tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58501724994903750352024-03-13T19:09:14.603+00:00Rooksmoor's Tablets of LeadRooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.comBlogger1013125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-41874456835931645852024-02-29T08:00:00.137+00:002024-02-29T08:00:00.145+00:00Books I Read In February<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Lady from Zagreb' by Philip Kerr</u></p><p>I have lined up the last few novels by Kerr (who died in 2018) featuring his German detective of the 1930s-50s, Bernie Gunther. This is the tenth in the series and like many of the others, jumps between wartime and post-war happenings. While it is common for us to know that in almost all detective novels, the detective will live beyond the end of the book, this approach does mean that even when they are facing serious jeopardy, as Gunther does in Switzerland in this novel, we know they have survived the incident largely unharmed.</p><p>Living in southern France in 1956, Gunther sees a movie featuring a (fictional) actress, Dalia Dresner, of Croatian extraction, with whom he had a sexual relationship in 1942-43. At first we seeing him dealing with an assignment to investigate the use of a house in Berlin by the SS for the daughter of the man it was taken from. That first case has a real hard boiled feel to it, but tapers off. Still it does provide information and contacts useful for the second case when he is tasked by Dr. Josef Goebbels controller of movie making under the Nazis with finding the actress's father who is in the collaborationist state of Croatia. The action in this novel is broken by Gunther going off to investigate the Katyn Massacre which featured in the previous novel in the series, <u>'A Man without Breath'</u> (2013) which I read when last going through Gunther novels back in 2016: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-books-i-read-in-february.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-books-i-read-in-february.html</a></p><p>Despite this fragmented nature and the fact that a beautiful actress would fall in love with a grizzled police officer almost twice her age, the story is interesting. Travelling to Croatia and Switzerland allows Kerr to show us different countries' experiences during the war and the inter-play between different nations police forces. His portrayal of the landscape of these two countries, complements that of the luxurious houses in Berlin which feature when he is in Germany. The manipulation of Gunther whether directly or indirectly, is well handled and credible. I was successfully misled in that regard, though other readers may spot this sooner. While at times credibility can be stretched, for the main this is an engaging mystery story, as always with Kerr, effectively grounded in the times and places he is showing.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Second Sleep' by Robert Harris</u></p><p>It is certainly challenging to guess what Harris will write next. While he has produced a number of historical novels set during the last days of Republican Rome and before and during the Second World War, he has largely adhered to straight historical fiction. His most famous book, <u>'Fatherland'</u> (1992) which was an alternate history book featuring a Nazi victory, was really his only one which diverged from historical fiction. In contrast <u>'The Second Sleep'</u> is a post-apocalyptic novel, set in the 2800s. Society has returned to the industrial level of the mid-18th Century, with water-powered factories being the highest level of sophistication.</p><p>We are not told what the apocalypse was but Harris shows concerns about how much knowledge depends on the maintenance of electricity and internet access, very timely given we lost internet access across our district this week and thus could not even contact people to report it. There are also indications of climate change. The novel takes place in Devon in South-West England but parakeets and even birds-of-paradise live wild in the countryside and the county produces bountiful red wine.</p><p>A Christian church is largely in control of English society (Scotland is once more a separate state). It has some elements of Catholicism such as clerical celibacy and the use of Latin, but also of the Church of England, i.e. it uses the King James Bible and the head of state is the head of the church rather than this residing with a Pope. Investigation and discussion of the remains of the pre-apocalyptic society are treated as heresy and this is at the heart of the book. Christopher Fairfax is sent to a small Devon village following the death of the local priest and discovers that the dead man had an enduring interest in the preceding society and what might be a refuge of the last of those seeking to maintain an industrial England.</p><p>Obviously there are lots of parallels to <u>'A Canticle for Leibowitz '</u> (1959) by Walter M. Miller Jr., though, unlike that book which covers many centuries, Harris's is on a much smaller scale, confined to a small village and its neighbouring market town. This helps in him drawing the characters richly and the inter-play between Fairfax, Lady Durston and Captain Hancock, a local industrialist, is well handled. Harris was looking to draw on the work of Thomas Hardy (even naming the post-apocalyptic county, Wessex) and there is also the flavour of Jane Austen novels too. In that he succeeds. However, the book falls down at the last. I have often noted that Harris struggles with endings. This is also notable in <u>'Fatherland'</u> and <u>'Enigma'</u> (1995) and in fact the screenplays of these two (1994; 2001 respectively) handle the conclusions better than the novels did. The same happens here, it is almost as if Harris runs out of steam. There is a great revelation and then it just halts where another author would have given something more satisfactory or at least more conclusive.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Dinner for Two' by Mike Gayle</u></p><p>This is quite an insubstantial novel. It seems in part autobiographical featuring a music journalist then agony uncle (a role Gayle has held), Dave Harding, who like Gayle is black. He lives in London in the early 2000s. Not a great deal happens. His wife Izzy has a miscarriage and Harding is contacted by a 13-year old girl, Nicola, who claims to be his biological daughter as a result of a one-night stand while Harding and her mother were on holiday in Greece. Much of the book is taken up with Harding angsting over whether it is right for a man to want to be a father the way some women yearn to be mothers. Then there is thinking about revealing Nicola to Izzy and being in touch Nicola's mother. Caitlin. It is padded out with mildly witty articles that Dave writes for various publications and his comments to women about what men are thinking. I was surprised Dave does not get more into difficulty as a result of meeting a 13-year old girl, on occasion playing truant from school, for a number of meals and drives in his car. Izzy and Caitlin also seem much too easily accepting of the situation. I have a sense that Gayle has written a book on how he wishes people would behave when 'patchwork' families develop than is actually the case in UK society. In addition all the characters come over as very privileged and not facing any real challenges which makes it all seem like a 'feel good' fantasy. Maybe I should have expected that from Gayle's writing.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-34674835702502053102024-01-31T08:00:00.158+00:002024-01-31T08:00:00.139+00:00Books I Read In January<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'My Name is Red' by Orhan Pamuk</u></p><p>It was highlighted that this book translated from Turkish was written very much in a Turkish style. I have to confess I found that hard going. There are multiple points of view and we move between them at random almost like a game of 'tag' rather than in a structured way. In addition, drawings and even a colour appear as 'characters' in the book. The murderer has two identities that we see through the eyes of at different times.</p><p>The book is set in Constantinople in the 1590s and rotates around book illustrators, one of whom is murdered near the start of the book, and their various relatives. It informs you a great deal about the style of book illustration of the time and the stories which were most popular. The style of a particular artist is used in part to determine the killer. There is also the background tension of the traditional approach to illustration inherited from Persia and other regions east of Anatolia and the 'new' more realistic approach coming from western Europe via the Venetians which is a more realistic rendering of people's features and perspective. This then touches on religious questions around the representation of people in Islamic art. </p><p>Though the cast of characters is well drawn, at time the book descends into soap opera territory especially about the wife of a missing soldier husband and whether she can remarry - and who - and whether she should live in her father's house or her in-laws house and so on. While this aspect tells us more about the characters it does become rather laboured, piling an extra layer on top of the murder mystery and all the discussions about art. The investigation itself also goes off into philosophical paths using a formula which I imagine may be familiar for Turkish readers but for Western readers just adds further complications.</p><p>There is a lot in this book and it is informative. The characters are believable. However, the very slow pace of the book and constant diversions from one or other of the main threads makes it quite tiresome to read. I admire the work that went into this book but did not enjoy reading it.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Vampye and Other Tales of the Macabre' ed. by Robert Morrison and Chris Baldick</u></p><p>This is a collection of stories and articles published in literary magazines, 1819-1838. While following on from the Gothic mania of the previous century, these stories, notably <u>'The Vampyre' </u>(1819) by John Polidori really developed horror tropes which remain with us even some 200 years later. It was written during the same competition at Villa Diodati near Geneva where Mary Shelley wrote <u>'Frankenstein'</u> (1818). Indeed when <u>'The Vampyre'</u> was first published it was attributed to their host Lord Byron rather that Polidori, the doctor of Byron's friend, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Polidori is acknowledged for changing the character of the vampire from being undead peasants to a lord, a man of society. Interestingly, the vampire antagonist, Lord Ruthven as well as drinking blood, also works to ruin decent men and to promote nefarious ones, so you have the sense of his evil beyond the standard vampire diet.</p><p>The stories in the collection are written in a style and language of the time, but fortunately the editors provide a lot of background information on each, if the reader is unfamiliar with the context, and translations of archaic terms. In the case of 'Sir Evelyn's Dream' by Horace Smith this is particularly necessary as it is set some 200 years earlier still and he seeks to use language of that time. While many of the stories are supernatural in nature, featuring ghosts, others are more accounts of grim happenings of the time 'Confessions of a Reformed Ribbonman' by William Carelton is simply the account of a vigilante killing in Ireland and 'Some Terrible Letters from Scotland' collected by James Hogg, is largely accounts of the spread of cholera. 'Life in Death' featuring a reanimation potion with only partial effects, in fact can be considered a science fiction story.</p><p>Others such as 'Monos and Daimonos' by Edward Buller, 'The Master of Logan' by Allan Cunningham, 'The Curse', 'The Red Man' by Catherine Gore, 'The Bride of Lindorf' by Letitia E. Landon and 'Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess' by the better known Sheridan Le Fanu, are all satisfyingly either supernatural or of a horror nature for the reader looking for short classic Gothic stories. They also remind me of Roald Dahl's <u>'Tales of the Unexpected'</u> (1979), the sequels and TV series based on them. Overall this was an interesting collection of often forgotten stories which impinge on Gothic and horror writing long after they were published.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Hare with Amber Eyes' by Edmund De Waal</u></p><p>This is the second time in two months that I have mistaken a non-fiction book for fiction. In fact this was an investigation by the author, a descendant of the incredibly wealthy Ephrussi family. The linking aspect are the 264 intricate netsuke - ornate Japanese ornaments made of wood or ivory, to keep cords in place on someone's clothing in the 19th Century - that he inherited. You have to admire his effort in finding how they first arrived in Europe during the mid-19th Century fad for Japonisme and the context in which they were housed in Paris before moving to Vienna as a wedding present and then to the care of De Waal's uncle who lived in Japan following the Second World War. It is an interesting account of an incredibly wealthy family who were destroyed by the coming of Nazism and the persecution of Jews. Their wealth did allow most to escape into exile. A dedicated servant preserved the netsuke during the Second World War so they could be reunited with the family afterwards. However, vast quantities of artwork sold to help pay for passage into exile or seized by the Nazis are now housed in galleries across the world.</p><p>I really admired the hard work De Waal put in digging up the story of his ancestors especially in the turbulent times in which they lived. However, you quickly have had enough of all the details of the vast houses they built and the extensive art collections they assembled. While their wealth did not exempt them from persecution, most of the family came away alive. In addition, it is clear that De Waal is rather unaware of his own privileges. He works as a potter and yet owns a house in London and clearly has the time and the money to fly off across Europe and into Asia, whenever he wishes. While it is an interesting story it is one that left me feeling uneasy, particularly for those Jewish people living in Vienna and Paris who were unable to get away.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Hitler State' by Martin Broszat</u></p><p>This is a good supplement to the four volumes on the rise and maintenance of power by Noakes & Pridham that I read in 2022/23, notably Volume 2: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-books-i-read-in-november.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-books-i-read-in-november.html</a> Broszat goes a level deeper and shows just how complicated Germany was under the Nazis. We are familiar with the sense that the regime was chaotic and that Hitler was happy to foster competing organisations often overlapping. This book provides the detail of those and how different bodies ebbed and flowed throughout the period, particularly in the pre-war years. It features many of the second- and third-rank Nazis which tend not to get featured even in specialist books on the regime and shows how different characters and ambitions, and the arguments among them, fuelled the chaos. In particular Broszat addresses the balance between Party and State, contrasting Germany with the USSR in this respect and articulating the contests between authoritarian - due to the persistence of so much from the previous state systems - and totalitarian trends. In the fields of the economy and industry, he shows how the entwining between official positions and private business was 'messy' but in fact allowed the German economy and output to continue. Ironically this mashing together of the private and the official was very much how Britain ran its wartime economy too. Overall this is a detailed account which really demonstrates the every-changing 'machine' of the Nazi regime. However, it does beg the question how much more deadly Nazi Germany would have been to the world if it has been organised effectively or even just on a rational basis.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-33310935875549021832023-12-31T08:00:00.147+00:002024-02-24T08:49:30.119+00:00Books I Read In December<p>Well, this year I managed to read 53 books which averages out at just over one per week. However, the pattern across the year has been imbalanced due to the varying length of what I read. This month I read, at 704 pages, the second longest book I read this year so did not get through much else.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Fleshmarket Close' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>This was the last of the Rebus books I had been given. It is the 15th in the series and 9 others follow it. However, I am unlikely to rush out and buy those. As has been clear in terms of the Rebus books I have reviewed this year, they are not bad, but they are far from gripping. You do feel rather as if you are slipping into an episode of the <u>'The Bill'</u> (broadcast 1983-2010). Rebus goes about his business as does Siobhan Clarke who by this stage was overdue for equal billing with John Rebus. The book has three components which reflect issues of the time (2005) and indeed now. One is the murder of an immigrant living on a sink estate; there is also human trafficking and modern slavery involved. The attitudes towards immigrants seems unchanged even 18 years on and indeed much of this book, bar some aspects of technology, could be set right now. The other is the disappearance of a young woman depressed at the death of her sister who may be mixed up in prostitution and the other is the finding of skeletons in a pub basement. Rebus and Clarke go through the motions to solve what soon proves to be a tangling of these elements and Rebus might be starting a relationship with another middle aged liberal, artistic woman pretty much a replica for those who have crossed his path in previous novels.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Plot Against America' by Philip Roth</u></p><p>This book is probably even more impactful now than when it was published in 2004. It is effectively a fictional memoir written by a Jewish American boy also called Philip Roth who is growing up in New York City in the late 1930s and 1940s. It is an alternate history in that rather than Franklin Roosevelt being re-elected for a third term in 1940, the aviator Charles Lindbergh wins the Presidency and follows the policy of the America First movement. This means that the USA does not enter the Second World War and curtails aid to the Allies. In addition Nazi German and Imperialist Japanese politicians are welcomed at the White House. Anti-Semitism which was an element of the America First approach grows in strength with moves to relocate Jewish people from the cities out to rural areas of the USA.</p><p>Roth holds to the style of the boy's perspective, so at times he jumps up and down the chronology rather than progressing neatly. Philip's concerns about his friends, relations with his brother and cousin and with his parents feature as much as concerns about where the USA is going. His cousin joins the Canadian Army and fights in France; his brother becomes part of the Just Folks movement which sends Jewish children to US farms to be apparently more integrated into WASP US society. Given policies that have been adopted at state and federal level in the past decade, it is very educative to see and think about how such discrimination can be advanced subtly but steadily.</p><p>The book succeeds in showing how easily it could have been (and remains especially now) for the USA to slide into an authoritarian state. It also reminds us that Germany did this too, not abruptly, but step-by-step eliminating the rights of Jews until within nine years it had reached extermination. The novel is successful in capturing that kind of <u>'Cider with Rosie'</u> (1959) perspective of a boy recalling his life. I am sure there are US equivalents, though more Scottish and Irish ones pop up in terms of searches.</p><p>I think my two main criticisms are that it seems almost entirely to leave out the black population of the USA from the alternative. The black population of Germany was smaller but it did face discrimination under the Nazis. It seems that, at least, Lindbergh would have adopted apartheid policies towards blacks as well as Jews, especially given there was segregation in the military anyway and many states already had segregated buses, schools, cafes, etc. very much like what was coming in South Africa. </p><p>The other thing is that the book has too much of a pat ending. Lindbergh who flies himself around the USA campaigning simply disappears on a flight back to Washington DC. While oppressive policies follow in the wake of his disappearance, including declaration of war on Canada, soon Roosevelt is re-elected as President and the timeline is 'corrected'. It would seem more realistic is some of Lindbergh's coterie would have remained in power and using the the conspiracies that soon develop around the President's disappearance, use it for negative integration, i.e., using it as 'proof' of the threats the USA faces and so ramp up authoritarian policy. A post-war world world with a (semi-)Fascist USA, the USSR in control of an larger slice of Europe and no Marshall Aid to assist post-war recovery in the remaining democracies would be a bleak picture to hint at even if Roth did not paint it.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>The Social History of Politics' ed. by Georg Iggers</u></p><p>This is a useful book to read alongside Hans-Ulrich Wehler's <u>'The German Empire, 1871-1918'</u> (1973) which I read in August: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/08/books-i-readlistened-to-in-august.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/08/books-i-readlistened-to-in-august.html</a> Iggers brings together articles and book extracts published between 1954-1979. These look at slices of German society in the Imperial period and various social developments. It is particularly good with Hans Rosenberg in digging into the Junker class and showing that despite a continuity of interests these large landowners from eastern Germany actually changed in make-up and their sources of income in a way which is very much overlooked in general histories of Germany. There are articles on the evolution of the working and its social contexts as well as the middle classes of Germany. Karin Hausen's renowned piece on the impact of home sewing machines reminds us how easily overlooked the significance of a relatively minor innovation can have on society, especially if it is deemed to fall into the 'realm of women'. That is unfortunately still a factor in so much research even 45 years on from the publication of that article. Overall, a crisp, focused read which provides very useful penetrating background for anyone interested in German history.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Fifty Amazing Secret Service Dramas' edited by Odhams Press Editors</u></p><p>Initially I thought this book, published in 1937, was a collection of fiction stories. However, in fact it is extracts from various memoirs written by 24 different authors. While some names are changed or substituted with just an initial, the bulk of what is covered if factual. Most of the extracts are about the First World War, including the outbreak of the Russian Revolutions, though some, such as the best known one from Robert Baden Powell, focus on the pre-war era; one is about countering gun-running in South Africa in the 1890s and one is about spying in the USA in 1929. There is some corroboration between different accounts for example about the female doctor who controlled the German network in occupied Belgium and the British spymaster "Evelyn" based in Folkestone.</p><p>One interesting aspect is the different perspectives. The memoirs are not simply written by British spies, but Belgians, French, Germans, Russians and Americans too. There is some brief coverage of Japanese spy activity at the time of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-05, but not much. Most of the extracts are about human intelligence, but there is interesting information on the early days of radio intelligence and the use in locating submarines. Aircraft also feature and it is interesting to see how the landing of agents in occupied territory was becoming used before the examples we are familiar with from the Second World War.</p><p>Being based on real people and events, it does not baulk from simply outlining how people were executed. Many of those featured in the book end up that way, whether male or female and of all ages. Given death rate that these spy missions were carried out against the backdrop of, I suppose readers would not be sentimental. The cover simply shows a blindfolded man standing against a wall awaiting his execution. It is interesting, however, how many blunders or oversights outlined in these accounts were to be repeated in the next world war. This book would be a really useful source for anyone thinking of writing spy or adventure stories set in the first 20 years of the Twentieth Century. </p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Keynes and After' by Michael Stewart</u></p><p>I read the second edition of this book, published in 1972 when the post-war boom was beginning to come to an end and the concept of floating currencies was becoming widely accepted. This book is very useful in explaining why governments behaved in the way they did during the Depressions which in Britain and to a great extent in Germany, filled the 1920s and 1930s when the problem became global. As you might expect the book gives a good summary of Keynesian principles and how his followers took them beyond what Keynes himself had argued. It also addresses monetarism, which despite President Nixon's abandonment of it, was to become the more popular economic theory of the 1970s and 1980s, even if, as Dell showed in <u>'The Chancellors'</u> (1997): <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/11/books-i-read-in-november.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/11/books-i-read-in-november.html</a> it was never really put into full effect in Britain.</p><p>The style of the book is very much like a lecture and it makes useful of very simple examples to explain economic principles and theories. I feel it really retains value in this regard especially for people operating in an era when many monetarist assumptions have become seen as 'the truth', despite hiccoughs such as the boom of the early 1990s and the 'credit crunch'. of the late 2000s.</p><p>While retaining value, Stewart's book now seems rather naive. He states that the problem of mass unemployment, at least in industrialised countries is over. Furthermore he says more than once that UK unemployment above 2.5% would be politically unacceptable. However, by 1984 it was at 11.9%. He is accurate in his warnings of persistent balance of payment difficulties and inflation in Britain but does not see that these, rather than unemployment, would quickly come to be seen as the prime economic challenges. He does note that such unemployment would effectively smash union power and lead to a fall in wages, but did not foresee that legislation would accelerate that process.</p><p>Stewart does clearly identify the problems of regional unemployment and the need for retraining in both the UK and USA, challenges which have not been appropriately addressed in either country even 50 years on, hence the persistent unemployment from the 'mismatch' of those without work at a time of a high level of vacancies. However, he makes no reference to immigration which played such an important role in Britain and West Germany in supplying labour when demand was high in the 1950s-60s. Nor does he reference cheap oil which again aided the post-war boom while meaning that inflation, still too high in Stewart's eyes, did not reach the levels it would attain from 1973 onwards.</p><p>While of its time, this is a useful book for explaining the two main economic theories influencing governments in the late 20th Century. I found it particularly insightful for explaining why British governments were effectively intellectually paralysed to do anything to reduce the impact of the Depression.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-85331546680915782482023-11-30T08:00:00.141+00:002023-11-30T08:00:00.136+00:00Books I Read In November<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Pariah' by David Jackson</u></p><p>Though set in the early 2010s, this crime novel about a New York detective of Irish heritage, Callum Doyle really feels like the hardboiled fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, especially that sense of existential threat; alienation and indeed isolation whether in the rural or urban space. When two of the police officers working with Doyle are murdered, his precinct is both eager to catch the killer but also increasingly suspicious of the detective, especially as his female police partner at a previous precinct was also killed in a raid gone wrong. It soon becomes apparent that the murderer is looking to isolate Doyle from colleagues and even family, making it too dangerous for anyone even criminals to be in contact with him. At times there are clichéd phrases, but the novel is fast paced and there are some great scenes in which Doyle escapes what his antagonist has woven around him. If you have run out of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler novels or want that tone but in a contemporary setting, then this novel does the job well and I can understand the acclaim it has received. Occasionally it does feel like a first novel, but overall Jackson rises above his lack of experience and I imagine the subsequent books in the series will be more polished.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Piranesi' by Susanna Clarke</u></p><p>Two years after Clarke's debut novel, <u>'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell</u> <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/02/books-i-read-in-february.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/02/books-i-read-in-february.html</a> she was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and while a second book came out in 2006, she was unable to produce anything else until 2019 and this novel was published the following year. While it is much shorter than her debut, this book has the same almost matter-of-fact magic realism about it. The main character is called Piranesi by another and inhabits a vast building with multiple chambers filled with statues and ornate architecture. Parts of it are crumbing and there are often floods caused by various tides coming into the lower chambers. The story is told through Piranesi's journal and he details more of his environment and the remains of others he finds coming into it. Initially only one of these is alive but as the novel progresses, the character and we learn more about the situation, what the vast house is and how he came to be there. If I say much more I will spoil the story which does a great job of unfolding the details bit by bit and showing that it is magic realist rather than fantasy as it might appear (as it did to me) at the outset. The novel reminded me of early work by Christopher Fowler and novels by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (more of which below). The tighter focus of this novel means Clarke's skill in conjuring up fascinating places and intriguing people is put to great effect. I hope that she publishes more.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Angel's Game' by Carlos Ruiz Zafón </u></p><p>This is the second book in Ruiz Zafón's tetralogy but is a prequel to <u>'The Shadow of the Wind'</u> (2001) which I read last month: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/10/books-i-readlistened-to-in-october.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/10/books-i-readlistened-to-in-october.html</a> It is again set in Barcelona but this time in the 1920s with an epilogue in 1945. Some of the same characters appear, though younger. The story is very similar to the first book in that it has a very Gothic tone with the protagonist, David Martín, a journalist and subsequently a novelist. There are more scenes in run-down grand houses and backstreets of Barcelona, corrupt police, unrequited love and a visit to the the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. <u>'The Shadow of the Wind'</u> was a kind of literary detective story with Gothic overtones. This novel centres on a Faustian pact that Martín makes with an elusive, probably supernatural French publisher and the disruption it causes to his life. However, there is also the uncovering of a complex crime focused on the grand house the author buys with profits from a series of Gothic novels, the <i>City of the Damned</i> sequence. As the novel comes closer to the conclusion this becomes clearer as a crime story, with that hardboiled feel, indeed reminding me a little of the movie <u>'Chinatown'</u> (1974) and the pace steps up into an all-action finale with car crashes and a fight in cable car.</p><p>I almost feel that my reading this month unintentionally has been in the same vein. This novel has the kind of fated doom that characterised hardboiled novels and movies but also has aspects of the unearthly, sitting alongside the mundane which characterises magic realism. The trouble for me was that I read this too soon after <u>'The Shadow of the Wind'</u> whereas originally they were published 7 years apart. Thus, I had had my fill of bleak young men and angelic young women in the shadowy decay of Barcelona. This book was some 69 pages shorter (441 as opposed to 510 in my editions) but still felt rather too long and it would have had more impact if crisper. I am certainly not rushing out to buy the remaining two books in the series but may come to them in some years' time.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Chancellors' by Edmund Dell</u></p><p>Edmund Dell was someone I used to run into quite a bit in London in the 1990s up to his death in 1999. He had served in various under-secretary of state roles in the late 1960s before becoming Minister of State for Trade and then Employment to 1970. In 1974 he was Paymaster General and then Trade Secretary until 1978. In this book, published in 1996, he reviews the 17 Chancellors of the Exchequer, the British finance ministers, 1945-90.</p><p>What is astounding, perhaps unsettling, about this book is that, throughout, Dell makes no attempt as a historian to be objective. He savages every Chancellor on a range of bases for what he sees as sustained incompetence, arrogance, naivety and simply being wrong about almost everything in how the economy was unfolding. It seems a surprise that he was ever a Labour MP let alone in a Labour government. His economic outlook as revealed through his commentary is that in some way Britain needed to shirk off any international role, that defence should have been reduced to a minimum and that it should have had a much smaller state, with very little social welfare or health service. It is a Little Englander attitude in extreme. Saying this, while Dell favours the market, he does not sit with the free marketeers of the Thatcher years seeing them as tinkering too much and deluded in their belief in monetarism or what they thought was monetarism.</p><p>Reviews quoted on the book speaking of it being 'severe' (David Butler) and 'merciless' (Peter Hennessy) are accurate. While it can be argued that the criticism is warranted, Dell goes far outside what is taken as the usual historical approach. Many of his comments, even the captions under the photos of all the different chancellors are snide, touching on the juvenile. He occasionally yields a little for Dennis Healey and Nigel Lawson, but generally this book is filled with attack after attack on the men it focuses upon, sometimes descending well away from academic analysis.