Zed
A very interesting read. The author, Greg Bak, has written a well researched book on the now obscure life and times (crimes) of pirate/corsair John Ward, infamous enemy of the Christian trading states of the early 17th Century.
Bak has put together a fairly sympathetic portrait of Ward and his fellow English pirates/corsairs with the premise being that due to lack of employment after the cessation of the Spanish English Wars of the Elizabethan times and with the peace that followed in the reign of James I that the mostly illiterate seafaring class had little else to do other than plunder if they were to make a reasonable living. Ward, among others, took to this life with gusto. He became incredibly rich and with that wealth was even able to bribe the admiralty, much to the chagrin of the Venetians, to the point that a pardon was being discussed. In the end, though, he made the even more infamous decision to convert to Islam.
Recommended to those that like true pirate stories.
This is an exceptional book. Very academic in tone so for those readers that have a deep interest in pre Conquest England. Not recommended to those that are after popular history.
The author has delved into every source available to give a thorough coverage of Æthelstan and his reign. No stone has been left unturned to cover areas from his early life, an area very bereft of information through to his modern legacy.
There are 8 chapters and an epilogue covering debates as to Æthelstan place in English history, coverage of his family, his role in the church, his kingdom and wars. The epilogue made wonderful reading on his initial popular memory to the disappearance of such as time went by.
On finishing this book I looked at 2 popular history's of England that I have at hand, Seaman's A New History of England from 1981 and the recent Foundation by Ackroyd. Seaman makes reference to Æthelstan on page 22 calling him “one of the most successful Kings” based on his overlordship of other British kings via the Battle of Brunanburh. This is covered by all of a scant paragraph. Æthelstan receives a short mention in relation to laws on page 38. Ackroyd does better with coverage from page 69 to 72. Ackroyd says that Æthelstan was “revered for centuries” and covers the meaning of his name, Noble Stone, his lineage through to the precedents he set as to lordship and landownership. Considering the scope of Foundation Ackroyd seemingly does a fine job considering the limitations of his subject.
With that I came away considering that Sarah Foot has produced one of the most important biographies from Anglo Saxon England. My 2 popular histories are fairly scant on the subject but do both make mention of Æthelstan's importance to English history. This is why this book by Sarah Foot is of such importance. Her research of the source's is superb, they lack any form hyperbole with interpretation, she makes it abundantly clear as to their limitations and with that brings us up to date with what little information is available. Her footnotes and bibliography are of the highest quality. Highly recommended.
An enjoyable read. Full of plenty of information that had one thinking. The resistance to the obvious decline of the cod by vested interests may have parallels in the resistance to changing our use of fossil fuels by the coal industry, as an example. I also have done a bit of online research as to how this wonderful fish has been going now that there has been a moratorium on its fishing. Not as well as I thought it might of sadly.
On a lighter side I enjoyed the recipes that frequent the end of each chapter with plenty more at the end. Anyway I'm hungry and have some Barramundi to devour.
To say this was a sympathetic biography of Mary Queen of Scots would do an injustice to the word sympathetic. I hate to use the word hagiography but this is as close as it gets.
The author is a specialist in Tudor history and is to be respected but I have come away from this very readable book, and I mean very readable, profoundly confused. He has, in my opinion, let his deep research into the subject cloud his judgement in the presentation of the biography. His sympathy spoils the entire narrative.
Yes he is occasionally critical of Mary's decisions but then there seems to be excuses. Lets be honest, her decision to marry Bothwell must rank as one of the most ludicrous acts by a reigning monarch in British history. Yes the author says as much but makes excuses. I was almost waiting for Stockholm Syndrome to be evoked after she was raped by Bothwell!
The superlatives used to describe Mary are constant throughout:- intelligent, ingenious, razor sharp. And in the end when things have gone disastrously wrong we get told she was “unlucky”.
Well yes, maybe, but her bad luck is apparently just a constant throughout her life. The author works hard to make it all very unlucky that way via some very sympathetic eulogising. I tended to want him to tell the story and let me decide, not editorialise.
My other major criticism is the use of the sources. I have to be critical of the notes, sources and the bibliography used in the research for the fact they are not mapped by footnotes. The book is a revisionist opinion and that is fair enough, but with that, if the author going to make statements as to it being a “cold day”, one of the protagonists feeling “happy”, “sad”` or indifferent at least map the source via a footnote. I mean if Mary was born in the coldest winter (first page of the first chapter) what was the source? This was constant throughout and a distraction from a very good history to tell.
