1 comments about Clementine Churchill: The Biography of a Marriage.

1. This biography gives great insight into the lives of the Churchills'.It was written by Mary Soames, the youngest child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. It was amazing to see the love and devotion Clementine and Winston had for each other. They were ever faithful letter companions from the start of their romantic and strong relationship. While reading the profound letters they wrote to each other you feel as if you were there with them, feeling every emotion they felt. This biography also includes great stories and antecdotes that will keep you laughing, crying, or shouting for joy for hours. The effects this biography has on you are numerous, but the strongest one would have to be one of awe. Their marriage is a marriage to look up to. They did have troubled times. Like, when Winston went to join in the action of World War I after his loss of the position of First Lord of the Admiralty. Or of the times before WWII when Winston was trying so hard to get people to listen to him about the danger and potency of Hitler and the Nazis. They stayed together in good times and in bad and in sickness and in health. They stayed together until the death of Winston. I highly recommend this book so that you can experience this wonderful and lasting marriage and all that comes along with it.

2 comments about Sarah Churchill: Duchess of Marlborough: The Queen's Favourite.

1. Sarah Churchill, 1st Duchess of Marlborough gained notoriety through three things:

   1. She was a lady-in-waiting/best friend to Queen Anne of England. She took this position of power for granted, treating the Queen much like a dumb child. She felt it was her right to instruct the Queen on appropriate political decisions and appointments at court. When Sarah became too pushy and arrogant, the Queen severed the friendship, leading to a very public fall from favour.

   2. She was married to the military man John Churchill, who defeated Louis XIV's French army in the early 1700s (A big thing at the time - remember England and France were arch enemies). This victory led Queen Anne to give John and Sarah titles (Duke and Duchess of Marlborough) and a huge government grant to build a massive palace with - Blenheim, which still stands today outside of Oxford UK.

   3. Her direct descendents include Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales.

   Ophelia Field has written a biography which covers all these events, and also tells us objectively about the woman herself. She does not attempt to paint a rosy picture of Sarah, who could be stubborn and domineering. At the same time, she explains WHY Sarah did certain things (based on letters she wrote to family and friends - many excerpts included), and why her political views were as they were. Crucially, she discusses how Sarah's support of the Whig party, her deep rooted belief in their righteousness, developed into a fanatacism which led to her fall from the Queen's favour and high society. Queen Anne is also brought to life as a woman all her own, though her reign was short.

   This biography was informative, educational (about the political and aristocratic climate of the time 1680s-1720s), and fascinating. It portrayed a modern woman ahead of her time. I feel if I had met Sarah Churchill, I may not have liked her (she polarised people - you either loved or hated her), but I certainly would have respected and admired her.




2. A fair bit of the text in this book went towards explaining why Sarah Churchill has been undervalued or unfairly treated in previous biographies. In certain sections this is helpful, in others it is very distracting. In some ways, I wish this biographer could have been a bit more objective about her subject; she made it seem as though Sarah's missteps in politics were completely out of her control, when in fact a healthy dose of tact and respect for other people's feelings (without betraying her own convictions, just with respect for others) might have won her more success in her endeavors. That said, for Sarah Jennings to rise from impoverished gentility to a wealthy and powerful duchess (not to mention founding a well-known and lasting dynasty) is not merely remarkable, but almost incredible.
   
   Overall, the biography was very good, although I wish it would have had a family tree showing how the Marlborough family grew, who all the granchildren were and when they were born (not to mention which of Sarah's daughters were their mothers) and even possibly a chronology, as the scope of Sarah's life and the breadth of her story made it sometimes difficult to put certain events into context.

5 comments about Lilla's Feast: One Woman's True Story of Love and War in the Orient.

1. But I for one was not. The book is steeped in a bias towards colonialism. The tone of the book encourages the reader to think of the Chinese, Japanese, and Indians as faceless "others" surrounding the more civilised and elegant British and European populations, only to be depicted in elementary-school-textbook-like passages about historical events.
   Although the author's inclination to view her great-grandmother as a victim of nearly everyone and everything (fate as well!)is certainly understandable, it hardly makes for captivating reading. The writing style is a dry mix of "facts" derived from personal effects and sheer speculation.
   This book is based upon a recipe book which was donated to a British museum.... as opposed to the priceless artifacts which Britain so self-righteously helped itself to during it's tyrannical episode of colonization... and still doesn't feel the need to return.
   I suppose it's hardly possible to expect an unbiased view of colonization from the wife of the youngest conservative member of Parliament, but one can hope.



