipsed Europe in 1848. Though they followed one another in different countries, one was not the spark for the next. Rather they were all spawned by a common set of continent-wide social and political conditions. Initially successful, within the year the old order had begun to reassert itself often with great ferocity and many of the newly gained freedoms were, alas, rolled back.
(bwl 109 Summer 2023)

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

"Up to a point, Lord Copper" still peppers the conversations of close observers of the goings-on in Westminster and Whitehall. But how many people have read the Fleet Street satire where it originated? Returning to this slight novel after forty years, the plot now seems contrived and somewhat silly. The occasional flash of high comedy reminds one why it was so popular when it was first published in the thirties. But vintage Waugh? Up to a point.
(bwl 48 November 2008)

Silverview by John le Carré

Silverview published posthumously was, as le Carré's son explains in a postscript, complete but much revised and never signed off by his father. Some reviewers, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, have perhaps stayed their critical pens but I wonder if the great master would have approved of its release. There are flashes of le Carré's genius for dialogue but perhaps its biggest disappointment is the confined domestic canvas on which the story is painted.
(bwl 104 Spring 2022)

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Supposedly inspiring Obama to choose his Presidential rival as Secretary of State, this evocative Civil War history examines the four politicians pipped at the post by Old Abe, the Illinois Rail Splitter, in 1860. The nobility and grace of the man Lincoln picked for this post, William H. Seward, shine though this excellent work of scholarship. Seward was attacked, and nearly killed, at the same time as Lincoln, thus further thwarting forever, his political ambition.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016)

Ten Cities that made an Empire by Tristam Hunt

Hunt's fresh approach to Britain's imperial history* explores the urban form through its architecture and civil institutions, street names and fortifications, news pages, plays and ritual. From Boston in the 1770's, his portrayal of the great colonial and imperial cities of Bridgetown, Dublin, Cape Town, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Bombay, Melbourne and New Delhi ends in C20th Liverpool. He delivers a new understanding of the British Empire's influence upon the world and the world's influence upon it.
Ed. note: similar ground but in a different manner is covered by Maya Jasanoff in Liberty's Exiles (bwl 63)
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015)

The American Future: A History by Simon Schama

A spin-off from Schama's recent TV series, this is a curiosity in more ways than just its seemingly contradictory title. His intention is to build a history of American exceptionalism - 'the American difference' - through extended anecdotes about some interesting characters. Each is engagingly told in familiar Schama manner - he writes as he talks in short, punchy sentences - but in the final analysis, the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
(bwl 52 July 2009)

The Amur River: Between Russia and China by Colin Thubron

This must be one of the most remote, and arguably the bleakest, riverine experience. Aged 80, Thubron travels by horse, track, road, rail and river to follow the Amur from the Mongolian mountains through Siberia to the Pacific. For many thousands of miles, the river marks the border between totalitarian frenemies Russia and China. The Russian Far East would appear to have forsaken civilisation, not surprising after brutal regimes extending from Tsarist days to the present.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023)

The Anarchy: The relentless rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple

Anarchy seems to have infected Dalrymple's historical arc. As always, his scholarship is second to none in its breadth and depth but in following the vicissitudes of Indian, Afghan, Persian and other rulers, he often loses contact with what should be the overriding theme of the fascinating story of perhaps the world's first multi-national corporation. That this account ends in 1803, it only tells half the story. Perhaps he's saving this for Part II - Nemesis?
(bwl 95 Winter 2020)

The Berlin Wall: 13 August 1961-9 November 1989 by Frederic Taylor

Visit Berlin today and you cannot avoid 20th Century history in all its enormity, pomp and misery. This is a highly informative and well researched record of Berlin's 28 divisive years. It dispels many myths too e.g. the death toll associated with partition was perhaps just over 200 (though one death is too many). The ultimate irony is that 24 years on, the city is once more dynamic and exciting, especially in the East.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013)

The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Was it worth the wait? Maybe. In the weeks before his death in 2011, PLF was still working on the draft of the third and last volume of his trilogy describing his epic journey from London to Constantinople in 1932 (bwl 33). It doesn't have the magic or the charm of the earlier two, nor disappointingly does he write about arriving at his destination. Instead, the last third of the book is devoted to an uneventful excursion to Mount Athos.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

