Interesting take on the campaign for the abolition of slavery.
The central contention of the book is that in the American War of Independence, the BriInteresting take on the campaign for the abolition of slavery.
The central contention of the book is that in the American War of Independence, the British were seen by the black community as representing freedom and liberty.
At one point Schama provocatively claims that it was only when it became clear that the British were prepared to arm slaves to fight against the colonial uprising in the North East that the political uprising over representation and taxes became a full fledged war of independence as the Southern plantation owners realised their whole economic system was under threat.
However, aside from this contention, the section focusing on the War is (a little like Schama’s “A History of Britain” series, hard to follow at times, with lots of minutiae but little of the bigger picture and an assumption that the reader knows the subject under discussion already).
The second half of the book concentrates on the journey of the now freed slaves who did fight for the British to Sierra Leone (via Nova Scotia) including the role of key British abolitionists such as Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson (and the role played by his brother John as a father figure for the fledgling black community) as well as Thomas Peters – the first black politician in the white world. This section although too detailed is very interesting and well written. ...more
Account of the initial colonisation of the New World of America by the English – with many failed attempts before a fledging colony was eventually estAccount of the initial colonisation of the New World of America by the English – with many failed attempts before a fledging colony was eventually established at Jamestown.
Interesting discussions include:
The changing political environment – with Elizabeth very supportive (particularly with for many years Walter Raleigh as her favourite) and an active investor, but James very opposed to both the New World, the “Savages” living it and the tobacco it produced;
The interplay between Spain and England, with Elizabeth actively supporting the privateers who were very involved in the colonisation in their raids on Spanish shipping and in Drake’s case his daring capture of Santa Domingo, but the threat of the Armada leading to the colonisation being stopped;
The interplay between the colonists and the local Indians – who will helpless to fight against the (by European standards) primitive English armour or in some cases to resist their diseases (leading to a belief that the English must have magical powers) were in the end crucial to the survival of the colonies, who often foolishly lost their goodwill by massacres or extreme demands;
The inappropriateness of those chosen as colonisers – with the upper classes unwilling to do practical work, the artisans such as miners, stonemasons and smithies having skills reflecting an over optimistic view of the mineral wealth of the colonies or of the ease with which they would be established, and the lower classes being too ill disciplined and with few women to help with the practicalities;
The need for the colonies to find a useful product to sell in the UK (especially as hopes of the natives providing a market for English goods proved ill founded) – finally eased when a transplantation of Spanish New World seeds to Virginian soil produced a successful tobacco (much vaunted for its healthy properties due to its hot and dry humours).
Despite the above – what is unusual about the book compared to most fiction books is that it seems to lack: any obvious central themes; the author’s new interpretation of previously “known” facts; attempts to draw historical parallels with the modern world.
None of these should be regarded as a disadvantage though and the book is extremely accessible and readable and provides an engrossing and enjoyable account.
Interesting but disappointingly one-dimensional book whose sole idea is that:
The medical (and legal) community communicates risk badly, partly due toInteresting but disappointingly one-dimensional book whose sole idea is that:
The medical (and legal) community communicates risk badly, partly due to a misguided belief in infallibility/certainty but mainly due to an ability to understand or compute Bayesian type uncertainties (what is the probability of having breast cancer given you have a positive mammogram test; what is the chance of being the source if you have a positive DNA “fingerprint”) in cases where chances of a both a false positive and false negative may be small but the relatively low prevalence of the condition renders the frequency of false positives high compared to true positives (he in turn claims that these problems can be dealt with by a frequency representation).
However the book has very little to say on the contentious issue of assessing the prior in the first place (which in medical terms equates to understanding the prevalence of the disease; in legal terms it is the population of possible sources of the DNA)...more
Fictional account of a cataclysmic winter storm surge/high tide flood which overwhelms London’s defences and which causes a massive conflagration – wiFictional account of a cataclysmic winter storm surge/high tide flood which overwhelms London’s defences and which causes a massive conflagration – with the two disasters then reinforcing each other as well as dividing the rescue services.
Eventually the flood becomes secondary to the fire which starts in chemical and oil works near Dartford and both flood and fire end up destroying areas such as Bluewater and Canary Wharf before the fire is stopped by heavy rainfall just after Westminster which tips the balance in the increasingly organised attempts to halt the fire.
The book is written in the present tense, and is clearly excellently researched which leads to extreme levels of detail on all aspects of London geography /Government/Flood defences/Thames Barrier operation/Emergency Services etc (giving the book the air of a televised what-if/disaster scenario planning exercise) interspersed with details of individuals caught up in the flood (like a typical disaster movie or episode of “Casualty”).
