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1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke |
Clarke, a Brit living in France, understands both the French and the English on their own terms, but is fascinated by their differences and their 'love-hate' relationship. This brilliant book with its serious undertone, is knowledgeable, full of entertaining anecdotes and gossip, and is as up to date as it can be. Sympathetic to issues both French and English, cheerful and devoid of pedantry: a book to read, to give to one's Francophile, or perhaps better still one's Francophobe, friends.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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1913: The Year Before the Storm by Florian Illies |
The year 1913 heralded an age of endless possibilities yet everywhere a premonition of ruin is omnipresent, judging by the diaries and letters of writers and artists who feel adrift in an inimical world, dark clouds looming. Almost "everyone" is there from Louis Armstrong, to the brothers Mann, Freud, Jung, Stravinsky, Hitler, their wives and other loves. All described with a light hand but with an admonitory finger pointing to the fatal year, 1914.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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61 Hours by Lee Child |
This most recent Reacher novel is certainly up to standard. This former army MP does not seek violence or want 'to put the world to rights'. He just doesn't 'like people who put the world to wrongs'. So the good guys always win but only after an enthralling, breathtaking read. This time it is North Dakota in a terribly cold winter, almost freezing the reader, and Jack is revealed as more vulnerable and fallible than he believed.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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8.55 to Baghdad, The by Andrew Eames |
Eames, journalist and traveller, intrigued both by the Middle East and Agatha Christie, traces her footsteps from London - via Orient Express - to the 'digs' in Syria and Iraq, no small feat four months before the 2003 invasion. The result is a deft handling of several strands: the present day, the 20s and 30s, Christie's biography and work and little-known historical details. A light, fascinating and valuable read for Christie, train and historical buffs.
(bwl 28 February 2005) |
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A Desirable Residence by Sophie Kinsella |
An academic couple who bought a Tutoring College as a financial venture have a house they can't sell, two mortgages, mounting debts, and a miserable teenage daughter who didn't want to move and whose cat has had to be given away. With this recipe for disaster, Kinsella (writing under her real name of Madeleine Wickham) has produced, with wit and wisdom, a light but most worthwhile novel. Lovely read for holidays and in the bath.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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A Man of Parts by David Lodge |
A (barely) fictionalised biography of H G Wells, ardent and prolific writer and enthusiastic womaniser. I found his early life and struggle against difficult odds to exploit his exceptional intelligence and writing talents more interesting than his string of affairs with most of the avant-garde women of literary society. It must be said that H.G. is, despite Lodge's persuasive and erudite efforts, still slightly out-of–date. Very enjoyable, if a bit longwinded.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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A Pillar of Society by Julia Hamilton |
A marvelous read, meaty with considerations of the various realities of life when it comes to human relationships; poetic and sensitive, with round characters who constantly surprise. Hamilton is full of worldly wisdom giving food for thought without being too weighty about it. It is set in a privileged milieu but one that the reader can relate to. Highly recommended for vacation and travel.
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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A Prison Diary: Belmarsh: Hell; Wayland: Purgatory & North Sea Camp: Heaven by Jeffrey Archer |
This bleak and clinical account of Archer's two years in various prisons, following a travesty of inverted class justice, is not only on the level of Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn but is an important contribution to British literature. With cogent remarks on prison life and the vagaries of British justice in general, he advocates three reforms which would make a huge difference at little extra cost to a system that is close to breaking point. Lacking self-pity and completely non-judgmental, with many thumb-nail sketches of the inmates. A truly monumental achievement.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer |
Archer's own experiences in prison give a depth and sense of reality to this fast paced thriller. If Danny had proposed to Beth one day before or one after, he would not have been charged with the murder of her brother, his best friend. Innocent, sentenced to 22 years, he is sent to Belmarsh prison, from where no-one had ever escaped. How he did so, his quest for rehabilitation and revenge makes for brilliant entertainment.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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A Royal Affair - George III and His Troublesome Siblings by Stella Tillyard |
Famous for The Aristocrats (bwl 11), a compelling solid history recently made into a film, in her new book Tillyard discusses the life of George III and his siblings against, most unusually, the European aspect of the British royal house with its connections by marriage to Denmark and North Germany. An important issue is the birth, late eighteenth century, of the media's passion for revealing the personal scandals of royals and celebrities. Very rewarding.
(bwl 42 October 2007) |
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A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby |
This book by Eric Newby is an oldie, but now more up-to-date than ever. Newby and Carless, a diplomat, after four days of learning how to mountain climb in Scotland, went to the Hindu Kush in 1956 to climb the Mir Samir in Afghanistan. Their nonchalance and happy-go-lucky attitude to practically everything conceals their bravery, knowledge of Persian, and exactly how death-defying their trip was. Simply hilarious.
(bwl 14 June 2002) |
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According to Mark by Penelope Lively |
This novel will appeal - especially at the holiday season - to many readers, certainly to those with literary, critical tastes as well as to those who just like a good read. Written with great insight into the human condition, the love interest is especially intelligent, subtle and certainly 'unusual'. Lively's analytically amused and astringent view of her fellow creatures is a must.
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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Action for Slander by Mary Borden |
This author is certainly out of fashion yet here is a surprisingly fascinating and riveting read. Murder there is but of a reputation, not a person which in this case is much the same thing. With its unflagging pace, the reader is enthralled by the twists and turns, red herrings and deviations until the last, astringently moralistic remarks of the presiding judge. Seeming a light read but based on a forceful social and moral commentary on human behaviour.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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After Julia and Forbidden Fruits by Julia Hamilton |
Two other suggestions for holiday reading. After Julia is again very analytical and understanding of the darker side of the human emotional drive. Alas Forbidden Fruits is much more superficial, a bit wooden and contrived and although clever seems to lack inspiration. However, as Hamilton cannot write badly, it is not bad entertainment and will while away the hours of perhaps a long train, plane or coach journey!
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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Agent Zigzag: the Story of Eddie Chapman by Ben Macintyre |
A brilliant spy story - all the more riveting for being true, well-written, fully documented and illustrated - this book keeps the reader on the edge of his chair from the first page to the last. Chapman - a safe-blower, code name Zigzag - became one of Britain's most colourful and valuable double agents during WW II, out-foxing the Germans right up to the end. He died in 1997 at the ripe old age of 83.
(bwl 45 April 2008) |
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Alibi by Joseph Kanon |
The elaborate and convoluted plot relies on Kanon's intimate knowledge of Venice as he conjures up an atmosphere of mystery and foreboding. One becomes lost in murky streets and canals together with characters who seem to be trapped in horrors of their own making, and in the city itself. Perhaps the miseries of guilt and moral dilemma are overdone and there is too much Venice, but the book is worth the benefit of the doubt.
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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Alice in Brexitland by Leavis Carroll alias Lucien Young |
You don't have to be mad to live here, but it helps, says the cover of this amazingly funny and all too true book, paraphrase of Lewis Carroll, whom we all know and love. Written with biting wit and laser-sharp allusions to easily identified politicians, this new but so recognisable Alice goes down the Brexit hole, takes advice from the Corbynpillar, meets Trumpty Dumpty and all her and our old friends, but with a difference, and what a difference. A must, especially nowadays.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi occupation 1940-1944 by Charles Glass |
When Germany invaded Paris a large number of Americans - a disparate group, many famous in the arts and entertainment world as well as in society and finance - chose to stay thinking that as neutrals they would be unharmed. They were sadly mistaken, especially when America entered the war. This book brings their little-known stories vividly to life, disclosing treachery and cowardice by some, unparalleled bravery by a few, brilliantly depicting Paris life under the occupation. Very moving and thought-provoking.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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An Absolute Scandal by Penny Vincenzi |
The newest and thickest in the series of Vincenzi's sophisticated, worldly-wise and entertaining tales of manners and morals in pampered society, this is more serious than most. Her most difficult book to date, as she says, she tackles the events around Lloyd's of London in the 1980s, the crashes, the fiddles, the effect on the Names involved and their families. Psychologically plausible, impeccably researched, a relaxing but stimulating read.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 by Rick Atkinson |
The first of The Liberation Trilogy tells in great detail the daring amphibian American invasion in N. Africa which led to them joining the British and French to fight in Morocco and then take on the Germans and Italians in Tunisia. Atkinson's expertise, faultless eye for terrain and remorseless criticism of those generals whose boundless egoism and ambition made them as dangerous for their troops as the enemy, makes this book more enthralling than any fiction.
The other two are: The Day of Battle and The Guns at Last Light
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science by Edward J Larson |
This is a fascinating account of the extensive and varied scientific research conducted by daring explorers, who risked their lives to learn about emperor penguins, massive glaciers, frozen fossils, underwater marine world, and much more, including their race to the Pole, with excellent original maps. Describing the triumph and tragedy of the polar expeditions, it paints a wonderful picture of the era, and is certainly suitable for the general public as well as scientists of all kinds.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022) |
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An Ice-cream War by William Boyd |
This fascinating novel, a well-documented history seen through a thin veil of fiction, has a misleading title. Based on an actual letter, it describes the Germans and the British in East Africa who, having lived on their properties as amicable neighbours for years, suddenly find themselves on different sides as WW1 breaks out. This is a gripping story based on real-life Generals and a famous German doctor. A terrific read for those who like war-stories.
(bwl 24 June 2004) |
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An Italian Education by Tim Parks |
Now blessed with a little boy, they move to a village near Verona, and Parks is confronted even more with the confusion of being English in Italy. Because Italians love children, his contacts deepen and his realisation that he has become less English and is rapidly becoming more Italian is expressed with amusement, affection and sometimes incredulity. It is most interesting to notice this development from foreigner to 'almost' native and a delight to read.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris |
Harris excels in this fictionalised journal of Georges Picquard, the officer who, despite demotion, imprisonment and threats to his life uncovered the conspiracy that condemned Alfred Dreyfus as a traitor and a spy. Based on extensive research, the book shines a beacon on the attitudes and prejudices of the time which sent an innocent man to a living death on Devil's Island. A salutary lesson on corruption in high places, a commemoration of both men - it's a tour de force!
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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Another Woman by Penny Vincenzi |
Vincenzi is at her best with her novels in the fashion and beauty world but this one, almost a whodunit, is not quite up to her usual standard. However, it is well-written and entertaining, she has a flair for the unusual typifying adjective, the descriptions are sharply drawn and the plot original although slightly implausible at times. Her distinctive technique of setting the pace keeps the reader in thrall. No boredom possible with this novel.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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Author, Author by David Lodge |
The much admired Henry James, worried by low book sales, ventured into the world of theatre; this book describes the shattering fiasco of his first play. The literary and social milieu of late 19th century London is the backdrop to the in-depth analysis of the tensions inherent in a writer's life: artistic values v. commercial success, friendship v. rivalry; the price of fame and of obscurity. This difficult author comes to life in the fictional elements of this absorbing biographical novel.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child |
Fans know Reacher is a drifter, not a hermit, a loner, not antisocial, with no phone, ties or address, a loyal friend and colleague. So when a woman from his old military unit finally finds him and asks for help, he goes the distance, literally, and more. Hurt his friends, you hurt Reacher, take the consequences and you get more than you bargained for. You wind up with less, much less. Ingenious, gripping and fast.
(bwl 67 Winter 2013) |
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Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose |
It would be a mistake to think the television adaptation of Band of Brothers makes reading this book superfluous. If you did follow the series, it means warm recognition of the characters, useful and knowledgeable additions and explanations of the context and provides, for the historian, details not readily found in other books. For those who haven't yet seen it on TV or video, the book provides a marvellous introduction. A great and gripping read.
(bwl 13 April 2002) |
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Between Two Worlds: How the English became Americans by Malcolm Gaskill |
This scholarly, detailed history from the first calamitous settlement at Jamestown in 1607 to the agonies of the Salem witch-trials and beyond, shows how the English colonies became an independent nation. The most original facet is the accent on the colonists: English men and women, deeply conservative, intolerant, hankering for older, purer forms of hierarchy and discipline. Self-righteous, fundamentalist, cruel and unforgiving as they undoubtedly were, their extraordinary courage produced forces which lit the fuse for revolution.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernieres |
Purporting to be a novel but historically sound, this book is set in the early twentieth century in the dying world of the Ottoman Empire. Through the eyes of the inhabitants in a tiny Anatolian village, with great humour but with a rare understanding of the Turkish viewpoint, the author describes multi-ethnic communities living in peace and respect until the meddling of foreign powers destroyed them. More valid today than ever. Not to be missed.
(bwl 37 December 2006) |
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Bismarck: A Life by Jonathan Steinberg |
Truly biography at its best: a three-dimensional sense of the man, a comprehensive study of his achievements, set in a panoramic survey of his time, with a Conclusion: Bismarck's Legacy, a brilliant analysis and summary of the situation which directly led to the Second World War. Original thinking, known facts and new data, this fair and critical portrait is written with respect for the subject and commands the respect of the reader for both Bismarck and biographer.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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Blondel's Song: The Capture, Imprisonment and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart by David Boyle |
This is an historical reconstruction of the real events behind the legends surrounding Richard the Lionheart, his secret return from the Crusades across the Alps in winter, the minstrel Blondel, the troubadours, Robin Hood, the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham and the gigantic ransom exacted by the Holy Roman Emperor for the King's freedom which had an enormous effect on the English economy and trade in 12th century England. A fascinating and rewarding read.
(bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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Boswell in Holland: 1763-1764 by James Boswell |
Dithery, depressed but dashing, Boswell was sent to study law at Utretch amongst those dreary Dutch, how staid, how boring even those in high society at the Hague. Having lost his journal before publication, this account relies on his personal memoranda, offering a glimpse of life among the upper classes during the Enlightenment before the French Revolution when so many were highly cultured as a matter of course. Very entertaining and very human.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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Bridget Jones's Diary - The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding |
I am proud to be a new contributor to bwl. My first choice is Bridget Jones's Diary, the entertaining, perceptive and intelligently analysed day-to-day life of a young woman with wry humour. Fielding's second book, The Edge of Reason, a continuation, is even (much) better. A great achievement as it is usually the other way round.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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Brother and Sister by Joanna Trollope |
The theme of adoption and the crusade to find one's 'birth' parents is a topic of burning interest today and this novel lays bare all the anguish and insecurity adoptees can feel however much love and protection their adoptive parents give them, depicting with fairness and penetration the dangerous call of the unknown despite the real possibility of terrible upheavals for all concerned. Most worthwhile.
