Fancy some classic history writing? You couldn’t do better the The History of the Conquest of Peru (1847) by William Hickling Prescott. This gripping chronicle draws upon the firsthand accounts of eminent 16th-century captains and statesmen to relate the overthrow of the Inca empire by the conquistadors. Historians admire Prescott for his exhaustive, careful, and […]
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Mason Cross (http://carterblake.net/) was born in Glasgow in 1979. He studied English at the University of Stirling and currently works in the voluntary sector. He has written a number of short stories, including ‘A Living’, which was shortlisted for the Quick Reads ‘Get Britain Reading’ Award. He lives in Glasgow with his wife and three children.
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Few works of economic and political analysis are worth reading 60 years after publication. The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955), by French intellectual Raymond Aron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Aron) is one of them. The author shows how noble ideas can slide into the tyranny of secular religion and emphasizes how political thought has the profound responsibility of telling the
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One of my favourite contemporary philosophers is Simon Blackburn (http://www2.phil.cam.ac.uk/~swb24/). A lot of this is to do with his willingness to address his books to a popular audience. He is never less than lucid and informative. I feel a wry but honest smile behind much of his commentary. His is a cool, powerful, analytical mind.
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Journalist and polemicist Rod Liddle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Liddle) likes to ‘mix it up’. I heard about Selfish Whining Monkeys (2014) on Radio 4’s ‘Start the Week’ on Monday. It sounded enjoyably provocative. Here is the trade description: ‘With a sharp eye for the magnificently absurd, Rod Liddle sets light to modern-day Britain. In the western world, on
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In ‘Whispers of Immortality‘ by T.S. Eliot we find the following lines: ‘Webster was much possessed by death, And saw the skull beneath the skin, And breastless creatures underground, Leaned backward with a lipless grin’. Peter James might equally be described as ‘possessed by death’ because the word dead appears in the title of all ten
This is one for the fantasy fans. Australian writer Trudi Canavan (http://www.trudicanavan.com/) has embarked on a new trilogy entitled ‘Millenniums Rule’ , and Thief’s Magic is the opener. The summary is as follows. In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once
John Carey (http://www.johncarey.org/about.html), English professor at Oxford, controversial commentator, book critic and beekeeper, reflects on a life immersed in literature, from grammar school beginnings to the Oxford establishment. Best-known for his provocative take on cultural issues in The Intellectuals and the Masses and What Good Are the Arts?, John Carey describes in this warm and
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The screen writer of hit television crime series Prime Suspect, Lynda La Plante (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3562219/Lynda-La-Plantes-life-story-will-be-vicious.html) is back with another thriller. The summary is as follows. ‘Please don’t let anything bad have happened to her, please don’t let anything have happened to my baby…’ Marcus and Lena Fulford are the envy of their friends. Wealthy, attractive and successful,