2. The previous review which reviles the colonial bias of this biography has little relevance ... this is the world as it was then and the story is not being told to address the right or wrong of it, but rather to tell the story of the author's great grandmother in the grand sweep of WWII. The woman in this incredible story makes the best of deprivations and a bad marriage and far flung family, circumstances take her from her beloved China to England, India, all of this in that bygone time with none of todays conveniences and she remained a figure of dignity and elegance who also has experiences of sublime beauty and love... I think this little masterpiece will make its way into your heart and stay there, it did with me.



3. What we have here is a woman's life spanning just over 100 years. Lilla is not a particularly likeable woman, but if you digest the details you can see why (possibly). She is an interesting woman who weathered particularly exhausting situations and managed her life so that she did what was expedient.
   This book has numerous photographs.
   The book isn't well-written or edited. That aside, the details of survival, one way or another, are quite out of the ordinary and at times fascinating. It became even more so when I realized I had actually seen this cookbook when I was lucky enough to come across it several years ago at the Imperial War Museum. It was a nice , unexpected connection. And I have never before read of the Japanese prison camp existence within China. An easy read of eras gone by.



4. This is one of the most amazing stories that I have recently read. The book is beautifully produced, and the Author has gone to an enormous amount of trouble in collecting photographs and information concerning her Great Grandmother, who defied every hardship she faced. This incredible Lady lived to the age of 100, having survived a Japanese concentration camp in World War 2, preceded by other trials and tribulations. Her story is an object lesson to us all, in how not to give in, how to keep going whatever the circumstances that life brings to us. The early days of her first Marriage tell us how to keep a man happy even though she had a miserable time with him!!!This is a book to be read again and again, a wonderful read and most inspiring.



5. "Lilla's Feast" describes a time not so very long ago that seems impossibly distant. The world-wide expansion of European colonialism in the 19th century caused thousands of people, especially British, to seek their fortunes in the colonies and the trading emporiums in the exotic East, especially India and China. Lilla, the great-grandmother of the author was one of them. She was born in Chefoo, China in 1882 and spent most of her life in China or India.
   
   Lilla never did anything of great importance, but she stands for all the Brits born and raised abroad who felt a bit foreign when they returned "home" to England on visits. During the course of her 100-year life Lilla was present during the peak of Western power and prestige in the Orient before 1900 and its rapid decline thereafter culminating in World War II in which Lilla and her family ended up in a Japanese concentration camp.
   
   We follow Lilla through marriages, births,deaths, family troubles in India and China, the hardships of Weihsien internee camp in China during World War II, and finally back to an uneasy old age in England -- the money, power, and prestige of life as a privileged Westener in China now gone. It's a good story to be read about a class of people who saw their pleasant lives and lucrative livelihoods destroyed by war and politics. We don't feel all that sorry for Lilla, nor even that fond of her, but we are interested in her experiences. Along the way we get some fascinating pictures of the life of Brits in China -- and especially the hardships of Weihsien, a concentration camp that has catalyzed a sizeable body of literature. See "The Call" by John Hersey, a novel about a missionary who is interned in Weihsien and "Shantung Compound" by Lawrence Gilkey, a sociological classic about people under the stress of imprisonment.
   
   Smallchief

1 comments about The African American National Biography: 8-Volume Set.

1. The African American National Biography comes close to its promise - a single, definitive source for biographical information about every significant African American. Each of more than 4,000 entries include citations for further reading and obituaries, where available. Many also include photographs. The entries themselves are well written, and long enough to explore the lives in detail.
   
   There are two significant problems, however.
   
   Many entries have already become dated, and in the process, lack critical biographical information. For instance, the entry on Sam Gilliam fails to mention his 2005 retrospective at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the massive accompanying catalogue. That catalogue is the most detailed look at his life and work. This may be related to the considerable amount of time it has taken for this work to be published.
   