The Changing of the Guard: The British Army since 9/11 by Simon Akam

It was said that the Ministry of Defence tried to prevent this book's publication, exposing as it does the debacles that were the British campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-publication hype however is not justified. Based on many hundreds of interviews within the military at all levels and politics, what transpires is perhaps no more that a series of anecdotes and stories with very little overall analysis and a rather clumsily chronology. Altogether somewhat underwhelming.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021)

The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt

The fire that destroyed the Fenice Theatre inspired Berendt to weave a story of intrigue about Venice and its inhabitants just as engaging as his Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil did for Savannah. Adjectives such as fragile, corrupt, beautiful, historic and scandalous describe his cast of real life characters. Through them, he adds flesh and blood to this magical city. This is compelling reading, far better than any guide book.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012)

The Coldest Winter - America and the Korean War by David Halberstam

Halberstam's last book (he was killed in a car accident just after it was published in 2007) harnesses his formidable journalistic skills to weave stories of military blunders and political miscalculations that have uncanny echoes in what is happening today in Iraq and Afghanistan. Don't expect to read about British endeavour. This is an all-American tale of 'death by a thousand cuts' of its former military hero, Douglas MacArthur. Fascinating, but chilling stuff!
(bwl 49 January 2009)

The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff

This compelling blend of history, biography and travelogue is woven around Conrad's life and mingled with his four greatest works, The Secret Agent, Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness and Nostromo. This guide to the underside of empire is a worthy successor to Jasanoff"s brilliant Liberty's Exiles (bwl 63). Critics have hailed this as a masterpiece from one of our greatest young historians who always takes a refreshingly new approach to her disparate subjects.
(bwl 89 Summer 2018)

The End is Nigh: British politics, power and the road to the Second World War by Robert Crowcroft

Crowcroft's main contentions are that foreign policy during the 1930's subsumed Britain's domestic agenda and that events in a world about to explode, especially the rhetorical use that could be made of them, became the key resource to be exploited in the competition for Parliamentary ascendancy. Churchill, obsessed by India, comes out particularly badly by this interpretation. By questioning accepted mythologies, Crowcroft paints a far murkier, cynical picture more akin to today's distasteful politics.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020)

The Fields Beneath:The history of one London village by Gillian Tindall

Kentish Town is the focus of the author’s forensic and imaginative exploration of one of London’s villages as it transforms from countryside dwellings along the banks of the Fleet river and is gradually absorbed by the metropolis. The advent of the railways was the greatest catalyst for change. Above all, precise examination of this locality opens our understanding of universal themes such as the nature of communities and the roles of the individuals within them.
(bwl 111 Winter 2024)

The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy by Michael Lewis

His writing style is deceptively beguiling, drawing one along by the pacy narrative. Alas, whilst his subject "the combustible cocktail of wilful ignorance and veniality that is fuelling the destruction of the USA" is compelling, one can't help feeling he pulls his punches by choosing less than enthralling examples. Nevertheless, he does add to the understanding of what most political commentators in the US regard as a government under attack - by its own leaders.
(bwl 91 Winter 2019)

The Fire of Joy: Roughly eighty poems to get by heart and say aloud by Clive James

You can hear his antipodean twang in every verse he chooses for this eclectic anthology. The author's lifetime love affair with words that he has memorised is matched by his wry and peerless commentary on each of his choices. Though compiled towards the end of his life when he was bed-ridden and unable to return to the country of his birth, it is shot through with humour and vitality. A truly generous human being.
(bwl 104 Spring 2022)

The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution by Barbara Tuchman

Do you sometimes feel you shouldn't have started a book that has remained unread on your shelves for ages? Picking up the author's last book which takes a meandering look at American independence in the context of the decline of Dutch and French maritime power, Tuchman's famous approach to 'history-as-a-story' is much in evidence but syntactically, the book is a mess and my version is littered with typographical errors. A tarnished but not ruined memory.
(bwl 63 Winter 2012)

The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes

The first in Hughes's intended epic sequence of novels, The Human Predicament, centres on Augustine, unjustly suspected of involvement in the murder of a young girl. Taking refuge in the remote castle of Bavarian relatives, his hopeless love for his devout cousin Mitzi blinds him to the hate that will lead to the rise of German fascism. The climax is a brilliant description of the Munich putsch and a disturbingly intimate portrait of Adolf Hitler.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010)

