England Books

Robert Graves simply and elegantly recounts his experiences as a young, (initally) idealistic officer in the British Army. A friend of Sigfried Sasson and Wilfred Owens, Graves, in my opinion, is the better writer of the lot. His writing is so lucid, we feel the impulsiveness as he enlists (and receives a comission, as was his due to his place in Edwardian society), and we also gradually come to understand the pointlessness of the carnage and the horrors of the war.

The book is at its most moving, however, as Graves re-tells of his leave back to England - the comparisons to Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front are erie - I was particularly moved by part where Graves remembers the family of a deceased friend he was visiting, the mother pacing the house at all hours of the night ... it really made the human costs of the war feel suddenly very personal.

As other reviewers have mentioned, it is an excellent memoir of the war, and in my opinion, the best first - hand account of the war in the west.

A sad commentary on our society that only the audio versions of this book are available. With the increase of interest in the First World War recently it is to this book that many people should turn for a gripping, factual account of life before, during and after the Great War. Mr Graves documents the pastoral quiet of England in the early part of the twentieth century and abruptly descends to recounting, in cold detail, the dreadful slaughter of the trenches. Through some of the most famous battles in history he survives, physically more or less intact but from the dry words; modest, English, reserved, we glimpse the true weight of the burden that such memories impose on their carriers and understand better the terrible toll that the War levied on all the nations of Europe.

I have been aware of this book with its' familiar title since childhood but I only recently read it. I feared it would be a dull dry-as-dirt retelling of war stories of forgotten dead men. I was pleasantly surprised. The book is not at all dull but
presents Graves war experience in an exciting fast pased way. I had to skim the first part about his childhood. Every biography has a dull childhood section dealing with the subject's juvenile trails and tribulations and conflicts with family members. I find these universally uninteresting.

Graves was 17 when the war started and volunteered for officer candidate school within days. He became a lieutenant in the Royal Welch Guards and eventually was promoted to captain in charge of his own company of infantry by age 21. Unlike
our present system where college is mandatory prerequisite for a young man seeking to become an officer, social standing determined that Graves would become an officer rather than an enlisted man.

Graves participates in several trench warfare battles. Trench warfare as Graves describes is a monotonous and dirty business. Rats are everywhere. Groundwater seeps relentlessly into living and fighting spaces. The men live in warrens of chambers cut into ground branching away from the main trenches. To break up
the monotony and to show that he's not a coward, Graves often volunteers for scout duty. He sneaks into no mans land at night to assess the enemy. On occasion the senior officers order suicidal attacks in which every man of the company must go over the top and charge fortified machine gun positions. Graves
tells of one attack in which his company was ordered to take part. Three companies go before his and each is destroyed with 100% casualties wounded or killed. Graves and his men are crouching poised at the top step of their trench waiting for their turn to attack when the attack is suddenly called off. In a later attack Graves is wounded by shrapnel and left for dead for over 24 hours before receiving medical attention. He recovers fully from these wounds but is assigned to training duty after his recovery.

Later parts of the book deal with Graves' first marriage, his education at Oxford, a failed attempt at shopkeeping and a post war teaching position in Cairo. I found these of less interest than the war scenes. Graves lived to age 90 and went on the write the immensely entertaining I, Claudius and over a hundred other books.

Along with Sigfried Sassoon's "Memoirs of an Infantry Soldier" and Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front", Graves' personal account of poetic inspiration in a background of horror is World War I's best first-hand chronicle ever compiled. The realism and power behind this book are electrical. Graves' coolness in the trenches while composing sonnets and seeking a blissful state of mind is almost disturbing when contrasting it with the demonic state of destruction and death. His unnerving pace and tranquil descriptions seem to underline an innocence lost in years past.

I came upon 'Goodbye to All That' relatively late in life. I had enjoyed his fictional biography of Claudius, but here was Graves, speaking to me of his own youth, across a gap of more than seventy years, with a candour one hardly dares hope for in contemporary autobiography. Yes, he had loved, both men and women, and he dared admit it. He writes, not just with courage but humility, of his harrowing years on the Western front, which saw the wholesale slaughter of most of his generation. Along with fellow poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, he gave the lie to the 'honourable death' for King and Country. Despite their valour, the friends he lost had been slaughtered like cattle led to an abbatoir, and he spares us nothing of their suffering. A truly courageous book in every sense. I can't speak for the audio rendering, but its disappearance from the bookshelf would be a tragic 'Goodbye to All That' indeed.

