Ersatz TLS discussion
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Weekly TLS
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What are we reading? 20/05/2024
AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "The latest from the front line made me laugh:Rishi Sunak has taken questions from two men dressed in hi-vis clothing at a warehouse in Derbyshire who turned out to be Conserva..."
I will be amazed if it is anything other than a large Labour majority. I would imagine that many SNP voters will switch back to Labour.
Impressed with Up Above The World by Paul Bowles so far, different to his African novels, feels a bit more like Graham Greene but also with the cold Bowlesian style.There is an element of the uncanny and the unseen too, which has given the novel a real edge, a sort of thriller in some ways
Whatever errors Gordon Brown made as Chancellor - and I agree there were some such as selling gold - the UK finances were in good shape until the banking crash of 2008, precipitated not in the UK but by the sub-prime collapse in the USA. Following that, after Cameron's victory in 2010 the Tories followed a disastrous austerity policy, whereas in the USA they simply decided to print money:
The Fed can electronically create money and use it to lend against the collateral of various types, such as agency mortgage-backed securities or asset-backed commercial paper. This is effectively "printing money" and increases the money supply, which under normal economic conditions creates inflationary pressure. Ben Bernanke called this approach "credit easing", possibly to distinguish it from the widely used expression Quantitative easing. In a March 2009 interview, he stated that the expansion of the Fed balance sheet was necessary "...because our economy is very weak and inflation is very low. When the economy begins to recover, that will be the time that we need to unwind those programs, raise interest rates, reduce the money supply, and make sure that we have a recovery that does not involve inflation."[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal...
As a result, the recession in the USA was shorter and the economy recovered far quicker than was the case in the UK, where most people by some calculations are worse off than in 2010.
So the charge against the Tories is that they made a bad situation worse by poor economic policies and management.
(This is leaving aside the very nasty taste in the mouth caused by the Tories' borderline xenophobia in their rhetoric regarding the EU and immigration. Their leaders really are a shameless bunch. Most other parties - apart from 'Reform' - are more civilised, at least.)
Back to the books:Dr. No by Percival Everett
The second book I have read by Everett... this one uses roughly the framework of a James Bond story, though its plot follows that of 'Goldfinger' rather than 'Dr.No'.
Wala Kitu is a professor of mathematics whose speciality is research into 'nothing'. He is hired by super-villain John Sill, who has a cunning plan... That's about all you need to know about the plot - see above, referencing 'Goldfinger'. What you do need to know is, that in common with 'Erasure', it's a book of more than one level. For a start, there are many passages, situations and asides that are LOL funny... it's very amusing. Apart from that, there are sections mentioning various mathematicians and philosophers, which can invite a reader who is so inclined to dive down any number of rabbit holes. I was amused to see that Kitu's friend was named 'Eigen Vector' - a mathematical concept I hadn't come across since uni days... indeed, I think I understood it better this time after reading the clear Wikipedia entry, with visual examples. Very many real-life mathematicians are mentioned, including some I'd read about recently in Évariste (Poisson and Cauchy). I had of course heard of Bertrand Russell, and have read one of his short books (political rather than mathematical). Kurt Gödel was a name I'd seen, but knew nothing about his theories - until reading this.
So, in short - great fun to read; skip the maths and philosophy if it's of no interest, but you can spend quite a bit of time on those subjects later if they are to your taste.
(I'm not sure what Everett's level of mathematics is - he's probably more into the philosophy - a lot of very advanced stuff is mentioned here, though at one point 2 is included in a list of 'odd' numbers whereas 'prime' was meant - and is used later in that paragraph. This may have been a proof-reading error - 'the' was printed as 'th' in one place...)
Fascinating article on the TLS about the discovery of margin notes by Milton in a copy of Hollnsheds Chronicles at the Pheonix Public Library Collections.Alongside these notes are other books that Milton had in his library again with margin notes, a book on provencal poetry, Spensers View of the State of Ireland and a whole page crossed out where Hollinshed includes an anecdote about the mother of William the Conqueror
The items were purchased by an american magnate in the 1940s who bequeathed the books to the people of Phoenix.
giveusaclue wrote: "Ruining the economy on the altar of net zero when countries such as India, China and the US churn out all the pollution they like.."To get away from party politics for a moment - I honestly think that the human race has had it. Their chance to take decisions/vote for politicians who could stop the runaway train of global warming has already passed.
