2 comments about Yale English Monarchs - William Rufus (The English Monarchs Series).

1. William Rufus (William the Red), second son of William the Conquer,took over England while his older brother's back was turned and ruled it for little over a decade before being killed in a strange hunting "accident" in the New Forest. That's about all the space he gets in history today, except the claims that he was a homosexual, an atheist, an all-round bad person and the less said the better. While this book takes pains to look at and question these charges,it is not the only subject that the author deals with in William's regin. Despite being a "wild and crazy guy" and running a court that looks like a frat house, William seems also to have been an able adminstor, a good diplomat and a strong enough miltary leader to keep his elder brother out of England and the Saxons quiet. I enjoied this book, one of the few on the subject and a serious study of it's subject. A good source on a rare subject.



2. I was impressed with the amount of detail on William Rufus by Frank Barlow. He pieced together a time in English history that seems to be looked over by most historians. Barlow makes a strong analytical approach to dispelling public perception of William Rufus. He makes sure you understand that the remaining documentaton on William Rufus is so fragmented. And that that does remain is from one point of view, the Church which obvouisly does not favor William Rufus. Barlow points out William II was a more capable ruler than most give him credit for and this angle is enough to make this book a must read for those interested in Norman History and the English crown.

5 comments about A Summer Bright and Terrible: Winston Churchill, Lord Dowding, Radar, and the Impossible Triumph of the Battle of Britain.

1. I discovered Lord Dowding as the author did through Dowdings book "Lynchgate". The Battle of Britain, whilst not the saviour as most believe put a serious dent in Hitlers War Machine. Britain was to remain free and a "stepping stone" back into Europe.
   
   Without Lord Dowding none of this would have been achieved. Bombing had been shown to be the way of modern warfare and fighters stuck in a time warp could not catch them. Dowding's obstinacy and prescience established a data-linked system of radar, operation rooms and fighters. Without him the World may have been a much different place.
   
   Since owning and reading the book, I have lent it out to various people, some who admit to only occassionally reading! Everyone has been awe stuck by the story. Our debt of gratitude to those who fought the Second World War is aptly enhanced.



2. A Summer Bright and Terrible: Winston Churchill, Lord Dowding, Radar, and the Impossible Triumph of the Battle of Britain by David E. Fisher is the story of more of the more eccentric military geniuses, High Dowding, the Commander of RAF Fighter Command during The Battle of Britain. I mention eccentric because Dowding's bend-of-mind makes folks like Patton and Montgomery seem dead normal.
   
   In fact, if you combined Patton's belief in reincarnation and the afterlife with Montogomery's stubbornness, you get a pretty good idea of how - under normal circumstances - loopy this man was. Fisher describes a man that openly spoke of discussions with dead fighter pilots and who married a woman whose dead husband recommended to Dowding that he do so. The woman, by the way, had had dreams about a man named Hugh - vastly older than she - who had protected her as a child.
   
   So, was Hugh Dowding a nut case?
   
   It doesn't necessarily matter because this man also was responsible for some of the most innovative developments in aerial combat: multi-gunned monoplane fighters, radar and its associated ground-control infra-structure and the twin-engined radar carrying night fighter. Along the way, he also managed to stand up to Winston Churchill and maintain a cadre of the aforementioned fighters in England when the PM was bound and determined to lose them all in an effort to save France.
   
   And in return for these efforts, he was villified in person and behind his back; left in suspense as to his future for months on end, dis-obeyed by several of his immediate suboridinates and, ultimately, force out of service.
   
   The story is one of the most true examples of doing the right thing, despite and in spite of the potential repercussions. An absolutely excellent work. I only wish that Fisher had footnoted the book. By not not doing so, he hoists himself on his own petard of chastising those who mis-quote or fabricate.



3. Well worth buying since this area has not been properly covered to my knowledge. Disagreeably journalistic style.
   With all due respect to Dowding and none to the Air Ministry, someone should extend the book's scope and write a book on all the cock-ups and how they came into being and were tolerated. Examples: Leigh Mallory insubordination, no camouflage paint on planes, why 1932 jet wasn't developed, formation flying, no deflection shooting practice, insufficient swopping of fatigued/fresh pilots between groups, no calling back of semi-trained pilots who were jettisoned before finishing courses, etc, etc. Most of these errors were obvious before fighting started.
   A Summer Bright and Terrible: Winston Churchill, Lord Dowding, Radar, and the Impossible Triumph of the Battle of Britain



