United Kingdom Books

Bertie Wooster has been summoned to Brinkley Court, home of his Aunt Dahlia and more importantly, her marvelous cook Anatole. Little did Bertie realize that this seemingly innocent little trip would soon become a quagmire of purloined pearls, coshes, star crossed lovers, deep dark secrets of the butlerine nature and absolute hilarity.

Wodehouse has created a marvelous fantasy land of an England that never really was but should have been. It is populated with stately homes, comfortable flats, raucous nightclubs and populated with the most marvelous eccentric characters who manage to get themselves in the most absurd messes that can only be resolved by the incomparable Jeeves. Even by Wodehouse's standards this is a hysterical story, one that will take the reader out of whatever problems their mundane world may hold and take them to the sunlit country house where butlers glide into rooms to solve all problems.

Wonderful stuff

I'm not gonna say this is the best J&W book (maybe thats Code of the Wooster, dunno) but it is wonderfully entertaining

Spode turns up again, as does (former) Constable Cheesewright

Absolutely delightful stuff. Not a bad place to start with Wodehouse by any means

P.G. Wodehouse is truly a master wit, evidenced in his novels, especially those that feature Jeeves and Wooster. "Bertie Wooster Sees It Through" is his typical hilarious romp through misunderstandings and shady dealings, chock full of literary allusions and laugh-out-loud moments. Wodehouse is a true joy to read, in any society or generation.

As with most of Wodehouse's plots, "Bertie Wooster Sees It Through" hinges upon the best laid plans that go mightily awry. When Bertie Wooster grows a mustache, he suddenly finds himself the object of affection of one Florence Craye, and the object of desired pummeling by her jilted fiance, Stilton Cheesewright. During a visit to his Aunt Dahlia's, matters become even more complicated with his aunt hoping to sell off her weekly magazine to buyers who are more anxious to spot theft than buy the paper. Bertie is called upon to help his aunt out of several fixes while trying to extract himself from Florence's clutches and to prevent bodily harm to his own dear self. And of course, every solution to every problem can be found in the astute mind of Jeeves.

"Bertie Wooster Sees It Through" is a fast-paced, delightful read. Wodehouse has created an almost idyllic England, where the most confusing of misunderstandings is quickly set aright with the slightest amount of discomfort to all parties involved. Bertie Wooster is a straightforward narrator, addressing the reader directly, and admitting his own faults along the way. Without Jeeves, his know-it-all valet, he would be completely at the whims of outrageous fortune with all its slings and arrows, if that is what I mean.

As Evelyn Waugh points out, Wodehouse's world is idyllic. It is not our world. It has a different set of rules, for instance, the fate of its characters are determined by silver cow creamers and French cooks. Call it absurd or trivial, and you would be right. If you are tired of "serious" literature and the "real" world, this is a wonderful place to escape to!

Typical of the Jeeves and Wooster tales, Bertie Wooster Sees It Through begins (and ends) with a trivial yet heated battle between the sage valet and his woolly-headed charge: Bertie's newly acquired mustache. Jeeves can't stand the thing, and Bertie is to be damned if he is going to have his face edited by a hidebound gentleman's gentleman. Of course, the plot thickens, involving unwanted engagements, jealous lovers, police raids, and fake pearl necklaces. This is an extremely funny and charming book. The ending breakfast scene is one of my favorites.

Towards the end of his career, P.G. Wodehouse found himself charmed by the idea of reprising the characters who and plot lines that provided the greatest triumphs in his earlier books. Bertie Wooster Sees It Through is a worthy sequel of that sort.

In the earlier book, you may remember that Stilton Cheesewright and Bertie Wooster had been schoolmates in preparatory school, at Eton and at Oxford. Stilton chose to become a policeman and his career led him to become very serious and strict in his outlook, so that Bertie thinks of him as "that blighter Stilton." Love transformed his life when he fell for the writer, Florence Craye. But Florence is also apt to respond well to Bertie, and Stilton takes that personally. When we last saw them, Florence and Stilton were engaged.

In this story, Bertie's Aunt Dahlia enlists him to come to her country home, Brinkley Court, to help her entertain a family by the name of Trotter. The assignment seems to be off to a rocky start, however, when the Trotters' stepson, Percy Gorringe, calls Bertie to hit him up for 1,000 pounds. That seems like too much entertaining and Bertie declines.

In the meantime, Bertie has started growing a mustache and Jeeves doesn't approve. In fact, no one else does either . . . except Florence Craye. That enrages an already touchy Stilton, who fears that Bertie is trying to steal Florence. Soon, Stilton is also sporting the hairy stuff on his upper lip. To make matters worse, Stilton has a large stake on Bertie in the Drones Club dart championship and decides that Bertie should starting keeping regular hours and keep off the sauce. And that's just why Bertie doesn't want to have anything to do with Florence, she's not only brainy . . . she also likes to improve her men. And Bertie likes himself just the way he is.

Stilton is also the jealous type and quickly turns suspicious when Bertie is picked up after a raid on a late-night bistro where Bertie had taken Florence at her request to do some research on local color.

