United Kingdom Books

I first stumbled across a drawing of one of these unusual stone effigies in a book of horror stories called "The Angry Dead." To see the actual images in Dublin's National Museum, was still a bit of a shock as the anatomical detail proudly displayed by these Sheelas is normally only visible to a gynecologist or lover.

So I turned to this interesting and well-written book to learn more about the Sheela-Na-Gigs. Oddly enough, they are not fertility figures. Most of them are portrayed as ferocious and gaunt, with the ribs clearly delineated. Here is one of the earliest references to a Sheela found at Barnahealy, County Cork: "This is one of those old Fetish figures often found in Ireland on the fronts of churches as well as castles, they are called 'Hags of the Castle' and when placed above the keystone of the door arch were supposed to possess a tutelary or protective power so that an enemy passing by would be disarmed of evil intent against the building on seeing it."

Typically in Gaelic oral traditions, a central character in many of the stories was a fearsome female figure, typically described as "an old woman with a bald head, cadaverous ribs, sagging abdomen, and small flat breasts." She is the crone, the third aspect of the Earth goddess which also includes a maiden and a woman in her sexual prime.

It is rather delightful to think that the Sheela-na-Gigs migrated from Celtic mythology into Christian iconography and could be found perched above many a monastery or church door where generations of monks filed under her, protected (although they may not have known it) from the evil eye by an exaggerated carving of female pudenda. It's a pity that more recent churchmen (especially since the Reformation and most especially since Victorian times) were more prudish than their early counterparts and destroyed or hid many of these Sheelas.

This book contains drawings of all known Sheela-na-Gigs of Ireland and Britain, and also figures that might be related to them. The authors also list a website where further research on Sheela-Na-Gigs is being published: jharding.demon.co.uk.

You might want to plan your next trip to Britain or Ireland to include viewings of these fascinating, archaic Divine Hags.

I have had a fascination with Sheela Na Gigs for a long time, but to be honest my knowledge on her was scant. I have worked with her as a personal deity for about 8 years (when she first appeared to me), so I had some idea of how I viewed her, but this book has refreshed my connection with Sheela to a profound level.

This book puts fowards some very interesting ideas as to the origins of the Sheelas & her name, and her possible basis in the hag aspect, which is the type of energy that I myself have found her to have. I have also gleaned some new ideas as to possible symbolic interpretations of her physical appearance, which has set me off on new avenuse of thinking.

The end of the book has a catalogue of Sheelas in England, Ireland, Wales & Scotland, and each entry has sketches of them. With this book in hand I have been to see two of them, one in Oxford & another in Fiddington. There is a Sheela about 20 minutes from my house and that will be my next visit!

This pictorial catalogue is extremely useful in that it allows you to see the particular Sheela refferred to in the main body of the text, thus enabling you to make up your own mind as to whether it supports the claims or not.

I must say it's a great shame I'm the first person to write a review of this book, I just wish there were as many people interested in Sheelas & their origins as Green Men, because to be honest Sheela is far more interesting!

Pepys's complete diaries are probably the closest thing to time travel that I will ever experience. This condensed edition takes the meat off the bones and serves it up with most of the flavor of the full Latham-edited version.

The passion for women and for books, the details noticed at the Whitehall court of Charles II -- like the king's mistress's freshly-washed underwear hanging on a hedge in the privy garden to dry in the sun! -- and the layered record of the daily routine of a London man living in a time of immense change are fascinating.

Note that this is a fine book for those who enjoy the Patrick O'Brian Aubry and Maturin series too. Pepys was instrumental in taking the British Navy from a ragged mix of merchant ships mixed in with war ships, haphazardly provisioned and manned by politically appointed (i.e. unexamined) officers to the fleet that brought Nelson to victory.

