Books I Read In August

 Fiction

'Oh, Play That Thing!' by Roddy Doyle

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 'A Star Called Henry' (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. 

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.

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 'The Commitments' (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.

'Let It Bleed' by Ian Rankin

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 'Oh, Play That Thing! (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.

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 'Edge of Darkness' (1985), 'Centrepoint' (1990) 'Natural Lies' (1992) and though more light-hearted, in the same area, 'The Beiderbecke Affair' (1985) and its sequels. 

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.

Non-Fiction

'Nazism 1919-1945. 1: The Rise to Power, 1919-1934' ed. by J. [Jeremy] Noakes and G. [Geoffrey] Pridham

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.

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.

The Blood and The Ghost: Vikings Victorious In England

 

This is my fifth novel published by Sea Lion Press: www.sealionpress.co.uk and is also available for sale via: 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

Having seen the BBC television series, 'The Last Kingdom' (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, 'Route Diverted' (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.

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.

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.

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.

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 gothi 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.

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.

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.

Alternate British Isles in 903 Following Killing of King Alfred the Great in 878

Envisaged Names for an English Towns in 903 Under Danish Rule

Books I Read In July

 Fiction

'Revelation' by Bill Napier

This book is pretty much like 'Nemesis' (1998) by Napier that I read in April: http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html 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.

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 'Nemesis' 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.

'The Manor of Death' by Bernard Knight

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.

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.

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.

'Resistance' by Owen Sheers

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.

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.

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.

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.

Non-Fiction

'Macmillan. A Study in Ambiguity' by Anthony Sampson

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Books I Read In June

 Fiction

'Who Was David Weiser?' by Pawel Huelle; translated by Antonia Lloyd Jones

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.

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.

'Mortal Causes' by Ian Rankin

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.

'The Salmon of Doubt' by Douglas Adams

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.

Non-Fiction

'The Black Angels' by Rupert Butler

As I noted when I read Butler's 'Gestapo' (1981) - not to be confused with the subsequent illustrated versions: https://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2022/04/books-i-read-in-april.html  - Butler was very much part of that populist history for sale in branches of Woolworths and newsagents. This book which focuses on the Waffen SS, though at times touches on other branches of the SS, is less sporadic than 'Gestapo' 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 Blitzkrieg 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 the 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.

Books I Read In May

 Fiction

'The Noble Outlaw' by Bernard Knight

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.

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 'Figure of Hate' (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.

'The Poison Garden' by Sarah Singleton

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.

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.

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 'Tom's Midnight Garden' (1958) and even a little, 'The Secret Garden' (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. 29/11/2023

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, 'An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin' (2006) by Rohan Kriwaczek:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Incomplete_History_of_the_Art_of_Funerary_Violin 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.

Non-Fiction

'Napoleon' by Vincent Cronin

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.

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 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.

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.

Books I Read In April

 Fiction

'Fools and Mortals' by Bernard Cornwell

Having been disappointed by the Grail Quest (2000-03) books I read and finding 'The Fort' (2010) and the Starbuck (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 Sharpe 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 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' 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.

'Void Moon' by Michael Connelly

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.

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.

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 'Out of Sight' (1998), it would have been something worth watching.

'God Save the Queen' by Kate Locke [Kathryn Smith]

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 Blade 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. 

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.

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!

'Nemesis' by Bill Napier

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  'Armageddon' (1998) meets 'Seven Days in May' (1964) and in part 'The Da Vinci Code' (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. 

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. 

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.

Non-Fiction

'Gestapo' by Rupert Butler

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. 

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.

Books I Read In March

 Fiction

'Dangerous Women Part I' edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

This is the first of a trilogy of short story collections. I do not know about the other two volumes, they may improve. This one is largely a disappointment. The largest section is taken up by a 35,000-word story written by Martin set in his world of the Seven Kingdoms, many years before the A Song of Fire and Ice series. 'The Princess and the Queen' is about two women rivalling for the Iron Throne and the war this triggers. The trouble is, Martin approaches the story in the same way as he does with the longer series, i.e. with long lists of titles and locations of individuals. In his huge books there is space for this but in a novella you feel at times you are reading a civil service list. There are some dramatic battles between riders on dragons, but his still really burdens this shorter piece and is there so much any character development is a long way down the list.

Perhaps the best story is 'Raisa Stepanova' by Carrie Vaughn about a Soviet female fighter pilot in the Second World War and not simply the risks to her from aerial combat but from her brother going missing in action as the Soviet regime under Stalin assumed anyone missing had deserted. 'Second Arabesque, Slowly' by Nancy Kress is a not a bad but typical post-apocalyptic story in a New York where when most women have become infertile, tribes have developed scavenging among the ruins and a couple, overseen by the narrator, a nurse, wanting to take up ballet after seeing old footage of it. I read something similar but involving a concert piano, in a short story  'A Song Before Sunset' by David Grigg (1976) which I read back in June: http://rooksmoor.blogspot.com/2021/06/books-i-listened-toread-in-june.html 

'I Know How to Pick 'Em' by Lawrence Black is on in which the woman is a catalyst rather than protagonist. It is contemporary film noir kind of set up about a woman recruiting men to do a murder for her, but is less clever than it feels itself to be. In this collection it also seems wrong to include a woman whose agency is far less than she tries to make it. 'Wrestling Jesus' by Joe R. Lansdale, is similar. It actually features only the story of a woman until the end and it is more about an old wrestler and a young male victim of bullying he is training. To get in this collection is a real contrivance.