But Aunt Dahlia has an even more serious problem. She has pawned her new necklace to buy the serial rights to a new story, and her husband, Uncle Tom, is about to have it appraised. She has been hiding the fact by wearing cultured pearls instead, but is about to be caught. Naturally, she decides to have Bertie steal the cultured pearls. And equally naturally, that proves to be more difficult than anyone can imagine and with unexpected consequences. And so the country farce begins!

Bertie Wooster Sees It Through has that nice combination of serious pending threats, irrational fears and hopes, and muddle-headedness that makes for such good social comedy. Like all of the best P.G. Wodehouse books, the language sparkles with original similes, metaphors and allusions.

Jolly good show!

The Bellerophon -- or Billy Ruffian to Jack Tar, who wasn't familiar with Greek mythology -- is, or at least used to be, a familiar ship to English schoolchildren, because it was the ship that collected Napoleon on his final failure and used to be regularly illustrated in textbooks.

In David Cordingly's deft and straightforward biography, the Billy Ruffian turns out to have had an unusually interesting career, with even some echoes still reverberating in the 21st century.

Cordingly does not attempt to retell the history of the Napoleonic wars, or even just the naval wars, through the experiences of the ship, but he does nevertheless give a concise review of the naval strategy and most of the important battles. Billy Ruffian took a brave part in three of the most important -- the Glorious First of June, the Nile and Trafalgar.

Billy Ruffian was badly knocked about in all three, actually being driven from the field at the Nile, although only after giving a stout fight to a much bigger French ship.

Although slugfests in the Age of Sail could be very bloody, not many men died in the Bellerophon's fights: four at the First of June, 49 at the Nile, 27 at Trafalgar. Compared with the butcher's bills presented at places like Waterloo and Borodino, seapower was a cheap way of dealing with tyrants.

The heroes of the Billy Ruffian also were true Britons. Although a myth has grown up that European ships' crews were cosmopolitan, one captain of Bellerophon wrote down a unique list of the origins of all his sailors. (Why he did this odd thing is unknown.) Fully half were English and most of the rest Irish, Scots and Welsh. Many foreign places were represented in the crew, but only a small proportion were foreigners.

After the war, Bellerophon was converted into a floating prison, and Cordingly's description of this episode is as interesting as all the war stories.

The part of Billy Ruffian's history that still resonates concerns what to do about Napoleon. The situation was very similar to that faced by the American administration today, and the outcome was similar, too.

Napoleon's status was uncertain. At times he wanted to be considered a prisoner-of-war, at other times not. The British Cabinet was convinced that, whatever his legal status, he had to be put away. In this, they were undoubtedly correct.

The interference of lawyers in matters that were beyond the scope of law was then, as now, a danger to innocent lives, and while Bellerophon never ran from an armed enemy, she did flee in the night from a lawyer, who was thought to be carrying a writ of habeas corpus. (In fact, it was only a subpoena in a civil suit.)

In the end, Napoleon went to St. Helena, the Guantanamo Bay of 1815.

"The Billy Ruffian" is a satisfying ship biography, with one exception. It is lavishly illustrated, as might be expected from Cordingly, formerly Keeper of Pictures at the National Maritime Museum. Unfortunately, in the paperback edition the reproductions are too small to be examined. The hardcover edition (which I have not seen) is probably, therefore, the better bargain.

This is an absolutley fabulous book and read, for both the knowledgeable reader of the 19th century Royal Navy or the novice regarding that era. There is naval history, social commentary and history, as well as of adventure and seamanship.

A great book to read, keep and read again.

I enjoyed this biography of a 74-gun ship of the line that was everywhere during the Napoleonic wars. He gives interesting information on shipbuilding, life at sea, the Cadiz and Brest blockades, the battles (Glorious First of June, Nile and Trafalgar), the Admiralty and Navy Board, press gangs, prison hulks, Lord Nelson, etc.

The problem is his very sympathetic treatment of Napoleon. It's one thing to say he was a brilliant battlefield commander. But it's inexcusable to fail to add that he was a ruthless tyrant who drenched Europe in blood and kept it at war for over 20 years. After Waterloo, Napoleon surrendered to the Bellerophon and Cordingly seems to agree that the British were somehow hardhearted in exiling him to St. Helena, rather than giving him what he wanted--a nice cottage in the English countryside. What he deserved was a rope at the nearest yardarm.

