Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-E in Edo, 1700-1900
Book
Japanese woodblock prints of the Edo period (1615-1868) were the products of a highly commercialised...
One of Us
Book
In this acclaimed political biography, Hugo Young traces Thatcher's journey from her apprenticeship...
The Watchers
4.0
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A chilling tale based on true events from the bestselling author of The Ghost Hunters - now a major...
Adam Colclough (3 KP) rated Harry's Game in Books
Mar 6, 2018
For the most part thrillers are the literary equivalent of Danish pastry, enjoyable but not made to last. A few, and ‘Harry’s Game’ is one, are more substantial fare, food for the mind that may give you indigestion.
On one level it is a book in the tradition established by Frederick Forsythe, fiction played out as fact allowing the author to draw on his journalistic background. Seymour goes beyond this by creating characters who aren’t simply stock heroes and villains. Instead they are human beings engaged in a struggle that is squalid and futile rather than heroic and purposeful.
This combines to give a grimly believable picture of daily life in Northern Ireland at a time when a single word or action out of place could have deadly consequences. He also writes well about the machinations behind the scenes on both sides, with the British political and military establishment struggling to fight an undeclared war they don’t understand; and the IRA high command masking the brutality of their actions behind misty eyed romanticism.
Brutal, believable and still relevant more than forty years after it was first published this is a novel that is very much worth reading, even if doing so can be unsettling.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Zulu (1964) in Movies
Mar 2, 2018 (Updated Mar 2, 2018)
Made at the time as a piece of aren't-we-great jingoism, Zulu still stands up well as a stirring war movie and a story of men finding common ground under pressure. Good performances from Caine and Stanley Baker (who was the actual star at the time). Many memorable moments, too, such as the sing-off between the two armies. The Zulus are actually treated with respect, as shrewd and honourable fighters. Chief Buthelezi (later a minister in the South African government of Nelson Mandela) plays his own great-grandfather.
Secrets and Lies: Now Profumo is Dead, I Can Finally Reveal the Truth About the Most Shocking Scandal in British Politics.
Christine Keeler and Douglas Thompson
Book
Christine Keeler's name is as synonymous with the Sixties sexual revolution as the Pill. Having...
Charles Pelham Villiers: Aristocratic Victorian Radical
Book
This book provides the first biographical study of Charles Pelham Villiers (1802-1898), whose long...
Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation
Book
Sir Seretse Khama, the first President of Botswana and heir apparent to the kingship of the Bangwato...
The Privatisation Classes: A Pictorial Survey of Diesel and Electric Locomotives and Units Since 1994
Book
Post Privatisation Diesels and Electrics is an album of photographs taken by David Cable, a...
Saving the Market from Itself: The Politics of Financial Intervention
Book
The 2007-9 financial crisis threatened economic disaster on a scale not seen since the Great...