So with all that in mind would I recommend this to others who are interested in the life of Mary Queen of Scots? Yes as at its best this is an an extremely interesting book. I just wish the author had been a bit more circumspect in his delivery.
This was either recommended or I read a review. It seemed, from those recommendations, that it would be the type of book my wife might like. Anyway in my book shops haunts I found a copy for a few dollars and thought I would get it for her. That was last Friday and now on a Sunday I have finished. The only fiction that I tend to read as I approach my old age is the “classics” (whatever they are) so I have surprised my self by actually ripping into this over the weekend.
A few things spring to mind 1) it is an easy read 2) it was not as good as some of the reviews 3) it is certainly not as bad as some of the reviews 4) it made me realise that I am getting on in age.
The easy read is occasionally a good thing for the likes of me considering some of the hefty history I read and enjoy. It cleans the mind I suppose. The gushing raves about the book itself are a bit over board. This is light fantasy in the end and I thought that the author almost lost her way at times. Chapter 22 for example. But it is not the poorly written book that others elsewhere have accused it of being. There are at times thought provoking prose and ideas that had and still have me thinking. And yeah it made me realise I am a late 50's male who likes history and in truth will never be part of the world that this book will appeal to and that kind of bothers me in an unexplainable way.
I hope my wife likes it.
I have enjoyed reading this travel classic. I have, honestly I have. All good travel/ history should have one reaching for google maps and even reading (at worst) wikipedia and I have been doing that. With that I am keen to go to all the exotic places that the author visited, those places with Spanish names that are seemingly full of not only Latins but Englishmen and Germans and Welsh and have strange natives and had the likes of North American outlaws gallivanting around the countryside. What more could one want from a book like this? It has set the travel juices flowing as all good travel writing should.
But.....I just have the horrible feeling that I might have been better reading this back in the day. That day should have been when I was in my late teens and not my fast approaching old age. Back then this book would have seemed vital, important, an adventure fantasy, a tome to enthuse about to my book reading pals.
Now? It just reads like the writings of a literate backpacker. One who wants to let his family and friends know about his great big adventure while on his travels. One who has the forethought to add a few historical tid bits to tide the adventure over during the rainy days stuck in the internet cafe. Yes! that's it. The type of prose that gets posted on a personal blog or even at worst facebook.
“The book that redefined travel writing” says a quote on the back of my copy. Maybe that was the point, a personal travel writing blog long before a travel writing blog was even thought of. The appeal is the every-man prose. Yep I had to read this when I was young.
This is the second Dalrymple book I have read in a short space of time. With that I now consider that he is a extraordinarily good writer. He has had the ability to enthral, enrage and leave me wanting for more with each read. With that I have grabbed a couple more of his tomes and will be looking forward to reading them.
Return Of a King is riveting narrative history. In fact lets just say that in my opinion, narrative history that is as good as it gets. There is no need to tell the story here, as many have covered it on Goodreads. All I need to say is that the man tells the story of his extensive research in a way that will appeal to both the professional historian and the lay reader such as myself who has an interest in the Great Game.
As to the story told he has used his footnotes from newly found sources brilliantly and has an extensive bibliography that could only leave any one who is looking to learn more on this subject salivating.
Highly recommended.
I can hardly complain. A battered copy for few cents in a 2nd hand book shop but it was along haul. Diplomatic history written for those studying diplomacy? I have read plenty of dry and dense history and some I thought was very good indeed but this just seemed to be page after page of dense stream of consciousness prose. I learnt a bit hence 2 stars but I have one more by the author and may give it a while before I get into it.
I found the delivery of the story very poor at times. Also a good 100 pages too long. On page 168 of my copy the author writes “Louie was furious at the shark. He had thought that they had an understanding:the men would stay out of the sharks turf - the water- and the sharks would stay off theirs -the raft” Seriously? I know that Louis Zamperini may have said this to the author in phone conversations but to be a serious biography the delivery needs to be far less commercial. It reeked of the need to turn the story into a film script.
I thought the author was on better ground in the writing about the POW camps. There were many other witness to the events that the author was able to draw on and in my opinion that showed with better delivery. Be that as it may in the end I came away disappointed and feel that the delivery of the story did not do it justice.
Knowing nothing of the Byzantium Empire this must be as good as it gets for a short history. My only complaint was that the authors opinions as to the individuals was a touch too prominent for me and the lack of footnotes is also a small complaint. I suspect I will never read another book that has so many eyes “put out” Brutal!