</p><p>Dell did not come across in this way when met in person and it seems apparent he had bottled up a lot of vitriol that he felt compelled to shoot out in this book. I am surprised the editors let him get away with this, especially the stuff which would be embarrassing reading in an 'A' Level essay. I suppose his standing, as seems to be the case with some established historians, made him immune from being edited.</p><p>The book does explain the complexities of the first 45 post-war years of the British economy clearly and it has a value in that. However, never have I read a history book which is effectively a personal rant against a string of people. If anything this should have rather appeared as an autobiography rather than masquerading as a genuine history book.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-62513259473411927192023-10-31T08:00:00.438+00:002023-10-31T08:00:00.143+00:00Books I Read/Listened To In October<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafón</u></p><p>This is the first part of Ruiz Zafón's renowned tetralogy. It is set in Barcelona, 1945-56. It is a little magic realism, with most elements quite realistic, if Gothic in tone. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books which the protagonist is taken to as a boy and is the home to books that would otherwise be lost has a fantastical element. However, other aspects such as the role of the secret police under the Francoist regime, established right across Spain in 1939, is realistic. Daniel is allowed to pick one book from the cemetery and selects <u>'The Shadow of the Wind'</u> by Julian Carax an unsuccessful published author from Barcelona who spent much of his life in the inter-war years in Paris. Daniel sets out to discover the story of Carax, especially his subsequent death in Barcelona, and those who knew him that remain. This involves a lot of investigating among deserted buildings of the city and avoiding various nasty characters including the man intent on burning all Carax's work. It is also a coming of age story and Daniel's challenges with the young women he falls for, in part mirror Carax's own.</p><p>This book has been immensely successful. It was published in 2001 and translated into English in 2004. I am not sure why I had not come across it before, though possibly as given my reading patterns I typically reach books some 15-20 years after they have been successful and they are common in charity shops. I was interested in the setting, having read quite a lot on the Spanish Civil War, but much less on the period afterwards. The Gothic atmosphere is well rendered. The investigation and the sense of jeopardy were handled effectively. I did feel that it went too far in trying to be twisty in its narrative and its revelations and that my patience with how many times it might loop around or parallels be drawn, was probably exhausted by the three-quarter mark, though I continued to the end. Perhaps the petty, and at times violent, nastiness of characters especially towards their children, becomes tiresome after a while.</p><p>I have the second book, in the sequence, <u>'The Angel's Game'</u> (2008) which is a prequel to read. While it was a labour to finish the first book, I did admire the imagination of the author and his portrayal of the settings so will not abandon reading the second one in due course.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'A Question of Blood' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>I actually listened to the audio book version of this back in August 2018: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2018/08/books-i-listened-toread-in-august.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2018/08/books-i-listened-toread-in-august.html</a> Interestingly, this time round, reading it, I felt that it was actually tighter than I felt back then listening to it. There is some travelling about, but compared to some of Rankin's books I have read in recent months, this felt to be necessary. The fact that Rebus and DS Clarke work together rather than separately for much of the book, may be one reason why aspects do not feel superfluous. The story does move on briskly and as I noted before, not being a standard murder mystery in that the killer is known from the outset, does not undermine the investigation and it is interesting that some of the 'red herrings' are put in intentionally by people working to their own agendas. Thus, overall, I was glad I came back to this book as I was much more satisfied with reading this particular entry in the series, the 14th, then I was listening to it five years ago.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Breakfast in the Ruins' by Michael Moorcock</u></p><p>While I have read a lot of Michael Moorcock books down the years, this was one, published in 1971, that I had not come across before. It is a short novel (174 pages in my edition) which see the protagonist Karl Glogauer dropping into various versions of himself, usually as a boy in various locations from 1871 to 1990. He is projected into these roles, it appears, through having homosexual sex with an unnamed Nigerian man who he meets in the roof garden cafe of the Derry & Tom's department store, a location regularly turning up in many of Moorcock's books.</p><p>Aside from the mode of 'transport' and a vignette set in 1990, there is not much science fiction or fantasy, rather they are quick portrayals of different historical settings including Paris under the Commune, 19th Century Brunswick, Capetown, Havana at the time of the Spanish-American War, the east end of London, (German) Alsace during the First World War, Kiev during the Russian Civil War (a popular context for Moorcock), New York at the time of Wall Street Crash, Shanghai during the 28th January Incident of 1932 (rather than the Japanese invasion of 1937), Berlin in 1935, Auschwitz in 1944, Tel Aviv in 1947 at the end of British mandate, Budapest in 1956, Kenya in 1959 during the Mau Mau Emergency, with US troops in Vietnam in 1968 and the west end of London (notably Ladbroke Grove another venue Moorcock likes to use) with a prediction of rioting and unemployment in the 1980s which was a reasonably accurate prediction. As you can tell all the settings are grim; often violent.</p><p>Also in common with his style, Moorcock mixes in excerpts from newspapers and non-fiction books of various periods. He also presents a moral dilemma at the end of each chapter. In many ways he was the precursor of a lot of what goes on in terms of social media these days. At the time the book must have appeared like a lot of his work, as a challenging text in terms of the incidents it focused on, its very format and the engagement with topics such as homosexuality and abuse. Now such are commonplace features on TV and in books thought non-linear, multi-perspective structures are unpopular with readers even if they do feature in movies and TV series. Consequently what a reader in 2023 is likely to pick up on is the quality of the descriptions of the contexts and in one case quite an engaging short story. Aside from that, it does feel at times as if Moorcock was showing off his ability to be non-traditional in his approach which would have jarred/challenged readers in 1971 much, much more than it does 52 years later.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Walking on Glass' by Iain Banks</u></p><p>I believed that I had not read this book, though given I get through about 50 per year, perhaps it is to be expected that I forget some from a decade or two ago. This was published in 1985 so I would have had ample time to read it in the past 38 years. It was not as if I was entirely familiar with the book and I did not know the ending. It consists of three strands that we move between in turn. Two of them are about men living in London in 1983/84: Graham Park, an art student and Steven Grout, a man who maybe neuro-diverse or mentally disabled. For much of the novel we see them moving around on a particular day, one in which Graham is going to visit a woman called Sara who he is in love with but has been rather toying with his affections and Steven loses his job as a roadworker. I did not recall either of these stories. </p><p>I did recall the third strand which features a man called Quiss and a woman called Ajayi who come from opposing sides of a war on a different planet or time. They are confined to a vast castle in a bleak landscape and have to play out almost impossible games such as one-dimensional chess, open-plan Go, spotless dominoes, Chinese Scrabble and Tunnel. Working out how to play and completing a game allows them one chance to answer the riddle and be released from the castle. In the depths of the castle are rooms in which other prisoners can insert themselves into the lives of others as a distraction from their imprisonment.</p><p>This was Banks's second 'contemporary' book and like <u>'The Wasp Factory'</u> (1984) combines the mundane with the rather outré aspects. It also points to his other stream of writing as Iain M. Banks, as a science fiction author. Overall the book, rather like its predecessor, shows different personal Hells. It shows how we can construct or at least contribute to constructing contexts which distress us mentally and then fall victim to these; often unable to break out of them even if in (large) part we have built them up in the first place. This does say something about neuro-diversity and mental health, explored less sensitively in the 1980s than now. Unfortunately Banks's 'solution' seems to be simply to seek oblivion, whether that is through self-destruction, suffering a severe injury or simply abandoning even our best work. Added to that it makes a strong message that we should never hope and ultimately the nastiest people in our world will always come out best off.</p><p>While it might not be perceived this way, as with <u>'The Wasp Factory'</u> this novel is effectively a low-key horror story and should be approached in that way. It is an unhelpful musing on the mental worlds we construct and its overall message is that anyone finding themselves in such situations should simply give up, whether on their efforts or indeed life itself. As you can imagine, I did not enjoy this book. It is engaging as it goes along but in all three strands ends up being utterly bleak.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Weimar Republic' by Eberhard Kolb</u></p><p>This was a good book to read after Wehler's <u>'The German Empire'</u> (1985) which I read in August: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/08/books-i-readlistened-to-in-august.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/08/books-i-readlistened-to-in-august.html</a> Like Wehler, Kolb provides a brisk but focused analysis of the next period in German history, which eschews being dogmatic down any of the lines which became very ensconced in German history in the 1960s-80s. The first part of the book is an account, which really cuts through the confusion and draws attention to aspects which are overlooked. He makes the notable point that the state's democracy had died by 1930, almost three years before Hitler came to power. Kolb dismisses many of the 'easy' answers that have been put forward for the failure of the Weimar Republic and indeed misconceptions, perhaps even myths, that for so long persisted, regarding the rise of the Nazis. The second half of the book looks at research into different themes of the period as it was when this edition, the first in English was published in 1988. The bibliography was updated from the German first edition four years earlier; there is a 2004 edition in English available too. Thus, this book provides a valuable insight into a period of history which retains interest (e.g. <u>'Babylon Berlin'</u> TV series, which began in 2017 is still running with a 5th season planned) and a good counter to many of the lazy answers that people continue to wheel out about how the republic fell.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Audio Books</b></p><p><u>'Prince' by Rory Clements; read by Peter Wickham</u></p><p>Set in 1593, this is the third in Clements's series of spy thrillers featuring John Shakespeare, brother to the more famous William. It is very well done with aspects of what you might expect from a modern spy thriller but clearly set in the late Elizabethan period with rich descriptions of all the sights, sounds and smells of the time. Shakespeare works for Robert Cecil, effectively spymaster for Elizabeth I in the last decade or so of her reign. While his father Cecil acted as her Secretary of State, 1590-96, Robert despite being disabled, carried out a growing part of his work before taking on the position 1596-1612.</p><p>John is initially set to investigate terrorist incidents using gunpowder against Dutch refugees from the Eighty Years War who have settled in London. There is much tension around these immigrants though it is soon apparent it is being exploited for a range of purposes. John is later sent to find out about the possibility of an unknown Catholic child of Mary, Queen of Scots who it is believed the Spanish fighting against the Dutch and hostile to Britain, are aiming to set on the Scottish and perhaps the English throne too. Between them John and his assistant Boltfoot Cooper investigate around London and especially into Essex for the conspirators.</p><p>Clements handles the story well. There is rivalry between John and his fellow agents which adds interesting points of tension and dynamics to the plot. Clements does not hold off from brutality of the times, with regular reference to tortures and violence even to</p><p> John's loved ones. There are vain people and brutal people involved, so the jeopardy feels genuine and there are blind alleys which John goes down. He is capable but not all-seeing, which allows us to feel an affinity with him. Some of the conspirators are rather larger than life, but throughout Clements does ground them with genuine motives and behaviours appropriate for the late 16th Century. There is an epic climax which is built up to well and does not feel ahistorical.</p><p>Overall, there is a lot going on in this book, but it maintained my interest without losing me, right throughout. It runs to almost 13 hours on audio, unabridged. Wickham is called on to do a lot of voices from France, Spain, Scotland and the Netherlands, and most of these are handled well, including the female voices. The only gripe is one of his Dutchmen sounds more Polish, though that only brought home how many parallels there can be felt to be between xenophobia of the the Englands of both Queens Elizabeth. This is part of an 8-book series and I would certainly buy more that I come across whether printed or in audio format.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'End in Tears' by Ruth Rendell; read by Christopher Ravenscroft</u></p><p>I have never read any of Ruth Rendell's novels, though I have seen TV dramatisations of <u>'A Fatal Inversion'</u> (1987; broadcast on TV 1992) and <u>'Gallowglass'</u> (1990; broadcast 1992) novels she wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. This novel is the 20th in the Chief Inspector Wexford series and was published in 2005, so after the 48-episode <u>'The Ruth Rendell Mysteries'</u> TV series (broadcast 1987-2000), which I never saw but was aware on.</p><p>The novel is a classic contemporary-set British police procedural novel set in Sussex. A killing of a woman by a lump of concrete being dropped on the car she was travelling in is soon followed by the murder with a brick of a young single mother. This brings Wexford into a complex investigation despite the small range of suspects and it is soon tied up with inheritance, surrogacy and the guardianship of children, with echoes in Wexford's own life. Aside from fewer people having internet access and a lingering discomfort over homosexuality, this book could be set now and Rendell does well in combining modern concerns with a classic crime genre with some tropes, notably the brothers, that would have fitted in earlier decades. It jogs along quite well and the conclusion comes across as believable though perhaps unexpected.</p><p>Ravenscroft does reasonably well with the voices, especially as there are a lot of women of differing ages to cover. His Wexford ironically is perhaps his weakest voice and I think this is because he was seeking to emulate the actor George Baker's portrayal of Wexford in the long-running TV series, but at times the deep West County accent wobbles. It would probably have been better for him to deliver his own take on the character's voice.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Tomorrow Never Dies' by Raymond Benson; read by Simon Vane</u></p><p>As regular readers of this blog will know about five years ago I listened to all of the original Ian Fleming <i>James Bond</i> books in audio format. Since I read <u>'James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me'</u> (1979) by Christopher Wood, when it came out, I have not read any of the novelisations of the movies until I came across this one. Apparently it is based on an unused version of the movie script. However, in common with what I understand is usual with these novelisations, coming to the book does add quite a lot to the movie. There are back stories to Elliot Carver, Paris, Mr. Stamper and so on which develop these characters. In particular through showing their flaws and their physical traits, the characters especially of Carver and Stamper that we see in the movie, make more sense. There is a whole extra character, a non-binary heir to the Chinese throne who does not even turn up in the movie.</p><p>Wai Lin gets more detail too and we see 'behind the scenes' before she encounters Bond. She is, however, portrayed as being 28 (which does seem young to be a Colonel in the Chinese Ministry of State Security) and petite whereas Michelle Yeoh who portrayed her in the movie was 35 at the time and 1.63m (5'4") but shot so she looks little shorter than Pierce Brosnan at 1.86m.</p><p>The action scenes are well handled, influenced by the movie, clearly, though in some cases much more practically portrayed and factors such as the need for decompression when coming up from the sunk ship are addressed rather than skipped over as in the movie. Bond also has to use more initiative when aboard the stealth ship than being fully kitted out as he is in the movie. Rather scary is a scene which does not feature in the movie in which Carver outlines the wars he intends to start in the coming years, including a vicious Arab-Israeli conflict, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and an American civil war. Benson, or whoever wrote the script back in 1997, had pretty decent insight into the likely conflicts of a quarter of a century into the future.</p><p>Simon Vane does well on the accents, just avoiding sounding too stereotypical with the German and Chinese ones. He is clearly influenced by the movie portrayals and captures Jonathan Pryce's Carver well and indeed even Judi Dench's M decently. I would certainly be interested to see other novelisations of the movies though this is rated to be one of the best. The two I have read/heard do add depth to what is shown in the movies; the background stories and the grittier elements do feel to bring them closer to the Fleming books than mainstream movies probably permit.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'A Murder of Quality' by John Le Carré [David Cornwell]; read by John Le Carré</u></p><p>I read the novel of this some time in the past but had forgotten the plot. It is a murder mystery set at a public school. Le Carré was educated at Sherbourne and taught at Eton. Like George Smiley, the protagonist of the novel, Le Carré had been a spy working for both MI5 and MI6 at different times before becoming a novelist. This novel is set in the 1950s with the overhang of the war not too distant. However, a lot of the attitudes and behaviour shown would be no different if you set it, as many authors do, in a British public school of the 21st Century. I suppose this makes it ironically more accessible to readers (even though only a small minority would ever attend such as school) than if it had been set in a grammar school or a secondary modern school of the time.</p><p>The wife of schoolmaster is beaten to death with a coaxial cable. Thus reminding us though the context of the public school is a supposedly genteel setting, in fact the brutality of the war and the cheapness of life continued to impact on the attitudes of many in the following years - you sometimes often spot this in Agatha Christie novels of the time and I instantly think of <u>'A Murder Is Announced'</u> (1950). This novel has a similar element in that Smiley is drawn in after the victim has sent a message predicting her murder.</p><p>The novel is brisk but conjures up a range of characters in this constrained setting, which perhaps while they have become stereotypes in the years since, seem to be nuanced when portrayed by Le Carré. He is particularly adept at showing us characters and then completely undermining our perception of them. Some readers might be riled by this, but the author does remind us that even his protagonist's view of people may be far from perfect and especially coming fresh to the locus, largely judges them through what people say about them.</p><p>I can see why this novel has retained its appeal as it is almost an exemplar of writing a 20th Century English murder mystery and you feel that Le Carré did it to put himself into that context and show what he could do in that genre rather than spy fiction. It is not common to have the author read their book on audio. This is only the third book I have listened to where that has been the case. It does take Le Carré a little time to get into his performance, perhaps because it was not something he did habitually. However, he is soon well underway and coming from the class and background he is portraying he proves very capable of portraying characters of both genders from that context well. At just 2 hours 30 minutes in total, this is certainly one to listen to (or indeed read) if you have exhausted your collection of Christie, Marsh and Sayers, but want something clever set in a context they would recognise.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-4215978036914162872023-09-30T08:00:00.219+01:002023-10-29T15:22:40.399+00:00Books I Read/Listened To In September<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Resurrection Men' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>This is the thirteenth book in the Rebus series and was prize winning. Unlike some of the recent preceding ones, this novel has energy. Rebus is sent back to a training college but is working undercover to find out about corrupt police officers. There is an air of uncertainty especially as the case the retrainees are given to work on is one Rebus knows and her does not know if he is as much under suspicion as the men they are working with. In parallel then overlapping, is the case handled by DS Siobhan Clarke. While not named on the covers in many of these stories she is as much a protagonist as Rebus himself. Rebus is still in his relationship with a curator, though a night-time encounter with her seems rather too convenient to be believable. There is quite a lot of tracking back and forth between the college and Edinburgh and Glasgow. Crime boss Big Ger Cafferty appears yet again though some of the focus is on one of his lieutenants. It gets a bit tiresome that he keeps on turning up. However, this novel is decent in terms of the doubts and self-reflection of Rebus and Clarke and how the different threads of the various stories come together.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Fool's Errand' by Robin Hobb</u></p><p>This is the first of the <i>Tawny Man Trilogy </i>set in the same world as Hobb's <i>Farseer Trilogy</i>, the first book of which I read some while back: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2021/11/books-i-read-in-november.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2021/11/books-i-read-in-november.html</a> Indeed its protagonist is the man who was known as Fitz in that series, but 15 years later when, having renamed himself Tom after all the dramatic adventures of the previous books, is now living a bucolic life with his adopted son and the wolf he is bound to. Hobb's world has two kinds of magic that are genetic inheritances but can be accentuated through training. The Wit allows someone to bind with an animal and communicate with them telepathically. If not handled properly the person can lose themselves in the animal's identity. At the time of this book, the Witted are being persecuted and horribly executed. The other is the Skill which is another form of telepathy allowing sight, i.e. being able to "farsee" and communicate over distances. Tom probably has both abilities. There are also hedge witches with the ability to make charms to achieve low-level magic which actually works.</p><p>The first third of the book seems to be going nowhere. We see Tom's quite life while he is visited by various people from his past who know more or less about his history. Most important is the Fool of the title, who had that role at court, but has now reinvented himself as Lord Golden (many nobles names are characteristics such as King Shrewd and Prince Dutiful). He is a kind of alien with unknown abilities but probably a recurring role as a prophet who needs a catalyst in the form of Tom. This section of the novel is effectively a huge recap of the entire <i>Farseer Trilogy</i> which might be a bit tiresome if you have read it, but does mean if you are new from Hobb's work you can get up to (leisurely) speed with her world. Then the rest of the book is a mission into the depths of the country to track down the heir apparent Prince Dutiful who is Witted and has been lured away by a hunting cat.</p><p>Hobb has real skill in her writing. Whereas there are some familiar tropes, she has a deftness in turning in ways you do not expect, especially in extracting her protagonists from danger in credible ways. The relationships between the main characters, including Nighteyes the wolf, are handled very well when they are faced with a range of unusual and mundane challenges. In addition to the adventuring with questing and battles, and various bits of magic, it is these relationships which really bare you on in the story. There are no absolutes and even the 'good' characters are grumpy and flawed. I know some readers do not like protagonists who make mistakes, but I feel it means that you can feel you are alongside the characters even though they are existing in a very different world to our own. In addition, despite the fantastical setting there are parallels to our world, notably in suspicion and hostility to those who are seen as 'other' and in turn the negative integration which can make the oppressed become almost fanatical in their defence.</p><p>I do not have any more books by Hobb at the present, but if you are looking for well-written fantasy which is credible but not as bleak as grimdark, I can recommend this series.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Mr. Commitment' by Mike Gayle</u></p><p>This is the second novel by Gayle. I read his first, <u>'My Legendary Girlfriend'</u> (1998) back in 2016: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-books-i-read-in-may.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-books-i-read-in-may.html</a> Gayle was trumpeted as the male version of Helen Fielding in featuring in a reasonably light way novels looking at relationships in contemporary Britain (largely London). This one features Ben Duffy, known to his friends as 'Duffy' who is an unsuccessful stand-up comedian who aged 28 has been in a relationship with successful advertising executive, Mel for four years. They live at different ends of London and she asks him to move in with her and get married. Duffy spirals into lots of concerns about marriage, not really about commitment but about the trappings that come with marriage, such as consumerism and children. The novel is then a 'will they/won't they' back and forth with other options for both Duffy and Mel appearing. It is very much of the ilk of <u>'Four Weddings and a Funeral'</u> (1994), though with a lot less humour.</p><p>Some reviewers feel Gayle has portrayed the male characters as stereotypically useless men. I would disagree as in fact this is one of the challenges, most of the other men in the book, seem to be fully in control of their lives and doing pretty successfully. Many of these kinds of books have a sort of 'soft' social class portrayal of a kind of middle class and people around the fringes, actually doing better than would be the case given costs and low salaries in London. Duffy flat sharing is a reasonable portrayal. Marriage itself comes over as a middle class activity and it is tightly associated with dinner parties and especially in this book visits to Ikea. This seems to be an inescapable context. Even <u>'Starstruck'</u> (2021-2023) strays into this territory though it is a lot funnier. I guess this was the focus back in the 1990s and is coming around again after different portrayals like <u>'The Royle Family'</u> (1998-2012) <u>'Gavin and Stacey'</u> (2007-2019), and <u>'Two Doors Down'</u> (2013-2023). I know I am comparing a novel to TV series but it does show how few relationship novels I read.</p><p>This was not a bad book though what it features was hardly unexpected. It would have been good to have included more humour. Possibly the best thing is it might make young men - though they are unlikely to read it - actually think beyond their immediate needs to their longer term and see that relationships can be achieved without having to buy into the whole 'kit' of middle class consumerism.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Montmartre Investigation' by Claude Izner [Liliane Korb and Laurence Lefèvre]</u></p><p>This is the third book in the Victor Legris series. Legris is a book seller living in Paris in the late 19th Century who is also an amateur detective seeking to solve local crimes before the police do. The two authors, sisters who are both Parisian booksellers, are very knowledgeable about France in the period. The book is lovingly detailed in describing all the different districts, their buildings and the residents. Though set in 1891, the fringes of the French capital do open quickly into farmland and an urban goatherd is an important character. The case starts with the murder of a schoolgirl from a boarding school close to Legris's shop which he co-runs with his aged mentor and step-father, Kenji Mori and their assistant, Joseph, an aspiring crime novelist.</p><p>A number of people are murdered through the book and Legris and Joseph, often working alone, wheedle their way into various locations to get to the bottom of these and indeed to see if there is a connection between them and what it might be. The first killing might even be a case of mistaken identity and as a result Mori's goddaughter comes to stay at the bookshop. There is a lot of following people around the streets of Paris. There is also a lot of visiting the nightclubs, notably 'Le Moulin Rouge' and 'Le Chat Noir', where the protagonists happen to run into every famous Parisian artist, writer and composer of the time, which does feel rather artificial. Legris's lover is a painter, Tasha and it is nice to see an amateur detective who is not celibate, even if his relationship is complicated. </p><p>There is a lot of interest in this novel. The details of the settings and the people are fascinating. The murder mystery is pretty clever and not that easily to predict, but avoids deus ex machina being needed to resolve it. The prime drawbacks are that there is a lot of tramping around and the tone seems off. This may be due to it being in translation from French. Despite a series of brutal murders, starting off with a stabbed girl, the tone is persistently light. This is fuelled by quirky customers at the bookshop, Legris having women throwing themselves at him, Joseph's mother' Legris on-off relationship and Tasha's disapproval of his investigating and so on. It may have greater gravity in the original French, but in English, despite points of interest it comes off uncomfortably jarring.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Half A King' by Joe Abercrombie</u></p><p>This novel is set in a different world from, <u>'The Blade Itself'</u> (2006) which I read last month: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/08/books-i-readlistened-to-in-august.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/08/books-i-readlistened-to-in-august.html</a> This one has a more Nordic flavour and focuses on states around the so-called Sundered Sea, a roughly circular sea with rather bleak moors, forests and fens around it and various cities on its shores. It focuses on Yarkvi, the second son of the King of Gettland who was born with a withered arm with only a thumb and one finger on his hand. With his father and elder brother dead, he is called back from training as a Minister - a celibate kind of combined herbalist, diplomat, advisor, order to be king. On a revenge mission to a neighbouring state his uncle attempts to kill him and takes the throne. Yarvi survives but ends up as a galley slave, then later escapes with others from the galley to make the arduous journey back to Gettland to recover his birthright.</p><p>Though Abercrombie aimed for this to be a young adult book; a little less 'grimdark', and it is a bit shorter than <u>'The Blade Itself'</u> and much shorter than later books in that series, it is still pretty much a gritty read, with lots of death and suffering along the way. The book is not high fantasy and at times if someone told you it was set in genuine Nordic history you could almost believe it, including when a One God is put in place over the 409 gods worshipped before. With uncles and a widowed mother in a Nordic realm, there are heavy overtones of <u>'Hamlet'</u> (1601). The portrayals of this bleak context are well done and the action moves along briskly. The portrayal of the characters is handled well and as Abercrombie notes in an interview at the end of the edition I have the focus on one point of view throughout and a small set of characters at any one time means the character development is rich. Some might foresee the twists at the end, but I found they were well handled.</p><p>If I see more books in the series I would certainly pick them up.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'What is History?' by E.H. Carr</u></p><p>This is a series of four lectures that Carr gave in 1961. Despite its age it has really stood the test of time (though it does refer to all historians as 'he' and talks about the USSR) in terms of its exploration of perspectives on history. It is a short book (159 pages in my edition) however covers a whole range of issues that still need to be thought about. Examples include whether anything in history is 'inevitable' and how historians are impacted by their attitudes of their own time when looking at attitudes of the past and whether we can ever be really objective. In some ways the book comes to a proto-Post Modernist approach which was to develop in the next thirty years, emphasising the looking at context rather than insisting that our perspective is somehow greater than others without checking this. He also points out how Western-centric so much of history is in the West and how this neglects histories that in the life of humanity have had huge impacts.</p><p>Despite its age, this book is very deft and putting questions that historians especially in the period of so much dubious 'history' appearing online, need to keep asking themselves and using to check their work. If you are interested in the study of history, I feel this book remains relevant especially in what it asks.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Audio Book</b></p><p><u>'The Collectors' by David Baldacci; read by Steven Pacey</u></p><p>This is the second book in Baldacci's <i>Camel Club</i> series. I listened to the third book back in 2020: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/03/books-i-listened-toread-in-march.