Veteran scribe of the seas David Cordingly has wrought a spellbinding biography of HMS Bellerophon, "The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the downfall of Napoleon: The Biography of a Ship of the Line, 1782-1836", one of the most important warships in Great Britain's Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. "Billy Ruffian", as she was know affectionately by her sailors and much of the fleet, played a pivotal role at three of the most important battles during these wars with Revolutionary France and Napoleon's French Empire; The Glorious First of June, the Battle of the Nile, and Trafalgar. At the Glorious First of June HMS Bellerophon fought decisively against a French fleet nearly twice the size of the British fleet commanded by the elderly Admiral Lord Howe, the Royal Navy's most distinguished fleet commander at the onset of the French Revolutionary wars. At the Battle of the Nile, HMS Bellerophon fought a fierce duel with the larger, more powerful French ship-of-the-line L'Orient, the flagship of the French fleet, only to be rendered a drifting hulk with the loss of much of its crew killed or wounded, a short time before L'Orient blew up and sank; an explosion which was heard twenty miles away. And then, of course, was Bellerophon's heroic struggle against French and Spanish warships at Trafalgar, made most memorable by the death of her captain during the battle's climax. Yet the most important episode in her celebrated career occurred at the close of the Napoleonic wars, as the warship which carried Napoleon Bonaparte back to England at the end of his "Hundred Days", mere weeks after his defeat at Waterloo by an Allied army commanded by the British general Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Tragically, Bellerophon's distinguished career as a Royal Navy ship-of-the-line would end shortly thereafter, with the last two decades of her life spent as a prison hulk. Coordingly is a captivating, mesmerizing writer who has created a splendid biography of this important, yet forgotten, warship. Fans of naval warfare and of course, C. S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian, will find this memorable book well worth reading.

Instead of the usual biography of a famous captain or battle, Mr. Cordingly treats us to the life of a famous ship of the line - Bellerophon.
From a protracted birth in the slips of the Medway, through the highs and lows of the American and European wars, to an ignominious return to her birthplace, we read the history of the Georgian Navy as written by her commanders, officers and crew,
The author's painstaking research of the Admiralty records and Naval chronicles breathes life into what could have been a simple catalog of events and postings ... first-hand accounts, log-books and extracts from letters flesh out the bare bones of ports and locations, while the background of contemporary historical events puts Bellerophon's role into full perspective - this is the real stuff that Forester and O'Brian drew on to create their adventures.
Why Bellerophon? There are plenty of other famous ships, but none had the fortune to engineer the collection and safe conduct of the most famous and wanted man in the world from his enemies in France. This was to be the high point of a long and distinguished career, as immediately afterwards she was decommissioned and spent her last 21 years as a prison hulk.
An informative and absorbing read.

"There was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. From Ceylon to the Americas, England ruled, bringing her lifestyle to Crown colonies around the globe.

Being stationed in India or Egypt, however, was no excuse to relax the standards of living to which British Army officers were accustomed. Living 'under canvas' did not mean roughing it. Instead, they brought their homes with them, packing cunningly constructed, portable furniture suitable for any elegant tented dinner.

Today, campaign furniture's elegance and simplicity have made it a must-have item for decorators and antique lovers. Nicholas Brawer's new book British Campaign Furniture: Elegance Under Canvas (Abrams) provides a fascinating history and a guide to collapsible decor."

I just had to have this book. The subject matter was unusual and touched on the social aspects of camp life in the British Army.
The pictures are fabulous.

This is an excellent review of British Campain Furniture.

Each piece is photographed in colour and/or Black & White, discussed and given brief measurements. The "disembled" photos are of great use to anyone who wishes to reconstruct any of the items from the book, as well as satisfying the just plain curious. Some of the gadgets are fantastic.

Unfortunately, like most books of this type, the author is limited by the pieces that he can access within a year or two. I know there were 'Campaign' folding rocking chairs, and I an certain that there are other examples of furniture, with other systems of assembly ( Louis Vouton made a folding-bed-in-a-trunk for the Brazza Expedition in Africa in the late 1800's which survives - there is a single picture in 'Treasure Chests').

I can only hope that the author will be encouraged to keep looking & photographing, and that we may see a second volume in years to come.

Sorry Amazon, you just don't have enough stars........

"If you were a British officer during the 18th or 19th century, your home had the look of a proper English residence, with desks, chairs, sofas, chests and fancy bedroom suites--even if you lived in a tent.

'The only real difference between fine household furniture and its campaign counterpart was that the latter could be quickly folded up, packed away in boxes, transported, and--without the use of nails, tacks or tools--reassembled...,' Nicholas A. Brawer writes in British Campaign Furniture.

How the furniture can be taken apart and stored is fascinating. One dining table and set of four padded chairs and a chaise lounge can be broken down into pieces that fit into two small crates.

There are pictures of the furnishings set up and stored. Often officers lived better overseas than at home. One cartoon depicts a British officer and his wife dining in their home overseas, with a half-dozen servants waiting on them, and then dining at home after retirement, with only one housekeeper.

Nearly half the book is a portfolio of the furnishings and detailed descriptions of manufacturers and furniture makers."

This book is a must have for anyone interested in English antiques, social, military, or naval history. I have never seen another book on this subject and it is filled with very interesting "before" and "after" photographs of dozens and dozens of pieces of campaign furniture "assembled" and "disassembled." I imagine this book has been a great hit in London.

Brownlow's massive biography does a very good job of painting a comprehensive picture of the great Lean--arrogant, demanding, selfish, and absolutely brilliant first as an editor and then as a director. Lean had no patience for what did not forward the story, and his movies were the better for it. One gets the impression, however, that the same was true for individuals in his life who did not help him achieve his own goals.

A bit clunky at times in regards to readability, this is still a first rate book. The sections on Brief Encounter, the Dickens' films of the 40s, and Lawrence are excellent.

