Poetry review – THE BATTLE OF HEPTONSTALL: Stuart Henson admires the eloquent blending of historical and contemporary in Michael Crowley’s collection
history
DAY OF DAYS: Charles Rammelkamp admires a powerful fact-based novel by John Smolens about a school bombing in 1927
Poetry review – THE LEADING QUESTION: John Williams admires Roger Elkin’s skill at making poetry from tragic events.
A study of political murders that destroyed Gladstone’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Irish problem.
Poetry review – RECALLING LONDON EAST: John Forth admires the plain speaking in this collection of reminiscent poetry by Pat Francis
CLOSING TIME AT THE ROYAL OAK: Richie McCaffery admires the way that John Lucas has embedded perceptive social observation in a history of his local pub
The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo. By Paul Strathern, Published April 1, Atlantic Books. Review by Barbara Lewis.
The Rome Plague Diaries, Lockdown Life in the Eternal City: In times when many of us have been wondering why we didn’t get ourselves stranded near a Caribbean beach, Matthew Kneale decided there was nowhere on the planet he would rather be locked down than where he was in his adoptive city of Rome.
Post-Virus Venice: More than looks. Venice is, to a majority of us, one of humanity’s most seductive achievements.
Book review – THE PRISONER’S WIFE: this remarkable novel by Maggie Brookes is based on a true story and tells of an almost incredible deception successfully carried out during World War Two
Poetry review – LET BATTLE COMMENCE: Norbert Hirschhorn reflects on Wendy Klein’s use of letters by one of her ancestors to make a poetic memoir of the American Civil War.
by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • added recently on London Grip, authors, books, history, year 2021 • Tags: authors, books, Graham Buchan, history • 0 Comments
THE MIRROR & THE LIGHT. The final part of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy came out just before the pandemic: a year later Graham Buchan looks back on the whole sequence.