Proclaimer Blog
Summer reading review #4
Here's a roundup of what else graced my kindle this summer:
Perilous question: the drama of the Great Reform Bill by Antonia Fraser
Superb. A remarkable study into something I learn for O-level history. The political and royal wheeler-dealings are overwhelmingly mesmerising. A sobering reminder that the democracy we enjoy now was not easily won, nor should it be taken for granted. And a reminder that the details are often surprising and matter – on such things the fate of nations turn. For example the arch enemy of reform who supported the bill because he thought it might somehow reverse Catholic emancipation. His vote counted. When the affairs of nations turn on such small matters, the sovereignty of God is a remarkable comfort.
Don't. Just don't. Why would you?
Silly nonsense. Barely enjoyable. An alien story with a post modern slant.
A commonplace killing by Sian Busby
Sian died before completing this story (she was the wife of BBC editor Robert Peston). Does that make people write nice things about it when it's not a particularly good story? The trouble is this kind of mystery murder is not my normal fare and so I'm ill equipped to say whether it is a good example of the genre. I read it because it was set in post war austere London (a setting for few books) and that intrigued me. But it didn't really grip me much – just a few sordid characters making their way in North London.
Empire of the Deep: the rise and fall of the Royal Navy by Ben Wilson
This was a kind of "Bible overview" but in Naval terms – a framework into which I could put all the other naval things I have read. My grandfather was a regular in the Navy and I like to think I got my love of things nautical (though not, I guess, my colour blindness) from him. I really enjoyed this book. It was both informative, as well as setting everything I read into a larger narrative. Wilson also stops off along the way: who knew how close the Armada came to success and what a muppett Drake was?
It reminded me very much of the importance of seeing the whole story. You can take glorious battles out of context, and when you do so, you are in great danger of missing the big thing that is going on. And that, apparently, is the way to read the Bible too…