Ed Morris brings the varied architectural structures along Newport's Cliff Walk to life by providing brief, often amusing insights of the personalities who comprised this exclusive neighborhood. His commentary on the personal "eccentricities" of several members of this neighborhood is especially entertaining. A must buy for anyone who plans to visit Newport's Cliff Walk and desires to know the history of who built and who lived in this Guilded Age oriented neighbornood!

Ed Morris, in this self-published work, offers a detailed 2-mile jaunt around Newport's famed Cliff Walk and surrounding neighborhood. Along the way, he links Newport and some of her better known summer residents to one of American history's most dramatic and interesting eras. Morris introduces his readers to the architectural, industrial, and socially ambitious giants of turn of the century America as he shares tales of their Newport-styled approach to the "strenuous business of leisure." This book is chock-full of anecdotes that share Morris' unique insights with locals and visitors alike.

Ed Morris has done a wonderful job in bringing Newport's history to life! It really is a must have for anyone who is thinking about visiting Newport. The cliff walk is on a beautiful stretch of coastline, and as I was reading the book, I felt as if I was given access to all of the wonderful mansions along the way. Thank you for letting me take a glimpse over the hedges of Newport's elite and seeing how the other half lived!!!

New York High Society beginning in the 1860'sto World WarI built their summer Palaces in Newport, RI along Belleview Avenue along the fabled Cliff Walk.

"A Guide to Newports Cliff Walk" tells about this "Gilded Age" summer resort-- The Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Belmonts-- their fortunes their foibles their architects, their architectural styles.

But this 90 page illustrated guidebook also ties these Newport developments to the contemporaneous social, architectural and even political hapennings of this time in New York City Itself.

It mixes in the exposure of Boss Tweed, the election of Teddy Roosevelt as president, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Memorial Arch the fight to give voting rights to women and the assassination of architect Standford White of the roof garden of the first Madison Square Garden Building which he had built!

With 29 illustrations and a healthy dose of facts the guide book will give any New York tourist a clear insight into the Holy of Holies of High Society during the American Industrial Revolution!

Anyone walking along this gorgeous path has wondered about the families,this book tells about the people and the history in a most interesting manner. A very well written book.

Lenny Mclean was one of a kind.this book started it all.he was the toughest man in britain or anywhere else...a giant of a man in body and soul.he was loyal to his mates and treasured his dear family...oh but if you crossed him heaven help you!this is a must read.the best book of its kind.very sadly lenny lost his battle with cancer and never saw this book go to #1.rip guv'nor.there will never be another man like lenny mclean.

A Walk Through LifeThe Guv'nor is a great autobiography about a tough man who comes from the East end of London and gives you some good insight into the underworld of unlicensed boxing. One of the stories inside is how Lenny Mclean was flown to new york to fight the mafias top man, he beat him in the less than three minutes! if you like your tough men like Kimbo Slice, Mike Tyson and many others this book is for you to read!.

I always wondered who played the role of "John the Baptist" in the movie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The name Lenny Mclean kept popping up in books on British gangsters. He is Lenny McLean. A man who grew up tough under hard circumstances. Showing a talent for fighting, he starts doing enforcer and door man work for the local mobs. Later, he fights for money. Totally fearless, he takes on all comers "I'll even fight King Kong," he states. "And I'll beat the hairy b....ard!" Some of his exploits and boldness had me laughing. Like when a group of tough guys approached him at a bar that he was managing and asked for his job. After soundly beating the lot, he tosses them out of the club. There is another incident where he beats up an opponent before getting into the ring.

There is no bragging or nonsense in this well-written biography. It is an honest, straight-forward story about one hard guy.

Doug Setter, author of Stomach Flattening

one of the best books i have ever read

a must buy

If you ever saw the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels , you probably noticed the mob enforcer character, "Barry the Baptist", who "baptized" his victims in trash-bins filled with water. While reading an article about the movie, a mention was made of the real mobsters and hard-edged sorts that were used in bit parts. One such role was played by Lenny McLean, who portrayed Barry, and was called out as "in real life, the hardest man in England".

As an American fight fan, I'd never heard of Lenny McLean. So I did a bit of Internet research and happened upon his autobiography -- this book -- over at Amazon.co.uk. I bundled it with a few other UK-only purchases (at the time, certain AJ Quinnell books were only available there, too) and received it days later. It was a captivating, compelling read -- the working-class, Cockney nomenclature notwithstanding -- that details McLean's rise from an abused child to the top of England's unlicensed fight game.