Although the detail on flood and fire disasters gets repetitive, the book is excellent at capturing how governments and environment agencies fail until too late to appreciate the full extent of the impending disaster and are reluctant to give a precautionary warning due to the chaos and cost it would cause.
Trilogy by author most famous for the "Mars" trilogy about a group of scientists that terraform Mars - the obvious premise of this set is that the earTrilogy by author most famous for the "Mars" trilogy about a group of scientists that terraform Mars - the obvious premise of this set is that the earth itself needs terraforming in response to climate change/global warming and that scientists need to take more of an active involvement politically both with the electorate and with those who have previously controlled their purse strings and that the research bodies need to actively set the research agenda (a new Manhattan project or race for the moon) rather than responding to proposals received.
Main characters are based around the NSF (the US research body responsible for evaluating funding proposals) mainly Anna Quibler (whose husband Charlie stays at home with their hyper-active younger son Joe while working as an advisor, particularly on environmental matters to a famous Democrat "world" senator - Phil Chase) and Frank Vanderwal (initially on a one year secondment from which he resigns to the NSF leader Diana Chang, he then retracts his resignation when she permits him to lead a redirection of the NSF into an aggressive programme to investigate ways to mitigate climate change both medium and short term. Frank is homeless in his second year and ends up living in a treehouse in the park while starting a relationship with Caroline a mysterious girl with whom he was trapped in a lift. Eventually she reveals that she is a government agent, married to a sinister agent, who has been assigned to track Frank who through various of his activities, particularly his relationship with a researcher Yann who worked both for NSF and a biotech firm he was involved in and who is investigating the use of mathematical algorithms which Frank realises could be used to help genetic engineering).
In both books the earth's climate is changing drastically due to: a hyper El Nino in "Forty Signs of Rain" which leads to Washington being flooded and the shutting down of the Gulf Stream in "Fifty Degrees Below" with Europe and US hit by a severe winter, followed by the collapse of large parts of the Antarctic ice sheet. This, the intervention of the NSF in politics and Caroline’s intervention to give Frank an election fixing programme which one of his ex-intelligence colleagues Eduardo manages to reverse, lead to Phil Chase's election as president. The first acts of terraforming are an NSF organised (and reinsurance funded!) dump of massive quantities of salt to restart the Gulf Stream and a USSR effort to build on work by Yann as well as Frank's ex Marta, to engineer trees with the ability to absorb extra CO2, followed by an effort to pump sea water (caused by the into natural basins in dry areas of the world (again with reinsurance funding) and back onto the more stable parts of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Other themes of the book (which at first detract, then dominate and then become the story) are:
• Frank's emphasis that man is at roots a savannah based primate with the history of civilisation being too short to have changed our evolutionary instincts - he often observes and analyses behaviour in this light, but also sees his lifestyle as a return to his original roots - and plays golf Frisbee with a group of free-gans (who only eat food they can scavenge) as well as tracking animals freed from the zoo during the flood.
• The importance of physical exercise and the outdoors – the characters spend extended periods of the narrative backpacking, kayaking and climbing often with no other narrative development involved.
• Mental ability and the brains function – in light of seeming damage to Frank’s judgement and decision making ability following an attack and blow to the nose.
• Buddhism and its relation to science and knowledge - particularly the Tibetan exiles who come to Washington to lobby for the sea level threatened island nation of Khembalung (which then is inundated when a piece of ice breaks of Antarctica)
• Government surveillance - including the use of virtual futures markets with automated players used to assess potential security risks as well as series of competing and ultra-secret agencies.
• The failures of market based capitalism particularly in the light of costs which it externalises such as climate change. The book portrays it as a feudalistic system where workers don’t get the benefit of their own capital production and where the World Bank/free market system has effectively led to the elimination and apparent impossibility of other free, more moral and co-operative systems.
• The 19th Century American Philosophers – Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and naturalist Henry Thoreau....more
Trilogy by author most famous for the "Mars" trilogy about a group of scientists that terraform Mars - the obvious premise of this set is that the earTrilogy by author most famous for the "Mars" trilogy about a group of scientists that terraform Mars - the obvious premise of this set is that the earth itself needs terraforming in response to climate change/global warming and that scientists need to take more of an active involvement politically both with the electorate and with those who have previously controlled their purse strings and that the research bodies need to actively set the research agenda (a new Manhattan project or race for the moon) rather than responding to proposals received.