4. Anyone searching for a decent history of the Battle of Britain, a biography of Lord Dowding, insight into the development of radar OR the role of Winston Churchill in any of these will have to look elsewhere. In this poorly edited atrociously written volume the author manages to take fascinating material and reduce it to a sort of peculiar tabloid scandal sheet. It is painfully unclear what Fisher's intent is in writing this book, at one point it seems like he is trying to ressurect the reputation of an "unsung hero" but at the next he is doing his best to make fun of the very person that he has built up. The style of the book borders on the peculiar -there are no notes or citation, just a somewhat sparse "bibliography" yet we get large sections in quotation marks & whole mental dialogs that occur in the heads of the protagonists, who "chortle" and sneer at each other on every third page -don't get me wrong here, Fisher has written a very "post-modern" book, there really are no heroes, just different levels of fools, knaves and villains, all of whom steal from each other, cut each other out of the credit, thwart each other's ambitions, and generally behave like a nasty set of academics at a faculty meeting from hell. As an example of the egregious errors in this text, for some reason Fisher seems obsessed with tanks -even though he conspicuously ignores Churchill's role in their initial development. Again and again he talks about tanks "winning" the First World War & "breaking the back" of the German armies. This is odd, given that the tank arrives in the First War in September of 1916 -half-way through- and had little if any impact on the situation on the Western Front. Strangely, the role of the Royal Navy's blockade in "breaking the back" of Germany's will to fight seems to have escaped Fisher's notice... Fisher's cultural biases are also very much to the fore: at one point the English pilots spend their time between missions either throwing up or suffering from diarrhea. Their American counterparts in the meantime "chat". Fisher regularly allows his purple prose to wander into this sort of silliness & one is constantly wonderingif things really were as terrible (and silly) as he says how on earth did the Germans not win? In all seriousness, this is a very stupid and above all "little" book that simply isn't worthy of the subject. It is not just that readers will be mislead by Fisher's poor use of the material it is more that they are likely to not bother to pursue the many important themes that ctually emerged in the run-up to the Battle of Britain because they are so turned off by the shallowness of the schloarship exhibited here. One reads this book for the same reason one slows at car wrecks, out of a morbid interest in calamity.



5. This book gave me a new slant on a subject that I thought I knew. I didn't appreciate the Air Marshall until I read what he accomplished in saving England from Hitler.

5 comments about Son of Oscar Wilde.

1. For more than 20 years Oscar Wilde has been one of my favourite author, perhaps the favourite author. Because the life was taken away from him he could not wrote all the plays, poems and stories I want so much to read, so I have read his works over and over again. Each time I find something new/something to enjoy; partly it is his wonderful point of view, partly his good sense of humour. For a long time I have been aware of his downfall, but don't know what exactly happened until recently. I also knew that he was married and that he and his wife had two sons, and sometimes I revolved in my mind: What happened to them? Where did they go? So when I found the book Son of Oscar Wilde at Amazon.com I bought it immediately. This is a beautiful book by man who knew and loved his father, but suddenly his father was no longer taken place in his life. Why? It took him more than ten years to let himself to try to find the answer. In this book he tells the world how. Everybody who like Wilde's works, love an honesty, are interested in the Victorian time or want to try to understand the consequences of hate should do themselves the favour to read Son of Oscar Wilde. Vyvyan Holland wrote: ..."my father's character was his great humanity, his love of life and of his fellow-men, his sympathy with suffering. He was the kindest and gentles of men, an he hated to see anyone suffer." After reading Son of Oscar Wilde I do believe this is also the description of his son. Vyvyan Holland died in the year 1968 so I will not get the opportunity to thank him for his book, nor can I thank his father for all the good times he have gave me, but both, father and son, deserved my thanks.



2. As an Oscar Wilde fanatic (I have read literally everything ever written by/about him) I was drawn to this book because of the new perspective about him that was offered: that of his child. Not only is it interesting to read about his Vyvyan's memories about him, but the biography is written in such a vivid way that one can actually feel the pain Oscar's son goes through when his father is sentenced to prison and when he dies. This is a must read for an Oscar Wilde fan interested in gaining a new perspective on the legendary writer...it is the closest one will ever be to understanding what it was like being in his family.



