Nicholson Books

If you want to begin your studies of this fascinating order then this is probably an okay book to read.

Simple exposition of the history of the Templars with all the recently described mysteries expunged.

Small book, easily absorbed and understood.

The Knight Templar is another Ospery warrior collection on the most famous and mysterious Christian military orders that battled in the Holy Land during the Crusades. Do not let the outside fool you though, this is no comic book but a well researched, written and illustrated history of the Knights Templar.

I appreciate this book's lack of mythical jargon and alleged conspiracies, but its simple focus on the appearance, lifestyle, and gear of the Templars. An essential and highly recommended title. Also has good plates.

Knight Templar 1120-1312, by Helen Nicholson is, like most of the books in the Osprey Warrior series, well-written and copiously illustrated.

Although only 64 pages in length, the greatest value of the book is its several photographs and illustrations allowing the reader to get a good `picture' of what Templar life was like.

The book is divided into the following chapters:

Introduction
Chronology
Recruitment and Admission
Belief and Belonging
Training
Appearance and Equipment
Living Conditions: On Campaign
Experience of Battle
Museums and Re-Enactment
Glossary
Bibliography
Color Plate Commentaries
Index

"Knight Templar 1120-1312" is a good introduction to the historical Knights Templar for those unaware of their history and a fair quick reference for those with a deeper background.

The book lacks any of the claims of Templar mysticism or its ties to Freemasonry, and remains focused on established history.

If you enjoy reading about the Knights Templar, than this book is definitely a worthwhile addition to your library.

I like this book because it has useful, practical information, is written by scholars and it has good illustrations. I like the fact that the book focuses on what daily life would have been like for the warrior-monks and that the authors also talk about why people joined the Templars. One thing I did not know before reading this is that there were nuns who were part of the Templars, though they did not fight in the Holy battles and they were understandably segregated most of the time from their male counterparts.

I was very impressed with the descriptions of what they wore (which is very useful to me since I write historical fiction). I love the fact that the illustrations are so brilliant and detailed. One of the things that frustrates me about books relating to the Medieval period is that the illustrations are poor (unless it's a children's book and then you get little information). This book is great because it has the look of a young adult book, but the information appears to be well researched. It is definately history made easy and fun!

can be consider as one of the best book about the last days of the gov't of hitler, in this book you can find how himmler,a high ranking Hitler general who was consider as the one responsible for the death of thousand of jews was strangely trying to saved them from extermination. most of the information you find in this book are quiet new.

I just finished reading this book, and wanted to order it for my son. It provides a perspective from many places and people often overlooked. It presents vividly the statements and recorded conversations of top German, American and British leaders. It also provides perspective from Italians, Poles, Czechs, Danes and Hungarians. However, it is very weak on Russian, Swiss and French views. Perhaps now that Russian archives from the Soviet era have opened an historian will write a book that will fill that gap. The illustrations and maps are helpful, but all too few.

The savagery of that era comes through all too well. To read this book is a reminder to pray that it will never happen again.

This book is a delight to read for any confirmed WWII history buff. It uses a combination of oversight narrative as well as individual recollections and reconstructions from diaries and other historical documents to provide a highly readable, entertaining and informative look at the final momentous crush of battle between the western and eastern fronts of the war against Germany. It is often highly novel, with a seemingly endless number of humorous and informative anecdotes about the prosecution of the war.

For example, author John Toland describes Churchill deliberately taking time, along with Generals Montgomery, Brookes, and Simpson, to publically urinate on a concrete bridge abutment that comprised part of the frontiers of the so-called Western Wall dividing Holland from Germany. He also details, with first person reports, the systematic murderous rampages of the Soviet soldiers, who, unchecked by their officers, raped and pillaged their way toward Berlin and the final victory over Germany.

The main saving grace of the book is its tone, which delivers the mountain of information concerning this final coordinated assault at every level in a very simple, straightforward, and excellently written expository fashion, and he seldom bores the reader. Instead, by bringing it down to the level of the individual participants, he anticipates a whole new wave of later WWII books by highly regarded authors such as Stephen Ambrose et al that also employ this "first person recollection" approach to thread together interesting narratives about various aspects of the war.

Toland's narrative helps us to better understand the long- debated issues surrounding the curious slow-down of American, British and other Allied forces on the western front, which allowed the Soviets to enter Berlin first, but also forced the Soviets to suffer the brunt of the extremely high casualty rates at the hands of the fanatically inspired German soldier fighting to save the "Fatherland" from the barbarian Russian hordes. It also helps the reader to appreciate the extent to which the Soviets were, in fact, doing the lion's share of tough fighting for a number of years, as the casualty figures tend to support. The numbers of Russians lost dwarfs the losses of Brits, Australians, Americans, Canadians, French, or any other combatants.

This is a wonderful book, which, although out of print, should be back-ordered, or sought out as a used book, or lent from the library. It is an easy read, and well-written and scholarly tome, and yet was light enough to slide through without any of the ponderous language and endless details of other books on the war. I recommend it for any serious student of the second world war, and especially for those that want a wide-ranging narrative regarding the final days and collapse of the ignominious Third Reich. Enjoy!