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/03/books-i-listened-toread-in-march.html</a> It is typical of many of the CD audio books that seem to turn up in charity shops. The 'Camel Club' is a collection of misfit middle-aged and elderly men with various backgrounds largely in intelligence or the military who get wrapped up in conspiracies and solving crimes, led by Oliver Stone a former CIA assassin who now lives and tends a cemetery. In this one the gang investigate the killing of a librarian at the Library of Congress where one of them works and the assassination of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. There is a parallel story about a con artist and her gang ripping off an Atlantic City gangster, which overlaps with the main story as she was the former wife of the librarian.</p><p>There is a lot of chasing around Washington DC but the solution of what is going on is reasonably well handled. Some of the technology, especially used in the con, seems dated, even for 2006 when the book came out. Unlike <u>'Stone Cold'</u> (2007) which I listened to back in 2020, the language is a bit less tough-guy throughout and it is more a gang of quirky sort-of amateurs solving what is going on which turns out to be spying and treason.</p><p>Pacey does well with a range of distinctive American voices and is not bad with the few female voices that appear. This is not the sort of book that I would have gone out and bought but it is fine enough for listening to while commuting.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-1196472072647362272023-08-31T08:00:00.257+01:002023-08-31T08:00:00.159+01:00Books I Read/Listened To In August<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Robin Hood Yard' by Mark Sanderson</u></p><p>This is the third book featuring Johnny Steadman an investigative journalist for the fictional <u>'Daily News'</u> and Matt Turner, who in this book has become a Detective Constable in the City of London police. The book is set in 1938 and much of the action keeps to the City of London, which has its own police force, though with occasional jaunts into other parts of London under the Metropolitan Police. The story is mainly around a series of gruesome, almost 'locked room' murders and anti-Semitic attacks. The prospective Lord Mayor of London seems to be involved and there are other issues around Czechoslovak gold, the City of London being the home of the Bank of England and other financial businesses. </p><p>There is reference back to the previous books in which Steadman and Turner were abducted and photographed in apparently homosexual stances for blackmail by a local criminal. This has ironically stirred some gay interest between the two men though both of them are also attracted to Turner's wife. This is a deft way of getting in some gay and bisexual characters at a time when homosexuality was a crime in Britain.</p><p>The book moves at a fast pace though at times feels rather jerky. There is rapid switching between different perspectives which can be a challenge to keep up with. It conjures up the time period and the details of the City of London well, though due to the latter it does feel claustrophobic at times, and rather convenient that so much of the action takes place inside the 'square mile'. The one who turns out ultimately to be the murderer feels a little as if thrust in at the end rather than naturally developing from among the suspects that the reader has seen up to then.</p><p>While a well-informed and interesting book, at times it does not come together as smoothly as you might like. This book was published in 2015 and there have been no sequels.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Blade Itself' by Joe Abercrombie</u></p><p>Abercrombie is often seen as the godfather of the grimdark genre of fantasy novels. This novel does start of with very gritty text. One of the main characters, Sand dan Glokta, is a torturer for the Inquisition of the Union, a country in a fantasy world that we only learn about as the book progresses. There is Logen Ninefingers, a large mercenary-cum-bandit from the mountainous northern lands who gets separated from his band early in the book, though we also see their progress at various stages. Then there is Captain Jezal dan Luthar, a nobleman officer in the guard at the capital Adua aiming to win in a fencing championship. I must also mention Ardee West, one of the few female characters in the book, who Jezal falls for. The other woman character is an escaped slave, Ferro Maljinn aided, despite her resistance, by Yulwei the Fourth Mage. Ferro is really eaten up with revenge and is very violent. There is a great fight scene near the end involving her and Logen, which has a really cinematic feel to it.</p><p>This first book is effectively 'assembling the team' at the instigation of Magus Bayaz the First Mage who has been living remotely since the establishment of the Union decades before. It is an interesting twist that when he turns up in Adua with Logen, he is disbelieved rather than acclaimed as this great magic user. Magic does feature as Bayaz has both fire-wielding abilities and mentalist ones too. Logen can talk to spirits, though these are dying out. The trigger for the action is an invasion from the north by a leader who Logen previously worked for. Beyond that there are the Shankas, humanoids who are invading behind the northern army, rather reminiscent of the Game of Thrones</p><p>The grittiness of the novel, especially early on, does mark it out as grimdark. At times Abercrombie does dodge fantasy tropes. However, as the novel progresses, he rather falls into many of these. The relationship with Ardee seems inevitable, though she is a nicely feisty character. Though we see through the eyes of Ferro, she is all about antagonism. Bayaz's involvement with Jazal also reminds the reader of incidents from the Harry Potter series. This was Abercrombie's first book so maybe we should expect him to be coming out of the fantasy context with what he produced. Still, the book is sufficiently different to take and hold the interest, even if our adventurous band end up sailing off to distant lands at the end as if starting a 'Dungeons & Dragons' scenario. While I am not rushing out to buy the other books in the series, I would certainly pick them up if I saw them for sale.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The City of Mist' by Carlos Ruiz Zafón'</u></p><p>If the charity shops are anything to go by, Ruiz Zafón is a popular author in my home town. His books, originally in Spanish, sold in the millions. He died in 2020 and seems to have garnered quite a following among English readers too. This is a short collection of short stories, some very short. Some he translated himself. Many feature the town of his birth and early life, Barcelona. In line with the magic realist approach which we often associate with Spanish-language authors, Ruiz Zafón manages to slip between gritty portrayals from across the 16th to 20th centuries. The term 'Gothic' is often appended to them and there are elements of literally fateful deals, of a labyrinth of forgotten books and of ghosts. These are mixed in with very human mysteries and despair. There is certainly a dark tone across the stories, even when this is moderate such as some kind of unknown lost chance for the architect Antoni Gaudí i Cornet or more bleak such as a young woman wasting away from illness.</p><p>At times you might be irritated by the brusqueness and as a reader almost feel dismissed by Ruiz Zafón going about his business. However, as is noted in the foreword, the stories tend to grow on you after you have read them. These days I see more books of short stories being published and yet you also encounter opposition almost hostility to them for lacking substance. Thus, how you engage with this book probably depends on how you engage with short stories as these are of the archetype. They work to engage you and unsettle you as the best (magic realist) short stories should, but give them time to achieve that.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Making of the English Working Class' by E.P. Thompson</u></p><p>First published in 1963, though I read the 1980 edition (955 pages), when I was a student this book was more renowned for existing than actually what it said, apart from the analysis of social class as being not something fixed, but a relational perception (re-)established with every interaction between people. However, while that aspect features at the beginning and I feel remains a valid approach, this book is much more than that. It covers the period roughly 1780-1830. Thompson does assume that the reader is familiar with the radical movements of the mid-17th Century and with the Reform Act of 1832 and the Chartist Movement of 1848. He refers to these quite often, but frustratingly does not really explore them.</p><p>I guess that this is Thompson's purpose. He is seeking to shine a light on the aspects of the development of working people, their experiences and their outlooks, that so easily get overlooked. We can see the late 1960s and the 1970s as being at the peak of 'everyday history' and this book certainly is part of that perspective. There is an immense amount of detail as Thompson looks not simply at the economic aspects of how England changed due to the Industrial Revolution, but also the inputs from religion and ideologies, especially coming out of the French Revolution. He draws attention to all the various movements and especially publications of the era which looked to develop or oppose the development of working people. At the outset while there were labourers a lot of working people were artisans. This time period saw the end of many crafts and their replacement by the water- and then steam-powered factory. </p><p>As Thompson shows well the picture was far from being a uniform transition and he picks out clearly how the impacts varied across England. The focus is on England, because as he notes, the impacts, especially of religion, on Scotland, Wales and Ireland did provide a very different context which would deserve books of their own. Saying that when people from those nations came into the English scene he does not neglect them. By taking a nuanced view of what was happening even within England, this allows Thompson to do deep analysis and his digging into the very varied experiences of Luddism show the value of this.</p><p>There is a lot going on in this book and all the names, publications and locations can be overwhelming at times. However, Thompson does also write with gusto and while analysing also sweeps the reader along with all the different incidents and voices that the book encompasses. It might look like a hefty tome, but as well as being informative I found myself moving briskly through it carried along by Thompson's energy. Despite its age, I do recommend it as a book that will alert you to things of which you might never have heard but also to show how effective historical analysis does not mean a book has to be a dull read.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The German Empire, 1871-1918' by Hans-Ulrich Wehler</u></p><p>I have been very fortunate this month to have selected two excellent history books to read. I was struck a few years ago when speaking to a German living in the UK, at the time of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, that they thought historians had 'got over' what they saw as an inappropriate 'blaming' of Germany for the start of that conflict. I noted at the time that even books written by British historians seemed to have defaulted back to the 1930s explanation that 'everyone' had been to blame for the outbreak. This runs against the perception informed by the work of Fritz Fischer from 1961 onwards which showed how German policy had, if not created the context for war, pushed events towards it in a more active way than had been perceived. That line was the one which informed my university studies of German history, and indeed my teaching of it, but now in the period after the 1980s rows between German historians, to have faded away leaving the blame-everyone perspective to hold the field by default. In this situation, I feel it makes this book even more important now than perhaps when it was published in German in 1973.</p><p>Wehler is far from being an ardent Fischerite. Towards the end of the book he emphasises that we must take care to distinguish the aspirations of radical groups in German society, especially in terms of annexations, from the actual policies of politicians and even the military. Wehler is good on making clear that the context which is established sets parameters on what might and can be achieved. While he is seen as a proponent the <i>Sonderweg</i> (special way) interpretation of German history, in fact I would again argue he is not a zealot. In this book he shows how policies developing out of the agrarian revolution which came to Prussia in the 1850s and 1860s became a founding perspective for the German Empire created in 1871. </p><p>Particularly promoted by the capable Imperial Chancellor, 1871-90, Otto von Bismarck these became ingrained in German politics and society. The policies of Bismarck and his successors was to ensure that the attitudes favouring the elites, notably large landowners, but latterly big business too, kept up the primacy of these attitudes to the political and economic detriment of the large parts of German society. It was not only legislation and subsidies, but also the promotion of conservative civil servants especially in the legal profession, the linked lionisation of the state and the use of patriotism and aspirations to the elite that brought the middle classes to support the favoured policies of the elites. The successful wars of 1864-70 and the militarism promoted by policies, education and propaganda, did not guarantee the empire would go to war, but constantly made it seem a feasible step to take to resolve internal social pressures.</p><p>Wehler not only looks at these parameters and calmly demonstrates the difficulties that they made for Germany, but also shows convincingly how much danger they stacked up for the future. Given a legal profession and a military that had been filled with men of a particular outlook in an unchallengeable poisition, combined with the use of xenophobia and anti-Semitism as polices to connect people to the state, the reader comes away quite surprised that the Weimar Republic ever got off the ground. The advent of the Nazis was clearly well established as early as 1918 by what had gone before.</p><p>Wehler makes a very convincing case based on perceptive analysis. He does not overplay his hand and cautions the reader not to jump to easy assumptions, bringing out the nuances in what was said and done. Despite being 50 years old, I feel this book remains a very valuable analysis of Imperial Germany and indeed feeding into analysis of later periods in the country's history. It seems very apt especially now when issues around the political parameters that elites can establish and maintain speaks to what is happening both in democracies and dictatorships around the world.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Audio Books</b></p><p>I moved house in August so now have a longer commute to work. That means the revival of me listening to audio books as I have a good stash remaining from the mid-2010s when I commute so much.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Agatha Christie. Three Radio Mysteries. Volume Four' by Agatha Christie; Radio Plays</u></p><p>Keeping with the policy I adopted previously, if the audio book is based on a book, I still review it, even if it is acted out as a play rather than read. This is a rather strange BBC collection from 2003, featuring a range of well-known actors including the late Richard Griffiths, Dervla Kirwin, Adrian Dunbar and the disgraced Chris Langham, who was imprisoned two years after these recordings were made. Though original short stories published by Christie in 1933-34, for the dramatizations they have been updated. Thus in 'The £199 Adventure' it is for a masking substance for performance-enhancing drugs that the character is sent to Milan to retrieve. The £200 he possesses would have been quite a lot back in 1933, at least equivalent to £15,000 today, if not two or three times that, nowadays even in 2003 the amount seems paltry. This first story is rather frantic and almost comical, with lots of charging around and shooting.</p><p>The second story, 'The Gypsy' is much more Gothic in tone and is well handled, bringing in questions about premonitions and reincarnation. The use of moorland and the sense of claustrophobia when one is trying to escape from what seems to be fated is well portrayed by the actors. The final drama is 'The Last Séance' which again is successful in terms of hitting the Gothic tone well, though the updating does raise some issues. Dervla Kirwan and Adrian Dunbar are an Irish husband and wife who work for an English noblewoman, as housekeeper and butler, which shows up the origins. The woman who comes to them for a séance, however, is an Afghan refugee, injured by an airstrike and wanting to contact her daughter injured in the attack who died as a result. However, the acting is convincing and it has a chilling edge, especially as Kirwan's character, able to contact the dead, is pregnant.</p><p>Overall, a rather strange package of plays, but generally handled reasonably well, if rather over-dramatically at times. Like good short stories, especially the latter two, make you think about them afterwards.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-23445939374963609172023-07-31T08:00:00.101+01:002023-07-31T08:00:00.149+01:00The Books I Read In July<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Falls' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>This is the 12th Rebus novel and as I have noted before, the stories by this stage of reading are less like murder mysteries and more like slipping into the next instalment of an ongoing story. Given that much is police procedural it is rather like watching an episode of <u>'The Bill'</u> (broadcast 1983-2010). The daughter of a wealthy family living outside Edinburgh has disappeared. She seems to have been involved in an online puzzle game which sent her seeking clues around the city as well as further afield. This is quite a common trope these days, but much fresher when this book was published in 2001. Her disappearance may also be connected to the appearance of wooden dolls in coffins, which have been associated with other disappearances/murders over the previous thirty years. Rebus weaves in and out of the main search, though contrary to what Rankin says in the introductory essay DC Siobhan Clarke actually appears quite a bit and collaborating with him as well as other colleagues in trying to solve the issue of the puzzle. Being able to connect to the internet on the go using laptops was a novelty then so it is something Rankin explores.</p><p>As usual, Rebus is a bit of a mess (though he does get a half-decent relationship in this one) and gets in trouble for his approach. He goes to interesting places in both Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside and as usual runs up against privileged people obstructing the investigation. There is uncertainty about the perpetrator and that provides some mystery as we see the various suspects. However, as is the case with these later books, it rather goes on too long and so loses the energy that a shorter novel would have had. It is comfortable rather than challenging to be reading a Rebus book of this vintage, as I say, rather like sitting down to watch a random episode of <u>'The Bill'</u>.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Book of Days' by Gene Wolfe</u></p><p>This is a very odd bundle of 18 short stories by Wolfe. I knew 'How I Lost the Second World War and Helped Turn Back the German Invasion' which is a reasonable counter-factual story in a world where Hitler has become leader of Germany but there has been no Second World War and Churchill is a journalist. Some others are just odd notably 'St. Brandon' written in a faux-Irish folktale style and seeming unfinished. 'Car Sinister' about mating cars is just weird, but the sort of thing you might expect. 'Forlesen' seems to be about some tedious afterlife and is pretty tedious. 'Paul's Treehouse' and 'Three Million Square Miles' seem to be observing something about US society but I did not get the message if they were. 'How the Whip Came Back' is more effectively disturbing combining a dystopian view of a restoration of slavery with a sexual perversion. 'The Changeling' is more simply an unsettling story. Wolfe clearly expected computer dating to be far more effective than has proven to be the case and while you can see some examples of his prescience, only on occasion within a few of the stories does anything really jump out as striking.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Lustrum' by Robert Harris</u></p><p>This is the sequel to <u>'Imperium'</u> (2006) which I read in 2020: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/06/books-i-read-in-june.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/06/books-i-read-in-june.html</a> It continues the story of Marcus Cicero (106-43 BCE) during his period as Consul and then in the subsequent years when with the rise of Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) his position and indeed his life comes under increasing threat. It is seen from the perspective of his slave secretary, Tiro (perhaps 103-4 BCE). </p><p>What Harris continues to do as in the previous book, is take actual events and portray them in a very gripping way. He manages very well to communicate the complexities of various political, legal and religious procedures of the Roman Republic. Having it seem by Tiro means we get little pen portraits of the different individuals involved but also a range of details about the houses, the artworks, the clothing of people of the time. Tiro is not an unreliable narrator but he is opinionated which adds a richness to the story.</p><p>Harris is also successful in making us feel real jeopardy for the individuals involved and both the impossible positions Cicero was put into and the price he made for his errors. In addition, you do see techniques being employed that are familiar from politics of the 21st Century too. While I have not read every book Harris has written of those I have, six in total now, together <u>'Imperium'</u> and <u>'Lustrum'</u> are the best and I found them really engaging. I do recommend them even if they would not normally appeal to you.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-36822361735933316592023-06-30T08:00:00.139+01:002023-06-30T08:00:00.142+01:00The Books I Read In June<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'English Passengers' by Matthew Kneale</u></p><p>Writers are sometimes advised against writing multiple points of view in a story, but Kneale ignores this entirely, jumping between a whole host of perspectives, some in different times to the main flow of the action. At least he labels them, but it does make the book feel fragmented and longer than it actually is. The basis of the story is that in the 1850s a group of disparate men launch an expedition to Tasmania which they believe might have been the actual location of Eden. They hire a smuggler's ship to take them there. We see through the eyes of the captain, the various members of the expedition who generally hate each other, an Aborigine whose almost entire life we see in contrast to the other characters and various officials and their wives, based in Tasmania.</p><p>In many ways the book is very good at conjuring up the nature of lives in the time period and the perspectives people had, especially in the burgeoning colony. It shows the misery of the Aborigines slaughtered, dying of disease and relocated; even mistreated in death. It also shows the misery of prisoners held on Tasmania. None of the characters is really one you feel affinity with or even sympathy for. They are all hard and/or foolish people that are free with their hatred. As such it is a real task to get through this book and it is the first one I have struggled to finish in a very long time. While I admire the work Kneale has put into the research and the creation of the characters, this is not an enjoyable read at all.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Monogram Murders' by Sophie Hannah</u></p><p>This was the first of (so far) four continuation novels featuring Agatha Christie's character, private detective Hercule Poirot. It also introduces a new character, Inspector Edward Catchpool, rather than reusing some of Poirot's other companions. Hannah has experience in writing murder mysteries of her own. However, this book comes over as almost being too self-conscious that it is a Poirot novel. I guess Hannah (or perhaps the publishers) felt compelled to appeal to the audience of Poirot novels and probably especially the TV series. The early phases of the book are almost overly 'cosy' in the way that the Poirot books now tend to be represented rather than how they were viewed when first published.</p><p>Another factor is that Hannah seems to have forgotten how short many (most) Agatha Christie novels were, coming in around 65,000 words, much shorter than the 90,000+ words which is common for novels these days. The extra length certainly is apparent in the closing stages of the book when Poirot has assembled all the suspects and those involved, to explain what has been happening. This is far more common in TV productions than in the original book. Hannah puts in so many twists that this section of the book becomes very laboured and lacks the crispness of Christie's original.</p><p>The setting is fine as are the details of society in the 1910s and 1920s. Action goes between the Bloxham Hotel in London and a rural village, which while indulging in some stereotypes, does have interesting characters and especially motives. These help provide twists but a lot of the impact is lost in the overly complex timing and carrying out of the various killings. Overall, it is not a bad book, but there is a tension between continuing Christie's work and producing a book which is pitched more at what the expectations of a 21st Century audience are expected to be.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Rivers of London' by Ben Aaronovitch</u></p><p>Given that this was the first in what is now a sequence of nine novels and nine separate graphic novels, I am surprised that I have not come across more of these before. It is a kind of mix between <u>'The Sorceror's Apprentice'</u>, <u>'Torchwood'</u>, the<i> Bryant & May</i> novels and <u>Neverwhere'</u>. It features police constable Peter Grant who works in London and finds he can see ghosts and is recruited to a special paranormal unit of the Metropolitan Police headed by a wizard. There is an interesting mix between the now common magic-alongside-everyday-society and the details of London that Aaronovitch includes. Grant mixing with the embodiments of the River Thames and its tributaries, is a really interesting aspect. There is a good range of characters and the mix between the fantastical and down-to-Earth relations and police work is well handled. It moves at a good pace and has interesting twists too. Me knowing many of the locations mentioned added something, but you do not need to be familiar with them to follow the story. Certainly if I see any others in the series at local charity shops, I will pick them up. Maybe they do not appeal to people here, now I live so far from London.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Turbulence' by David Szalay</u></p><p>This is a short (136 pages in my edition) novel, that is a series of linked short stories, or indeed, vignettes, connected by flights. The thread is effectively the 'baton' is passed from the current lead character to someone they meet on their journey. It loops around the world, from London back to London and the first character we see, in a series of hops from airport to airport and into their hinterland. Szalay does show skill in quickly bringing out the different, diverse characters and a range of settings on different continents, showing us something, usually (mildly) startling, from their lives before moving on to the next. However, even more than with a short story collection, we do not really have time to get to know the characters. It was a brisk book that I read in a day, but felt that it was more like an exercise for a writing class than anything more substantial.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Industry and Empire' by E.J. Hobsbawm</u></p><p>Covering the period of British history from 1750 to 1964, this book is about the Industrial Revolution. It is far better than Hobsbawm's <i>Age of</i> series that I have been reading in recent months: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-books-i-read-in-april.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-books-i-read-in-april.html</a> I do not know if it was because this book formed part of The Pelican Economic History of Britain series and so Hobsbawm was kept under more editorial control. It certainly benefited his writing. While he does look out for nascent workers' movements and still believes that economic concerns were the sole motivator of imperialism, he keeps a much tighter focus on his topics. </p><p>The book is very adept at distinguishing the differences, for example in the nature of industries, their different workers and capitalisation and their locations in a way which is often absent from broad sweeping statements some general histories rely on. Hobsbawm is careful to show that the 19th Century was not a continued story of British success and the 'workshop of the world' era was actually short lived. Throughout there are illuminating gems of analysis which despite the age of the book (published 1969) are refreshing and you are surprised seem to have been forgotten by subsequent historians, perhaps thrown out with anything else deemed Marxist in tone. Hobsbawm's perspective is not determinist whether in a Whig or Marxist way, but he is alert to the social impacts in a way that perhaps purely economic historians can otherwise be neglectful.</p><p>Hobsbawm published the book while the post-war boom was still going on. However, at the end of the book he does show real prescience in expecting the 1970s and beyond to see greater economic difficulties for Britain due to long-term waves in the economy. As we know from the <i>Age of</i> books despite the misery of the 1980s, he did cling to an optimism that it would not endure in the way it has in so much of Britain. Ironically, the approaches to the economy and society that he highlights in the early 19th Century have come back to become the 'norm' for business behaviour in the 21st Century. Things that Hobsbawn portrays as having been passed, unfortunately now seem common place, especially in the precariousness of employment and the poor quality of life for many workers in Britain.</p><p>Despite its age, I do recommend this as an insightful study of the British Industrial Revolution and feel it is a stronger book than some of Hobsbawm's others.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Bismarck and German Unification' by David Hargreaves</u></p><p>This book is in the <i>Documents and Debates</i> series. It makes use of a range of translated sources at the time to draw attention to facets of the events it outlines. I had expected it to be like <u>'The Thirty Years War</u> (1987) that I read last month: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-books-i-read-in-may.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-books-i-read-in-may.html</a> However, the actual narration and analysis of history is much less than in that book. Its purpose is really to be read alongside other history books of the period to prepare students to answer questions of what those cover. As a result, while I am familiar with many of the details of the period and the developments, I learnt little new from this book. It did raise points of interest but expects the reader to go to other sources for explanation of these. Thus, while it contains interesting content, notably on the shifting views of Bismarck and the differences between his private and publicly-stated views, plus on the paths down which Austria and the southern German states might have gone, it is a rather frustrating book to read on its own. I have two other books in this series focused on British political and social history, but do not see much to gain from reading them, as I have other books which tell me more, e.g. Hobsbawm's book reviewed above.</p><p>While with elements of interest, the nature of my reading does not fit this kind of book which is much more a tool for students at a very particular stage of their studies to use for revision and practice in analysis of documents.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-66538910350236956962023-05-31T08:00:00.132+01:002023-05-31T08:00:00.135+01:00The Books I Read In May<p><b> Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Nonborn King' by Julian May</u></p><p>As this was a 2013 re-release I had not realised it was the third book in The Saga of Exiles tetralogy. I had also not realised that like Robin, in the USA, Julian is a woman's name, so had assumed, being British, that the author was a man. I had often come the first book in the series, <u>'The Many-Colored Land'</u> (1981) but was not tempted to read it at the time. I am glad I did not. This book is almost a stereotype of overblown 1980s fantasy, that I had assumed, due to the portrayal of women, was written by a middle-aged man; May was 52 when it was published in 1983.</p><p>It is not really fantasy as it starts as science fiction, with the development of psionic abilities and Earth joining an inter-galactic confederation of species with psionic abilities. However, through a wormhole various people are sent into exile in the Pliocene era 5.3-2.6 million years ago, probably at the start of that era as in this volume we see the Mediterranean basin being reflooded. Travelling back in time, humans from the future meet two branches of the same species of humanoid aliens, the Tanu and the Firvulag that they alternatively combine with or fight</p><p>This book is filled with lots of factional battles over 'France', Spain', south-western Germany and parts of the Western Mediterranean and Atlantic seaboard of North America. The reflooding of the Mediterranean is caused by a powerful psionic woman. A powerful human psionic ridiculously called Aiken Drum (as in the song) sets himself up as ruler of 'Brittany' and the book is a rather laboured coming to war of various factions. The psionics like magic and the principalities make it feel like fantasy, though occasional high-tech vehicles and weapons turn up periodically.</p><p>Despite being republished in 2013, this book as racist epithets and a generally negative view of women, even down to the myth of the vagina dentata. If I had not known better I would have assumed the book was written by a socially isolated man living in the Mid West living out his pubescent fantasies of time travel and superpowers to secure him women as partners even against their will. I can understand why these books were successful but there was a lot better fantasy around even back in the 1980s, let alone now.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Songlines' by Bruce Chatwin</u></p><p>I do not really know if this counts as fiction. Chatwin was a travel writer and it is hard to know if the incidents (there is no plot) that he describes were fictional or real. I guess it counts as 'semi-autobiographical'. Anyway, the book is about an author travelling around central Australia finding out about how Aborigines map the country through songs that allow them to pass on the history and geography of places they move through, the different creatures they identify with, the boundaries between different tribes but also as a shared way of communicating across dialects and languages of the people of the sub-continent. That in itself is interesting. However, the portrayal of the author travelling to various locations to discuss this approach with various people is incredibly seedy. You feel that everything he encounters is worn out and on the verge of collapse, many of the people completely lost in the world, prey to alcoholism or simply the break-down of human impact on such a harsh environment. In the last quarter of the book, Chatwin even gives up on this for a while and simply lists short snippets from various sources trying to portray humans as naturally nomadic rather than settled.