The Holy Roman Empire by James Bryce

Returning from travelling in Europe, I always turn to this definitive, if somewhat old-fashioned work (published in 1880) since the Holy Roman Empire, which Voltaire said was neither holy, Roman nor an empire, still pervades the art and architecture of modern Europe as does the presence of Bonaparte who abolished it after 1,000 years. The best part by far is the chronological table of emperors and popes – a handy reference far better than Wikepedia!
(bwl 109 Summer 2023)

The Last Colony: A tale of exile, justice and Britain’s colonial legacy by Philippe Sands

The plight of the Chagossians is a painful reminder of how the cold war created misery to communities across the world, no more so than the deportation of these islanders from their homes in the 1960’s in order to facilitate an American base in Diego Garcia. Sands’ forensic examination of the Chagos Islanders efforts to be restored to their ancestral lands is also a woeful tale of diminishing influence of, and respect for, British diplomacy.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023)

The Long and Winding Road by Alan Johnson

It might have been better to start with the first two books of his memoir since the territory would have been altogether less familiar and consequently perhaps more engaging. This third volume covers his accession to union leadership and transition to cabinet office. He is a very likeable, honest politician but in trying to avoid seeming to boast about his considerable personal and political achievements, his discretion and somewhat overdone self-deprecation tend to dull the narrative.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

The Magician by Colm Tóibin

Epic novels about real people are not uncommon but never, perhaps, has fiction been better employed than in Toibin's masterful life of German author, Thomas Mann. From Death in Venice, we know about the supressed desires of the protagonist, Aschenbach. In the Magician, Toibin paints this fearful and hesitant behaviour across the life of its author, thereby capturing the profound personal conflict of a very public life set against the violence of C20th German history.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022)

The Oil Road: Journeys from the Caspian Sea to the City of London by James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello

This is travelling - but alas not hopefully. The authors follow the pipeline above ground (and sometimes by tanker) from Baku to London. All the while, we get the local backstory and especially the politics. The ultimate tragedy is that the natural resources from poor countries only exacerbates the wealth gap between them and richer ones at the other end of the 'road'. BP is somewhat harshly judged. But their fingers were everywhere. Messy stuff!
(bwl 86 Autumn 2017)

The Po: An elegy for Italy’s longest river by Tobias Jones

Any romantic notions of pastoral idylls and exquisite cities are quickly dispelled by the author whose epic journey begins in the bleak estuary as the river debouches into the Adriatic. Through history, the Po has been a vital trading route, an aquatic defence against invaders and finally a major centre for industry and agriculture. Alas the ruined farms, factories and power stations that now disfigure the landscape are now merely epitaphs to happier times.
(bwl 111 Autumn 2024)

The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis

In his breathless and utterly unique style, the author tells the story of how a group of American scientists sought to identify, track and combat the virus that was killing people in Wuhan in January 2020. As usual, he carries the narrative forward through the forensic examination of 'unsung heroes'. Each cameo is highly engaging though I started to lose the plot and frustratingly could not connect his colourful tales to America's baleful Covid response.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021)

The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

The action takes place between 1859 and 1916, charting the demise of the Trotta family against the decline of the Hapsburg Empire. Roth's narrative, so evocative of two dynasties that have a past but no future, leaves one with a profound sense of sadness. A remarkable achievement from so young an author, Roth's prose style takes some getting used to but it is easy to see why this has become a modern classic.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016)

The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain by Tristam Hunt

This is not just another biography. As V&A Director and former Stoke-on-Trent MP, nobody perhaps is more qualified to address the context in which this enlightened potter made such a mark on his profession and became a beacon that inspired the industrial revolution. How sad then that the company's fortunes subsequently declined, no more so than in this century. A visit to the wonderful Barlaston's museum, now saved for posterity, provides a glimmer of enlightenment.
(bwl 104 Spring 2022)

The Railways: Nation, Network and the People by Simon Bradley

Bradley explores the social, linguistic and cultural impact of train travel from its earliest days. We read that the system of classes of travel used by the railways helped to establish the concept of class in the broader social sense. The converging experience of train travel became one of the greatest instances of social levelling in our history whereas reading a novel or paper helped to pass the time and avoid interaction with fellow passengers.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016)