The last 100 days of the Nazi regime have long remained clouded by the fact that it was the Soviet armies that reached Berlin first and afterwards controlled the information surrounding the end of it all. Until things had settled down, and let's not forget that they only ever partially settled down (Patton's cry of "Let's push on to Moscow," still rings in one's ears), little or no information was available to the Western press about the successful Russian attack against the German capital. John Toland's "The Last 100 Days," first published in 1966, was therefore a welcome addition to the growing literature on the end of the regime. Perhaps the most interesting sections of the book deal with the taking of Berlin and the stubborn defence offered by the citizenry (both old men and boys were killed at the barricades). For American readers, there is no doubt that the race for Berlin is of greater interest still. With the fastidious Bernard Montgomery apparently holding up the progress of U.S. army corps, it was a time of grand confusion. No one wanted to be restrained from the final fruits of victory. Impatient army commanders resented every delay, while at home, political leaders tried to balance the final thrust to victory against the prospect of further warfare in Europe, once the Germans were beaten. And of course, beyond the first difficulties in East/West relations, there remained Japan to be beaten in the Pacific.

All the main characters have their turn on Toland's stage, whether they be American and Russian generals calculating the mileage separating them from their goal, or high-ranking Nazis twisting and turning in the net that is slowly closing around them. A fast-paced book, matching the tempo of the times, "The Last 100 Days" is one of the best books about the end of the Second World War to be published so far.

I read this book when it first came out in paperback in the 1960s, when I was a middle school student. It made a profound impact on me at the time. I recently saw it in basically the same Bantam mass market paperback edition I'd bought in the '60s (though without the photos and map contained in the '60s version, even though the price had increased five-fold in the interim). I re-read it again primarily out of curiosity, simply to see what I thought of it forty years later.

Despite having read many dozens of books on WWII in the intervening years, I was wowed by Toland's account all over again. Toland was a master storyteller, not an academic or military historian as such, and had a novelist's understanding of the illuminating detail, the minor tragedy emblematic of the whole, and the reader's fascination with the character of people acting under the most extreme duress imaginable.

Toland weaves together numerous narrative threads of the highest diplomacy (FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at Yalta), the lowest farce (the goings on of Hitler and his bizarre entourage in Hitler's underground bunker), and endless violent encounters -- between enemy forces, and between military forces and the incredible masses of civilians fleeing the fighting or trapped in cities under ferocious bombardment.

While the book is populated with the brave and noble, at high levels and low, it is also frequented by monsters, knaves, cowards, innocent victims, and thugs on all sides (though the Germans, of course, were peerless in the scope and cruelty of their barbarities). This is not the place to go if you are looking for "the good war." This book gave me my first deep insight into why my uncle (now deceased, but at the time I first read this book younger than I am now), who had served as a rifleman in the 8th Infantry Division in Europe, seldom could be persuaded to talk about the war.

Toland's work was also somewhat unusual, when first published, in its lack of triumphalism. The atmosphere which permeates The Last 100 Days is not that of the impending victory of the good, or the impending defeat of the evil -- although the end of the war in Europe was certainly both -- but of immense tragedy and the dawning awareness that at the end of the war, the world was going to remain an exceedingly dangerous place, as the unnatural marriage of necessity between the Western powers and Stalin's Soviet Union came to an end.

Toland's narrative method has been adopted and adapted in other's subsequent works (Toland doubtless borrowed elements of it from others before him as well), but few have been his equal. And having read all of John Toland's several excellent books at one time or another, I am convinced that this book was his best. On the mountain of books on WWII, The Last 100 Days belongs near the top. This book should remain in print for a long time to come because it is great history, powerfully told.

This is an extremely well written book which takes you back into the 14th century, let you discover the great Mughals and brings back the Mughal empire into life. I read about how they came into power through their shear toughness, bravery and the will to rule the Indian subcontinent. I also read how they fell apart, through virtue of their barbarian nature. This book will tell you how Babur found the land of peace and prosperity in Indian and made it his home. Humayun, intellectual but with mongolian traits would back and forth between India and Iran. Akbar, the great, would later take the empire to it's majestic heights. The later Mughals, Jahangir, ShahJahan and Aurangzeb will add joy and misery in this saga that comes to an extremely tragic end. I truly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it.

The Mughal Throne is a well-researched, highly readable, extremely informative and detailed account of the great Mughal emperors from Babur through Aurangzeb. Abraham Eraly is a first-rate historian; he sets out his view of the historian's task in the erudite but readable "Preface" to the book. But not only is Eraly a first-rate historian - he is a first-rate storyteller, as well. Even the sections on military history (which I normally avoid) are written in a detailed but fascinating manner. I particularly like the way in which the various emperors' unique personalities come alive for the reader. The Mughal Throne is as engrossing and lively as any of the several historical novels set in Mughal times that I have recently read. I highly recommend this book not only for those interested in Islamic or Indian history, but for any tourist planning to visit Delhi, Agra, and/or Lahore. The many Mughal historical monuments in these cities will be enlivened for them because of their having read this excellent book.

This is a fascinating book involving a fascintating period in the history of India. During the heyday of Mughal rule, India was one of the world's leading civilizations. Here was an elite that ruled intelligently (at least at first), allowing Moslem and Hindu worship freely and equally and producing some of the great monuments of civilization, the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and the city constructed by one of the emperors, Akbar, Fatehpur Sikri.

The focus of the book is the emperors themselves. It begins with Babur, who came out of Central Asia, a descendent of Tamerlane, who established the dynasty in North India. Babur also wrote an autobiography which detailed the principle events of his life which makes fascinating reading even today (Modern Library has recently reissued it in paperback).

Babur was succeded by his son Humayun, who has to be one of the most unlucky rulers of the 16th century. There was the usual strife between him and his siblings (which became the standard way of doing business as time progressed) which undermined the stability of the throne. Humayan spent a lengthy period in Persia which had longstanding cultural implications for the Mughals.