An unlicensed fight can take place anywhere: a warehouse, tavern, gym... wherever there's enough room for two willing fighters and a plethora of bettors. The rules? Let's just say there aren't many. Head butts, hair-pulling, elbows, knees, and the like are all part of the game. One might consider UK's unlicensed fights as the logical ancestor to today's UFC or mixed martial arts.

Over time, McLean proved himself the most dangerous man in the fight game. He participated in thousands of these no-holds-barred bouts, and it can be argued he lost only once. And in a rematch of that fight, he handily won. McLean doesn't shy away from describing his experiences on the seamy side of things. He details his role as a real-life mob enforcer willing to do anything -- except kill -- to collect or intimidate. Even his tangles with the law -- including a murder charge for which he was found innocent -- are fully described in colloquial, yet entirely satisfying, prose.

The book's ending is filled with promise for a new life as an actor: McLean appeared in several TV and film roles. But during the filming of LS&2SB, McLean was stricken by a bout with the flu. Subsequent testing showed that he was suffering from advanced lung and brain cancer and he passed away in July 1998, just days before the release of the film. The book is a fascinating testament to a hard man who lived a hard life, but was equally dedicated to his family and destined for great things no matter the odds.

Harry's Son has it all - History, Intrigue, Romance - transporting you back in time and then, forward to a new, what-if present. It's timely for royal-watchers and, for lovers of the English countryside, its a beautiful visit without the long flight!

The book keeps you spellbound and not wanting to stop reading until finished. Provides enough historical facts to almost make it seem non-fiction. A very well-written and fascinating look into the English Royal Family. Very good.

"Harry's Son" combines a first-rate romance-thriller with enough reality to cause me to wonder if this is just a fiction, or is it a preview of things that may come to pass? Will's clever schemes to outwit the sitting monarchy and his passionate romance with the unsuspecting tavern maid, Emmalisa, provide a rollicking, suspenseful Bondesque adventure. On the other hand, the inclusion of actual places, thinly disguised references to members of the current Royal Family, and references to Anthony William Hall's claim to the English throne in 1931 make me wonder whether there is more to this story than just a very good read. Well, H. Robert Humphrey, what do you say?

This book offers a refreshing look at the validity of the English monarchy through a fun, romantic story. The romance of Emmalissa and Will is a delightful undercurrent as Will tries to establish himself as the rightful heir of the throne. Their romance soon takes center stage, as often happens, in his quest for truth. If, in fact, there is any validity to this tale, it puts to question the premise on which the monarchy is founded -- lineage. At a time when the monarchy has become less popular, it would be interesting to know what the royals have to say about Harry's Son. This delightful, light story would make an interesting movie. A movie clothed in romance and intrigue that could question the roots of a nation's monarchy.

I truly enjoyed reading "Harry's Son"! The author does an exceptional job of weaving historical facts and fiction to create, quite seamlessly, a really good novel. I liked the short, fast-paced chapter format, the political ideas expressed, and the very appropriate tie-in with today's monarchy. I highly recommend it!

Much as I love novels, there are times when short, pithy, engaging non-fiction is exactly what I feel like reading. And I am well aware that there are damned few writers in the world who can claim mastery of both forms. Chris Bohjalian is one such writer, and "Idyll Banter" is a wonderful little book that illuminates an artistic paradox: that the act of sharing what is personal and private somehow irises the experience open into deeply touching universality.

I have long admired Bohjalian's work--"Water Witches" and "Midwives" are among my favorite novels--and I recommend "Idyll Banter" unequivocably. His brief, concentrated accounts of births, deaths, weddings, dances, and dinners in a very small town engage the reader in ways not immediately apparent. I've never spent time in Lincoln, Vermont, but I feel that I know these people, somehow. It isn't a rich place, or a perfect one, but it is genuine, and it is beloved, and, in Bohjalian's deft hands, it comes alive: complex, unexpected, deeply rooted in history and advancing winningly into into the 21st century.

The best examples of this sort of book creates a sort of envy, a wistfulness, a longing to belong, however briefly, to the place described. Bohjalian manages to create the feelings that we, too, all of us, might have a welcome share in a fulfilling and happy life in this community. And if not to Lincoln, then encouraging us to look again at our own neighborhood and our own families with newly opened and appreciative eyes. Really well done. Really well-written.

It is a pleasure to read such an upbeat book..I'm ready to pack and move..I want to live the simple life too...

This is a delightful collection of short essays focusing on the community of Lincoln, Vermont, where Bohjalian lives with his family.