'My Heart is Either Broken' by Megan Abbott about an abducted girl and a mother whose story is not believed has that noir feel, but fits better in this book with a female protagonist yet one facing up to the debilitating effects of official disbelief. 'Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell' by Brandon Sanderson is what I had expected from this book. It is a science fiction/fantasy in that it is set in a world colonised by humans but with and old technology, creatures and a whole set of rules as if from a fantasy novel. It works well, both in highlighting the dangers of this world and how the two female protagonists deal with it as well as having that 'otherly' sense.

Overall, then this was rather a disappointment. If Martin had stepped back and simply edited, it would have been better. There are some gems in here, but the criteria for inclusion of stories seems very loose and as such what is in here too often seems wide of the mark.

'Flashman and the Pillar of Light' by George MacDonald Fraser

In the late 1980s, having enjoyed the movie 'Royal Flash' (1975) combining a kind of 'The Prisoner of Zenda' with genuine bits of German history, I read all the Flashman novels which, at the time, had reached 'Flashman and the Dragon' (1985). Subsequently, with this novel in 1990 and three others up to 2005, he added to the canon. MacDonald Fraser had started the series in 1969, expanding the life of a minor character from 'Tom Brown's School Days' (1857) by Thomas Hughes to be a skilled linguist, a cowardly and promiscuous soldier who managed to get involved in many of the great incidents of the 1840s-90s, both in the British Empire and elsewhere in the world. The mix of lots of historical research (there are pages of historical notes), cheeky humour, sex, battles and always a torture scene, made the books winning for over 20 years. I do think though, they are probably not well received now. The books are written in the first person of Harry Flashman who is upper middle class, but pretty crude and certainly imbued with misogynistic and racist attitudes. These fit the character, but I imagine few young people today would wish to read a book which so often features the word 'nigger' and a whole host of derogatory terms towards women and Asian people as this book jams in.

With that caveat, this book fits with the preceding eight. It features Flashman working as a diplomat-cum-agent in the Punjab in the lead up to and during the First Anglo-Sikh War 1845-46 at a time when British India was controlled by the British East India Company. The war in itself was bizarre and MacDonald Fraser, though at times bewildering the reader, does reasonably well in showing how the female regent Jind Kaur for her son Duleep Singh who was to be the last Maharajah of Punjab. Jind Kaur's brother, the preceding Maharajah had been murdered by the Sikh Army which had grown to 80,000 men. Jind Kaur sought to weaken the army in Punjab politics by giving it what it wanted - an invasion of British India, but in a way which would mean its defeat and the clipping of its power. Even this brief summary indicates the complexity of the situation. MacDonald Fraser does well in weaving Flashman into this story, making him the cause of some of the incidents, including ultimately the securing to the Koh-i-Noor diamond, the 'mountain of light' to the British crown jewels. The fact that Jind Kaur was a promiscuous drunkard allows him to include a lot of sex too.

The story moves at a reasonable pace, though not aided by the genuine complexity of what was going on in the region at the time. Added to that, not only does he make extensive use of epithets of the time, but Flashman and others use numerous Punjabi and Hindi terms, sometimes distorted by English usage, which requires a running glossary, though further highlighting the extent of the author's research. Overall, it was not a bad novel, but for the reasons given above it lacked some of the pace of the previous ones in the series. MacDonald Fraser is good a shining a light on parts of history that often get overlooked these days. I was fascinated to see how close the British came to being ejected from the Indian subcontinent at a relatively early stage. However, I would suggest to many modern readers, especially those liable to take offence at any use of colonial era language and attitudes to stay well clear of the book.

'The Elixir of Death' by Bernard Knight

This is the tenth book in the Crowner John series which brings the series up to covering 12 months as the first was set in November 1195 and we are now at November 1196. It is a bit of an oddity and as I have commented before might have benefitted from tightening up the narrative without so much riding back and forth across Devon. There are a series of apparently unconnected murders, from sailors on board a ship from France - including the husband of one of Sir John's mistresses - to a mutilation of a local lord whose head ends up being dumped in Exeter Cathedral. There is also a sub-plot around alchemy in an attempt to create gold for Prince John to fund a renewed uprising against his brother, King Richard. Bits of the story feel rather contrived, especially the involvement of Richard de Revelle, John's brother-in-law and disgraced sheriff; John's wife and one of his mistresses. 

The inclusion of Assassins from Syria, does not seem impossible, but all of these factors together seem like Knight taking it a bit too far in terms of coincidence and leaving out some of his usual cast might have benefited the story. As always the portrayal of medieval Exeter and Devon and references to the Second Crusade, do add a richness which I think aided the popularity of the books. At times I feel Knight tries rather too hard. Maybe he was driven on by an agent or publishers to include things that readers would expect, especially in the period following the success of  'The Da Vinci Code' (2003) and other books by Dan Brown that referenced medieval mysteries. I would rather that he had been guided by the approach of Ellis Peters.