This is narrative history that can keep one enthralled from the first to the last page. Cliches such as page-turner apply. No doubt the game itself can be discussed further, new books published etc etc but who cares. Hopkirk has written a book that had me looking at the maps, researching the characters, marking the bibliography for further literature to read. What more can one want! A wonderful book.
I have been thinking about this book for days. Some sections, (are they chapters?) stand out. The first, The Black Departers, was so impressive I reread it immediately. The Monasteries in the Air was as enthralling. But for long periods after it all became a touch dense, hard work and even tedious. Sounds of the Greek World ended the book nicely but it was too late.
Thinking about it now I had read 4 PLF books in a row and had been enthralled. Maybe this was one too many? Maybe I will reread it in years to come and wonder what it was I missed. I hope so.
Very long and dry at times but fascinating. For the non economist and lay history lover such as my self this really gave me the answers to a lot of questions I had had that were never been discussed in any depth in the many previous books and items I had read and the various documentaries I have seen about the Nazi economy.
An interesting read and a well written biography. Certainly worth the time of any one who admires the written words of Patrick Leigh Fermor. A book in two halves for me though. The excitement of the youthful walk and the Cretan WW2 adventures was captivating. The final half that consisted of upper middle class bludgeing ( a fine Australian word to describe a life of “Using” others) was a little too overbearing for my tastes. Is Leigh Fermor one of the best writers I have ever read? Absolutely. Would I have found conversation with him interesting? Of course! Will I read and reread him. Yes. Would I have liked him? Not sure. He may have been far too overbearing after a while.
The chapter on ikons is some of the most wonderful writings I have ever read and stirred a memory. Many years ago I went to a church in the Troodos Mountains in Cyprus called St Nicholas of the Roof. There was a curator who was keen to explain, in very broken English, the significance of the painting and the ikons that were like nothing I had ever seen prior. Though not part of the Mani this superb book reminded me of that great big adventure on my first and only island of any Greek significance. The fact Patrick Leigh Fermor could refresh my distant memory of that visit to Cyprus has me hankering to visit mainland Greece and the Mani and all other places in that ancient land. Will there be old Greek curators with only broken English when I go? I hope so.
I was expecting the last book in our hero's great walk to be not as exciting as his previous tomes. In fact this was as riveting as any previous and I put that down to a need by me as the reader, to not only know what was happening next but again be dragged into the beautiful and romantic text. When we get cut of at mid sentence short of the intended target and then get only few diary excerpts of the intended destination I was taken aback. But, in what can be but a credit to the publishers, the day was saved by PLF's diary of his time at Mount Athos. Fascinating reading. What a wonderful trilogy by a truly remarkable individual.
Superb. If I thought that A Time of Gifts was a great book this may be a touch more compelling and deserves all superlative thrown at it by the critics. It is hard not to be envious of Patrick Leigh Fermor, a life that was adventurous beyond anything that the average person could comprehend. It is not the famous events that make me envious though, it is the seeing of a world that no longer exists. His travels in Hungary and Romania took in a world that was pounded to non existent pulp by Nazism a few short years later. We can even add at the (bitter) end of this book the eventual submergence of Ada Kelah and all the other places of interest when the Iron Gates dam was built in 1970. He writes a short final appendix at the end lamenting the loss. Onto the The Broken Road. I look forward to the conclusion of a young man's great adventure.
Charles Carlton finishes this wonderful and easy to read book with a final sentence that says “Here I have tried my best to get it into a book by telling the story—as much as possible in their own words—of how during the early modern period war affected the people and nations of the British Isles. In doing so, I hope that I have shown how profoundly the hand of war has shaped this Seat of Mars.” I would be interested indeed to find a better book than this on the subject.
This is the 2nd book I have read by Carlton, the other being the brilliant Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638-1651. Going to the Wars is one of the best books I have read and I was intrigued to see if this one would be as good. Well maybe not but only by the width of half a hair.
Carlton may just be one the preeminent historian in early modern British warfare and I can do no more than say that anyone interested in this period of British history do worse than read this wonderful historian.
A very good review from http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=34480
Another fine “A Brief history”. Science was not a particularly good subject for me at school and many years later is still something that dazzles me with it's complexity. This is probably gone as close to making me understand some of that science and meet some of the fascinating characters along the way.
