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 …
Category: European History
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 …
Return to Kingsbridge
A Column of Fire by Ken Follett A Review 'The fire continued to burn, and the dead body of Philibert turned into a blackened ruin ...... I did not know how men could do such things, and I did not understand why God would let them.' It's nearly twenty years since Ken Follett surprised many …
The Great Escape
Katharina: Deliverance by Margaret Skea (a review) [The publisher kindly provided me with an advanced reading copy of Margaret Skea's new historical novel, due to be published on October 18th.] 'It is very shameful that children, especially defenceless young girls, are pushed into the nunneries. Shame on the unmerciful parents who treat their own so …