'Against A Dark Background' by Iain M. Banks

I much prefer those of Iain M. Banks's novels which do not feature his galaxy spanning all-powerful Culture. Thus, this one featuring the survivors of a mentally-linked combat team, heading off in a single solar system to recover various rare artefacts, felt to be of the right scope. Indeed there was a lot in this book I enjoyed. The main character, Sharrow, is the female leader of the team, but also an aristocrat in the civilization's hierarchical structure. Due to actions by her parents, she is seen as an obstacle to the coming of the messiah of a particular cult who have just received permission to try for a year and a day to assassinate her. In the meantime, Sharrow seeks to bargain the release of her half-sister Breyguhn from the grim fortress prison of another cult. The team of five, reduced from eight in previous wars head across planets trying to get on the trail first of the book of  'Universal Principles' and with this then follow clues within it to the eighth and final Lazy Gun, a super-powerful weapon, perhaps concealed by Sharrow's father.

Banks presents an incredibly rich culture, with exotic cities built of ships or under and within a vast tree; immense fortresses and a wide variety of landscapes. The societies are diverse and richly described. There are odd, seemingly anachronistic elements such as people writing letters or even cheques and a pillbox hat and so on. You wonder if that was intentional among all the very advanced vehicles and weaponry. The main challenge is that there is so much imaginative stuff. There are so many different organisations, authorities, religions and creatures that it is hard to keep track. Yes the plot twists and twists again, which is great, but it becomes tiresome to follow who is tricking whom. Added to that Banks drops in flashbacks with minimal indication. As many of these involve members of her team as they are in the 'now' you can easily be reading something thinking it is about the current timeline when it is from years in the past. It is a little easier in the scenes with Breyguhn and their male cousin Geis, but not always especially when they feature in the 'now' too. 

It is interesting to see why certain things happen and there are important clues in the 'past' to understand actions in the present. However, sometimes you do wonder do we need to see when the group were last at a bar which is now a book shop. I have commented in the past how Banks's science fiction books often seem under-edited and the good qualities of this book would have been really highlighted if the jumping around in time had been handled far better even if with a tag, e.g. 'Above Nachtel's Ghost, five years ago' or something.

Another challenge is the tone. At times the book seems light-hearted, certainly when the team are trying to steal the the 'Universal Principles' which it turns out the King of Pharpech sits on at his coronation. Pharpech is a low tech society with quaint rituals and at times you feel is created for humour. Sharply different in tone are scenes in the Sea House, the grim prison where Breyguhn is held and certainly the long section where the team struggle against increasing odds along the shore of a fjord to reach the location of the Lazy Gun and suffer more and more at the hands of a competing team of mercenaries. The characters we have come to know well through numerous interactions and their thrilling and entertaining scrapes and now in a bleak existential crisis something like journey of Captain Robert Scott at the Antarctic. The reader is warned of the bleakness from the comments on the book, but they sit uneasily alongside the jokey almost spoof-like section in Pharpech. Added to that, not to spoil it too much but Banks bottles out and a machina ex machina means he steps away from what at times would seem the inevitable outcome, not just once but again and again.

This could have been a brilliant book. There is a rich imagination at work in the book which fascinates you. The story and the twists are engaging. The trouble is, as happens too often, Banks rattles through it unfettered; perhaps uncontrolled, thus you are left scrabbling after him across rapids, uncertain of what he is actually showing you as you hurtle past it. As a result, you cannot really appreciate the details or the plot as much as you should be able to do.

Non-Fiction

'Europe of the Dictators' by Elizabeth Wiskemann

This book, published in 1966, was often recommended to me. I have carried around a very battered copy for about 35 years and finally got around to reading it. Yes, it is dated. Writing such a book today I do not think a historian would speak about regions of Europe as being 'backward' or note every politician she mentions who happens to be Jewish. However, as a general survey of European history 1919-45, it remains incredibly astute. A lot of writers could learn how in a book of 287 pages in my edition she manages to actually get in far more detail than many larger survey books of the period. 

Just minor examples, she outlines the three Austrian banks that collapsed in 1931, outlining the connections between them, whereas most accounts only speak of one. She does not forget to describe what happened to both Slovakia and Ruthenia when Bohemia-Moravia was occupied by the Germans in 1939 and so on. That might seem not major issues, but having read numerous books on this period down the years, I learnt elements of value from this one. She does look at Europe, seeking to include what was happening in countries that are typically neglected, such as down to Luxembourg, let alone the Baltic States, the Nordic states, and so as well as the Powers of the era.

The other strength of this book is the style. It is brisk, almost energetic, and yet never loses that clarity. Even complex situations are explained very crisply. This is one of those history books that you can almost read like a novel. Yet, it is not pure narrative; the analysis built on the foundations of those details is there. Thus, I certainly regret not having come to this book sooner and would say, that despite its age, it remains one of the best survey history books on the developments in Europe at this time that I have read.