</p><p>Overall, a very dissatisfying book. I would have preferred to read his analysis of the song lines referring to the people he met and spoke to about them, rather than levering it all in what proves to be a dreary, depressing 'story'.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Set in Darkness' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>This is the eleventh book in the Rebus series and I realise I have read so many now, that I no longer look for any of them to be better or worse than the one before, they just are. It is like we periodically drop into John Rebus's life to see how he is getting along. These are increasingly more 'slice of life' novels that happen to be about an unhealthy dysfunctional police officer going about his business in Edinburgh. These sense of the drive of the mystery in these books has entirely faded for me. Three disparate threads and the uncovering of murders involving property developers from the 1970s as a result of the building of the Scottish Parliament (the book was published in 2000), is deftly handled rather than thrilling. There are tropes such as the long-established gangsters and the wealthy family with secrets, so at times, if it were not for the interaction between Rebus and his colleagues, whether friends or opponents, it would feel rather like an episode of a soap opera like <u>'Dallas'</u>. It is reasonably well woven together and the descriptions of various parts of Edinburgh remain interesting. I still have four more in the series to read of 13 more Rebus novels published since then - there are various short story collections/novellas too. I am content to work through the ones I have but despite copies turning up regularly in charity shops (I now live in Scotland), I am not rushing out to collect them.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' by Neil Gaiman</u></p><p>As it explains in an interview in the back of the edition I had, while this superficially seems to be a children's book, featuring a man remembering the fantastical situations that developed when he was living in rural Sussex as a boy. I suppose it counts as magic realism. As noted in the interview some of the horrors have are from an adult perspective which is why I probably found this story far more unsettling than say the Harry Potter stories, even though the protagonist is a 7-year old boy. He falls in with the grandmother, mother and daughter of a neighbouring house who are a kind of immortal guardians trying to stop misguided rather than evil creatures coming through to cause harm on Earth. It moves along at a pace and for all the fantasy, has a kind of realistic edge. It is set in the late 1960s and I was 7 in 1974, so I can envisage much of 'ordinary' setting and especially the attitudes of adults that are portrayed. It moves along briskly and like all of Gaiman's work is well crafted. I did feel some parallels with <u>'Good Omens'</u> that Gaiman wrote with Terry Pratchett published in 1990 and <u>'A Wrinkle in Time'</u> (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle and unsurprisingly it has proven as popular as those two. It has a similar appeal, encompassing the fantastical but rooted in some kind of reality.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Thirty Years War' by Peter Limm</u></p><p>This is a slim volume which draws on translations of documents of the time to illustrate the points Limm is making. He is no better than anyone else at disentangling the to and fro fighting that raged over western and central Europe in the mid-17th Century. The strength lies in the analysis which follows. There is crisp insight into the impacts of the war, showing how, contrary to many portrayals of it as a real divide in history, it saw many continuities. The war did cause economic harm, but this was actually part of longer trends as were the military developments which it highlighted rather than provoked. Overall this is a perceptive book which certainly, I felt, increased my knowledge of the politics, economy and society of the countries impacted and challenged simplistic assumptions very often seen.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-13419551353550415732023-04-30T08:00:00.046+01:002023-04-30T08:00:00.137+01:00The Books I Read In April<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'A Long Night in Paris' by Dov Alfon</u></p><p>This is a contemporary thriller which is split between Israel and Paris. Given the range of perspectives of the various people involved included various members of the Israeli intelligence agencies, French police and assorted Chinese agents it is very choppy. Alfon seems particularly interested in the rivalries between different Israeli agencies, but in contrast to trying to track down the murderers of an Israeli IT specialist and then a former Israeli agent in Paris, lots of details of people posturing in meetings becomes tedious. In addition, the tension is further slackened by how long the processes go on. The killing of the IT specialist is proven to be a case of mistaken identity, but this takes time. There is a lot of posturing between the Israelis and the French too, which is not really engaging. Thus the book falls between two stools. It lacks the intrigue of a murder mystery and yet also lacks the pace of a contemporary political thriller, say something by James Patterson. </p><p>Overall there are some good elements and the explanation for the defection of the agent ends up being feasible. However, too much is jammed in to the book leading to longueurs. In addition the internal inter-agency rivalry is not engaging and is too full of insufferable people. This is a weakness we see in thrillers, e.g. the Bourne novels. People who are interested in/have been involved with such agencies seem to think the average reader will find them fascinating. These days, though, most are familiar with how they work so these scenes just resemble meetings the average office worker attends. A shorter, much tauter book could have brought out the highlights without weighing them down with uninteresting extras.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Murder in the Museum' by Simon Brett</u></p><p>This is the fourth book in the Fethering series of 'cosy crime' novels by Brett which have now reached 21 books. I read the first back in 2016: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-books-i-read-in-october.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-books-i-read-in-october.html</a> Maybe my age and my relocation within the UK has made me more tolerant of the setting. The novel features two middle-aged women, Carole a former civil servant and her next door neighbour, Jude who is a new age health practitioner. A lot has happened in the two books I have not read. However, as amateurs they still get themselves mixed up in murders. In this case through Carole being a trustee of a local house where (fictional) author and poet Esmond Chadleigh lived and there is discussion about how to raise funds to develop a museum. A skeleton found in a walled garden and later the shooting of a former trustee link past and current deaths.</p><p>It is well realised. Brett is excellent at capturing a slice of Home Counties England and the people within it. At times he shades into stereotype, but occasionally surprises the reader. He seems better at showing the novel is genuinely set in the 2000s than was the case with the previous one I read. In addition, Jude's support of an old lover who is gravely ill leavens the cosiness effectively and makes what otherwise could be seen as too whimsical. It is a fine line to walk, but it is done reasonably well here. The conjuring up of fictional poetry and an imagined author's career is done credibly. While I would not rush out to buy more of this series, I enjoyed this one more than <u>'The Body on the Beach'</u> (2000) when I read it seven years ago. However, I acknowledge that that may be due to changes in my own life rather than in Brett's books.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Age of Extremes. The Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991' by Eric Hobsbawm</u></p><p>While Hobsbawm comments himself on the challenges of producing a history book on times through which you have lived, (his life was 1917-2012) he does at times fall victim to that, seeing the groundwork to subsequent developments that he cannot help but identify even if it falls outside the scope of the particular book. Hobsbawm was a Marxist and while he does not laud the Soviet system and in fact identifies flaws in it from the outset that were to ultimately lead to its downfall, he does see the political situation of the 1980s ('the Landslide') with the move to New Right attitudes as a grave catastrophe in a way that probably many historians of the time would see differently. Until the end he does tend to play down the climate change challenges, but that is probably because he was more alert to the more immediate environmental harm caused by pollution. Ironically he ends on an optimistic note, which in fact in the period following has proven to be false and looking at the present news one can see behaviours and conflicts that are so reminiscent of the 1910s, 1930s and 1970s.</p><p>Hobsbawm brings a general perspective of realism, though perhaps over-estimates the room for manoeuvre for politicians in the democracies in the inter-war era. He is good on their fear of a repeat of the Great War, but tends to under-estimate how much the fear of the spread of Communism shaped so much of their responses especially to the rise of the Fascist regimes. Though he is better on the reason why the short-lived alliance between the West and the USSR could not be sustained.</p><p>Often taking an economic perspective, his writing on the Depression and then the 'Golden Age' of economic prosperity in the West, about 1948-73 is well handled and also why it unravelled. Though he picks up on the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution, these are more seen through the lens of the West and there is an absence of seeing things from those countries' perspectives which was a refreshing approach in earlier books in the series. His writing on cultural changes is less well focused and he seems despairing of post-1945 art as lacking the dynamism of the earlier decades.</p><p>Overall, there are gems to be picked from this book as there was with the others in the series. I remember reading that the right-wing historian Andrew Roberts picked out Hobsbawm's series as the most over-rated one. I would not go as far as to condemn it in the way he does. I think Hobsbawm had a perspective which is often sorely lacking nowadays especially in era or general history books that is well worth recapturing. The prime challenge is that he seems to have struggled to disengage from those aspects which not simply interested him, but which to him seemed essential. When he touches on those things it distorts his writing and he is a better analyst when less attached to a topic. Consequently, this book like the preceding three are useful for reference. As a sum of the parts, the quality is lesser than individual chapters and analyses and as a result, viewpoints which stand out today and retain real value are liable to lost amongst the mass.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-27344851695043478612023-03-31T08:00:00.229+01:002023-03-31T08:00:00.215+01:00The Books I Read In March<p><b> Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Amulet of Samarkand' by Jonathan Stroud</u></p><p>This is a children's book that is often likened to the Harry Potter series. Stroud actually makes a passing jibe at apprentice wizards being sent to boarding schools to learn their craft. Though there is a sense of a world of magic, it intrudes more into the actual world than in the Potter novels. The British parliament is entirely run by wizards who provide ministers. There is that kind of mid-20th Century undefined time period, though used in many British novels, not just fantasy ones; at times it seems to have hangovers from the Victorian era, echoed by the fact that Britain is the centre of an empire run on magic and fighting on continental Europe with its arch-rival centred on Prague.</p><p>Magic in this world is centred on the use of demons/spirits of various strengths, thus what wizards can predominantly do is summon such creatures and put them to work. This culturally appropriates Middle Eastern spirits including djinn and afrits, with no explanation how Europeans came to be using them.The hero of the story, Nathaniel, apprenticed to the ineffectual Arthur Underwood at the age of five manages to secure a djinni, Bartimaeus, a middle-ranked creature in effect to exact revenge on those who have been cruel to him throughout his childhood. However, this then draws him into a conspiracy to trigger a coup d''état. The treatment of Nathaniel is very reminiscent of Victorian novels too but by the end it turns into a magic adventure story in a contemporary setting with which we are familiar.</p><p>While you can draw parallels to the Potter books, Stroud works hard to distinguish them. Nathaniel for much of the book is driven by revenge. Unlike Harry Potter he is also very isolated, his parents having sold him into apprenticeship and others he relies on briefly being killed. The main strength though is the fact that the alternate chapters are told by Bartimaeus a rather world worn and cynical creature who is ancient and has his own antagonisms going back many centuries; he is able to shape shift too. It is interesting the trilogy is named after him rather than Nathaniel.</p><p>While more juvenile than I had expected, the novel is engaging and I enjoyed it. If I see the following two books in the series I would buy them.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Friends of Harry Perkins' by Chris Mullin</u></p><p>Like a lot of people of my generation I was very influenced by the dramatisation of Mullin's book <u>'A Very British Coup'</u> (novel 1982; TV series 1988 available still to watch on All4: <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-very-british-coup">https://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-very-british-coup</a>). Harry Perkins was the left-wing Labour politician elected Prime Minister in that previous novel, before being forced from office by the Americans. This book is set in the 2010s following the Brexit vote. Mullin in the introduction outlines the challenges of trying to have this novel feature characters from the first, some 35 years before. He has to make some of them have very long lives. I feel it would have been much better for him to set one or more books sometime in those three decades or to bring in a new cast, even if they were children of the previous characters.</p><p>The novel is effectively a 'what if?' history. Perkins remained in parliament and it has gone through many years of Conservative rule, leading to the referendum and Brexit withdrawal but under different politicians to those we know in our world. Labour at the start of the novel is led by a woman. Fred Thompson who was a minor character in the previous book rises to be Labour leader, though to the left of Sir Keir Starmer and manages to win an election in the late 2010s. Overall the book feels very rushed with so much to cover - including Thompson's private life - in a short book.</p><p>The climax is telegraphed well in advance. It feels rather like a book which Mullin has to work out various irritations. Thompson and his coterie still mourning Perkins meet in an Austrian restaurant very akin to 'The Gay Hussar' where Michael Foot and his gang used to dine regularly. Mullin is clearly distressed by the killing of Jo Cox and felt that he had to look at that danger for politicians too. Thus, there is a real mish-mash of elements which are straitjacketed into the framework he had created for <u>'A Very British Coup'</u> while failing to have the genuine jeopardy of that context.</p><p>There was a lot which could have been done better in this book. It would have been interesting for him to explore the challenges of a left-wing leader in the current age, even if he avoided comparisons with Corbyn. It would have also been interesting to look at why Labour has never actually had a female leader, whereas the Conservatives have had three who have become prime ministers. The personal violence against MPs would have been another area to explore. However, Mullin seems to have felt shackled to his earlier successful book and in this one as a result has a context in which he cannot really handle all the various elements successfully or, as he effectively admits in the foreword, feasibly.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Dead Souls' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>This is the 10th Inspector John Rebus novel and it is strange that only getting this far through the series, I am feeling that as an author Rankin is reaching the standard that he was strangely acclaimed for almost right from the outset. </p><p>This is a very messy novel, with Rebus back on alcohol; his daughter temporarily confined to a wheelchair after the accident in the previous novel, and in an on/off relationship with his lover Patience. There are a number of components which it takes a long time to see are related, but in many ways this makes it feel rather more like an account of genuine detective work. Rebus is angered when he finds a convicted paedophile who has served his time in prison has been housed in the area and effectively sets out to take revenge by 'outing' him. While he begins to regret this decision later, he is too late. There are also the suicide of a colleague and the disappearance of the son of old friends, one of whom Rebus dated when a young man in Fife and he finds he remains attracted to, while also has questions about his own path triggered. There is also a murderer repatriated from the USA to Edinburgh who is allowed to get away with playing with both the police and a journalist; a very slimy character who seems largely untouchable even when he beats up Rebus and later a retired detective too. Added to that there is case against two child abusers at a children's home and who the third man was with them on a particular occasion.</p><p>The book has quite a toing and froing, but Rankin manages not to lose the reader. There are long sections of self-reflection but again he just manages to keep these from getting repetitive or tedious. While most of the questions are resolved, there is no big conclusion and that adds to the sense of realism. Rebus even more than before comes over as a world-weary detective running up a string of horrific incidents, injustice and the unsolvable. This novel might frustrate readers looking for a clear tying off of elements, but I feel it is one of the better ones in the Rebus series.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Talon' by Julie Kagawa</u></p><p>A lot of fantasy, especially that written by women gets 'dumped' into the YA category no matter its focus or the characters. This novel, is very clearly both fantasy and YA. It is one of numerous books in recent years featuring dragons living in contemporary society who are able to shift to being humans. The last one of these I read was <u>'Chasing Embers'</u> (2016) by James Bennett (not the one by Rachel Skatvold): <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2021/03/books-i-read-in-march.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2021/03/books-i-read-in-march.html</a> and this is a now well-established sub-genre. </p><p>Kagawa includes the urban fantasy/dystopian tropes of sinister authoritarian organisations - Talon which rules over dragons putting them into a rigid caste system when they mature but eliminates 'weaklings' and renegades and the Order of St. George a human organisation of highly trained soldiers whose mission is to kill all dragons they encounter. Kagawa gets in a lot of YA tropes - teenaged sister and brother sent to spend the summer on the beach in California, surfing, star-crossed first loves, at the mall, at the funfair, two handsome dudes for the heroine to be torn between, one a mysterious biker.</p><p>Ember and her twin brother Dante - rather giveaway names for dragons! - are sent to Crescent Beach for their last phase of training before allocation in the Talon caste system. They have to prove that they can blend in with humans and naturally make friends. The focus is primarily on Ember who falls for another visitor to the town, a 17-year old called Garret, unaware that from orphaned child he has been trained as an excellent soldier for the Order and has been sent to Crescent Beach to hunt down new 'sleeper' dragons. You can probably tell how this unfolds in a very Montagues and Capulets way. Biker Riley, also attracts Ember's attention as he is a 'rogue' dragon, Cobalt, who has broken away from the authoritarian rule of Talon and is hunted by both them and the Order.</p><p>I read this book expecting it rather to go through the motions. We see first person through the eyes of Ember and Garrett and later Riley too. However, Kagawa's writing has to be commended that even with so many tropes, she rises above them to provide a genuinely gripping, fast paced story which appears to have genuine jeopardy while also grappling with the challenges that 'ordinary' US teenagers face as they approach adulthood. In addition, there are unexpected twists and I felt she ably dodged some of the possible expected outcomes. While I would not rush out and buy the next book, if I came across I would buy it. Kagawa certainly makes a strong argument for people not looking down on fantasy, even those books, which aim clearly to appeal to a YA audience.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Nazism 1919-1945. Volume 4: The German Home Front in World War II' ed. by Jeremy Noakes</u></p><p>This fourth volume came out in 1998 so while the document numbering continues on from the previous three volumes (the page numbering does not) it is a bit apart from those volumes published 1983-88 (themselves drawing on 1970s volumes organised differently). They all got new covers in the 2000s. In addition, while Geoffrey Pridham is still alive today, this fourth volume was edited only by Jeremy Noakes.</p><p>This book might seem to have a rather narrow focus but in fact is a really useful supplement especially to Volumes 2 and 3. For example, Volume 4 looks at the concentration camps whereas Volume 3 focused on the extermination camps. Volume 4 picks up from the pre-war analysis of Nazi Germany's economy and society seen in Volume 2 and so on. Thus, while coming late, it really rounded out the series. There are chapters in Volume 4 which cover aspects often neglected by general surveys of the Nazi regime, notably welfare, attitudes to youth and women and indeed to sex. Things such as the NSV welfare body; the evacuation of children from bombed cities and morale, all are handled well and provide a useful counter-balance to portrayals of these aspects of the British wartime experience which have been covered more extensively.</p><p>One point is that while there are lots of useful documents and sources referenced in Volume 4, they tend to be included in full, which can lead to extensive (small print) sections that you sometimes feel are not adding and that the smaller extracts pointing to the kernel of the issue to be discussed, used in the earlier volumes were often more effective.</p><p>Another point which I meant to raise when reviewing Volume 3 back in January: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-book-i-read-in-january.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-book-i-read-in-january.html</a> was how scarily current the rhetoric which appears throughout these books seems to a reader in the early 2020s. I know it is easy to label alt right politicians and commentators as 'Fascists' or 'Nazis' but reading through the texts translated into English, you keep hearing echoes of what you might hear if you turn on the television these days. </p><p>The whole attitude from Hitler, Goebbels, et al, that they were at the same time, supremely powerful and assured of victory yet always insisting that they were the real victims; that others were responsible for the conflicts, is so often used nowadays and it is very unsettling when a turn of phrase you read meshes precisely with what you can hear or read quoted from contemporary politicians. I guess the BBC TV series, <u>'The Nazis: </u><i style="text-decoration-line: underline;">A Warning from History'</i> (1997; my emphasis) had it spot-on in that title. It is not a question of bandying about terms like Nazi, it is much more about seeing these unsettling parallels and knowing to what they can lead. As I used to remind students, every single step towards the use of Auschwitz was bad; right from the ending of German democracy and removal of civil rights from Jews.</p><p>This has been an excellent series of books and while there is a lot to cover, if you really want an insight to the Nazi regime, because of the use of many hundreds of original sources, I would heartily recommend these books.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-41674764933854825092023-02-28T08:00:00.022+00:002023-02-28T08:00:00.189+00:00The Books I Read In February<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'A Symphony of Echoes' by Jodi Taylor</u></p><p>This is the second book in <i>The Chronicles of St. Mary's</i> set in an autonomous department of a fictional university in Yorkshire that deals in time travel. As I noted with the first book: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-books-i-read-in-december.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-books-i-read-in-december.html</a> it is a strange mixture. I theory it is set in the future, but a lot of the technology (cheques!) referenced seems to be from the mid-20th century. Max, the heroine, while holding a doctorate and having a mature(-ish) sexual relationship with a colleague often comes over more like a teenager. At times you feel that it is rather weighed down by very British tropes about special centres that owe a lot of the 1940s and 1950s even than the 2010s. However, in this quirky way it is quite charming if you are not tired of such tropes and in the way the <i>Harry Potter</i> books embedded in traditional British private school novels appealed to a modern audience I can see the same with this series.</p><p>A lot happens in this novel. Max goes into the future and becomes head of the unit to get it back into shape and then uncovers a conspiracy by the prime antagonist trying to change the course of the life of Mary Queen of Scots. With the various missions through time, it can be a little episodic, but the mission to 16th Century Scotland is really well handled in terms of practicalities. The unit is prone to disaster and this can get rather wearying in time, but I felt Taylor was really getting into her stride with the final third of this book. I was disappointed that (spoiler) she kills of the disabled character in a way I think many readers will disapprove of. However, having become reconciled to the rather quirky context laden with tropes, and with the flow improving, if I see any more of these books, and there are now 28 in total this series - Taylor writes at a real pace; this is not her only series - I would pick them up.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Melmoth' by Sarah Perry</u></p><p>This novel has nothing to do with the town of the same name in South Africa but some connection to <u>'Melmoth the Wanderer'</u> (1820) a Gothic novel by Charles Maturin and according to <u>'The Guardian'</u> to <u>'Melmoth Reconciled'</u> (1835) by Honore de Balzac. Melmoth is a kind of Wandering Jew character, someone condemned to wander the world for centuries or eternity. In this novel, which has a Gothic feel though set in the 20th and 21st Centuries, sees Melmoth as a female spirit who both bears witness to horrors but also seeks to lead away those in utter loneliness to accompany her.</p><p>We see through the eyes of Helen Franklin a British woman who lives in Prague and has a small selection of eccentric acquaintances. One of these through being passed the research of a man who had been looking into reports of instances of the appearance of Melmoth from the 17th Century down to the present day. Helen works through these documents and we see them the way she reads them. One is set during the German takeover and control of Prague 1939-45; one earlier in 1930s Egypt and Franklin's own encounter in the Philippines that led to the loneliness of her own life. Franklin and those she knows are uncertain if Melmoth is real and whether they are seeing her.</p><p>The uncovering of the information and the stories of those who have encountered Melmoth or her stories before; their moral decisions in particular, add to the richness of the novel. Perry keeps these tight so you do not feel overloaded and indeed despite all that it has to grapple with, the novel is brisk and that makes it very effective. Her conjuring up of different locations, notably Prague in two time periods is also done well. There are some unexpected turns too. Thus, while I cannot say I enjoyed this novel, I felt impressed by the competence in rendering it and may pick up others by Perry, especially her renowned <u>'The Essex Serpent'</u> (2016).</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'A Case of Two Cities' by Qiu Xiaolong</u></p><p>Maybe because Xiaolong (that is their surname, they render it in the Western order) is based in the USA I have never come across the Inspector Chen novels, of which this is the fourth (he is Chen Cao with Chen his surname). Though published in 2006, this is set in Shanghai in the 1990s. Chen is charged by a high level committee of the Communist Party in Beijing with pursuing what is left of a chain of corruption after a leading corrupt businessman has fled to the USA seeking asylum. Later Chen, who had some small fame as a poet, is sent to the USA as head of a cultural delegation and is able to pursue his investigations in Los Angeles and especially St. Louis, hence the title of the novel.</p><p>Having taught modern Chinese history, I think Xiaolong's portrayal of China in the era shown is very well done. He has been criticised, but as is often the case with crime novels, his characters are drawn from the wealthiest and the poorest in China of the time, a divide which was especially apparent in Shanghai. He does show parallels to similar divides in the USA too.</p><p>A prime challenge is that Xiaolong has to communicate so much to the average reader. Especially in the early part of the novel he has to provide a dense potted history of how much China and especially Shanghai changed in the 1990s as well as outlining how the Communist state was run at this time. On top of this, Xiaolong as a student of literature cannot resist putting in loads of classic Chinese poems throughout. This does really overload the book. Dealing with the recent history would be a great deal for most English-language readers; grappling with the numerous quotations let alone the other literary references he has to explain made it heavy to wade through at times, though it picks up towards the end.</p><p>Some commentators have complained about the lack of deduction and unresolved situations. However, I think this is because they set Xioalong in the wrong context. I would view him in the company of Josef Škvorecký, Leonardo Sciascia, Philip Kerr and Michael Dibdin in setting crime novels in authoritarian and/or corrupt states where the interest is as much in the interplay between different forces and vested interests in those societies as in solving the crime. Typically the interests are able to outweigh the desire for justice in a way that is less familiar to readers of crime novels set in seemingly democratic societies.</p><p>While I am in no rush to buy more of the Chen series, I was not put off by this one and if by some rare chance another one of them turns up where I am shopping for books, I would buy it.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Age of Empire 1875-1914' by Eric Hobsbawm</u></p><p>When published in 1987, 26 years after the first volume <u>'The Age of Revolution: Europe: 1789–1848'</u> had been published, it was intended to be the final one, so combined, covering the so-called 'long 19th Century'. Hobsbawm did though go on to produce <u>'The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991'</u> (1994) which I will read later this year. As with the other volumes in <u>'The Age of Empire'</u> comes at the period in terms of themes rather than in chronological sequence. Thus each chapter is almost an independent essay though he does refer back to other chapters and books in the series. Some of the chapters are strong. The one on women; the tensions in science; the 'second world' - Persia, China, the Ottoman Empire, Latin America and the one of the lead up to the First World War stand out.</p><p>The main challenge as I have noted when reviewing the previous two volumes is that as a Marxist, Hobsbawn is too often on the hunt for the glimmer of revolution and this distorts his writing especially when looking at social class and economics. It is apparent here as he comes ever close to the second and third Russian revolutions. To a degree his attitude is tempered by the passing of time on his own timeline and there are some references to the rise of New Right attitudes in the 1980s which temper what otherwise might have been glee at the growth and advance of socialist parties and ideas in the period covered by this book. However, he cannot shake off his hunt and this does weaken to a degree otherwise good analysis on the rapidly changing patterns of life for the bulk of people who by 1914 were industrial workers.</p><p>The prime weakness of this volume I feel is ironically the title's prime focus, i.e. empire. Hobsbawm clings so tightly to the Marxist perception that imperialism was primarily motivated by economic factors that despite the fact that he cannot help but details a whole range of other factors that are not economic, he feels he has to keep asserting the overwhelming authority of the economic perspective almost at the same moment as disproving this status for it. A big absence notable from comparison with <u>'The Age of Capital: 1848–1875'</u> (1975) is that there is nothing on the victims of imperialism. With the earlier phase importantly he looked at that side of imperialism, by discussing those who had it imposed on them, a perspective that has even greater attention now than when Hobsbawm wrote this book. His ability to look at that side of the experience was what marked out his earlier work, even nowadays so I feel in this third volume he missed a real opportunity to develop that element. Despite the declared theme this is probably the most Eurocentric of the three books.</p><p>Overall as with the preceding two volumes, there is a mix of strong and weaker material. Hobsbawm does still stand out through freeing himself from chronology in a way which does still seem to hamper modern historical writing, especially on this semi-popular basis. However, his perception of the world shaped so strongly by his politics means that whenever he focuses on the economy and the working classes, his analysis is far weaker than when he brings it to other areas of less concern to Marxism such as intellectual and cultural trends.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-88842047372663557612023-01-31T08:00:00.050+00:002023-03-26T10:30:55.536+01:00The Books I Read In January<p><b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Azincourt' by Bernard Cornwell</u></p><p>As the title suggests this novel is set around the events of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. While the French village nearby is called Azincourt, it has gone down in British history as Agincourt and that provided the US title of this book. Published in 2008, it owes a lot to Cornwell's novel <u>'Harlequin'</u> (2000), the first of <i>The Grail Quest</i> series which I read in July 2020: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/07/books-i-read-in-july.