Readers from New England will recognize and appreciate the many typically New England elements that Bohjalian observes in his essays: the woes of septic tanks and mud seasons, the black flies, the sometimes contentious town meetings, the uncanny quiet and stillness after the first winter snow. But while Bohjalian writes very specifically about Lincoln, Vermont, introducing us to his neighbors, his church, his country store, his subject is really the larger one of community and what constitutes a good life. Bohjalian does not idealize small-town life; he is well aware of the economic realities of rural America and writes movingly, for example, about the disappearance of Vermont's dairy farms. Nevertheless, his abiding love and affection for his town and its inhabitants make Lincoln, Vermont-and towns like it-seem like the ideal place to live, work, and raise a family.

Although these are occasional pieces, written, Bohjalian notes, as a break from his regular work as a fiction writer, these are tightly crafted, acutely observed essays. There is never an excess word, but at the same time, the pace feels unhurried. Bohjalian manages to strike just the right balance between humor and poignancy. He is especially funny when writing about his limitations as a handyman. Other pieces, especially the essay about the destruction of Lincoln's library by flood and the elegies (for people as well as a cat and a horse), are genuinely moving. Because the pieces are short, interesting, and self-contained, this is the perfect collection for dipping into.

For most people, Chris Bohjalian is best known as a novelist with books such as THE BUFFALO SLODIER and MIDVIVES to his credit. The people of Lincoln, Vermont and the vicinity probably best know Bohjalian as a columnist for THE BURLINGTON FREE PRESS. Now readers outside of Vermont can read and appreciate his reflections in small town life in IDYLL BANTER, a collection of these columns.

Bohjalian is hardly the first person to leave a major city and find a different pace to life in a small town. He is also not the first writer to explore life in a small town. The essays do not include tried and true clichés but rather give an honest and refreshing look at life in general. Most of the essays are upbeat and thought provoking. Bohjalian is involved in each of them, yet the book is not about the author and his family. Rather the author and his family give perspective to Bohjalian's observations. Perhaps the most moving passages in the book can be found when he talks about the Church where he worships and the his reflections on the town cemetery

The book will appeal to a wide variety of readers, but it is my guess that people involved in teaching and public speaking will probably find the book useful. People involved in preaching and ministry will also find in the book excellent sermon and homily starters.

This book had me laughing out loud one moment, and sighing wistfully the next. The characters in it seemed so real -- probably because they are real! Anyway, I was very, very moved by the people in this strange and quirky little town. There are some touching and poignant stories in here -- and then some, like the one about the outhouse races, that are a scream.

Jack Johnson remains perhaps the most controversial athlete in American professional sports. And for that, it has been the constant rewriting of his life by his critics and/or racists.

His autobiography, published in 1927 when he was approaching his 50th birthday, should dispell the myths surrounding the greatest heavyweight champion ever. But more than his ring exploits, Johnson truly believed in a world without labels, a world where a celebrity can truly make a difference in people's lives and a world where dreams can truly be sought after and achieved.

He has pointed comments concerning critics who never gave a balanced account of his life and has a lengthy account on the fix he claims was arranged for him to lose the heavyweight title to Jess Willard. A chapter on physical fitness is timely today and demonstrates how Johnson was setting new standards on working out for his sport and general fitness.

You may have viewed the PBS special and read the recent biography on his life, but nothing beats reading Johnson in his own words. Johnson was truly a champion for honest play inside the ring and - most importantly - in the game of life.

Jack Johnson was the first African American Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World. He became the heavyweight champion in 1908 when African Americans were exploited by Racism in a close-minded White America where hundreds of African Americans were murdered without trial by white mobs of hatred.

With this context of hatred, Jack Johnson, matter of factly talks about his life during this troublesome time in American history as if it were a minor annoyance. In over 250 pages, he discusses his childhood and boxing career. He also speaks of the adventures in his life and anecdotes that all have an excitement, the kind that makes "Carpe Diem" seem like a non-event.

Bull Fighting in Spain; fleeing to Europe from a US government intent on exploiting the marvels of his success with grotesque technicalities of Laws biased against African Americans; storms through the rough ocean off of Mexico; encounters with wild Indian tribes; Russian spies prior the Bolshevik's revolution; somehow managing to win a poker game with 4 Aces when two others with 4 Queens and 4 Kings accused one another of cheating not realizing that they'd both been defeated.

Jack Johnson is the most underrated American Hero. To me, after reading his story, I felt no bitterness in his diction. I read no scars from all the hatred thrusted upon him. On the contrary, I read the voice of a man who probably would have lived to 200 years old had it not been for his tragic auto accident death when he was in his late 60s.

