The Books I Read In November

 Fiction

'No Time Like The Past' by Jodi Taylor

This is the fifth book in the main Chronicles of St. Mary's. After the literal battle for the institution in the previous book 'A Trail Through Time' (2019) https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-books-i-read-in-september.html the ongoing story settles down a little to the normal pattern. Funding issues means that the historians go back to the Great Fire of London in 1666 to loot valuables that can then be fortunately be 'discovered' by their employers, Thirsk University. However, as is typical in these stories things go wrong. There is always a jarring of tone in these books between the light and jolly and the grave outcomes. This time sees the murder of one of the historians and the finding of this in a gruesome way plus the ending of the only lesbian couple so far featured. There is also a visit to the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE which almost leads to history being altered significantly. In contrast there is an open day at the institute, again aimed at raising money and despite the humour it is undercut by the grim turn of events. However, at the end of the book, Max marries her long term boyfriend (or at least a version of the one she first dated), Chief Technician Leon Farrell.

In many ways I enjoy these books. The portrayal of all the different times and places they visit is very well done and shows a lot of research that is to be admired. While Taylor feels obliged to make things go wrong this sometimes lead to a light tone but then one that is whacked by the tragedy which she seems compelled to bring in. I guess it is good that we can feel a genuine sense of jeopardy for the regular characters, after all the heroine and her lover have already both been killed in the first four books, but it does mean as a reader you have to be ready for abrupt tonal shifts. After a tragedy it is quickly 'business as usual'. At least by this book, Max, who has a doctorate, is shown clearly a mature adult rather than at times in the first couple of books in which at times she came over as a teenager. I have more of these books to read and feel I am now girded sufficiently to cope with the sharp highs and lows of them while enjoying the trips into the past which are the best rendered elements of the series.

'Jerusalem: Kingdom of Heaven' by Richard Foreman

This is the final book of Foreman's First Crusade trilogy and it is a bit better than the preceding two. I cannot remember spotting the kind of anachronistic howlers of those books. There is still a lot of abrupt jumping around in terms of the point of view, though perhaps somewhat less than earlier too. Foreman is a writer in a hurry and whereas he could have explored what happened to the crusade between Antioch and Jerusalem we only get this reported in a letter from Thomas the interpreter, now rather ineffectual knight. In some ways Foreman plays to his strengths and the siege and especially the assault of the city are where his writing is best. The main protagonist, Edward Kemp, also has a mission to 'recover' or effectively loot treasures which had been taken from a wealthy Jewish man who wants them restored, though this is mainly seen as Kemp and his friends setting themselves up to return home after the crusade is finished.

Overall, Foreman gives a fair portrayal of the warfare of the time and of 11th Century Jerusalem. However, all these books needed some serious editing especially in terms of anachronism and points of view. In addition, the whole trilogy has felt terribly rushed. The three books could have been a single volume and more time could have been taken in exploring the setting. The characters are acceptable and we can comprehend their motives, but at the end, aside from descriptions of battles you are rather left dissatisfied. I now do wonder if these were three short stories that he decided to work up into (short) book length. What I have read in this series, though not the worst novels set in the First Crusade, do not encourage me to buy other books by Foreman.

If you are interested in a story set in this time and place, I would recommend 'Knight with Armour' (1959) by Alfred Duggan. While, given when it was published, it does not have the sexual content of Foreman's books, it provides a better written and more rounded out story of the First Crusade's progress.

'The Snack Thief' by Andrea Camilleri

This is the third book in the Montalbano series and it works better than the preceding one, 'The Terracotta Dog' (1996) which I read last month https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-books-i-read-in-october.html Whereas that went off into a kind of archaeological mystery this one sticks more closely to a standard police procedural story and is better for it. There are two cases, the shooting dead of a Tunisian working on a Sicilian fishing boat and the stabbing to death in a lift of a retired businessman. Naturally it turns out that in fact the two murders are connected. First of all Montalbano must track down the lover of the businessman, Kamira, who has disappeared with her son François. Steadily he uncovers that she had been prostituting herself to a number of middle aged businessmen especially those with sexual peccadilloes as well as acting as their cleaner.

Once he has uncovered the identity of the dead Tunisian sailor, he is drawn into the affairs of the secret services of both Italy and Tunisia. Camilleri works well in constantly shifting both the protagonist's and the reader's views on what is happening as satisfyingly Montalbano peels through the layers while also seeking to protect the innocent. In contrast his rebarbative manner means he acts as a bully putting witnesses whose behaviour he dislikes into difficult position as some kind of revenge. He does get called out for this. At times, the fractiousness with his colleagues seems rather forced but I suppose it is so we do not see him as an uncomplicated 'good guy' but at times this feels rather forced and rather counterbalances when he cleverly uses what resources he has to advance the case.