Fortunately for the dynasty,during its exile Sher Khan, whose 5 year rule allowed for certain administrative reforms that allowed the restored Mughal dynasty a certain degree of financial independence and the resources to build the great monuments and to extend its control from the north of India down to south. Many historians have downplayed Sher Khan's legacy, but Eraly is quite thorough in addressing this point.

Humayan died of a freak accident while pursuing his hobby of astonomy. His son Akbar assumed the throne and with him, his son, Jahangir, and grandson, Shah Jahan were the great days of the Mughals. It is the successes of that these remarkable rulers enjoyed, ruling much of modern India, that we remember this dynasty. Here Eraly handles the variety of court intrigues, building marvels, and sensual pleasures that made up the day to day life of an Indian Mughal emperor. The section on Akbar is particularly well-done, dealing with the cultured, yet illiterate emperor's wise appreciation of the religious questions.

Akbar's ability to understand the need to balance the Moslem religion of the rulers with the Hiduism of the ruled is in marked contrast with the final emperor detailed in the book, Aurangzeb. Embarking on a policy of religious intolerance and military expeditions lead to isolation from his Rajput allies and ultimately the demise of the empire in 1857 and the establishment of British rule in India.

This is an excellent work which shows how the the Mughals were able to achieve all that they did and how they were undone by one of their own.

This is a very informative book, but I feel like it's a bit too long. I also felt like there was a huge emphasis on wars, but I wished there was more information about the culture of Mughal India, especially the lives of women. There were also references to some political figures (not the emperors) without a full description of who these people were. Without a background knowledge of Mughal history, it's hard to figure out who these people are. Despite these negative points, the history of Mughal India is presented in great detail so I'm glad I purchased the book because I learned a lot.

Arguably India's Golden Age, the near two-hundred years of the Mughal Empire from Babur to Aurangzeb was a time when the richest got richer, conquered and ruled SE Asia from Kabul to Konyakumari, built cities, forts, and fabulous tombs, lived fairly short lives, wept over trivialities, warred amongst themselves, blinded, maimed, and executed family members; and, after Aurangzeb, lost it all except in name.

"The Mughal Throne: The Saga of India's Great Emperors," is the first released third volume of a four part history of India, and though it is far from the definitive work on the Mughals it is a well written, and exciting saga - just what the title says it would be - a narrative that hits all the high points, and delves into just enough detail not to loose the casual historian or India-phile.

If you want to know India, especially Northern India, you must know the Mughals, and they're a family worth knowing. (If you like the Medici's, you'll love the Mughals.) Their reign was short in the scheme of Indian history, but stamped the country for all time.

This is an interesting book for the unique view which it provides, that of a child on the base during and after the attack. There are flaws in the pictures (two separate pictures describe pictured American planes as Japanese), but overall these are minor errors. A quick and interesting read!

I was twelve years old the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. My father was a career Navy officer and we lived on the base, one mile from the U.S.S Arizona.
This author has brought back so many memories for me. I would love to be able to meet her. I'm writing my own account of that day and also my life and travels growing up during the WWII. I hope to have it published by the end of 2008.
Beverly Moglich - Garden Valley, CA quilter76@juno.com

This book is excellent. As a young girl living on the Pearl City Peninsula, also known as Pearl Harbor, the author witnessed the bombing on 7 December 1941. She could see the burning ships that were anchored near her family's home. She recalls all too well that horrible morning and the days, weeks and months that followed. She wanted to share her story with the world. She has managed to do just that and very well I might add.

The author wrote about hearing the planes coming in flying low-then her family heard the explosions. They went outside and watched the attack. The family got into their car and tried to get to a safer area. They stopped long enough to see the battleships burning-then they hid in the sugarcane fields. The military police found them hiding and told them they could not go home. Instead they were sent to the recreation hall of a sugar mill where many other families joined Dorinda's family. It was almost a week later before the families in the sugar mill were allowed back to their homes. Dorinda's parents found shrapnel and bullets embedded in their walls. "Pearl Harbor Child" made me stop and really think about other people on the islands and what they must have gone through.

She wrote about expecting another invasion by the Japanese. She was the beaches lined with barbed wire. Everyone had to be fingerprinted and carry identification. Food became scarce. Soldiers were everywhere with bayonets on their rifles. Everyone was issued gas masks. Money had to be exchanged. Blackouts and curfews were strictly enforced. Mail was censored. The Japanese-Americans and other foreigners were placed in internment camps.

So much more can be found in this incredible book written in a simple manner to help others understand a little of what the Hawaiian people went through during the war. I credit the author with doing an excellent job. I was very impressed with "Pearl Harbor Child." This is truly a book for people of all ages to read!

Excellent book to help make children realize what the war was like - rationing, families torn apart, disruption of everything. Lots of photographs. Make sure to get the revised edition - the original did not have enough photos. Written at 5th grade level

This book is just incredible! It brings WWII and the Pearl Harbor story alive and through the eyes of a child. It has lots of great pictures, not only of the attack, but also personal pictures of her during that time in Hawaii. An absolute must-read for any WWII buff or anyone who wants to hear the personal and moving story of a little girl who witnessed this historic event.

This was a very enjoyable book about the great Ovett/Coe rivalry. The book delves into the roots/family influences of the two very talented middle distance runners including Ovett's very influential mother and Coe's father and coach. The author captures the excitement of breaking world records, running in the Olympic games and the expectations associated with being athletes at thier prime. Two very different personalities are contrasted both in their private and public impressions. A fascinating read.