This extraordinary biography by Kevin Brownlow, reflects the life and inspiration of one of the great artist in movie screen history.
Page by page, we can take a look along the David Lean?s mind and the way he was inspired by the subjects and the way a big project became alive.
From the black and white to the beautiful color, from the photography created by Frederic (Freddie)Young to his partnership with Maurice Jarr? and the insistence from Lean to
compose the exact music for Doctor Zhivago.
Every important film, such Zhivago, The bridge on the river Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, were written through many chapters and the conception of those films as unique, the casting and the making of those titles are unforgettable.
Also, we have David Lean as a human being, with his failures
as father and husband, but the intimacy of his life is only
upgrade by his conception of his films.
Every moment in his films was special.
He directed every dialogue and moment as unique and all those
were the equivalent of the best.
This great book written by Brownlow is one of the best biographies ever written.
The heart and soul are alive along the pages and there is no moment when the book becomes slow or uninterested.
The same proportion we have in David Lean movies.

I adore this book. I have been reading it as of late, and I love the book (and David Lean) even more. I have always detested biographies of filmmakers that are far too academic in their tone; that professorial tone where they analyze the films ad nauseum, and are constantly talking about symbolism and other completely useless things. This book spares us of that. It is meticulously researched, with great antedotes and quotes from the master himself. It talks about Lean's childhood, and you realise what Lean had to overcome to become one of the greatest filmmakers ever. It's a shame this massive book is out of print. Like a reviewer said earlier, we're constantly given fluff pieces of talentless whores like Spears, Lohan, etc., but here is a real artist whose films still inspire people today. Thank you, Kevin, for writing such a great book, and, of course, to David Lean himself...

What a pity it is when "biographies" of no-talent flashes-in-the-pan like Madonna, Ashley Simpson, Brittney Spears, ad naseum, are ubiquitous, but Kevin Brownlow's fascinating and throughly-researched biography of a true genius is out of print. What does this say about our culture's priorities? Not much. Oh well . . . fortunately a few copies of this marvelous book survive. If you're interested in great movies ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago," "Summertime," "Great Expectation," etc.), great stars (O'Toole, Sharif, Katherine Hepburn, William Holden, Robert Mitchum, and a host of other great stars -- AND great actors), or, perhaps, one of the greatest film directors of the twentieth (and probably any other) century, do whatever you have to do, but grab up a copy of "David Lean: A Biography" as quickly as you can before the remaining copies disappear altogether.

A simply marvellous biography of a cinema titan. It's the product of many conversations between Lean and the author, a great film historian and no mean director himself, having made the gorgeous Silent Era documentary "Hollywood" (is that ever coming out on DVD?!). For this reason the tone is very chatty, with so much quotage from Lean himself that it's nearly an autobiography; and Brownlow's knowlege of real-world production lets him know just what questions to ask. It rather reminded me of "Hitchcock/Truffaut", another filmmaker-to-filmmaker conversation. Mind you Truffaut didn't bother quite so much with Hitchcock's love affairs, but one can always skim. It looks intimidatingly massive but this is more because of the lavish illustrations than excessive wordiness. Great read, inspiring and full of useful tidbits.

"No man travelleth by the waie without his sword or somesuch weapon except the minister who commonly weareth none at all unless it is a dagger or a hanger at his side." - Aylward [English Master of Arms]

Terry Brown's `English Martial Arts' is an outstanding book about a little known topic. Beginning with an excellent overview of the background of English Martial Arts, we are then introduced to the weapons of the English man at arms:

>>Broadsword
>>Quarterstaff
>>Sword & Dagger
>>Sword & Dagger vs. Sword & Buckler
>>The Bill
>>Bear-Fist Fighting
>>Stances

Terry Brown then introduces us to the `Principles of True Fighting' and demonstrates the techniques of the weapons listed herein. A series of clear photographs demonstrates the effective application of techniques, allowing the student to develop sufficient basic skill to seek entry to `The Company of Maieters' [http://www.maisters.demon.co.uk/] as a Free Scholler.

Finally, English Martial Arts closes with "Words of Wisdom" from the English Masters of Defense such as Silver, Godfrey and Lonnergan.

For any Scholler of the Arts of Defense, English Martial Arts is a `must have' resource.

This book gives an introduction and brief history of English Schooles of Defense. The history was a fun read. The practical sections, which contain reconstructions of various CQC techniques as the records indicate they were taught, are presented in a clear pictorial format which makes them easy to learn and analyze. If you are interested in historical combat, this is a book you will reference again and again.

I find 'English Martial Arts' to be very clear and sharp in its accuracy, presentation & applications. Also it is very well balanced in strategy and tactics. The photography and explanations are superb. With some imagination and practice, much of the book can be applied via cane or fist, as well as the great traditional usage. Yet this excellent book is quite streamlined. 'Simplicity is efficiency's best friend' ---

How wrong could I be. Having practised re-enactment martial arts for 24 years I thought I'd seen it all... you live and learn.

The techniques described in the book are brutal to say the least. The knee stamp when the opponent is down is my favorite.

There are chapters divided into historical references for each weapon(including fists). Adding to this there are clear photographs of the strikes and blocks.

If you are re-enacting later european medieval history this is the book for you.