I'm sorry about this, but it sums up human stupidity.
I am seriously happy that I don't have grandchildren, and that it is extremely unlikely that I'll have any... that way, at least, my descendants (such as they are) won't have to endure the final meltdown.
Edit: to add to that, I read recently an article in the Guardian which surveyed a number of climate scientists - quite a few had decided to reduce their child-bearing because of their concerns...https://www.theguardian.com/environme....
scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Ruining the economy on the altar of net zero when countries such as India, China and the US churn out all the pollution they like.."To get away from party politics for a momen..."
i do wonder how bad the climate in the southern UK will be when i reach my 70s or 80s, if i get that far. The summers are becoming uncomfortable already, though mercifully only 10 day spells of extreme heat as things stand, in 25-30 years time i would i(Summer 2021 saw the first 7 day 30c-31c week i can remember, sujmmer 2022 produced two more, with 37c hit and 21c night lows and summer 2023, while cool, saw a week of 30c temps in first week of september)
the right wing are slyly focusing on the cost of green commitments, a short termist, pass the back idea which is sadly gaining traction. Sunak has become noticeably pro-car and anti U-lez, which doesnt help the country in any way
Mod
A Death in Tokyo is the 3rd in Keigo Higashino's Kyoichiro Kaga series. It's evening, few people about, a policeman sees a drunken man staggering on to the famous Nihonbashi bridge, Tokyo's 'kilometre zero'. On following him on to the bridge, the officer realises that the man has in fact been stabbed and he dies shortly afterwards.
The police quickly make what seems to be a coherent case: motive, means, opportunity are all there — or ...
Kaga is one of the police officers working on the case and brings as usual intuition and perseverance to bear.
scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Ruining the economy on the altar of net zero when countries such as India, China and the US churn out all the pollution they like.."To get away from party politics for a momen..."
I fear for future generations too and I have no children or grandchildren.But I do have young friends. It is not just climate change but further development of AI. And what are people going to do for employment . Whilst a universal incone sounds good, I can't help thinking that people need employment too. I only have to think of the changes in my career in banking, from when I started in 1966, when we didn't have computers and we had up to 20 people on the staff of the branch. Yet 60 years later, we don't have branches and the ones that are there have very much reduced numbers of staff working in them.
giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Ruining the economy on the altar of net zero when countries such as India, China and the US churn out all the pollution they like.."To get away from party ..."
my town has become a banking desert, barclays hanging on as they might be the location for a bank hub. i think universal income will free people to be less driven by basic needs(ie having a job to stay alive) and might free the minds of many people who would just be worn down by working, especially those in dangerous and repetitive jobs. it might transform the working classes.
Though i do feel that it would need a balance, some community duties might be worthwhile to all of us, i volunteer at an old folks day centre and i think everyone should dry and give back or just be there for the old, lonely and forgotten generations, or more universally, those in need.
sadly i dont think it will change human nature much and thats where we seem to be taking tiny steps rather than giant leaps since the 1979 Thatcher era selfish mantra's became baked into 40% of the UK population.
giveusaclue wrote: "we don't have branches and the ones that are there have very much reduced numbers of staff working in them..."Indeed... my mother has an account with the Halifax, where the staff have always been exceptionally helpful and efficient... one is a former school friend of a daughter... the branch is to close in a few weeks. For many years I had an account with the NatWest, which had experienced and helpful staff - until those were 'retired' to be replaced by novices who knew nothing, and I moved my account.
Mod
I've started reading Isabella Hammad's 2023 book Enter Ghost (a stage direction). Sonia's family is Palestinian, but her immediate family has been living in England. After several years without going to Israel / Palestine, she goes to visit her sister who now lives in Haifa. Sonia is an actress. She meets a theatre director who wants her to be in the production of Hamlet she's putting on.So far (only 2 chapters in), I'm liking it a lot.
