5 comments about The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold.

1. For a long time, I have been world weary of contemporary historians who time and again sell the truth of a period for a mess of pottage. The Tyrannicide Brief was written by lawyer and judge, Geoffrey Robertson, who has researched a brilliant history of the time of the Commonwealth in England, which has been horribly treated for the last 347 years.
   
   His main focus is on the lawyer, John Cooke, who accepted his Parliamentarian assignment to try King Charles I, who indeed started the English Civil War and conspired with foreign interests.
   
   Robertson gives a well researched history of the conflict that lead up to the king's trial (Robertson concurs that he was guilty) and the life of Cooke.
   
   He also treats the many histories that have mostly provoked against the Parliamentarians who stood up to the task. He also clears up some historical errors, like the fact that the Parliamentarian Army did not wholesale murder Irish citizens, but took Drogheda against English officers according to the rules of war; and that Irish subjects were treated with the best English judgement under the Commonwealth judge Cooke, who also did not imprison debtors, but instead ordered them to pay the debt by installments, a form of legal sentencing of the poor that would take centuries to recapture, following the malicious court of the conspiring villain king and son of Charles I, Charles II, who tried to subvert his country at the secret Treaty of Dover to Louis XIV of France.
   
   It is atrocious to see how conscientious men had and have suffered in history at the hands of antagonists. This is an important study concerning the Good Old Cause.
   
   While I like the thoughtfulness of Robertson's application of this study of jurisprudence against tyranny, I think it is difficult to apply the traditions and common law of a sovereign state in an international context (i.e. part of the problem of enforcing democracy in Muslim nations) as he does at the end of the book. Nevertheless, his legal thoughts on the state of modern tyranny need to be considered in an increasingly complex world of law and culture. From an American perspective, I think one should also consider the thoughts of John and John Quincy Adams on the difficulties of that subject.
   
   Robertson is rigorous in his historical analysis which is quite rare today. Perhaps historians should study law to write history.
   
   If you want to add an authoritative text to your library, choose this one.



2. John Cooke of 17th Century England, now that is a name most unknown to massive majority of Americans today and few who do, probably known him as "John Cook" and he wasn't well regarded by previous authors like Antonia Fraser, Charles Charlton or C.V. Wedgwood. But Geoffrey Robertson does great justice to him and this book is a biographical work on John Cooke (with the "e") and his greatest legal work, conviction of King Charles I of high treason against the people of his kingdoms. Of course, that conviction later cost Cooke his life when royal restoration came.
   
   The author traces Cooke's life and interwoven it with the dramatic events of his lifetime, his services with Thomas Wentworth, the English Civil Wars, Cromwell's rule and finally at the end, restoration of Charles II. But the author took care stayed within the boundary of his subject. The author also made sure that Cooke wasn't just a "hack lawyer" as many of the previous historians made him out to be but someone who is ahead of his time in terms of legal reforms. Cooke appears to be a type of lawyer who took his profession very seriously. According to the author, he was the first to advocate the right to remain silence, to pro bono lawyers to help those who cannot afford one and to regard kingship in terms of office granted by the people instead of one anointed by God. Many of what Cooke initially advocated soon became part of our nation's Constitutional laws and legal system we enjoyed today.
   
   The book reads very well and it well written. Obviously the author have done his homework and it clears up many of the misconceptions and little disregards that previous historians have given toward John Cooke, including the proper spelling of his name. Core of the book is the trial of King Charles I and its an excellent narrative far above the only other book that I read on the subject, authored by C.V. Wedgwood. He was a die-hard Puritan but made his reputation as fair-minded and very knowledgeable. He wasn't very famous nor rich or well connected, ironically nobody really know what he even looked like after his death since no one thought Cooke was worthy enough to paint his likeness. This book provides a lot of useful and new information to anyone interested in British history.
   
   The book highly recommended for anyone interested along this subject area. However, I strongly recommended that you should have a good background on the time period before reading it since the subject of the book is rather specific in nature and having a good background knowledge of the reign of Charles I, the civil wars and all that really helped enhance your understanding of the book.



3. Over the last few years I have become aware of the phrase "History Wars" which seems to be a serious attempt by the Politically Correct brigade to reinterpret, and in some cases completely rewrite, history.
   
   One of the most shameful rewritings of history I have ever seen (up there with the holocaust deniers)is Mr. Geoffrey Robertson's book "The Tyrannicide Brief" the basic argument of which is to say that the illegal trial and execution of King Charles I was the first time the people put on trial a tyrant and then set about establishing a utopian new society under Oliver Cromwell.
   
