Saturday, 11 July 2026

William Boyd The Predicament

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    I have read quite a lot of spy fiction, mostly Eric Ambler and John le Carré but also Joseph Kanon and Graham Greene. I enjoy a good...
Friday, 10 July 2026

Hallie Rubenhold Story of a Murder: the Wives, the Mistress and Doctor Crippen

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  Modern book publishing is a branch of the packaging industry, as a visit to Waterstones will attest. It is necessary to open the pages to ...
Wednesday, 10 June 2026

Paul Johnson Challenging Inequalities

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  This is not a long book,190 pages plus the usual footnote proof of due diligence, but it’s very repetitive and could be summarised in 60...
Sunday, 31 May 2026

A.G. Hopkins, The Land Where Nothing Works

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  I wanted this to be a good book and admired the author’s conscientious work in putting together an economic and political history of Bri...
Friday, 6 February 2026

Imaobong Umoren A New History of Britain and the Caribbean

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    Readers, like me, of popular and semi-popular history currently have a choice of two main genres both to be found on Waterstone tabl...
Wednesday, 10 December 2025

Zeinab Badawi An African History of Africa

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  I bought this book because I know next to nothing of Africa’s history; I guess I am one of many such purchasers. So how can I review it? ...
Friday, 17 October 2025

Trevor Pateman, Not In The Archives: Personal Letters 1800 -1840

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This is a draft introduction to an anthology of over fifty previously unpublished letters which I have transcribed during the past eighteen ...