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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Burr: Number 1 in series (Narratives of empire) by Gore Vidal |
A cleverly constructed piece of historical fiction centred around the little-known politician crucial to the formation of the United States. Beautifully written, with sometimes devastatingly sharp wit, this is also an original and definitely unflattering exposé of the political issues of the day, and a critical reassessment of our received wisdom dealing with those who conceived and signed the Declaration of Independence. Some staying-power is needed but the effort is certainly worthwhile. (Kathie)
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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By Its Cover by Donna Leon |
All Brunetti and especially bookish Brunetti fans will be happy to know that Leon's newest has to do with books, and antiquarian books at that. Books, libraries, restorers, ancient manuscripts, Brunetti has to delve into the murky world of borrowers and copiers, not to mention dealers and sellers. Still amazingly fresh and original, steeped in things and places Venetian, this follows the good, and himself very bookish, Commissario on his bookish rounds. A treat!
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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Can you keep a secret? by Sophie Kinsella |
Kinsella as usual manages to hide common sense, good taste, moral message and sense of reality under a huge amount of feminine fluff for the general reader but alas, I suspect mostly for females...very original and if sometimes a bit much if one is not in the mood, the more one reads the more it grows on you and the home truths fall loud and clear...very entertaining.
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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Chats with Cats - How to read your cat's mind by Celia Haddon |
This useful book for all cat lovers is written by a sensitive and very experienced 'feline understander', the pet correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and well-known author. Unusual because she manages to give excellent advice on behavioral problems and pointers on how to train one's cat. Without resorting to sentimental, anthropomorphic hype, by tracing the cat's ancestry she provides a more serious scientific background. It is also for the cat-less a witty and interesting read.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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Christine by Stephen King |
This is scary, rather vintage King, but a marvellous read for train or plane. It's realistic, not science fiction, but with, as usual with King, a different dimension. Riveting.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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Churchill by Sebastian Haffner |
Written two years after Churchill's death, this book with it's author's empathy and understanding is as fresh now as when it was published. Haffner's critical insight into the great man's character, faults and errors of judgment, his analysis of the military man versus the politician, the fairness which highlights his obvious deep admiration, the passion and drive with which he writes, not to mention the many insightful photographs, is surprisingly complete in its 177 pages. A remarkable and memorable experience.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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Churchill's Empire: The world that made him and the world he made by Richard Toye |
For the many Churchill fans, an important work, uniquely centred on the focus, flexibility but also paradoxes of Churchill's imperialist worldview. Lightness of touch Toye may not have, but the overview is comprehensive so one gets the whole picture of Churchill's career, with insightful analysis. Also a useful tool for a better understanding of the political thinking of Europe in the nineteenth century, and the significant strains and stresses leading up to the two world wars and beyond.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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Churchill's Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945 by Nicholas Rankin |
An in-depth history of camouflage and deception in the two world wars, from its beginnings in 1915 and thumbnail sketches of those chiefly responsible. It was chiefly the British who excelled in this, among whom was Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame. Promoted as a 'rollicking', 'delightful'and 'entertaining read', it is much more than that, in parts very moving, a tribute to so many lives selflessly dedicated, often dangerously, to winning the wars, excellently researched.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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City of Djinns - A year in Delhi by William Dalrymple |
In this memoir, Dalrymple records with sympathy and understanding those people who crossed his path in the year he spent in Delhi, but just as importantly he gives a valuable exposé of India's history and culture and shows how 'the ghosts of even the most distant past still walk Delhi in the twentieth century'. Jan Morris is right when she says he is more a pilgrim than an observer, and we can benefit enormously from both.
(bwl 37 December 2006) |
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Clean Break by Val McDermid |
Kate Brannigan is a private detective, brisk, no nonsense, lots of get-up-and-go and a quirky use of language. The hunt for art thieves - who break into stately, but not TOO stately mansions, for just the one floggable art treasure - leads her across Europe, as if a parallel case didn't take up all her time. Not top-drawer but amusing and readable, lots of pertinent remarks on human peculiarities.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Cleopatra by Michael Grant |
By concentrating on the geo-historical politics of the dominant Romans of their time, Caesar, Antony and Octavian (Augustus), the author puts this celebrated queen into deserved perspective as a serious and visionary ruler. Unravelling the sources behind the tangle of myth, gossip and invention, Grant reveals a learned and ruthless woman, whose ambition was to restore her empire to its former greatness, and shows how great issues of history are so often decided by the flukes of life.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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Committed: A love story by Elizabeth Gilbert |
Eat, Pray, Love (bwl 60) ended with Elizabeth and a Brazilian-born Australian settling in America, swearing eternal love but never to marry. Then he is refused re-entry unless they do. This causes them to re-access their traumas and rediscover themselves and their mutual confidence. Included is a reflection on marriage customs in different countries and cultures and what can be expected of a permanent, loving union. As honest and illuminating as its predecessor - and oh so human.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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Complicit by Nicci French |
Differently constructed when compared with the previous ones, this new Nicci French is certainly up to standard. Bonnie, who tells the story, is a music teacher who has to form a band to play at a wedding. She falls in love with one of the musicians, the summer is hot, friendships between band members unravel, passions turn murderous, everyone lies and no one is prepared to tell the truth to uncover a murderer. Very good.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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Conclave by Robert Harris |
With great respect, sensitivity and restraint, Harris has carefully reproduced in detail the traditional procedure of the election of a new Pope in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, without sacrificing any cultural and historical background, giving his characters their full religious scope while being, as usual, a master of thriller writing. Actually at least three books in one, the suspense is enormous and the denouement amazing. Even better than all his others - a triumph.
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England by Eleanor Parker |
An unusual insight into the Norman Conquest exploring the lives of those children uprooted by the events of 1066. She writes about the ancient families of Harold Godwineson, the last remaining heirs of the Anglo-Saxon royal line - Edgar Aetheling, Margaret and Christina (who fled to Scotland where Margaret became queen and saint},the hero Hereward the Wake, rebel against the Norman conquerors in the Fens, and many more. . . this young generation shaped the England we know today, and the medieval sources come alive to us, not so long ago after all.
(bwl 112 Spring 2024) |
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Coronation by Roy Strong |
This history, first of its kind, begins before the first Coronation in 973 and ends in that of Elizabeth II, but reading it in the hindsight of the so recent coronation of King Charles III is what makes it so relevant and 'real', emphasising the fact that, uniquely, England has always opted for evolution and not revolution, and highlights a more than a thousand-years old tradition of committal of the monarch to the people, that we can all be proud of.Â
(bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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Crooked House by Agatha Christie |
Old-fashioned she may be, and over-read perhaps, but good old Agatha never really fails. Normal, ordinary, even predictable, one thinks, and then is led by subtle touches up the garden path. One could read her alone for the 'feel' of life in (mostly county) upper class England, gone never to return. Easy on the brain but still very much worthwhile when one is fed up with heavier stuff.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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Curzon: Imperial Statesman - Imperial Statesman by David Gilmour |
Scholarly, certainly comprehensive and as objective as it is possible to be with such a complicated, many-sided, turbulent and often misunderstood politician, who left such deep and lasting marks on Britain. Who today knows he was one of those particularly involved with saving those historic places which quite soon led to the National Trust? Enigmatic and occasionally lovable, Curzon comes to life for us here with all his many warts but also his many virtues.
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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Dancing into Battle: A Social History of the Battle of Waterloo by Nick Foulkes |
Considering all that has been published since 1815, it's a tall order indeed to write a book as original, lively, objective and yet as so scholarly as this recent addition to the historiography of Wellington and Waterloo. From Its frivolous title to its brilliant and illuminating epilogue, the author is awesomely at home in his subject and the breadth of his sources and the masterful way he deals with the smallest detail commands respect.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell |
This, her final novel, was posthumously published to enormous acclaim and adulation. However, despite the ecstatic blurbs, this last effort does not reach her previous high standards of insight or plot. The breakdown of the chief personality is foreseeable and repetitious, the characters in themselves rather flat, the plot certainly not original and rather pedestrian. But still, she is a legend in herself, always entertaining, and so worth reading at a dull moment or on holiday.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope |
This is the most recent novel in Trollope's whole series of sympathetic but clinical analyses of marriage. She now addresses the stresses and strains within a family when the three sons marry. Their mother Rachel loves being the central pivot but her control begins to slip away as her daughters-in-law bring with them different, sometimes alien elements - subtle rifts occur and adjustments are necessary - a situation familiar to almost every family. Interesting and thought-provoking.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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Defying Hitler: The Story of a German, 1914-1933 by Sebastian Haffner |
This extraordinary 'small political biography' was found in a hidden drawer, translated and published by his son Oliver Pretzel, after the death of the author and is now perhaps even more fascinating to the reader, almost ninety years later, by his clear, keen and poignant observations of Nazi Germany. It is as though a traveller had arrived in England and had described the insidiousness and total viciousness of what was happening to him and to so many others. A shattering read.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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Departures and Arrivals by Eric Newby |
The irrepressible Eric Newby has done it again! His newest book - but hopefully not his last - is a chronicle of his various travels from early childhood to the present day. Anyone who has been with him to the Hindu Kush and in the Apennines, being hunted by the Germans during the war, will adore this book. He helpfully disguises his great erudition with high good humour and wonderful thumbnail portraits.
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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Dictator by Robert Harris |
Volume 3 of Harris's fictional biography of Cicero is, if possible, even better than the others. Narrated by Tiro - his secretary, one-time slave now a free Roman - based on Cicero's speeches and writings and Tiro's own work, this thrilling epic of the tumultuous events following the Republic's fall is also an intimate portrait of the brilliant orator, a hero for his time and ours. Harris surpasses himself and does great credit to the historian he really is.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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Die Trying by Lee Child |
One of this clever writer's earlier novels featuring Jack Reacher, the maverick loner committed to the good of society especially if there's a lady involved. Ridiculous? Far-fetched? Impossible in these United States? Not if you read the newspapers or have read Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here. Fast moving, chillingly real, a bit too long and deus ex machina - but Child knows his geography and geology and what can result from the military mind gone mad.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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Double Cross; The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben MacIntyre |
This account of the deception at the heart of the preparations for D-Day offers an amazing and surreal insight into the minds and machinations of MI6 and reads like the best of thrillers; alarming to realise how destiny hangs by a thread, luck or human whim. The spies' bravery, treachery, greed and inspiration succeeded in convincing the Nazis that Calais and Norway were the targets of the invasion force. Our debt to them is enormous.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar by Tom Holland |
In his latest book, Holland - whose scholarship cannot be denied - has rather overdone his 'popularisation' mode. A conscious, needlessly baroque prose - interspersed with trendy expressions - is not conducive to greater understanding or by his highlighting of the more sensational aspects. Undeniably valuable in its overview, this could have been done better in less space. More Hollywood than Academe, shall we say, which was probably the object. Still, as entertainment, a good read.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything by Elizabeth Gilbert |
Neither the off-putting title nor the film convey the emotional, religious and philosophical density of Gilbert's engaging and spontaneous account of her travels and the people and situations she encounters following a painful divorce. Through a series of shocks, delights and recognitions together with an unflinching self-appraisal of her mistakes and struggles, she discovers the path to future happiness, describing with clarity and honesty what many of us will recognize in ourselves.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss |
An erudite and amusing historical survey of punctuation from Charlemagne to George OrwelI and beyond and also a plea to preserve the traditional system of printing convention before it gets completely swept up into the greedy maw of the Internet and destroyed forever. Not only for language sticklers, it is wonderful for those snatched bits of breathing time between chores or even just for a 'toes up' on the sofa with a drink, very restoring!
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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Electricity by Victoria Glendinning |
What strikes one especially about this subtle novel is its construction, which places a complicated love story against life in Early Victorian England - just reaping the benefits of the Industrial Revolution. With more than a hint of the Gothic novel, the relationships in her life are portrayed by the narrator in a clinically objective, sophisticatedly modern manner. Rich in detail and colour, it's a 'must', even for those who don't usually read fiction.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro |
This first novel about a young American, now living in London after having studied drama, has a very worldly and sophisticated appeal. Underneath the 'glitz', however, is a strong but subtle assessment of the realities of life, many of them unpleasant. The Anglo-American flavours, the refreshing candour, the quirky humour remind one of Bridget Jones's tussle with love and life but this, in my view, is less bubbly and more intelligent. Well worth the investment.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Embers by Sandor Marai |
This novelette - a rarely attempted 'monologue exterieur' - is a beautiful and powerful human document based on constants of human existence, love and betrayal. Against the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire, lost values and ways of life are highlighted and emotional relationships inexorably analysed and assessed. Not to everyone's taste, as the atmosphere is close and claustrophobic, its elegance and power nevertheless succeed in mesmerising the reader.
(bwl 30 June 2005) |
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Enigma by Robert Harris |
This totally gripping thriller is closely based on historical fact. Fiction blends seamlessly into the terrifyingly real drama of England's attempt to protect the convoys crossing the Atlantic by using the code-breaker Enigma captured from the Germans. A twist of genius as the author brings together two unexpected aspects of WW II, raising the tension to fever pitch and exposing the hypocrisy and expedience of war-time politics.
(bwl 33 February 2006) |
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Everybody was so Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy, A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill |
Brilliant in its genre, this exhaustively researched, objective but sympathetic biography of Gerald and Sara Murphy - handsome, talented and wealthy centre of the literary and artistic scene in Paris in the 1920's - portrays both the couple and the painters and writers surrounding them, and their founding of what became the French Riviera. It explains the misconceptions clinging to them and reveals, in this portrait of a marriage and an era, the glitter and the tragedy of both.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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Eyewitness in the Crimea by Michael Hargreave Mawson, editor |
'Fred' Dallas, a company commander in the 46th regiment of Foot, wrote 137 letters from the Crimea. His initial enthusiasm and excitement soon turned to disbelief at the ineptitude of the army leaders. Dallas's talent for observation, his dry humour, philosophical acceptance of events, concern for his servants, soldiers and animals and his enlightened attitude to women are remarkable for a Victorian soldier. A fascinating read for those interested in the human side of history.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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Field of Thirteen by Dick Francis |
Thirteen short stories of racing and crime by the master of racing thrillers, a fast-paced collection and every tale a gem of its kind, ideal read for these Corona-restricted days.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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Finders Keepers by Stephen King |
This most recent King thriller featuring the odd trio of retired detective with two unusual helpers, returns to a favourite theme: the serial-fiction writer and an unstable fan's obsession with the main character's fate. Now with great originality and insight, the author portrays a reader so involved with what is unquestionably real to him that it must lead to disaster. Even better than the first and hopefully not the last in this series.