   When I first heard Mr. Robertson put forward his views in an interview on ABC Radio National I was shocked "could this educated man be serious, Cromwell was good man and did the right thing by the people and God?!" As any encyclopaedia will inform you, Cromwell could not get his way with Parliament to put the King on trial so he excluded the House of Lords from the vote and when he was no more successful with the House of Commons he arranged for Colonel Pride prevent around 150 members of the house from entering so that he then had the numbers to win the vote!
   
   Robertson's attempts to make John Cooke into a hero is as absurd as it is wicked. Not only was His Majesty the King denied the fundamental right of the presumption of innocence, he was told in the "trial" that he was to be convicted. The King was placed before a hand-picked biased tribunal. The law had never received Royal Assent.
   
   Add to this the fact that none of the existing high court judges agreed to preside over the court and you get the basic idea. I will not go in to too much detail as readers can seek out the finer details in any good book on the subject. Cromwell simply wanted the King dead at any cost.
   
   The other thing Cromwell is remembered for is his hatred of Roman Catholics and the killing of many thousands of innocent people in Ireland.
   
   So why does Mr. Robertson rewrite history? The answer might be one of the views he often puts forward in interviews and in his writings, that is that he believes the UK, Australia and other realms of the Queen should become republics. So instead of articulating a republic model he engages in twisting the truth to hoodwink the ignorant.
   
   His Majesty King Charles I was the last person to be made a Saint by the Anglican Church due to the fact that Cromwell offered him his life if he would abandon episcopacy but he refused, for this would have taken the Church of England away from being part of 'the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church' and made Her into a sect.
   
   I would urge readers to look to properly researched books on this subject that can be bought through Amazon.



4. Every once in a while I will pick up a book that is very far from my field, just because it looks interesting and because I want to try something that is well-written in unfamiliar territory. This book surely fits the bill. The prose is very good, and the story of how Charles went from the throne to the chopping block is told in a dramatic way. I totally recommend it.



5. I confess: I like the way Geoffrey Robertson thinks and the way he writes even if I don't always agree with his conclusions. This book is a great read.
   
   If you can suspend your knowledge of the history (and any associated bias) and look at the events through the perspective of the law, then this is a wonderful fresh look at the legal issues uncovered/exposed by these events.
   
   This book is not just about the events of 17th century England. The issues discussed reverberate today in the trials of modern war criminals and leaders.
   
   Highly recommended to all who have an interest in history, the law and contemporary international events.
   
   Jennifer Cameron-Smith
   
   Note: I first published this review in April 2006 for the hardcover version of the book.

3 comments about Disraeli: A Brief Life.

1. This is written for a british school person taking his or her O and or A levels. It is an enjoyeable read which put Disraeli in a comptempary historical view point. Yes, the Author actually compares Disraeli and his government to the tories of the 80's under the iron rule of Thatcher.



2. Paul Smith attempts the impossible - to write a brief life - of the complex, remarkable and enigmatic Jewish politician and author Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Smith almost pulls it off but another 50 or so pages would have given him much more scope to portray Disraeli's major contributions to the politics of identity, social and political reform and the recognition of the inevitability of working class emancipation. Smith allows his fascination with Dizzy's Jewishness and "outsider" status to overwhelm the other facets of his character and beliefs. Part of Dizzy's greatness as a politician was the ability to simultaneously portray himself as the ultimate outsider and the loyal, patriotic "insider." Until the election of Ramsey MacDonald as the first Labour Prime Minister in the 1920s, Disraeli stands alone as the most unlikely Prime Minister Britain ever had. Smith's book includes some good quotes from commentators such as Gladstone and Michael Foot. A book deserving a fuller treatment in its second edition but still a very useful introduction to its subject for young students of 19th century history.



3. Overall, this brief biography offers an interesting portrait of a commanding political figure of the Victorian era. In order to fully appreciate Smith's rendition, however, one should become acquainted with (if not actually reading) Disraeli's novels, as his writing seems to be Smith's point of departure, and frequent point of reference in telling the story of Disraeli's life. I, for one, was less interested in linking the biographical themes in Disraeli's novels to his life's events, and more interested in capturing the essence of the epoch, with more detail and attention paid to the political developments of Disraeli's age.

5 comments about Dicing With Di: The Amazing Adventures of Britain's Royal Chasers.