The book has amazing historical insight. He discusses the implication of the "Jazz Age" and how it affects family values. Oddly, today, the Jazz Age was when the family was still in tact. I thought Devil Worshipping Heavy Metal destroyed the family. No wait, wasn't it that rebellious punk rock music? No, wait, wasn't it that selfish "me-generaton" Disco? That evil Rock'n'Roll? No wait.... It's amazing how musical trends imply collapsing humanity. Still Johnson's insight was intellectually pragmatic and insightful.

The book is an amazing read when one considers that Jack Johnson had only a 5th Grade education. Yet we read of a man whose expressive skills excede those with Doctorate Degrees. Notice how I forgot to emphasize that he was a heavyweight boxer? When, fights were often 20, 30 rounds long? All those punches, yet his mind extremely sharp in his autobiography.

He's entertaining with much to say and with deep insight few autobiographies have.

If you find true individualists to be a source of inspiration, Jack Johnson's "In and Out of the Ring" is a must for your collection.

This autobiography is a much-needed corrective to playwright Howard Sackler's artistically over-licensed opus "The Great White Hope", dramatized on stage and in film in the late 1960's. As a self-portrait of a Black man living in a particular time and place, it is not only a record of Mr. Johnson's matchless skill as a boxer, but more importantly, it is a journey into an all-encompassing Black mind, an intellect as well as a striking physical specimen, who broke out a new mold for the image of the athelete as someone capable of possessing as much "brains" as they had "brawn." Johnson was so clearly head and shoulders above his peers and detractors that it is no wonder why he was hated and feared by many whites. When enough people of color have read this book, it is likely that Mr. Johnson may be put under the same sun that shines on the likes of Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson: Black "Renaissance" men whose lives outside of their sport(s) have been obscured because of their insight, outspokeness, and general refusal to be limited by their "race." Don't let "Black History" month slip by without attempting to get onto, and into this priceless autobiography by a true "giant" of a man.

This book is a must read, not only for boxing fans seeking more information about the first black heavyweight champion, but also for students of American history and specifically race relations in the U.S. Johnson's writing is insightful, eloquent and scholarly. He refused to allow the abysmal prejudice of whites to deter him from his goals, and enjoyed his life to the fullest. He maintained his dignity and judgement despite the efforts to break him. His book shows him to be a man of immense intellect, who could have excelled in any field of his choice. His views on the pace of 'modern' life, diet, physical fitness and race relations are as relevant today as they were in 1927. This book was a great surprise to me as I picked it up as a boxing fan, but the scope of Jack Johnson as a man goes far beyond the squared circle. His life was epic and his words timeless. This is a book for all times, by a passionate, inspired and inspiring man.

This autobiography is a much-needed corrective to playwright Howard Sackler's artistically over-licensed opus "The Great White Hope", dramatized on stage and in film in the late 1960's. As a self-portrait of a Black man living in a particular time and place, it is not only a record of Mr. Johnson's matchless skill as a boxer, but more importantly, it is a journey into an all-encompassing Black mind, an intellect as well as a striking physical specimen, who broke out a new mold for the image of the athelete as someone capable of possessing as much "brains" as they had "brawn." Johnson was so clearly head and shoulders above his peers and detractors that it is no wonder why he was hated and feared by many whites. When enough people of color have read this book, it is likely that Mr. Johnson may be put under the same sun that shines on the likes of Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson: Black "Renaissance" men whose lives outside of their sport(s) have been obscured because of their insight, outspokeness, and general refusal to be limited by their "race." Don't let "Black History" month slip by without attempting to get onto, and into this priceless autobiography by a true "giant" of a man.

I won't explain what the book is about, as that was done in the other reviews. My biggest problem with this book is the writing style. I REALLY had a hard time getting through it. This book had so many strange sentence constructions and digressions that when I was less than half-way through it, I lost patience and finished the book by reading the first sentence of each paragraph except when it got more interesting. I was tempted to abandon the book altogether because of the style but finished it because I wanted to find out how it ended, and because I hate wasting money. No-one other reviewer has had the same complaint about the book so maybe it's just me...

Elegantly written, Pears' first novel is the story of a Devon village during the summer of 1984, the hottest and driest in memory.

"It was the summer the world stopped turning on the spiral of history, the summer we spent waiting for the world to begin again, when the sun hung above the village and poured a hot glue that slowed everything down."