3. Vyvan Holland was just a child when his beloved father Oscar Wilde "disappeared" from his life in 1895. SON OF OSCAR WILDE is a remarkable story told by Wilde's youngest son. Holland makes no effort to answer burning questions about the demise of his father--one of the greatest figures of moden English literature. He never defends or condemns his father's actions. He cherishes the memory of a loving father. The Wilde family crisis changed Holland's life forever. Holland never saw his father or had contact with him after 1895. He was in his late teens before he was told the actual truth about his father. He had been so carefully protected from the truth by his mother's family that he assumed his father had been a bigamist or criminal. It was a relief to learn the reason his father had been imprisoned. Holland wrote his autography more than 50 years after the death of his father. He tells his story as he lived it. In 1895, Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison for his homosexuality. The court confiscated his home and his property leaving his family broken-hearted. Even Holland's precious toys were sold at auction for pennies. The scandal was so great that his wife and 2 sons left for exile in Europe. Their surnames were changed and they lived in fear of the identity of their father being discovered. His mother died not long afterward during exile leaving the sons in the care of a guardian. Alone and lost and ashamed, the brothers were sent off to separate boarding schools. The brothers rarely saw each other again. Their mother's family made every effort to erase the memory of Oscar Wilde from their lives. Wilde died in 1900 never being able to make contact with his sons. Holland's writing can be dry at times and he often jumps forward and back in time but overall he has an incredible story to tell. Most people know the basic story of Wilde's demise. A brilliant literary mind went silent and Wilde could never write again after release from prison. The truth about Wilde's suffering wife and sons is finally told in this book. Although the family was forced into exile, their mother did not abandon Wilde and kept in contact with him until her tragic death. She knew his suffering but did not consent to allowing contact with the son. Only years later, did Holland learn of Wilde's great writings. So great was the scandal, that Wilde's books were basically banned in England. Several lives were ruined in a scandal that would be nothing more than jiucy fodder for the tabloids today. SON OF OSCAR WILDE gives some rare insight into a story that had never been fully told.



4. the Empire painted WIlde a degenerate, a scapegoat sacrificed for its own corruption and sins. THis book, written by his surviving son, with emendations and commentary and suggestions by his grandson, reveals the true Wilde, who early loved his sons and whose greatest loss in his pillorying by the EMpire was his family. Wilde is not the painted savant fruit he is pictured, but a true family man, a true nationalist Irishman (to know Wilde, know his mother), and a truly gentle genius.
   
   TO read this book is hear again the epic tale of sons in search of their lost father. In this case Telemachus never again sees Odysseus, and the aching yearning between father and son oozes gently from these pages like an embarrased fatal wound.
   
   THe greatest artistic work, and the most grecian tragic, as Wilde predicted, became his own life. TO understand WIlde, please read this book. What wonders of literature this talented son might have produced, besides his remarkable translations from the French, etc., had this gifted family remained intact, and even at home with Lady Wilde in Dublin. Perhaps Wilde's second son would never have died for the EMpire at war. But such musings lead to the despairing madness which ultimately tempted Oscar upon his early deathbed.
   
   Essential for any and all student and reader of Mr. Wilde. A universal legend of filial affection in its own right, as cross generational as any Garcia MArquez work. BEautifully written.



5. I love this book.
   
   When I read it, I feel as if his son is in my living room telling me stories of the old days. It is written very honestly and colloquial, so that you can really go through it. And yet, the Europe at the early part of the century - it is different. This is a chance to read something and feel like the author is with you and telling you about himself and his family. Very sad in parts, but vivid, and at no time written to be a victim's story. Very good.

3 comments about Cupid and the King: Five Royal Paramours.

1. Finally! A book for all of us who love those trashy historical romances! At least, those of us who love the historical parts. I found this book extremely well-researched as well as an easy read. Powerful men and the women who love them are always fascinating and Princess Micheal of Kent does a fantastic job in giving us those juicy details to keep your attention focused and your eyebrows raised, as well as enlightening you on significant historical events in Europe in the 17th through the 19th centuries. I highly recommend this book for those of you who don't like to admit being a trashy historical novel reader....this is one book you can proudly display on your bookshelves!



2. There have been royal mistresses for as long as there have been royals, but only a few have become legendary. And so a real-life royal, Princess Michael of Kent, has chronicled the lives of five of the most famous (or infamous) maitresses en titre in history. Not brilliant, but "Cupid and the King : Five Royal Paramours" is a good starting point.
   
   Nell Gwyn grew up in the gutter, the daughter of an alcoholic prostitute. But through bawdy charm and talent, she became a comedic actress on the London stages, and caught the eye of Charles Stuart. Though she wasn't as high-born as his other ladies, "Nellie" retained a place in Charles' heart until his death, and was faithful to him for the rest of her short life.
   