Excellent book for anyone who followed track in the 70s and 80s.

Lots of light shed on what may have been the most significant and consistent rivalry on the oval. The backgrounds of both runners are very revealing; Coe's training routines, while widely discussed, were revolutionary. Meanwhile, Ovett is shown as an agressive and confident runner, and nothing like the arrogant antagonist that the media portrayed. Additionally, he was immersed in the science of footwear and helping develop better products for runners. Why he never got the acclaim he deserved is a mystery.

A great read for those who have been there.

Very good book, well written, not boring at all, interesting information not only about the lifes of the two runners subject of the book but also of the sport of running in general those days in Europe. I am a "serious" runner a serious reader and also a writer myself. As such, I collect all sorts of books about running. Many are forgetable, this is not the top of the line but very good and worth reading

Mr. Butcher has produced an outstanding book. All great books start with a great story and this a great story. This rivalry began in the mid '70's and carried through to the '84 LA Olympics. Mr. Butcher has a runner's knowledge of the sport and a writer's command of the language. This book was meticulously researched , many of the principles have participated in the telling of this tale. The "British" slang is sometimes is difficult to follow but does not detract from the telling of the story. I like the fact that Mr. Butcher does not hesitate to share his opinions. This is a GREAT READ for any track fan.

This is a very detailed and rich biography not only of Ovett and Coe but of history of the mile particularly from the British view point. As the author notes, the emergency of Ovett and Coe strides right into British middle distance runners dominating the world scene in the late 70s and early 80s with Cram, Elliott and Moorcroft. The Ovett and Coe duo are so different in racing styles, personalities and family life as Ovett emerges from blue collar roots with a very strong guarded mother and wonderful grand parents while Coe comes from a more upper class conservative family coached by an efficient and strong willed father. Butcher captures both athlete's abilities in detail with Ovett's amazing ability to run the sprints and high jump at early age to running events aside from 800 and 1500 to the 5K ,cross country and even jumping into a half marathon. Coe develops slightly slower but run as if a greyhound taking the pace to avoid contact with his 119 pounds particularly dominating the 800 while he and Ovett trade the 1500 and mile back and forth. The differences in mental and emotional make up between the two men is captured well in an excellent photograph of the two after a surprise loss to a relative unknown in a championship 800 where Coe literally looks crushed while Ovett has dangled his arm around Coe while looking off with chin up as in "well another day". The comparison between the Hagg and Anderson (includes interviews) and Ovett and Coe are well done as Ovett and Coe dominates the English sports news. Americans may require a little more patience as the author does discuss the world's best milers that include Walker, Bayi, Wessingham along with the US's Scott and Maree but the focus is on the English with running clubs and their depth of great runners at that time. Also, unlike Coorder Nelson's great book on Jim Ryan, this book has more depth into the history of middle distance running and the athletes' personal lives. Amusing that the author identifies Kenny Moore as an excellent writer but identifies him as a fourth place marathoner at the Montreal games when it was actually at Munich and he confuses the details of the New York and Boston Marathon's of Rosy Ruiz into one race. The book also contains some interesting British humor and phrases. I wish there was a more detail on the races in Moscow particularly the 1500 as Coe steals one from Ovett to avenge his 800 upset. It is quite tragic that Ovett became so ill at the LA Olympics that he became hospitalized but continued to compete and make he finals in both the 800 and 1500. He literally looks like death going into the last lap of the 1500. And Coe comes back from devastating illness to get in world class shape after being written off to be the only man to win successive Olympic 1500 titles. This was a glorious time for Track & Field when these two men from the same country seesawed world records back and forth almost weekly.

As the author notes, these two were such amazing competitors even the Falkland Islands were bumped in Britian foir the news of what Coe and Ovett did the night before.

An Orion publication, subtitled Tales of the Eternal Champion Volume 5. It includes The Ice Schooner, The Black Corridor, The Distant Suns, and Flux. So, you get Arflane, Ryan, Jerry Cornelius and Von Bek version of the Eternal Champion in this one volume. This is a pretty eclectic bunch of heroes to throw together in one book.

All of the short stories were excellent, but "The Black Corridor" really got the heart moving. Imagine the movie 'Event Horizon' actually done well, heck I think I was hearing things after I finished that piece.

White Wolf Publishing did a superb job in collecting Michael Moorcock's fantasy work into these beautiful omnibus editions. This volume, eight in the series, contains three novels and one short story, none of which have any obvious connection to the "Eternal Champion" theme. The tales do have some common elements, however; all four pieces feature a group of travelers fleeing a crumbling or decaying society and looking for solutions elsewhere, or "elsewhen."

The Ice Schooner depicts a future Ice Age. A small civilization is established on the ice fields, cities are built into crevasses, and trades and whalers ply the frozen oceans in their ice ships. Konrad Arflane, a typically moody and grim Moorcock hero, undertakes a quest to New York to discover why the ice is melting and his civilization possibly coming to an end. A rare example of pure SF from Moorcock; well told and atmospheric, with a perhaps too hasty resolution.

The Black Corridor, written with Moorcock's then-wife Hilary Bailey, reads more like a Robert Silverberg novel than Moorcock piece. A group of space travelers in cryogenic freeze are fleeing an Earth where xenophobia and war are destroying civilization. One man remains awake to operate the spaceship, and reflects on his final years on Earth, as the world crumbles around him. This is one of Moorcock's best works, taut, suspenseful, evocative, and horrifying. I've read this one three times since it originally appeared in 1969, and it still has an impact... and I'm not sure I completely understand it.

