Saturday, 28 March 2015

Review: Richard Davenport-Hines, Universal Man, The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes

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Back on 13 January 2013 I enthusiastically reviewed Richard Davenport-Hines' An English Affair , a history of the Profumo scandal....
Saturday, 7 March 2015

Review: Alexander Watson, Ring of Steel Germany and Austria-Hungary at War 1914 - 1918

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This is a good book. 566 pages of text and 220 of apparatus. I discovered an enormous amount which I did not know, simply because Watso...

Review: Eric Ambler, The Mask of Dimitrios

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First published in 1939 this remains a remarkably fresh detective novel.  Plus ça change - here we have not just murderers (who are a...
Thursday, 26 February 2015

The Origin of Books: Writing and Desire

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Some years ago, I wandered around the Tropical Greenhouses of Hamburg's Botanical Gardens. On the way out I bought a book,  Die Goldene ...
Sunday, 22 February 2015

Review: Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From

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Tim Parks is a prolific writer across a variety of genres and in two languages – and that may be three reasons why he is less appreci...
Saturday, 21 February 2015

Review: Stephen Kotkin - Stalin, Paradoxes of Power 1878 - 1928

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Nowadays, I find the decision whether to buy a 949 hardback tome a weighty one: Will it be worth the effort of reading in a semi-reclin...
Saturday, 7 February 2015

Review: Richard Sakwa, Frontline Ukraine

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This is an unsatisfactory book. Described by the publishers as "The Authoritative Account of the Ukrainian Conflict" it is n...