A very good read by Frank Dikötter. He covers from the time of the civil war up to the Great Leap Forward. Civil wars are rarely anything but brutal, 2.5 million deaths is a figure bandied by various sources. Dikötter covers this early and not with too much length but once past he delves deeply into the early years of CP rule with initial purging of those not connected with the regime, the beginnings of the Bamboo Curtain, collectivisation measures and the attempt to reform thought. Political prisoners, made up of not just those that opposed the CP but those that failed to conform, was very interesting reading indeed. For anyone interested in this period of Chinese history this is a must read. In the end I have come out of this book, and also refer back to his brilliant, tragic and griping Mao's Great Famine, wondering if the present day Chinese consider these brutal years of Mao and reflect on the present prosperity under the CP. I look forward to Dikötter's next book on the Cultural Revolution
It is hard to exaggerate the sheer chilling effect this book by Frank Dikötter can have. It has made me realise that the statement by Gordon Kerr, in his primer, A Short History Of China, that the death tolls in China, throughout its documented 4000 years of history are ........”often staggering, demonstrating not only a disdain for human life” and with that also providing a “vast and inexhaustible supply of manpower”. In the end this book brings the disdain and inexhaustible supply into focus.
This book is in 6 parts with the first 2 parts “The Pursuit of Utopia” and “Through the Valley of Death” covering the history of The Great Leap Forward. The final 4 parts discuss the effects on all parts of Chinese life from the lowly peasant through to the political consequences. There is “An Essay on the Sources” that is a vital explanation of the research used to produce this history.
There have been and still are debates as to what Communism is. I, in a way, hardly care because, after reading this book, to my mind the Chinese Communist Party during the Great Leap Forward was attempting a form of State Corporatism that has had nothing comparable historically except maybe Stalinist USSR?
I could no doubt real off the statistics on the death and destruction etc that Dikötter has researched but in the end I might bring to the attention of the reader of this review a strange little chapter called “Nature” in Part 3 “Destruction”. It seems to me that the Chinese have been “fighting” nature for many a long century from attempts to control the various floods and other natural events that blight all nations. During The Great Leap Forward the “fight” against nature was at times, to use a word from Dikötter, bizarre. Historically China had depleted it forest for various reasons such as need for firewood etc but The Great Leap Forward at the behest of Mao took it to a new level. “there is a new war: we should open fire on nature” he said and so they did. Forests were decimated, mountains levelled as backyard furnaces flourished in some egotistical attempt to outstrip British steel production. It reached a point that after the destruction of the forests that farmers took to felling their orchards to keep warm during the winters. The consequences of that are obvious. In the end drainage systems became blocked with mud and silt as the rains caused even more issues to the many thousands of square kilometres of barren lands and with that the villages and towns that suffered flooding and starvation. Hu Yoabang traveled heavily during 1961 and denied the effect of the rains as a cause of the devastation stating “the rainfall was basically normal”.
Dikötter covers other areas in the fight against nature such as the over use of pesticides, pollution, etc but the war on nature well and truly reached the heights of bizarre in 1958 with Mao's call to eliminate rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows. The war on sparrows reaches the point of being weirder than fantasy. Sparrows were targeted because they ate grain, the fruits of the labour of the masses, and so began a mass mobilisation to conquer them. For several days nests were attacked, sparrows shot out of the air with thousands of people banging drums etc forcing petrified sparrows to fall from the air from exhaustion. Shanghai reported that it had eliminated 1,367,440 of this pesky bird. Shanghai also eliminated 1,213,05 cockroaches for good measure. By April 1960 the realisation was that sparrows ate insects but it was then too late as they were now almost extinct. Insect infestation ruined crops and with that further famine. Locusts had a great time as well.
One of the consequences of The Great Leap Forward was the loss of reputation of Mao within the party. But he fought back with the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Dikötter has had access to various archives hence this book and The Tragedy of Liberation: A history of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957. Hopefully he writes a book on The Cultural Revolution as this would be an excellent trilogy on the Mao years.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone with interest in the astonishing and always fascinating history of the Middle Kingdom.
Informative and a sometimes riveting narrative style delivery but verged at times to sarcasm aimed at both the Chinese and the British. No doubt deserved but maybe a little too obvious for my liking. I would add that the 2nd Opium War received one far too short chapter.
The final couple of chapters, consisting of discussion on how the Chinese used the Opium Wars for propaganda purposes, was interesting but were far too long when there was a very good story of the entire wars to be told. Maybe the author had lost patience with the original story. A very good timeline, good footnotes and an excellent bibliography finished a good if flawed book.