   The binding of this set is glued, not sewn. For a title that retails for $100 a volume, and that will be heavily used in public libraries for the next couple decades, this is simply unacceptable. I'm sure that I'll be sending my library's copy off to the bindery in five or ten years at the most.
   
   If not for the above issues, I'd give this title five stars. I just hope that the second edition, these issues are resolved.

2 comments about The Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron.

1. If you're interested in the life of Edward John Trelawny, you'll have to look elsewhere. Suffice it to say that Tre' (as his friends knew him) was a privateer, a scoundrel, a lover of poetry, a freedom-fighter and a loyal friend of the most prolific literary talents of the romantic period. 'The Last Days of Shelley and Byron' is an account, not of Trelawny's extraordinary life & adventures, but of the two men that helped make that life so extraordinary. In his own words, he tells of the secret lives of Byron, Claire Clairmont and the Shelley's, their romp through sunny Italy and the tragic death of Percy off the coast of Spezzia. The tale continues as Tre' follows Byron to the civil wars of Greece, where Byron too dies. To his credit, though, it is never "Trlawny's tale", but "Byron and Shelley's tale" as told by Trelawny. It is a deep, insightful book that shows the poets as only a close friend could. Yet throughout, one can not help but love Trelawny himself: the man who supported the impoverished Mary Shelley to her dying day... the man who bought a slave for $10,000 only to set him free... the man who reached into the embers of Shelly's pyre, withdrawing his heart. If you love the poetry of Byron and Shelley & have even a passing interest in the men behind the legends, then Trelawny's memoirs are a must-read.



2. It has been a favorite pastime of academic biographers of both Shelley and Byron to deride Trelawny. This should suprise nobody. To begin with, with few exceptions, one of the primary qualifications of being a full-fledged academic is delight in derision, especially in derision of those who have firsthand knowledge of the subjects they have spent hours in the stacks on University libraries to gain, perhaps, one mote of additional information.-The common criticism of Trelawny is that he was "naive"-By this they mean that his gives a simple, straightforward account of the time he spent with the two great poets without any ponderous theories to bog him down.-Trelawny first admired Byron, but quickly became disillusioned with his cynicism and became a lifelong admirer of Shelley, so much so that he remarked thus, "As a general rule,threfore, it is wise to avoid writers whose works amuse or delight you, for when you see them they will delight you no more. Shelley was a grand exception to this rule. To form a just idea of his poetry, you should have witnessed his daily life; his words and actions best illustrated his writings." After Shelley's death, he continues to follow Byron on his misadventures until his death. The book is a treat in that it is a delight to read, with page-turning accounts of his roistering times with two great men who shaped our literary world.-Not one footnote! He was there!

1 comments about Modern Fashion in Detail.

1. This book is truly gorgeous with its fantastic close up photographs of details of 20th century garments. There are chapters devoted to bows, to buttons, sleeves and so on. This book actually came before Avril Hart's "Fashion in detail - 17th & 18th Century Clothes" and together they will keep you occupied for many hours. I only wish there were more volumes. Sheer heaven!

3 comments about The Butcher of Amritsar: General Reginald Dyer.

1. This was a carefully thought out, well researched biography of a person whom I had heard only a few facts about. While I grew up in India, history in India is not well taught and one reads basic facts without the details. This book shows the details behind the person from his childhood to his adulthood that lead to the culmination of the major dead he did, ordering the firing on the crowd without reason. It was prompted by the attack on one English woman before. It shows that colonialism is never simple, it is always accompanied by such atrocities. The crawling order that followed was also terrible. What is worse is that so many English felt that Dyer was justified in doing what he did and supported him, both in India and in England. To people who have not read the history, this will be a painful remainder that the positives that India got from the British came with terrible negatives. He felt that there should be a eleventh commandment, "Thou shalt not revolt". He felt Indian to the core as long as every Indian knew his place and served every Englishman. What is not covered in the book is the reaction to Dyer by the Indian freedom fighters. The author marginalizes the work done by people like Gandhi. However, having known what the British did in India and how they debated Dyer's actions, I for one am glad that they are not in India anymore. India may have limitations in its democracy, it may have deficiencies, but it is improving. When part of the colonial empire, the literacy of India moved from 6% to 11% from 1900 to 1945. The British spent more in the city of Manchester in city system than one whole province. Now, India's literacy is more than 60% in 50 years and economy is improving. Anyone would take that to a colonial power. What General Dyer did was epitomize the worst of what was in the British at that time.



