Reading list

Fresh from the shower, and sitting in a cool breeze up here in The Tower, I find myself to be enlivened just enough to stave off sleep for another half hour or so.

With that in mind I turn, as ever, to the keyboard for amusement: I don't want to play music as it's too late, and Beastie is abed downstairs in his pit, so it would be more than mortal man could bear should he wake after but an hour's kip. There is nothing on the TV this time of night - well, nothing worth its salt, and I can't be bothered to dig out a DVD or tape.

I could read, but right now I seem to be more in a mood to write up my reading list. Don't ask me why, I don't know. It just seems like the thing to do at just after 1.00 am on a Thursday morning.

As usual, I have a number of books technically on the go, but of them all, the one currently graced with my full attention is Saul David's Indian Mutiny, 1857.

For someone who professes an interest in history, I am profoundly lacking in knowledge of Britain's imperial past, and since many of today's current events are often lineal descendents of that past, I decided it was time to rectify this shocking lack. I saw the book on wallabok's shelf last time I visited, and made a note to purchase it. Well written, and not at all dry, it looks at the events of the mutiny in some detail, and depends upon original research. A lively, entertaining and informative look at one of the less fortunate events in our recent imperial past. Recommended.

About the same time, I saw that the same author has recently published Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879, an account as the title might suggest of the ill-conceived, poorly executed and bloodily irrelevant war between Britain and the Zulu nation. I have high hopes for this book if it is presented in a similar fashion to the Indian Mutiny. Again, it is a period of history about which I am woefully ignorant, other than a passing knowledge of the Battle of Isandlwana, the defence of Rorke's Drift and the death of the Prince Imperial, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, pretender to the throne of France.

Third on the list, and a book I bought a couple of months ago, but which is far too big to lug into work, and therefore earmarked as holiday reading in a fortnight or so, is The Lie That Wouldn't Die: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, by Hadassa Ben-Itto, erstwhile Israeli High Court Judge. This is the history of one of the most infamous forgeries of the modern age, and the promulgation of the concept of Jewish world domination. The Protocols have been debunked on numerous occasions, and the evidence of their lineage is relatively easy for the layman to uncover with a little footwork around some of the better equipped municipal libraries. Nonetheless, the Nazis used them to underpin their antisemitic beliefs, and a quick search on the internet will find that they are still being published as fact on both arab and white supremacist websites even today.

I have read the first chapter or so, and again it is written in a clean, easy and accessible style.

Number four, is a book I started reading about three months ago, and then got distracted from. I'm not sure why, as it is a good read. Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman, by Frances Stonor Saunders, relates the tale of Sir John Hawkwood, a knight who found himself out of work at the end of hostilities between England and France in the 14th Century. He went on to become leader of the White Company, the most successful of the condottieri. He turned the business of war into an exorbitant art, and by pitting city state against city state, against pope and vice versa, forced mediaeval Europe's richest country, Italy, to buy herself back from him with tiresome regularity over a thirty year period.

A fresco in his honour can be found in the Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence should anyone wish to check.

Finally, also on a historical note, but this time fictional, I have Bernard Cornwell's latest (paperback)offering, The Last Kingdom, a story from the time of the Viking wars in England at the end of the 10th century. It won't be great literature, but it will be well-researched and a ripping good read.

Right, that's me done.

Night, all.

Reading list

Fresh from the shower, and sitting in a cool breeze up here in The Tower, I find myself to be enlivened just enough to stave off sleep for another half hour or so.

With that in mind I turn, as ever, to the keyboard for amusement: I don't want to play music as it's too late, and Beastie is abed downstairs in his pit, so it would be more than mortal man could bear should he wake after but an hour's kip. There is nothing on the TV this time of night - well, nothing worth its salt, and I can't be bothered to dig out a DVD or tape.

I could read, but right now I seem to be more in a mood to write up my reading list. Don't ask me why, I don't know. It just seems like the thing to do at just after 1.00 am on a Thursday morning.