The other traits we have already seen in the inspector, his love of Sicilian specialities, his regular swimming, but also his consumption of cigarettes all come back here, the little elements that for so many fictional detectives are there to round out the character. At times his repeated eating of very particular meal after meal feels a little overdone and it is unsurprising that he is not more unhealthy than he portrayed. 

The snack thief by the way as I imagine readers will quickly identify, is François once he is left to fend for himself on the streets. The fact that Montalbano mundanely decrees his girlfriend from northern Italy, Livia should marry him and they adopt the boy seemed very artificial and might have been handled better than it seeming very much a plot device to end the very single lifestyle the detective has been living with Livia hundreds of miles away for much of the time. Still, I have more of these books to read and as yet, these aspects have not entirely put me off doing so.

'The Taexali Game' by Nancy Jardine

My next alternate history novel is set among Celtic tribes in the late 3rd Century CE, so when, aptly in an Aberdeen charity shop I saw this book, even though it is aimed at children, I thought it a good idea to pick it up. The Taexali were the Celtic tribe which lived along the coast of what is nowadays Aberdeenshire, with the better-known Caledonians occupying the mountains to the west of them. While attacked in 84 CE and 210 CE (as shown in this novel) and signing treaties with the Romans, being north of both Hadrian's Wall and then the Antonine Wall they largely were able to exist untroubled for much of the Roman period in Britain.

In this novel three 13-14 year olds, Aran and his friends, twins Brian and Fianna are sent back to 210 CE by the twins' biological father, Callum, under the pretence that they are testing out a new highly interactive VR game. In fact he and his colleagues have created a time machine. The children are connected to it by sophisticated metal armbands which allow them to be equipped with appropriate clothing and can translate the Brittonic and later Latin that they hear. It takes them quite a while to realise, largely due to the country smells, that they are not in a game. Saving the daughter of a local chief (the hierarchy between local chiefs and their overlords because important as the story progresses) they are quickly drawn into the life of the tribe based at the village of Balbath close to modern day Kintore.

The trio have to prove their value to the Celts who are suspicious of them as potential Roman spies, as Roman forces under Emperor Severus and his two vicious sons have been ravaging much of eastern 'Scotland' in an effort to subdue all the tribes living there as had already happened with Celtic tribes farther south. Having the three characters means we can see how the invasion and battles play out. Though I knew there was a sequel intended, there did seem to be jeopardy not simply for the protagonists but for the friends they have made, notably Seonagh the chief's daughter who is sent into slavery as part of the peace deal. It was nice to see teenagers drawing on skills that involve more than swiping on the phone and their lessons in Sooyang Do, a very popular martial art around Aberdeen and Brian's musical abilities help them out.

At times I was concerned that we were going to get an 'info dump' but some of this is in fact as the children themselves need to be brought up to speed. They are more assiduous in their studies than many their age, but I guess if they were bumbling around clueless as to what was going on and where they were it would be much tougher and slow up what is a fast moving novel even at 315 pages long. I certainly learnt stuff about the Celts that I did not know, which I suppose was one reason for me buying the book in the first place. While I do not know Kintore, I do know the mouths of the Rivers Dee and Don so it was interesting to have a book so linked to a specific area and how it was in the past.

'Gallows Thief' by Bernard Cornwell

I find the quality of Cornwell's books varies quite a bit, though I was optimistic about his as it is a stand-alone one and I had enjoyed 'Fools and Mortals' (2017) https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html That book was effectively a detective story set around the theatre of Shakespeare's time. This book has a similar approach. Cornwell uses the story of detection to show us details of a particular time and activity. In this case it is around the criminal 'justice' system of England in 1817. The book opens with four executions in front of Newgate Prison where they had been moved from Tyburn, but they remained a public spectacle. The hanging was very inefficient with the convicted slowly strangled at the end of a rope, much to the entertainment of the crowd.

The protagonist is former Captain in the 52nd Foot, Rider Sandman. The fact that he fought at the Battle of Waterloo - he has subsequently sold his commission - and was a skilled cricket batsman opens a number of doors for him. His father was bankrupted by a scam investment leading to him committing suicide. This has left Sandman, let alone his mother and sister, in financial difficulties and having fallen through the social classes. That led to the breaking off of the engagement by his fiancée, Eleanor Forrest, though it is clear she still has affection for him, provides useful information and considers eloping with him.