1. The depiction of some of the most professional slimeballs at their very best, true paparazzis with absolutely no ethics whatsoever, if anything this should prove to you that these people at heart are good people, I would let them help my children cross the road anyday, both fine examples of the British tabloid media . Any way Glenn and Mark mine 'll be a swift pint (cheque is in the post I understand?)



2. I thought the book was enlightening, showing a tiny glimpse into another facet of Diana's personality. The stories told by Glenn and Mark sometimes were funny but most of the time sad, showing how strange life with the British royals must have been for Diana and how confining her life continued to be when she tried to break away and make a life on her own. I just kept asking "what if", if she wouldn't have spent so much time running away, would the paparazzi eventually have moved on to another target and left her alone?



3. This book shows just how terribly Diana was harrassed. You only think you know untill you read this book. The photographers called her crazy yet they did not see how PETTY they were or that they drove her to the brink! This book will make you very ANGRY!



4. Insensitive, thoughtless, cruel, non-ending harrassment and deliberate blindness to the misery these two photographers caused Diana runs rampant through every page of this excellently photographed book. Stalking a woman who finally bursts into tears just goads them on to call her a "loon", whereas when she ignores them, they pout and sulk and pretend she secretly "wants the atention". With no thought at all of "do unto others" ,Mark and Glenn intrude onto every private waking moment. It is not enough for them that Diana is on public display as she carries out her duties or charity work. They must catch her sorrow at her father's death, her sipping coffee in her bathrobe in the mroning in her room at Disneyland when she has taken the boys on a visit. What is the purpose of following her everywhere she goes ? It seeme to me that stalkers get arrested in the United States, and yet these men get paid for doing the same thing -- making someone's life miserable -- and then getting paid for it, to add insult to psychological injury. It is a shame that more of the goodness of the Princess is not revealed here, that the evalustion of Diana is not more fair, more generous, more accurate. She was a fabulous Princess, a good Mother, and would have made a good wife to aman not bent from day one on belittling her while he kept up a relationship with his past girlfriend. A sad book because it repreatedly reveals the most despicable aspects of tabloid journalism.



5. It was an interesting book that was candid and well written. I enjoyed reading it and will treasure owning a copy.

2 comments about Margaret: The Last Real Princess.

1. I hesitated in deciding to review this book. Is it worth drawing the public's attention to a book that is, at best, descriptive journalism which promises more than it delivers? Only after reading the book did I acquaint myself with the author's journalistic reputation which helped explain some of my original disappointment with the book. As an academic, I cannot recommend this book to any serious reader interested in matters concerning the Windsor family. The book lacks proper endnotes and citations. Botham rarely identifies his sources but chooses convincing descriptive labels that suggest authoritative individuals with first hand knowledge. I am disappointed in Botham's "soap opera" treatment of a topic that is of genuine interest to many in the British Commonwealth. In short, save your money!



2. Not great, but not bad. A nice easy read, this is unfortunately a one-sided portrait of an otherwise complex interesting character, focusing mostly on her romantic controversies. I would have liked to know a bit more about all of her, her hobbies, daily routines, relationship with other Royals. I was also disappointed at the photographs, whole pages of her lovers! I would have liked to see her homes, her clothes, and her beautiful wedding. Not a disappointment by any means but this could have been a richer read than as it stands.

1 comments about We Are at War: The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times.

1. Continuing the thread begun in Hidden Lives, Simon Garfield offers selections from the Mass-Observation Project diaries of five people caught up in the preparations and then the beginning of the infamous Blitz. The uncertainty, the anger, the fear; it's all here and it leaps off of the pages in a way that keeps you turning them.
   
   Sometimes the diarists are not particularly likeable - you encounter racism and defeatist attitudes at certain points. But that is something that makes this volume particularly interesting. Knowing that these pages are going to be read by others, the diarists are still painfully honest in their fears and their prejudices. Very enlightening, and highly recommended, especially as a companion volume to Hidden Lives.

5 comments about Diana--The Last Word.

1. I have not even read the book yet, and I find a huge mistake. The picture in the book that is labeled Hasnat Khan is actually Dodi Fayed. If you look at pictures of Khan and there are several online, you can see that he has fuller lips and straight thick hair. When you compare the picture in the book to pictures of Dodi you can see it is the same person.
   
   If they can't even get that right or missed the correct name in the editing, you begin to wonder about the rest of the book.



2. This book is the worse form of petty gossip ever written. Definitely NOT historical, and should NOT be attributed to Diana's memories. This book should be called Simone Simmons: The lowest of the low.



