What book are we reading at the moment?

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
I finished these two a couple of months back, both I can very-much recommend.

51Yo2XTMDvL.jpg

Not really the "full story of Brexit" - more the "full story of the EU Referendum". https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01I9AEIPU/

51wHhKpLjdL.jpg


This battle, or rather the death of Col. "H" Jones, is something I should have read up on years ago. No matter. The book is excellent, by one of my favourite military historians - plenty of maps and a few sketches for those like me who prefer pictures to words. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Goose-Green-Fought-Won-ebook/dp/B072PVJZ11/

ETA Top of the Page as well .... do I get a prize? :bananafunk:
 
Last edited:

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
Has anyone read any of Peter May's books? I'm just reading the final one of the Lewis Trilogy and I've really enjoyed his writing.
 

Tilly

Well-Known Forumite
This is not hugely enjoyable

The mind is not blown, it is far far away from a masterpiece

However, it is also very clear that no political figure has yet to trouble its pages

If you happen to be interested in the future, as opposed to living in hope, then this maybe the homework you have been seeking out
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
This is not hugely enjoyable

The mind is not blown, it is far far away from a masterpiece

However, it is also very clear that no political figure has yet to trouble its pages

If you happen to be interested in the future, as opposed to living in hope, then this maybe the homework you have been seeking out
I read it a few years ago and said I wouldn't read anything else by Taleb. He's got an attitude problem which he allows to creep in every so often.

It was OK, but, as you say, not a masterpiece and mind similarly not blown.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Watching the BBC documentary on Hilary Mantel tonight I can't wait to get the final part of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy: 'The Mirror and the Light.' I've read the first two books some years back now. And Hilary explained why the last book took some time, it literally took over her life. Wolf Hall seems to have become an obsession.

I've always been interested in history, which is peculiar because I failed my history O level having sacrificed the subject at the time for mathematics and science which was always my main interest. Yet, perhaps, from a feeling of guilt, I started reading historical novels and non-fiction books and developed a fascination for the subject.

Hence I found myself during my last years in my home town visiting the battlefield at Blore Heath (just up the road from Stafford) one of the first battles of what became known as the 'Wars of the Roses.' Then reading about the short lived Tudor dynasty that has produced so much drama, and they just keep on dramatizing it. Hilary took a standardly classified super evil character of the Tudor era and turned him into somebody completely human, but caught up in the religiously insane carousel that was Henry the VIII's court.

Thanks Hilary, I was worried I might croak before I got to read it.
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
David Starkey's "Henry; Virtuous Prince" is an enjoyable read. Starkey's a bit 'marmite' in real life, and I'm sure some of what he's written may be contentious, but to me who's not particularly knowledgeable about the period, it's all good stuff, and very readable.

The book just covers Henry VIII's early life and the early part of his reign. Anne Boleyn gets just one mention. I did think when I bought the book, there'd be another one covering the remainder of his reign but so far, nothing's been forthcoming.

ETA The book ends with "Wolsey also taught Henry what he could do, as opposed perhaps to what he should do. In so doing, he laid the foundations for the older, greater, badder Henry.", which sounds to me like there should be a follow-up.

Anyway, on the back cover there's this from Hilary Mantel writing in The Grauniad - "Brilliant. Every page has an intimate fascination. An accessible and entertaining book."
 
Last edited:

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I've got into many arguments over the years when I state that history is more about opinion than fact. OK, you can state that Battle so and so took place at some point on some date as a fact, (although even that is questionable, e.g. Bosworth Field) but the rest has been written by historians, dramatic writers and even eye witnesses of the time all guided by their own viewpoints and leanings.

I think TV historical presenter Lucy Worsley has similar opinions as she seems to delight in unhooking the myths and legends that have become accepted historical facts. And she does it with a very appealing wry smile on her face. ;)
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
Yes, Bosworth is a funny one. Give that it wasn't that long ago, you'd expect them to be fairly certain where it was. You sort of expect it with Anglo-Saxon battles, say ..... like Brunanburh in 937, one of the most important battles in the making of the British Isles and yet sites as far afield as the Wirral, Yorkshire and County Durham have been suggested.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Likewise even further back when Boudica got took down by Paulinus, a battle which may well have been fought in the West Midlands as it is thought to have been somewhere along the Watling Street, (A5.) ....

(My guess is Paulinus fought it further south, as he certainly didn't want to mess with 'Yo ams' from Cannock and Brownhills. :heyhey: )
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I believe Stafford owes it's very existence to the Saxon v Dane struggle of that time, or so some say. Part of the fortified line that kept the Danes at bay. (I've often wondered what was so bad in Scandinavia back then that they all scarpered from their homeland to just about every land mass in the North Atlantic. :eek:)

Of course the Vikings got their own back in the end. The Normans were of Viking descent, having moved into Northern France and told the locals to 'Go Forth and Multiply' and in time turning their eyes northward.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
Or possibly Stafford owes its origins to a Roman settlement near the crossing point over the Sow. One could look at the possibility of a mislaid Roman road running from Penkridge to Trent Vale & Chesterton.
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
Brunanburh was fought somewhere on the Wirral.
That was my first thought, as I'd only become aware of the battle when I read (in the late 1980s) that the battlefield site had been "discovered" in the Wirral. (My father in law was living in Bromborough at the time.) It was only when I looked the battle up the other day that I found out that other sites had been suggested.
 

Mikinton

Well-Known Forumite
David Starkey's "Henry; Virtuous Prince" is an enjoyable read. Starkey's a bit 'marmite' in real life, and I'm sure some of what he's written may be contentious, but to me who's not particularly knowledgeable about the period, it's all good stuff, and very readable.

The book just covers Henry VIII's early life and the early part of his reign. Anne Boleyn gets just one mention. I did think when I bought the book, there'd be another one covering the remainder of his reign but so far, nothing's been forthcoming.
It seems Starkey's follow-up book "Henry : Model of a Tyrant" is available. Not sure it's available in any format other than Kindle at the moment, though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00J1X50NE?ref=em_1p_0_ti&ref_=pe_4022381_452604831
 
Top