And for non-fiction, Rouge : Histoire d'une couleur / Red: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau.I was given this for Christmas — red is my favourite colour. This is the 4th of a series; he had already written about blue, black and green, and yellow and white followed. Pastoureau held the Chair of History of Western Symbolism at the École pratique des hautes études.
In his introduction he writes,
This is a history book, studying the colour red over the long term and in all its aspects, from lexicon to symbols, including everyday life, social practices, scientific knowledge, technical applications, religious morals and artistic creations.He limits himself to European society because he's not a specialist of other parts of the world.
AB76 wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Ruining the economy on the altar of net zero when countries such as India, China and the US churn out all the pollution they like.."To ..."
I don't honestly think human nature generally has changed much in centuries.
Mod
I remembered AB liking Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of Pointed Firs, as did I, and when I looked back for the posts, I saw that Sandya was another fan.
I discovered this book, which I've just bought, through a Backlisted podcast which I listened to yesterday, an interesting discussion.
AB, you might like to check this out.
Mod
The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams.I forgot to post about this. Twin sisters working for Oxford University Press in bookbinding and living on a narrow boat in Jericho, at the time of the first world war.
An enjoyable read.
Gpfr wrote: "A Marsh Island. I remembered AB liking Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of Pointed Firs, as did I, and when I looked back for the posts, I saw that Sandya was another fan.
I discover..."
thanks GP...i have A Country Doctor by Jewett hovering on the pile, she is a very under-rated author i think
The Black Book by M J Trow(2018), looks at the Nazi plans for the elimination of British intelligensia and the general invasion plans.The "fahndungliste" were a feature of German invasion planning, where notable enemy citizens would be listed for detention, torture and then death. A notable example of this was the lists used during and after the invasion of Poland in 1939, where swathes of the POlish intelligentsia were murdered by ethnic German death units and the SS. A little later in the war, as the Germans invaded Norway, all the lists and personnel needed to elimnate Norwegian intelligensia were sunk in Oslo fjord, aboard a battleship by Norwegian naval batteries.
The list of UK elimination targets is a curious jumble, with a notably high % of emigre's from occupied Europe, politicians, playwrights and some bizarre choices. I havent got to the section of the book about how it was all compiled but it will be interesting to see the rationale. The evidence from Poland suggests, death would have been a result of being on the list though
It made me think of a much more positive and important list compiled by George Orwell identifying the communists and sympathizers in the UK, once the war was over. Orwell knew that communism was bringing a second wave of evil to the world and the list is an important aretfact of those times. Shame he didnt have Philby, Burgess, Blunt, Blake and Mclean on that list!
Mod
I wasn't familiar with the terms '48 = Israel , spoken of by Palestinians, and '48er = Palestinians living in Israel. In reference to 1948 of course.
2 examples, speaking about the actors in a production of Hamlet to be put on in the West Bank:
'He's actually from the West Bank ... He recently got his permit for '48, that's why you saw him in Haifa.'
I also wondered whether the other actors were mostly West Bankers, or '48ers like him, like us, helicoptering in.
Gpfr wrote: "Gpfr wrote: " I've started reading Isabella Hammad's 2023 book Enter Ghost (a stage direction). Sonia's family is Palestinian, but her immediate family has been..."I wasn't famil..."
i have read some great Palestinian literature, for anyone interested, i would recommend :
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
Ghassan Khanafani.
Emile Habibi
Sahar Khalifeh
All are, except Khalifeh,are now dead but were writing in the post WW2 era, Jabra lived in Iraq mostly after leaving Palestine, Khanafani lived in exile and Palestine. Habibi wrote unusual novels and Khalifeh is still alive today and an important female voice.
Jabra and Habibi came from Palestinian Christian backgrounds, at the time of 1948, about 11% of Palestinians were Christian, heavily concentrated in the West Bank and North Israel, almost none in Gaza.
Gpfr wrote: "red is my favourite colour.."Mine too, which is as it should be for a supporter of Wales and the Llanelli Scarlets - but I'm surprised there's enough to say about it for a whole book!
