The Wager by David Grann A Review 'Yet the Pacific did not live up to its peaceful name. As the Wager headed north off the coast of Chile, all the previous storms seemed to have combined into one climatic fury...... Cheap relentlessly drove the men onward - drove them even as they dumped overboard a …
Category: European History
In the Name of Religion
The City of Tears by Kate Mosse A Review 'The assassin watched the whore sway, then saw the blossoming of red on green as she fell. He exhaled then relaxed his shoulders. He could not be sure she was mortally wounded but it was a palpable hit. Thanks be to God, his shot had found …
Germany
Memories of a Nation by Neil MacGregor 'What are the sounds of Germany? Most people's list would probably include, in ascending volume, and growing numbers, a Bach cantata, a Beethoven symphony, a Wagner opera and - loudest of all - the roar of the crowds as Germany wins the World Cup .... But just as …
Sisi #2
Assassination of an Empress Elisabeth von Wittelsbach (Sisi) Even before the death of her son, the Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889, Empress Elisabeth of Austria had retreated into a life of sport, travel and poetry. But there was a morbidity in her thoughts too. In 1887, she wrote: I flee from the world and all …
Sisi
Looking back, I see that I wrote the following two critiques in 2014. Empress Elisabeth of Austria is a historical figure I very much enjoy reading (and writing) about and, indeed, since penning these articles, I have read a few other works in which she features, regrettably not all as good as Brigitte Hamann's biography. …
In Black And White [4]
Genesis of the Piano (Cristofori, Maffei and others) by Andrew G Lockhart Credit for inventing the piano belongs to an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori, who was born in Padua in 1655. Little is known of his early life but he must have trained as a craftsman and technician. By the beginning of the 1690s, he had …
A Modern Edmond Dantes
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon translated by Lucia Graves The Prisoner of Heaven is the third book in Zafon’s cycle of stories set in Barcelona and featuring the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. It is much shorter than either of its predecessors yet lacks none of the intrigue of the earlier books. Nor …
Back to Carcassonne
I mentioned a few weeks ago taking another look at Kate Mosse's novel Sepulchre. I'm glad I did so because it put me in the right frame of mind to buy her latest book The Burning Chambers. This is the first book of a trilogy which tackles in novel form the history of the persecution …
1066
Viking Fire by Justin Hill A Review I love good historical fiction. However, it's not often I discover a book that is totally absorbing and at the same time an author who makes me think, why the devil didn't I learn all this at school? Of course, our schools are good at putting our country/countries …
Two Brothers
by Ben Elton A Review 'Thus, as the months went by, a strong bond formed between the youngsters, a bond separate to their school friends and their individual lives. They were the Saturday Club. . . . Paulus, Otto, Dagmar and Silke were a true gang of four.' Ben Elton is better known (in the …
Bookheathen Scribblings 