The Ratline Love, lies and justice on the trail of a Nazi fugitive by Philippe Sands

Otto von Wachter, a senior Nazi officer died in Rome before he could take the 'Ratline' to South America. But was he a war criminal? Sands' forensic research lays bare his story in all its banality and evilness. It exposes just enough evidence to prove the case contrary to Wachter's son who maintains his father was a good man. It reads like a detective novel and its final ambivalence is probably just about right.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020)

The Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan by William Dalrymple

Dalrymple's account of the ignominious military and political failure that was the British invasion of Afghanistan in 1839 is, at over 550 pages, history under the microscope. He draws, however, on new sources from other protagonists - the Russians, Persians and not least the Afghans themselves. The result is a welcome alternative to earlier colonial self-justifications. And the parallels with what is happening in Afghanistan today are terrifyingly clear. Do we never learn from history?
(bwl 69 Summer 2013)

The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham

Triggered by the heroic death of Livingstone in 1873, in the following 30 years, five European powers had grabbed almost the whole of the 'dark' continent. Atrocities against indigenous populations were commonplace though by far the most villainous was Leopold II for whom the Congo State became his personal property. Pakenham recounts this tale of infamous and nefarious deeds with a fluency that belies its complexity. Be prepared for a stimulating but exceptionally long read.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021)

The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken by Anon

A society that does not adhere to the rule of law independent of government is not one I imagine most of us would like to live in, if we have the choice that is. This revealing book explains how criminal justice in the UK is in a complete mess largely due to the budgetary constraints which have accelerated since 2010. It is a damning indictment of government which is leading to inequity and injustice now.
(bwl 91 Winter 2019)

The Ship Asunder: A Maritime History of Britain in Eleven Vessels by Tom Nancollas

From a bronze age prow to a lonely mast outside Anfield (relic of Brunel's Great Eastern), this beguiling tale meanders through Britain's seafaring tradition like the ebb and flow of the tides that once bore all these vessels. The author's attention alights in his journey on the arcane and the curious, the mystical and the superstitious. He reminds us of the pre-eminent role the ship played though wistfully regrets its diminishing importance in our future.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022)

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark

In 1903, 28 Serbian army officers brutally murdered King Alexander and his Queen (she was reading a French novel at the time). So begins the most gripping and beguiling account of the decades of history that informed the events of 1914. That it takes over 100 pages just to describe the Balkan intrigues which culminate in Sarajevo is evidence enough that this is no ordinary history. Indeed it is a masterpiece not to be missed.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015)

The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes

Figes’ aim in this readable and informative history of Russia’s thousand-year history is to illuminate the terrible precedents of horror, persecution and terror that might help decipher the motives for Putin’s war in the Ukraine. Myths too have shaped Russia’s past. These reflect the structural continuities of Russian history, its geographic position, systems of belief, modes of rule, political ideas and social customs. Figes channels unsurpassed scholarship into a compulsive contribution to today’s geopolitical thinking.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023)

The Thirty Years' War by Geoffrey Parker - edited by

Many people, I'm sure, avoid reading about this most complicated and confusing crisis in early modern history because it almost defies understanding. Four hundred years later, however, we can still see the impact on the shape and development of modern Europe caused by the political, economic and military events of 1618-1648. The clarity and liveliness of this concise book throws new light on the contorted politics and should spark enthusiasm for further study.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

The Tunnel Through Time: A new route for an old London journey by Gillian Tindall

Constructing London's newest railway has enabled archaeologists to explore some of the city's most historically important sites. In this timely book, Gillian Tindall, well known miniaturist of London's history, follows the East-West route, revealing layers of human existence. She disinters the lives of countless generations that have trodden the same paths throughout history. What better excuse to walk the streets of Farringdon or imagine sheep being herded down Stepney Fields. Pure magic!
Ed note: Until 3 September 2017, there is a (free) exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail
(bwl 85 Summer 2017)

The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed the World by Michael Lewis

Thomas Carlyle called economics the dismal science. What would he have called behavioural economics? Lewis turns his attention to this burgeoning field by focussing on the friendship between two notable Israeli practitioners. I am unconvinced that this new craze advances human understanding or that it really is a science. Lewis's usual frenetic writing style doesn't make the subject any more exciting. After reading this book, Carlyle might conclude that 'dreary' might be an appropriate epithet.
(bwl 87 Winter 2018)