Sandman scratches out a meagre living by playing cricket, but is increasingly alienated by the corruption in the game. He lives in an inn on Drury Lane, infamous for its criminal residents, though he is aided by a fellow resident Sally Hood, a part-time actress and sister to a highwayman. For a decent payment Sandman takes up a job as an Investigator for the Home Secretary who has been pressured to investigate a case against a young painter accused of raping and murdering the Countess of Avebury, because of a request from one of Queen Charlotte. This is a rare occurrence as it is felt throughout that anyone convicted in court must be guilty and any evidence to the contrary is seen as questioning the wisdom of judges. Cornwell is making a point about the legal system of England at the time when 200 offences, including simple theft, carried the death penalty, though as he makes clear in the notes at the end only around 10% of the condemned were executed, with the rest transported to Australia if someone notable petitioned on their behalf.

The book is very much a romp. It does remind us that the Regency period looked back to the 18th Century more than it looked forward to the later 19th Century. Cornwell does rather over-indulge in Austenesque/Hogarthian tropes. The book is jammed with 'flash' slang, i.e. the cant of the criminal classes, as if the author felt obliged to get in every term that he had come across. Every other character is a lord. There is a sordid club for well-to-do gentlemen, the Seraphim Club and a web of blackmail and scapegoating. In classic detective style Sandman has only 1 week to spare the accused, the young (closeted homosexual) Charles Corday from execution and hares not simply around London but off into Wiltshire and Kent leading to a charge to the gallows which is clichéd.

The book is fascinating in all its historical detail of English society and its behaviours, including cricket, of the time. It does move at a pace which I think helps it avoid feeling like a history text book. The characters are interesting, if at times a bit stereotyped, especially Sally and the loyal Sergeant Sam Berrigan. Perhaps I have seen the tropes too often and to another reader this will come over as a very different detective story, which does not spare the cruelty of post-Napoleonic Wars England and uses it effectively to create a knotty investigation and action story.

Non-Fiction

'Never Again: Britain 1945-51' by Peter Hennessy

I guess I had expected a bit different style for this more clearly history book than Hennessy used for 'Whitehall' (1989). However, it had a similar raconteur style, often very personal in nature, we learn quite a lot about Hennessy's home district of Walthamstow in this period. He goes between this very much 'people's history' approach often quoting from people who lived it to the world of high politics with a focus on ministers and leading civil servants and what they were doing so the story is seen from the two ends of society. In theory the book actually starts in 1938, but especially in terms of the development of the welfare state, Hennessy goes back well before the 20th Century to trace all the roots which led to what the Labour governments were able to introduce in this period.

Perhaps most effective are the chapters on the beginning of decolonisation and the Cold War. The one on sport and culture is interesting as it moves briskly through various facets and once more brings in personal recollections from the author about cricketers. The final chapter, assessment of mid-century Britain, could be read as a stand alone essay in its own right and very successfully brings together multiple threads in an analytical way which does contrast with the raconteur style of much of the book. As I said with 'Whitehall' this is book is actually presented in a way which would appeal very much to a general reader wanting a clear but welcoming guide to the period, rather than an academic text. I have three other, slightly newer books by Hennessy lined up to read and I wonder if that approach continues throughout as his career moved further from journalism deeper into academia.

'Discovering Heraldry' by R.H. Wilmott

This book is in the same series of non-fiction books for children that 'Discovering Castles'  (1953?/1960) which I read in 2018 is in: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2018/08/books-i-listened-toread-in-august.html?m=0 This one was first published in 1964 and has that straight forward line drawing illustrated text that I find very nostalgic. I got this one in the 1980s from a school library sale. It is a handy introduction to the rules of heraldry, with, given the time it was published, a nice enthusiasm for the municipal and commercial heraldry of the era. Its illustrations do well in a monochrome book to show the colours used in the various coats of arms. It builds up all the different elements so that by the end you can describe a whole series of arms in the proper technical language. Perhaps for me the most fascinating is the arms of Sir Isaac Newton, two crossed human bones, I think thigh bones, making him look a little like a pirate rather than a scientist and Bible analyst. Jane Austen rather strangely had three single lion's legs on her crest.