3. This is one of my favourite books about Diana, The Princess Of Wales.It is a genuine human book about a genuine human being.The ancedotes are what bring it to life such as Diana liking to wear blue nail polish but only on her toes.
   I fail to see why others are so critical of this book perhaps it comes to close to the truth for some people



4. Whilst Ms. Simmons has been slaughtered in the mass media over her revelations, it is interesting that since the inquest into Diana's death has begun, she appears to be receiving vindication on an almost daily basis.
   
   Whilst newspapers do not report the full facts, they are on the inquest website... but much of it was in Ms. Simmons's book published a couple of years ago.
   
   Simmons's writing style is accessible to all, covers some previously unexplored and fascinating insights into a fabulous woman and it is likely only to upset those who have created for themselves a fairytale illusion that they do not want shattered.
   
   Read it and accept what you like, read it and dismiss if you wish, but accept that Diana was a person not just a media image.



5. After reading this book, I could only think that perhaps Simone is pathetic and self-centred and quite obviously jealous of Paul Burrell's (the princess's trusted butler) close friendship and loyalty to his highly respected boss Princess Diana. However, it is quite an interesting book, maybe there were some heart-to-heart women's talk in which Princess Diana would never have confided in Paul. Or perhaps Paul is totally aware of many events but chose to remain silence or just briefly mention in his books, out of his prefessionalism and respect for his boss. However, I doubt the authenticity of some contents written in Simone's book, especially the Kennedy junior flint. Having read books written by Simone (the best friend) and Paul (the butler), I would give my respect to Paul Burrell.
   p.s. Simone, how could you ever mention colon irrigation? And repeating it throughout the book?

3 comments about Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries.

1. The author of this works shows how Agatha Christie's private life and the traumas she endured pushed her to go beyond the usual norms of mystery writing, surprising and enchanting her readers. Recommended for fans of Agatha Christie's writing, as it lends insight into her life and her work.



2. This dull, plodding book is unsure if it wants to be a biography of Agatha Christie or engage in a long-winded, academic deconstruction of her prose.
   
   Skip this pretentious read and opt for an actual Agatha Christie novel instead.



3. This book does a very nice job of rounding out the character of Our Agatha. Almost everyone living and breathing has heard of this famous mystery writer, but a fraction of those people know the events in Christie's life that created a basis for her most loved tales.
   
   Gill's obvious respect for Christie allows her readers to enjoy reading this biography almost as much as Gill must have had in writing it.
   
   One criticism would be that this book does tend to linger in the area of deconstruction of the style of mystery writing that Agatha Christie used in her many-decade career. The general idea of how a mystery is constructed is interesting, but a bit less of this would tighten up Gill's otherwise delightful biography.

2 comments about Scanty Particulars: The Scandalous Life and Astonishing Secret of James Barry, Queen Victoria's Most Eminent Military Doctor.

1. With the attention that we pay these days to sexual issues, and sexual inclinations, and with the increasing realization that there are anatomical and psychological gradations in the spectrum between strictly male and strictly female, it was a sure thing that someone would be retelling the story of Dr. James Barry, one of the truly unique characters of the Victorian era. Rachel Holmes has done so in _Scanty Particulars: The Scandalous Life and Astonishing Secret of Queen Victoria's Most Eminent Military Doctor_ (Random House). Barry's story would have been worth retelling anyway; he was a crusading medical reformer who insisted on novel ideas about health and the running of hospitals that we now take for granted. He made plenty of friends and enemies, many highly placed, and no one seems to have known his secret when he died, although there were those who came out afterwards to say they had known all along. Holmes hints at it throughout her fully researched biography, but does not reveal it until after she has told all that can be known of Barry's eventful life; there will be no explicit spoiler in this review.

   Barry was born about 1790 in Edinburgh, the "about" being necessary because his origins are murky and part of his secret. He was a precocious medical student at the University of Edinburgh, which was then at the height of its international prestige for its practical and academic study of diseases. He graduated from the university in 1812, and then served his apprenticeship in London. He was a fashionable dandy, dying his hair red, sporting the longest dress sword he could find, and wearing boots with the highest heels. He was a flirt with all the ladies, and he never seems to have courted any of them. He never married. He was posted as an army doctor in a series of far-flung outposts of the British Empire. He eventually became a medical inspector, with the power to report on the treatment of prisoners and lepers; he refused to accept the hellish accommodations offered such outcasts and would not back down in his reports. His reforms included an insistence on fresh air, good diet (he advocated vegetables especially, as he was a vegetarian), and cleanliness. He extended his protection to slaves, prostitutes, children, and the mentally ill. Holmes says that he was "a radical and progressive modernizer in an age of quacks and mountebanks."