Gpfr wrote: " The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams.."Another story set in Jericho is The Dead of Jericho by Colin Dexter - this was filmed as the first episode of the great TV series with John Thaw, although it was the fifth book. (I never got on with the books...)
Gpfr wrote: " A Death in Tokyo is the 3rd in Keigo Higashino's Kyoichiro Kaga series..."As you know, I like crime fiction and read a lot of it... but more in the hardboiled or psychological styles rather than the 'puzzle' ones which tend to skimp on characterisation.
Where would you place this one, and did you read the English translation? I had a look on Amazon, and some said the translation was a bit ropey; several people thought that this one was not the best book by the author. What do you think?
Mod
A Death in Tokyo is the 3rd in Keigo Higashino's Kyoichiro Kaga series..."As you know, I like crime fiction and read a lot of it..."
I think you might prefer Higashino's other novels to this series, for example Journey Under the Midnight Sun, or The Devotion of Suspect X.
The Detective Kaga series is a bit lighter/slighter I would say. The hero's character is quite well drawn. Something I've liked about this series is glimpses of older/more traditional aspects of Japanese life, shops, eating places, shrines ...
I did read the English translation — I didn't find it that bad, although some things occasionally jarred.
Mod
... I'm surprised there's enough to say about it for a whole book!"
😉😈🌹
The writer's a historian, so it's the history of each colour through the ages. How the colour was used, what was associated with it and so on. Lots of end notes and a long bibliography.
I just read a 7 page article in The New Yorker by Parul Sehgal about Judith Butler, and at the end I had no idea what Butler's supposedly controversial ideas about gender and Zionism were, though the "hullabaloo" they stir up is mentioned throughout the article. The piece opens with Butler in France
After the event, a woman—a philosopher herself—approached Butler. Tight with tension, she gripped Butler by the arm.What is the basis of this woman's opinion? We never learn.
“Vous menacez mes enfants,” she said, in Butler’s recounting. “You are threatening my children.”
On the last page, we're given the one unequivocal statement in the article by Butler on her beliefs, which turns out to be so anodyne as to mock the claims of controversy that precede it:
“I do keep going back to gender, even though I feel so exhausted by it and wanting very much to be liberated from it,” Butler said. “There’s a history of handling it in extreme isolation, without a vocabulary or a community. It is important for me to be part of that vocabulary and community, and say this thing that I say throughout ‘Who’s Afraid of Gender?,’ that people have a right to move and breathe and love, or to walk the streets without fear of violence.”
Something to think about maybe.My oldest friend - we were at school together has short term memory difficulties now which makes for sadness. But her long term memory is still there and what a time we had yesterday remembering various teachers from our schooldays……..
CCCubbon wrote: "Something to think about maybe.My oldest friend - we were at school together has short term memory difficulties now which makes for sadness. But her long term memory is still there and what a time..."
i notice that with the old folk at the day centre i volunteer at, many barely remember what they did the day before but can be fascinating company as they tell you all about their jobs and the lives they led 50 years ago.
there is very little logic to dementia it seems, there are 70yo's with no ability to do much at all, no recall at all and 96 yos with no memory issues and much inbetween who can remember the 1950s but not yesterday
Gpfr wrote: "I think you might prefer Higashino's other novels to this series..."Thanks - and for the comment on red!
CCCubbon wrote: "Something to think about maybe.My oldest friend - we were at school together has short ter5m memory difficulties now which makes for sadness. But her long term memory is still there and what a time..."
That is always very sad. My mum had a form of dementia and eventually barely remembered things in the past or something that happened minutes before.
Mod
A good picture of what life might have been like in Madrid in late 1940, the year after the victory of the Nationalists, if predominantly from the perspective of those in more comfortable situations - Embassy officials, government ministers, crooked businessmen, Church figures in the ascendant again, etc. Still, we also see the pitiful lives of the impoverished, hungry, oppressed Spanish lower classes, and there are believable retrospectives of the fighting and the International Brigades. While I found this general depiction more engaging than the central love story, it was overall a decent read.