While the author did not seem to know that the heraldic term for a gold disc perhaps resembling a gold coin, i.e. 'bezant' actually comes from a genuine medieval gold coin. Bezants, perhaps unsurprisingly were minted in the Byzantine Empire, but the term spread more widely for gold coins of different origins especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region. I did learn what an 'enfield' is. It is one of the lesser-known mythical creatures which feature in heraldry, having the head of a fox, the chest of an elephant, the mane of a horse, front legs from an eagle, rear legs from a greyhound and the tail of a lion! It does sound rather like something produced by Frankenstein or Dr. Moreau and I can understand why it is not pictured. However, overall this is a nice gentler book without the horros of 'Discovering Castles' with a suggestion of activities you might do connected with heraldry, many of which apply today, though I imagine most churches would not allow you to brass rub now.

The Books I Read In October

Fiction

'The Terracotta Dog' by Andrea Camilleri

Rather like the Rebus books of Ian Rankin, with these Inspector Salvo Montalbano novels, you do feel as if the life of the main character is trundling on when a book is not looking at it and what we get is a kind of 'slice of life' of the character. This is only the second book in the Montalbano series, but his background and connections are so extensive that you feel as if you have come late to his story. As I noted with the 'Shape of Water' (1994) which I read in August https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-books-i-read-in-august.html it is difficult to know where Camilleri is going to go next with his novel. In some ways that is refreshing but at times it is rather bewildering.

This novel opens with Montalbano being asked to fake a raid to arrest a mafia leader who wants to retire from the crime business. This leads to the uncovering of a cave used for the storing of weaponry and then a conspiracy involving supermarket deliveries in order to move these weapons. You would think that this provides sufficient 'meat' for a detective novel. However, even with the mounting murders the ending of this business results in, he goes off down a very different part. At the rear of the cave proves a second previously sealed cave in which are the skeletons of a man and a woman, dating back to the mid-1940s, a collection of coins, a jug which held water and a terracotta dog. Much of the novel is about Montalbano working with elderly people in his area and further afield to find out who this young couple were and the circumstances of their killing. This he does, but it means that the novel is more a historical mystery story rather than a crime novel.

I suppose Camilleri was concerned that his books would simply become about mafia murders. Anyone who has read books by Leonardo Sciascia (another Sicilian author) and Michael Dibdin, knows that even in fiction these crimes are largely insoluble. Thus instead, given his focus on the Sicilian locale he features elements from its modern history in which the murders are apparently as commonplace as rainfall. It does allow him to poke at both the media and the lingering Fascist sympathisers which in his context seem to be surprisingly active, though divided and whinging. This is not a bad story but I felt that the connection from a clearly crime aspect to the historical one made it feel rather strung out and as if the protagonist is so reconciled to murder that current crimes feature little in his mind compared to a mystery from the past.

'The World of Null-A' by A.E. Vogt

It is not unusual to find mid-20th Century science fiction having a real philosophical element to it. This book published in 1940 to great success goes fully onboard with that, envisaging a world society some 500 years into the future which has adopted a totally non-Aristotlean approach to life, the Null-A of the title. This leads it, especially in its colony on terraformed Venus, to have a peaceful society, but one which in this novel is under threat from a wider galactic federation especially those belonging to the eponymous Greatest Empire. The protagonist Gilbert Gosseyn turns out to have two brains though one has not yet been fully activated. It is later revealed that he has been cloned more than once and this explains some of the inconsistencies in his memories, an aspect which reminded me of  'Voice of the Whirlwind' (1987) by Walter Jon Williams who I can easily imagine had read this book. 

Gosseyn becomes wrapped up in a conspiracy to invade Venus and to overthrow the government of Earth. The trouble is, he flicks back and forth between Earth and Venus so much and the small cast of characters are never what they seemed five minutes ago, the whole book gets rather in a knot. The final element about who is the 'puppetmaster' behind either the plot or trying to prevent it, is better handled. However, between the philosophising and the constant twists, after a while despite it being a short book (221 pages in my edition) you are glad when it comes to an end. I have read quite a lot of science fiction from the era, but this one tries rather too hard.

'Besieged' by Richard Foreman

This book leads straight on from 'Siege' (2019) which I read last month: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-books-i-read-in-september.html It is only 146 pages long and you feel that these two books could have been combined into a single novel, indeed the who trilogy might have been better off that way. Foreman gallops along in his writing and while the pace is appreciated, taking time on a number of occasions would have benefited the novel.

The forces of the First Crusade have captured the Syrian (now Turkish) city of Antioch but find themselves in turn besieged by the armies of Atabeg Kerbogha of Mosul. The story features many of the same characters from the previous novel and unsurprisingly our two English protagonists Edward Kemp the knight and Thomas the interpreter are at the heart of the various incidents as the siege leads to suffering, the head of the Holy Lance is discovered and the Crusaders successfully sally out.