I read through the book and I must say that it is pretty good. I've read the original manuscripts from which this book drew its techniques and the stuff for the long and short weapons (like the broadsword, dagger, pole-arms, ect.) are very precise and accurate.
His first few chapters are an overveiw of some of the historical roots of English Martial Arts. Not bad.

*edit* I had to edit this reveiw because previously I mentioned that there was no evidence for the blocks in the pugilism described in this book. Mr. Terry Brown sent me solid evidence that contested my statements, therefore I must change them. It seems that the boxing of the older world is indeed a bit different from the boxing of the modern world. I would change the review to five stars but it wouldn't let me do so.

My advise is this, if you want to train in an all european martial art I suggest training in western boxing, catch wrestling, and take the general concepts of what is demonstrated with the long and short weapons and apply them to a machette, bayonette, and military knife. Don't dress up in anachronistic clothing either....the key is to train for battle not play dress up. Rather, one should wear either BDU's, street cloths, or a loose-fitting "uniform" which consists of sweatpants and a t-shirt which has the name/symbol of your school on it.

The best kind of school that you can find will be rooted in Tradition but open to Innovation. This way you won't "re-invent the wheel" but at the same time you won't be stuck on the outmoded and anachronistic. I call this Renovation.

Overall the book isn't bad and its a good way to connect with your English roots. Learn from the past, be willing to innovate, and act in the now. This is the best advise that I can give.

Also, check out www.amerross.com . ROSS Concepts have some good stuff (like clubbells and biomechanical exercises) that can transfer into ANY martial art and are invaluable to the western martial artist.

I have been a professor at Hiroshima Shudo University for more than 17 years teaching American law and politics, primarily to Japanese students but also to foreigners in Japan. Over the years, I have read and discussed much of the history written about WWII and Japan. I do not know Hadley personally but I wish I did. His book is one of the most well-balanced and well-researched books I have ever read about the war in Japan. If I had a Japanese translation of Hadley's book, I would teach the book in my seminar course.

I agree with much of what has been said by other reviewers, except to add I think this book will appeal more broadly than the author has anticipated. It is in essence a very enjoyable and well paced read. And what a great movie it would make!

I had the privilege of sitting in a coffee shop with Dr. Hadley and receiving a signed copy... He is a fantastic individual and an inspiration.

The story of the Jordan crew, the fate of the men and the feelings and reactions from the villagers themselves is portrayed just as it was, no war heroes, no glories of war, but instead, the horror of what it was like on both sides. In the book, one of the crew specifically tells Hadley 'don't portray us as heroes'. There are no heroes in this book, only casualties of human experience in times of intense fear and suffering. Those who follow orders and those who suffer from following out those orders - on both sides, are caught afterwards with the confusion of the people they became or were capable of becoming. Grandmothers with spears, given the chance to take revenge on their enemy... an account of what war really is for both sides.
All should read this book. To reflect, to take a stand against war and the people it creates.

Prof. Greg Hadley has thoroughly researched the story of one particular B-29 crew; "the Jordan crew", whose lives were irretrievably changed when they were shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Japan on the night of 19/20 July 1945.

The story of these men runs as a single thread through the complex tapestry of the USAAF bombing campaign against Japan. This book includes an informative historical treatment of this campaign and the lives of the people it affected.

After setting the historical scene, the book describes how the Jordan crew, hailing from diverse backgrounds, were welded together into a fighting unit. They flew their first combat mission in early February 1945, participating in the campaign of high-level B-29 precision raids against industrial targets. These raids were frequently impeded by strong winds and obscured targets, and desperate Japanese defence. The Jordan crew later helped enact the dramatic US change of tactics to low-level fire raids on urban areas by night. They watched from above as the largest Japanese cities blazed, one after another.

As the Jordan crew's battle-experience increased, the reader gets an alarming impression of the toll that this relentless campaigning imposed on their individual performances and cohesion as a crew. The danger of flying the Air Force's most technically ambitious aircraft in the hostile skies above Japan is brought home very well.

The Jordan crew were finally shot down during a mission to lay mines in the waters off the Japanese west coast. (The book has many interesting details about USAAF mining campaign, which made an enormous but largely unsung contribution to crippling the Japanese war economy.)

The loss of their B-29 probably hinged on one seemingly trivial decision, made as they climbed away from their minelaying run that night. After deviating from the official mission flight plan (possibly to steer a faster "direct" route towards home) they were hit over the city of Niigata by a crack Japanese anti-aircraft unit, recently transferred there from Tokyo after that city had been virtually destroyed.

The Jordan crew were the only B-29 crew to be shot down over Niigata during the war. (Ironically, Niigata had been "quarantined" to remain in a pristine condition as one of the US's potential A-bomb targets! However, the A-Bombs were dropped elsewhere, and Niigata became one of the few large Japanese cities to survive the war without being razed.)

Hadley's persistent detective work has uncovered the true story behind the murder of two of the parachuted crew-members by Japanese local-defence militias (the "Field of Spears" of the book's title). These crimes were covered-up at the end of the war, when an impressive grave was hurriedly constructed for the "crash victims". US grave-recovery personnel never had reason to believe that there had been an atrocity. (Tragically, at least one of the Jordan crew also decided to go down with their ship, rather then bale out and take their chances as prisoners of the Japanese.)