Main characters are based around the NSF (the US research body responsible for evaluating funding proposals) mainly Anna Quibler (whose husband Charlie stays at home with their hyper-active younger son Joe while working as an advisor, particularly on environmental matters to a famous Democrat "world" senator - Phil Chase) and Frank Vanderwal (initially on a one year secondment from which he resigns to the NSF leader Diana Chang, he then retracts his resignation when she permits him to lead a redirection of the NSF into an aggressive programme to investigate ways to mitigate climate change both medium and short term. Frank is homeless in his second year and ends up living in a treehouse in the park while starting a relationship with Caroline a mysterious girl with whom he was trapped in a lift. Eventually she reveals that she is a government agent, married to a sinister agent, who has been assigned to track Frank who through various of his activities, particularly his relationship with a researcher Yann who worked both for NSF and a biotech firm he was involved in and who is investigating the use of mathematical algorithms which Frank realises could be used to help genetic engineering).
In both books the earth's climate is changing drastically due to: a hyper El Nino in "Forty Signs of Rain" which leads to Washington being flooded and the shutting down of the Gulf Stream in "Fifty Degrees Below" with Europe and US hit by a severe winter, followed by the collapse of large parts of the Antarctic ice sheet. This, the intervention of the NSF in politics and Caroline’s intervention to give Frank an election fixing programme which one of his ex-intelligence colleagues Eduardo manages to reverse, lead to Phil Chase's election as president. The first acts of terraforming are an NSF organised (and reinsurance funded!) dump of massive quantities of salt to restart the Gulf Stream and a USSR effort to build on work by Yann as well as Frank's ex Marta, to engineer trees with the ability to absorb extra CO2, followed by an effort to pump sea water (caused by the into natural basins in dry areas of the world (again with reinsurance funding) and back onto the more stable parts of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Other themes of the book (which at first detract, then dominate and then become the story) are:
• Frank's emphasis that man is at roots a savannah based primate with the history of civilisation being too short to have changed our evolutionary instincts - he often observes and analyses behaviour in this light, but also sees his lifestyle as a return to his original roots - and plays golf Frisbee with a group of free-gans (who only eat food they can scavenge) as well as tracking animals freed from the zoo during the flood.
• The importance of physical exercise and the outdoors – the characters spend extended periods of the narrative backpacking, kayaking and climbing often with no other narrative development involved.
• Mental ability and the brains function – in light of seeming damage to Frank’s judgement and decision making ability following an attack and blow to the nose.
• Buddhism and its relation to science and knowledge - particularly the Tibetan exiles who come to Washington to lobby for the sea level threatened island nation of Khembalung (which then is inundated when a piece of ice breaks of Antarctica)
• Government surveillance - including the use of virtual futures markets with automated players used to assess potential security risks as well as series of competing and ultra-secret agencies.
• The failures of market based capitalism particularly in the light of costs which it externalises such as climate change. The book portrays it as a feudalistic system where workers don’t get the benefit of their own capital production and where the World Bank/free market system has effectively led to the elimination and apparent impossibility of other free, more moral and co-operative systems.
• The 19th Century American Philosophers – Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and naturalist Henry Thoreau....more
Trilogy by author most famous for the "Mars" trilogy about a group of scientists that terraform Mars - the obvious premise of this set is that the earTrilogy by author most famous for the "Mars" trilogy about a group of scientists that terraform Mars - the obvious premise of this set is that the earth itself needs terraforming in response to climate change/global warming and that scientists need to take more of an active involvement politically both with the electorate and with those who have previously controlled their purse strings and that the research bodies need to actively set the research agenda (a new Manhattan project or race for the moon) rather than responding to proposals received.
Main characters are based around the NSF (the US research body responsible for evaluating funding proposals) mainly Anna Quibler (whose husband Charlie stays at home with their hyper-active younger son Joe while working as an advisor, particularly on environmental matters to a famous Democrat "world" senator - Phil Chase) and Frank Vanderwal (initially on a one year secondment from which he resigns to the NSF leader Diana Chang, he then retracts his resignation when she permits him to lead a redirection of the NSF into an aggressive programme to investigate ways to mitigate climate change both medium and short term. Frank is homeless in his second year and ends up living in a treehouse in the park while starting a relationship with Caroline a mysterious girl with whom he was trapped in a lift. Eventually she reveals that she is a government agent, married to a sinister agent, who has been assigned to track Frank who through various of his activities, particularly his relationship with a researcher Yann who worked both for NSF and a biotech firm he was involved in and who is investigating the use of mathematical algorithms which Frank realises could be used to help genetic engineering).