This book is an excellent introduction to Pepys; I recommend it

This diary in this abridged version, has given me more sheer pleasure than any other book I have ever read. Writing for himself alone, Pepys selected things for inclusion in the diary purely on the basis of how they struck him. This grand subjectivity would be fatal in a dull or passive or insensitive writer, but in Pepys it makes the work fresh and vibrant, constantly surprising, unlike anything else in literature. Even when describing an "important" scene, he is still his natural self and gives touches of his own behaviour, like this at the King's coronation: "But so great a noise, that I could make but little of the Musique; and endeed, it was lost to everybody. But I had so great a list to pissse, that I went out a little while before the King had done all his ceremonies...." Not just his behavior, but also his reactions: "As it grew darker, [the fire] appeared more and more, and in Corners and upon steeples and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the City, in a most horrid malicious bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire." That is from Pepys's stunning account of the first day of the great fire of London. It has no conscious artifice: Pepys's descriptions owe their power to his uncanny knack for expressing how the events struck him. So he gives details which a more "responsible" writer would have overlooked: "Among other things, the poor pigeons I perceive were loath to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies till they were some of them burned, their wings, and fell down." The diary gives us the texture of Pepys's daily life - what he wore, what he ate, what skirts he lifted, and what he paid in hard cash for all this; the plays he saw, how the audiences behaved, the doorman who swindled him out of a shilling; his book collection, his musical instruments, the improvements to his apartment; his growing wealth, from sources bright and shady; his bowels and his testicles; the list is endless. Along with stories that are variously amusing, touching, shocking, there are episodes like this: "Before going to bed, I stood writing of this day its passages - while a drum came by, beating of a strange manner of beat, now and then a single stroke; which my wife and I wondered at, what the meaning of it should be." And this: "I sat up till the bell-man came by with his bell, just under my window as I was writing of this very line, and cried 'Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty, windy morning.' One of the topics is Pepys himself - his thoughts, feelings and actions, and his thoughts and feelings about these. He had a lively inner life, was intimately in touch with it, and had the ability to know at any given moment how he felt and to write about it clearly and purely. We get Pepys warts and all. He does not pose for his self-portrait. When a stranger importunes his wife, he records, "I did give him a good cuff or two on the chops; and seeing him not oppose me, I did give him another". This is not the writing of someone who wants to be a hero to his diary! He freely criticizes himself, particularly for his capacity - amazing in one so able and successful - for neglecting work and career in the pursuit of pleasure. After a bout with one of his mistresses, he went to see another but found that she was away: "So I back again to my office, where I did with great content faire a vow to mind my business and laisser aller les femmes for a month; and am with all my heart glad to find myself able to come to so good a resolution, that thereby I may follow my business, which, and my honour thereby, lies a-bleeding." (Where sex is the topic, Pepys usually scatters French and Spanish words through his text.) Sometimes he scolds himself for his feelings. After appearing before a tribunal of inquiry, and concluding that he is not in much trouble, he writes: "And yet though this be all, yet I do find so poor a spirit within me, that it makes me almost out of my wits, and puts me to so much pain that I...vex and fret and imagine myself undone - so that I am ashamed of myself to myself, and do fear what would become of me if any real affliction should come upon me." He later remarks that the tribunal had treated him "as a Criminall", kept him waiting and made him stand; but he seems not to have reflected that that is why he was so depressed. He is always interested in his inner life and willing to respond to it, judge it, lament it, rejoice in it; but as a child of his times he is not challenged to try to understand it. The Navy Board, and therefore Pepys himself, were potentially in much greater trouble only a month later. He did not collapse. His three-hour speech to Parliament was a triumph, though he describes it in less than a sentence: "I begin our defence most acceptably and smoothly, and continued at it without any hesitation or losse but with full scope and all my reason free about me, as if it had been at my own table...". Pepys was able to enjoy HIMSELF, to take his triumphs without vainglory and his reverses without self-deception. He had, as Robert Latham puts it, "a gift for happiness that amounts to genius".

How often do we visit a museum and admire beautifully wrought pieces of period silver? The intricate detailing is amazing and we glance at the date - early 19th century. We're in awe, wondering how such work could have been accomplished at that point in time. If this is the case, chances are good we're appreciating the skills of Thomas Fletcher & Sidney Gardiner.

The pair founded their firm in 1808 Boston, and moved to Philadelphia some three years later. Today we think of Tiffany, at that time it was Fletcher & Gardiner, premier silversmiths who flourished until 1842. They revolutionized public appreciation of silver, and made it available not only in elegant presentation pieces but also for personal use.

Their artistry astounds on a pitcher boasting sculpted lion-paw feet and a hinged lid where again sculpture is employed to create a serpent, a dog head, and a dolphin. All of which, as is noted, "figured importantly in classical art." The base of this particular piece is "ornamented with borders and panels of vegetal decoration."