Narrator Alison Freemantle looks back from adulthood onto that summer of her ambivalent coming-of-age (freeing Pears from the constraints of a 13-year-old's understanding or, especially, use of language). She contemplates the changes in her body and forms a secretive friendship with the Viscount's shy son. She also comes perilously close to losing her life in impulsive, childish stunts - swimming alone in the deepest section of the quarry pool, striking a match in a dry barn full of hay.

The book opens in September, when summer should be over and school should have begun. But the teachers are on strike and the drought has taken on an implacable force that saps the will of warm blooded creatures. "Gradually, though, objects took on a life of their own and moved without the spirits' help, rising from the surfaces of furniture through empty air that the heat had squeezed even gravity out of."

Recalling that summer in all its torrid detail, Alison wanders into the history of her family - her bookish, now-blind, strong-willed grandmother; her taciturn, hard-working grandfather; her sad-fated, childlike father; solid, enduring mother; her two brothers, one so stolid and silent, the other a quivering mass of nerves and worries, her sister who already seems a guest on the verge of leaving.

Alison draws us into the lives of the other villagers as well - the Rector who wrestles intellectually with his faith in an empty 26-room house, the brooding farmer who'd left home for a dozen years when his father criticized his table manners, the hedge-layer, Martin, "the friendliest man in the village, and the most lonely."

Slowly, at various intervals over the course of Alison's free-ranging story, the details of their histories emerge, until each character stands revealed, perfectly ordinary and wondrously strange, with lives of poignant heroisms, hard-won joys and crushing defeats.

Dialogue is in the vernacular of the Devon countrypeople and the characters are farmers, each with a supplemental trade - slaughterer, glazier. The Freemantles are no different, yet, choosing wives from outside the village, they stand slightly apart, slightly more prosperous, with a bigger house.

Under the singular heat the soil turns to dust, the hay dries to wisps in the fields, the cows' ribs protrude, the hens eggs turn transparent and yolkless. Tension simmers, occasionally erupts. There is death and betrayal. Love affairs begin and end. But there is no single driving event, no plot. That the novel succeeds in grabbing and holding the reader is due to the Alison's strong and lively narrative voice - quite a feat for any novelist, amazing in a novice.
Humorous, sad, magical, "In the Place of Fallen Leaves" is a beautiful novel.

I was blown away by this novel. What a treat! The 13 year-old narrator, Alison, floats around the many members of her family during one of the dryest summers in the history of England, making very perceptive observations about all of them. Because her dad ruined his brain thanks to too much cider, her oldest brother Ian runs the farm, helped by brother Tom and the guidance of Grandfather. Alison becomes friends with a boy her age, Jonathan, and they spend a summer of discovery. A parellel story is the tender romance between the Rector and Maria, the Portuguese lady. The Rector is a sweet, sweet man, far less in control of himself than he thinks.

I loved the humor (the Green is renamed "The Brown", because all the grass dried up). I loved the dialect ("bay" for "boy"). I wish i could have been in Alison's shoes when i was 13.

Not necessarily a book I would have selected myself, but from the first page I was captivated. One of the most magical novels I have read in years. Pears' prose is wonderfully poetic, the story is charming, enigmatic, subtle and devastatingly thought-provoking. A truly stunning masterpiece. If you read but one novel this year, make it this one.

This book tells the story of the hottest summer of the 20th Century from the point of view of a family living in rural Devon. It is quite simply a stunning book that is written so that the characters seem so real and touching. It is sensitive and is almost dreamlike in its narrative. The heat of that summer is conveyed so well that you feel as though you are living it. As one other reviewer said it is "intoxicating and magical" and I would fully agree with that. A superb book.

As a London Underground enthusiast, I just couldn't resist what this book had to offer. The sections on the history of the Underground were very informative and easy to read.
But there's more to the book than that. I thoroughly enjoyed every page. The author's conversational (and often amusing) tone lend a lightness to a subject that could otherwise be very dull. The book runs the gamut of subjects--from the underground and now mostly mysterious Fleet to the high-speed cables of British Telecom. It's all there.
This book is an excellent resource for anyone doing research, and a great read if you're fascinated by things beneath the surface.

Except for Anglophiles and London Buffs most people's knowledge of the London Underground is limited to its use as a bomb shelter during the World War II Blitz. However, the Underground existed for centuries before WWII. Chapter 1 succinctly narrates the Underground during the Blitz, and concludes stating "....to understand the full complexity of what lies under London, we must begin with her subterranean rivers."