In both books the earth's climate is changing drastically due to: a hyper El Nino in "Forty Signs of Rain" which leads to Washington being flooded and the shutting down of the Gulf Stream in "Fifty Degrees Below" with Europe and US hit by a severe winter, followed by the collapse of large parts of the Antarctic ice sheet. This, the intervention of the NSF in politics and Caroline’s intervention to give Frank an election fixing programme which one of his ex-intelligence colleagues Eduardo manages to reverse, lead to Phil Chase's election as president. The first acts of terraforming are an NSF organised (and reinsurance funded!) dump of massive quantities of salt to restart the Gulf Stream and a USSR effort to build on work by Yann as well as Frank's ex Marta, to engineer trees with the ability to absorb extra CO2, followed by an effort to pump sea water (caused by the into natural basins in dry areas of the world (again with reinsurance funding) and back onto the more stable parts of the Antarctic ice sheet.
Other themes of the book (which at first detract, then dominate and then become the story) are:
• Frank's emphasis that man is at roots a savannah based primate with the history of civilisation being too short to have changed our evolutionary instincts - he often observes and analyses behaviour in this light, but also sees his lifestyle as a return to his original roots - and plays golf Frisbee with a group of free-gans (who only eat food they can scavenge) as well as tracking animals freed from the zoo during the flood.
• The importance of physical exercise and the outdoors – the characters spend extended periods of the narrative backpacking, kayaking and climbing often with no other narrative development involved.
• Mental ability and the brains function – in light of seeming damage to Frank’s judgement and decision making ability following an attack and blow to the nose.
• Buddhism and its relation to science and knowledge - particularly the Tibetan exiles who come to Washington to lobby for the sea level threatened island nation of Khembalung (which then is inundated when a piece of ice breaks of Antarctica)
• Government surveillance - including the use of virtual futures markets with automated players used to assess potential security risks as well as series of competing and ultra-secret agencies.
• The failures of market based capitalism particularly in the light of costs which it externalises such as climate change. The book portrays it as a feudalistic system where workers don’t get the benefit of their own capital production and where the World Bank/free market system has effectively led to the elimination and apparent impossibility of other free, more moral and co-operative systems.
• The 19th Century American Philosophers – Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and naturalist Henry Thoreau....more
The unnamed narrator is one of a circle of rebellious Leningrad artists, who in the mid-70’s are living their own version of the Spring of 1968 in a tThe unnamed narrator is one of a circle of rebellious Leningrad artists, who in the mid-70’s are living their own version of the Spring of 1968 in a temporary thaw in the Soviet Regime, and who are cynical and scornful of both the Soviet system but also traditional Russia and the (in their view) propaganda myths of the Great Patriotic War.
In order to research folk-lore he travels to a town in the sub-Arctic near the White Sea, the town is little more than a shell of old people (“we are not just living in the past, this is the pluperfect”) with the few remaining youngsters destined to leave (and in fact later in the book he and Vera find a village with a single old inhabitant). He becomes obsessed with Vera – the local schoolteacher who has been waiting chastely for 30 years for the return of her childhood fiancée reported as missing at 16 in the last battle of the war.
As always with Makine, this is a haunting tale, full of deep meaning, moving passages and beautiful phrases....more
This book was discovered in the salvaged notes of Nemirovsky – an famous pre-war author but a Russian Jew (hence doubly in danger in occupied France) This book was discovered in the salvaged notes of Nemirovsky – an famous pre-war author but a Russian Jew (hence doubly in danger in occupied France) and is effectively the first two parts of a five part work she was writing on the lives of ordinary French people during the German occupation. The book was written as the war progressed but was cut short by her death in Auschwitz in 1942. The first part of the book follows a varied group of Parisians in the chaos that followed the German invasion and collapse of the French defences as they flee for the South, only in some cases to return when the French surrender. The second is set in a village (with some links to characters in the first part of the book) under German occupation. An appendix contains her general reflections on her circumstances and on the book and gives an interesting insight into the writing process.
The writing in the book is excellent and very figurative both in physical and emotional descriptions.
The book captures well: the selfishness of the flight (although one of the characters already predicts that in retrospect the incident will be portrayed as a glorious episode) as well as of the occupation with everyone hoarding things for their own benefit; the tension between collaboration with and hatred for the Germans, with collaboration being from a variety of different motives – opportunity, fear, hatred of Communism or simply for the young women love of the only young men left. What makes the book more interesting is that these impressions are real/current and not retrospective musings.