The Distant Suns, a collaboration with British artist and author James Cawthorn, appears in this volume for the first time in the U.S. Again, civilization is crumbling and a trio of space explorers set out to find an answer. (The characters are Jerry, Frank, and Catherine Cornelius, but names aside, they have no apparent connection to the Cornelius characters of Moorcock's other stories.) Written in a hyperventilating pulp style, the purpose here is perhaps to satirize pulp SF clichés, but the authors mimic the purple prose of the 40s too closely for my taste, and I quickly tired of this one, skimming through the last hundred pages to get a general idea of the plot. This ranks as one of Moorcock's misses for me... or perhaps I just missed the point.

Flux, a short story written with Barrington J. Bayley, describes a near future Europe, again facing imminent destruction, which sends an operative into the future to discover a solution. Anyone familiar with Bayley's work will not be surprised to find this story brimming over with madcap ideas. While not as polished as Bayley's later writings (to say nothing of Moorcock's) this is an enjoyable and thought-provoking tale.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys Moorcocks' early SF and fantasy works.

This review is mainly concerning The Black Corridor.

I just read it (mostly yesterday and finished it in the bath). It's a shortish story which starts off harmlessly enough, almost blandly, and yet slowly draws the reader in. But by the end...

Put it this way, right now I'm surfing around trying to find somewhere or someone I can discuss this story with, ask their opinion, what does it mean? What did they think? Where was the line between reality and madness?

How strange that something so short and seemingly unimportant can generate such an emotion. Maybe I need to take some Proditol (read it).

I read it, it greatly stirred my emotions, five stars, enough said.

Sailing to Utopia is definately one of Moorcock's best works. It's sparse language and epic plot lines will leave you terrified, yet at the same time you are completely fulfilled. Each story in the novel is fabulous, even though they don't tie in to each other. Moorcock has written concurrent stories with other Eternal Champion novels (Hawkmoon, Corum: the Coming of Chaos), you can't let this influence you in any way of how intense this book is. Instead of having a concurrent plot line throughout, Moorcock's places themes behind his stories that tie them together as one. However, each story is so enriched with life that each one can definately stand alone as an extraordinary piece of writing.

Since reading Alexander Dumas novels as a child I have always been fascinated with the intrigue and byzantine plots of the French Court. I was first made aware of the accusations against the Marquise de Montespan in a history book by Jacques Barzun which made her out to be a female anti christ or the whore of babylon. Somerset's history of the events goes into more depth and paints Athenais to be more of an earlier version of the witless Marie Antoinette than a French Lady McBeth.

The whole affair of the poisons caused a paranoia that turned a criminal investigation into a Salem Witch Hunt or better yet a grassy knoll conspiracy that reached into the highest level of government. The fact that torture or the threat of torture and painful death were used to gain most of the 'confessions' was not seen as detrimental to the case by the public makes me glad in live in more modern times.

The court of Louis XIV was the height of decadance and its opulance eventually caused the bankruptcy of the French treasury during the reign of his descendants leading to Revolution, Terror, and the Rise of the First Empire.

Anne Somerset has done a fantastic job in bringing this bit of dark and forgotten history to the fore in the first serious work on this subject in decades.

"The Affair of the Poisons" relates how in 1680, Paris society was thrown into an uproar as details came to light of a rash of magical potions and poisons being circulated from the Paris underground into the highest ranks of the French high society. As the police investigated further into what they thought to be outlandish rumours of satanic rituals and child sacrifice, a strange story began to take form around a number of high profile individuals, notably the jealously obssessed and now out-of-favor royal mistress, the Marquise de Montespan, concerning a plot to assasinate the King and Queen themselves. The Marquise was said to have turned to the performance of satanic rites of the Black Mass, using the blood of child sacrifices, freshly killed by the self proclaimed abortionist and sorceress known as La Voisin. When her most desperate attempts to win the King back through black magic failed, the Marquise is said to have turned to murder, first of her competitors at court, and finally hatching a plot to poison the King himself. The details themselves are never truly know as the journals, testimonies, and eyewitness accounts taken down by the King's appointed investigators were locked away and later destoryed by the King himself, in a desperate attempt to avoid a potentially ruinous scandal that threatened to shake the very foundations of the monarchy.

The Affair of the Poisons is a fascinating look into the strange world of the French court and the lengths one woman went to maintain her exalted status among the glittering yet hopelessly vain and self-destructive upper eschelon of French society. Perhaps the truth of these dark events of history will never be known for certain, but whether or not the Marquise was indeed guilty of the miriad of vile crimes attributed to her, her name has come down through the centuries as synonymous with evil. Sommerset has done an excellent job of retelling this tale with attention to detail, particularly the chapters concerning the highly complex intrigues of the court of Louis XIV and the machinations of his many mistresses. It also provides an fascinating glipse into the dark underworld of Parisan society and the many shady characters who inhabited it.

This was an interesting excursion into an area of French history I didn't know much about.The accusations and in some cases just hearsay,I found had similarities to a the hysteria Involving
The Salem Witch Trials.Would reccomend this for anyone with
an interest in life at french court/Louis XIV.

I knew nothing about this period of history, other than having a vague knowledge of Louis XIV ("the Sun King"), before picking up this book. It is remarkably easy to read, packing in a great deal of information without ever being dry or tedious. The author takes a simultaneously critical and sympathetic look at the passions that drove the nobility and hangers-on at court, and makes shrewd estimates about the validity of various contemporary and historical theories regarding the events in issue (including observations about the biases of the various letter writers and memoirists on whose writings she draws as sources). I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this period of French history.