Chapter 2 notes "There are over a hundred miles of rivers in London, fed by over a hundred springs and wells....Hidden from view, recalled only in street names...." As early as 1463 a Royal Act ordered "The covering-in of the Walbook's middle and lower reaches" vaulting and paving it over. These rivers were covered over or diverted into tunnels. Many of the rivers underground became more sewers than rivers. The text also notes "There are several lost rivers under London referred to by London's chroniclers but impossible to trace."

The text devotes several chapters to the development of underground sewers, water systems, gas pipes, trains, and later telegraph, telephone and electricity systems. The text gives captivating accounts of several engineering problems that were confronted, how they were resolved together with thumbnail sketches of the engineers and managers involved. . Tunneling under the Thames River was a major venture taking fifteen years to complete. Most intriguing is the account of The London Hydraulic Power Company founded in 1871where "Raw water (untreated) water was pumped at a pressure of 400 pounds per square inch through the miles of pipes running beneath London, and was used to raise and lower cranes, operated lifts.... theatre safety curtains, wagon hoists, even hat hat-blocking presses...." Amazingly the company survived until the mid-1970s.

As telegraph lines were developed underground, the Post Office gained control of the telegraph system and later gained control of the telephone system which they tried to suppress. As electricity developed around a national grid, distribution moved underground and by WWII was operating as a national industry. After the dropping of the first atomic bomb, the British government considered operating from the underground but by the 1960s gave up plans to fighting and surviving a nuclear war from under London. The text notes that new water and electricity tunnels characterized the 1980s and early 1990s with "The biggest capital project under London in the last ten years has been the completion of the London Ring Water Main"

This is a fascinating book and the reader will be amazed by the extensive underground systems under London that are still in use today.

This is a fantastic history of what's underneath the ground of today's London. Blending history, geography, and engineering, this book describes the smothered streams and covered rivers, the water pipes and sewers, and the tunnels under the Thames.

A major section is devoted to the London Underground - the "Tube" - and its history. The Post Office's automated mail-handling railway is briefly touched on as well.

The role of London's underground spaces during wartime is reviewed including the underground factories and the Cabinet War Rooms of the Second World War.

The book is profusely illustrated with a heavy emphasis on contemporary cut-away and explanatory drawings. The pictures make the text come alive.

A really great book for the Anglophile or London-buff.

Having spent some time in London, and being a card-carrying historian, I was already aware of the hidden Fleet River, and the government bunkers from World War II, and (of course) the Underground itself. But I'd never heard of the Little Conduit beside St. Paul's, or the pneumatic postal railway, and the 1,500-mile network of 19th-century sewers (on which the metropolitan area still depends) never entered my mind. And I don't know how safe the pedestrian tunnels under the Thames would be these days, in any case. But the authors have done an amazing job tracing a number of "lost" rivers, and scores of independent water company pipelines, and assorted arsenals and crypts and tramways. And now I have a list for my next visit to London!

It's a great book if you're interested in this sort of thing. From the early beginnings of London's sewers to the modern day tube and postal networks, this book covers it all in a remarkably easy to read fashion. Of particular interest to me were the sections on Londons 'lost' rivers as well as the Underground, both covered in this book. Highly recommended.

Thomas B. Costain is one of the most readable of historians because he firstly draws on an awareness, gained in his years as a novelist, of the necessity on the part of a writer to above all reach out to his reader. An even greater praise might be this: Costain is also one of the most intelligent historians I've ever had the good fortune to read.

This is Costain's second volume in his well-rounded four-book history of England during the rule of its most storied dynasty, the Plantagenets. Here, in just under four-hundred pages, Costain concentrates on the events of the thirteenth-century reign of Henry III, who came to the throne in 1216, and who passed away forty-six years later in the autumn of 1272. Beginning his story during the regency of the great and good William Marshal, "right hand man" of four monarchs, and ending it shortly after Prince Edward's crushing of the baronial revolt led by Simon de Montfort, Costain makes the interesting case that the thirteenth-century was perhaps the grandest and most glorious if not in the whole of English history, then undeniably that in the era of the Plantagenets.

This was the first volume I've read so far in the quartet, but it won't be the last.

Costain gives his usual rousing treatment to a period not widely treated.

Costain's entire four-volume history of the Plantagenets, "The Pageant of England," is the reason I became a historian and history teacher. I had liked history before, but I'd never before read history that read like a novel. He brought these figures to life in a way that lit a fire that still burns brightly. In short, an excellent history, which I re-read every few years--especially The Magnificent Century!

I have read this book so many times I have worn out my copy, in paperback. I would and do recommend the book to anyone anyone who wants to start learning the history of England and the Middle Ages. The Late Mr Costain brought the people to life, which was a rare gift, he also being a novelist knew how to tell a tale, both are great for generating an interest in history. He leaves a great foundation for a student to build a knowledge of history on.