There are good bits to this novel. Foreman portrays the final battle well. He is also decent in terms of the different leaders of the Crusade, notably Bishop Adhemar. He is not as good in portraying the Turkish side even though as with the Crusaders, the forces were a confederation with different commanders working together under what turns out to be the nominal leadership of Kerboga, an important element in the final battle. Foreman could have done a really interesting 'balancing act' showing that despite their differences the two forces actually faced very similar challenges in particular that they were confederations holding in a range of large egos.

As with the previous book, you feel that with just a little more effort this could have been a good book. A decent editor would certainly have helped. We can excuse the odd typo, even the greatest authors suffer them. However, there are two flaws in the fibre of the book. The first is the jumping in point of view. It is a challenge when writing books with sprawling events, but it can be handled. Yet on some pages we actually have the point of view going through the eyes of multiple characters in the length of a single page. There could have been an all-seeing narrator, but Foreman has instead chosen to keep a more intimate perspective via the characters, yet the way he leaps from one to the other so quickly leaves the reader's head spinning and a sense that engagement with the characters is superficial. 

There is also some inconsistency with Kerbogha, he is portrayed as a skilled chess player but then abruptly as a foolish, reckless commander. The extended references to chess make this dichotomy come out very sharply. A chance is missed. Kerbogha had a victory 'on a plate' but poor judgement as earlier at Edessa throws it away and this could have been a real point of dramatic tension but the chance is wasted.

Foreman continues to use anachronistic metaphors. Twice someone's expression 'sets like concrete'. I know the Romans had concrete but it was long gone by the 11th Century. Saying that someone looks like 'death warmed up' really jars when at other times he goes to so much effort to conjure up the culture and lifestyles of the time. These things could easily have been corrected and would have really strengthened the book. I will read the third book in the series, but do feel this trilogy was a wasted opportunity.

'She Died A Lady' by Carter Dickson [John Dickson Carr]

Though my edition of this book is not from the British Library Classic Crime collection, I do have another by Carr in that set. In a number of ways this book, published in 1943 reminded me of 'The Cornish Coast Murder' (1935) by John Bude which I read in December: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-books-i-read-in-december.html This novel is set in 1940 on the North coast of Devon - which borders Cornwall - close to the genuine towns of Lynton and Lynmouth. This mystery also involves death on a cliff top. There are good descriptions of the locale and use is made of abandoned properties around the village as is typical of English moor regions.

Though in theory this is a Sir Henry Merrivale investigation, the narrator for much of the book is Dr. Luke Croxley, who with his son, Tom, act as GPs to the village and residents of nearby Exmoor. However, in tone this book is very different. That tone is very erratic as I explain later.

Rita Wainwright at 38 is married to an older husband, Alec in his 60s but has fallen for a young American part-time actor, Barry Sullivan. While Croxley is with Alec, listening to the radio, it appears Rita and Barry have thrown themselves off the cliff in a suicide pact. Of course, as if common with such cases in fact it is a murder and it is down to an assortment of characters, including Merrivale to work out what actually happened. 

In contrast to the typical set-up in these novels, however, the leading police officer, Superintendent Craft will not give way on the suicide theory. Indeed he believes that Croxley removed a pistol from the cliff edge and later that he sunk a car in quicksand on the edge of Exmoor. Craft is so committed to this perspective that he threatens Croxley with a charge of perjury unless her 'admits' to his interfering with the investigation at the forthcoming inquest. This brings a rather Kafkaesque element to the novel.

Ultimately Croxley is unable to attend the inquest, but the finding of suicide and his interference in the case are upheld. Thus, though the reader knows the truth of what happened and who the murderer actually was, officially Craft's story is the one which stands. The subsequent events may be seen as some kind of 'natural' justice, though one reason Croxley's account of the affair is unfinished is that he was killed in a bombing raid, dying still with Craft's black mark against his character unchallenged.

The actual murder has all the classic 'impossible' elements typical of these stories of how the the couple ended up being shot even though there is only a single set of footprints on the cliff edge. Their bodies are later recovered and then some of their luggage, muddying the waters around whether they intended to kill themselves or run away. Further complications arise when the wealth of diamonds are found at the Wainwrights' house rather than having been removed. These are handled cleverly and pretty feasibly which then is even more riling when the 'truth' does not come to light. 