2. The summary over here reads over 200 dead. This isn't anywhere close to the 1500 plus people who died on this day.
   
   1 star is more of a neutral view, having not read the book.



3. There are several events that are seared into Indian memory. One was the massacre at Delhi by Nadir Shah's troops in 1739. The second is the one ordered by General Dyer at Jallianwala Bagh in 180 years later. This book, by a British scholar, is a sort of soul-searching biography of the General.
   
   The story starts with General's family history, and covers his education, his military training, and subsequent career. His career is described in great detail, in nearly 200 closely typed pages. The rest of the 200 odd pages are devoted to the massacre, the investigation and trial, and General Dyer's natural death.
   
   There is a great deal of detail. There are extensive notes as well. There are 28 photographs, apart from some maps. The photographs bring out the horrors of colonial rule clearly - one showing an elderly man having to crawl in the street to get to his own house, because of the dehumanising crawling order. Mr. Collett has done a painstaking job. To my knowledge, this is the most detailed and authentic work on this tragic event.
   
   The British were at the zenith of their power and glory, and this was getting reflected in their behaviour and thinking. This comes through very nicely in Mr. Collett's work. He shows how British opinion about the massacre was divided. There were a large number of people who were horrified, but there was also a determined group which defended his actions. General Dyer himself remained defiant, unrepentant to the end.
   
   Mr. Collett's book is also timely - the curtains have not been drawn on such excesses. They were repeated across Europe during the second world war. They continue to take place today in Iraq. Today's military may have become more accountable, but it has certainly not become more responsible in its use of force than General Dyer was.
   
   There was a post-script to this, which Mr. Collett has not mentioned. On 13-March-1940, an Indian named Udham Singh, who had seen the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, searched out and shot dead Sir Michael O'Dwyer (the then Governor of Punjab, and an untiring defender of General Dyer) at Caxton Hall in London. He surrendered to the Police, giving his name as Ram Mohammed Singh D'Souza, signifying brotherhood among Indians of different faiths. He was hanged by the British on 12-June-1940.
   
   All in all an excellent book for scholars, and those interested in this period of Indian history or in colonialism.
   
   If you read Hindi, you may also be interested in a shorter book 'Jallianwala Kaand ka Sach', Major General Sooraj Bhatia, published by Prabhat Prakashan, Delhi.

No comments about The Letters of Virginia Woolf : Vol. 5.

5 comments about Her Little Majesty: The Life of Queen Victoria.

1. This is a small book for such a large subject. It keeps to the facts and indeed it does not overwhelm you with those. I found some of the expressions used in the book to be a little odd, almost as if the writer was trying to write in style that she thinks is "real" English.

   I enjoyed the book and it has made me want to learn more about this quite remarkable woman. In short ;read it and enjoy , but don't expect to be turned into an expert by the end of the book.




2. This book is very well written. THere are many similies and metaphors which put you back into the life of Queen Victoria. It is an educational book, yet it reads like a story. It is most definetly not like most historical non-fiction books.



3. This is a very brief and often inaccurate portrayal of Queen Victoria and the 19th century, during a time when everything that people knew and accepted was changing. For a more accurate biography about Queen Victoria, I suggest "Victoria Victorious" by Jean Plaidy. Much better.



4. I was hoping for a lot more from this book after reading other reviews and noting how many biographies of famous women Carolly Erickson has written. Frankly this book read like a student's history project, that is, essentially a time-line with only a small effort to truly express who Queen Victoria was. The book was not very captivating and I only finished it because it was the only book I had on an 8 hour flight. There are probably better biographies of the Little Queen out there.



5. Like most reviewers, I found this delightful little volume a good read, without the detail one normally encounters in a biography. One gathers from this work that the the queen's unhappy childhood had a profound effect upon the rest of her life; including, in rather a perverse way, the relationship with her husband, whom she is said to have both adored and harassed.
   
   I have to admit that I purchased my new copy for one pound in London (remainder!). I am doubtful if I would have paid full price. But a good read.

No comments about Winston Churchill and Emery Reves: Correspondence, 1937-1964.