(bwl 77 Summer 2016) |
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First to Damascus by Jill Duchess of Hamilton |
Jill Hamilton, former journalist, author of nine historical books, writes about her father and his horse in the Australian 10th Light Horse and its Great Ride to Damascus in 1918, its heroism completely overshadowed and forgotten by those mythmaking exploits of Lawrence of Arabia. An amazing and touching human document, it is also a serious, well-written, knowledgeable and valuable assessment of the Anzac contribution, man and horse, to WW I.
(bwl 28 February 2005) |
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Forbidden Places by Penny Vincenzi |
An enormously complex, beautifully constructed novel, fast-paced and fascinating for the sharp analysis of class distinction in English society just before and during WW II. Its sensitivity to many of the varied issues in human relationships, especially marriage, is remarkable, and the evocation of England at the beginning of the war and women's place in it is not to be missed. To those of us who have lived through those times, it is most recognisable.
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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Ford: The Man and the Machine by Robert Lacey |
Confronted as we are daily by the political situation in the American States, the dĂ©jà-vu one experiences when reading this makes the blood run cold. Lacey's superb, detailed survey - from the very beginning of the 'grass roots' through to the present day - brings home why this state of affairs has changed so little. Due to fresh information and sensitive insights into Ford, his family, colleagues and social circle, together with the history of the automobile this book has something for everyone and one would wish it twice its length.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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Forgotten Victory by Gary Sheffield |
Gary Sheffield - King's College London and Sandhurst - has written a fascinating book not only for WW I buffs but also for all those who are interested in modern history. Many myths and misconceptions are clearly and sympathetically presented in a radical new interpretation - the traditional view of WW I is continually being reassessed - a broad sweep from Waterloo to Blitzkrieg by a leading authority in his field.
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple |
Eminent travel writer and scholar, Dalrymple takes us through thousands of years of religious and cultural history, on the ground, visiting and commenting on what is left of the past, examining eastern Christianity. It is a journey spiced with anecdotes, reminiscences and sympathetic conversations with monks to taxi-drivers, - touching and tragic - which illuminates not only religious conflicts of the past but those of the present. For desert lovers a must.
(bwl 28 February 2005) |
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Future Crimes by Marc Goodman |
We are all now connected by the Internet in some way or other and this brilliant book by a 'real' policeman takes us to the dark side of the technology awaiting our world, a call to action for better security measures, offering practical solutions but reads like science fiction, for everyone who has a computer, a thrilling, if rather chilling, ride.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg by Hugh Barnes |
Although pretentiously written and repetitious, this is important to anyone interested in Pushkin, the greatest Russian literary icon, and Russian history and letters in general. Pushkin, inordinately proud of his African great-grandfather, did a great deal of research about him. There are few historic sources, given that Gannibal in a fit of panic destroyed his memoirs. However, Barnes valiantly fills in the gaps with plausible solutions based on solid knowledge and wide reading. Excellent Notes and useful bibliography.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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Genghis Khan - Life, Death and Resurrection by John Man |
Everyone has heard of Genghis Khan but this new biography, supported by firsthand knowledge of Mongolia, highlights his complicated nature and discusses not only his dream of world domination leading to the largest empire ever known, but how a horrific mass-murderer and cold-blooded conqueror of millions could be revered, in Mongolia, as the father of his country, the founder of a dynasty, a spirit to be worshipped and a positive force for peace and reconciliation.
(bwl 42 October 2007) |
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George VI: The full story behind The King's Speech by Sarah Bradford |
This accessible, detailed and readable biography has become the more relevant and interesting following the release of The King's Speech. Reading this book having seen the film brought the chief character, the King, his entourage, his family history, his whole reign vividly to life. Published in 1989 and now reissued, it is a breathtaking and fascinating read, with many valuable details and quotations from material only recently in the public domain. A great experience and highly recommended.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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Germany, Jekyll & Hyde: An Eyewitness Analysis of Nazi Germany by Sebastian Haffner |
Written in 1940 by a German who emigrated to England, this is still unmatched as a contemporary analysis of the Third Riech. So remarkable that the writer could, so early on, produce such acute insights into Hitler's character, political hold over Germany and his prescience and foresight is uncanny as one reads it with the hindsight and knowledge we now have. A very dynamic and dramatic read.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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Gobi, Tracking the Desert by John Man |
John Man has become more and more obsessed with Mongolia, increasingly devoting his life to travel and historical research in that country. Here he finds several different 'Gobi deserts', and ranges from dinosaurs and everything pertaining to them and the riddle of their disappearance, through discussion of the various geological formations many millions of years old, up to the present with its motorbikes, its increasing pursuit of modernity threatening the survival of an unspoiled culture.
(bwl 43 December 2007) |
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Good Wives?: Mary, Fanny, Jennie and Me, 1845-2001 by Margaret Forster |
With a title conjuring up echoes of the sequel to Little Women, Forster - using biographies of the wives of Livingstone, Stevenson and Bevan and her own 40 year's experience of matrimony - raises crucial issues. Posing such questions as: what constitutes a good wife? how have perceptions altered over time? how far should women go in making compromises? does marriage still have a value? her conclusions on the changing nature of a wife's role are both interesting and provocative.
(bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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Greek Myths Trilogy: Mythos - Heroes -Troy by Stephen Fry |
There could be no better, more useful nor more agreeable way to re-read or to learn about the classic Greek myths and heroes than these books by Stephen Fry. Wearing his enormous erudition lightly, with humanity and humour, writing with deep respect for humans and gods, Fry manages to unite the real with the mythic and spiritual, as well as bridging seamlessly the ancient and modern... breathing life and relevance into everything he writes, he presents us with the world's greatest story, shining new and easily accessible. (
(bwl 107 Winter 2023) |
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Hanover to Windsor by Roger Fulford |
Roger Fulford is well-known for his monarchical sympathies, especially towards the Hanoverians. The analysis of Queen Victoria, her marriage, family and especially her work, is in its brevity most illuminating and the other three 'lives' are important for the relationship to each other, to English history and to present day monarchy and 'manners'. Although not recent this little book is surely to be found in second-hand bookshops and is well worth a pound or two.
(bwl 17 February 2004) |
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Harry Potter: Philosopher's Stone; Chamber of Secrets; Prisoner of Azkaban; Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling |
Despite the world-wide acclaim and meteoric success of this amazing series, I think the critics have missed the most important point: these books should not be categorised as Children's Literature. They are based on all the constants of life, whether that of adult or child, such as old vs. young, evil vs. good, strong vs. weak, innocent vs. guilty, rich vs. poor, as well as on a strong bias as to people's reactions to differences in class and race - universal values, universal appeal, in fact. In my view, Harry Potter belongs with Milne, Peake, Carroll, White, Adams and Tolkien. Rowling's genius is that she takes the classic subject of an ordinary orphaned boy who goes to a school every English child (and adult) will recognise, and gives it a magic, and with every successive book, a more Gothic twist, which is utterly believable.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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Hidden Lives by Margaret Forster |
This memoir spanning three generations is also the story of the author's fruitless search for the secret of her grandmother's illegitimate baby. Based on family stories and archival research, the context solidly in the hard life lower-class women led in Victorian times, this is a touchingly honest analysis written with insight and sympathy, but with refreshingly astringent criticism and with an amazingly optimistic conclusion. Interesting to read about the background of such a well-known writer.
(bwl 17 February 2003) |
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His Final Battle: The last months of Franklin Roosevelt by Joseph Lelyveld |
A sensitive, touching, ruthlessly honest play-by-play account of Roosevelt's final months battling for his health and whether to stand for a fourth term, winning the election and the war against Hitler and Japan, setting up the United Nations while constantly fencing with Stalin and his very real threat to world peace. With the recent election in mind, this book offers deep insights into the public and private life of an exceptional man whose decisions still influence our lives.
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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How to Survive the Titanic: or The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay by Frances Wilson |
A perceptive exposé of the chairman of the White Star Line, who instead of going down with the ship jumped into a lifeboat. Accused of cowardice, he survived hearings in the United States and England but spent his remaining 25 years in ignominy in Ireland. A fascinating biography but also a literary and social analysis - Conrad's Lord Jim is particularly cited - of the gentleman's role of honour, which obsessed the era leading up to and including WW I.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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I Heard that Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark |
The latest in her long series, this who-dun-it is rather far-fetched but still eminently suitable for a journey or a holiday. The underlying theme is the uncommon but very real problem of sleep-walking, and Clark, in her usual professional manner, weaves it into an intricate family situation with the regulation surprise twist.
(bwl 41 August 2007) |
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Ike: An American Hero by Michael Korda |
Written by the filmmaker's son, this is a vibrant and compulsively readable biography of General Eisenhower who later became USA President. Unusually objective, Korda cites details and viewpoints from both the Allied and German sides. Giving his subject the benefit of the doubt, as good biographers do, he provides a detailed assessment of the pressures involved in such an epic enterprise as D-day, with fascinating thumbnail sketches of those involved. Strongly recommended for history and political buffs.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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In the Heart of the Sea: The Epic True Story that Inspired 'Moby Dick' by Nathaniel Philbrick |
Impeccably researched, very moving but also chilling in its simplicity, this famous whaling tragedy really happened and is now newly and copiously documented and commentated, rich in details of whaling and whale biology, of other nautical and marine matters, of celestial navigation, and also of instances of survival and cannibalism which bring it up to the present day.
(bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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In the Presence of the Enemy by Elizabeth George |
This is one of the last in George's series woven around the aristocratic policeman, Inspector Thomas Lynley, and his family and friends. Although purported to be a psychological thriller, it is difficult to put it into any strict category. In this superior and rewarding 'crime' read George addresses the all too current issue of child kidnapping, the various motivating forces which lead to it and the legal and social machinery which deal with it
(bwl 38 February 2007) |
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Invasion: The Schlieffen Plan to the Battle of the Marne by Ian Senior |
For all enthusiasts of field tactics - the author obviously walked every inch of these WW I battlefields. The sense of immediacy is palpable as is his knowledge and research - battalion by battalion, regiment by regiment. The accent is not on the British but on the French and Germans, who each fielded 60 divisions to the British four. Publication coincided with the Centenary of the outbreak of war and shows how the Germans almost won before the end of 1914.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017) |
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Italian Neighbours - A Lapsed Anglo-Saxon in Verona by Tim Parks |
Tim Parks and his (Italian) wife Rita come to live, after being in London and New York, in Montecchio in the Veneto. They are both translators and he has written several novels. Immediately on arrival they are catapulted into the lives of the people living in the same apartment house, and the complexities of Italian social life, a mix of conservatism and lawlessness, is fascinating and somewhat bewildering to an Englishman.
(bwl 10 August 2001) |
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John Adams by David McCullough |
There's no better time than the present - as the US has now elected an enlightened and caring President and made history with its choice of Vice-President - to read this well-researched and very fair biography of John Adams, second President of the fledgling United States. It also offers a heightened awareness of the issues then and still with us and all those rights which, in the slightly more than two centuries that have passed, have been wilfully undermined, but, as we see today, not irretrievably.
(bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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Journey into Darkness by Anthony Faramus |
Those who've read Agent Zigzag* will know that Faramus was Chapman's great friend in Jersey. They shared four years of imprisonment in Fort Romainville, Paris, but while Chapman was spying, Faramus was sent to Buchenwald and then to the even more infamous Mauthausen. Frequently at death's door, he survived the war and rebuilt his life. This book is the amazing tale of a survivor, whose varied adventures after the war included a year as Cary Grant's butler.
*see review - Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre
(bwl 45 April 2008) |
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Julie & Julia by Julie Powell |
Now made into a successful film, this tells the story of how - inspired by the great Julia Child's 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' - blogger Powell went from a boring uneventful life, to a year of enthralling and passionate cookery. A lively and interesting foodie entertainment, this is a wonderful companion for travelling and/or holiday. A lot of fun and lots of cooking inspiration, so useful as well. A good gift to a traveller.
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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Kate: The Biography by Sean Smith |
An unbiased, sympathetic, sometimes critical but non-judgmental biography of this young, future Queen, which also offers a worthwhile view of the monarchy, especially during Diana's time when the young William learnt to cope and continues to do so with Kate at his side. Recommended even if you don't normally indulge in reading about the Royals, as having definite, historical implications regarding the modernising and consolidation of the British monarchy in the future.
(bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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Killer Floor by Lee Child |
The very first 'Jack Reacher' which catapulted Child to the top of his genre. Ex-soldier Reacher is trying to get his bearings in an alien world. On a whim he goes to Georgia on the trail of a dead jazz musician, only to find himself in a corrupt prison in a corrupt town. More violence, less depth and subtlety than in subsequent books, but a real, breathing character and all the earmarks of success are there.
(bwl 63 Winter 2012) |
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Killers of the King: The Men who Dared to Execute Charles I by Charles Spencer |
The Civil War was over, Charles I captured and sentenced to death. This is the story of the fifty-nine who signed the warrant and their fate when Charles II reneged on his promise of amnesty and sought revenge to the last man. Thrilling, suspenseful and moving, Spencer provides a panoramic insight into the religious and political issues of the day, particularly pertaining to their effect on the budding colonialisation of America. An original and valuable addition to historical scholarship.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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Killing Me Softly by Nicci French |
Alice Loudon is well-adjusted, has good friends, wonderful career, loving boyfriend. One day she meets a stranger on the street and is hooked, literally and figuratively. Although some of this is not really new, the description of the strong sexual relationship is done with reticence and taste and shows, quite clinically but without the psychologist's jargon, how much easier it must be than we think to become obsessed with someone and an easy prey.
(bwl 15 October 2002) |
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Krakatoa - The Day The World Exploded by Simon Winchester |
Although a minutely detailed history of a volcano, Winchester manages to present it as the history of volcanoes in general, how they are 'born', where they 'live', the animal and plant-life that belong to them. His total involvement with Krakatoa and the aftermath of its eruption in 1883 gives the reader the feeling that the volcano is more animal than mineral. The pace is fast, the maps copious and clear, the amount of information incredible.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Kublai Khan by John Man |
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, inherited history's largest land empire, and doubled it. Kublai, fulfilling his grandfather's dream of ensuring Mongol supremacy in all Central Asia and much of Europe, only became Khan by a quirk of fate. Drawing on his own travels and deep love for Mongolia, the author manages to combine ancient history with that of the present day and to rescue the real Kublai Khan from the myth created in Coleridge's poem.