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/07/books-i-read-in-july.html</a> That featured the 1346 Battle of Crécy. As in that book it features an English archer, this time Nicholas Hook rather than Thomas of Hookton, who after a bloody rivalry in his village and trying to stop the rape and execution of some Lollards is sent to be part of the invasion of France that went so badly, especially due to the prolonged siege of Harfleur. There are many parallels with that earlier book, such as the hero fixing up with a woman in distress though this one survives longer than ones in that previous series.<a data-ved="2ahUKEwjS5baguO38AhUSacAKHakQAl4QtwJ6BAg_EAI" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5t0hO9sv7o" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dm5t0hO9sv7o&ved=2ahUKEwjS5baguO38AhUSacAKHakQAl4QtwJ6BAg_EAI" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); background-color: white; color: #1a0dab; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; outline: 0px;"></a></p><p>Even for Cornwell, the book is very bloody and he does not hold back on the brutality of war at the time. The novel starts with the massacre at Soissons which gives Nicholas additional motives for his fight. It is better for being free of the mysticism seen in the holy grail books, though at times Nicholas does hear the voices of saints that guide him at vital moments. I guess, though given the beliefs of people at the time this can be seen as realistic. As usual, Cornwell provides a great deal of historical detail about battles but everyday aspects. However, this does not bog down the book, in part because the tensions between the characters are probably just the right side of overblown. While I did not enjoy this book as much as <u>'Fools and Mortals'</u> (2017) which I read last year: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html </a>it is a decent novel and certainly better than the second and third books in <i>The Grail Quest</i> sequence.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Hanging Garden' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>This is the ninth Inspector Rebus novel and in contrast to the preceding one, <u>'Black and Blue'</u> (1997) which I read in November: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-books-i-read-in-november.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-books-i-read-in-november.html</a> is much tauter. There is some confusion with it going back in time after the outset. However, the plot which involves Rebus going both after a new crime lord, Tommy Telford and investigating a potential Nazi war criminal living in Edinburgh is better focused without him gallivanting all over the place, rather it is more character focused. His daughter being harmed in a hit-and-run is another element, but in this novel Rankin balances them well and teases the reader with what is involved with the others. </p><p>That element of wanting the novel to have a Hollywood feel, as he aimed to with <u>'Let It Bleed'</u> (1995), <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/08/books-i-read-in-august.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/08/books-i-read-in-august.html</a> is apparent here when there is a raid on a medical narcotics factory. The introduction of the Yakuza might be a step too far, but proves to be a necessary device to provide leverage when dealing with gangsters starting a gang war across Edinburgh and neighbouring locations. There is reference to the war in Bosnia and a trafficked refugee from it. Despite Rebus's connection to the woman, the engagement with her is rather unresolved and I did wonder if she turns up in subsequent books. Overall this was one of the more satisfying books in the Rebus series.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Nazism 1919-1945. 3: Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination', ed. by J. [Jeremy] Noakes and G. [Geoffrey] Pridham</u></p>The title makes the focus of this book very clear. Like the preceding two volumes it draws heavily on a range of sources to provide translated primary material and connects this with historical analysis. That approach, hearing such a diverse range of voices is vital in this book because there are still included all the horrendous statistics of the German terror and extermination programmes. It is easy when reading of tens of thousands and then millions of victims to become numbed to what you are reading about. This is grounded in the human input.<div><br /></div><div>This book is effectively a survey rather than focused explicitly on the Holocaust. It does however as with the previous volumes raise points that tend to get forgotten in a lot of general books on the Nazi regime which mean that though published in 1988 it remains of great value to students of the period. As with Volume 2, it continues to highlight how chaotic the regime was and is very adept at showing up the competing forces. This is an important counter to the portrayals of the regime as an efficient totalitarian machine. Looking at the foreign policy, the war and the racial policy, it shows the absence of clear plans beyond sweeping statements and the importance of local initiatives in moving forward activity, usually by men seeking Hitler's attention. The tensions that arose between wanting to exploit Jews, Poles and Russians for the war economy and wanting to slaughter them, comes out clearly. </div><div><br /></div><div>Karl Schleunes wrote of the 'twisted road to Auschwitz' and this book shows you that there were also many side turnings from that road. Though focused the book covers the 'euthanasia' programme, known later as T4, for killing disabled people and how, much stronger than I realised, it fed directly into the extermination camps. It looks at ghettoisation and Operation Reinhard and how the challenges of mass extermination combined with the wish to clear regions of Jews, drove the campaign on, but even then how much was chaotic and ad hoc. Overall, this book while chilling, successfully balances detail with the human perspective and I commend it now as a source even more than a third of a century on from its publication.</div>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-76443287872083331822022-12-31T08:00:00.001+00:002022-12-31T08:00:00.179+00:00The Books I Read In December<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Cause for Alarm' by Eric Ambler</u></p><p>I only came to Ambler as a result of being given a couple of his books. This one was a green Penguin edition from when the book originally came out in 1938. Though writing adventure stories, Ambler was very good at making them realistic. This novel features unemployed British engineer Norman Marlow who desperate for work takes a job representing a British company which manufactures artillery shell casings in Italy. He is soon wrapped up in various conspiracies, typical of Ambler novels, pressed into providing information to a Yugoslav general who may be a German agent; an operative of the OVRA, the Italian secret police and an American who may be a Soviet agent, at a time when though there were concerns about Communists infiltrating the West, things such as the Cambridge Spies had not come to light. </p><p>While it is fiction, it is well rooted in the realities of the time and interestingly plays on the tensions between Germany and Italy, who though allies retained a suspicion of each other. The second half of the book is an escape with Marlow aided by Andreas Zaleshoff as they make their way quite violently to Yugoslavia with the Italian authorities after them, in a way which is reminiscent of Buchan novels. Ambler does represent that bridge between Buchan and Deighton and gives an interesting and entertaining insight into what was going on in that period of the 20th Century. Some readers might find the 1930s manners unengaging but it is nice compared to some 'middle aged hero' books of today to find that the protagonist is flawed, uncertain and not superhuman.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Trace' by Patricia Cornwell</u></p><p>This is the 13th of the 26 Dr. Kay Scarpetta novels that have been published since 1990. By this novel Scarpetta is the former Chief Medical Examiner for Virginia, now working as a private forensic specialist. In this novel she is called back to Richmond, Virginia to help into the investigation of the killing of a girl that initially looked like death from flu. Scarpetta's history in Richmond, including people she worked with and the building she worked in, all become mixed up in the story which turns out to be about a serial killer whose eyes we see through from early in the novel. Matters are confused by two parallel stories, about Scarpetta's niece Lucy Farinelli, a former FBI agent who runs a detective agency and training school in Florida and is investigating an assault against a trainee who was staying with her that she fancies. Lucy packs this woman off to stay with Wesley Benton, Scarpetta's current partner for psychological support. </p><p>Jumping between the three strands, sometimes in chapters just two pages long does not add the pace that was presumably intended, but adds to a real sense of fragmentation. The connection between the three strands seems rather tenuous. It is difficult to invest in Lucy and Wesley but I guess that is because I was given this book alone without having seen those characters' histories develop across a series of books. This book is very much a procedural book and I guess it draws fans who are interested in all those details of process. I realised reading these books that I only engage with those when they supplement a mystery. I have spoken before about how I am not keen in seeing through the eyes of the killer which seems so popular these days. However, stripped of mystery, this seems to emphasise the plodding nature of the story working towards what feels like an inevitable conclusion.</p><p>I can understand why the Scarpetta books have proven to be popular, but this single one that I was given, has shown me that this is not the sort of writing that engages me in the slightest.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Just One Damned Thing After Another' by Jodi Taylor</u></p><p>This is the first in what is now a 14 book series, with some extra sub-books listed, though I do not know what format they come in. It is set in St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research. Knowing both St. Mary's University and the Institute of Historical Research, maybe that was what drew me to the series. The novel is set in some undisclosed near future. The Institute is an offshoot of the fictional University of Thirsk on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. Holographic presentations are relatively easy to use, but cheques still seem to be around. The institute carries out its research using time machines though no details of how these function is given.</p><p>The novel is rather erratic. Taylor seems to have felt compelled to draw on a range of tropes. With a specialist unit working in relatively secrecy in a rural English setting I was reminded of the true stories of Bletchley Park, and of <u>'Enigma'</u> (1995) by Robert Harris and <u>'The Small Back Room'</u> (1943) by Nigel Balchin. Some reviewers have noted the almost old fashioned British behaviour, including lots of tea drinking. However, despite some modern swearing a lot of the relationships could be from a wartime novel. </p><p>Perhaps unsurprisingly there is a real feel of a UK version of <u>'Timeless'</u> (2016-18) though as that was shown three years after this novel was published, perhaps it informed that, rather than the other way around. The sub-plot of a devious antagonist who stole a time travelling pod, certainly seemed to ring bells. Similarly with the different units such as technicians, security, catering, etc. it also reminded me of <u>'Battlestar Galactica'</u> (2004-09) especially with a love interest called 'Chief' for much of the time, I could not help envisage him as portrayed by Aaron Douglas who has a very similar role in that TV series.</p><p>The internal politics of the place seemed characteristic of the numerous 'school' novels that are common in Young Adult literature. In fact by effectively stripping Dr. Madeleine 'Max' Maxwell of her doctorate and rendering her 'Miss. Maxwell' and people using lots of surnames does give that 'boarding school' feel and makes Madeleine feel much younger than she is. Maybe this is because it is written in the first person so foregrounds her personal feelings a great deal, which do seem rather youthful. The novel covers five years and she must be in her late 20s or early 30s by the end and yet she feels more like Enola Holmes.</p><p>The story is adventurous with all the induction and training that is necessary in the first novel of someone coming to an institution. It gets through characters at an alarming rate. Many of those we are introduced to are either kicked out, leave or are killed. The title fits very well with the course of the book, but to a degree as one of the nastier characters argues, it almost becomes ridiculous. I know Taylor probably wanted there to be a genuine sense of jeopardy and thus to eliminate characters who we had invested in, but she does it a bit too much, reducing our investment in other characters. Keeping track of all the names, especially with the switches between title, surname and first name, does not help.</p><p>The book does, fortunately, take a feminist outlook. The handling of everyday misogyny is handled reasonably well; overcoming a miscarriage gets rather lost in the flashes and bangs. One twist revealing harassing behaviour is well done. There is a challenge because Taylor has a set-up which looks like 1943 but set in perhaps 2043. The 'cast' is not diverse, it is very much like an English boarding school. Maxwell, as she is usually called, does press back against some of the unacceptable attitudes, but in some ways because she is rather juvenilised, there is still a default to her 'elders'.</p><p>As you can probably tell I was ambivalent about this book. I felt it was almost weighed down by all that had gone before. At times Taylor shakes off that: both the fictional and the real life British (historical) culture. Her protagonist is in a difficult position as a mature, knowledgeable woman, yet who has to deal with incessant danger and it seems that the only acceptable mode for that is to face it as a kind of sparky teenager. There is enough in here to interest me and there were good twists I had not foreseen. I am interested to see how the story goes once the 'induction' period is done with and the characters settle down, assuming Taylor does not continue to burn through them at a rate. I do admire her willingness amongst all the tropeage to turn in different directions. While I feel Dr. Maxwell is reducing herself to fit in, she is an interesting character to follow.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Age of Capital. 1848-1875' by Eric Hobsbawm</u></p><p>As Hobsbawm identifies himself, in contrast to the previous volume in this series <u>'The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848'</u> (1962): <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/09/books-i-read-in-september.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/09/books-i-read-in-september.html </a> there is not the energy given to this survey that the concept of the Dual Revolution gave that book. The main theme is the success of liberalism in terms of pushing the capitalist economy not simply on in Europe but increasingly in other parts of the world. Like a 1st Year undergraduate, at times Hobsbawm gets rather dazzled by all the figures of coal and steel production or the length of railways laid. </p><p>What leavens this is that he does try at times to see both sides of these developments. While not unique in 1975 when this book was published, especially with the rise of so-called 'subaltern history' (Hobsbawm uses the term 'subaltern' quite a bit), it was relatively rare of people especially in general histories to look at the downsides of the onward march of capitalism and industrialisation. However, Hobsbawm includes a chapter on the Losers of the process, including people outside Europe exploited by the advance of industry as well as those Europeans whose livelihoods were disrupted or destroyed and had to comply with the increasing authoritarianism in the workplace. He is particularly interesting in terms of patterns of migration both within and to outside Europe.</p><p>The prime flaw is one that we saw in <u>The Age of Revolution'</u>. As a Marxist, Hobsbawm seems compelled to sniff out even the tiniest sign of revolutionary potential. He is rather patronising towards those rebellions such as in Hungary or bringing about the unification of Italy, which lack that social revolutionary aspect. Given that this is a time when Karl Marx (1818-83) was particularly active, he feels obliged too, to reference any input that Marx had and to judge other thinkers as lesser than his hero. While Marx was important, this distortion in viewing the other inputs, which as the meagre evidence of revolution in this period he brings forward shows, had a far greater impact on the thinking and behaviour of people in this period, weakens his case.</p><p>Without the great dramatic events of the previous book, the thematic approach, making sure to investigate culture and science as well as industry and politics, works even better in this volume. Hobsbawm is good at countering the default assumption of too many that somehow all the 19th Century was pretty much the same and brings out effectively the differences between life at the start of this period and life 27 years later. In itself that does bring home that while one may not be able to speak of a revolution per se in this period, millions of people in many parts of the world saw radical change in their lives within a single generation. While Hobsbawm touches on this on occasion, I feel that actually the message you take away from this book, has that, rather than any seedlings of revolution, as its prime point and indeed a strength of what at times can be rather erratic analysis.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-89161806726549025362022-11-30T08:00:00.133+00:002022-11-30T08:00:00.213+00:00The Books I Read In November<div><b>Fiction</b></div><b></b><div><u>'Black and Blue' by Ian Rankin</u></div><div>It is interesting that the editions of Rankin's books I am reading have an introductory essay from the author about where he was in his career when he wrote the particular book. While this is the eighth book in his Rebus series, he still felt he was only just coming to the end of his kind of apprenticeship period. I guess a kind of scrappiness is something that is characteristic of Rankin's writing but though maybe he felt it took him time to get into producing these books, the rough edges do not seem to have put off readers. Perhaps this is because the tone seems to be appropriate for his character and the cases he deals with.</div><div><br /></div><div>This one has quite a lot of running back and forth and is almost too inter-twined for its own good. A number of disparate cases including a man committing suicide while being tortured prove to be connected and link the drugs trade in Glasgow with that in Aberdeen especially supplying oil rig workers - the book was published in 1997 when the industry still seemed to have a glorious future. There is too much jammed into this book. There are environmental protestors one of whom is missing, maybe murdered. There is a separate element about Rebus being grilled about his involvement with the framing of another killer in the past which leads him having to be accompanied everywhere and leads to him giving up alcohol. There are also corrupt police involved and a parallel story which was not really necessary of a serial killer called Johnny Bible seeking to copy the genuine killer of the late 1960s Bible John. While the latter has never been found, Rankin features him as a character through whose eyes we see.</div><div><br /></div><div>While there are some interesting elements including seeing a portrayal of 1990s Aberdeen and Shetland as well as Edinburgh, it is very much as if Rankin is trying too hard to get all these themes in when there was sufficient in the parallel plots to provide two, perhaps three novels. It does get rather tedious with all the travelling back and forth even when it shows you different settings. The distinctiveness of each of these is reduced by him putting in so much. Overall, while it has some good elements, it is too ragged, too full to be really engaging.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>'Devices and Desires' by K.J. Parker [Tom Holt]</u></div><div>Not to be confused with the books of the same title by P.D. James [Phyllis James/White] or Kate Hubbard. This is another book in which less could have been more. It is a straight forward fantasy in a kind of non-magical late medieval style setting. While there are some nomadic tribes and an exotic 'old country' which provides mercenaries, the story is mainly focused around the city state of the Republic of Mezentine, a kind of Venice-like place which has a monopoly on the most advanced engineering, but is choking itself by barring innovations which go against the established specifications and the internecine fighting of guilds and bureaucracy. The two other states featured are mountain neighbours, with a low level of technological development, the Duchy of Eremia and the Duchy of Valdis which is wealthier due to silver deposits. The chief military engineer from Mezentine, Ziani Vaatzes escapes execution for creating a toy which is not compliant with specifications and finds refuge in Eremia which he equips with some of the Mezentine technology allowing the duchy to hold off invasion.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have two problems with the novel. One is that we flit among the points of view of a number of different characters often very abruptly, taking us back and forth between Mezentine and the duchies and then within them, so bringing in sub-plots about a sense of duty and correspondence between the Duke of Eremia and Duchess of Vadania. This makes the book which is 706 pages in my edition a slow read as you have to keep reorientating yourself to whose view you are now seeing and then mercenary generals are also thrown into the mix.</div><div><br /></div><div>The other thing is that it feels that Parker is trying to pull off a satirical, almost whimsical attitude in the vein of Jonathan Swift. He seeks to satirise perhaps fantasy writing or the real world elements that lay behind it. We see him take on bureaucracy, the attitudes of nobility, merchants, the military and engineers - especially tinkerers in their garages. This is done in a kind of affectionate way and yet it jars. It is not deft enough to be Swift or funny enough to be Terry Pratchett. It leaves a bitter taste when Parker describes torture, wounding and death. It would have been a lot better if either more light hearted, or particularly, if Parker had played it straight and put in a real sense of jeopardy and grimness rather than pulling his punches in an attempt to be satirical.</div><div><br /></div><b>Non-Fiction</b><br /><u>'Nazism 1919-1945. 2: State, Economy and Society, 1933-1939', ed. by J. [Jeremy] Noakes and G. [Geoffrey] Pridham</u><br /><div>As with volume 1, this book is very useful in reminding you about aspects of the Nazi regime which these days too often get overlooked in general coverage. In its different sections, again drawing on speeches, articles, accounts and reports, it shows you the machinery of the regime and its contradictions. It considers a range of themes such as agriculture, the Nazi party and the state; women and young people. It is particularly strong on the economic aspects showing the growing militarised situation and how this was organised, pretty chaotically. There are also useful sections on public opinion and on anti-Semitism, important contexts ahead of Volume 3.</div><div><br /></div><div>For me I think the most interesting aspect was simply how much conflict there was within the Nazi regime, aided by Hitler favouring a Social Darwinist approach to the development of the society and so at different times in different locales one of the sides would come out on top but elsewhere at other times another party or state agency would win through. We do see how the 'little Hitlers' were empowered and fought for supremacy often at a small, local level or in one sector. There was conflict within the Nazi party itself as well as outside it. In many ways you end up wondering how it managed to last so long without imploding, in part perhaps due to the efficiency of the civil service caste in Germany that while asserting its authority, did nothing to undermine the Nazi machine as a whole.</div><div><br /></div><div>I feel this is a useful book for those interested in understanding how a dictatorship might work and showing how the Nazi regime was far from being a monolith, instead a seething mass of individual jealousies and attempts to grab power by men in various sectors and locations in the country and increasingly beyond too.</div>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-31000713068385277162022-10-31T08:00:00.073+00:002022-10-31T08:00:00.188+00:00The Books I Read In October<p><b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Book of Unholy Mischief' by Elle Newmark</u> </p><p>This book possibly should win an award for the most misleading title. I believed it was a fantasy novel. About the closest it comes is, if there had been historical sections of <u>'The Da Vinci Code'</u> (2003) by Dan Brown or if the book featured in <u>'Labyrinth'</u> (2005) by Kate Mosse had not had genuine powers. This book is set in late 15th Century Venice and is about a boy, Luciano, who is an street thief taken on as an apprentice by the chef to the Doge. There is a belief across the Italian states that a book which perhaps will allow lead to be turned to gold or to extend life is hidden somewhere. Luciano and at least one of his former street thief friends believes his master might be connected to it. We see how the chef manipulates politics through the use of drugs in his cooking and discover that, while he is part of a secret order, they are only protecting gnostic gospels, which, however, deemed heretical by the Papacy, carry a risk of execution. It turns out very much a YA novel, with Luciano having various frustrated aspirations including running off with a novice nun to America.</p><p>The portrayal of Venice at the time and especially the kitchen in which the meals are prepared are well shown. Rather unbelievably, Luciano invents cheesecake. One of the outcomes is particularly unfair and nasty and ultimately Luciano is shown to be selfish. If you take this as a 'coming of age' historical novel set in the Renaissance, then you will be less disappointed than if you think from the title and cover that it is a fantasy novel.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Witch Light' by Susan Fletcher</u></p><p>This novel is set in the late 17th Century and features Corrag, a young English herbalist who when her mother is executed as a witch, flees to Scotland and settles in Glencoe shortly before the Glencoe Massacre of 1692. Both Corrag and Charles Leslie an Irish Jacobite who comes to visit her when she is herself imprisoned, awaiting execution for witchcraft, are based on real people. The story is told through the accounts Corrag gives in prison to Leslie, supplemented by Leslie's letters to his wife. As in real life, he is interested in finding details of the massacre, seeking evidence of King William III's complicity in it as a way to boost support for King James II, that William replaced, but whom the Jacobites wished to restore.</p><p>The story is well told with wonderful detail of the landscapes that Corrag sees, especially when she sets up home in Glencoe. Her ambivalent position of women like her in society of the time, is interestingly explored as is her growing relationship with the MacDonald Clan of Glencoe and the local 'witches'. The premise of the novel might feel bleak but the briskness of the story-telling and the beauty of the pictures Fletcher paints with her words really carry you along. I would not say I enjoyed reading this book, but I am glad that I did read it.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-14291388540551136032022-09-30T08:00:00.001+01:002022-09-30T12:12:31.405+01:00Books I Read In September<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Look to Windward' by Iain M. Banks</u></p><p>I am not a big fan of Banks's Culture-set science fiction stories. The concept of an super-powerful civilisation creating vast structure and seeking to moderate the galaxies always comes across as rather worthy and quite unexciting. Having grown up reading Moorcock and Priest, then the Cyberpunk authors, I am more interested in a closer focus and a lot more grittiness. Having put in that caveat, I must say I enjoyed this book, I think because it is largely around one (admittedly vast) space station and focuses on two Chelgrians, two feline-like humanoids. Mahrai Ziller is a composer who has gone into self-imposed exile on a Culture Orbital (effectively an artificial planet), Masaq' in protest at the Chelgrian caste system. Embittered army officer Major Quilan IV with the personality of a dead senior officer in his head too. The Chelgrians have suffered a civil war, which it has been revealed that, while not started by the Culture was expanded by their intervention. Quilan is ostensibly meeting with Ziller to try to persuade him to return to Chel. In fact Quilan has an ulterior mission which intentionally he only recalls as he progresses on Masaq'. There is a sub-plot about another character discovering the objectives of Quilan's mission. However, typically for Banks that element is not resolved until after the main action has occurred.</p><p>There are a couple of Banksian traits that can rile. He loves describing vast structures though with Ziller and Quilan touring Masaq' this is less of an info dump than it can be in later Culture novels. As I noted with <u>'Matter'</u> (2008): <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/01/books-i-readlistened-to-in-january.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2020/01/books-i-readlistened-to-in-january.html</a> he tends to baulk from actually writing the climax of the novel. Instead it fades to black and then we pick up things some while later to see the consequences and that happens in this novel too. However, overall, by keeping focused on two characters (and a supplementary one for part of the time) Banks seems more in control of this novel. He can show his ideas and attitudes without you feeling you are attending a lecture. The characters of Ziller and Quilan to me - and I accept I may not be common among SF readers - are more engaging than descriptions of yet another intelligent spaceship or vast artificial structure.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Transcription' by Kate Atkinson</u></p><p>The first thing I must say is this is the first book I have read by Atkinson but I would be tempted to try others. She is very deft in her writing and I was really swept along by the prose even when she is describing grim scenes, e.g. a woman strangled and dumped in a coal hole; the problems of killing a woman who has surprised you, using a small calibre pistol. The novel is based on a true operation by MI5 during the Second World War to monitor British Nazi sympathisers who might pass intelligence to the Germans or indeed in the case of an invasion, collaborate with the German forces.</p><p>Juliet Armstrong is recruited to transcribe the conversations between the Nazis and an MI5 agent provocateur at a bugged flat in London. However, she is soon drawn into becoming and agent herself, in particular trying to get hold of the 'red book' which has a list of these people. The novel goes between 1940 when she is 18 and 1950 when she is back in London working for the BBC producing Schools radio programmes. She is still temporarily in the employ of MI5 and begins to encounter people from her war years and face threats connected with them. The stories run in parallel so that we discover what is impacting her in 1950 as she recalls and details more from 1940.</p><p>The assortment of characters is well drawn. There is a real feel for London in the two time periods. Juliet is a reliable but naïve narrator. The balance between her eagerness for sex and her naïvety are handled well. The only disappointing element I felt with the novel was the twist at the end. It was entirely unnecessary and was really rushed. It did not really add to our understanding of Juliet and seemed to be something that an agent or publisher had pressed for, whereas the book up until that stage had had a real deftness, a good combination of thriller and slice of life, very much embedded in its times and bringing out the differences and similarities between 1940 and 1950 in London better than many authors would have done.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Freaky Deaky' by Elmore Leonard</u></p><p>I was unsurprised that this 1988 novel had been turned into a movie in 2012, not that I have seen it. However, Leonard's tautness of writing is often commended. Reading this book, you certainly feel that with its restricted number of characters it could be a stage play. Set in Detroit in the late 1980s, it draws on the counter-culture terrorism of the late 1960s, through Robin (a woman) and Skip (a man) who were involved in setting off bombs during that period. It also features Donnell, a former Black Panther who is now a factotum to Woody Ricks a very wealthy man who is losing a grip on reality due to alcohol abuse. Also featuring are Chris Mankowski, a suspended bomb disposal cop and Greta Wyatt, a sometime actress raped by Woody Ricks. Mark Ricks, Woody's brother also turns up. Robin and Skip are looking for revenge on the Ricks brothers who they believe betrayed them to the authorities leading to imprisonment. Donnell is looking for as much money as he can get out of Woody; he knows Robin and Skip from the past. Ultimately all the characters are looking to see what money they can get from Woody as their paths cross and re-cross and there is a lot of double dealing and betrayal.</p><p>As you would expect from Leonard, it is gritty and seedy. The characters are believable and the scenes and locations well portrayed. Perhaps he goes a little too far with how intertwined the five main characters are (he effectively lifts Woody out of this by having him clueless) and it begins to grow tiresome as to who is working with or betraying whom, but overall not bad. The movie is portrayed as a kind of comedy. Things do go wrong, especially with the bombs set, but this book is straight without any comedic elements.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848' by Eric Hobsbawm</u></p><p>I actually met Hobsbawm on two occasions but embarrassingly was really at a loss as to what questions to ask him. This book was published in 1961 though has been reprinted may times since. Hobsbawm was a Marxist historian and so brings a perspective on to what he describes which is working at the high level, focused on the big trends in society rather than detailed accounts of what happened next. This perspective is now rare even in general survey history books that can, as Hobsbawm eschews, effectively end up as a list of a sequence of events. Even if you do not subscribe to Marxist viewpoints, the approach Hobsbawm adopts in this book is a very useful one that I feel current students can benefit from to balance against the history survey books which in many ways go into too much detail. Maybe historians aside from people like Ferguson, Fukuyama and Hutton do not feel they have the 'right' to draw such sweeping points from the history.