Also recommended: "Ridicule," a film about the French court under Louis XVI, which bears out many of the observations in this book about the period a century earlier.

I bought this book in the bookstore at Versailles. After my tours of the palace and the gardens looking for ghosts and wondering what life was like and what was in the heads of the people at courts of Louis XIV, XV and XVI. I was hoping that this history would help me with that and it did. This is a well footnoted scholarly history but it is also a very good read, a very unusually good read.

In this book you can see the mind and grandeour of HG Wells
a man 100 years ahead of his time. No kidding i tend to think that somehow
he came into contact with either Aliens from other Worlds or Dimensions
or he had the ability like Nostradamus to preditct the future.
Others argue that current World elite groups have followed his words
to the letter and so it seems as if he predicted the future.

I love the story "the new accelerator"

h.g.wells was to science fiction what shakespeare was to theatre. his short stories are composed of british warmth and wonder in equal measures. not only do we see the origins of the tank and the insect invasion story- but we see them as insights into human life and civilisation, in a manner that is easily the most similar to the 21th century. why is this landmark collection out of print is beyond me. it's like seeing mark twain or checkov out of print, which is just not done!

First off, this collection does not contain The Time Machine, I'm not sure what collection the other reviewer was referring to. However, this collection does contain some of the best stories you will ever read.

I discovered H.G. Wells relatively late in life (within this past year, at the age of 33) when I stumbled on a discount copy of "The Island of Dr. Moreau." Like most people, I'd read "War of the Worlds" in high school and thought it pretty good. However, I believe to truly appreciate Wells one must be older. Old enough to have experienced some sort of life and to appreciate fine, clean writing.

After reading "The Island of Dr. Moreau" I was surprised at how current the story felt and how horrific some of the details were (it definitely didn't read or feel like a book written over 100 years ago). As a result, each time I stopped at a used book store I'd peruse the shelves looking for anything Wells. I stumbled on a collection of five of his short stories called "The Empire of the Ants." What? Wells wrote short stories? No way! I bought the book and read it over my vacation. I was amazed. Wells is known for writing in detail, but I'd say his writing is even more detailed in his short stories (possibly because in a short story you don't have to worry about bogging the reader down in too much detail- causing them to lose the thread of the story).

What Wells does, and what he's famous for, is writing in such detail that a scenario becomes supremely believable, then, he adds a touch of the fantastic to really knock the reader's socks off. Since he's already created this ultra-realistic world, the fantastic becomes believable and the reader is left thinking, "that could really happen, couldn't it?"

After reading that collection of shorts, I looked for something more comprehensive and found "The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wells" edited by John Hammond. I was amazed again! The breadth and scope of Wells' stories is amazing: from a rogue plant with a taste for human blood, to a voodoo shaman out for revenge, to an upstart student with a conscious, Wells' imagination knows no bounds.

I'm about half way through the book and my favorite stories thus far are "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid," "Pollock and the Porroh Man" and "In the Modern Vein: An Unsympathetic Love Story" (the stories I decribed above) also "The Lord of the Dynamos," "The Sea Raiders" and "A Story of the Stone Age." I must also add that I read "The Country of the Blind" as part of the previous book containing Wells' stories and it too is amazing. Also, I admit that sometimes Wells delves into too much detail, which can frustrate the reader and slow the story down. However, of the 30-40 stories I've read thus far, it has only happened a handful of times.

I only wish that this collection contained a short critique before each story. Mr. Hammond is a renowned Wells scholar and has even written a book analyzing Wells' short stories (a book I can't locate, by the way), that book I believe is essential to really understanding these stories (namely due to Wells' tendency to critique society in his writing). Unfortunately, no real analysis is available in this compilation, thus, the reader is left to his own interpretation. For the most part, the stories are pretty self-explanatory, but it would be nice to understand some of the other meanings.

In conclusion, I give this collection 5 stars and I highly recommend it for anyone with a taste for great storytelling. Wells' writing is fantastic, touching, humorous, detailed and very sensitive- I think you'll be surprised at how he'll win you over. H.G. Wells is a master writer, and he's gained me as a fan for life! :)

This is a collection of collections

The Time Machine and Other Stories
The Stolen Bacillus And Other Stories
The Plattner Story And Others
Tales Of Time And Space
Twelve Stories And A Dream

-----

This collection takes The Time Machine, which is presumably a longish novella in actuality to do this, and adds some of the pieces from A Door in the Wall and Other Stories - including all the best stories from there, so not a bad idea, really.

Time Machine : The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
Time Machine : The Empire Of The Ants - H. G. Wells
Time Machine : A Vision Of Judgment - H. G. Wells
Time Machine : The Land Ironclads - H. G. Wells
Time Machine : The Beautiful Suit - H. G. Wells
Time Machine : The Door In The Wall - H. G. Wells
Time Machine : The Pearl Of Love - H. G. Wells
Time Machine : The Country Of The Blind - H. G. Wells


It will come as no surprise that the protagonist in this story, the traveller, invents a time machine and uses it to venture into the future.

The society that he ends up in seems amazing for a brief time, then he realises that all is not as it seems. There is a large underclass that is terribly exploited to produce all this for the eloi, as they are called.

The underclass are named Morlocks, and it is here that the Time Traveler's sympathies reside.