There is a sauceboat with a curved handle "terminating with a female mask." In commemoration of the sinking of a Britain's Guerriere off Newfoundland's coast on August 19, 1812, the firm created the "heaviest, tallest, and most complex work in silver ever produced in North America." It is grand and perfectly captured in a full page photograph, only one of 300 illustrations in this handsome volume.

Also included are working drawings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is a rare book and a joy not only for collectors, scholars, and curators but for all who find pleasure in beauty.

- Gail Cooke

Since many of the photographs are in private collections, this book is the only place to see them. But beyond the generously-sized color photographs which are the first element that catches one's attention, one finds that the book is made up of different parts knowledgeably brought together and skillfully arranged. In other hands, these diverse topics might seem eclectic or like an anthology. But here the various visual matter and content flows seamlessly; so that the reader does not have to shift gears, but is drawn on to the oncoming handsome photographs and informative, expert text. "Silversmiths to the Nation" is a visual treat, incomparable historical and artistic text on the famed silversmith partnership, and invaluable reference for students, collectors, and dealers.

The co-authors and three contributors named on the title page put the important silversmiths and their firm in the social context of their time of the early 1800s, particularly the leading role of the city of Philadelphia and the emergence of a wealthy upper middle class. The merchants, professionals, and the like of this class sought fine household objects, including ones with uniquely American symbols and design expressing the pride, confidence, and growing power of the relatively new nation. Fletcher and Gardiner's resplendent presentation pieces for heroes of the United State's victory over Great Britain in the War of 1812 brought the firm to wide notice and marked a new level of design and production for silver pieces.

Following the six illustrated chapters of thematic material taking up almost half the book is an illustrated catalog of 88 Fletcher and Gardiner individual pieces or sets. This catalog goes with an exhibition which moves from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City), the Winterthur Museum (Delaware), and the Society of the Four Arts (Palm Beach, FL) over 2008. This connection with the exhibition is kept subtle, however, so as not to narrowly define this work or limit interest in it with its content which exceeds considerably a typical exhibition catalog. The entries for each silver piece or set in the catalog section describe its dimensions, design details, and when applicable its inscription; and this is followed by information on its origination and history. For example, short profiles of individuals such as war heroes a piece was specifically produced for are given. In other cases, the consumer interest or design idea is briefly discussed. One hot water urn, for example, was produced to meet the "growing popularity of coffee and tea". In many cases, the details of the background of silver objects include who they were first sold to.

Then after the endnotes come four appendices; the first one being "Marks of the Firm and Its Associates" with clear, close-up photographs of the marks, the others concerning genealogy of Fletcher and Gardiner and documents of theirs. The bibliography is four and a half pages.

Wonderful book with many color photos. I highly recommend this for any portrait artist.

Michael Levey has produced a delightful biography of Sir Thomas Lawrence, one of the greatly underappreciated English artists of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Lawrence, who was highly acclaimed both in Britain and on the Continent during his lifetime, swiftly fell in estimation among art critics after his death in 1830. Levey's prose and the excellent reproductions that accompany his text should go a long way to helping reestablish Lawrence's reputation. Levey's discussion of Lawrence's drawings along is well worth one's time.

Having first discovered Vanessa Bell through an interest in her sister, Virginia Woolf, I consider myself entirely unqualified to judge her status as a painter. The woman who emerges from these short pieces, however, is witty, honest, and deeply intelligent. The memoirs of her childhood, which comprise the first three selections, are filled with humor and warmth, with the sharper side of her wit directed chiefly at her elder half-brother, George Duckworth. George is also the primary subject of the fourth essay, and it says much of Bell's writing that he comes across as ludicrous (at best) and yet utterly believable. The remaining memoirs are more generous and less acerbic, particularly one about Bell's friend and former lover Roger Fry, recalling the ways in which their love converged with the expansion and evolution of Vanessa's painting. The portrait of Fry is that of a kind, open-handed man, brilliant as a teacher if not as a painter; Vanessa, despite being "not a writer," manages to convey deep emotion with dignity and a wonderful lack of sentimentality.