(bwl 43 December 2007) |
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Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The lost legacy of Highclere Castle by Countess of Carnarvon |
Julian Fellowes's successful series, filmed at Highclere Castle - for centuries the seat and home to the Carnarvon family - inspired Fiona, the 8th Countess to write a biography of her predecessor, the 5th Countess. She succeeds brilliantly in welding biography and history together to form a valuable picture of people and politics when the great English country style was at its apogee and its aftermath both during and after WW I. She also includes the fascinating story of the 5th Lord Carnarvon and the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015) |
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Lady de Lancey at Waterloo: A Story of Duty and Devotion by David Miller |
The tragic story of one of the British Army's first professional staff officers and his young bride, Magdelene. Married just a week and blissfully happy, he had to join Wellington as his chief of staff, and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Waterloo. Magdelene nursed him through his last ten days and then wrote a careful memoir as a tribute to his memory. Miller puts the love story most capably in its historical context and reprints the memoir verbatim.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer |
Annis Wychwood is a very well-brought up lady, no longer so very young, with independent ways and independent means, and when she meets the rudest man in London, of her own social station but blunt in speech and careless to a fault, sparks begin to fly. Very clever and fabulously witty, as always exceptionally well-researched, this is Georgette Heyer at her very best, and Bath comes to life as it deserves.
(bwl 112 Spring 2024) |
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Land of the Living by Nicci French |
Again Nicci French takes situations which have been 'done' before and gives them a new and quite horrifying twist. Abbie Devereaux has been abducted and it is obvious that her captor is going to kill her. She has also lost her memory. To keep sane, to escape, to try to regain her memory and her old life is what keeps Abbie, a girl of strength and spirit, going.
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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Land of the Living by Nicci French |
If you cannot imagine yourself kidnapped, in the dark, memory lost, no one to help, no one believing your story, try Land of the Living, by 'Nicci' and ' French'. Extraordinary welding of plot and style by two (!) authors, and an amazing synthesis of emotional perception. The suspense holds and builds to a powerful, chilling and, unusually for this type of literature, satisfactory conclusion. Excellent read for escape, holiday, etc.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Last Stand! Famous Battles Against The Odds by Bryan Perrett |
In this small paperback, the thirteen chapters of various 'last stands' - from Waterloo on around the world - are a mine of very readable, succinct but dense information, as well as offering profound military insight with excellent analytical conclusion. An unusual compendium of things military for all enthusiasts, combining due admiration and respect for the ultimate sacrifice and gallantry with the necessary critical factor which hindsight and knowledge promotes.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Last Victory by T N Murai |
This is a sequel to The Imperial Agent (bwl 39). Its two human poles, Kim and the Colonel, are used as symbols of the British Raj and emerging modern India, painfully groping for identity and independence in the face of British paternalism and racism. The author's efforts to include the mystical side of India is commendable but not really effective. Although weaker than its predecessor, the historical and human impact makes it well worth reading.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy |
This is a light novel with very serious and interesting overtones. A deep and lasting friendship is made between two young girls when one, an evacuee from London's blitz, goes to stay with a turbulent Catholic family in Ireland. The Catholic background presents most interesting moral and religious problems. Written with wit and warm compassion, it is a fine story, entertaining, worth while and just the thing for travel and vacation.
(bwl 13 April 2002) |
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Losing Nelson by Barry Unsworth |
This is for those with an historical bent who can stand subtly scary and subjective enlargements of the pure biographical.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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Love and Louis XIV:The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser |
While purporting to be a study of his women, this is also a revealing study of the Sun King himself. Impressively researched, it is less dynamic and brilliant than some of Fraser's other books, as if the struggle to cope with such a plethora of information shows beneath the scholarship. However, cope she does and it gains brilliance and momentum towards the end, portraying the deaths of many of the protagonists in a deeply felt and affecting way.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Love in the Afternoon by Penny Vincenzi |
An unexpected departure from all her blockbusters, this recent small book includes ten short stories and ten articles and interviews. Short these tales might be but they are finely-wrought, very clever and original, whilst her journalism is up there with the best. Not least, Vincenzi's outlook on life is realistic, understanding and refreshing.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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Mad Dogs and Englishmen:An Expedition Round my Family by Ranulph Fiennes |
Described by The Guinness Book of Records as 'the world's greatest living explorer', Fiennes has written a brilliant summary of English history interwoven with the extraordinary record of his ancestors starting with the great-to-the-power-of-thirty grandfather - who arrived with the Conqueror - right down to the present day. Unpretentiously and with a great deal of wry humour, he describes his various family members as good, bad and downright mad. Entertaining, extremely informative and clever.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self by Andrea Wulf |
The birth of the Romantic movement in literature and the first appearance of the philosophy of self. The French Revolution had thrown up Napoleon, who was devouring the whole of Europe and these political and military shocks produced a kind of intellectual power house which began in Jena in provincial Germany, where like-minded intellectual and artistic young people met as firm friends and, with the encouragement of Goethe and Schiller, inspired each other to great literary and philosophical heights on which we feed today. A clever, enlightening and entertaining book.
(bwl 112 Spring 2024) |
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Making It Up by Penelope Lively |
This is fiction not based on but inspired by the author's life. She has discerned some of the 'might have beens' in her own existence, following them into alluring and quite different paths. Varied and excellently written, it might strike some as being over fanciful and sometimes forced. However, social comment and psychological insight, in a style brief in words and rich in content, go together with the darker and more forbidding side of the human condition.
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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Matilda: Wife of the Conqueror, First Queen of England by Tracy Borman |
Although somewhat stilted and repetitious, here is a human profile of this overlooked figure. Connected to both French and English royal families, she contributed to the consolidation of Norman rule as well as founding churches and religious institutions. Of her nine children, her four sons became heirs to the French and English thrones. Remarkably, William took no mistresses and never got over her death. Excellent genealogical tables and a meticulous mention of varied and ancient sources.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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Michael and Natasha - The Life and Love of Emperor Michael II, the Last Tsar of Russia by Rosemary and Donald Crawford |
The focus of this study of the last days of the Romanovs set against the brutality of the Russian Revolution is the little-known love story between Michael, heir to the throne and Natasha, a divorced commoner. Disgrace, humiliation, exile and separation did not affect their passionate relationship. Based on much new material, a wealth of detail shows, sympathetically but objectively, the politics which led to the revolution and to the tragic fate of the protagonists.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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Mind of her Own: A Life of George Sand by Tamara Hovey |
Avoiding exaggerated colour and unnecessary scholarly details, the American author has produced a solid yet evocative biography of this prolific writer and front runner in the Romantic revolution storming across 19th C. Europe. Advocating freedom in living and loving with herself as an example, she was also politically aware and, although an aristocrat, devoted to workers' and women's rights. The times she lived in surrounded by genius in literature and art are portrayed in satisfying detail with remarkable economy.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy |
Binchy's heartwarming, moral and optimistic novels - often set around the same places and people (which makes for instant recognition and a great deal of cosiness) - could all be put under the heading of 'human'. Although hardly important literature, this is no chick lit. Her insight, objectivity, sense of humour and easy style makes this author a real boon when tired, or travelling, or just in need of something lighter. This new novel is certainly up to standard.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella |
With this mother and daughter shopping tale, this whole Becky Bloomwood Shopaholic thing is running rather thin. Kinsella has now tried every angle, more than once, making for too many repetitions but the pace is fast and the repartee fresh and sassy. For holiday reading, one can't go wrong but one ends up feeling that enough is enough, still it certainly has a cushioning effect after a hard day in the real world.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively |
This winner of the Booker Prize 1987 deserves its accolade. Seemingly desultory and unfocused at the beginning, it gathers momentum but is so transparent in its portrayal of complex human relations against a true historical background that the outcome is at once satisfying, beautiful and emotionally stirring. Although foreseeable, the end comes as a surprise and fulfills the promise, seemingly exaggerated and superficial, of the beginning. A book perhaps richer in depth because of its concise, even terse, style.
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance by Daisy Hay |
A beguiling account of a very unusual marriage: he a debt-ridden novelist dandy, she a moneyed widow twelve years older, an unlikely match which turned out to be a national model of married love and loyalty. Drawing on the couple's extensive love letters and the formidable archives they left, Hay places their romance in its historical and political context with such a light hand that it reminds one in places of a Jane Austen novel. Delicious!
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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Mr Mercedes by Stephen King |
This is the next to most recent of the series of thrillers showing the 'down to earth' side of King. The retired cop and the perpetrator of an unsolved crime has frequently been done, but again King manages to find a completely original angle. A favourite theme, the vintage car and a host of unlikely, but certainly believable characters, plus a breath-takingly fast pace and a chilling cat-and-mouse suspense make this a super read for travel, holiday or just relaxation.
(bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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Mrs Keppel and her Daughter by Diana Souhami |
The author of this sophisticated book about different kinds of love and marriage in Edwardian royal and aristocratic circles is well aware of the pitfalls of bad taste and sensationalism. She examines with delicacy, fairness and fastidiousness the frivolous, the passionate, sexual deviance and other excesses sympathetically without bias, producing a valuable broad panorama of aspects of (high) society from Edwardian times to our own day. The thumbnail biographies of the secondary characters are sharp and add great depth.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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My Life in France by Julia Child |
(with Alex Prud'homme)
A by-word in America in the 50s and 60s for superb but accessible French cooking - Child rose to public attention again with the blog and book on which the film 'Julie & Julia' is based. She was provoked into writing this memoir, published posthumously. A sophisticated lady, witty, caustic, clever and observant, she never fails to poke fun at herself, the French, the Americans and life in general. Delicious recipes as well. Not to miss.
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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Napoleon & Wellington by Andrew Roberts |
Too numerous to mention are the books written about Napoleon and Wellington. This new one comparing these two towering generals is a rare example of original thinking and expert knowledge, fastening on the salient points hitherto not highlighted. Although the two men are set in a broad frame, the detail is exhaustive but, oh miracles, not exhausting. For specialist and layman alike not to be missed.
(bwl 14 July 2002) |
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Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller |
Based on a case in the press a few years ago of a woman teacher in love with her fifteen-year-old student, this novel, although a major film at present, is eminently worth reading. The dry, pedantic and obsessive prose covers a multitude of contradictions and hidden meanings in mother-child, lover-victim and family relationships, as well as social commentary. A must.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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One Shot by Lee Child |
A sniper randomly kills five people in a shopping mall and is later arrested on clear evidence, no question. In prison he is terribly beaten up and taken to hospital. All he says are "you've got the wrong man" and "Find me Reacher". Here begins one of the best in the Reacher series. Fast, taut, well-constructed, believable and, quite unusually, with a prominent human element. The professional details of weaponry and shooting anchor this firmly to the military. A winner.
(bwl 59 Winter 2011) |
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Only Pretending by Sophia Watson |
Although Watson's morals seem slightly old-fashioned and straitlaced for our flexible times, the struggles of young wife, Penny - married to an explorer - are very well portrayed when she is forced to reassess her marriage and her life. Slowly and deliberately layer by layer of emotion is peeled off until Penny is confronted with the truths she has to face to really become an adult. Extremely readable.
(bwl 24 June 2004) |
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Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope |
No better time to start rereading Trollope, and this fictional account of a case of forgery with its insightful combination of realism and emotion, was felt by the author to be the best he had ever done and comes to the reader as fresh as when it was published. A discussion of morality and practice in an English court of law, where the sympathetic central character, although guilty, is acquitted, it offers deep insights into marriage and relationships in general.
(bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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Perkin: a story of deception by Ann Wroe |
Perkin Warbeck has never been quite dismissed as an imposter, nor quite accepted as the younger of the 'Princes in the Tower'. Did he escape, was he murdered with his brother, and by whom? This real whodunit has never been satisfactorily solved. New is the reconstruction of his life in regard to the political need for such a deception at the highest echelon in a world conscious but fearful of change. Interesting at all levels.
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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Pity the Nation - Lebanon at War by Robert Fisk |
In this account of the carnage of Lebanon for over twenty years, the Independent's highly acclaimed Middle-Eastern correspondent, who has been based for thirty years in Beirut, combines war reporting, political analysis and historical assessment in a completely personal way. It is also an exposé of other countries' continual invasions resulting in political and military catastrophe, and the terrible price paid by its innocent population. Vital for an understanding of today's burning issues.
(bwl 37 December 2006) |
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Plagues and Peoples by William H McNeill |
With the rise of new viruses like Ebola, HIV, Mad Cow Disease and bird flu, this well-known historian offers an unusual - although here and there very personal - theory of how epidemics work to undermine a region's population, so that its weakness favours invading armies and other factors which he calls 'macroparasites and microparasites'. The first half is a bit speculative but the second is spot on . . . an interesting and instructive read.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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Playing for the Ashes by Elizabeth George |
This is an amazingly rich and sophisticated psychological thriller, and as usual with George, much more than that, a tragic 'document humain' portraying all too human personalities and all too familiar issues in the human condition, intricately woven and brought to a logically satisfying, if most surprising, denouement. George is never judgemental but invariably gives her characters the benefit of the doubt, and then sits back and lets them ruin themselves. Dense and rewarding read.
(bwl 37 December 2006) |
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Postmodern Pooh by Frederick Crews |
The cover says: Frederick Crews is a Person of Very Great Brain. What he pooh-Poohs deserves it and he finds a great deal in these eleven articles given at a hypothetical symposium at a Modern Language Association meeting. Very, very funny, it is also a very real unveiling of the hypocrisies, stupidities and pedantry found too often in postmodern criticism. . . A delight not only for lay-readers but hopefully scholarly ones as well . . . those who can laugh at themselves, or should.
(bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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Regeneration by Pat Barker |
Regeneration is the first book in the author's trilogy about WW 1, the others being The Eye in the Door and Ghost Road, all exceptionally forceful novels. It's a reconstruction of the effects of shell shock, amongst other things, based on the well-documented historical facts of Siegfried Sassoon's relationship with his psychiatrist, W Rivers, in 1916 in Scotland. The only fictional character being Billy Prior, the hero of the second two books. Although daunting for the impressionable, this trilogy is a brilliant evocation of an event which never ceases to fascinate.
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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Revelation by C J Sansom |
Henry VIII is wooing Catherine Parr, whom he wants for his sixth wife. Archbishop Cranmer and the reformers, also in the 'hot-gospel' common folk, are threatened as the King returns towards Catholicism, if not to the Pope. Times are anxious and a serial killer is at work. But is he possessed by the devil, or is this human madness? With these murders that Shardlake and his assistant must solve, Sansom researches deeply into the primitive ideas of medicine, witchcraft and magic in Tudor times.