   In 1865, afflicted by diseases he had himself picked up during his long battles against them, he died in retirement in England. His tutors before him had decreed that their bodies be given up for autopsy and dissection, and Barry would have been expected to have done the same. However, he repeatedly had insisted that he simply be wrapped in whatever sheets he died upon and buried with no ceremony. (A maidservant, however, saw the body, and her report led to sensational, and naturally erroneous, claims in the press.) He had also been reluctant to be examined by any medical men, and had been fussy about being seen while dressing. Holmes's findings on the truth about Barry are consistent with his life devoted to science and anatomy. There will be no sure answers to the sexual riddle Barry poses, Holmes admits, but her speculations based on Barry's writings, especially his medical writings, are satisfying. _Scanty Particulars_ gives an eventual answer to the puzzle of Barry's "astonishing secret," but even without this key, it is an entertaining biography that includes fascinating details of colony life and of medical practice of the time.




2. Nothing like a good "dandy" scandal to heat one's blood!!!!

3 comments about Mary Wollstonecraft.

1. I truly enjoyed this book, as I had to read it for a paper. It tells of Mary Wollstonecraft and her travels, focusing mostly of life after A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman becuase it is heavily documented.

   This is not a simple book. I found myself going to the dictionary a lot but those words help in the showing of this book as an intelligent piece of work.

   Janet Todd has gone into a lot of detail when describing Wollstonecraft's life. If it described more, we'd be reading about how she held her fork and what exactly the bread looked like. Thoses details paint a more brilliant picture of MW than expected but can make the book move slowly. So much information is packed into the pages making the book a bit hard to swallow all at once.

   I sincerely recommend reading the book in more than one sitting.




2. This is a very good book. It is based on comprehensive research, extremely detailed, well written and sensitive. It is the best biography of Mary Wollstoencraft ever written and will remain so for a long time.

   The really curious thing that comes through is that Wollstonecraft was less of a feminist than one might think. In fact she was an intelligent, sensitive, somewhat high-handed and dominant, woman. Her dearest wish in life was to find a man worthy of her; her dearest fear, to be abandoned by him.

   At the time she wrote her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she was thirty years old and a virgin. The volume drips with contempt for women less talented, and less chaste, than herself. This is what makes her interesting; she is a textbook-case. Is it possible that with her, as with so many others, feminism at bottom is simply an attempt by women who do not have a man to avenge themselves on those who do?




3. I had the pleasure of reading this book while doing research for my biography, "Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy" (Corinthian Books, September 2002). Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects" (London: J. Johnson, 1792) had a profound influence on U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr, who became one of her earliest and most influential supporters in the United States. He immediately embraced Wollstonecraft's concepts of equal education and incorporated them into creating, through his teenage daughter, Theodosia, his model for the ultimate woman of the future: an exotic new intellectual hybrid embodying the education of a man with the natural qualities of a woman who possesses both the ability to reason -- and a soul (!!). Janet Todd's insightful telling of Wollstonecraft's life and her careful explanation of how Wollstonecraft's credo developed was both enlightening and enormously instructive. Todd's clear writing style makes her subject come alive. As a scholar writing a biography of Aaron Burr's daughter, I bought this book and read it because I had to. But I was so delighted with it that I then went back and re-read it because I WANTED to!

1 comments about Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion, and Great Houses.

1. 
   The Cavendish family from middle England (Sheffield to Sherwood Forest to Nottingham), knighted, rich, powerful, and land entitled, is the focus of this recently issued study of an English family both pre and post civil war, one losing almost everything in their support of Charles I.
   
   This book may be a little known one at present but for any interested in the English Civil War years of 1642-1660, it offers an in depth view of one family during those years. This family loved horse, castles, great estates, Charles I and family, and just plain high living whenever possible. A book not soon to be forgotten, but very enjoyable as the reader moves along.
   
   The author has spent nearly 10 years researching and reviewing extant written materials from the family, with the book indeed giving evidence of that study. William Cavendish left many writings and a diary covering almost every topic of his personal life. Several color photos of the lands and houses left by these people are dutifully included. By books end the reader fairly well comes to know this cavalier family in specific and many other cavaliers in general.
   
   This is a definate addition to English history during these years, for both major figures and minor alike. Check this one out you lovers of Roundheads versus Cavaliers.
   
   Recommended.
   
   Semper Fi.