I first read these books 20 years ago, and the opportunity to purchase them in a new edition is the thrill of the year for me. Costain makes the period come alive, with all its heroes, villains, and bystanders. While many of Costain's opinions and conclusions are somewhat dated by more recent research, there is no more delightful reading experience amongst modern histories of the middle ages.

This personal biography is really a biography of biology in the 20th century. any one interested in how scientific and cultural/political ideas interact, and in how scientists have attempted to understand large issues like human culture and history with the help of small evidences, like genes and molecules, will have a ball reading this lovely, well written book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this engaging and fascinating tale of one of the most controversial and thought provoking scientists of the twentieth century. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in science, biography, and history.

I am not a scientist, but very much enjoy biographies. I read this book on a friend's recommendation, and literally could not stop turning the pages. Darlington, the man and the scientist, is truly brought to life on these pages.

I found the story behind Harman's `unlikely scientific hero' consistently engaging. The author does a superb job of seamlessly weaving together the many colorful strands of the social and scientific fabric that served as backdrop to Darlington's life. With Harman as a guide, the reader gains a unique first-hand appreciation for Darlington's days, reliving them as heady times for genetics in particular and for society as a whole.

A must-read for all those in the know. Amongst the best biographies I have come across.

Harman has produced one of the deepest books about biology and evolution I have encountered in over 30 years of more-than- amateur interest in the field. He has been able to pinpoint the true paradoxes of life: foresight versus randomness, the individual versus the group, the past as against the future. And he has done so with a wonderful pen: understated, deeply intelligent, deeply modest. I believe that while lesser intellects may not comprend its true value, really smart people will recognize it as nothing short of a brilliant book.

This biography of Cyril Darlington is of a renowned scientist who enjoyed a long career, first as a microscopist exploring the workings of the chromosome, then as a leader in the fight against Lamarckism, Lysenkoism, Marxism, and suppositions on the equality of men. His early career was built primarily on a book, "Recent Advances in Cytology" which brought together a coherent picture of the chromosomes and their role in evolution. Perhaps a key insight, new with him, was that though the chromosomes contained the hereditary information, they could be understood better by seeing how evolution affected them as well.

Darlington was a confirmed materialist, hard headed scientist, but was positively attracted by controversy, and a rather intolerant, arrogant character to boot. He had many enemies, but was a forceful and prominent public voice, who relished his role. This combination makes for a lively biography, and deserves serious consideration by anyone interested in the history of the development of the "modern synthesis" of evolutionary thought. He was a driving force for much of it.

Darlington was during the 1940's to the 1980's a sort of early version of Richard Dawkins, and was opposed for many years by JBS Haldane, who was a sort of early version of Stephen Jay Gould. Many of the controversies, being rooted in deep-seated views of human nature, have hardly changed. There is the Marxist version of a faith in the malleability of man by wishful thinking, opposed by hard lessons drawn from science, evolutionary theory and the observation that man is a creature acting in accordance with hereditary behaviors which have developed differently in different races. Not for Darlington the notion that race is a "social construct" or that IQ is a "reified" useless hypotheis, the same for all races. He was a sociobiologist well before the term was invented.

The first part of the book that deals with Darlingtons cytogenetics is not the easiest read, dealing as it does with a pretty arcane subject in perhaps a little too much detail, even for the informed reader. The old controversies about such things as parsynapsis vs telosynapsis, are enfolded in a vocabulary that will be intimidating to many readers. I wish, though, that he had covered in a little more detail the methods of cytogenetics, the stains used, the sample preparation methods, and so on. Just how hard was it to prepare an informative experiment? A little more about the influence of Darlington's cytological insights on the conventional modern practice of the art would have been welcome too.

No matter--skip on to the major part of the book where Harman covers the course of the debate over the nature of man and the insights brought by an evolutionary perspective. The meat of the book is here.

In his later years, as for all scientists who live a long time, the main developments in his science began to become too much for him--molecular biology, psychometrics, and a bevy of new techniques were to add much that he could appreciate, but could contribute very little. Exploring the big picture, speculating, theorizing and publicizing became his game, and we are better off for it.

Harman has done a splendid job in this biography--he writes clearly, and has a very good understanding of his subject. It is based on exhaustive research and interviews and will be the definitive work for a long time. The many pictures bring the story to life, and make for a lively read. I enjoyed the book a lot and even re-read much of it for a second time!