</p><p>Hobsbawm's premise in this book is of the dual revolution, i.e. the Industrial Revolution initiated in Britain and the French Revolution. These two, he feels, combined shaped the development of societies. He does make some efforts not to neglect the world outside Europe and North America and indeed shows how these revolutions impacted, e.g. the destruction of Indian textile manufacturing by British factories and how Egypt tried to make the industrial leap only to be stymied. Thus, while focusing on the broad sweeps of history, he never goes full Marxist in portraying anything as 'inevitable' and indeed highlights when actions by leaders and business people divert or prevent what otherwise might have 'naturally' happened. </p><p>The book is organised thematically with the trends that happened, not just from the two revolutions but also as a result of peace, nationalism, etc. Then looks at the impact. He is good on belief, whether religious, philosophical or political. He highlights trends in land usage and in the ability to 'get on' in society before looking at the arts and scientific developments. Many of these aspects, particularly on a thematic basis rather than as a sequence of events, are neglected too often. This is why I feel, despite its age, this book is a useful addition for people looking at this period alongside more recent books.</p><p>My one gripe is that as a Marxist writing in the period of the Cold War, Hobsbawm is desperate to find any seed of revolution that he can amongst what he is describing. In contrast, a reader living since the Cold War ended and with so much authoritarianism rolling back what any revolution achieved, even in democratic countries, is liable to find such scouring for these 'seeds' as rather pathetic. The groups mentioned are typically tiny and achieved nothing. Going in so tight seeking these things jars with the broad sweeps adopted elsewhere in the book which are its strengths. Almost without recognising it, Hobsbawm shows that for all the revolutionary energy, the different plans of the various stages of the French Revolution were betrayed and monarchy restored. The Industrial Revolution brought gain to very few and suffering for millions more.</p><p>It is a shame that more general surveys are not written with Hobsbawn's approach these days and thus, this relatively rare perspective means the book remains of value even more than sixty years later.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-9117734862451229932022-08-31T08:00:00.113+01:002022-08-31T08:00:00.183+01:00Books I Read In August<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Oh, Play That Thing!' by Roddy Doyle</u></p><p>I have read a number of Roddy Doyle books down the years (and watched dramatisations) so am familiar with Doyle's punctuation style, '-' to indicate dialogue and '(-' to indicate dialogue remembered from the past. I had not read <u>'A Star Called Henry'</u> (1999) which precedes this book. However, as this novel sees the eponymous main character, Henry Smart, relocate from being a terrorist in Ireland to being a man willing to try anything for work in the USA, I thought that would not be a big problem. As it is, Doyle refers back so much to what happened in the previous novel that you can easily pick up the thread. Smart has emigrated in 1924 in large part to stay ahead of those wishing to kill him as a result of his actions during Ireland's battle for independence and the subsequent civil war. </p><p>Smart ends up in New York and gets work as a sandwich board man and seller of illicit alcohol, the Prohibition being on. He hooks up with various women but they are sketchily drawn, often known by sobriquets like the 'the half sister' I imagine to show the shallowness of Smart connection to them. Too many violent men want to prevent Smart developing a business and he is repeatedly forced to flee further West as a kind of con man and odd-job man until he ends up in Chicago as jazz legend Louis Armstrong's minder. Then by a massive coincidence Smart runs into his own wife and daughter. The book, very episodic from the outset steadily unravels from then on, especially after Armstrong lets him go. Smart and his family (they have a son too now) become hoboes during the 1930s but become separated and by the end of the book Smart is somehow in the late 1940s randomly running into movie stars. The last sections of the book become as incoherent as a Hal Duncan or Michael Moorcock novel. It is as if Doyle has no idea how to end it.</p><p>The best bits of this book are the settings. Doyle does very well at conjuring up New York, Chicago and some smaller US towns in the 1920s and 1930s very evocatively. There are also great scenes around the performances, not just in jazz clubs and with Armstrong, but also when one of Smart's girlfriends becomes an evangelical demagogue, making use of Smart's connections to Armstrong to make records of her speeches. Doyle is great on performance as we know from <u>'The Commitments'</u> (1987). There are some great ideas in here, but they are not woven together in a way that really carries the reader onward and instead the book becomes a real slog. Something more narrowly focused, perhaps just around working with Armstrong would have made the strong parts shine rather than be subdued in narrative that really loses the plot.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Let It Bleed' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>I guess I have at times accused Rankin of becoming a little directionless in some of his novels too, though never to the scale which Doyle does in <u>'Oh, Play That Thing!</u> (2004). Perhaps because as in the essay in the front of my edition of this novel, Rankin explains how it was going to be a movie, it is tighter than some of the Rebus stories. It is connected into what has proceeded, though with a bit of an ellipsis as you tend to find, so that Rebus has reconnected with his daughter but has moved out from living with his lover Patience. In this novel, in fact, he gets no sex, but continues with his alcoholism back in his old flat. He is aided by two loyal colleagues, notably DC Siobhan Clarke who plays a growing role in the novels and is almost like the flip-side daughter for Rebus.</p><p>Starting with a messed-up kidnapping which ends in dramatic death, this story does connect into a lot of issues facing Edinburgh and indeed Scotland, when it was published, i.e.1995, still under a Conservative government with the dregs of Thatcherite attitudes and with steps towards the resurrection of the Scottish Parliament four years later in the New Labour era. With its scenes of local government corruption, people making use of police and criminal contacts, this novel does feel very much in step with dramas of the 1980s/90s like <u>'Edge of Darkness'</u> (1985), <u>'Centrepoint'</u> (1990) <u>'Natural Lies'</u> (1992) and though more light-hearted, in the same area, <u>'The Beiderbecke Affair'</u> (1985) and its sequels. </p><p>The sense in the 1980s that anything that created jobs was sacrosanct no matter what compromises had to be made still rings through this novel. There is also that aspect coming out of the 1960s that the wealthy and well-connected would often make use of the criminal class is also here. Rankin handles these well trodden ideas pretty well. He manages to balance the sense that people in power are untouchable no matter how corrupt with Rebus actually making some progress, which is a relief for the reader. There is both gritty violence white collar crime. As always Rankin makes good use of Edinburgh and the surrounding areas; the rich and the poor. Overall this is one of the best Rebus novels I have read and indeed could be read standalone without having to be familiar with the preceding six novels in the series.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Nazism 1919-1945. 1: The Rise to Power, 1919-1934' ed. by J. [Jeremy] Noakes and G. [Geoffrey] Pridham</u></p><p>This is the first of four volumes of document readers on Nazism that began to be published in the mid-1970s but were revised and restructured in the 1980s with the new fourth volume appearing in 1998. What they are is a collection of translated documents illustrating what the Nazis were saying at different stages and what people were saying about them. They are connected by some narrative of events by Noakes and Pridham. Thus, the books differ from a standard history of the Nazi Party or indeed Germany at the time. This approach means that aspects which can sometimes be overlooked in some histories stand out. In this volume, for example, we learn much more about the factionalism and rivalries in the party and about the issues around the SA's part in it especially after Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933. Also interesting are the views of members of the public from diaries about how they viewed the rise of the Nazis and the dilemmas that, for example, the Catholic Centre Party faced in terms of opposing or condoning the Nazis' actions. As is typical by the time the scale of the danger was apparent to many it was too late to stop. Some readers might find issues around tensions in what was an ill-balanced federal state too bureaucratic, but I think it is interesting to see how small states and Bavaria ploughing its own legal furrow were a doorway in for the Nazis. They also remind us that even before Hitler had become Chancellor there had been a coup d'état against the centre-left government of Prussia, the state which covered 3/5ths of Germany.</p><p>Despite the age of this book, it remains perceptive and an interesting angle on the rise of the Nazis. It is very accessible to the general reader as well as history students and academics. It is liable to give you insights into what happened and how, even if you feel you know the story pretty well already. I will read the other three volumes in the coming months.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-63016706870015948792022-08-03T19:59:00.005+01:002022-09-30T12:25:06.534+01:00The Blood and The Ghost: Vikings Victorious In England<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8MPgWAjNgNBK7RWlXBNUXA1KlBDr9D8NpIr2dT62ek18JuSlFz0FTCXktF2FLC0JSFMJgtUhWIiPtgycfNDYm1czo9nY7GQxailg1EhzaEsyKj1zh3f37AhugAtk0o5eC17urQZD1VUZTUFUoCA5-qwvepSkBKO6_05-9diFSN42ZFwXrlavnF1Sm/s500/51bEjokVBBL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8MPgWAjNgNBK7RWlXBNUXA1KlBDr9D8NpIr2dT62ek18JuSlFz0FTCXktF2FLC0JSFMJgtUhWIiPtgycfNDYm1czo9nY7GQxailg1EhzaEsyKj1zh3f37AhugAtk0o5eC17urQZD1VUZTUFUoCA5-qwvepSkBKO6_05-9diFSN42ZFwXrlavnF1Sm/s320/51bEjokVBBL.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is my fifth novel published by Sea Lion Press: <a href="http://www.sealionpress.co.uk">www.sealionpress.co.uk</a> and is also available for sale via: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Ghost-novel-century-Britain-ebook/dp/B0B88VT8FJ/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1659550575&refinements=p_27%3AAlexander+Rooksmoor&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Alexander+Rooksmoor">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Ghost-novel-century-Britain-ebook/dp/B0B88VT8FJ/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1659550575&refinements=p_27%3AAlexander+Rooksmoor&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Alexander+Rooksmoor</a></div><p></p><p>Having seen the BBC television series, <u>'The Last Kingdom'</u> (broadcast 2015-22), I was reminded that at the Battle of Chippenham in 878, King Alfred the Great was defeated by the Danish Army. He had to flee to the unhealthy Somerset Levels to hide out until he was able to rebuild the Anglo-Saxon Army and go on to defeat the Danes, pushing them back from recent gains in Wessex and to begin establishing what would become England under his grandson, even though it took Alfred himself another 21 years of fighting to get to that position. I had already written a short story which features in my anthology, <u>'Route Diverted'</u> (2015) showing the execution of King Alfred in 879 so I had given some thought to this scenario. I was also very riled by a number of portrayals of various historical characters in the BBC series. I sought to rectify that more in the direction of how I judged those people, and indeed, I must confess, the way they were shown in the programme.</p><p>With Alfred dead, even if his supporters notably Odda, Ealdorman of Devon who in our history defeated the Danes at the Battle of Cynwit, had been able to fight on a lot would have gone from the Anglo-Saxon campaign, not just Alfred's victories after Chippenham but also his promotion of scholarship, development of a navy and particularly the development of towns around England into burghs. Burghs were better defended against Danish attack but also reinvigorated various towns that had been in decline since the departure of the Romans. Rather than following on directly from the death of King Alfred I moved forward 25 years to 903 and envisaged his real son, Edward the Elder who in our history succeeded him to be King of Wessex in 899, instead having lived in exile among the Welsh kingdoms, then as a man using Welsh backing to try to seize back his father's throne.</p><p>While Edward is defeated, his (second) wife, Ælfflæd and his children both by her and his first wife, escape. The mission to track these heirs to the throne of Wessex is at the heart of the story. I wanted two characters who while not having magic per se might have been perceived as sorcerers by the people of the time, so I created Øfura ‘The Blood’ and her brother Ræf ‘The Ghost’. They might be twins; they might be half-siblings, they do not know. However, while Øfura had brilliant red hair and is covered all over with large freckles, Ræf is an albino. Added to this, they have the ability to envisage a landscape, particularly battlefields as if seeing them from a bird's eye view. They also have very fast reactions - I was thinking of the athlete Jesse Owens and his remarkable ability to respond so fast to the sound of a starting pistol. These are skills that aid them on the battlefield and might appear as magic, but in fact we know people genuinely have these traits. They are assigned, with the help of one of Ælfflæd's servants to track down the would-be monarchs of Wessex.</p><p>The chase from Gloucester to Lewes across south-western and southern England, renamed 'Danelagen' in this alternative, presents them with many risks especially as Ælfflæd's bodyguard fight back and supporters of Ælfflæd seek to frustrate the pursuit. As well as providing action - Øfura and Ræf, plus their own band of warriors and assistants get caught up in a raid by Vikings from northern France in what is now Southampton - the journey shows how different England would be after twenty-five years under Danish rule. Towns have changed names. Towns that prospered under Alfred are still left in decline whereas others important to the Danish rulers and settlers have grown up and both locations and many residents now have Danish names and live under Danish laws. Indeed rather than the forced conversions to Christianity seen in our world, the religion of Odin and the Nordic pantheon have made Christianity into a marginal religion in Danelagen almost followed in secret. This creates a greater divide between Danelagen and the assorted Welsh kingdoms that are proud Christian heirs of the last phase of the Roman Empire. It could be argued that the coming of Christianity was inevitable, though we can note that Lithuania only stopped being a Pagan country in 1387, almost 500 years after my novel is set. Perhaps controlling all of what otherwise would have been England would have boosted the Danish adherence to Paganism.</p><p>Of course the impact of the shift in history does not all run one way. Controlling a larger kingdom, puts pressure on the Danish kings and jarls in the British Isles to become more bureaucratic; to keep records and make more use of coinage which had been well established much earlier in the British Isles than Scandinavia. Faced with countering Christian priests, rather than having the head of a family officiating as de facto priests, full-time <i>gothi</i> as they were known are beginning to develop. In addition now in control of what had been the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the rulers face attacks from other Nordic groups that had settled in Ireland, Wales and northern France, just as the Anglo-Saxons had faced Danish Viking raids. Furthermore in the 11th Century the relationship between the heirs of the Vikings would have been very different from the entangled Norman-English relationship which led to the invasion of 1066, though of course, as the rule of King Cnut, showed, it may simply have been replaced by a similar but different entanglement with Scandinavian kingdoms, though interestingly, probably sharing a more similar language.</p><p>Overall I hope I have produced an exciting adventure story which shows what I feel is a very feasible alternate route that England could have ended up going down, that would have left a significant legacy most likely down to present day.</p><p>As always I did some maps for the book. The first shows how I envisaged the kingdoms of the British Isles existing in 903 and the second what I imagined the names of various English towns would have become under the Danes.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Alternate British Isles in 903 Following Killing of King Alfred the Great in 878</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5woj8pBGcLGh6wco3xK2fJo5_QXa4IDtH3bgQQFbNFntOFner6H5Od2BVthu0C3uhzJO2uPwBcJea_wRDdWGBrx3qqkG3fuoXKkT0k-hyCgyPrNRwXFVeWebkzlU46Tt5qv-3jDFe0mNc8OhU6Sx-eDpU9QNIK8LW0AsPci3kH4fQiRv8PJlnbTD4/s1292/Dnldwholebk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1292" data-original-width="1059" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5woj8pBGcLGh6wco3xK2fJo5_QXa4IDtH3bgQQFbNFntOFner6H5Od2BVthu0C3uhzJO2uPwBcJea_wRDdWGBrx3qqkG3fuoXKkT0k-hyCgyPrNRwXFVeWebkzlU46Tt5qv-3jDFe0mNc8OhU6Sx-eDpU9QNIK8LW0AsPci3kH4fQiRv8PJlnbTD4/s320/Dnldwholebk.jpg" width="262" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Envisaged Names for an English Towns in 903 Under Danish Rule</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJX4dUuLpx-Ou0XHeky-C8FcqrzGx4Rr0NS_zmzFmLPUsrbMOXY179rKIiAy20yyjlpYHJQCPyivzUl3cs2U6CUD4l6fp2wQzgeMT4WAAaadM8f5902vIU2ZWOnwZqn6F5QxhK1vOZECHvVxNH87rug2oWUiV3yrS58fER7p0cnqFObPSsT9ZF3e6/s1091/Dnldcloseuped3cr2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="1091" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJX4dUuLpx-Ou0XHeky-C8FcqrzGx4Rr0NS_zmzFmLPUsrbMOXY179rKIiAy20yyjlpYHJQCPyivzUl3cs2U6CUD4l6fp2wQzgeMT4WAAaadM8f5902vIU2ZWOnwZqn6F5QxhK1vOZECHvVxNH87rug2oWUiV3yrS58fER7p0cnqFObPSsT9ZF3e6/s320/Dnldcloseuped3cr2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-1704217804284511432022-07-31T08:00:00.053+01:002022-07-31T08:00:00.211+01:00Books I Read In July<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Revelation' by Bill Napier</u></p><p>This book is pretty much like <u>'Nemesis'</u> (1998) by Napier that I read in April: <a href="http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html">http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html</a> It combines heavy duty science, in this case the possibility of deriving power from zero-point energy with a kind of Dan Brown academic-in-an-adventure story. This one has chemical formulae in it. Napier is pretty good at explaining the science but it does leave a very peculiar book. In this one a glacier scientist is brought in to help extract a frozen Soviet aeroplane from a breaking up ice sheet in the Arctic. It seems to hold diaries from Lev Petrosian, an Armenian scientist who worked on the US atomic and hydrogen bomb programmes before suffering persecution by the authorities during the McCarthy era. The hero of the book, Dr. Fred Findhorn, rushes all over the planet along with an translator of Armenian, trying to find out what Petrosian discovered. They face an array of enemies from US intelligence to a Japanese corporation to millennial cult, all seeking to get their hands on what Findhorn has uncovered. We also go back to see what Petrosian suffered and the book is pretty decent on the paranoia of 1950s USA and to some degree how it actually drives Petrosian towards the Soviets.</p><p>The book is frenetic, going between Scotland, the USA, Greece, Japan and Switzerland. There is a lot of casual but brutal violence. A scene in a Swiss chalet is particularly violent. As with <u>'Nemesis'</u> there is a lot of expositionary conversations and Findhorn tracking down specialists at a conference on a small Greek island who are happy to talk about the possibilities of what Petrosian may have found seems very contrived. Findhorn who has a brother with a secure flat and happy to fund flights all over the place; two young translators happy to go along with an older man whose life is constantly in danger also stretches credibility, but I know from many thrillers, not just Brown's but also Ludlum's that these are well established traits. Napier seems to feel obliged to add in tons of science in a way that most thriller authors are not. I guess it is nice to learn something real from fiction, but it does conflict with the frenetic pace he is also seeking, leading to a very 'bitty' feel to the novel. This was the only remaining Napier book I had and while both were curiosities I am certainly not seeking any more of them.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Manor of Death' by Bernard Knight</u></p><p>This is the 12th of the 15 books in Knight's Crowner John series. The 15th is a prequel. However, this book really feels like closing the sequence. The novels have not covered a great deal of time, so far running from November 1194 to April 1196. However, at the end of this one a lot of what we have become familiar with in the books is brought to an end. Sir John De Wolfe is to be sent from Devon to work in London. His bitter wife, Matilda has again withdrawn to a convent, but this time probably for good; his Welsh mistress, Nesta, has married a stonemason and returned to Wales, selling up her inn, which is then passed to John's Cornish bodyguard, Gwyn and his family to take over running. Thus, all the things that have been built up over the previous books are no longer as they were. It is naturally rather bittersweet, but I guess by this stage Knight felt he was rather going round all of the old established patterns once more. Given the society of the time, there were few options short of killing off one or more of these characters. As is made clear, John cannot marry Nesta and she is not happy to remain simply a mistress; he cannot divorce his wife even if she becomes a nun.</p><p>All of this only comes to fruition towards the end of the novel, though the groundwork is laid throughout. Most of the book focuses on pirates operating from the port of Axmouth which while a small seaside town was a significant port in the Middle Ages. De Wolfe has a very frustrating time trying to get any information on what is happening. With the priory that owns the town and various officials standing on their privileges they constantly rebuff his attempts even when the number of murders of witnesses increases. Ultimately De Wolfe pulls of a 'sting' operation and we finally get through to him dealing out some justice.</p><p>I am tempted to seek out the three remaining books to see what happens. However, you could finish the series on this one because it is clear that what follows will be very different from the 'police procedural' with an established 'cast' of characters in and around Exeter.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Resistance' by Owen Sheers</u></p><p>I saw the 2011 movie of this novel, which had been published in 2007, about ten years ago and was not overly impressed. It is superficially an alternate history story set around the Second World War. In contrast to many using this as a starting point it is not set in 1940/41 with a German invasion then, but rather one coming in 1944 following the defeat of the Normandy landings that June. The biggest change in fact is a one far less explored and that is that by 1944, the Soviets have been pushed beyond the Urals and while they break out during the course of this book, the ability to shift troops from the Eastern Front to France and then Britain has allowed a slow German conquest of the UK.</p><p>The novel is set in a small isolated valley in eastern Wales where the Mappa Mundi medieval map from Hereford Cathedral has been concealed. A team of six German soldiers, let by a captain Albrecht Wolfram, who was a scholar of such work in Oxford before the war, are sent to locate the map. This brings them into contact with the women on the handful of farms in the valley who at the start of the novel have been left by their husbands who are all part of the Auxiliary Units, particularly the Special Duty Branch, to act as a guerilla force and as intelligence agents, respectively, in the event of an invasion. We see very little of the men, only a George who lives nearby but was not from the valley and his recruiter 'Tommy Atkins' who is taken by the Gestapo and later killed by Wolfram's unit.</p><p>I can see why the movie was very uninspiring because very little happens in the book, so the director, Amit Gupta, had little to work from. The book is a very different thing. Where it shines is not in terms of the alternate history. This is really only required to set up the 'bubble' of the cut off valley populated by women and girls and their interaction with a very small unit of occupiers. Sheers is a poet and the strength of this book is that for much of the time, it is effectively a prose poem describing the valley through the seasons; its plant and animal life, seen through the eyes of various characters. We often jump quite quickly from one to the other and witness things though almost all of them during the course of the book. Even the developing (inevitable) romance between the captain and Sarah Lewis appears very slowly and is rather rushed to the end, rather weakening the choices that both make. Much better are the other interactions between the two sides, notably the modus vivendi that the soldiers develop with Maggie, effectively matriarch of the valley.</p><p>In terms of narrative there are many things you might challenge. However, it just about hangs together. The reason why I would recommend this book, though, is not for the story, but for the beautiful images of a particular place from how the light moves through the valley, how the ice and the water moves and changes, how the animals behave, even the buildings and their contents, the nearby ruins. The descriptions are so rich it is a pleasure to read them. It does not make an exciting book and certainly not a great movie, but as something else, much more poetic, it works well to engage you.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Macmillan. A Study in Ambiguity' by Anthony Sampson</u></p><p>It is interesting that while contemporary Conservatives will talk about Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill and even Stanley Baldwin, I cannot recall any mentioning Harold Macmillan. This is despite him serving as prime minister for 6½ years during one of the most prosperous periods of modern British history. I guess for many in his party his criticism as Lord Stockton of the first two Thatcher governments has made him a pariah. Certainly with the zealous anti-EU attitude prevalent in the party of the 2020s, him being a link in British European policy between Churchill's attitude into Heath's and a period when collaboration with other capitalist neighbours seemed to be something almost inherently Conservative, can make him seem a 'traitor' not just to the party but even to the country as a whole.</p><p>As a consequence, there is now rather an ellipse in how the Conservatives see themselves as if the period probably 1956-1975 has been edited out. It does mean that strands of what would have once been seen as mainstream Conservatism, with actually a modern perspective, is absent from current thinking. Anything that comes even marginally close to anything Macmillan might have pursued is deemed to be 'weak', even 'unpatriotic'. Given how much the party has turned the clock back to attitudes Macmillan would have seen in his youth (he was born in 1894 and fought in the First World War) I imagine if alive today he would have felt even more detached from his party than he did in the 1980s.</p><p>Writing in 1967, Sampson measures Macmillan against standards that are far higher than any which we could expect to be applied in the 21st Century. The failures in terms of establishing a superpower summit, difficulties with the EEC and with moving African states to independence would be seen as just everyday foreign policy challenges. The so-called 'Night of the Long Knives', a strong Cabinet reshuffle and even the Profumo Scandal, rather than being isolated incidents analysed to a great extent are often occurrences that can happen in a single week in UK politics today. Given the books towards the end of his life, I am sure he had detected the qualitative deterioration in British political life. Thus, while the tone of Sampson's book is one of disappointment, as much for Macmillan himself in not achieving his goals, the record set against say, the last three Conservative prime ministers actually seems quite decent.</p><p>The Conservatives have a lot to be grateful for from Macmillan. In particular Sampson shows how, despite his age or maybe because of it - he was 62 when he first became prime minister, he was able to deftly heal the rifts which had developed over the Suez fiasco which had threatened to rend the party apart. He was then able to get it through two elections so as to cap 13 years in office. Macmillan was also alert to the requirements of modern politics and the uses to which snappy slogans, television and aircraft could aid him not simply in speaking to the electorate but also showing the UK prime minister as still someone notable in the world.</p><p>Sampson provides good detail without drowning out the story. I was particularly interested in Macmillan's approach to economics and his engagement with planning which stretched across the political spectrum in the 1930s and 1940s and ironically was an attitude that brought him closer to the French approach of the post-war period than the British one. He did lay the groundwork for Harold Wilson's engagement with planning. It is important to establish this context, to fill in the ellipse not just simply in terms of Conservative policy, but also the wider course of British economic policy which in just over a decade saw a move from boosting Keynesianism via corporatism and planning, to, even under a Labour government, under Callaghan, the winning out of monetarist approaches that then caused so much of the pain of the 1980s and beyond for large chunks of the British (and indeed American) population.</p><p>Overall, this was a book of its time in terms of its basis for judgements. It is a useful reminder of a neglected, pretty important component in both Conservative and British history in general. It is also a reminder of the kind of standards politicians were expected to work to, that now, especially in the past 3 years, seem utterly forgotten and even somehow portrayed as not 'truly Conservative'. That sense of responsibility not just to one's personal benefit but to the wider community is utterly absent now in a way which was not the case when Macmillan was in charge.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-1423536821934129482022-07-24T11:33:00.003+01:002023-04-29T11:15:47.790+01:00'What If?'s I Have Written AboutNow that I have been publishing 'what if?' analysis books and collections of short stories for eight years, I thought it might be useful to identify the topics I have explored and in which book. I intend to update this as I publish more, so it is a snapshot of what is currently available. My 'what if?' books divide into three categories, those which had chapters of analysis; those with fictional short stories and full-length novels set in one alternative context.<br />
<br />
<strong>'What If?' Novels</strong><br />
<u>'Against the Devil’s Men: A ‘What If?’ Novel of the Continuation of the Mongol
Invasion of Europe'</u><br />
<u>'Between Protector and Pretender'<br /></u><div><u>'The Blood and The Ghost'<br /></u><div><u>'Byzantium Express'</u><br />
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<u>'Eve of the Globe’s War: A ‘What If?’ Novel of the Coming of the Second World War without an Industrial Revolution'</u></div><div><u>'The Hated Chapters'<br /></u>
<u>'His Majesty's Dictator'</u><br />
<u>'In the Absence of Powder'</u></div><div><u>'The Loyal Pursuit'<br /></u>
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<u>'Mark in the Sea: A ‘What If?’ Novel of the Persistence of Islands of Doggerland'</u></div>
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<u>'Provision: A What If? Novel of the Second World War'</u><br />
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<u>'Scavenged Days: A ‘What If?’ Novel of the Impact of the Assassination
of President De Gaulle'</u></div><div class="MsoTitleCxSpFirst"><u>'Streseland'</u></div>
<div class="MsoTitleCxSpFirst">
<u>'Stop Line: A ‘What If?’ Novel of Resisting the 1940 Nazi
Invasion of Britain'</u></div><div class="MsoTitleCxSpFirst"><u>'Taken in Lycia'</u></div>
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<u>'The Three Eagles: A ‘What If?’ Novel of the U.S.A., Mexico and the
First World War' </u></div>
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<br />
<strong>Collections of 'What If?' Fiction</strong><br />
<u>'Another World’s War: What If? Stories of the Second World War’<br />'From Another Infamy: What If? Stories of the Second World War'<br />‘Detour: What If? Stories of Americans’</u><br />
<u>'Taking the Detour: What If? Stories of Americans'<br />‘Déviation: What If? Stories of the French’<br />‘Diversion: What If? Stories of the British’<br />‘Route Diverted: What If? Stories of the British’<br />‘Umleitung: What If? Stories of Germany’</u><br />
<u>'Wars to End: W<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">hat If? Stories of the
First World War'</span></u><br />
<br />
<strong>Books of Alternate History Analysis</strong><br />
<u>‘Other Roads: Alternate Outcomes of the Second World War’<br />‘Other Roads II: Further Alternate Outcomes of the Second World War’<br />‘Other Roads III: Additional Alternate Outcomes of the Second World War’<br />‘In Other Trenches: Alternate Outcomes of the First World War’<br />‘In Other Trenches II: Further Alternate Outcomes of the First World War’<br />'Other Lives: Alternate Outcomes for Famous People in History'</u><br />
<u>‘In Another America: Views and Reviews of Alternate Histories for the USA in the 17th-20th Centuries’<br />‘Down Other Tracks: Alternate Outcomes of the 19th Century’<br />'Other Exits: Alternate Outcomes for Tudor and Stuart Monarchs’<br />'On Other Fields: Alternate Outcomes of the Middle Ages' <br />‘Other Earths: Alternate Outcomes of Geological Developments and Prehistoric Times’</u><br />
<br />
In the following list, the date is the date of the divergence from our history. Some chapters reflect on a number of different divergences so you will see some repeated next to different dates.<br />
<br />
An 'A' indicates that the chapter is analysis; 'S' that it is a story and 'N' shows a full-length novel. Very often I have produced a story to match a piece of analysis. The date in brackets after the 'S' or 'N' shows when the story is set. Some stories are set years or even centuries after the divergence in order to show how the world would have developed differently from that time.<br />
<br />
The titles of the different books featuring a specific chapter should be obvious. The number after 'Ch.' is the chapter in the book which has that analysis or story.<br />
<br />
Summary of Counterfactuals <br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4.54 Billion Years
Ago:</b> <i>Earth's Axis at 0° to the Sun's Axis</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 01</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4.54 Billion Years
Ago:</b> <i>Earth's Axis at 90° to the Sun's Axis</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch.