   Madame de Pompadour was an exceptional beauty who caught the eye of Louis XV, and was soon placed as his official mistress. Since she didn't like sex, she made herself invaluable to the king as a comforting friend, and created a salon where the cultured and artistic people of the time could gather. Unfortunately, her devotion to her king cost her her life.
   
   Marie Walewska was groomed from childhood to marry well, and help her family. But after being married off to a disgusting old aristocrat, the beautiful Marie met her girlhood hero -- Napoleon. For the sake of her country, Marie became Napoleon's mistress, and soon fell in love with him. But his ambition to create a dynasty ended their affair.
   
   Lola Montez was never what she seemed to be. After a nasty divorce, the Irish girl renamed herself, became a "Spanish" dancer, and lied constantly. She also snagged the heart of Ludwig I, king of Bavaria and terrible poet. As she bled the country dry, the angry inhabitants of Bavaria rebelled against their king, and sent Lola packing for the USA...
   
   Lily Langtry was a tomboy, a prankster, and her first taste of polite society was a disaster. But after marrying, she captivated London (and Oscar Wilde) with her beauty and charm. And then she captivated playboy Edward VII, his naive young cousin, and eventually reinvented herself as a respected actress.
   
   Yeah, it doesn't really say much that hasn't been said before. Many books have handled the history of courtesans and royal mistresses, and Princess Michael doesn't add much that is new to the mix. It's basically five short biographies, going over the entire lives of the subjects with plenty of interesting facts, but only a few new insights.
   
   Her writing style is solid enough, exploring the different personal and political facets of the mistresses, the kings, and their families. It's worth noting that even though the author is royalty, only the last of the bios reveals anything about royalty, upper-class society, and the effects of a royal mistress. The rest of the time it's typical "religion disapproved, pious queen suffered, money was spent" and so on.
   
   And four of the five have some great quality that sets them apart -- patriotism, intelligence, charm, or just loyal fun. But Lola Montez doesn't fit in. Despite Princess Michael's gushing, she seems like a callous, ditsy gold-digger compared to Madame de Pompadour or Lily Langtry.
   
   Though it doesn't add any new information, "Cupid and the King : Five Royal Paramours" is a pleasant read for people who are looking for juicy pre-tabloid gossip.



3. I thouroughly enjoyed this book. Princess Michael's writing style is chatty and open, and she chose five interesting women to study. It's a great "beach read" for lovers of biographies, history or even royal gossip.

3 comments about Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: Woman of the Century.

1. The photographs in this book are wonderful. A complete history of the life of the Queen Mother told through the pictures that appeared in The Daily Telegraph, this is a great buy.



2. Many of the photographs in this book are not new. They have been seen before in other publications. Athough there are some good new selections of photos used. In all cases however, the photographic reproductions in this book are excellent. A very nice, personal gift copy that I would be pleased to give to a friend.



3. This is a lavish guide to the practically indistructable mother of the British Sovereign. She was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons to her fellow debs in 1919, she was Queen as George VI's wife, but to all of us she is just the Queen Mum, bless her; the plucky lady with the common touch, who shrugged off gunshot wounds after a quarrel about gambling debts in an East End boozer, the massive-armed matriarchal powerhouse who has no time for nonces or liberty-takers. A marvelous book.

2 comments about The Village Carpenter.

1. This is a lovely little book I first heard about while on assignment in Scotland. It's a welcome counterbalance to the plastic, tarmac, neon, speed, and shallowness that characterize much of western life these days. Nicely written by a man who makes no pretense of being a writer, but who cares deeply about craftsmanship, respect for some of the vanishing ways of the past, and about simplicity and substance. I was more than pleasantly surprised by this book. Learned quite a bit about life and joinery in turn of the century Buckinghamshire too.



2. History is at its most compelling when it comes to us from an individual account. The author experienced the village carpenter's craft through some momentous changes from 1890-1930. This rare glimpse into a carpenters shop as it was will appeal to anyone who likes a good story and especially to those who have a reverence for wood.

3 comments about Ma, He Sold Me for a Few Cigarettes.

1. This is a biography of a girl growing up with mother, step dad and small brothers and sisters. Step dad is abusive and drinks a lot. Mom swears at children, and does nothing much except staring into space. The only income the family has is social support, charity and Martha's brightness. Martha doesn't have anything (not even shoes) and no one takes care of her since very small, yet she manages not to give up and finds happiness in tiniest things we seldom notice, repeating to herself "I won't be like them, I'll be grand and respectable when I grow up". Her determination and sharp mind is amazing and I was greatly inspired. It's hard to believe she's so young, she's actually smarter than grownups. Really wish there was a sequel!!