My interest was caught by some words put in the mouth of a British journalist, that the Republic would not have touched Russian aid with a barge pole if the French had supplied arms, which they didn’t do because of pressure from Baldwin on the French government – so that everything was the fault of the British. Hugh Thomas’s book says nothing about this. While there were high-level communications, the Baldwin and Blum Cabinets, as he tells it, held the same view independently, that their country’s interests would be best served by the prevention of military aid to Spain. Anthony Beevor’s book, on the other hand, does indicate that Blum’s six-week-old government was guided by the British. He quotes Eden: “The French government acted most loyally by us.” The policy of non-intervention was in fact all Eden’s work, as Baldwin was at first ill and then preoccupied with the Abdication crisis and didn’t want to be bothered. But neither book gives colour to the idea that the leaders of the Republic had wanted to keep their distance from the Russians. Sansom is firm on the issue in his Historical Note, so perhaps he got it from Spanish or French sources.
AB76 wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Something to think about maybe.My oldest friend - we were at school together has short term memory difficulties now which makes for sadness. But her long term memory is still ther..."
Yes,two of my closest friends suffer and it’s like losing them over and over again but I did rejoice for the pleasure it gave for my old friend to remember being at school with me.
Mod
Thanks - and for the comment on red!"
Rouge / Red is proving quite a slow read so far, lots of words to look up, especially as it's in French. Mind you, having said that, I'm maybe not sure of their meaning in English!
Logger24 wrote: "Winter in Madrid – CJ SansomA good picture of what life might have been like in Madrid in late 1940, the year after the victory of the Nationalists, if predominantly from the perspective of those..."
I've not read any Sansom, but gather that this one is a bit outside his usual beat of Shardlake novels... It sounds as if the focus tends towards what the 'historical figures' did.
One of my favourite discoveries of recent years is Juan Marsé... he was fairly young during the civil war, but essentially writes about the aftermath, growing up in working class Barcelona on the 'losing side'. Excellent novels, focusing on the ground level effect the war had on those who remained.
Gpfr wrote: "lots of words to look up, especially as it's in French..."I think that, like some others, I had wrongly assumed that you are French as you are based in Paris (?), as I was for four years or so (plus two in Cannes). I do sympathise - one of my favourite authors, François-Henri Désérable, is such an accomplished wordsmith - without the pretentiousness that can all too often accompany erudition - that I have to read his books with the laptop on my knees!
In Up Above The World (1966), Paul Bowles has introduced a significant sensory distortion into the novel, of which i can guess the source(no spoilers-dont worry)the narrative has become distorted and unsettling, one can feel the helplessness and there is no comfort to be found in the Bowlesian prose either...fascinating...
Memorial Day weekend is coming to an end. The skies were cloudy, we had strong winds, rain came down, with brief intervals of heat. I've ordered Neave's book; the library system doesn't have it. I'm well into Caesar's Women. Caesar is busy rigging a trial to embarrass his political opponents; election dates, an obscure statute dating from the days when Rome had kings, an archaic provision as to the aristocrats who have authority to serve as judges, all factor in. Fits our rainy times.
Mod
I didn’t know who Judith Butler was, so followed your link, which in two short paragraphs says pretty much all I needed to know about "them". I did explore a bit further. They are a professor at UC Berkeley specializing in gender studies. They have developed what is called performative theory. In this theory, gender, like race, is a social construct. You and I are born without gender. We learn our gender roles as we go along. We are regarded as men because we act like men, not because we are men. By the same token, feminists have gone down the wrong track in pursuing rights for women, which is to fall into the binary trap. But I’m still in the dark about the hullabaloo. Interesting, isn’t it, that readers of The New Yorker are now expected to be up-to-the-minute with these things and not require explanation.
Mod
Thanks for the prompt. I think Juan Marsé has been mentioned here before, and I will follow up.
Robert wrote: "Memorial Day weekend is coming to an end. The skies were cloudy, we had strong winds, rain came down, with brief intervals of heat. I've ordered Neave's book; the library system doesn't have it. ..."
thats a shame your library system didnt have it Robert, it usually seems quite reliable?