The photographic coverage of events on the ground is one of the strengths of this book. One poignant time-lapse photo really brings home the tragedy of war. It shows the blazing bomber descending rapidly across the night sky while Japanese children wearing "anti-fire" hoods look on in fascination. Hadley has even located photos of the actual capture of the surviving crewmembers. Other startling photos illustrate the high degree of regimentation and propaganda-incitement of the civilians; very reminiscent of modern-day North Korea. These civilian militias were waiting on the ground in a state of fear and anger as the "parachutists" drifted down from above. (Paradoxically, some of the Jordan crew had their lives saved through the intervention of regular Japanese Army soldiers calming down the frenzied civilians.)

Thereafter, in the hands of the feared Japanese military police, the men suffered continuously harsh treatment - intended as retribution for the enormous damage which was being inflicted by the B-29s all over Japan. The captured bomber crews were classified by the vengeful Japanese essentially as war criminals. They received even worse treatment than the pitiful conditions applying to other POWs of the Japanese Empire. The reader can only be appalled at their plight, as described many years later by the still-affected surviving crewmembers.

The atomic "secret" provides another fascinating aspect of this book. The crewmen had been briefed that in the event of capture, they should not attempt to "hold back" information from the Japanese. - It was well understood that silence could easily prove fatal, so alarming the enemy with true tales of overwhelming American technical superiority was probably the best course anyway.

However, the Jordan crew knew something special. At their island base on Tinian, their B-29 had been parked beside the 509th Composite Group - the Atomic bombers! The men in the Jordan crew had heard members of this elite unit talking about "winning the war with one plane"...

As Hadley explains, the Japanese were keen for information on the atomic threat...

It is unlikely that the Jordan crew could have "honestly" related any more than a few general details about the Bomb to their interrogators, but Hadley brings the story to a climax by presenting several intriguing facts about Japanese fore-knowledge of these epochal weapons.

Then suddenly, the war was over, and the B-29s began dropping Prisoner-of-War relief supplies instead of bombs. The liberation of the POWs ended the nightmare of their captivity, but it is clear that nothing could calm their memories in the decades that followed.

However, Hadley's thorough exposition of the tale does offer later generations the chance to understand the fierce emotions, stresses and terrors of those times, and to gain a new appreciation of those who survived.

"Field of Spears" refers to the field in which rural Japanese lynched US fliers of a downed B-29 bomber during World War II. That airmen who bailed out over Japan were likely to meet such a fate was understood by US commanders, who advised air crew to surrender to the Japanese military as their safest option. As the possibility of an Allied invasion of Japan loomed in 1945, Japanese civilians -- including housewives working in weapons factories -- armed themselves with bamboo spears and farmers also had at their disposal a range of sharp tilling instruments.

The Jordan crew, whose B-29 was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Niigata in July 1945 after dropping mines into Niigata Port, was made up of twelve people, of whom four didn't survive the crash or its aftermath. Professor Gregory Hadley, in "Field of Spears - The Last Mission of the Jordan Crew," diligently and faithfully describes and analyzes the events surrounding the crash.

Hadley also provides valuable accounts of conditions in Japan that led to the prosecution of a disastrous war, of US Gen. Curtis LeMay's planning of the B-29 firebombing of major Japanese cities, and of the Allied POW experience, including torture. He brings matters to life and to the present by relaying the mood of those of his students who would fight North Korea in the name of the emperor. There are also several fascinating historical asides, such as on the misinformation that Tokyo was a nuclear-bomb target.

I gained the feeling of what it would actually have been like to fly in a perilously complex and overworked B-29 and felt I was glimpsing the personal and professional lives of the crew, before and after their last run.

Those who seek balanced perspective and reasoned probability in history can look to "Field of Spears" with confidence and be rewarded. They will gain cultural insights lamentably absent in earlier monographic works. Hadley raises the research bar in his field and others will have to try that much harder to clear it. He literally dug up some of his facts. This is ever important as many still muddy the historical waters of the Pacific War, deliberately -- old soldiers online; some of those on the political left and some on the right -- or through secondhand scholarship.

Japanese should admit to the lynching. They should say, "This is how we felt, and this is what we did." More than a half century after the event, there's no need for them to prevaricate or obfuscate. Hadley's book brought to mind Yoshihiro Hattori, the Japanese high school student who was fatally shot on Oct. 17, 1992 by the owner of a house he had mistaken for the address of a Halloween party in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Hattori wasn't even on a bombing run. Jurors sympathized with the shooter. But moral relativism, as tempting as it is to ponder, isn't helpful. War is a human condition which, like extreme hunger, dehumanizes. We can't do better than to say what we did, in the hope that our children will learn from both positive and negative example.

Several photos richly illustrate the book and the cover photo of a captured, blindfolded flier held by what appear to be farmers and police is brilliantly atmospheric.

[...].