2. What a great book, very very sad. Can't recommend it enough, best book I have read in years.
   
   Jackser yer a bollix.



3. I saw this book in London at the local bookstore. Despite the streep prices in London, I made the purchase. I was glad that I did. A sad but great book. If one has the drive to get out of poverty and make somnething out of life, then this is the book to read. This young girl is amazing and a role model.

2 comments about Life with Mae: A Detroit Family Memoir (Great Lakes Book Series) (Great Lakes Book Series).

1. If you are looking for good writing, a good story, a happy and moving biography; if you're interested in Ireland, in the immigrant experience and a true story that screams to be made into a movie; if you're interested in the newspaper world, in short if you for once want your money's worth when you buy a book, this one is unputdownable.
   
   It's the sort of book that when you reach the last page, you start reading all over again at the beginning and enjoy it just as much - or more - the second time around.
   
   In sum: A classic.



2. Written by the late Neil Shine, longtime editor and former publisher of the Detroit Free Press, Life With Mae: A Detroit Family Memoir is the true story of daily life in Detroit as well as a biography of the author's strong-willed and spirited mother Mae. Born in 1909 in a small Irish town, Mae worked as a housekeeper at fourteen, and saved enough money for a one-way ticket to the United States by age eighteen. Life With Mae recounts her quirks, enthusiasm, protection, and love, as well as her identification with and compassion for the poor and downtrodden. An inspirational memoir and tribute.

3 comments about With Daring Faith: A Biography of Amy Carmichael.

1. When Amy Carmichael was a little girl, she prayed that God would change her brown eyes to blue. When He didn't, Amy's mother explained that while God always answers prayer, He sometimes says 'No'. Many years later, when she was working as a missionary in India, she was forced to diguise herself to rescue child prostitutes. It was then that she realized the value of her brown eyes and why her childhood wish had not been granted. This is just one of many instances in the life of Amy Carmichael, a woman who lived life to the fullest, because she lived it "With Daring Faith".



2. I read this book 15 years ago and have been in love with it ever since! Amy Carmicheal's story is one of great faith, love, and courage- a true role model for girl and women, even today. I recommend this book with the highest of praise.

   In "With Daring Faith" a young reader will travel from England into India with Amy Carmicheal...a missionary that is still remembered in India today. This book recalls the struggles and miracles that founded the Christian faith in thousands of young Indian women.

   I am so excited that this book can still be purchased!




3. This book was not "readable" enough for its target audience. It seemed like it was for an older, maybe even adult, audience. I'm unaware of another biography on Amy Carmichael for this age group (besides the series on heroes of the faith), so I was disappointed that it did not meet my expectations.

4 comments about The Air Loom Gang: The Strange and True Story of James Tilly Matthews and His Visionary Madness.

1. Any psychiatrist has treated patients who thought their minds and wills were being controlled from the outside, perhaps from mysterious rays or hidden machines. This cannot sound so strange now as it must have a couple of centuries ago. We may not be used to mind control of that type, but we live in a world powered by invisible rays and hidden machines. When James Tilly Matthews entered the famous hospital for the insane, London's Bedlam in 1797, his complaints must have sounded bizarre indeed. He told his doctor that he, and many of the powerful in England and France, were being manipulated by a mysterious gang who were using invisible gases and rays from an unimaginably complex machine called an air loom, and that his thoughts were being altered and controlled and his body was being painfully punished. Matthews's bizarre story is the subject of a surprising and novel-like history, _The Air Loom Gang: The Strange and True Story of James Tilly Matthews and his Visionary Madness_ (Four Walls Eight Windows) by Mike Jay. What is especially peculiar is that although Matthew's ideas were clearly delusional, his complaints stemmed from real persecutions he was made to undergo. As the old joke says, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.

   Matthews was a wholesale tea dealer who wound up shuttling between Britain and revolutionary France with a peace proposal. It is not surprising that Matthews had little effect; but it is surprising that at the time of the Terror, all he had to endure on the French side was a spell in a French Revolutionary prison. In 1796, after his return to England, he entered the public viewing area of the House of Commons, and yelled "Treason!" into the hall. This got him into Bedlam, and he was to be incarcerated for the rest of his life. His rooms were unheated, he would have straw to sleep on, and for some years he would be chained to his bed. It is quite possible that pummeled first by peculiarities of world events and then by the cruelties of incarceration as a lunatic that he began weaving contemporary ideas about pneumatics, electricity, and Mesmer's animal magnetism into a widespread delusional explanation of just how he got persecuted into such a position. We know about his delusions in detail because in charge of him was the apothecary John Haslam, and Matthews was Haslam's star patient. Jay shows that the delusions can possibly be seen as Matthews's response to persecution, with Haslam as co-creator.