Not sure if anyone here has read Mei Trow's crime novels but his
study of the Nazi invasion plans for Great Britain in 1940 is engrossing me. Its not a really in depth study but it does focus on the lists the Germans drew up to eliminate and Trow looks at the personalities on the list, who they were, what they did and why they were thereIt does seem that a lot of it was what we would call "open source" intel in 2024, the names you could find in a net search over a few hours. Although the knowledge of our intelligence services is remarkably good, it could be, Trow surmises, that the arrest of UK agents Payne/Best in Venlo before the war led to these two men telling the Nazi's a lot about uk intelligence
One can feel that a Nazi opinion of British life and politics would be a lot less nuanced and informed than say German intelligence during WW1 or before. Imperfect understanding of our unwritten and therefore flexible constitution, our law that differed from the entire continent and parlimentary democracy as well(which Germany had only attempted between 1920s to 1933)
AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Memorial Day weekend is coming to an end. The skies were cloudy, we had strong winds, rain came down, with brief intervals of heat. I've ordered Neave's book; the library system does..."They're reliable, but a book on a British battle by a British politician not known here isn't likely to be picked up by western libraries. They were helpful as usual and located Neave's book-- on Amazon.
Vanish in an Instant by Margaret MillarI've recently read nearly all of Ross Macdonald's 'Lew Archer' books, and enjoyed nearly all of them very much... so I thought I'd give this one a try. Margaret Millar was married to 'Macdonald', whose real name was Kenneth Millar. Both were writers, and initially she was the more successful one, publishing earlier and selling better than her husband. After a while, his books gained a wider readership, were filmed, and led to a much more comfortable life...
I don't know if Margaret wrote any series with a common hero, but this one must surely be a one-off novel. A man is murdered in a small town not far from Detroit; a suspect is arrested, then another... The police are nearly absent from the story, with the investigation - such as it is - being carried out by the lawyer Mr Meecham. (One peculiarity of the book is that most characters are referred to mainly by their surnames, possibly reflecting the times.)
This is a slightly odd book: whereas overall the standard of writing is perfectly adequate, and sometimes good, there are also a few dreadful misjudgements. Dialogue is often stilted and unnatural; there is an absurd scene in which a couple, meeting for only the second or third time, declare their love and seem on the verge of planning a life together. Do people in real life behave like that? It seems wildly improbable.
It is winter, cold and often snowing... the snow is dirty*... overall, the mood is gloomy and depressing. There is no discernible humour in the book, and neither does the writing have the verve and inventiveness with language that I found in Macdonald. Practically all the violence is 'off-page', and happened in the past... no-one gets slugged unconscious (as happens all to often to Archer, or to Philip Marlowe), so there is little sense of jeopardy. The tale feels emotionally cold, in line with the weather.
So, overall - not much impressed. It's OK and I read it quickly enough but it's unlikely I'll read another by Millar, unless I can be convinced that this one wasn't typical.
*A Simenon reference. It was his worst book (that I have read).
Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "Memorial Day weekend is coming to an end. The skies were cloudy, we had strong winds, rain came down, with brief intervals of heat. I've ordered Neave's book; the librar..."good point, its not that easy to find in UK either, my copy was secondhand
scarletnoir wrote: "Vanish in an Instant by Margaret MillarI've recently read nearly all of Ross Macdonald's 'Lew Archer' books, and enjoyed nearly all of them very much... so I thought I'd give this ..."
i liked this novel, wouldnt say it was 4 star but i enjoyed the setting and the style
Interesting TLS article on Labour via some new books by current MPs and Andy BeckettThe reviewer makes some key points on the outdated and unrepresentative FPTP Westminster system and suggests that rather than biographies or diaries of people and party in UK politics, we need studies of where the power lies in UK politics (Movers and shakers, in backrooms..using the electoral map as a campaign tool with FPTP in mind). I myself feel we need to reform a system that returns parties with large majorities, without a "popular" mandate, or even a majority of the vote mandate. (see Brexit, where 30% of the electorate were pro, 30% anti and 30% didnt vote-roughly...since when is that ever the "will of the people!")...or 2019 when the lying rogue Johnson got a large majority with no popular or majority of vote mandate
Logger24 wrote: "Winter in Madrid – CJ SansomA good picture of what life might have been like in Madrid in late 1940, the year after the victory of the Nationalists, if predominantly from the perspective of those..