Perhaps my favorite piece is the final one, a lecture Vanessa gave to students at her son's school. In addition to being hugely amusing, it's one of the clearest and least pretentious discussions I've yet seen on what it means to be a painter.

Read this book--not for the sake of Bloomsbury hype, or for the gossip-value of Bell's unconventional personal life; read it because she was an exceptional woman and artist in her own right and this is as close as we can come now to knowing her.

Having first discovered Vanessa Bell through an interest in her sister, Virginia Woolf, I consider myself entirely unqualified to judge her status as a painter. The woman who emerges from these short pieces, however, is witty, honest, and deeply intelligent. The memoirs of her childhood, which comprise the first three selections, are filled with humor and warmth, with the sharper side of her wit directed chiefly at her elder half-brother, George Duckworth. George is also the primary subject of the fourth essay, and it says much of Bell's writing that he comes across as ludicrous (at best) and yet utterly believable. The remaining memoirs are more generous and less acerbic, particularly one about Bell's friend and former lover Roger Fry, recalling the ways in which their love converged with the expansion and evolution of Vanessa's painting. The portrait of Fry is that of a kind, open-handed man, brilliant as a teacher if not as a painter; Vanessa, despite being "not a writer," manages to convey deep emotion with dignity and a wonderful lack of sentimentality.

Perhaps my favorite piece is the final one, a lecture Vanessa gave to students at her son's school. In addition to being hugely amusing, it's one of the clearest and least pretentious discussions I've yet seen on what it means to be a painter.

Read this book--not for the sake of Bloomsbury hype, or for the gossip-value of Bell's unconventional personal life; read it because she was an exceptional woman and artist in her own right and this is as close as we can come now to knowing her.

The only book I've ever read that really tells you something concrete about Stonehenge and the Stonehengers. A must.

Tony Johnson's book is a compelling read, not only for the millions of people who are intrigued with the enigma that is Stonehenge, but also for those who like a police procedural which pulls one into the author's thoughts and raises and answers questions as you go. Mr. Johnson starts and ends with the stones. He carefully reviews the historical literature about the site and then constructs his own computer generated plans from which he manages to explain how such a complex structure was made using only a peg and piece of rope. In so doing he removes the need to postulate some Neolithic measuring unit, and aside from the axis being aligned with the winter solstice, he does not need to invoke any complex and contrived astronomical patterns to explain the stones' positions. He places the monument in the context of the Neolithic Wiltshire landscape and makes a major and innovative breakthrough in explaining how Stonehenge was constructed by studying gold jewelry found in a nearby grave. The writing is clear, balanced and self analytical. At no time dose one feel he has an axe to grind - he simply looks at where the stones are or were and with Holmesian logic deduces how they were positioned. In the final chapter he does allow himself some speculation as to the possible purpose of the monument and I found it very satisfying - as I am sure you will when you read it.

This is probably the best book I've read all year. As an English teacher, I appreciate Bate's literary sensibility, and as a citizen of the earth, I value his insights into our environment. I have recommended this book to every intelligent person I know.

Jonathan Bate's short book, 'Romantic Ecology'(1991) was a landmark in literary ecocriticism. In 'The Song of the Earth' Bate has developed his theme further and in doing so has produced an instant classic.

The purpose of the book is to show how poetry is not only relevant but necessary in an age of increasing environmental unease. It is a manifesto for the urgency of 'ecopoetics'. Bate writes: 'This is a book about why poetry continues to matter as we enter a new millennium that will be ruled by technology. It is a book about modern western man's alienation from nature. It is about the capacity of the writer to restore us to the earth which is our home' (vii)

Chapters are as follows: 1. Going, Going 2. The State of Nature 3. A Voice for Ariel 4. Major Weather 5. The Picturesque Environment 6. Nests, Shell, Landmarks 7. Poets, Apes and Other Animals 8. The Place of Poetry 9. What are Poets For?

My favourite chapter is 'Major Weather' which, in some quite startling and original ways, charts the influence of climate on writing . The centre piece of the chapter is a reading of Keat's 'Ode to Autumn' as a 'weather poem', resembling 'a well-regulated ecosystem'. For Bate, the ode 'is not an escapist fantasy which turns its back on the ruptures of Regency culture, as late twentieth century criticism tended to suggest. No: it is a meditation on how human culture can only function through links and reciprocal relations with nature.'(103-4). I learned 'Ode to Autumn' as a schoolchild, and it has always stayed with me. Now I see eloquently expressed the reasons for its significance to me.