3.5 out of 5


Just waiting for the takeover.

4 out of 5


Supernatural stuff seen.

2 out of 5


Give tanks a try.

3.5 out of 5


Fashion victim.

2.5 out of 5


Other places to go.

3 out of 5


It stings, chuck it away.

3 out of 5


Hard to be King, no matter how many eyes.

4 out of 5


--
A quite good and quite eclectic selection of stories. Something of everything, sf, fantasy, horror, crime, war, etc.

Stolen Bacillus : The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Stolen Bacillus - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Flowering of the Strange Orchid - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : In the Avu Observatory - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Triumphs of a Taxidermist - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : A Deal with Ostriches - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : Through a Window - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Temptation of Harringay - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Flying Man - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Diamond Maker - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : Aepyornis Island - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Lord of the Dynamos - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Hammerpond Park Bruglary - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Moth - H. G. Wells
Stolen Bacillus : The Treasure in the Forest - H. G. Wells

Anarchy plague hard to swallow.

3.5 out of 5


Hothouse leech.

4 out of 5


Big flying thing I think.

3.5 out of 5


New bird fooling.

3 out of 5


Jewellery eater.

3 out of 5


Krees manhunt.

3.5 out of 5


Bloody painting.

3 out of 5


Parachute raid.

3.5 out of 5


Pressure flux offer.

3.5 out of 5


Big egg hatching.

4 out of 5


Remote viewing.

3.5 out of 5


Engine sacrifice.

3.5 out of 5


Nice way to do the robbing business.

3 out of 5


Not fair to die before the end of the debate.

4 out of 5


Poison gold.

3.5 out of 5


--


This collection of stories ends with several mainstream tales, that are really of not much interest, although the last one is ok. If you aren't interested in those you can stop at 'The Purple Pileus'

Those aside, In the Abyss, Pollock and the Porroh Man, The Red Room and the Sea Raiders are all quite good.

As such, the whole thing averages a bit over 3.

Plattner Story : The Plattner Story - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Argonauts and the Air - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : In the Abyss - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Apple - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : Under the Knife - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Sea Raiders - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : Pollock and the Porroh Man - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Red Room - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Cone - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Purple Pileus - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Jilting of Jane - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : In the Modern Vein: An Unsympathetic Love Story - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : A Catastrophe - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Lost Inheritance - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : The Sad Story of a Dramatic Critic - H. G. Wells
Plattner Story : A Slip Under the Microscope - H. G. Wells


Other world reversal.

3 out of 5


Bad landing.

3 out of 5


Swap is not replacement.

3.5 out of 5


Sea devil double dive.

4 out of 5


Forbidden knowledge.

3 out of 5


Operation scare.

3.5 out of 5


Cephalopod people eaters.

4 out of 5


Black magic headcase helplessness.

3.5 out of 5


Fear place.

4 out of 5


Too hot here.

3 out of 5


Magic mushies.

3 out of 5


No good.

2 out of 5


Frivolous pursuits.

2 out of 5


Marriage regret.

2.5 out of 5


Writing gain, not.

3 out of 5


Bad play.

2 out of 5


Exam cheating.

3 out of 5


Too much biffo is a killer.

3.5 out of 5


Pigs and vicars? Why are they upset?

3.5 out of 5


Snow way to climb a mountain.

3.5 out of 5


Judgement day music.

2.5 out of 5


Prehistoric people story.

3 out of 5

--


A nice little collection of science fiction from Wells, from Martians to future history and your near miss astronomical disaster.

Tales of Space and Time : The Crystal Egg - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : The Star - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : A Story of the Stone Age - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : A Story of the Days to Come - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : The Man Who Could Work Miracles - H. G. Wells


Tuning in Mars.

4 out of 5


Just a near miss, that planet going past Earth. Nothing to worry those Martians.

4 out of 5


Cave girl, cave man, cave bear, plus lions and horses,not tigers.

3 out of 5


Giving the past lifestyle a try.

3 out of 5


It is really not a good idea to stop the Earth's rotation.

3.5 out of 5

--

A collection that has quite a bit of fantasy contained therein, but which again tails off in the latter part as far as interest goes.

Twelve Stories and A Dream : Filmer - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : The Magic Shop - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : The Valley of Spiders - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : The Truth about Pyecraft - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : The Inexperienced Ghost - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : Jimmy Goggles the God - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : The New Accelerator - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : The Stolen Body - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : Mr. Brisher's Treasure - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : Miss Winchelsea's Heart - H. G. Wells
Twelve Stories and A Dream : A Dream of Armageddon - H. G. Wells


Strange flyer.

3 out of 5


Genuine article here.

3.5 out of 5


Puffballs, too many legs.

3.5 out of 5


A man needs to get his physics straight when asking for supernatural dieting assistance.

4 out of 5


Under Knoll.

3 out of 5


If you ask a spook for membership, he just might say yes.

4 out of 5


Deity impersonation.

3 out of 5


Flash tonic.

3.5 out of 5


Burglar reform.

3 out of 5


Remarkable medium possession save.

3 out of 5


Loot score.

2.5 out of 5


Snooks not for me.

2.5 out of 5


Future war visions.

3 out of 5




Too much biffo is a killer.

3.5 out of 5


Pigs and vicars? Why are they upset?

3.5 out of 5


Snow way to climb a mountain.

3.5 out of 5


Judgement day music.

2.5 out of 5


Prehistoric people story.

3 out of 5

This book is a "must have" for any fan of literature, science fiction, or just plain good story telling!