The author’s own fate leads both an additional poignancy to the book – but also an interesting angle on preservation of self or loved ones beating principle (a key theme of the first two parts of the novel) as the last part of the book is various correspondence, dominated by her husband’s attempts to secure her release from detention (which not only failed but ended up in his own arrest and death) including scouring her past work for references to prove she is anti-Bolshevik (being White Russian) and more disturbingly anti-Jewish (having effectively converted to Catholicism)....more
The book gives an excellent perspective on the immigrant workforce in the UK, including casual strawberry picking, (most memorably and shockingly) theThe book gives an excellent perspective on the immigrant workforce in the UK, including casual strawberry picking, (most memorably and shockingly) the poultry industry, fishing off a pier, nursing homes (including a character from “Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine”, the restaurant trade and prostitution but is overall too weakly written to be a good book.
The main sets of characters all come together in two caravans (one male and one female) in a small Kent farm. The book eventually concentrates on two Ukrainians - Irina (a young, impressionable, pro-Western Ukrainian, daughter of a politicised History professor) and Andriy (from the other pro-Russian Ukraine, the son of a miner killed when the unemployed miners in desperation tried to re-open the pit and dig with their hands) who are increasingly drawn together as their life gets more dangerous purused by the middle-man Vulk who wants Irina either for himself or his clients or both and increasingly compromised by the Moldavian Vasily (initially a fellow picker but eventually a middle man).
The story is told in the first person by each of the characters – sometimes for a paragraph each, which can make the style awkward.
The sections of Andriy and Irina give a good perspective on the Ukraine, and the Poles (Yola – the supervisor and lover of the farmer, Marta her religious niece and the older Tomasz) are interesting but the naïve African Emanuel (who sections consist of letters to his sister) is unconvincing in voice and as a character while the two Chinese girls, except for a short section when they give their background, are stereotyped and the sections featuring the dog (and written in unpunctuated paragraphs of short sentences in capitals - I AM DOG I RUN) are very weak....more
A bizarre tale of Eric Sanderson who wakes up with no knowledge of who or where he is. Over time initially with the side of notes per posted to himselA bizarre tale of Eric Sanderson who wakes up with no knowledge of who or where he is. Over time initially with the side of notes per posted to himself by "the first Eric" he realises that his memory loss is due to attacks from a conceptual shark, the Ludovician, one of a number of fish that have evolved to live in the world of human relationships, communications and interactions. To protect himself from the shark he has to disguise his identity and hide himself using such items as past addressed to each others. But gradually decoding notes from his former self he understands that he sought out the shark in an effort to preserve the memory of his girlfriend Clio who died in a diving accident during a summer they spent in the Greek Islands. He sets out with his cat - Ian - on a quest for Trey Fidorous a scientist.
The last part of the book is a straight pastiche of the final scenes of jaws including a flip page of a shark (made of text) approaching.
The plot is a lot more complex and surreal than the above implies but is very readable and engrossing and a fun read despite drifting a little in the middle and with some excellent turns of phrase and images. The book is clearly inspired by writers such as Borges and Murakami (who with Calvino and Calver are quoted at the start of a section)....more
Diary of a Barrow-in-Furness housewife starting on the breakout of WWII and going through until VJ Day, setting out her daily actions and thoughts forDiary of a Barrow-in-Furness housewife starting on the breakout of WWII and going through until VJ Day, setting out her daily actions and thoughts for the Mass Observation Project (a project involving 500 volunteers).
Nella is upper middle class married to a timid and conservative husband and with two boys Arthur – a civil servant posted to Ireland and Cliff – a thoughtful artistic type who nevertheless volunteers to fight in the Middle East).
The book is a fascinating and at times compelling read, mainly for its sheer authenticity and is fairly well edited (although could perhaps have been a little shorter).
Nella is both horrified by the war (the book captures well the sheer horror of being bombed, of the complete absence of even the briefest care-free period, the deprivations and concessions in civilian life, the sudden loss of sons and husbands either posted abroad or even worse missing in action) and at the same time finds freedom and for the first time (except in the bringing up of her boys) a sense of purpose bordering on obsession) in being a WVS member, knitting and making things to raise money running a charity shop and running a shift at a canteen.
Nella is particularly perceptive: she is haunted by nightmares of sailors being drowned and soldiers dying and that drives her work; unlike many others she realises very quickly that the war is not only to be a long one but that it will leave a Europe shattered (although she is over pessimistic at the hatred that will be left in the German people and at one point laughs at the idea that in 20 years Germany will be our ally and Russia our enemy); she reflects often on the changes that the war will force in the relationships between the sexes (with women being unwilling to return to the “servitude” of being a housewife) and generations (with the younger generation basically feeling they can’t make a worse mess than two World Wars) while perhaps being caught by surprise by the change in relationship between classes (which emerges with Labour’s – to her – shock election victory)....more
Overly long although relatively easy to read account.