Then we have Sir Henry Merrivale. As some reviewers have commented is a very irritating character, at times a buffoon. In this story for much he is confined to a motorised wheelchair which at various stages he crashes through a pub and almost off the edge of the same cliff. At stages he is dressed as a Roman senator for a portrait being painted by a local artist he is staying with, Paul Ferrars who is accused of the murders himself. Merrivale's slapstick behaviour, his bizarre 'chummy' language really jar with what is a stark crime story with unco-operative authorities set against the background of war. In addition, though he actually solves the mystery he contributes his views far too late to be of any real benefit. It also turns out that unlike Croxley, he has been interfering with the evidence for his own reasons.

Overall, this book is an oddity. The elements while interesting do not really fit together very well. The dogmatism of the police, far beyond what is typical, to the extent of distorting the investigation is a distinctive element as is the fact that the truth of the case is not revealed until after it no longer matters. Dickson Carr clearly loved the Merrivale character and may have seen his presence as a counter-balance to what is in fact a bleak rather than 'cosy' crime novel. He may have felt it necessary in wartime to have an element to lighten the tone at times. However, this does not really work and in fact weakens the novel which could have been much stronger in looking at the challenges of dealing with dogmatic authority especially when its opinions mean concealing rather than revealing the truth.

Non-Fiction

'Whitehall' by Peter Hennessy

This is one of these non-fiction books I have had sitting around for years which I should have read closer to when they were published, in this case 1989. At 851 pages in my edition (including references) it is an extensive book on the British civil service. In fact it is like a sequence of books as the sections are quite different from each other. There is a history of the (English then British) civil service from the 12th Century up until 1979 when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister and initiated a period of notable change, though the ultimate outcome, the Next Steps agencies, though hinted at in her time, were to come subsequently. 

Before becoming an academic Hennessy was a journalist and that experience really shapes especially the first part of the book. It is told very much through the people involved rather than the actual machinery, though that does feature. The history is not strictly chronological and especially in the period when Hennessy was active in newspapers (he was born in 1947) there is a lot of personal reminiscences from him. Throughout the book, indeed, much material is derived from his personal interviews with leading civil servants. The journalist protecting his sources is also very apparent with the references to 'private information', something unusual for an academic history book. 

While the section on the various departments as they stood in the late 1980s does have a reference book feel to it, when he then returns to what Thatcher began and the future, as with many other sections, they are more like having a chat with Hennessy as he recalls incidents he or his interviewees witnessed, so it is better to read it the way I did for leisure, rather than rely on it as a book to refer to for academic study as you will often have to unthread lengthy recounting to get a particular date or fact you are seeking. Hennessy's prescriptions for an effective civil service are quite apparent throughout. I guess this very knowledgeable but personal touch is why his Radio 4 political retrospective programme (broadcast 2013-19), 'Reflections with Peter Hennessy'  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04fd8md/episodes/player?page=3 worked so well.

This book is ideal for anyone with a general interest in the British civil service, 1853-1989, especially in the people both on the official and ministerial sides, and the challenges they faced. It is challenging to use as a reference book, but is an engaging general non-fiction read.

'Portraits of Power' collated by Jeremy Murray-Brown

This is another book I have had lying around for many years. It was given to me as a present in 1979. It is a collection of biographies written by journalists for 'The New York Times' about famous men (and Elizabeth II) of the mid-20th Century with a particular focus on the ways in which they wielded power. It does have a very US perspective even from the timeframe which they feel defines the era, i.e. from 1914 to 1975 as they see the end of US involvement in Vietnam as marking a significant break, not something I think people in other countries would agree with. In addition, 4 of the 19 people featured are US Presidents: Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, though it is welcome that they acknowledge the short period Kennedy was in office, puncture some of the myths around him and show how he was unlikely to have done much different to Lyndon Johnson, except with less speed and with a diffidence.

The focus on power is an interesting one and makes the sections refreshing compared to typical short biographies. Details are really only included when they allow a reflection on the power aspect rather than slogging through year by year. There are men featured who while important in their time and still with that lingering in some cases through the 1970s would generally be forgotten about these days, notably, Konrad Adenauer, long-time Chancellor of West Germany; Josip Tito leader of Yugoslavia from the 1940s to 1980; Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, leader of Egypt, short-lived but with global impact; David Ben-Gurion one of the founders of Israel and Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. 