01</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4.54 Billion Years
Ago:</b> <i>No Metal on Earth</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3.6 Billion Years
Ago:</b> <i>Inverted Earth – land as seas; sea as land</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u>
Ch. 04</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">200 Million Years
Ago:</b> <i>Pangea Did Not Break Up</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’ </u>Ch. 03</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">100 Million Years
Ago:</b> <i>Inland Sea in Australia</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>75 Million Years Ago: </b><i>Western Seaway Remained in North America</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1817): '<u>Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 01</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">55 Million Years Ago:</b>
<i>Greenland Farther South</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">55 Million Years Ago:</b>
<i>Horses did not Evolve</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 10</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">35 Million Years Ago:</b>
<i>Antarctica Farther North</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>15 Million Years Ago:</b> <i>No Isthmus Developed Between North and South America</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1998): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 16</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">200,000 Years Ago:</b>
<i>Women are as Strong as Men</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 11</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">30,000 Years Ago: </b><i>Dover
Isthmus Continued</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></b>
<b>6200 BCE</b>: <i>Islands
of Doggerland Not Inundated</i><br />
– N: <u>‘Mark in the Sea’</u><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><o:p></o:p></u></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5600 BCE:</b> <i>Crimea
Became an Island</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 08</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4000 BCE:</b> <i>Sahara
Desert Remained Green</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A <u>‘Other Earths’</u> Ch. 12</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">323 BCE</b>:
<i>Alexander the Great Lived Longer</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 01</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">52 BCE</b> <i>Julius
Caesar Defeated and Killed in Gaul</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (52 BCE): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 16</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">44 BCE:</b> <i>Julius
Caesar not Assassinated</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 02</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">9: </b><i>German Tribes
Defeated in Teutoberg Forest</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (21): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">62:</b> <i>Romans
Expelled from Britain</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (62): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">337:</b> <i>Paganism
Persisted</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 01</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">520:</b>
<i>Romano-British Rule Persisted in Britain</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (801): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">732:</b> <i>Umayyad
Forces Won at Poitiers</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 02</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1699): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">878:</b> <i>Alfred the
Great Defeated</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (879): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 13</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N: <u>'The Blood and The Ghost'</u></span></div>
<br />
<b>900s: </b><i>Gunpowder Not Invented</i><br />
- N: (1815): <u>'In the Absence of Powder'</u><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1002:</b> <i>Burgundy
Persisted</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>1020:</b> <i>Viking Colonies Established Around Chesapeake Bay</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1586): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 15</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1035:</b> <i>William the
Bastard Did Not Become Duke of Normandy</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1041): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 13</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1066:</b> <i>King Harold
II Defeated at Stamford Bridge</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>King
Harold II Victorious at Battle of Hastings</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 06</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 6;">-</span> S (1088): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 14</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1071:</b> <i>The Byzantines Won the Battle of Manzikert</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u>
Ch.17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1914): <u>'Byzantium Express'</u></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1098:</b> <i>The 1<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Crusade Failed to Capture Antioch</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S
(1098): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 04</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1099:</b> <i>The 1<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Crusade Failed to Capture Jerusalem</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On
Other Fields’</u> Ch. 07</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1135-47:</b> <i>A Different Anarchy</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 08</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1181:</b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span><i>Abu Ya'qub Yusuf I Lived Longer</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 19</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1190:</b> <i>Friedrich Barbarossa Survived; 3<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">rd</span></sup> Crusade Very
Successful </i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1193): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 14</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1203:</b> <i>Duchy of Brittany Remained Independent</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u>
Ch. 13</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (2011): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 35.45pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1204: </b><i>The 4<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Crusade Did Not Damage the Byzantine
Empire</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1914): <u>'Byzantium Express'</u></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1217:</b> <i>Prince
Louis of France Became King of England</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 09</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1686): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 05</span></div>
<div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1230s:</b> <i>A Larger Moorish State Remained in Iberia</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 19</span></div><div><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1990): <u>'The Hated Chapters'</u></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1241:</b> <i>The Mongols
Did Not Turn Back from Europe</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
- N (1267):<o:p></o:p> <u>‘Against the Devil’s Men’</u></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">-
S (1272): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1268:</b> <i>The
Crusader States Persisted</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 11</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1270:</b> <i>The Chinese
Discovered the Americas</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1524): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 09</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1328:</b> <i>The English
Won the Battle of Bannockburn</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1346): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 17</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1346:</b> <i>No Black
Death</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 14</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Black Death
Killed a Majority of Europeans</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The French
Won the Battle of Crécy</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1346): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1376:</b> <i>The Black
Prince Lived Longer</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 16</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1415:</b> <i>The English
Lost the Battle of Agincourt</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1415): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 10</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1422:</b> <i>England Won
the Hundred Years’ Wa</i>r</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 16</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1432): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 11</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1649): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 20</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1453:</b> <i>The
Byzantine Empire Persisted</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1914): <u>'Byzantium Express'</u></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1475:</b> <i>German
Explorer Discovered America</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1475): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1481:</b> <i>Sultan
Mehmed II Lived Longer </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Christopher Columbus Sailed to the Americas for Genoa rather than Spain</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1512): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1485:</b> <i>King
Richard III Won at Bosworth Field</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 01</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1783): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1492:</b> <i>A Moorish
State Remained in Iberia</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">
- A: <u>‘On Other Fields’</u> Ch. 19</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><div style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1990): </span><u style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">'The Hated Chapters'</u></div>
<br />
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><b>1492:</b> <i>Italian City States Colonised North America</i></span></div>
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> – S (1512): </span><u style="text-indent: 36pt;">‘Taking the Detour’</u><span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> Ch. 03</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>1493:</b> <i>Refugees from the Emirate of Granada Settled in North America</i></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">- S (1493/1978): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 18</span><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1502</b>: <i>Prince
Arthur Came to the English Throne</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1511:</b> <i>Catherine
of Aragon Had a Surviving Son</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 04</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1534): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1517:</b> <i>Martin
Luther Died Younger</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1517): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 08</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1536: </b><i>King Henry
VIII Died in a Jousting Accident</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 05</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1536): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 06</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Anne Boleyn
Did not Miscarry</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1537:</b> <i>Jane
Seymour Did not Die in Childbirth </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1538:</b> <i>King Henry
VIII Married Marie of Guise </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 07</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1540:</b> <i>King Henry
VIII Found Anne of Cleves Attractive </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 08</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1553</b>: <i>King Edward
VI Lived Longer </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 09</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1554:</b> <i>Queen
Elizabeth I Brought to the Throne Earlier </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 10</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1558:</b> <i>Calais
Remained English </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1790): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 02</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Princess Elizabeth Did Not Become
Queen </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1564:</b> <i>Queen
Elizabeth I Married and Had Children </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 12</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1571; 1578; 1583;
1586: </b><i>Queen Elizabeth I Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 13</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">-
S (1573): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1588:</b> T<i>he Spanish
Armada was Victorious </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 14</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1605:</b> <i>The
Gunpowder Plot was Successful </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 15</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1632:</b> <i>King
Gustavus Adolphus Lived and Won the 30 Years’ War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1635): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch.
17</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1643:</b> <i>Oliver
Cromwell Killed in Battle </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 04</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>King Charles
I Won the Civil War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 16</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1654): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1650:</b> A<i>
Constitution Introduced to Britain </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 17</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1706): <u>'Between Protector and Pretender'</u></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1717): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u>
Ch. 08</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1664:</b> <i>Nieuw
Nederland Persisted </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 01</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1986): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1685:</b> <i>The Duke of
Monmouth Victorious </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 18</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1687): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1688:</b> <i>King James
II Remained on the Throne </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Exits’</u> Ch. 19</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1745: </b><i>The
Jacobite Rebellion Succeeded </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1749): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1750s:</b> <i>No
Industrial Revolution </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">-</span><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> N (1938): </span><u style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">‘Eve of the Globe’s War’</u></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1759:</b> <i>North
America became Largely French </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1763): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1768): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1760:</b> <i>Prussia
Destroyed </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1760): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1770s:</b> <i>Steam Car
Racing Became A Sport </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1785): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 10</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1777:</b> <i>George
Washington Died at Valley Forge </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 05</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1778): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1778:</b> <i>The British
Won the American War of Independence</i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1983): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1787:</b> <i>Federal
Convention Led to Independent American States </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 04</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1976): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1790:</b> <i>French
Revolution Defeated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1890): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 09</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1792:</b> <i>Japan
Opened Up to the World Earlier </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 10</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1794:</b> <i>Napoleon’s
Career Less Successful </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1794): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1799:</b> <i>Napoleon
Made No Impact on French Politics </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Napoleon Did Not Abolish Balloon Troops </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1810): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 15</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1803:</b> <i>Duke of
Wellington Killed in India </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1811): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch.
06</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Louisiana Not
Sold to the USA </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1992): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1805:</b> <i>France
Conquered Britain </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1809): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 07</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1812:</b> <i>Napoleon
More Successful </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 04</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (2000): ‘Déviation’ Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>USA More
Successful in War of 1812 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 05</span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">- N (1813): <u>'The Loyal Pursuit'</u><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1815): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>USA Less
Successful in War of 1812 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1814): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Indian Reserve Preserved</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1828): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1813: </b><i>Saxony
Rather than Prussia Joined 6<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> Coalition </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1815): <u>‘Umleitung’</u>
Ch. 13</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1830s:</b>
<i>Colonialism Did Not Catch On </i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Otto von
Bismarck Remained a Lawyer </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1872): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1839:</b> <i>Belgium not
Created </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1840:</b> <i>Napoleon
III Executed </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Queen
Victoria Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1840): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Republic of Rio Grande Survived</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1863): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1842:</b> <i>Britain
Held Afghanistan </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 09</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1963): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1844:</b> <i>Henry Clay
Became US President </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Congresswoman
Elected in New Jersey </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1845): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1845:</b> <i>Texas
Remained an Independent Republic </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1945): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1848:</b> <i>Hungary
Broke Entirely from Austria </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i> King
Friedrich III came to the Prussian Throne </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch.
18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Mexico
Remained Larger </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">- </span>S (1996): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1852: </b><i>Earlier
American Civil War and Earlier Deseret </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1856): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 06</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1857:</b> <i>Deseret was
Sustained </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The Indian
Mutiny Succeeded </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1871): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1858:</b> <i>Napoleon
III Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 07</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1861:</b> <i>King
Friedrich III came to the Prussian Throne</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch.
18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The
Confederacy Won the American Civil War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1868): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1862:</b> <i>Otto von
Bismarck was Less Successful </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>1863</b>: <i>Abraham Lincoln Assassinated Sooner; Herbert Hamlin Died of Pneumonia</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1863): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1865: </b><i>Abraham
Lincoln Not Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 07</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1867): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1866:</b> <i>Kaiser
Wilhelm I was Restrained Less </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 13</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1867:</b> <i>Hungary
Broke Entirely from Austria </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Russian
Colonies Remained in North America </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 20</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1870:</b> <i>France Won
the Franco-Prussian War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 15</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1871): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1871:</b> <i>The Taiping
State Persisted </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 11</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Italy not
Unified</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1878:</b> <i>War between
Britain and Russia</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 16</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1878): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Kaiser
Friedrich III Came to the Throne </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1883:</b> <i>The Channel
Tunnel was Constructed Earlier</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1883): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 19</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1888:</b> <i>Kaiser
Friedrich III Lived Longer </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The Boulanger
Coup D’État Succeeded </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>1889:</b> <i>DC Electricity Used for US Supply to Homes</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1937): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 20</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1892:</b> <i>Winston Churchill
Died Younger </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1895:</b> <i>Extensive
Monorail Network Built in Germany </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1909): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 10</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1898</b>: <i>France
Victorious in the Fashoda Crisis </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1898): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 21</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1900:</b> <i>King Edward
VII Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Down Other Tracks’</u> Ch. 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The Boers Won
the 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> Anglo-Boer War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1902): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1902:</b> <i>Japan Became an Ally of Germany </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S (1914): <u>‘Wars to
End’</u> Ch. 03</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1907:</b> <i>Stalin Died
before the October Revolution </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The State of
Sequoyah was Formed </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1927): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 03</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1910s:</b> <i>Oil
Exploration in North Sea Began Sooner </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1941): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 08</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1912:</b> <i>Theodore
Roosevelt Re-Elected US President </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 13</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1915): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i>Irish Free
State Covered All of Ireland</i></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1913): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> <i> British Admiralty Began Developing Tanks</i> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">– S (1916): <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 15</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1914:</b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Mussolini Remained a Left-Wing
Journalist </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 11</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The First
World War Never Occurred </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S (1916): <u>‘Wars to
End’</u> Ch. 16</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Not Assassinated</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> – S <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 01</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Third Balkans
War</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria War with Serbia</i></span></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S (1915): </span><u style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">‘Wars to End’</u><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Industrial
Action Halted the First World War</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 02</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Britain Did
not Enter the First World War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1914): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch.
01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Germany
Invaded the Netherlands </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u>
Ch. 02</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>The German
Plans Succeeded </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> French Plan XVII Fully
Implemented</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 04</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Italy Fought
as Part of the Triple Alliance </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S (1915): <u>‘Wars to
End’</u> Ch. 06</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The Ottoman
Empire Remained Neutral </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Germany
Conquered Britain </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1941): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1915:</b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Germany Ran Out of Raw Materials
</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unrestricted
Submarine Warfare Introduced Sooner </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 06</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– N (1948): <u>‘His Majesty's Dictator’</u></span><br />
<u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>The Gallipoli
Offensive Succeeded </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 06</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> Allied Landings in Thrace Not Gallipoli</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- S: <u>‘Wars to
End’</u> Ch. 07<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Seaborne
Invasion of Germany’s Baltic Coast</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 08</div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> Ottoman
Forces Invade Egyp</i>t</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 10<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Austria-Hungary
Defeated by Russia </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> <i>Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive Successful</i></span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">–
S (1940): </span><u style="text-indent: 36pt;">‘Wars to End’</u><span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> Ch. 22<br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Second
Christmas Truce on Western Front</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 05<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1916:</b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Russia Collapsed Earlier </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other
Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> <i>Romania Entered War in April
1916; Aided Russian Offensive</i></span><br />
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">- S: </span><u style="text-indent: 36pt;">‘Wars to End’</u><span style="text-indent: 36pt;"> Ch. 14</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Sustained
US-Mexican War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- N: <u>‘The Three Eagles’</u></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Full Scale
British-German Naval Battle </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 13</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i> German North Sea Battle Plan More Effective</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- S: <u>‘Wars to
End’</u> Ch. 12<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> <i> Austria-Hungary Captured
Venice </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 13</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Germans
Developed Effective Tanks </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">-
S (1918): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Germans
Captured Verdun Fortresses </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S (1915): <u>‘Wars to
End’</u> Ch. 09</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1916): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Charles E.
Hughes Won the US Presidential Election </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>British
Developed an Airship Force </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1916): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 02</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1917:</b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Negotiated Peace </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches
1’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Austria-Hungary
Defeated by Russia </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>USA Did not
Enter the First World War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1923): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1917): <u>'The Three Eagles'</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>French Army
Mutinies More Extensive </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>British Army
Mutinied Extensively</i></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 17<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1919): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>The Bolshevik
Revolution Failed </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> The Kornilov Coup Succeeded</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 18</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk Less Extreme </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1918:</b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Kaiserschlacht Sustained </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other
Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u>
Ch. 19</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>French
Developed Stormtroopers </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Britain Did Not Impose Conscription on Ireland </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 11</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> <i>Biological Weapons Used
Extensively</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u> Ch. 20</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1919:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> The First
World War Continued </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 2’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- S: <u>‘Wars to End’</u>
Ch. 21</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1920:</b> <i>Treaty of Sèvres
Enforced </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Trenches 1’</u> Ch. 14</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1937): <u>'Taken in Lycia'</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Prohibition
not Introduced </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1924:</b> <i>Lenin Lived
10 Years Longer </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Hitler
Deported from Germany </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1925): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 16</span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">- N (1937): <u>'Streseland'</u><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1929:</b> <i>Gustav
Stresemann Lived Longer </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 13</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1936): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 07</span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">- N (1937): <u>'Streseland'</u><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> No Wall Street Crash</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1938): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1931:</b> <i>Winston
Churchill Died Younger </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 02</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Stronger
Chinese Resistance to Japanese Invasion </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1931): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u>
Ch. 05</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1932:</b> <i>Hitler not
Granted German Citizenship </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 02</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1933:</b>
<i>Germany-Poland War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 02</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1933): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1934:</b> <i>Franklin
Roosevelt Overthrown by a Coup D’État </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 12</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1944): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Mao Zedong was Killed</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other
Lives’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Coup D’État in France </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other
Roads 1’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1939): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Nazi Coup D’État in Austria
Successful </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1934): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> King Alexander of Yugoslavia Not
Assassinated</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1943): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1935:</b> <i>Mussolini
Overthrown </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 11</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1936:</b> <i>Edward VIII
Remained King of the United Kingdom </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 14</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1955): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u>
Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>The Maginot
Line was Built Along the Belgian Border </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 06</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Italy and
Germany Did Not Become Allies </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 02</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1941): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u>
Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Remilitarisation
of the Rhineland Resisted </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1937:</b> <i>The
Republicans Won the Spanish Civil War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The USA
Joined Second World War from the Start </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 06</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1938): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
12</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1938:</b> <i>Appeasement
Succeeded in Avoiding War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 05</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u>
Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1948): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u>
Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Neville
Chamberlain was a German Collaborator </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– S (1938): <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Germany-Czechoslovakia
War of 1938 </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1938): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Hitler
Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Mussolini
Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Stalin Debilitated
by a Stroke </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1938/1941): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">1939:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><strong> <i> </i></strong><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i>Allies Unable to Break the Enigma
Cipher </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 14</span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i> France Invaded Germany to Support
Poland</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> - S (1939): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">1940:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;"><i> Jewish Refuge Established in
Alaska</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;">– A: </span><u style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;">‘In Another America’</u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;"> Ch. 17</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Britain
Invaded Norway </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>German
Invasion of Norway Defeated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>USSR Invaded
Norway </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">-
S (1940): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Japan Invaded
the USSR </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1942): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lord Halifax
Became British Prime Minister </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– S (1940): <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>German Invasion
of Belgium Halted </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>German
Invasion of France Defeated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Anglo-French
Union Formed </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1965): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>The BEF was
Eliminated at Dunkirk </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Charles De Gaulle Killed in an Aeroplane Crash</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1949): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Italy Did not
Enter the Second World War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>French
Government Went to the Brittany Redoubt</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i> The French Government Relocated
to Algeria </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1941): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1942): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
06</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Germany
Invaded Switzerland </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Germany
Invaded Spain and Portugal </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Spain and
Portugal Fought Actively for the Axis </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>German
Invasion of Britain Failed </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 06</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u>
Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- N (1940): <u>‘Stop Line’</u></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1941): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 01</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>German
Invasion of Ireland </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Germany
Invaded Iceland </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 10</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Italy
Victorious in Greece </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 07</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Italy Invaded
Palestine </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1940): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Mussolini
Dismissed Earlier</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Poison Gas
Weapons Used</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1941:</b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i> Franklin Roosevelt Only Allowed
to Serve 2 Terms </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1951): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 02</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Yugoslavia Remained Independent </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">-
S (1943): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>The British
Held Crete </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1966): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Germany
Invaded Cyprus </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Germany
Invaded Bulgaria</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Soviet
Response to German Invasion </i></span><i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">More Effective</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1941): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Latvia Became
an Ally of Germany </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1943): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Vichy France
Fought Actively for the Axis</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>USA
Concentrated on Fighting in the Pacific</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1944): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u>
Ch. 09</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">1942:</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;"><i> Germans Won the Second World War</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;">– A: </span><u style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;">‘Other Roads 1’</u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-indent: 36pt;"> Ch. 01</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1968): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Japan Won the
Pacific War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <em>Allies Unable to Break Shark Version of Enigma Cipher</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- N (1943): <u>'<i>Provision</i>'</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Singapore was
Better Defended </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1942): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Japan Invaded
Ceylon </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1942): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
02</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Allies
Invaded Norway </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch.12</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>German Forces
Reached Palestine and Iraq </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1942): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u>
Ch. 03</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Germans
Victorious at Leningrad and Stalingrad </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1942): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>German Forces
Captured Grozny </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1942): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch. 06</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">1943:</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i>Japan Invaded India </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other
Roads 1’</u> Ch. 13</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Allies Lost
Battle of the Atlantic </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1943): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
- N (1943): <u>‘Provision’</u><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Allies
Invaded Brittany </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1943): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Allies Tried
to Liberate the Channel Islands </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Operation
Mincemeat Failed </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Allies
Invaded Greece Rather than Italy </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1943): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Italian
Armistice Handled Better </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>A Civil War
in Hungary </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1943): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">1944:</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>Germany Developed an Atomic Bomb
</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Roads 1’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;">-</span> S (1944): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch.
