Synopsis: Twenty years after the Nazi’s have won WW2 a criminal detective in the SS starts investigating the deaths of a number of senior party officials in the lead up to celebrations for Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday. It’s Agatha Christie meets George Orwell.
My Take: Let’s face it – the main appeal of historical fiction [...]
Entries Tagged as 'English'
“Fatherland”, Robert Harris
August 16th, 2009 · No Comments · English, Fiction, Trash
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"The Undercover Economist", Tim Harford
July 11th, 2009 · No Comments · Economics, English, Non-Fiction, Policy
Synopsis: The economics correspondent for the Financial Times writes a pop economics textbook illustrating economic principles in accessible and engaging examples.
My Take: Should be required reading for all high-school students. Clearly articulated, widely accessible and practically illustrated explanations of the fundamentals of economics.
Highlight: A great chapter highlighting the benefits of sweatshops as a transitional industry [...]
Tags:Tim Harford
"Scoop", Evelyn Waugh
July 7th, 2009 · No Comments · English, Fiction, Literature, Politics
Synopsis: A case of mistaken identity results in the pastoralist nature writer for the London tabloid, The Daily Beast, being sent as a foreign correspondent to cover a brewing Communist insurrection in the fictional African state of Ishmaelia. Satire that makes ‘Frontline’ look like a loving homage to the media.
My Take: Bitchiness like this can [...]
Tags:Evelyn Waugh
“The Blair Years”, Alastair Campbell”
June 27th, 2009 · No Comments · English, History, Non-Fiction, Policy, Politics
Synopsis: Tony Blair’s Director of Communications and general master of the dark arts tells (almost) all about The Blair Years.
My Take: Ordinarily I steer clear of political biographies (diaries in particular!) but beore I moved to the UK I thought I needed a bit of a crash course in the who’s who of the Party [...]
Tags:Alastair Campbell
"Heart of Darkness", Joseph Conrad
June 25th, 2009 · 4 Comments · African, English, Fiction, Literature, Philosophy
Synopsis: Freed from the constraints of European morality, a man confronts the underlying nature of humanity. Madness ensures.
My Take: For quite a short novella, “The Heart of Darkness” has certainly prompted a lot of meta-discussion. The subject of critical attention as a part of the Western cannon, as a flash point in post-colonial literary debates, [...]
Tags:Joseph Conrad
"The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words", Simon Winchester
June 20th, 2009 · No Comments · English, History, Non-Fiction
Synopsis: The story of the 70 year process of compiling for first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and the relationship between the primary editor, Dr James Murray and the most proflific contributor, the institutionalised and certifiably insane, Dr W.C. Minor.
My Take: A great read. An interesting story, engagingly told.
I was struck while reading this [...]
Tags:Simon Winchester
"The End of the Affair", Graham Greene
June 19th, 2009 · No Comments · English, Fiction, Literature, Nihilist
Synopsis: A deeply bitter writer reflects on his aborted affair with a married woman during WW2 London when years after the conclusion of their relationship, he runs into the woman’s husband. Hatred and contempt for self, women and God flows freely.
My Take: I have mixed feelings about Graham Greene. One the one hand, he’s an [...]
Tags:Graham Greene
"An Artist of the Floating World", Kazuo Ishiguro
June 11th, 2009 · No Comments · Asian, English, Japanese, Literature, Under-Rated
Synopsis: An aging painter contemplates his life as an artist of the ‘floating world’ (’Ukiyo‘) of Tokyo’s pleasure seeking districts and struggles to come to terms with his place in post-war Japan. Sometimes hindsight doesn’t come with 20/20 vision.
My Take: As you may have guessed by now, I have a real peccadillo for Japanese fiction. [...]
Tags:Kazuo Ishiguro