(bwl 54 November 2009) |
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Royal: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Robert Lacey |
Among the many publications on the British Royal Family this "Jubilee edition" is a welcome surprise. Sympathetic but objective, it reads so fluidly that I found it 'unputdownable' and, although revised almost twenty years ago, in no way out of date. Basically a history of the peculiarly British Institution in which the Monarchy is primarily a servant of the people - as embodied by Queen Elizabeth - it makes clear this is why, despite all the setbacks, in the final analysis it continues to enjoy such enduring support.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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Running Blind by Lee Child |
One of the best in the Reacher series, really unputdownable (horrible word, but in this case apt). The story goes at a breathless pace, and is so ingenious that the end solution really takes one by surprise, although the author deals fairly with the reader and leaves clear clues behind for those not wholly mesmerised to pick up. Reacher, as usual, is his competent self, violent when necessary but emotionally and morally involved. Another winner.
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd |
Based on exhaustive research by the military historian John Chandler, this novel portrays the story of Salisbury from beyond recorded time to the present day. The landscape shapes the destinies of five fictional families depicted against real people and events throughout the centuries. These lives mirror the social and political forces that shaped Britain in a grand panorama, so deftly done that fiction becomes a tool for the better understanding of the sweep of British history.
(bwl 41 August 2007) |
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Saturday Requiem by Nicci French |
Sixth in the series of the husband/wife team Nicci French about Frieda Klein, psychotherapist compelled to solve old crimes, this is even better than the others, very strong and gripping. Hannah, an eighteen-year-old girl, is arrested for the brutal murder of her family and is in a mental hospital; thirteen years later there is doubt and Frieda is asked to assess her. Someone is hiding the truth and someone else is stalking Frieda . . . a compelling read.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest by Carl Hoffman |
An extraordinary book which not only combines history, art, colonialism, adventure and ethnography but is an enthralling thriller with startling new evidence uncovering the story of Michael Rockefeller's mysterious disappearance in New Guinea in 1961 when he was on a mission to buy primitive art for his father's museum. It is also the baring of the author's soul who in 2012 went to this obscure place to find the truth and also to find himself.
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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Seabiscuit - An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand |
For those who saw the documentary on National Geographic, this will be an added incentive to read this book. One doesn't need to be a horse-fan or a racing fan or to know which end is which to find this an absorbing and unusual read. A 'document' both equine and human, giving a fascinating glimpse not only into a little-known world but into an important phase of American history, the Depression. Very exciting and informative.
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope |
The Sunday Times calls Joanna Trollope 'the queen of the domestic dilemma', but this novel does not seem to be as clear cut in its conception as her others . . . the characters of course do not know where they are going, but one feels that Trollope herself has not solved the problems and the solutions are too fortuitous . . . but, as always, a diverting and in some parts an illuminating read.
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries by Robert Harris |
Harris does a thrilling job of investigative journalism revealing how highly esteemed publishers were hoodwinked into authenticating the so-called Hitler Diaries. Dubbed the biggest fraud in publishing history, the scam could have easily been uncovered but Harris chillingly reveals the lengths to which people will go when they are blinded by greed and ambition. Based on interviews with the main participants, it sheds in itself a light on the last days of Hitler and beyond.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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Shadow Baby by Margaret Forster |
Shadow Baby is well up to Margaret Forster's standard in novels. Evie - born in 1887 in Carlisle - is an undemanding, colourless, downtrodden creature. Shona - born 70 years later - is headstrong, striking and ambitious. The one thing the girls have in common is that they are both illegitimate, abandoned by their mothers for obvious reasons, and, in adulthood, are compelled to search for their natural mothers, with different results. Intriguing, if slightly disturbing feminist bias.
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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Sharpe's Prey by Bernard Cornwell |
Not only for Sharpe's fans, but for all who like an unusual and historically well underpinned tale, this recent Cornwell is one of the very good ones in the long list of his panorama of the Napoleonic wars. In the Historical Note he discusses the British attacks on Copenhagen in 1807, killing 1600 Danish civilians, in order to save the Danish fleet from the French, showing the British at their most ruthless.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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Shopaholic Abroad by Sophie Kinsella |
Becky, our heroine, goes her own lighthearted way without ever quite losing sight of life's realities, however she may stray from the straight and narrow her new bank manager has frowningly advocated. Girl-talk for girls of all ages but intelligent, aware and above all frivolous, for that moment in the bath or at the end of one's tether . . . virtual and vicarious shopping, what more does a girl want, especially in New York?
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella |
Becky, now married, finds shopping for two even better, why didn't she think of this before? . . . and, whoa, a pram is ideal for carrying packages - at least one for country, another for town. Well-written, surprisingly intelligent - a tonic for difficult moments or an afternoon dip, with its warm, if a little spoiled, attitude to life's lighter side . . . There's nothing like Becky for a holiday read for anyone fairly or very frivolous.
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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Shopaholic and SIster by Sophie Kinsella |
Becky returns from ten months honeymooning AND shopping to discover she has a long-lost half-sister. At last she can share wardrobes and cosy chats with a kindred spirit, something she missed out on as an only child. But oh dear, it transpires her sister is a frugal intellectual. Becky mystified but undaunted, ploughs on nevertheless. Clever, entertaining with a serious undertone for those who look. Another gem for Becky fans - other ladies: try harder!
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella |
For those Becky fans: slightly less frantic in pace this time, as Becky's quandary is even larger.... not only 'something old, something new, something borrowed... and something else new' but a fond mother and ambitious mother-in-law, both planning elaborate weddings on both sides of the pond...a not so subtle take-off on the hype of American wedding procedures...entertaining with solid values amongst the frivolity.
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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Shoppng, Seduction and Mr. Selfridge: The True Story that Inspired the ITV Drama by Lindy Woodhead |
An excellently researched and valuable social history based on the first and largest department store built in London's West End, which opened in 1909 in a burst of glorious and hitherto unknown publicity. That Selfridge was American might come as a surprise, and every page has more. The era of Edwardian England, the Great War, the roaring twenties, Selfridges was its glamorous centre. A captivating, ultimately tragic personal story, about the man who revolutionised the way we shop.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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Shout at the Devil by Wilbur Smith |
For the fans of Smith's Courtneys of Africa this early novel will come as a surprise. Set in German East Africa on the eve of the First World War, two freebooting adventurers - one a flamboyant Irish-American, the other an impeccable young Englishman - pit their wits against the gross German Commissioner and wage their own private war against Germany. An engrossing and enthralling read against a little-known and well-researched background, with subtle political overtones.
(bwl 41 August 2007) |
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Sicily by John Julius Norwich |
His latest and history at its very best by the top chronicler of Italy, the Mediterranean and Byzantium. From the Ancient Greeks to Cosa Nostra, why Sicily's sad fate through the ages is to be poor, exploited and backward. A virtual gallop through 2,500 years, missing nothing relevant, filled with anecdotes, written with genuine love and appreciation, with brio and sympathy, a wonderful, entertaining and informative read.
(bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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Singled Out - How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War by Virginia Nicholson |
In this moving and extremely competent book, Nicholson shows - with the aid of case histories, statistics and sociology - how these cruelly called surplus women, with no chance of finding a husband, managed to lead fruitful and sometimes very successful lives. Before WW I, a woman's one aim was to get married but later she had to adjust or perish. Nicholson's exhaustive investigation explores the extraordinary lives many made for themselves and how they helped to change our society.
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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Sotheby's: Bidding for Class by Robert Lacey |
Who doesn't know the name Sotheby's? It stands for distinction and class and Robert Lacey offers us a rich and absorbing history, both social and economic, together with analysis, comments and criticisms, but always fair and in his inimitable style. The great, the good and above all, the wealthy pass through its pages, and when finished, one wants more, failing that, well worth a second read.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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Sovereign by C J Sansom |
The major political significance of Henry VIII's Progress of the North has been largely overlooked by historians, but is resurrected here as Shardlake reluctantly goes to York on a mission to ensure the welfare of an important conspirator who is to be returned to London for trial. Solidly based on historical fact, the insight on the iron fist of government on the social and religious lives of ordinary men grows clearer with each of Sansom's books.
(bwl 54 November 2009) |
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Spain in our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War by Adam Hochschild |
In these turbulent political times, Hochschild is right to remind us and touch our souls with this state of the art account of the Spanish Civil War, which as he demonstrates was the real beginning of WW II. A requiem for the past and a warning for the future, this relatively short book evokes a feeling of deep sadness and even a feeling of shame and guilt, as one considers the callousness, complacency and greed contributed by other democracies to the fate of Spain.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017) |
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Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal |
This powerful and broad treatment of Africa and of King Leopold's Belgian Congo, is a brilliant account of Stanley's travels, especially his Trans-Africa journey down the Congo to the Atlantic seaboard. However, this deeply researched biography based on newly accessible sources, gives a new insight into Stanley's reasons for his purposely obscured early life, and has produced not only a reassessment but a rehabilitation of this much-maligned and little understood explorer.
(bwl 53 September 2009) |
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Star Struck by Val McDermid |
McDermid was a journalist for many years and her books profit from her experiences in the real world. Kate Brannigan, her Private Investigator, amuses and intrigues the reader with her gritty, quirky wit, often directed against herself; her loyalty towards her friends and helpers, however unorthodox; together with a plot which, not too obviously, moves along speedily and smoothly. In this one we get insights into TV soaps and fortune-telling, very entertaining.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Talk to the Snail: Ten Commandments for Understanding the French by Stephen Clarke |
Clarke not only understands the French, a major undertaking for anyone who isn't French but he has great sympathy for their peculiarities (I hesitate, being also a Brit, to call them failings ). This book about What, Why and How to Cope is not only hugely entertaining but serious and fair and, if one is, as Clarke says, linguistically challenged, one can get away with no knowledge of the language at all. Endearingly, his humour is often directed at himself and he never carps. Totally satisfying.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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That Woman: Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor by Anne Sebba |
So many studies of Wallis Simpson have demonised her. This serious biography aims to humanise her by revealing what it was in her background and make-up which drove her behaviour. Set within her own social, historical and geographical context it looks at what kind of woman she was and then at the toxic crisis of her own making which ultimately she wanted to but was powerless to stop. Too late, she was trapped.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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The Accursed Mountains: Journeys in Albania by Robert Carver |
This harrowing description of Albania and her tragedy is written with insight, love and sympathy. Strange, remote and unvisited, Albania is the poorest country in Europe with the least hope. Beautifully written, this travel book explains why, in the ordinary people's voices. Searing and unforgettable.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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The Age of Kali by William Dalrymple |
Although many critics still call Dalrymple a travel writer, he is so much more than that: a reporter, a historian, a political analyst, and in this book he seems to be 'the voice of India'. Never losing his objectivity or sense of humour, everything seems inexhaustibly fresh to him. As he says himself, this is 'a work of love', conveying his enthusiasm and affection to the reader. Magic!
(bwl 38 February 2007) |
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The Age of the Warrior - Selected Writings by Robert Fisk |
This latest book by The Independent's Middle East Correspondent contains 108 of his last five years' articles, giving us the unique opportunity to relive the immediacy of his evocative prose while reassessing, with hindsight, political and human events in the region. Heartrending, instructive, enlivened by Fisk's rare brand of wry humour and his objective but positive, if saddened, outlook on the world. Very personal, at times humbling, always at the cutting edge of life's experience.
(bwl 46 June 2008) |
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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson |
This much respected historian now writes a history of finance and shows that finance is the backbone of all history. A timely read as the world grapples at present with a deep financial crisis, not only is it lively and interesting but shows that history as usual repeats itself and that financial booms and busts are only to be expected but could also be avoided if those in power would listen to the warnings of the past.
(bwl 53 September 2009) |
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The Baghdad Railway Club by Andrew Martin |
The author, who writes thrillers centered around trains, has produced an uncanny recreation of Middle Eastern life and politics in 1917 - a crucial year of WW I - evoking period, place and personalities with great sensitivity. The reader feels the stifling heat and the equally stifling bewilderment suffered by the protagonist. who doesn't quite know why he is in Baghdad and what he has to do. An unusual book, which takes patience to read, but most worth while.
(bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson |
The author of Touching the Void - which recounted his epic battle for survival in the Andes - reveals the inner truth of climbing, the fears, traumas and anxieties propelling men up a mountain to glory. All this intertwines with the history of the Eiger North Face becoming a memorial to those who died attempting to conquer this mountain of mountains. Finally, after meeting some of the famous survivors, he glimpses the promise of another successful ascent in the future.
(bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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The Best of Times by Penny Vincenzi |
For Vincenzi fans - her latest big, fat, entertaining novel. A traffic accident on a crowded motorway, a split second that changes everything in many lives, Although the diverse situations in which the characters find themselves are scarcely original, the author handles the colourful forces she creates with more than enough strength to pull it off satisfactorily. Not the highest of literature but a gripping read in the best Vincenzi tradition.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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The Bloody White Baron: The Extraordinary Story of the Russian Nobleman Who Became the Last Khan of Mongolia by James Palmer |
This excellently researched first book deserves a serious place in historical literature. Baron Ungern-Stenberg, a Baltic aristocrat, was violent, headstrong and mad, but with enormous charisma. With a rabble of cavalrymen and White Russian fugitives, he conquered Mongolia with terrible consequences. Driven by esoteric beliefs, rabid anti-Semitism and violent obsessions, he foreshadowed the Nazis in his terrible mix of mysticism and genocide. A true depiction of a little-known region, lawless and isolated, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. (Kathie)
(bwl 53 September 2009) |
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The Brontë Myth by Lucasta Miller |
This new view of literary criticism based on Mrs. Gaskell's seminal biography of Charlotte Brontë (whom she knew well), takes the view that Gaskell is responsible for the Brontë Myth (of the whole family) as we have known it for more than a century. Although often repetitive, Miller's thinking is original and sympathetic giving an intriguing picture not only of Charlotte Brontë but also of the rather nebulous figure of Gaskell as woman and artist.
(bwl 17 February 2003) |
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The Case is Closed by Patricia Wentworth |
This came out in 1937 but hasn't dated much and is a very good holiday read, or for a long train ride. Interesting to compare with contemporary Agatha Christie, which one came first, Miss Silver or Miss Marple? No question, Christie is streets ahead in every way, but Wentworth comes a good second, although Silver doesn't get the details she should and one guesses the plot quite soon. Still, good when one is at a loss.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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The Cazalet Chronicle by Elizabeth Jane Howard |
A series of four novels, can better be read in its entirety, but each in its own right is worth the read. The quartet chronicles the lives of an extended English family before, during and after WW II. Howard not only concentrates on the drama of the individual lives, she is worth reading for the authenticity of the changing world in which her characters live, and the constantly shifting values with which they have to struggle, as well as the slide from privileged living to utility. Entertaining and enriching, if sometimes repetitious and perhaps too much introspection.