   This is a tangled tale, expertly told. There are parts of it that are deeply mysterious, and for which there is no documentation, only speculation; how Matthews came to be running secret diplomacy, and who was paying him to do so, and what he really was doing, can only be guessed at. The gripping story of Matthews coming to delusional terms with his predicament is actually moving, and his eventual (if posthumous) triumph over Haslam is convincing. Best of all Jay has gone a long way in successfully trying to explain the politics, science, and history of the time. His picture of treatment of the insane in the crumbling Bedlam, at the cusp of instituting sympathetic "moral" treatments of Philippe Pinel, is unforgettable. There may not have been a real air loom, but that doesn't keep it from meaning something; and Matthews may have been an incarcerated schizophrenic, but that doesn't keep him from being a bit of a hero.




2. The Air-Loom Gang by Mike Jay is a book about the most incredible events. It is about one James Tilly Matthews who was declared insane for his beliefs about treason at the highest levels of the British Government during the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic period. As it turns out, Matthews was actually right to some extent and as a former spy, was in a good position to be able to determine if there really was treasonous activities in the British government at the time. Matthews's case became a cause clebre and he was eventually released from the insane asylum and eventually started an architecture magazine and even submitted plans for an insane asylum.

   This is an excellent book dealing with a most fascinating episode in British history.




3. James Tilly Matthews lived in London in the late 1700s and was a respected Welsh tea merchant who intended to preserve the peace of an increasingly dangerous city out of control in its conflicts with Paris. Arrested and sent to a mental hospital for his accusation of a lord, Matthews became convinced his mind was being controlled by a secret machine called an 'air loom' hidden in a London basement and run by a gang of revolutionaries: Air Loom Gang sets out to pinpoint the political foundations of his 'madness' in an intriguing true 'whodunnit' mystery



4. Mind control goes back thousands of years actually, and was practiced by the early Chinese, Sumerians, Egyptians, and even Mayans by a variety of different methods. Even African / Caribbean "voodoo" is a type of negative mind control that has been shown to have dramatic effects from great distances. In more modern times (such as the late 1800s to the 1920s) a variety of physical "medical" devices were built and used on people, animals, and crops for tremendous BENEFIT. The science that grew from these experiments was called "Radionics", and the radionic devices were often called "black boxes" (in the UK at least). Modern day radionic devices are about the size of a laptop computer, but I firmly believe that the device explained in this book was a very early radionic device that used essoteric (occult) knowledge to broadcast certain frequencies or radiations that could target specific individuals and influence them physically and emotionally, assuming that you had a "witness" from them (such as hair, fingernail clipping, blood spot, or even a photograph). Obviously, such devices could be used for tremendous good or evil, but the government / military has a proven track record for the latter unfortunately.
   
   Nowadays, we wouldn't use the term "radionic attack", but the term EMR / microwave bombardment and torture is certainly on the rise and evidence suggests that upto 2,000,000 Americans have been targeted in one form or another. This type of torture / harrassment is very high tech now, and beyond most people's conceptualization. A lot of "magic" can be created from satelites and underground installations and affect people's thoughts, emotions, and bodies. This phenomenon is well understood in Russia for example, and a popular form of torture for political dissidents or whistleblowers, and there is even a large group of victims in Moscow who are known as the "Moscow Zombies", which is appropriate because it is nothing more than electro-magnetic voodoo afterall. In fact, there was a recent march / demonstration by these Moscow Zombies and their family members (at least those who understand that it has nothing to do with "mental illness") who carried signs that read, "Stop the microwave / EMR / plasma torture", "End Mind Control". True story, but we never saw that on the news naturally.
   
   James Tilly Matthews simply didn't have the vernacular or understand the occult science to better "name" his torture, but his detailed explanations of his symptoms and why he was being targetted are EXACTLY what modern peoples complain of and explain to those who will listen with an open mind. Matthews also discussed how many other people of influence were being targetted, which has HUGE IMPLICATIONS in today's political / economic realm. And Bedlam was also the precursor to Guantanamo in many ways as it was a place to keep people who knew some secrets. "Mental illness" was and largely still is a bogus misdirection. The more things change, the more they stay the same it would appear...