The author’s first central thesis is that:
Shortly before its fall the Roman Empire was actuallyOverly long although relatively easy to read account.
The author’s first central thesis is that:
Shortly before its fall the Roman Empire was actually in a healthy state (contrary to classical analysis);
Although the rise of the Persian empire formed a huge military (and hence monetary) challenge to the Empire that the Empire managed to adapt organically to this new reality although this did lead to both the replacement of self governing towns with an Imperial Bureaucracy and (also due simply to the enormous distances involved in communication and command) the permanent splitting of the Empire into (two with four Imperial capitals none of which were Rome) – leading to tension and civil war;
At that time many areas of rural economy were flourishing; and finally that (contrary to Gibbon’s analysis) Empire and Christianity quickly reached symbiosis.
One of his key arguments is that many of the reasons posited for the fall of the West also apply to the East which survived for many centuries as the Byzantine Empire.
Instead he posits the fall of Rome as due to external influences – principally the large scale unplanned immigration/invasion of and occupation by a significant number of large barbarian groups.
Although he admits that many of the classical factors weakened the West to the point where it couldn’t cope with these pressures or resist the incursions, in his concluding analysis he claims that it was only due to the Roman influence on the neighbouring Barbarian areas (which as per Faulkner he says were dictated by areas of land where sustainable arable farming was not possible) and tribes eventually leading to them coalescing into large groups which were then big enough to force their way over the frontiers and to occupy large tracts of land.
These occupations ,and in particular the Vandal seizure of Africa, deprived the centre of large slices of revenue and eventually led to its implosion as local landowners (whose only asset was their land made accommodation with the barbarians instead).
Finally he identifies the Huns as playing a key role but not in their invasions (which ultimately failed) in three non-obvious ways:
Firstly in precipitating the migration of the barbarian tribes;
Secondly by diverting the Eastern Empire’s flotilla sailing to the rescue of Africa;
Thirdly by their collapse after Attila’s death in depriving the Romans of a force they were using to control the very barbarians they had pushed into Roman territory....more
Fairly well written account of the period, easy to read although sometimes with too much (easy to skip) geographical type descriptions of the area.
FauFairly well written account of the period, easy to read although sometimes with too much (easy to skip) geographical type descriptions of the area.
Faulkner has two central themes.
The first is to discuss the events in a Marxist/class warfare viewpoint – viewing the conflict as being between the moderate (or even pro-Roman) upper class and the working/peasant class revolutionaries.
The second is that these revolutionaries were primarily inspired in their attempts to turn a local insurrection to a full blown war by their belief in the Apocalypse (combined with a final Jubilee year and with Messiah who would confront and defeat an evil empire in Jerusalem).
The author presents this as an extreme version of Judaism, previously confined only to a few prophets but which was honed in the exile in Babylon (and turned into religion by in his view the subsequent writing of the Old Testament). He also places Jesus and the Essene community of the Dead Sea Scrolls firmly in this category....more
Extremely derivative travel book – as the author describes (in the style of “The Office”/Dilbert) giving up her job at the BBC and then (in the style Extremely derivative travel book – as the author describes (in the style of “The Office”/Dilbert) giving up her job at the BBC and then (in the style of Bill Bryson/an alternative stand-up) her travels from Alaska to Argentina along the length of the American continent by motorbike.
The book is easy and pleasant to read but:
Her descriptions are often ridiculously clichéd or naive (an angry American finishing by saying “have a nice day”, the apparent incongruity of preparing for Christmas in the sunshine, the amazement that climate varies by altitude and that the climate in the Southern Hemisphere mirrors the Northern or that it rains in tropical countries);
Her use of language and allusion is poor and even embarrassing when compared to more learned travel books such A Time of Gifts (which I read at the same time for my Book Group). As an example a jagged range of mountains "looks like Jonathan Aitken’s polygraph”;
Her description of the countries she is visiting poor – which is disappointing given the number of countries she passes through – the only area where she does provide interest is in describing challenging landscapes to motorcycle through; and finally her book says little about the people in those countries with the exception of the border police who she couldn’t avoid.
