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Sunday, 27 January 2013

Daniel Everett, Don't Sleep There Are Snakes

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Don't Sleep There Are Snakes - it's been a while since I saw a title as vibrant as this.  Does the book ...
Monday, 21 January 2013

J.E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth I

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Hunting down and reading books about Elizabeth I has become a minor hobby of mine.  On each trip to the library, I dutifully check histo...
Sunday, 20 January 2013

Doris Lessing, African Laughter - Four Visits to Zimbabwe

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I read African Laughter - Four Visits to Zimbabwe no more than a week after finishing Dervla Murphy's The Ukimwi Road .  At first, ...
Friday, 18 January 2013

Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms - The History of Half-Forgotten Europe

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Vanished Kingdoms sounds more like a title of a fairy tale than a history book.  And yet, this is how Norman Davies decided to call his...
Monday, 14 January 2013

Dervla Murphy, The Ukimwi Road - From Kenya to Zimbabwe

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Let me skip all the introductions and get straight to open-mouthed admiration.  Dervla Murphy is the greatest travel writer that I'v...
Saturday, 12 January 2013

Adrian Tinniswood, By Permission of Heaven

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On September 2, 1666, early in the morning, a fire started in Thomas Farriner's bakery, Pudding Lane, London.  Soon it spread and by...
Sunday, 6 January 2013

Robert Fossier, The Axe and the Oath - Ordinary Life in the Middle Ages

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My goodness, it's been a while since I read a history book quite as bad. The Axe and the Oath is, or promises to be, an account of ...