As usual, I have a number of books technically on the go, but of them all, the one currently graced with my full attention is Saul David's Indian Mutiny, 1857.

For someone who professes an interest in history, I am profoundly lacking in knowledge of Britain's imperial past, and since many of today's current events are often lineal descendents of that past, I decided it was time to rectify this shocking lack. I saw the book on wallabok's shelf last time I visited, and made a note to purchase it. Well written, and not at all dry, it looks at the events of the mutiny in some detail, and depends upon original research. A lively, entertaining and informative look at one of the less fortunate events in our recent imperial past. Recommended.

About the same time, I saw that the same author has recently published Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879, an account as the title might suggest of the ill-conceived, poorly executed and bloodily irrelevant war between Britain and the Zulu nation. I have high hopes for this book if it is presented in a similar fashion to the Indian Mutiny. Again, it is a period of history about which I am woefully ignorant, other than a passing knowledge of the Battle of Isandlwana, the defence of Rorke's Drift and the death of the Prince Imperial, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, pretender to the throne of France.

Third on the list, and a book I bought a couple of months ago, but which is far too big to lug into work, and therefore earmarked as holiday reading in a fortnight or so, is The Lie That Wouldn't Die: the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, by Hadassa Ben-Itto, erstwhile Israeli High Court Judge. This is the history of one of the most infamous forgeries of the modern age, and the promulgation of the concept of Jewish world domination. The Protocols have been debunked on numerous occasions, and the evidence of their lineage is relatively easy for the layman to uncover with a little footwork around some of the better equipped municipal libraries. Nonetheless, the Nazis used them to underpin their antisemitic beliefs, and a quick search on the internet will find that they are still being published as fact on both arab and white supremacist websites even today.

I have read the first chapter or so, and again it is written in a clean, easy and accessible style.

Number four, is a book I started reading about three months ago, and then got distracted from. I'm not sure why, as it is a good read. Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman, by Frances Stonor Saunders, relates the tale of Sir John Hawkwood, a knight who found himself out of work at the end of hostilities between England and France in the 14th Century. He went on to become leader of the White Company, the most successful of the condottieri. He turned the business of war into an exorbitant art, and by pitting city state against city state, against pope and vice versa, forced mediaeval Europe's richest country, Italy, to buy herself back from him with tiresome regularity over a thirty year period.

A fresco in his honour can be found in the Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence should anyone wish to check.

Finally, also on a historical note, but this time fictional, I have Bernard Cornwell's latest (paperback)offering, The Last Kingdom, a story from the time of the Viking wars in England at the end of the 10th century. It won't be great literature, but it will be well-researched and a ripping good read.

Right, that's me done.

Night, all.

Pointless time passer

I have decided, in my wisdom, and without reference to anyone else, that Su Doku should be banned. It is addictive, frustrating and wearisome. Especially the 'difficult' and 'fiendish' versions. It takes me long enough to sort out the 'easy' and 'mild' ones, thank you very much, and I am incapable of holding in my head the assumptions you need to make on the harder versions.

Also, when you find you have made a mistake, unless you realise immediately, you can never work out which numbers are right, and which are wrong.

Bloody hell, their crosswords are hard enough without The Times introducing these new puzzles which then get cloned across every newspaper going.

So, banned. There, it's done. Those of you still doing Su Doku puzzles are now officially outlaws.

I shall not be merciful: you have been warned.

Pointless time passer

I have decided, in my wisdom, and without reference to anyone else, that Su Doku should be banned. It is addictive, frustrating and wearisome. Especially the 'difficult' and 'fiendish' versions. It takes me long enough to sort out the 'easy' and 'mild' ones, thank you very much, and I am incapable of holding in my head the assumptions you need to make on the harder versions.

Also, when you find you have made a mistake, unless you realise immediately, you can never work out which numbers are right, and which are wrong.

Bloody hell, their crosswords are hard enough without The Times introducing these new puzzles which then get cloned across every newspaper going.

So, banned. There, it's done. Those of you still doing Su Doku puzzles are now officially outlaws.

I shall not be merciful: you have been warned.