Finally she is often disparaging about Western backpackers/tourists and their false travel, but her own travel is clearly well funded (by the job she apparently despised), makes liberal use of the internet and credit cards and is mainly restricted to the international motorcycle community not to the real inhabitants of any country she visits....more
Travelogue by author written in 1970’s recounting his travels as an 18 year old in the early 1930’s. Having being expelled from a series of schools heTravelogue by author written in 1970’s recounting his travels as an 18 year old in the early 1930’s. Having being expelled from a series of schools he decided to set out on his travels. Initially intending to sleep in the open and in barns – he found at first that he was often put up by people he met and then via a fortuitous had letters of introduction to various members of the remnants of the lower ranks of the nobility and spent much of his travels staying in castles.
His account is very detailed (with particular conversations 40 years earlier recounted almost word for word) sometimes this is plausible due to diaries he kept (and in some cases rediscovered) but is much less convincing for the first part of the journey (where he lost his diary).
The author’s English is beautifully descriptive and full of learned allusions. It conjours up a lost pre-war world of Middle-Europe including the different states of Germany and the new states setting up as the Austro-Hungarian empire fades – with a huge variation in language, dialogue, dress and (a common theme) alcohol now largely subsumed by Globalisation. Overshadowing this – particularly in Bavaria and Austria is the rise of the Nazi menace (particularly important to the author who worked as an undercover agent in Crete and Greece in the later war) – although all references to this are in parts where his diary was lost (and so unlike “Suite Francaise” are inevitably retrospectively edited.
The lost-world theme is emphasised by the filter the author’s education and cultural knowledge (which he considers by the standard of the day weak) give him on art, architecture, history (particularly and interestingly the fringes of the Roman Empire and the battle grounds of the Thirty Years War) literature and poetry; and even by the weather (with the first months of his journey dominated by a real winter)....more
Story set in a Siberian town at the end of the First World War but in the midst of the Red/White struggle for Russia. The inhabitants of the town are Story set in a Siberian town at the end of the First World War but in the midst of the Red/White struggle for Russia. The inhabitants of the town are mainly members of a castration and whirling sect – who have castrated themselves so as to remove their lustful impulses and use whirling to enter a transcendental state. A woman living in the town – Anna Petrovna – is supposedly the widow of a Hussar but in fact it emerges that her husband Balashov escaped from soldiery and is the leader of the castrates.
The town is occupied by a division of the Czech Legion, whose sadistic and insane captain Matula is ignoring instructions for them to return to their newly liberated country (after the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian empire) via the US as he prefers running his own military dictatorship (in as the book says in one of its excellent images the grey zone between war and peace). Their Lieutenant Mutz is in some ways the normal character in the book – still disorientated by the loss of the Empire, but keen to return his men to Czechoslovakia and to escape what he knows will be a massacre by the Communists who have particularly targeted the Legion for their role in an atrocity in the war.
The balance of the town is disturbed by the appearance of a charismatic and powerful stranger – Samarin. Initially he is suspected of killing the town’s Shaman (who has a third eye and an albino assistant like him from an “Eskimo” type tribe) but he tells a story of being a political prisoner who has escaped from a terrible prison camp together with a murderer – the Mohican – who had actually taken Samarin along with him as walking food (a so-called “cow”). Both Anna and some of the more politically aware soldiers fall under his spell as the Reds close in.
The main and explicit theme of the book is the love – its variety and the dreadful lengths people are prepared to go to in its name – particularly the love of ideals (both secular and religious).
Once past the confusing early chapters the book is very readable. The book captures something of the Russian epics – especially Dostoevsky, and at times even reads like a book translated from the Russian. The imagery and phrases used are at times excellent and evocative and the more bizarre parts of the story are essentially factual.
Ultimately however there is a small sense of a missed opportunity here - including some anachronistic and clumsy passages and a rather feeble end to the narrative.
Postscript: I recommended this book to my Book Group based on advice from Paul (who has rated this 5*) - 10 years later, the same group refuses to read any book if I mention that Paul liked it....more
Laura is an American art student keen to study Italian culture and art but who despairing of Italian men is advised to look for a chef. Tommaso, a waiLaura is an American art student keen to study Italian culture and art but who despairing of Italian men is advised to look for a chef. Tommaso, a waiter in a 3* restaurant overhears this and poses as a chef but is forced to use his friend Bruno (an up and coming chef in the restaurant and his best friend) to cook for him. This leads to increasingly farcical situations particularly as Bruno has already spotted Laura and is more in love with her than Tommaso and when Laura’s friends father sets Tommaso up as a chef in a restaurant whose food (cooked of course by Bruno) becomes famous for its seductive properties.