I K.D TOWNSEND
WANT TO THANK EVERYONE WHO HAS BOUGHT MY BOOK.
I WANT YOU TO KNOW WHY I HAVEN'T WRITTEN A BOOK IN AWHILE.
THE GOVERMENT HAS SEIZED MY BOOKS AND HAVE USED THEM AGAINST ME.
I HAVENT SINCE THEN FELT THE DESIRE TOO WRITE FOR A LONG TIME.
I NOW HAVE BROKEN DOWN MY WALL OF SILENCE. AND HAVE STARTED ON MY NEXT BOOK ABOUT THE FEDERAL GOVERMENT AND MYSELF.
I HOPE WHEN THE BOOK COMES OUT YOU WILL READ IT.
IN THE MEAN TIME ENJOY MY OTHER BOOKS.
ONCE AGAIN
THANK-YOU

K.D TOWNSEND
AUTHOR

M.S Townsend, portrays the hurts of childhood from men, into her adulthood. She gives us all strenth to fight for a better world.
I would highley recomend this book to everyone to read.

M.S Townsend book touched our lives with her own life of sufferning. By showning the world that all of us go threw tragedy and survive. and if were lucky with a smile on our faces.
I enjoyed reading this book. and would recomend it too a friend.

I enjoyed this book very much, in life's everyday struggles its kind of comforting to know that your not alone and that other people go threw hardships like you. The author has brought this out so well in her book .I would recomend this book to anyone.

Mary

This author has style and grace, her book touches the human soul and makes us all look within too places we wouldnt want to travel.

Certainly the warmest and friendliest guidebook out there, this one also happens to be the best. Although he may or may not have written the entire book, it sure feels like Rick Steves is there page after page talking to you one on one, telling you all about the places to go in and around London. Leaving little out, covering things you'd never think of on your own, this is a book to buy and pack and take with you. Well worth the price!

Went to London. I wasn't able to see everything, but this helps get you on your way. Going back soon.

Had the opportunity to visit london for a short stay. Book was an imense help on finding a hotel ways to move around.

This book was excellent. I found it very helpful in finding places and in getting background information about the places I wanted to see. I would recommend this book as one that you should purchase when Planning a trip.

I am a big fan of Rick Steve's guidebooks so understand my bias. We used this 2006 version in Dec 2006 to find lodging, a few restaurants and many of the walking tours. All information was still up to date and excellent. However, please note that the 2007 version should come out in Jan 2007 or close to that time and will be even more current. Great tips and easy to read information on days and times that sights are open or open late is essential and very helpful in planning the trip.

The book arrived quickly and in good condition. I would purchase from this seller again.

I have been reading this book as part of a research project. The essence of the book is a play by play of the development of the LOTR through multiple drafts. If someone is looking for a continuation of the entertaining series, I would suggest first The Silmarillion, then Lost Tales, Lays of Beleriand, or Unfinished Tales. For the serious Tolkien fan who wants to understand the origins, the book does a good job of organizing the multiple drafts and highlighting significant shifts in Tolkien's thought.

For those of us who enjoy taking Tolkien's vision and expanding upon it, this book and the "History of Middle Earth" series is a must as a reference source.

This book and the whole series expounds on Tolkien's vision and desire for his characters. Often nuggets of data not found in the primary books (LotR, The Hobbitt, etc.) can be uncovered within the HoME.

`Sauron Defeated' is the last of a four volume series (`The History of the Lord of the Rings') within a series, (volume IX of `The History of Middle Earth') edited by Christopher Tolkien, from the unpublished writings of his father, J. R. R. Tolkien, most famous as the author of `The Hobbit' and `The Lord of the Rings' (LotR).

The most important thing to realize about this book is that only about a third of its pages deal with `The History of The Lord of the Rings'. The remaining two-thirds deals with a subject which harks back to `The Lost Road' and the wager taken up between the two `Inklings' (an Oxford literary and social society), Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

The LotR story in this book covers the last few days of Sam and Frodo in Mordor, as they painfully make their way to the Cracks of Doom on Orodruin in order to finally destroy the `One Ring'. This takes a very few pages, after which we are left with the notes on the long and slow road home, to one of to me the most interesting episodes in the whole LotR, `The Scouring of the Shire'. I can easily understand why Peter Jackson left this episode and the events involving Tom Bombadil from his films (ten hours is surely long enough for even a cinematic event of these proportions), but they still remain my favorite events.

The middle third of the book is taken up with `The Notion Club Papers', which appears to be a fictional account of the goings-on at the real live `Inkling' meetings at Oxford. There is a lot of playful parodying here, especially on some of C. S. Lewis' works. These drafts also use a conceit most famously used by Robert Graves in his `I, Claudius' and `Claudius The God' novels, where it is made out that these papers were discovered among discarded papers in the year 2012 (about 60 years after they were actually written.) The final third of this volume is filled with additional versions of Tolkien's Atlantis myth, entitled `The Drowning of Anadune', the events which lead the Numenorean ancestors to flee to Middle Earth and become the Dunedain.

The primary relevance of these materials to LotR lie in the fact that Tolkien seems to have put aside work on LotR to do these things, until his erstwhile publisher, Stanley Unwin gently prodded him into returning to completing LotR.

