Sean McMeekin (2021)

Even those who are familiar with Second World War History, and with Stalin, will find a huge amount in this book. It’s a complete take-down of the usual western-centric perspective of both the war and its background diplomacy.

It’s hard to comprehend the degree of duplicity displayed by Stalin, other than as an utterly ruthless and unswerving devotion to both the short- and long-term benefits of any agreement to the USSR. No lie is too brazen, and no-one remains un-betrayed. It renders the war in the West unavoidably morally compromised, as Britain and France fight Germany over its treatment of its neighbours while not fighting the USSR which has invaded just as many of its neighbours. Having said that, it’s clearly rather fantastical of McMeekin to suggest that this could have been rectified by the Allies fighting the Russians too in defence of free peoples: no matter that it would have been an unsaleable proposition at the time, it’s hard to see how it would have enormously altered the broad strokes of what followed had the Nazis still knocked-out France.

The Western leaders come out very badly: Churchill, but especially Roosevelt. The former is too romantic and too old-world to cope with the diminished nature of Britain’s place in the world; the latter is clearly entirely taken in by his belief in his own ability to charm and manage anyone, with this belief being fed by a collection of NKVD assets and Communist fell0w-travellers embedded in the US foreign services. Both are comprehensively outclassed. It’s shocking to read of Roosevelt’s treatment of Churchill in the wider context of the Lend-Lease programme, from which Russia receives a cascade of material for free while the British receive substantially less and are required to pay exorbitantly for it. It’s also shocking in this context to read that the Red Army’s supply base from Lend-Lease left it so overwhelmingly superior in men and machinery to the Wehrmacht – and yet still took almost unimaginable casualties in almost every encounter.

McMeekin’s overall view of the war is that the Russians won in terms of their final positioning in the world, and that both Lend-Lease and the looting of German and the other countries of Eastern Europe positioned them as a superpower ready for the Cold War. It’s a hard diagnosis, but one that’s also hard to counter.

5/5. Finished Monday 28 June, 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

The next version of epydemic has just been released. It now includes a generating functions library.

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Joe Tasker (1982)

Still one of the greatest mountaineering books ever written, all the more poignant for being posthumous. It’s the book that first fired my imagination for the mountains.

The climbs that Tasker tackles (with a variety of “great names” from British muntaineering of the era) gradually grow in severity – although starting with the north face of the Eiger is hardly a normal progression! His honesty in describing his feelings is remarkable, not least because they’re generally feelings of technical and emotional inadequacy. These are set amid quite epic descriptions of climbing challenges and the (often grim) reality of being on expeditions in the Himalayas.

Tasker often compares his own emotional state to that of his companions, notably the notoriously self-contained Dick Renshaw and equally notoriously voluble Doug Scott. It’s hard to know from this book what they would have thought of him: he gives the impression of being rather inscrutable himself (an impression that Chris Bonnington reinforces in his forward). It’s perhaps a trait that served him well on the walls when the going got especially tough, as it did frequently. He finds himself repeatedly questioning his motivations for climbing without reaching too much of a conclusion. He seems simply to accept it: it’s what he does, there doesn’t have to be a reason, and the dangers and isolation are simply part of the cost. It never feels over-examined.

5/5. Finished Tuesday 8 June, 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Stephen Greenblatt (2018)

An analysis of Shakespeare’s treatment of tyranny in several plays: the Henry VI series, Richard III, Macbeth, King Lear, A Winter’s Tale, and Coriolanus. All fascinating discussions as they stand, written by an individual who’s clearly a deep Shakespeare scholar – but also cleverly addressing contemporary political themes and events. Make England Great Again!

As with much such scholarship, it often begs the question of how much Shakespeare really meant what is imputed to him: to what extent is his writing a mirror onto which we can project any theme of interest? Perhaps that’s not such an interesting question in this case, though, as the reflections cast by the plays – histories and tragedies, including a couple considerably less well-read or -performed in modern times – are really illuminating of the timelessness of events that sometimes feel like they’re uniquely modern, rather than be reiterations at some level of eternal themes. The power of this is shown by the fact that this book was published well before some of the events that it parallels, such as the 6 January 2021 storming of the US Capitol. That I think makes clear the depth of the historical context.

5/5. Finished Tuesday 8 June, 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Joe Tasker (1981)

A classic of mountaineering, although not to the same extent as Savage Arena, Tasker’s other (later) book.

This is the story of an ill-fated expedition to climb Everest by an unusual route, in winter. The challenge was too great and the team had to turn back, plagued by illness and atrocious weather. But that in no way diminishes their achievement, and they laid the ground work for later winter expeditions to the Himalayas having exposed exactly how cruel the wind in particular made climbing in that season.

Tasker is quite an acute observer of his partners, especially of their strengths as climbers and team-mates. He himself comes through less strongly, and this is a far less personally revealing account than is “Savage Arena”. It’s probably best read as an inspiring tale of what can be achieved even when short of ultimate success.

4/5. Finished Monday 7 June, 2021.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)