The others featured are Hitler, Churchill, Mohandras 'Mahatma' Gandhi, Stalin, Emperor Hirohito, General Franco, General Charles De Gaulle, Nikita Khrushchev and Mao Zedong. I am rather surprised Fidel Castro is not included, given his impact was at least as great as Nasser's. In addition there is a real lack of women. I would have expected a chapter on Indira Gandhi, if not Sirimavo Bandaranaike as well; perhaps both Eva and Colonel Juan Perón in terms of how each wielded power. However, these gaps and the apparent need to include Elizabeth II may reflect the US perspective and the fact that Cuba remained a sensitive issue there.

There are interesting nuggets in this book and photographs that I was not familiar with. The focus on the different ways power is wielded is an engaging, refreshing one and does lead to portrayals of some of these people which differ from the 'mainstream' potted biographies that you find online or in typical TV programmes.

The Books I Read In September

 Fiction

'The Secret of High Eldersham' by Miles Burton [Cecil Street]

Being published 1916 onwards, Street wrote over 140 novels in his career (he lived until he was 80) and apparently so that it did not look like he was flooding the market, he used a range of pseudonyms, one of which was Miles Burton. This novel, another in the British Library Crime Classics series, his second featuring Inspector Young of Scotland Yard and an amateur detective, Desmond Merrion. This combination of professional and amateur reminded me of the John Bude novels I have read recently, to the extent that, unprompted, Google's AI told me that it was written by Bude, even though it was published in 1930 and Street was far more prolific than Ernest Elmore. Burton also features a stoic manservant for both Merrion and one for his old friend too, reminiscent of Magersfontein Lugg in the Campion novels (1929-68).

The story is set around High Eldersham a remote village on the Norfolk coastline which is well portrayed. It reminded me, perhaps unsurprisingly, of Ronald Blythe's oral history book, 'Akenfield' (1969) which I read last year:  https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-books-i-read-in-september.html These days the context fora crime novel of a small village where there are crimes and folk horror - witchcraft rituals are involved in this story - has almost become a cliche, but was probably fresher when the book was written, almost a century ago. The pub landlord, a former police sergeant, is found stabbed efficiently to death in his pub and Young is sent to investigate and uncovers occult practices. Finding it difficult to penetrate the closed community of High Eldersham he calls on the services of his friend Merrion, who seems typical of amateur detectives of the time, in being free to gallivant around with little need for employment.

I think the modern reader would see what is going on sooner than perhaps one from the 1930s would. We are more familiar with drug smuggling and dealing perhaps than they would be. This does tend to make the two protagonists seem a little slow on the uptake. However, the two intertwined threads are well handled. There is good use of the locale and much activity on the river and shoreline, that at times reminded me of 'The Riddle of the Sands' (1903) by Erskine Childers. Burton is good at making it hard to determine the reliability of the people Merrion interacts with and this is what lifts it from what nowadays might seem a rather overly-familiar set-up. It was an enjoyable read, though as a reader in the 2020s, perhaps a bit more predictable than for readers of its time.

'A Trail Through Time' by Jodi Taylor

This is the fourth book in the St. Mary's Chronicles series, though that has rather been muddied by subsequent 0.5 and 2.5 books in the series which I do not have. This one picks up very shortly after the preceding one, 'A Second Chance' (2014) https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-books-i-read-in-april.html In that the protagonist Dr. Madeleine Maxwell's lover, Chief Technician Leon Farrell was killed. She travelled back to the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 where she received a fatal chest wound. However in an explicit dea ex machina, Clio the Muse of History, in the form of Mrs. Partridge shifts her into an alternate reality where it was Maxwell who died rather than Farrell. At the start of this book they are dealing with this change when the Time Police from a different series of Taylor's novels, burst in, presumably because switching timelines is an anomaly. They then pursue Maxwell and Farrell to various times and locations. Ultimately they are caught at this world's version of St. Mary's College, where some things are the same but some are different, and people find it hard to accept Maxwell's 'resurrection'. There is then a bloody battle with the Time Police.

Taylor's books certainly 'jump the shark' on occasion and I did feel that she felt she had backed herself into a corner with the previous book, so almost had to sweep the board clean and start again in this parallel universe. It is also a bit confusing because you can now read books by Taylor seen through the eyes of the Time Police as I did back in April 2024, with 'Doing Time' (2019) which portrays them more sympathetically than the fascistic, violent portrayal in this book written five years earlier.