"The Time Machine" is the opening story in this book and starts the reader moving through the world of H.G. Wells. He will entice you with stories that pique the imagination, that range from the ancient past into the far future.

Over sixty short stories adorn this classic work, including:

The Empire of the Ants - killer ants from South America?

The Land Ironclad - land ships with guns can change trench warfare? (written in December 1903)

The Door In The Wall - a man recounts his boyhood memories of a door leading to a magical garden...

The Tempatation of Harringay - an artist is tempted by the devil himself

The Country of the Blind - is the one eyed man King in the land of the blind?

The Flowering of a Strange Orchid - Vampire flowers?

The New Accelerator - a man creates a mixture that allows him to move at ten times normal speed (concept adapted for a "Wild Wild West" episode)

Get the book, you won't be sorry.

(review based on hardback edition)

This book is not for the connoisseur of Berlin's ideas and works; rather it is really a broad and introductory survey. The book is based on a series of largely unstructured conversations with Berlin about his personal past and better known works, as well as some of his views on others' famous works and ideas on philosophy. The interviewer, Ramin Jahanbegloo, cannot be faulted for his brief and often open-ended questions as he is clearly prodding Berlin to speak his mind. Berlin does seem to 'correct' the errors of his interviewer but this is to be expected from such a reknowned and learned philosopher. For those already familiar with Berlin, the responses are far from shocking: Hobbes and Machiavelli are, in fact, ethical thinkers; do be weary of those who propose rational, 100% 'final solutions'; 'total liberty can be dreadful, total equality can be equally frightful'; philosophy, if properly taught, allows one to see through 'bad arguments, deceptions, fumisme, verbal fog..'; etc. That said, it is a lighter read than any one of Berlin's books and, for anyone who is curious about Berlin's views on things, it just might a good place to start.

Just for information, the title as listed is wrong. The title is simply CONVERSATIONS WITH ISAIAH BERLIN. (You do correctly list the hardback title.) The "Phoenix" you've placed in the title is, in fact, the publisher: Phoenix Press in London.

Isaiah Berlin is one of the great intellectual figures of the twentieth century. He has been spoken of as the second greatest talker in the history of the English language( after Samuel Johnson) Here his remarks are a trifle short and yet there is enough substance in them to fill 'forty books' of others.
Some samples.
"For me a great man in public life, is one who deliberately causes something important to happen, the probability of which seemed low before he took up the task. A great man is a man who gives history a turn without which it scarcely could have taken without him."
"The purpose of Zionism is normalization; the creation of conditions in which the Jews could live as a nation,like the others. Alexander Kojeve whom I spoke of before once said to me." The Jews have the most interesting history of any people. Yet now they want to be what? Albania? How can they?" I said "For the Jews to be like Albania constitutesprogress. 600,000 Jews in Romania were victims- before the Nazis.They tried to escape. But 600,000 Jews in Palestine did not leave because Rommel was at their door. That is the difference. They considered Palestine to be their own country, and if they had to die they would die not like trapped animals but for the country."
" I believe there is nothing more destructive of human lives than fanatical conviction about the perfect life,allied to political or military power.Our century affords terrible evidence of this truth.I believe in working for a minimally decent society.If we can go beyond this to a wider life, so much the better.But even a minimum of decency is more than we have in some countries."
"But not every genius is like one's image of a genius.Pasternak was such a one. He talked marvellously, he was a little unhinged at times, but at all times a man of pure genius. Nobody could have had a more fascinating experience than to listen to him talk- in my exprience only Virginia Woolf talked something like that. She too, of course, was a trifle crazy"

I am a huge fan of Berlin's writings. There have been several posthumous releases and I've enjoyed every one. Unfortunately, I enjoyed this one half as much as some others.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that if you are at all familiar with Berlin, then not much of this info will come as anything new. He discusses his view of pluralism, his admiration for Herder and Vico, his zionism, and several other well known areas of Berlin's thoughts.

The interviewer, in particular, did not ask very illuminating questions and as such, Berlin gives less than illuminating answers. At times (just my perception) it seemed like Berlin himself was less than pleased with a few of the questions. One important one that was not but should have been asked (as it is much on any Berlin-admirer's mind)is how he can reconcile pluralism (the belief that values irreducibly conflict both personally and interpersonally) and relativism (the view that ethical truths and ideals may simply be relative). While pluralism and relativism were talked of, there was not a single word about this question (that more than a few Berlin scholars have troubled over).

I gave the book three stars because it is just too hard to give Berlin any less. To be sure, I did like the book and the interview style makes it very readable and in some senses exciting ("Yeah! I would've asked that one. I wonder what he'll say?") It may suffer from a problem long known to Berlin - his work is too historical for philosophers and too philosophical for historians. For me, it was just right. It may be for you too. If you are fairly new to Berlin this is a good place to start. If you are a veteran (or moderately so) you won't find much new or illuminating here.

Isaiah Berlin was not only a skillful writer covering fascinating topics of the History of Ideas. He was also best at enganging in a stimulating and (given his vast knowledge) educating intellectual conversation. Mr. Jahanbegloo's book is one of the few proofs of this less known aspect of Berlin. Having been out of print for a long while, the paperback edition is out there now, finally. Read how Berlin vividly describes his youth and student years, how he got into the History of Ideas, how Oxford was like after the War, what he thinks of Hannah Arendt, communism and nationalism, etc. If not Berlin's best known books, certainly his most entertaining. This poses a serious problem: you will devour it in a day and wish there was a sequel...