The LotR fanatic, these `The Notion Club Papers' have much less interest than LotR notes or even the Numenor myths, but there they are, certainly useful for any study of the times and doings of Oxford during the real war raging just on the other side of the channel.

Pending my review of the last three books of `The History of Middle Earth', I suspect these four are easily the most interesting to fans of Tolkien's published works.

So maybe you didn't fly through the last 3 books like the first five, but get ready to put your seatbelt on for this ride. The start of this book finished off the evolution of the lord, and also gives a pretty cool story where sam is answering his kids questions of what happened in the war of the ring.

The second part is back to the stuff that I love. I have reread the wierd inklings fictiot piece a number odf times, and it gets more interesting every time. My first time reading it, it was very hard for me to understand.

The third part of the book is certainly one of the coolest things that I have ever read. It is a totally superior version to the silmarillion of the fall of numenor. Anybody looking to go into the mind of sauron a little deeper, this is a MUST BUY for you!!!!!!!!!!

The last part of this book will go over most peoples heads(at least I hope so, cause it went way over mine.), it is a GREAT writing about the language of Adunic? I don't really speak any of tolkien's languages, but still like to read his essay-type papers on his languages. Though not as interesting as the lost tales and stuff like that, I still found all of them fun to read, and this one on the Adunic language I thought was the best out of them all.

OVERALL ONE HELL OF AN ADDITION TO THE HISTORY OF MIDDLE EARTH SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As my command of the English language once again fails me in regards to communicating how good the author is let me just say that just as Black Ajax convinced us all that GMF missed his calling as a sports writer and Quartered Safe Out Here convinced us he should have been a lecturer talking about his experiences in Burma this current book also tells us something.

GMF again missed his calling in addition to being an excellent writer of fiction as is evidenced by the Flashman series "The Steel Bonnets" shows that GMF had the makings of a serious historian.

His tragic although not entirely unexpected death robbed us of one of the great authors of the 20th century.

An excellent and exhaustive narrative of what must be one of the most turbulent periods in the history of the British Isles.

Frasier is quite a writer - best in others of his works where he can use his talented imagination. And as a reporter of his own exploits in Burma during the war, his ability is outstanding (one should read "Quartered Safe Out Here").
However, here in "Steel Bonnets" his hands are tied by tiresome reality and a remove of 400 years. Fraser admits this book is not a primer or even a text for college study, but it is a recount of his research and written with nostalgic favor since he comes from the border area himself. Mr. Fraser has great pride in his background and home, and he repeats the stories as faithfully as anyone could. The problem with "Bonnets" is that it hasn't much of a story.
In the first six pages of the book all to be said is done; the remainder is elaboration on who, when and where. Bandits raid other people's farms and towns, burning, stealing, killing, etc.. Generations of upwards to thirty families continue this insanity until Scotland is joined to England in about 1605 or so with James VI and I.
IF you ARE related to "border riding" English/Scots - (especially if named Graham, Johnstone, Maxwell or Armstrong, Kerr, Hume, Elliot or Nixon) then the book is well worth a look.

This book is the definitive history of the riding families -- the Border Reviers. It is a long scholarly look into the nature of these complex and determined families that does not pass judgment or apply modern values in the assessment of their history and deeds. This is not for the casusal reader. It uses a fair amount of old English spellings and can be an effort to decifer at times. However Fraser MacDonald combines this along with his natural story telling ability to make you feel as if you are on a foray across the border and it keeps you coming back for more. If you are a student of Border history or are lucky enough to have one of the riding names, make the effort to read this book. It has no equal in its treatment of the subject.

Until England and Scotland were united under a single king in March 1603, the border between them was, unsurprisingly, a natural place for strife and disorder. The two countries had been at war intermittently for centuries, and many armies had passed back and forth across the border counties. Fraser's history covers the last hundred years of the border, from 1503 to 1603, a period during which the decayed (and astonishingly corrupt) administration could never cope with the local gangs -- known as "reivers" -- who terrorized the district with cattle theft, murder, and arson.

The book is very well-organized. Fraser starts with a few pages on the long historical background, then takes about half the book to cover the reivers by topic: chapters on arms and armour; on reiving technique; on the key families and their alliances; on cross-border relations; on the administrative structure. Fraser gives a lot of details, and plenty of quotes from the original sources (with the original spellings!).

This painstaking coverage sets up the second half of the book perfectly: one hundred and forty pages that cover the history of the border chronologically through the sixteenth century. With the details in hand, the second half is easy to follow and put in context; the writing is also clear and entertaining.

The last section of the book details the uncompromising way in which King James I destroyed the reivers in a few short years after 1603. It is a startlingly bloodthirsty story: Fraser includes quotes from blanket pardons that King James issued to some of his enforcers, which essentially say "whatever murders you did, I'm sure it was in a good cause, and you're absolved".

There are separate chapters on some of the most famous events, notably the raid on Carlisle Castle that freed Kinmont Willie. Fraser is at some pains to dispel the romantic ideas that cling to stories of the borderers -- as he points out, they were essentially a Mafia, with little of Robin Hood about them. It's clear, though, that he finds their adventurousness and style endearing and fascinating; and he writes about them so well that you are likely to feel the same way.