The War that Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War by Margaret MacMillan

If one had to read but one account of this momentous period of recent history, it perhaps should be this meticulously researched work since it certainly 'covers all the bases' between 1900 and 1914. However, to get getting a clearer picture, there are far more readable* and more intriguing** books. Whilst MacMillan has the advantage of not being European (she is Canadian), I felt no better informed after 608 pages, just exhausted.
*Tuchman's August 1914 qv **Clark's The Sleepwalkers qv
(bwl 75 Winter 2015)

The Washing of the Spears - The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation by Donald Morris

The familiar skirmish at Rorke's Drift and the less well known but equally dramatic events on Hlobane mountain are but two of the highlights in this most respected and unbiased history that looks beyond the short-lived and tragic war that eclipsed the noble Zulu nation. Morris helps us to understand Zulu culture and customs which explain why Cetshwayo took on the might of the British, inflicting on its army some of its worst defeats.
(bwl 47 September 2008)

The Waste Land: a facsimile & transcript of the original drafts including the annotations of Ezra Pound edited by Valerie Eliot by T S Eliot

I have been much drawn back to this masterpiece - which has lived with me since my teens - by a superb Arena documentary and much editorial coverage in its centenary year 2022. There is perhaps no better way to fully appreciate it than by studying the facsimile transcript of the original drafts annotated by Ezra Pound and Vivien Eliot which was published in 1969. ”On Margate Sands, I can connect nothing with nothing” How bleak, how contemporary!
(bwl 108 Spring 2023)

The Way to the Sea:The forgotten histories of the Thames Estuary by Caroline Crampton

The title promises much but sadly the author delivers little that is new or all that exciting. It is probably a mistake to spend 71 pages (nearly a quarter of the book) describing the Thames from its source to Tower Bridge whereas it is the estuary, being less well-known, that is thus potentially more interesting. But even here, she is diverted of purpose by dwelling inordinately on her parents' boating skills and her own childhood sailing exploits. Altogether, somewhat disappointing.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019)

The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 by Mark Thomson

Little has been written in English about the unprecedented violence of the prolonged campaign between Italy and Austria in the harsh and unforgiving territory of the Dolomites, Trentino and Trieste. The author recounts the twelve battles on the Isonzo river which resulted in losses far greater in proportion than those of the Western front. Italy sank into chaos and eventually fascism. The liberal traditions of Garibaldi were alas shattered, some say lost for ever.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023)

The Wooden Shepherdess by Richard Hughes

The second, and alas last, volume in The Human Predicament as Hughes died before he could complete this epic sequence of novels, sees Augustine in prohibition era America, an increasingly fascinated participant in a country intoxicated with sex, violence, and booze. Moving to Germany, he witnesses the growing Nazi menace and the novel ends in a terrifying account of the Night of the Long Knives as Hitler ruthlessly secures his hold upon Germany.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010)

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

This should have been a rollickingly good read. Teddy Roosevelt was after all best known for leading the charge of the Rough Riders on San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the President who coined the phrase "Speak softly and carry a big stick". Morris's biography doesn't quite do justice to his subject's energy and gusto. Too much detail spoils the pace of his writing. Barbara Tuchman would have done it better.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011)

To the Finland Station: A study in the writing and acting of history by Edmund Wilson

It is easy to conflate communism with the evils of Soviet Russia. Edmund Wilson in his epic history of the left, reminds us that its origins sprung from the friendship between a middle-class son of Trier (where today his image adorns traffic lights!) and the scion of a Manchester-based cotton family. Marx and Engels alongside Babeuf and Saint-Simon and the US Owenite social optimists are explored in this brilliant, comprehensive and above all readable synthesis.
(bwl 104 Spring 2022)

Twilight of Democracy: The failures of politics and the parting of friends by Anne Applebaum

A dawn of the millennium party in Poland, a country celebrating its liberation from the Soviet yoke. Twenty years later, another party with some old friends purposefully absent either by the author's or their own volition. These events bookend Applebaum's awakening to the rise of authoritarianism in her adopted country, in Europe and elsewhere. Her writing is very fluent and her confessions startingly personal. She admits she should have questioned her former friends earlier and harder.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020)