(bwl 22 January 2004) |
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The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History by Boris Johnson |
So personally involved with his subject, nonetheless amazingly fair and objective, written with huge respect, love, understanding and an enormous sense of history, scholarly but not pedantic, never failing to explain the opposition's point of view, this is an extraordinary book written about an extraordinary man by another; in this case one can really say it takes one to know one. Churchill comes alive again, warts and all; a unique and most rewarding experience from one politician to another.
(bwl 76 Spring 2015) |
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The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-44 by Rick Atkinson |
Sicily and Italy 1943-44: despite the shambolic lack of cooperation between American and British higher levels of command and huge losses in battles at Salerno, Anzio and Monte Cassino, the Allied forces drove the Germans up the Italian peninsula and with the liberation of Rome came glimpses of ultimate victory. Atkinson never loses his grip on the whole but gives a running analysis on strategy and tactics and constant thumbnail sketches of commanders and the ordinary soldier.
(bwl 84 Spring 2017) |
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The Dilemma by Penny Vincenzi |
Another good read, its 884 pages make it marvelous value for holiday or travel! There is a very intriguing plot and many subplots, which the author manages to weave very well together in surprising directions. For a book of its length, she keeps up the pace and the ending is unusually forthright. Vincenzi has a refreshingly pragmatic outlook on life and a sharp eye for the nuances of human relations. One of her best books.
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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The Duchess of Dino: Chatelaine of Europe by Philip Zeigler |
A comprehensive, very readable life of Talleyrand's niece by marriage who became his constant and beloved support. Intelligent, beautiful, proud and passionately loyal, born to be a political hostess, her ambition was to govern a man of great distinction and power. Talleyrand - the most powerful statesmen in Europe for half a century - provided all she needed and for 25 years, until his death, she smoothed his path becoming one of the most influential women of her time.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee |
Humanely and positively, without shirking physical or moral issues, Mukherjee's scholarly and comprehensive history of cancer, from 5000BC to the present, provides a fascinating glimpse into future treatments and shows how the body and its ailments have been viewed and treated through the centuries. Lucid and never condescending, the closer it gets to the present day the more it reads like the thriller it really is: the hunt for the cause of cancer.
(Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction 2011)
(bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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The Face of War by Martha Gellhorn |
These first-hand dispatches - starting with the Spanish Civil War right through Vietnam to Israel's Six-Day War and further - read as though they were published yesterday, Heartrendingly relevant still, they illustrate how fragile the veneer of civilisation is - although in our day and age we, and especially our politicians, should know better. It throws no good light on human progress but sheds a very clear one on the glorious heights of courage and humanity people can reach in times of need.
(bwl 107 Winter 2023) |
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The Faraway Drums by Jon Cleary |
Even the most faithful admirer of Morris and Dalrymple cannot fail to appreciate this novel of high adventure, set in 1911 British India. As with the best of this genre, it is firmly based on historical fact, although one is duly distracted by the flights of fancy. Major Farnol, soldier and political agent, discovers a plot to assassinate George V on his visit to Delhi. An intelligent love-story as well, what more can one want?
(bwl 41 August 2007) |
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The Fatal Shore: A History of the Transportation of Convicts to Australia, 1787-1868 by Robert Hughes |
Honest, deeply felt, scholarly and eminently readable, this is a truly terrible revelation of the almost medieval and inhuman judiciary situation in late Georgian and Victorian England and the shameless way in which the government chose to free England of her criminals. Transportation was the answer for the slightest infringement or the worst crime. Transcending the purely historical, this indictment of what ravages personal power can effect on a dependent society is chilling in its objectivity and fairness.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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The Finishing Touches by Hester Browne |
This book won't set the world on fire, very, very lightweight but ideal 'girl stuff' for nursing a cold, or a long train/plane journey, or on the beach somewhere hot where concentration is at a minimum and distraction at a premium. Not nearly as good as the Kinsellas, weak at the start but gets much better later on.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj by Anne de Courcy |
A lively, social history based on memoirs, letters and diaries of the women seeking husbands in the Raj's heyday, highlighting the discrepancies between their privileged backgrounds and their frequently difficult lives in far-off regions once their goal was achieved. Perhaps unwittingly by underlining the polarity between the British and the Indian and the former's wasteful expenditure to maintain prestige, It serves as a marker to show how the world and attitudes have changed in so short a time.
(bwl 70 Autumn 2013) |
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The Fourth Vow by Peter Timmins |
When a centuries-old order of nuns is disbanded, its multi-million assets will go to the Vatican. Realising this, Margot, Kristi and Janet, three alumni of one of the sisters' schools, devise a 'cannot-fail' scam to gain control of the fortune - the Vatican being the only loser. This mild thriller is imaginative and ingenious and quite a good read, despite a rather pedestrian style and the indiscriminate use of colloquialisms. Excellent for travelling and holiday reading.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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The Ghost by Robert Harris |
Harris has produced a blood-chilling novel, not because of the violence, of which there is little, but because sailing very near the wind, this roman ŕ clef has all too clearly the answers to today's political situation for which we have all been searching. Or does it? It is up to the reader to decide, and the surprises keep coming to the very last page, and even beyond . . . ? Very, very clever!
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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The Ghost Map: A Street, an Epidemic and the Two Men Who Battled to Save Victorian London by Steven Johnson |
From the outbreak of a terrible cholera epidemic in London, 1854, which reads like a medical thriller - which indeed it turned out to be - to educated suppositions about the future of cities and popular health, this medico-social case history is based on solid geographical knowledge of a very small area in Soho, and ends considering the advantages and disadvantages of the 'city planet'. Well-written, full of historical detail and fascinating. A very unusual book.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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The Girl from the South by Joanna Trollope |
Trollope's newest book with her subtle and sophisticated dissection of relationships between couples and in families, is about the multiplicity of choices facing young adults in work as in love; the need - or lack of need - to make commitments; the difficulty of trust and choice in today's demanding, endlessly changing world. The contrast between England and the States between the generations is intriguing, but I feel sharp edges are a little blunter than usual.
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell |
This is much more than a thriller, here the author juggles expertly with time, with personalities, with old and new emotions, violent death and death without violence, the merry-go-round of life through a microscope. A masterly portrayal of old age, based on all those who knew each other in their youth, about real tunnels and the labyrinths made by life, City and suburbia, past and present, this stand-alone belongs more to literature than to entertainment.
(bwl 79 Autumn 2015) |
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The Good German by Joseph Kanon |
Although written in 2001 this novel, set in 1945, faultlessly keeps to time and place, conjuring up the sights, smells and miseries, street by street, of a ruined Berlin divided into zones of occupation after Hitler's defeat. A story of espionage and love, this consummate thriller transcends its genre by asking profound ethical questions in its exploration of the nature of justice, and what is meant by good and evil in times of peace and war.
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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The Good Soldier: The Biography of Douglas Haig by Gary Mead |
This biography of the unlovable General Haig is an important contribution to military history. The author sets out to redress the negative image that Haig provoked from the Boer war on. Mead's fairness makes one occasionally wonder whether he is trying too hard to rehabilitate his subject. However, there are definitely things needed to be retold and set right and in this respect this is the first proper biography of this controversial, undeniably farseeing and perhaps misunderstood general.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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The Great BridgeThe Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough |
Written by this outstanding investigative journalist this is more enthralling than a detective story, set against the sweeping narrative of the social climate of what we know now as the Age of Optimism - the last three decades of the 19th C when all things were possible and miracles of science and engineering were facts of every-day life. A marvellous study of Americana in all its aspects and a tribute to what made America great.
(bwl 98 Summer 2020) |
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The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk |
As the Great Game - the vicissitudes of power in Central Asia since Napoleon - has alas been revived in an even more aggressive mode in our day - this book makes enthralling reading and cannot be bettered as background information and guide to more understanding of the present situation. Memoirs written 150 years ago have a familiar ring. A must for Kipling and Secret Service fans.
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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The Greco-Persian Wars by Peter Green |
Beyond praise, this scholarly book completely free of pedantry and stiltedness, is enthralling, densely informative and moving. The author shows his independence, even defiance, to the dictates of general scholarship, in making frequent modern comparisons to facilitate readers not versed in the classics. His love for Greece shines through, as does his knowledge of the terrain, he brings fifth-century Greece alive, no mean feat! and the pace is as fast as, if not more, than any thriller.
(bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer |
This heart-warming epistolary novel, reminiscent of 84 Charing Cross Road, contrasts the grimness of occupied Guernsey with the humour and courage of the inhabitants. The letters are funny and moving, the author has the ability truly to evoke England at war but also to recreate a culture that reveres books. Comic and quirky, but at the same time touching and tragic, this is a lovely book.
Written with Annie Barrows
(bwl 62 Autumn 2011) |
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The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson |
The last in Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy reveals how, at a staggering price, the U.S. and allies liberated Europe and vanquished Hitler. We relive in breathtaking details: D-Day, the brutal Normandy fighting, the Paris liberation, the disaster of Operation Market Garden and the horrific Battle of the Bulge. The stirring pace never relaxes; Atkinson's critical faculty never clouds. This magnificent chronicle is a respectful, shining, loving homage to all those who fell for what we enjoy today.
(bwl 85 Summer 2017) |
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The Hall of a Thousand Columns - Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah by Tim Mackintosh-Smith |
If you can stand the knowing, flowery, often campy facetious prose, this is a marvellous read, remarkable for the author's erudition and profound sympathetic understanding of ancient and modern Hindustan which he manages to straddle and discuss, with many other related matters, all the while searching for/accompanying 14th century Moroccan philosopher Ibn Battutah on his travels.
(bwl 42 October 2007) |
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The Hard Way by Lee Child |
Kidnap in New York is a favourite subject in hard-hitting thrillers, but Child manages to be unusual and inventive, without sacrificing his talent for description and characterisation. The sound and feel of New York, the silence of the English countryside, the anger and despair of those involved, come over true and solid. The ties to the military in far-off places gives this an extra dimension. Reacher is slightly less plausible as super-hero, but for his fans a gripping read.
(bwl 61 Summer 2011) |
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The Hashemite Kings by Jan Morris |
This is the story of the development of the Hashemites, direct descendants of the Prophet and traditional guardians of the Holy Places of Hejaz. With unadorned clarity, both evocative and touching, the author takes us from their beginnings in conspiracy and desert warfare, through the great days of the Hashemite Kingdoms, explaining in detail how their fortunes were inextricably linked with those of Britain, culminating in the assassinations and horrors of Baghdad in 1958. A literary and historical gem.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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The High Girders by John Prebble |
Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction and Prebble's account of the building of the Tay bridge as the pinnacle of Victorian Industrial Success, and the train that fell, with the bridge, into the river in the Great Storm of 28th December, 1879, is more breathtaking than any thriller. This is an objective account based on interviews and newspaper articles, and an enthralling read.
(bwl 17 February 2003) |
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The Hotel on the Roof of the World - 5 years in Tibet by Alec Le Sueur |
This extraordinary book is more than a fantastic travel read, it is a survey in miniature of what Tibet was, is and will be under the rule of the Chinese. Le Sueur, a native of Jersey, has a unique understanding of the differences between West and East, a dry sense of humour and an unassuming but devastating critical sense, all offered with delicacy and tact. Entertaining read, not to be missed, ideal for gifts.
(bwl 17 February 2003) |
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The Imperial Agent by T N Murai |
This Indian author adopts Kipling's Kim, developing his life from boyhood to manhood against the panorama of the apogee of the British Empire in India. The well-rounded characters are plausible, dignified and even touching, but this book's most important feature is the Great Game seen through the adult Kim's eyes. Once an enthusiastic pro-British player, his growing awareness of his Indian identity mirrors the rise of Indian nationalism and the ensuing dilemmas of the British.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud by Robert Lacey |
This vivid history of Saudi Arabia and its rapid development from the Middle Ages to Post-modernism because of a geographical and geological quirk of fate, comes over with even more conviction because the author immersed himself in Arabic and things Arabian for four years while writing it. Never avoiding fair criticism, he nevertheless with great respect and empathy lays bare the many conflicting elements - religious, economic, political - to give a much deeper understanding of the country whose unending supply of oil has become so important to universal welfare.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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The Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster |
Margaret Forster's wonderful biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is well-known, but The Lady's Maid is an inseparable adjunct to it. Wilson, Elizabeth's maid, went with her to Italy. Forster gives an in-depth character study of both women and their complicated relationship with one another, describes and contrasts life above and below stairs in Victorian times and, uniquely, offers an analysis of the expatriate state. An incomparable book.
(bwl 16 December 2002) |
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The Last Chronicle of Fairacre by Miss Read |
'Miss Read', a former village schoolmistress, is well-known for more than forty books about Fairacre, its village school and school mistress. Although the microcosmos of village life might sometimes feel restricting to city dwellers, the love of Nature and the changing seasons, the lack of sentimentality and dry humour, tend to make these deceptively uncomplicated books a haven of their kind. Certainly, this one is an excellent introduction to the whole series.
(bwl 20 September 2003) |
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The Last Dance: 1936 - The year our lives changed by Denys Blakeway |
Few people then - or perhaps even now - realised just what a watershed 1936 would be. In a closely-written analysis, month by month, sometimes almost day to day, the author shows how the old era became sharply divided from the new. Building around a collection of remarkable personalities, through diaries and memoirs of every social class, a compelling and vivid picture emerges of a turning point in British history in which nothing would ever be the same again.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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The Last Lion - Vol. I, Visions of Glory 1874-1932 by William Manchester |
One would think the last word had been written about Churchill but, in this exhaustive study, Manchester surpasses himself for objective and sympathetic historiography. Though he hides every vestige of the author, a hint of real pain permeates his portrayal of this complex personality. We come to understand how so much original thinking, dedication and ability went begging and how strong and even noble was the character who waited forty years for his chance in history.
