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...
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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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Updated 16 August 2026: This provides an introduction to a project which is being realised at www.otherpeoplesletters.com where I transcrib...