John Preston

2021

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As biographies of monsters go, this is one of the best. It sets out the whole sweep of Robert Maxwell's complex and in the end perplexing personality: someone who courageously fought the Nazis, but committed (and admitted to) war crimes, who made and lost fortunes but never escaped the need to aggrandise. He transformed academic publishing – something I, as an academic, was unaware of – but engaged in outlandish stunts and competitions in tabloid journalism. His death was as dramatic and inexplicable as many of the events of his life.

It would be an easy story to sensationalise, and while there's some of that in this book, overall it reads as a balances account by someone without too much of a stake in the outcome. It's perhaps inevitable that the story has been overshadowed by the later tribulations of Ghislaine, Robert Maxwell's daughter, but these events are in many ways foreshadowed by her earlier history. They're certainly all of a piece with the story told here.

4/5. Finished 10 February 2022.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Tim Bouverie

2019

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The history of the not-out-finest-hour that preceded our finest hour.

This is a very balanced treatment of a period that it's difficult to treat fairly. It manages this by keeping a clear focus on what the protagonists know and believe at the time, without losing sight of whether those beliefs were reasonable: often they weren't, and in the final analysis the idea that appeasement could ever have succeeded is well and truly exploded.

The use of extensive quotes from private correspondence is extremely revealing of the inner motivations of many, not least Chamberlain. But it also reveals something that I'd not noticed before: the subtle change in the meaning of the word appeasement over the course of the period. In the early years it comes across as simply a way of re-introducing equity into international relations, and only later acquires the sub-text of surrender and cowardice that it now has.

My only minor criticism is that there are a few places where a little more clarity as to the deceptions going on could have been welcome. The "Polish provocations" used by the Nazis to ramp-up the tensions prior to the attack, for example, were almost entirely imagined propaganda, culminating in the staged "incidents" used as the final justification.

5/5. Finished 30 January 2022.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Hallie Rubenhold

2005

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An entertaining dive into a part of 18th-century society that's too often only considered voyeuristically. The survival of "Harris' List" provides a starting point, but it's the detailed archival study and the willingness to dig into the histories of the three main protagonists that really sets this book apart. In doing so it also gets to uncover some of the grimier realities of living on (or close to) the streets in a period when money was all that really counted in terms of life chances.

Rubenhold is very sympathetic to the Covent Garden ladies. "Prostitutes" (or "harlots" in the TV adaptation) is a too-harsh judgement: many adopted sex work only because society gave them no other options, or adopted it only periodically when forced to by poverty, or as a semi-acceptable companion to stage-work. She is also unforgiving of the male customers, who avoided most social sanctions or consequences.

The fact that "Harris' List" ran for nearly four decades (and that we have examples of most of them) also makes it a revealing social document as the mores and morals of society change across the 18th century. The descriptions become less straightforward, more ornate and (one would imagine) less useful as time goes by and the publishers become more susceptible to legal action for obscenity (even as the underlying social conditions remain largely unaddressed).

4/5. Finished 22 January 2022.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Courttia Newland

2017

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A great collection of new science fiction. Some new premises, and older ones deftly handled.

3/5. Finished 15 January 2022.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)

Stephen Gethins

2021

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A former MP discusses Scotland's now and future foreign policy.

(Full disclosure: Gethins is a Professor in Practice of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, where I also work.)

This is a detailed and wide-ranging work, exploring the past, present, and potential future of Scotland's foreign policy "footprint". It's quick to point out that even sub-State actors have such a footprint, and show how the Scottish government is able to work with (and sometimes against) the wider UK government in liaison with other international players, and the tensions and missed opportunities that arise.

Gethins is SNP (as am I), and as such has a clear preference for an independent Scotland. He tries valiantly to consider the potential future without independence, and how Scotland might in that case contribute more effectively to the UK's efforts. This doesn't quite succeed as an approach, perhaps because Gethins can't imagine that the UK can execute what would be needed to make such a future happen, for example as set out in How Britain Ends: English Nationalism and the Rebirth of Four Nations – and I have to say I agree with him on that. He quotes many influential Europeans (and others) who welcome Scotland's policy stance, and would welcome independence were it to come, which is clearly set out to address some of the uncertainties that doomed the "indyref" of 2014. It does a good job of this, as well as of showing how much Scotland as a region has to offer in the foreign policy sphere, and how little is being made of it so far.

3/5. Finished 08 January 2022.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)