Uncle Bill: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshall Viscount Slim by Russell Miller

Must an authorised biography always become a hagiography? This one does which is a pity because it is well written for the lay reader (Miller is a journalist by trade) and it is fast paced. But it adds little more than can be found in Slim's own masterful Defeat into Victory. Uncle Bill lacks balance and nuance (and maps!) but does nothing to harm Slim's reputation as one of this country's finest generals ever.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013)

Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-forgotten Europe by Norman Davies

Europe was littered with kingdoms, empires, duchies and republics many of which have now disappeared. Most are forgotten: some may linger on in distant memories of, say, pre-Bismarck 'Germania' or pre-Roman Italy. But who remembers Tolosa, Alt Clud, Sabaudia and Tsernagora? Eminent historian, Norman Davies, reminds us that our understanding of European history in terms of present-day countries can only be imperfect if we forget their fissiparous past existences. Altogether, an enchanting and romantic read.
(bwl 92 Spring 2019)

Walking the Woods and the Water by Nick Hunt

This purports to be a homage to Patrick Leigh Fermor's epic walk in 1933. It is far from reverential and less derivative than one might expect. Nick Hunt's personality shines through and his journey seems more honest (and of course more modern) than the original trilogy which now feels somewhat dated and pretentious. Although Europe has changed substantially in the intervening 80 years, encouragingly what remains is the hospitality and kindness of strangers.
(bwl 73 Summer 2014)

War by Sebastian Junger

Written in 2010, this remains a visceral and moving account of asymmetric warfare between a super-power and unsophisticated but powerfully motivated indigenous insurgents. Junger illuminates the experiences of a small body of US soldiers in a remote valley on the Afghan-Pakistan border, giving a truly remarkable insight into the realities of war and the lives of the men who fight. Perceptibly, he draws comparisons and differences between the Afghan and Vietnam conflicts*. A timely read.
* Compare these with the albeit fictional account of the Vietnam conflict in Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn - bwl 59 Winter 2011.
(bwl 101 Summer 2021)

Warpaths: Travels of a Military Historian in North America by John Keegan

Keegan weaves history and geography to shed new light on the conflicts in North America in this brilliant examination of battles fought over three centuries between, variously, the British, the French, loyalists, revolutionaries, native Americans, Unionists and Confederates. Above all though, this is an informal, personal and highly readable account from one of our greatest military historians. Despite his self-confessed 'love' of America, he is not uncritical of some well-known historical players.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013)

What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe

This ambitious volume, the latest in the scholarly Oxford History of the United States, describes a nation in pursuit of its 'Manifest Destiny'. By doubling the country's size, legendary presidents such as Madison, Monroe and Jackson set the tone for American imperialism that other compatriots were to follow. One cannot but admire their resourcefulness but also baulk perhaps at their hypocrisy. This should be essential reading for a better understanding of the modern American psyche.
(bwl 54 November 2009)

Wisden Cricketers' Almanac 2022 by Lawrence Booth - edited by

A thud on the doormat heralds the latest edition. At over 1,500 pages and several inches thick, it will soon join its elders on a shelf extending to more than 20 feet of yellow spines. Cricket is in a parlous state if you get your news and views from the daily press. Wisden's more reflective thoughts are, like the game, better appreciated in the longer form. What bliss - hours of reading ahead, alternating with watching.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022)

World Gone By by Dennis Lehane

Pacy and chilling, this powerful saga of gangster life and corruption in wartime America from the author of Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone has more twists than the Cresta run. Aficionados of the genre may be familiar with the argot and the violence. As a neophyte, I was alternately shocked and thrilled. It is not for the faint-hearted. Lehane's ending defies expectation and perhaps understanding. Never mind, it was a great read getting there.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015)

World War II at Sea: A Global History by Craig Symonds

Although this is a well-trodden path, the author, who taught at the US Naval War College for over 30 years, brings a freshness and a welcome objectivity to this vast subject in a single volume. This is not, however, history written by the victors. Rather it is a forensic and scholarly examination of all the major protagonists but narrated in the finest traditions of a rollickingly good naval saga. Altogether, a must for non-landlubbers.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021)