A good picture of what life might have been like in Madrid in late 1940, the year after the victory of the Nationalists, if predominantly from the perspective of those in more comfortable situations - Embassy officials, government ministers, crooked businessmen, Church figures in the ascendant again, etc. Still, we also see the pitiful lives of the impoverished, hungry, oppressed Spanish lower classes, and there are believable retrospectives of the fighting and the International Brigades. While I found this general depiction more engaging than the central love story, it was overall a decent read.
My interest was caught by some words put in the mouth of a British journalist, that the Republic would not have touched Russian aid with a barge pole if the French had supplied arms, which they didn’t do because of pressure from Baldwin on the French government – so that everything was the fault of the British. Hugh Thomas’s book says nothing about this. While there were high-level communications, the Baldwin and Blum Cabinets, as he tells it, held the same view independently, that their country’s interests would be best served by the prevention of military aid to Spain. Anthony Beevor’s book, on the other hand, does indicate that Blum’s six-week-old government was guided by the British. He quotes Eden: “The French government acted most loyally by us.” The policy of non-intervention was in fact all Eden’s work, as Baldwin was at first ill and then preoccupied with the Abdication crisis and didn’t want to be bothered. But neither book gives colour to the idea that the leaders of the Republic had wanted to keep their distance from the Russians. Sansom is firm on the issue in his Historical Note, so perhaps he got it from Spanish or French sources."
How is Eden seen these days, from the perspective of so many decades? With my patchy knowledge and superficial ideas of 20th century history, and also burdened with the US-influenced viewpoint of so much of what I saw or read growing up, I associate him with the Suez fiasco.
Berkley wrote: "How is Eden seen these days, from the perspective of so many decades?"I am just about old enough to remember Suez - as you say, that is what Eden is remembered for. His policy on Spain's civil war I didn't know about. Another black mark against him.
Mod
At the moment I'm reading this French book; Blizzard, a first novel by Marie Vingtras about whom I know nothing except that this is a psedonym and her date/place of birth. I was going to say a "young French writer", but then realised that born in 1972 is not so young :)The story is set in Alaska where a young woman and a little boy are missing in a blizzard. As the search for them goes on, narrated by 3 of the 4 men who live in this isolated spot, and by the woman, who has lost the little boy, we learn about the past lives of the little group.
A quick read, I want to know what happens.
I very much like Jenny Diski's writing, particularly her non-fiction. She died in 2016. She contributed to the London Review of Books and this latest book, Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told? is a collection of LRB pieces. One longish essay was later developed into a book which I've read, Skating to Antarctica, but the others (so far) are new to me.
I'm being very AB-ish here, 😉, with 4 books on the go. As well as Rouge : Histoire d'une couleur / Red: The History of a Color, I'm re-reading a Nicolas Freeling crime novel, The Widow.
Mod
I went there yesterday, a wet, chilly day, good for museum visiting. Henri Cernuschi made a lengthy trip around Asia in 1870 and started building a collection. After returning to France, he exhibited his collection and built an hotel particulier to house it. On his death, this became a museum and was opened to the public in 1898. It's recently been renovated and is well worth a visit.
Like all 14 of the museums belonging to the city of Paris, it's free. I wanted to see the current exhibition of Japanese prints and that was also free which was nice.
I'll put some more pictures in Photos.
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Richard Wagner (other topics)
Arthur Conan Doyle (other topics)
Rishi Sunak has taken questions from two men dressed in hi-vis clothing at a warehouse in Derbyshire who turned out to be Conservative councillors.
T..."
i gave Sunak a chance when he replaced Truss, while i disagree with everything he believes in, i hoped that he would restore some decency to the job, at PMQs and with the public but within days all i could see was a lying little creep, who lives in a parallel world. Rwanda deal and dying in a ditch for it was even worse...
i hope for a labour majority and a repeal of as many tory laws as possible, as quickly as possible, especially Rwanda-crime bill- unions bill. But this country has a resting tory vote of around 40%, so a hung parliament is more likely