Bate has set himself a difficult but worthy task, to argue for poetry as 'the place where we save the earth', that if culture is the cause of environmental destruction it can also be its remedy. This, then, is a book that should be read by everyone with an interest in literature, by everyone with an interest in the continuation of life on the planet.

Though written over 40 years ago, Carswell's study of the South Sea Bubble is brilliant. The South Sea Bubble was an ambitious scheme to simultaneously pay off the British government's enormous debts while simultaneously getting rich in London's newly created stock market. In essence, holders of government debt exchanged valuable bonds and annuities for stock which ultimately became worthless. Carswell teases out the details which are so important to understanding how the fraud worked, while at the same time capturing the big picture of British politics and society, and the fascinating personalities of the main actors in the government and the South Sea Company. Carswell writes with humor, insight, and a clarity few modern historians can match. Buy this classic study in preference to the recently published books on the subject, which are neither as readable nor as thorough.

Did you know that the Bank of England was formed originally by a bunch of businessmen wanting to use debt-collection methods on the English Government? That the Guinea was not always worth 21 shillings? And that the back of each London credit house had bundles of sticks representing debts?

Fascinating information and history of the start of the English economic rush that was so viciously stalled in 1720 when the country's biggest investment craze turned out to be an early Ponzi scheme. Learn how far King George I and his "nieces" were involved. Discover why stock is called "stock" (and it's nothing to do with cattle!)

This book was recently recommended to me. I read it on the plane as I journeyed to meetings. I found it to be a wealth of information and insights. While not surprised at much of what I was reading, I found the statistics, resources, insights and information not readily found in news reports to be extremely helpful to me.

For anyone who wants a better understanding of the problems affecting not just the Catholic Church, but churches and institutions across the board, this is a must-read.

I intend to use insights I gleaned from this book in future workshops I am doing on these issues.

Shupe has written about clergy malfeasance before. His first book, "In the Name of All That's Holy" proved to be a brilliant and easily understood analysis of clergy abuse with emphasis on clergy sexual abuse. His latest book is his best yet. It takes the reader even deeper into the mystery of why a Church would allow unspeakable abuse of its own members. Shupe cuts to the heart of the nature of organized religion and shows how it can be at odds with its spiritual roots. Anyone who seeks to comprehend the reasons behind clergy abuse especially Catholic clergy abuse must read this book.

RAF strike wing Beaufighter and Mosquito crews flew some of the hairiest attacks of the war against German shipping in the North Sea. Their previously unheralded exploits were first told in this extremely well-written book by Roy Conyers Nesbit, himself a Beaufort veteran.

Beginning in late 1942 Coastal Command Beaufighters from the North Coates Wing began striking German convoys. Sweeping across the North Sea at low level the RAF crews pitted their aircraft armed with cannons, machine guns, bombs and torpedoes against convoys defended by flak ships armed with machine guns and 20mm, 40mm, 88mm and 105mm cannons and often protected by Luftwaffe FW 190s and Me 109s. Beginning in 1943 rocket projectile were added to the Beau's arsenal. Other wings based at Wick, Leuchars and other bases joined the North Coates Wing in these attacks as did the Mosquito which began flying strikes in mid-1944. Regardless of unit or aircraft, these anti-shipping strikes remained vicious, deadly and costly affairs till war's end.

Roy Nesbit's book does full justice to these brave aircrew. His narrative puts you right in the cockpit and sweeps you along with the action as the Beaus and Mossies streak across the sea and pile into yet another convoy. Tracers everywhere, rockets streaking seaward, ships and aircraft blowing up - exciting stuff! Photographs of aircrew, aircraft and actual attacks complement his vivid narrative along with diagrams of many of the strikes.

If you are a Beaufighter or Mosquito fan, you will want this book. It is a well-researched and written tribute to the brave men of the strike wings. Highly recommended!

An excellent book written by one of Britain's foremost researchers on the RAF in WW2. I highly recommend it for persons interested in the activities of the RAF in WW2. R C Nesbit was himself a navigator in coastal command in WW2.