I have previously commented how there is a degree of ambivalence in Taylor's books, though in some ways I feel this gives a 'tweeness' which probably helps explain their popularity. Though St. Mary's has time machines a lot of its equipment, and indeed the behaviour of the staff, seem stuck in a nebulous mid-20th Century situation. In this way it is reminiscent of the Harry Potter books in making supposedly contemporary Britain actually look more like something from the 1950s-70s and with that kind of upper middle class perspective seen in boarding school books rather than reflecting broader British society even in that time period. This ambivalence has extended to Maxwell herself, who though having a doctorate, comes across almost like someone in their late teens. This is addressed a bit better in this novel notably between the passionate sex between Madeleine and Leon at the end.

I do not know the motivation behind this kind of ambivalence, I do wonder if it is to take the 'edge' off some of the horrors that the characters witness. Leading characters are killed but the places and times they visit also have their bleakness. A brief trip to 14th Century London leaves Maxwell having to treat a colleague who has almost immediately been mugged and caught the Black Death. Taylor does not hold back in the details of the disease or the treatment. I know she sets the St. Mary's characters as generally lovable, bumbling 'disaster magnets', but after a while just how often things go wrong becomes tiresome. There is enough jeopardy in where they travel let alone oppression in their own time, without adding all this on. It is particularly notable when Maxwell and Farrell are on the run through different times in the first half of the book. You feel like saying 'enough already'. The 'jauntiness' of the narration, combined with the tweeness of the contextualisation does knock hard against the grimness.

As before, the strength of the novels is in the portrayal of the different times and places in the past with all their bleakness. With this novel you do want the characters to stop for longer as Taylor is excellent at bringing out Ancient Egypt in the 1530s BCE, Pompeii at the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the aforementioned Black Death London. I do wonder if she thinks readers will tire too much of these, and perhaps as someone who taught history I am more interested in these elements than others, but they are a real strength in Taylor's writing and it would be fascinating to see what she could do with a 'straight' historical novel. I still have a number of these St. Mary's books to get through. I did feel with this one, that despite some flaws, the storytelling is settling town a bit more in its 'tone'.

'Siege' by Richard Foreman

This seems to be, not the US playwright who died this year, but the Richard Foreman one who wrote historical series such as Sword of Empire, Sword of Rome and Spies of Rome but I cannot find reference to this The First Crusade trilogy on that author's websites. This book published in 2019 is 156 pages long in my edition so feels more like a novella than a full length novel. It follows two Englishmen, Edward Kemp, a man-at-arms, though with high status among the crusader nobles despite his humble background and sometimes godless attitude. There is also Thomas a priest and translator working for Prince Bohemond of Taranto.

It is set in 1098 outside the walls of Antioch in Syria where the First Crusade was held up for six months besieging the huge, well defended city until a traitor allowed them access just before an army led by Kerbogha of Mosul fell upon the besiegers. The protagonists get involved in the betrayal and then the storming of the city by the crusaders. 

Foreman is good at portraying the tension between the different factions in the crusader army especially between Bohemond and Count Raymond of Toulouse. However, the prime problem is how the book flits between different points of view, not only of the two main characters, but these nobles and others, Bishop Adhemar and even characters back in Constantinople, often jumping between different perspectives on a single page. This is something that beginning writers are warned against. It does not help with the clarity of the storytelling at all.

Yes 'touché' meaning 'touched' is a word in French from the 13th Century onwards coming into English. However, its use as Foreman shows it, like a response when a fencer is hit by the tip of their opponent's sword, especially when it is only a verbal 'joust' dates from the late 19th Century. So many cliches turn up in the book, sometimes two in a single sentence. You are constantly jarred by things which sound to come from our time rather than the 11th Century and this constantly weakens Foreman's portrayal of the time. At least unlike some authors of war stories set in the Middle Ages, Foreman does feature female characters. However, overall, the book really feels like it needed a decent developmental editor, to stop the almost random jumping between points of view and to encourage the author to find more effective terms than anachronistic ones or a string of cliches.

Non-Fiction

'The Napoleonic Source Book' by Philip J. Haythornthwaite

This book does what it says on the title. It provides a general chronology of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, looks at the methods of fighting on land and sea, then goes through all the different states involved including down to the tiny Italian and German ones, providing details of their armies and notably their uniforms. There is then biographies of the leaders and key generals of the conflicts. There is an interesting section on sources about the wars available when the book was published in 1990, but also including visual sources which is something I have not seen before. There is also a glossary of terms. I imagine, especially given all the details about the uniforms that it was intended as something for wargamers to use and develop their model soldiers and scenarios for them to fight. It moves along briskly, though if you read it right through there are naturally points of repetition. However, it is good for drawing attention to 'forgotten' aspects of the conflict and notably for challenging accepted denigration or hagiography of those involved in the wars.