17</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Soviets
Developed an Atomic Bomb First </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>D-Day
Landings in Pas-de-Calais</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>France Became
a Communist Country </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1945): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S
(1974): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Hitler
Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 2’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1944): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u>
Ch. 02</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Germans Used
Numerous Jet Bombers </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1956): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Bridge at
Arnhem Held by Allies </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1944): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Communists Won
Greek Civil War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- A: <u>‘Other Roads 3’</u> Ch. 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>The Soviets
Aided the Warsaw Uprising </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1957): <u>‘Another World’s War’</u> Ch. 08</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>No US Atomic
Bomb Built and</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> Invasion of Japan</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1946): <u>‘From Another Infamy’</u> Ch.
01</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">1945:</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Morgenthau Plan Implemented </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other
Roads 1’</u> Ch. 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i> Bakker-Schut Plan Implemented </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S
(1956): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 11</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1946:</b> <i>Joseph
McCarthy not Elected a Senator</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 18</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1948:</b> <i>More Alert
US Foreign Policy </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Britain
Became Part of the USA </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1952): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u> Ch. 16</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i> Thomas Dewey Elected US President as Expected</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1950): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch.10</span><br />
<br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>1950:</b> <i>USA Defeated in Korean War</i></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">- S (1950): <u>'Detour'</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br /></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> <i>USA Used Atomic Bombs in Korean War</i></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">- S (1985): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1952:</b> <i>Robert Taft
Elected US President; Nixon, Vice-President </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1963): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 08</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1956:</b> <i>British
Victorious in Suez Crisis; Invaded Libya </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1956): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u>
Ch. 12</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1960:</b> <i>Richard
Nixon Won the 1960 US Presidential Election </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 15</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1961:</b> <i>Charles De
Gaulle Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 16</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1961): <u>‘Déviation’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">- N (1961): <u>‘Scavenged Days’</u></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> <i>The Beatles were Convicted in West Germany</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S
(1961): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 05</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1962:</b> <i>USA Invaded
Cuba </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 20</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1967): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 04</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <i> </i></span><i>Tactical
Atomic Weapons Used by Cuba </i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (2003): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 19</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1963:</b> <i>John F.
Kennedy not Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 21</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>East Germany
Invaded West Berlin </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1963): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 18</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1966:</b> <i>Mao Zedong
was Ousted from Power </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 17</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1968:</b> <i>Robert
Kennedy not Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 23</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1969:</b> <i>USSR-China
Third World War </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 22</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1974:</b> <i>Lord
Mountbatten Became Head of a British Junta </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 19</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1975): <u>‘Route Diverted’</u>
Ch. 05</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Richard Nixon
Remained in Office </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘In Another America’</u> Ch. 24</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1977:</b> <i>Hans
Schleyer’s Kidnappers Found </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1978): <u>‘Umleitung’</u> Ch. 15</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>1980:</b> <i>Ronald Reagan Fiasco in Broadcast Debate</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1980): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 19</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1981:</b> <i>Ronald
Reagan Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 20</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1987): <u>‘Detour’</u> Ch. 14</span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1984:</b> <i>Indira
Gandhi Was Not Assassinated</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 18</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Margaret
Thatcher Assassinated </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">– A: <u>‘Other Lives’</u> Ch. 21</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (1984): <u>‘Diversion’</u> Ch. 09</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>2000:</b> <i>Al Gore Confirmed as US President</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (2009): <u>'Taking the Detour'</u> Ch. 06</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>2003:</b> <i>President Al Gore Assassinated</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">- S (2009): </span><u style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">'Taking the Detour'</u><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> Ch. 06</span></div></div>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-48668767275055698082022-06-30T08:00:00.106+01:002022-07-30T13:04:55.210+01:00Books I Read In June<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Who Was David Weiser?' by Pawel Huelle; translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones</u></p><p>If you do not like unreliable narrators then this is certainly a book to avoid. It is set in the summer of 1957 in northern Poland though goes on erratically into the future, probably the 1970s or 1980s. It is written in the first person and dodges around chronologically as the narrator talks about the investigation by teachers, local officials and the police into the disappearance of David Weiser, a Jewish boy at the narrator's school. The activities of the narrator and his various primary-school friends across the summer are recounted at length. It also keeps coming back to their engagement with Weiser and his girlfriend Elka. Weiser is a kind of Svengali character who seeks adoration from the narrator and his friends, largely through his semi-detached engagement with them, making use of munitions left over from the Second World War and perhaps pulling off genuine magic such as flying as well as odd but more down-to-Earth activities like dancing to Elka's pipe and playing football in a disinterested but highly skilled way.</p><p>The novel is engaging, richly portraying a particular time and place that does not feature in English-language writing. The characters are well drawn and you do have an interest in what happened to David and indeed Elka, though the outcomes for the two are different. The trouble is that the parameters are so constrained that it soon becomes tedious, going back and forth in time between the events that unfolded, the questioning of the boys and then references to later decades. After a while you feel like you have seen it all multiple times and in the end it felt a lot longer than its 220 pages. The idea and attention to detail are good. In a short story they would have been highly engaging, but everything is stretched far too thin and as a result the charm that the book initially has is soon utterly worn away and you lose interest in what finally happened whether for real or as a result of some magic realism.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Mortal Causes' by Ian Rankin</u></p><p>In December I retrieved the remaining 10 Rebus books that I had in storage. As a result I came back to the series for the first time since May 2019. This is not a bad story, though as before I feel at times Rankin has lots of ideas that he does not really know how to take forward. There are odd things like Rebus sleeping with a lawyer he encounters even though he is living with his girlfriend. It seemed out of character and did very little to advance the story unless she is going to turn up in subsequent books. The story is a mish-mash of involvement of Northern Irish Loyalist paramilitaries receiving funding from the USA and importing arms via Scotland. The book opens with the scene of a torture and execution and Rebus gets entwined with different elements of the paramilitaries and numerous individuals both on that side and in various police units. Intrigue is fine but at times you do begin to wonder what the point is. I must say, though, that final fifth of the book works far better than the preceding sections and you wish that Rankin had kept tighter control over the variety of characters and various developments to raise the entire book to that quality.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams</u></p><p>I misunderstood what this book was. In the middle of it are a couple of novelettes one featuring Dirk Gently and one Zaphod Beeblebrox, assembled posthumously from various fragments. However, the rest of the book is made up of various articles and transcripts that Adams made down the years, some are very short. They effectively form a kind of biography of the closing years of his life and the topics that interested him notably conservation of species and technology. In terms of technology Adams was very perceptive and accurately predicted things like texting with your thumbs on phones and the search for a universal charger format. Individual articles featured are interesting enough, but really this is a book for serious Adams fans who want to know a little more about the man they admire, but for the general reader there is little here.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Black Angels' by Rupert Butler</u></p><p>As I noted when I read Butler's <u>'Gestapo'</u> (1981) - not to be confused with the subsequent illustrated versions: <a href="https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html">https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html </a> - Butler was very much part of that populist history for sale in branches of Woolworths and newsagents. This book which focuses on the <i>Waffen</i> SS, though at times touches on other branches of the SS, is less sporadic than <u>'Gestapo'</u> and the book is a pretty comprehensive study of how the Waffen SS developed and where they served. Butler does feature atrocities committed by the units, especially against Allied soldiers. However, he struggles to avoid slipping into hagiography and so praises the courage and speed of the Waffen SS units. He really downplays the strength of the opposition to them, notably in France, and over-estimates the strength and level of machinery that the German side had. He, also, like many populist historians of the war, sees <i>Blitzkrieg</i> as something carefully planned in advance and used in Poland as much as France rather than largely developing from the behaviour of reckless generals, ignoring orders. The hagiography becomes apparent too when he begins to speak of the East European SS units that were created and you feel that he sees them as a slur on he honour of the SS and to blame for atrocities, not seeming to recognise that his derogatory racial stereotyping was akin to the attitudes of the SS themselves. There are interesting elements in the book in terms of where the SS fought and their contribution to various campaigns, notably the so-called Battle of the Bulge. However, you cannot help by being unsettled by the extent to which Butler is an enthusiast for the SS and sees admirable traits in many of their soldiers, even while outlining the atrocities they committed.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-79404051650700153122022-05-31T08:00:00.127+01:002023-11-29T18:16:26.146+00:00Books I Read In May<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'The Noble Outlaw' by Bernard Knight</u></p><p>This is the 11th book in the series, though the sequence has only reached December 1195. In truth this novel covers two different crimes that are actually less connected than it appears. One connection is the protagonist's - Sir John De Wolfe, coroner of South Devon - enduring antagonist, Richard de Revelle, former Sheriff of Devon and his brother-in-law. De Revelle is involved in a scheme to follow the new trend of opening schools in Exeter. A desiccated corpse of a man killed by having a nail hammered into the top of his spine is found in the loft of a property being developed for this school. There also seems to be a connection to the 'noble outlaw', the former crusader, Nicholas de Arundell, who had his lands seized in part by De Revelle while away on crusade. An altercation led to a killing and De Arundell fleeing into Dartmoor where he has become a brigand raiding neighbouring farms. The two threads are quite distinct and De Wolfe has to effectively deal with a devious serial killer. The interaction with De Arundell is different. De Revelle and his co-conspirator go after the brigands and there is action as they battle. However, De Wolfe's role is more diplomatic trying to establish a connection to the man, even though under law he should kill him on sight, and seeking to get a pardon. There is further action when De Arundell takes part in a legal battle against the two men who took his land.</p><p>In general this is an interesting novel. We see more of De Wolfe's ongoing life and as always learn more about the society, law and politics of 12th Century South-West England. Separately each of the cases is interesting and well explored. However, they do not really mesh together effectively, though I suppose that reflects a detective's typical case book quite accurately. I do think Knight over-uses De Revelle and in the books from <u>'Figure of Hate'</u> (2005), the 9th book, onwards it feels like he is being levered into the plot, when the development of other antagonists would have perhaps been fresher. However, I accept that the relationships between De Wolfe, his wife, his in-laws, his mistress and his assistants are important to Knight as much as the various mysteries. I have the 12th book on my shelf to read. There were 3 subsequent books in the series, published 2009-12 that I do not have, one of which is a prequel. I would certainly search them out to finish off my reading of the Crowner John series. While perhaps lacking something of the sparkle of the Brother Cadfael novels, this series is a medieval police procedural, which is richly written and draws us very much into the world it is portraying.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'The Poison Garden' by Sarah Singleton</u></p><p>Like most books I acquire these days, this one came from a charity shop. As it was in the adult SF/Fantasy section, rather than with the children's books it was not until later that I realised it is in fact a children's book. Saying that a lot of fantasy no matter the target audience, especially if it is written by women, gets dumped into children's fiction categories. Furthermore, I had read and enjoyed all the Harry Potter books so was not apprehensive about engaging with this one. Singleton has created a rich fantasy in our world, rather like Rowling did. It took me some time to realise that actually it is set in some unspecified late Victorian period rather than in modern day; I have subsequently discovered it is supposed to be the 1850s, whereas I had felt it was 10-40 years later than that.</p><p>Thomas is 10 years old at the start of the novel, though most of it takes place when he is 14 and an apprentice to a London pharmacist. On the death of his grandmother, who was very much into plants and herbalism, he becomes aware of a magical garden which appears and disappears. In this garden he meets and old friend of his grandmother's and witnesses a fatal assault on him. He is left a circular magical box and is directed at 14 to become a pharmacist's apprentice. On moving to London he discovers that his grandmother was part of the small Guild of Medical Herbalists (not Magical as some reviews have it). Though some portray them as sorcerers or witches, they see themselves as scientific practitioners. Each of the members has a garden that comes from one of these boxes and allows them to enter it as if shifting to another plane. In these gardens they can cultivate plants lost to the world and breed others for particular beneficial or nefarious uses. Thomas is drawn into investigating who is slowly killing off the few members of the Guild and along with another young heiress to the Guild's secrets, Maud, defeating the unexpected killer.</p><p>Some complain that the book is too short at 288 pages, though aimed at children, perhaps making it longer would have been of no benefit. While the latter Harry Potter books became large, the early ones were of this kind of length. The story does move along briskly while doing more than enough to conjure up a kind of magic that is distinct from that of other fantasy stories. Regularly Singleton eschews what might be expected, possibly right down to the end, depending on where you might see it going. Despite the pace of the book, the characters and indeed the Victorian settings, let alone the various gardens, are evocatively drawn. I found it a satisfying, refreshing read and welcomed it tending to avoid tropes. There are only very distant echoes of things like <u>'Tom's Midnight Garden'</u> (1958) and even a little, <u>'The Secret Garden'</u> (1910/11) and really you have to be of my generation or older to think of those; certainly not a child in the 21st Century or indeed their parents. While I will not hunt out Singleton's books, if I come across another in a charity shop, then I would certainly be likely to buy it.</p><p><b>P.P. 29/11/2023</b></p><p>I have only just become aware that one of the elements in Singleton's story in featuring the Guild of Funerary Violinists also references another book, <u>'An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin'</u> (2006) by Rohan Kriwaczek: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Incomplete_History_of_the_Art_of_Funerary_Violin">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Incomplete_History_of_the_Art_of_Funerary_Violin</a> which is a spoof history text on said guild and its members practices. Singleton has taken that fiction and added it as an element in her own book, very effectively, I feel.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Napoleon' by Vincent Cronin</u></p><p>Cronin sets out to write a book very much focused on Napoleon Bonaparte, the man. There are references to battles and the political steps, but only when he was directly involved, rather than the events that happened in the context of his expansion of the French Empire. We also get a lot about his early life and his exiles on Elbe and St. Helena that you would typically see in a book about this period of French history in general. There is also a lot about his family and his wives, much of which I had been unaware of. The book was published in 1971 and at times its tone jars for a modern reader. We do not need to know the size of Napoleon's genitals and certainly the statement that Napoleon's sisters were unfortunate in not finding husbands to 'master them' would be struck through vigorously by any editor of the 21st Century.</p><p>Cronin is a fan of Napoleon that is clear and there are sections especially on policy around law and religion that clearly aim to show the benefits that Napoleon brought to France and indeed neighbouring states. Cronin does not present these with blind enthusiasm but there is an attitude that these were good things that tended to be undermined by others. Interestingly<b> </b>Klemens von Metternich, the Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire, in the diplomatic field and Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord in domestic French politics are really shown as men who set out to wreck Napoleon's plans especially in the period 1813-15. Without their vigorous intervention, Cronin makes clear, the outcome for Napoleon and indeed for France as a whole would have been very different.</p><p>While dated, you do come away with a greater sense of knowing the man rather than a kind of factor in European politics. You see his weaknesses for example his loyalty to his wives even when they were unfaithful and how much of a family man he was. He also shows loyalty to friends, again even when they plotted or acted against him. A more cynical, less loyal man might have survived better. I have found this book useful in rounding out my understanding of the period, not simply in terms of Napoleon himself but the reflection of other leading individuals in Europe at the time, through their interaction with or steps against him.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5850172499490375035.post-76914621055316511652022-04-30T08:00:00.001+01:002022-04-30T09:39:44.832+01:00Books I Read In April<p> <b>Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Fools and Mortals' by Bernard Cornwell</u></p><p>Having been disappointed by the <i>Grail Quest </i>(2000-03) books I read and finding <u>'The Fort'</u> (2010) and the <i>Starbuck</i> (1993-96) tetralogy alright but not outstanding, I was eager to see Cornwell getting back to the kind of quality that is seen in his <i>Sharpe</i> series. This book, set in 1595-96 and seen through the eyes of William Shakespeare's brother, Richard, proved to be both engaging and refreshing. For Cornwell to be writing about a group of actors at the time when William Shakespeare was working on <u>'A Midsummer Night's Dream'</u> is a departure from the war stories he typically writes. There is intrigue and some fights, but the rehearsing and running of however, Cornwell puts his attention to historical detail - which can he never neglects - to really good use in this novel. It highlights the challenges of setting up and sustaining a theatre company; the challenges of being censored and negotiating with patrons. Richard is a performer of women's parts, as women were not permitted to act until 1660 but is ageing and is seeking ways to continue his career as he has to shift into male roles. All round, Cornwell balanced all these factors very deftly, while giving a real sense of jeopardy and at the same time richly conjuring up London of the late 16th Century. I think keeping it to quite a narrow focus allowed that richness to come out. I certainly feel that this was the best Bernard Cornwell book I have read in a long time and would certainly recommend it.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Void Moon' by Michael Connelly</u></p><p>This is the last of the Connelly novels that I have been given. This one features Cassie Black a woman who with her lover, used to rob successful gamblers at Las Vegas casinos. On probation she has got a good job working for a Porsche dealership in Los Angeles. However, news about her daughter she was compelled to give up for adoption drives her to seek the 'one last job' to get funds. This job turns out to be much more complex than it first appears and soon involves two organised criminal bodies competing for the money. Connelly is very adept at representing the Nevada and California areas he clearly knows well. This novel is fast paced, alternating between Cassie's perspective and that of Jack Karch who is put on Cassie's trail by the owner of the casino that she robs from this time. It does manage to avoid slipping into many of the tropes we know around Las Vegas crimes, though there are perhaps one too many crashing through the glass roofs of casinos.</p><p>It is a stark, hard boiled environment. The details of Cassie breaking into the target room and overcoming all the security measures, is rightly praised by reviewers. The tone of that 'clinical' approach is repeatedly brought home as Karch tortures and kills without compunction as he hunts down Cassie. However, the US penal system is also an antagonist. Cassie is seen by her probation officer as being ambivalent in her responses, even though she is holding down a good job and this is sufficient for her to get an unannounced; armed visit from the probation officer. Cassie's partner on her last robbery was killed by being thrown from a hotel room window. While Cassie was far away from him at the time, under US law, because they were together on a criminal activity it is her who gets charged with his manslaughter. This sense that the justice system latches on to perpetrators and piles on whatever charges seem in even quite removed vicinity to the criminal and seeks to punish at all stages, rather than rehabilitate comes through very sharply in this novel. That harsh regime does provide motives but will jump out for UK readers as being alien.</p><p>Overall a crisp thriller that aside from a few points comes over as credible and engaging. It would make a great movie. While she is probably too old for the role now, but if Jennifer Lopez had played Cassie in line with her performance in <u>'Out of Sight'</u> (1998), it would have been something worth watching.</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'God Save the Queen' by Kate Locke [Kathryn Smith]</u></p><p>This is sort of a steampunk novel. It is set in the 2012 but in a world in which the Black Death mutated turning aristocratic people into vampires or werewolves. Queen Victoria, a vampire, is still on the throne of Britain. There are 'halvies', people born to concubines with traits of a vampire or a werewolf but also of humanity, like a 'daywalker' in the <i>Blade</i> series. There are also 'goblins' who combine werewolf and vampire traits but are confined to cannibalism in the sewers. The bulk of the population are humans who after a failed uprising in 1932, live very Victorian existences in a desultory world in which the aristocracy party. Technology has advanced but is different in style, so mobile phones are 'rotaries'. Clothing is still very Victorian or 1980s Gothic. </p><p>The protagonist, Xandra Vardan is a member of the Royal Guard and her siblings work for the police and a private security firm. Children of a lord, they have a privileged existence, but in detective work and security are faced with the challenges of this society. Xandra is drawn into investigating the apparent murder of her sister, Dee, after being confined to the New Bedlam insane asylum. She is soon mixed up in an entanglement of conspiracies with some seeking to overthrow the regime and others experimenting on halfie children to try to produce better strains. Throughout she is uncertain both on who to trust and who she might betray herself. There are dramatic scenes as she tries to find the truth and hares through London to do it. There is also a nice romance between Xandra and the Scottish lord who is head of the werewolves, which in the hands of another author would have been handled differently, but Locke handles honestly, so providing a nice counterpoint to the entwined conspiracies.</p><p>Locke is Canadian and a professed Anglophile. She almost goes too far in levering in London slang and phrases. However, for non-British readers, I imagine this adds to the sense of this alien world. I spotted to elements that jar with this. In the UK 'French doors' are actually known as 'French windows' and no-one over here pours syrup on bacon! Aside from that, I found this novel growing on me as I went through it. At times it seemed a bit too much but steadily it comes together. The world building while drawing perhaps on some over-used tropes, is successful. However, Locke does not need to provide all the details, especially the complex genetic stuff at the end, to justify what she has portrayed. She needed to have more faith that the reader could come along with her without having a lesson. Locke is a prolific author, under a string of names, producing 39 novels, 2001-2022, mixing romance, modern fantasy and steampunk. If I come across any more of her books I would certainly buy them as, if nothing else, an old Goth cannot resist the styles in them!</p><p><br /></p><p><u>'Nemesis' by Bill Napier</u></p><p>While Locke gave quite a bit of detail on genetics in an appendix, Napier piles in mathematical formulae in the body of his text. This is a weird mixture, being, if it was a movie, along the lines of <u>'Armageddon'</u> (1998) meets <u>'Seven Days in May'</u> (1964) and in part <u>'The Da Vinci Code'</u> (2006 from 2003 novel) though that was produced after this book was published in 1998. It appears that the Russians, following a military coup in the 1990s, have altered the course of an asteroid so that it crashes into the centre of the USA. A team of Americans, along with a British astronomer Oliver Webb whose point of view we most see through, are brought together to identify the asteroid and work out how to divert it. There is a great deal of tension in the team, which is not handled subtly. </p><p>There is a lot of science and mathematics in the early sections of the book as we are told about asteroids and meteorites; the damage such a collision would provide; what the impact on sea in terms of different levels of tsunami and climate would be and why you cannot simply blast an asteroid apart. There is not simply exposition, but there is also formulae as if we might want to work it all out for ourselves. As the book progresses, the thriller element increases. One of the team is murdered and we see Americans conspiring to use the incident to trigger a nuclear war anyway and then Webb goes to Italy to track down the manuscript of a Renaissance astronomer who may have identified the most likely candidate for the asteroid. He gets mixed up in brutal killings, with prostitutes, a cabaret and everything Napier can throw at it. </p><p>There is perhaps a good idea somewhere in this book, but there is simply far too much going on and Napier does not seem to be entirely in control of it. I could almost imagine this book being written by a team each trying to get their bit in. Yes, we want to see that the disaster portrayed in the book is a credible one and that suggestions we might come up with would not work. However, we do not need mathematics and extensive sections about energy calculations in water and so on. The idea of it being revealed in a historic text works well, but Napier goes off on such an extreme situation that it morphs into yet another kind of book. We are not really sure of his age or his nature. At times he is bookish and geekish at others more of an action hero than Robert Langdon with a librarian throwing herself at him in messages who we do not ever see in person. There is probably enough in here for two or three different books. I have another thriller by Napier on my shelf and I wonder if it is handled any better than this one.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Non-Fiction</b></p><p><u>'Gestapo' by Rupert Butler</u></p><p>Published in 1981 this is one of those populist history books, often about aspects of the Second World War, that were numerous in the 1970s. While what it says is accurate, the style is far from academic. It is really a series of vignettes about the Gestapo and its activities across the life of the organisation. If it was a television programme then it would be a 'docu-drama' as Butler produces incidents and especially dialogue that we can guess occurred but of which there is no record. As the book progresses, the focus on the Gestapo itself becomes looser and we see things from the side of the Abwehr; the Resistance especially in France and Denmark and the assassins of Reinhard Heydrich as much as we see things from Gestapo perspective. Many of these incidents are well known anyway. Perhaps the most interesting elements are the less commonly aired ones. </p><p>There is interesting material on the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 and on the struggle between various German agencies in the running of France; the coverage of the Venlo Incident and Operation Valkyrie are pretty well handled too. It might seem odd to say that a book about such a sinister organisation is easy to 'dip into', but because of this vignette approach, that is the case. This is a useful book if you were thinking of writing a story set during the Nazi regime and wanted to get up to speed about the secret police machinery without going into more detailed, academic sources. I guess books like this which used to be sold as more in Woolworths or newsagents than bookshops effectively have been replaced by Channel 5 and Netflix documentaries these days hence them not being published in the way they were 40 years ago.</p>Rooksmoorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15563445039351828997noreply@blogger.com0