A surprisingly readable and Italiophilic gastro-romance, well written despite the clichés such as the Italian vernacular. The book as would be expected contains detailed descriptions of food, which is explicitly linked to sexual seduction. The characters although often clichéd also contain some original and amusing touches – such as the moody 3-star chef who meets his come-uppance when he expels some friends of the mafia and who the main characters tempt out of his kitchen by announcing a customer has ordered steak and tomato ketchup and a coffee bar owner who cannibalises his small van for parts he can use to enhance his coffee machine....more
Effectively the sequel to the “Masters of Rome” series – following on immediately after the series ends and written in an almost identical style (althEffectively the sequel to the “Masters of Rome” series – following on immediately after the series ends and written in an almost identical style (although with few maps, very few drawings of characters and a very short glossary).
The story concentrates on Antony/Cleopatra and Caesarion (Cleopatra’s son by Caesar and his spitting image) and equally on Octavian. As usual with McCullough heavy emphasis is given to the role of women – not just Cleopatra (who is portrayed as desperately ambitious to use the stumbling and increasingly confused Antony make Caesarion King of Rome in excess of his own wishes), but Octavian’s sister and Antony’s wife Octavia and Octavian’s third wife Livia Drussila – and on the sheer force of personality of Caesar (as seen is his chosen and true heirs Octavian and Caesarion).
Another excellent book in this extended series, particularly as always insightful as to the motivations, fears and plans of the main characters. ...more
Sixth and last in the (original) “Masters of Rome” series.
The book starts in Egypt – with Caesar’s embroilment in the Egyptian civil war and his relatSixth and last in the (original) “Masters of Rome” series.
The book starts in Egypt – with Caesar’s embroilment in the Egyptian civil war and his relationship with Cleopatra and thereafter switches to Rome for the events of Caesar’s dictatorship including the wars against the Republicans in Africa and then Spain. In a rare piece of sympathy for the Boni and especially Cato (who McCullough clearly regards as responsible for destroying through his intransigence the very Republic he claimed to be preserving) she covers in detail a little known march he led of around 10,000 wounded troops to join the Republican army in Africa.
Caesar’s assassination is covered around 2/3rds of the way through the book and the section that follows is as confused as the actual period following the death with various armies on the move (alluded to in the title of one section) and with loyalties and factions shifting. Eventually things coalesce into two uneasy factions – the Second Triumvirate (led by Antony – the boorish man of action but still basically a Republican and Octavian – see below) and the Liberators (led by the increasingly confident Cassius and the man of Philosophy Brutus). This culminates in the two battles of Philippi (this section of the book is called “Everything by Halves” and paints both sides as hopelessly divided between their main leaders) the first ending in the mistaken suicide of Cassius (believing his side lost and unaware of the near victory won by Brutus’s men) and the second in slaughter of Brutus’s army and his own suicide. The book ends with Brutus’s head being demanded by an increasingly compelling and cold-blooded Octavian from a reluctant but overawed Antony so he can send it to the Rostra in Rome but the head being thrown overboard from the ship carrying it as the sailors believe it a curse.
Throughout the book McCullough paints the most favourable possible picture of Caesar in two key areas – his control of events (e.g. Egypt is portrayed as completely under his control and foresight, whereas all non-fiction accounts aqree that his involvement was unwitting, that he was caught by surprise by the Alexandrian hostility to his soldiers and that he fought a desparate and clumsy struggle for survival) and in his genuine good intentions (any historical incidents traditionally taken as describing his increasing megalomania are spun or explained away – eg his wearing of the traditional long red boots of the Alban Kings was to cure varicose veins whereas the attempts to make him a King or God were deliberate acts by Mark Antony as part of his attempts to surreptitiously legitimise the Liberators cause.
The other interesting aspect of the book it its portrayal of the rise of Octavian against all the odds of his health, appearance, age and lack of standing but trading on the deification of Caesar by the ordinary Romans, the devotion of Caesar’s soldiers and on his own sheer cold-minded determination and resolution to seize the destiny that his Great-Uncle laid out for him by making him his heir. The book portrays well also his complete lack of clemency for his and Caesar’s enemies (in contrast to his Great-Uncle) with even by the time of the Battles of Philippi the Liberators keener to surrender to the hot-blooded and militant Antony (who on a number of occasions led his soldiers to slaughter protestors in the Forum) than the cold-blooded weakling Octavian.
Overall a brilliant series of books – methodically researched but with the novelist licence allowing McCullough to explore the motivations of the main actors in these historical events and in the death of the Republic (which she paints as being finalised with the death of Caesar’s main assassins and Octavian’s rise to prominence) ...more
Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
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Books:
2007
(32)
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