(bwl 41 August 2007) |
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The Last Lion: Vol. II, Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester |
Manchester analyses, brilliantly and passionately, the long wait endured by Churchill - not least due to his own fault - before becoming the great British War Leader, embodiment of victory to millions. Manchester gives him to us warts and all, from a backbencher - at 58 'already regarded as an anachronism' - to his coming to power in 1940, 'because he had seen through Hitler from the very beginning'. Let's hope that Volume III maintains this standard.*
* Editor's note: The Last Lion, Vol. I - Visions of Glory 1874-1932 was reviewed in bwl 41. William Manchester had started to work on Vol. III - the last of the series - but died quite recently. Apparently it will be completed and published in the foreseeable future as a posthumous edition.
(bwl 42 October 2007) |
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The Last Mughal - The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857 by William Dalrymple |
In this last of his amazing books on Mughal/British India, Dalrymple has researched anew and in depth the events leading to the 1857 Mutiny. He sympathetically describes the heights of power and culture to which the three-hundred-year Mughal dynasty rose, as well as the depths to which it finally fell through its own decadence and that of the East India Company. The Mutiny finally marked not only their mutual end but that of an era.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World by Adrian Murdoch |
Neglected and even vilified as the Apostate, Julian is here given the respect he deserves not only as a talented general but as an intellectual and philosopher. Drawing on Julian's prolific writing, Murdoch reveals that had he lived longer our history and culture would have been very different. Christianity was not yet so strongly rooted that the ancient worship of multiple gods could not have been re-established. A most interesting historical biography in every way.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter by Matthew Dennison |
An engrossing, revealing and politically worthwhile biography of Beatrice, the youngest of her children, destined by the Queen to be her helpmeet during her declining years. Victoria demanded complete submission while depending absolutely on her. Not intended for marriage, Beatrice met her fate in Prince Henry of Battenberg but they lived in the palace completely subservient to her mother. (If she had complied with the Queen's intentions, Victoria's haemophilic gene would not have passed to the royal house of Spain.)
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts |
Not only a treasure hunt for pianos and their long-dead owners, but a treasure of another kind with music, exile and landscape the most important elements. The glowing descriptions of people, the talent she has to bring that past to life, the many and informed allusions to literature, painting and music, the light but all the more chilling mention of war-torn cities and clinical glimpses of present-day existence, all combine seamlessly to help unlock the enigma which has always been, and still is, Russia.
(bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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The Man Who Painted Roses: Story of Pierre-Joseph Redouté by Antonia Ridge |
This history of the famous painter - whose roses are on tea towels, porcelain cups and saucers, well-loved calendars, prints and articles of all kinds - explains and recreates it all with exuberant enthusiasm. It will give enormous pleasure to all who love flowers, history, Redouté's paintings and/or simply a good story. Painter of Flowers to two Queens and an Empress of France, he is above all the man who, more than any other person, knew and painted the flower most dearly-loved of all.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester |
Based on the first geological map of England, itself a unique concept, this is a biography of its creator, William 'Strata' Smith who, the son of a blacksmith, rose by his own scientific observations and in spite of much adversity, to be the acknowledged 'founding Father of Geology'. This book gives, although repetitious and needlessly flowery in places, a useful insight into social issues when the Industrial Revolution started to make itself felt.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell |
Being an Inspector Wexford fan, I eagerly grabbed this latest Rendell, only to be very disappointed at the beginning, convinced that even she at last was 'written out' and reduced to writing pot-boilers. Enormous pretension, erroneous assumption. Wily Rendell leads us up the garden path with her hesitations and 'futile' reminiscences, and her new 'Wexford' is a tour de force. As usual!
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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The Mystery of Olga Chekhova by Anthony Beevor |
This is an enthralling, tragic and all too real biography of the niece of Anton Chekhov's wife, who like her aunt became an actress. In 1920 she fled Moscow for Berlin, becoming closely associated with Hitler, but - in exchange for her family joining her - she was recruited by her brother to work for Soviet intelligence. In Beevor's hands, the background of her story becomes alive and menacing, embracing revolution, civil war, Hitler's rise, Stalin's terror and the aftermath right up to the present day.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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The Other Family by Joanna Trollope |
For 23 years Crissie lived with the successful musician Richie, they had 3 daughters, a lovely house and a lively life, but he never married her. For many years he had no contact with his legal wife, whom he never divorced, or his son. At his death, these branches come together, with enormous adjustments and consequences for all. Trollope treats bereavement and rejection with her usual attention to the subtleties and nuances of human, mostly feminine, emotions.
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue by Frederick Forsyth |
As a dedicated fan, I now know why Forsythe's books seem so genuine, they ARE genuine. This autobiography is better than any of his novels as it makes clear that they are all based on his own experiences. Written with great and touching respect for the less fortunate, he is fair, wryly modest, not afraid to be outspoken or 'politically incorrect' and utterly charming, His latest - hopefully not his last - is his best to date. Go for it!
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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The Party by Elizabeth Day |
Although I must be in the minority of one, with all the publicity and praise Elisabeth Day is receiving from booksellers and press, I thought it such a bad book, rather vulgar and I didn't think it had any suspense at all, very predictable, you could see the clues coming from miles away, elephantine, I thought and her construction was very weak, Robert Galbraith, Rowlings pseudonym, also a thriller bestseller now, is streets and streets ahead of her.
(bwl 94 Autumn 2019) |
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The Perfect Treasure by Sophia Watson |
The Perfect House-Cleaner, intelligent, discrete, efficient, until Cindy's interest in her clients becomes not only professional but occupational and obsessive and she begins to play GOD with them. Multi-level and intricate psychological observations, and a clever open ending. In the lighter genre, an excellent and worthwhile read.
(bwl 22 February 2004) |
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The Photograph by Penelope Lively |
This novella grows from an inauspicious beginning into a haunting analysis of how the ripple effect of a small event can threaten and destroy all those it touches. Morally but not moralistically, Lively illustrates how even our most insignificant actions can count, how impossible it is to properly assess or control their impact on others for good or evil and that even the element of time has no boundaries. A rather horrifying book.
(bwl 44 February 2008) |
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The Plot Against America by Philip Roth |
Roth is noted for writing his best books as he ages. This is a brilliant dissection of the menace which lies beneath the political and social scene in America. In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote It Can't Happen Here, a fantasy of Nazism in democratic America. Roth builds on Charles Lindbergh's historic bid for the presidency. His fantasy of his accession to the Presidency and what happens to the Jewish community makes chilling and compelling reading.
(bwl 40 June 2007) |
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The Prodigal Spy by Joseph Kanon |
Perhaps the spy thriller has been done and overdone, but this one is well worth reading. The Cold War and US government officials defecting to Russia may be out-of-date but the family relationships, the problems and values discussed in the novel are still the constants of our lives today and the plot is an ingenious one. And perhaps, these days, not as out of date as it may seem. Vigorously and tautly written, a useful leisure time read.
(bwl 48 November 2008) |
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The Queen and I by Sue Townsend |
It takes courage, detachment, understanding and humour to portray so well this fictional dismantling of the British Monarchy in such personal terms. A Republican government wins the election in 1992, and overnight the royal family is dispatched to live on a poor and backward council estate. Brilliant handling of famous personalities, cutting social and political criticism, this is also terribly funny.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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The Queen's Story: The Woman Behind the Throne by Denys Blakeway |
This excellent biography was published to celebrate the Queen's 50th anniversary. So as we have just celebrated her 60th, it is fascinating to contrast the 'then' with the 'now'. As balanced and objective as possible in these media-dominated times, it offers an in-depth portrait of a remarkable woman, who despite her background and the realities and pressures of her public and private life, adapted with great fortitude to the demands of noblese oblige.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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The Racing Tribe: Portrait of a British Subculture by Kate Fox |
No need to know which end of a horse is which or to have ever seen a race to relish this book, a hilarious read as well as a most seriously researched scientific treatise. In a first-ever in-depth study of the racing world, this seemingly insouciant young anthropologist has uncovered and described a complete tribal subculture in an extremely well-written book. Although her ability to laugh at herself is disarming, her professionalism is obvious, her style translucent, her conclusions undoubtedly valuable and her comments fair. Not to be missed.
(bwl 110 Autumn 2023) |
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The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore |
For all who are interested in the relationship of past history to our present political situations and love very thick books, this is tops in every way. Although the main facts have been chewed over many times in innumerable books of every kind, there is always a new slant to be examined and new facts appearing in the public domain which produce, in the hands of a master, a fresh, very worthwhile and entertaining book, which is why this is highly recommended, a superb holiday read.
(bwl 109 Summer 2023) |
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The Second Death of George Mallory by Reinhold Messner |
Messner, top mountaineer, who climbed Everest solo himself, was always fascinated by the story of Mallory's climb, disappearance and how his bones were found 75 years later. In this slim but terrifically powerful book, Messner has written a kind of thriller, literally step by step. A unique privilege for the reader to experience both men's climbs at once. His conclusion that Mallory did not reach the summit and why, gives this book its totally unexpected punch.
(bwl 53 September 2009) |
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The Semantics of Murder by Aifric Campbell |
A well-known psychiatrist, American but living in a fashionable part of London, uses his confidential case files for his fiction writing under a pseudonym. An original, ingenious, very dense, dark psychological drama, written in an unusual, baroque literary style. Many will find this gripping, the fine writing perhaps irritating, the denouement is certainly unexpected . . . well worth a read.
(bwl 56 Spring 2010) |
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The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate |
A group of privileged guests gathers at Sir Randolph Nettleby's estate for the traditional shooting party... the detailed description of the persons involved together with the elements of romance, social comment, country lore and intrigue both above and below stairs are deceptively innocuous, seemingly superficial and cleverly maintained until almost the very end, where the shooting suddenly ceases to be a sport and becomes a real and potent danger, the atmosphere starts to suffocate and the sense of doom is almost palpable. . . .
(bwl 105 Summer 2022) |
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The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton by Kathryn Hughes |
Kathryn Hughes' best work is this marvellous biography of the legendary Mrs Beeton, whose comfortable, matronly image never fades but who was just 21, with only six months' experience of running a house, when she began her Book of Household Management. Her culinary reputation has never diminished, kept alive by her publishers and her insatiable readers, and thanks to this biography we now know what superhuman energy produced such a work, as she struggled with every kind of trouble in her personal life.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser |
A learned, perceptive survey and analysis of Henry's marital problems and the prevailing religious and European political issues which made providing a proper and lawful succession of such paramount importance, both for Kings and aristocrats. Although written from the woman's perspective - and Fraser details the status and everyday lives of women in general as well as the royal wives - she is unbiased ("a miracle of impartiality" - A L Rowse). A wonderfully entertaining and instructive read.
(bwl 77 Summer 2015) |
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The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts |
This one-volume history of WWII is unusually a critical study of the errors of both sides. Well researched, the author versed in his subject, does not sacrifice the theoretical for the personal. Very human and moving but very fair, much is seen from the German perspective and the 'what if' and 'ought to' are cogent and military-theoretically sound; the panorama is comprehensive but well constructed. A valuable contribution to the enormous mass of WWII literature.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale |
A secluded Victorian mansion, an extended family ruled by a severe father, a three-year-old boy callously and gruesomely murdered, an astute detective ahead of his time....all the classic 'whodunit' ingredients. However, this true murder case in 1860 inspired a generation of writers and influenced the development not only of the detective profession but of the detective novel. Minutely researched and brilliantly brought to life, a must for historians and mystery addicts alike.
(bwl 47 September 2008) |
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The Transformation of War by Martin van Creveld |
After 11th September, it is abundantly clear that the mode of warfare prophesied in this book - published ten years ago by this well-known military historian - is here to stay and must be adjusted to, and speedily. A startling reassessment of the role of conventional armies, it forecasts the guerrillas, terrorists and bandits of today pursuing their goals with any weapon from the most primitive to the most sophisticated. A must for all newspaper readers. Riveting.
(bwl 11 October 2001) |
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The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair that Nearly Ended a Monarchy by Jane Robins |
This unravelling of all the razzamatazz surrounding Prinny's repudiation of his wife leads to a greater understanding of the rise of the forces of the press and public opinion, and how by influencing each other pressure was put on the political and social issues of the day. This royal sex scandal threatened to trigger a revolution; Caroline became the 'People's Princess' long before Diana. A watershed in British history for the power of the press and its influence on politics.
(bwl 72 Spring 2014) |
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The UnDutchables by Colin White |
and Boucke, Laurie
And, for those with an interest in Holland or the expats living there or who have lived there, The UnDutchables, is funny, true and not carping.
(bwl 7 February 2001) |
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The Victorian Governess by Kathryn Hughes |
A familiar figure in 19th C. novels, but much less is known about her in the 'real world'. This rare study provides a key to the Victorian concept of 'the lady' and what it meant to be, or alas, not to be one, and highlights the problems of female identity and place in society, still not completely solved today. A scholarly, highly readable study presenting little-known information and statistics and a wealth of social-historical details and it is beautifully illustrated.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon |
The 25th novel featuring Commissario Brunetti is a satisfying mix of lovely Venetian background, contemporary Venetian life - with its new waves of African migrants, problems of historical preservation and housing - his aristocratic in-laws and the turning around of a cold case involving the haunting story of a woman trapped in a perpetual childhood. A nice addition for Brunetti addicts - one of the very good ones - which at the end is quite touching, rare for Leon.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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The Wedding Girl by Sophie Kinsella |
Written under her real name (Madeleine Wickham) and not nearly as frothy as the Shopaholic series, this little novel offers sensible insights into human relationships and the heedlessness of youth. At eighteen, Milly thought everything was fun, certainly dressing up in wedding finery and getting married to help a friend. Ten years later, she had to face the consequences. Bubbly, with an unusual theme and a serious base - an ideal read for holiday and relaxation.
(bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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The Woman who Stayed in Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend |
How many of us have had the thought this title expresses? The wife of a brilliant and unfaithful scientist, mother of brilliant twins, suddenly has it and the courage to go to bed and stay in and on it. Excellent beginning carried ably through but towards the end, when it needs even more originality, it wilts and the author loses her courage and her book. Not bad for a holiday or long journey and full of life-affirming humour.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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The Year of Henry James: The story of a novel by David Lodge |
Has any other writer - after publishing what he thinks is an original slant on a famous author - discovered that two other books are being published on the same subject? It happened to Lodge in 2004. This bombshell inspired him to trace the history of 'Author, Author' from conception to publication, pondering the mystery and anguish of this coincidence or call it 'Zeigeist'. His new book completes and strengthens the former in a remarkable way, exponentially augmenting his artistry.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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The Year of Lear by James Shapiro |
This brilliant book manages to encompass, through Shakespeare and his plays, not only a broad study of theatre at the time, but - through a detailed analysis of the Gunpowder Plot and a well-informed description of the Plague in those years - to entwine a great deal of history as well. Filled with much hitherto little-known or unpublished information, written with exceptional clarity, it reads like a thriller and has great meaning for our time as well.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint by David Potter |
Determined to exclude the sensationalism accumulated during two millennia and provide an accessible text, Potter has over-egged the cake. His Theodora does not "live" as she might, but nevertheless the book is worth ploughing through and the Notes are invaluable. Although wordy and repetitious, his deep knowledge of everything from theatre to theology and the people of the time makes this much more than straightforward biography or the rehabilitation of a slandered Empress.
(bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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Three Empires on the Nile: The Victorian Jihad, 1869-1899 by Dominic Green |
A veritable compendium of two centuries at least of historical, geographical, political and personal detail which reads like a thriller and leads the reader compulsively on to an assessment of the causes of the present day's woes in the Sudan, the pan-Islamism and 'Mahdi Army' of today. This slim volume's 314 pages includes a Cast of Characters, Prologue, biographical epilogue, exhaustive notes, bibliography, Index and glossary, by a most talented and disciplined young author.
(bwl 54 November 2009) |
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To End all Wars: A Story of Protest and Patriotism in the First World War by Adam Hochschild |
This story of protest and patriotism, of conscientious objectors and their ilk and what happened to them is not only an unusual focus, but Hochschild uses this as a tool to describe and analyse the war from its ecstatic beginnings to its tragic and callous end and aftermath. Indeed, he comes nearer than most specialists to explain why it ever happened, and this in an objective, fair yet compassionate manner. A tour de force.
(bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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Travels with a Medieval Queen: The Journey of a Sicilian Princess by Mary Taylor Simeti |
This pleasingly honest travel-writer combines erudition with imaginative licence which she admits is sometimes too subjective. Although very 'American', she has an extraordinary affinity with Sicily and its early history. Frequently confessing to be an amateur, she has many scholarly qualities and has done much patient research in ancient manuscripts. Constance, mother of Frederik II, 'stupor mundi', and her itinerary come to life in this unusual book and makes one want to see it all for oneself.
(bwl 80 Spring 2016) |
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Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds by Natalie Zemon Davis |
Historians know him as Leo Africanus, the man behind the first geographical history of Africa. A fascinating and scholarly study of Hasan al-Wazzan, born in Granada to a Moslem family that in 1492 was expelled to Morocco. Captured and taken to Rome, he was forced to embrace Christianity but had friends in high places. Popes and cardinals admired his scholarship, of which little has come down to us, but Davis makes all possible use of the valuable fragments.
(bwl 71 Winter 2014) |
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Trilby by George du Maurier |
As fresh as when it was written, this is an extraordinary link between the late 1880's, the literary world, the artistic world, a social commentary and the tragedy of human existence. The protagonists' names became part of the language. Trilby, a tone-deaf model is transformed into a world-famous singer by Svengali, a brilliant musician with hypnotic powers. This powerful re-creation of the Vie de Boheme is the link between the Gothic novel and those of Henry James.
(bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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Tripwire by Lee Child |
This early Jack Reacher novel, in what has turned out to be an addictive thriller series, fills in the gaps for anyone not au fait with his military past. Situated in the bustle and noise of New York, its roots go back to the Viet Nam War and the author's feel for detail in both places makes for a challenging and satisfying read. Very plausible, though scary with an unexpected twist - the good guys win again.
(bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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True Pleasure - A Memoir of Women in Paris by Lucinda Holdforth |
This enchanting book by an Australian ex-diplomat in Paris is fresh, vibrant, historically accurate and personally honest and revealing . . . an unusually rewarding achievement. Accompanying her on her visits of discovery to the addresses of the famous women she discusses, we see Paris in a new light. Welding history with modernity, she also welds the serious with the frivolous and manages at the same time to establish an astonishingly personal link with the reader.
(bwl 43 December 2007) |
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Twelve Red Herrings by Jeffrey Archer |
These twelve short stories by this impertinent and impenitent author, based on his own experiences in both Houses of Parliament and his two years in prison, have ingeniously plotted storylines with delightfully unexpected endings. Written with a light touch, they cleverly conceal how difficult it is to write a really good short story. The third in the series, it is certainly recommended as a good read for distraction, on holiday perhaps or in the bath?
(bwl 57 Summer 2010) |
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Two Pennies to Cross the Mersey by Helen Forester |
The author, her 'public school' parents and six siblings came to Liverpool in mid-depression to escape her father's bankruptcy, only to be trapped in the extreme poverty of England's then second worst city. This book and her others, Liverpool Miss and Lime Street at Two, give a vivid idea of the lower classes' struggles before Social Security and National Health. Written with dry humour, insight and compassion - occasionally needing a pinch of salt - they are worthwhile books by a courageous woman.
(bwl 19 June 2003) |
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Until it's Over by Nicci French |
A series of coincidences dogs London cycle-courier Astrid Bell, all seemingly unconnected except for her presence, so that when in the course of her job she arrives to collect a package and discovers a dead body, for the police it is more than coincidence. Astrid lives with six others in a peaceful community which falls apart when faced with murder. Another suspenseful, psychologically believable and well-structured book, up to the French high standard.
(bwl 42 October 2007) |
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Voltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford |
This serious study of a side of Voltaire, rarely considered by historians, is
very well-researched and Mitford's experienced novelist's eye, and nose,
make for a refreshingly light touch. Her sophisticated world view
makes this account of the love match between Voltaire - famous French
writer-philosopher - and the Marquise du Châtelet - the most important
physicist and scientist in France at the time and a woman at that - an
exquisite and delightful read.
(bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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War and the Media by Miles Hudson |
and John Stanier
With (almost) everyone's eyes glued to the newspapers and the television these days, a bird's-eye view of how military news reporting all came about makes for fast and fascinating reading, especially if it is as objective and as low-key as that offered by Field Marshal Stanier and his co-author Miles Hudson. Useful as well for a brush-up of general political issues of the day. An excellent post-Christmas present.
(bwl 12 January 2002) |
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War Paint: Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein, Their lives, their Times their Rivalry. by Lindy Warhead |
The double biography of two extraordinary women with exceptional daring and drive, both starting with nothing, burning to prove themselves, workaholics. During their six decades in the cosmetic business, they founded the principles of beauty care taken for granted today and with their colossal wealth had enormous influence in the international art and racing worlds as well. Extreme rivals, they never met. Not only an excellent biography but a valuable history of make-up, art and fashion in the twentieth century.
(bwl 105 Summer 2022) |
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War, What is it Good For?: The role of conflict in civilisation, from primates to robots by Ian Morris |
Although regrettably 'popular' in style, this over-view of the war-making animal - Man - and where this will lead the world, is informed, informative and thought-provoking. Using archaeology, history and biology the author demonstrates that War has indeed been 'good for something', and ends with the vista of a technological world, dominated by transhumans and posthumans. Interesting and difficult to contest but perhaps the author is too enamoured of his own theory.
(bwl 74 Autumn 2014) |
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Warrior Politics - Why leadership demands a pagan ethos by Robert D Kaplan |
Although the reader might not be in agreement with Kaplan's philosophical conclusions, his views on military politics, after 11 September 2001, are cogent and based on sound and unbiased historical knowledge and judgements. An expert on Afghanistan, he has personal knowledge of warfare. Confucius, Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes and Churchill's philosophies are brilliantly analysed, showing that the lessons of the past are the key to the problems of the 21st century.
(bwl 14 July 2002) |
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Waterloo, New Perspectives - The Great Battle Reappraised by David Hamilton-Williams |
The trend nowadays is to re-assess, with new information constantly becoming available, familiar and well-worn historical issues. This book refreshes the memory about Waterloo and gives excellent background information. Unfortunately, the author constantly refers to books as yet unpublished, which will follow this one as a trilogy. Frustrating if you read and follow-up footnotes and academically unsound. But for those who think this is quibbling - a dramatic and exciting read with the promise of more.
(bwl 8 April 2001) |
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We are Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka |
For those who have read Two Caravans (bwl 48) and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (bwl 31), it won't come as a surprise that this title is misleadingly frivolous. A clever, touching story, extremely funny, extremely dark, so humane, with great understanding of madly human quirks, with as usual a marvellous ear and subtle pen for the different foreign accents, this author, born in Germany but bred in England and writing superb English, deserves all her fame and more.
(bwl 81 Summer 2016) |
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Wellington's Smallest Victory: the Duke, the Model Maker and the Secret of Waterloo by Peter Hofschröer |
The fascinating story of how Siborne's model of the battle of Waterloo* incurred the undying enmity of the great Wellington. Siborne's inadvertent uncovering of an important discrepancy in the Waterloo Dispatch, that Wellington was desperate to cover up, ignited a long and terrible war between the two, of which Siborne was the only casualty . . . 'a cautionary tale for those who would mess with the establishment.' Almost 200 years later, Siborne is finally vindicated.
*Now in the Imperial Army Museum
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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West End Front: The Wartime Secrets of London's Grand Hotels by Matthew Street |
The incredible story of the goings-on in hotels like the Ritz, Dorchester, Claridge's and the Savoy in WW II involving those who worked and those who stayed there. Amongst other historically shocking facts, foreign personnel were marched without warning or justice out of the restaurants to be incarcerated behind barbed wire at Ascot racecouse. Based on the memories of first-hand witnesses and newly declassified government files, well-researched, scurrilous, fascinating and entertaining but humourous it is not.
(bwl 68 Spring 2013) |
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What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George |
After the superb Inspector Lynley series, those who have waited impatiently for the next EG might be put off by the unprepossessing title, not even good English. It is of course an author's - laudable - prerogative to engage in a complete 'turn-around': underprivileged, mixed-race social outcasts instead of wealthy detective-aristocrats, but in my view this is forced, unpleasant, disappointing and probably unintelligible to people new to her work. Would love to read other opinions.
(bwl 38 February 2007) |
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When God Spoke English: The Making of the King James Bible by Adam Nicolson |
A fine piece of history, ecclesiology and literature rolled into one relating how the James VI Bible came to be written, under the auspices of the King himself, by a motley crew of un-named scholars and clergymen from Cambridge, Oxford and London. This creation of monumental significance written in the time of Shakespeare, Jonson and Bacon survives virtually unaltered to the present day. Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West's grandson tells its story brilliantly.
(bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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White Mughals - Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India by William Dalrymple |
A sympathetic portrayal of the British when respect for a completely new culture was at its height, and before British society had hardened and tightened under the spreading influence of the Anglican Church and the influx of British 'memsahibs'. Against the background of Indian history and culture, Dalrymple has painted a touching and historically true love story, and shed light on the issues of racism, colonialism and globalisation which have become so current today.
(bwl 37 December 2006) |
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Wicked Pleasures by Penny Vincenzi |
Although the plot of Wicked Pleasures is a tad more improbable than usual, and the characters flatter, it is a marvelous book to take on holiday, a long train journey or to relax with after a hard day's work. Intelligently written, it is 'wickedly' sophisticated and frothy, without being stupid. The pace is very fast, the situations inventive. If not a 'must', certainly a 'worthwhile'.
(bwl 23 April 2004) |
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Wife to Mr Milton by Robert Graves |
Marie Powell (16, Catholic) married John Milton (33, Presbyterian, admirer of Cromwell) largely due to her father's debts. It was not a success and after a month, at the outbreak of the Civil War, she left him, returning only when it ended. A fascinating novel which throws a very different light, both personal and political, on the revered poet. An outstanding account of the times and the effects of the abrupt transition from monarchy to life in a Republic.
(bwl 75 Winter 2015) |
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Wild Horses by Dick Francis |
The Queen Mother's famous jockey - and even more famous author of detective stories featuring the horse-world - was 76 when he wrote this. Gaining insight and vigour as he wrote his many books, this is superb in its genre, vintage Francis, the thrills more chilling, the plot deceptively almost non-existant, the details of making a film professionally explicit. It's almost impossible to guess who did it, while the depth of human understanding and subtle characterisation lifts it to the level of Sayers and Tey.
(bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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William Pitt, the Younger: A Biography by William Hague |
What a privilege to read the biography of one outstanding politician by another. William Hague brings all his experience and knowledge of how politics worked and works in Britain to bear on the life and endeavours of William Pitt. In fact, both father and son are placed in a broad historical context, fair, objective and knowledgeable. A rare treat, its 592 pages are not daunting, as I had feared, but immensely readable and lively.
(bwl 53 September 2009) |
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Windfall by Penny Vincenzi |
Vincenzi novels are well-plotted and intelligently written and this is one of her best. Placed in the world of the rich and fashionable, it could seem very artificial but as Vincenzi's career started in the top fashion and beauty magazines, she has a wide knowledge of and respect for the various problems experienced by the spoiled and not-so-spoiled. A delight as 'a breather' for holidays, relaxing evenings and a much-needed change from heavy brainwork.
(bwl 21 November 2003) |
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Winnie and Wolf by A N Wilson |
The Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany is the background to this brilliant, dense and amazingly informative novel about the friendship of Winifred Wagner and Hitler. It entails a deep analysis of Wagner's operas, the foundation and maintenance of the Bayreuth festival, together with flights of fantasy which, in the context of thorough and competent historical research of the real facts and people involved, are completely believable. A haunting but rewarding experience.
(bwl 55 Winter 2010) |
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Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher |
Rosamunde Pilcher, well-known for her capable story-telling, in this, her most recent novel, has not only provided another excellent read but one that is deeper than some of her others. The plot is well constructed and the characters, arresting in their originality, are well-rounded, engaging and very real. Written with humour, warmth and genuine sympathy for the human condition, this is just the thing to take on holiday or on a long journey.
(bwl 39 April 2007) |
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With No One as Witness by Elizabeth George |
This latest in the Lynley series deals with the trials and tribulations of his romance with Lady Helen Clyde, and with a complicated crime story and analysis of all the issues involved in police work. George is one of the few writers who manage to develop and grow with every book, and this could be considered her very best to date. The promised sequel is a compulsive must for all who read this book
(bwl 38 February 2007) |
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Without Fail by Lee Child |
This perfectly crafted thriller in the old, no-nonsense style is one in the series featuring loner Jack Reacher, ex-US military cop. Although the author is British, he brilliantly evokes the lonely Middle West landscape flawlessly handling the style and idiom. The gently relentless, fast action, sympathetic characters, knowledge of the American scene and all the insider details over the hardware used, as well as insights into the workings of governmental security forces, make this a riveting read.
(bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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