What I read over Christmas
Rather mixed bag.The Railway Man, by Eric Lomax: Quite a famous book, I believe, and the local library had it on sale for 10p. I would certainly recommend this - an emotional account of a British soldier who found himself captured the collapse of the Britisih Empire in fortress Singapore. Lomax then was transferred among various Japanese POW camps and tortured nearly to death, and his subsequent (much later) courageous meeting with and forgiveness of the Japanese soldier who witnessed first hand his torture.
The Decline and Fall of the British Empire - 1781 to 1997, by Piers Brendon - A staggering readable and enjoyable book on the pretty shoddy and unpleasant affair that was the British Empire. It contains some lovely descriptions of Imperial decline, e.g. this on Singapore: "Singapore was a place of 'high living and low thinking', where the idea of rationing was to serve game on meatless days. It was a 'cloud-cuckoo' island where it seemed perfectly natural for a women to refuse war work because she had entered a tennis tournament...The Prime Minister [Churchill] urged Percival to mobilise its population and fight to the finish. But, as Yamashita prepared his final assault, the island remained in state of fantasy and apathy. Cinemas were crowded, bands played on club lawns and dancing continued at Raffles Hotel. Censors forbid the word 'siege'. When a colonel arrived at the Base Ordnance Depot to collect barbed wire he found it had shut for a half-holiday. When a major tried to turn the Singapore Gold Club into a strong point its secretary said that a special committee meeting would have to be convened".
London Orbital, by Iain Sinclair: From the library. Something to do with the M25 but I haven't the foggiest what. Gave up half way.
Time to Declare, by David Owen: I was ill, OK? No, it's not OK, I realise that, but actually I quite enjoyed this book which I found on my bookshelf and presumably bought at some point. Much like Carol Gould's writings you can read easily between the lines as to what was really happening. When you think 'that's a bit unreasonable behaviour' in a book that presumably gives his good side you know he must have been quite prickly. Amusing cameos by Polly Toynbee and Daniel Finkelstiein.
Is it just me or is everything shit? by Steve Lowe and Alan Mcarthur: From the library this one, which is the perfect place from which to get it, as you'll not read it twice. Actually quite amusing though.
The Anatomy of Power, by James Margach: A friend gave me this as a Christmas present and it's fantastic. Written by a political journalist in 1979, the same year that he died, this gives his view of what it takes to be PM based on his observations of PM he knew during his career. This starts with Lloyd George, and ends with Thatch, so that's quite a lot. Particularly good on just how ill many PM were when in office.
The Queen - a biography, by Ben Pimlott: It was always thought a bit strange that Pimlott, a left-wing historian who died in 2004, would write a biography of the Queen. It's not a bad effort, with the emphasis as you might expect on her political role. Unfortunately the conclusion is broadly that she hasn't got much of one, so the book doesn't really ever get going.
The World in 2008, by the Economist Group: This annual publication gets worse every year. I think that's partly because the internet has rather rendered it less than useless, and also the handicap that they set themselves by trying to forecast 2008 events from mid-2007. I was mildly surprised to see that the deadlines allowed reference to the subprime crisis. Oh, and I've just found you can read it on the internet.
Labels: Reading
posted by Matthew @ 1/09/2008 10:24:00 PM
Comments: 5
