Nero: The Man behind the Myth. British Museum. Review by Carla Scarano. Nero, a young Roman emperor and the last ruler of the first dynasty, the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigned for fourteen years, from AD 54 to AD 68. His legacy is still controversial and is the subject of this exhibition at the British Museum
history
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.
Poetry review – THE BATTLE OF HEPTONSTALL: Stuart Henson admires the eloquent blending of historical and contemporary in Michael Crowley’s collection
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.
Poetry review – THE GIDDINGS: Emma Storr reflects on a compact but dense historical sequence by John Greening
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, history, poetry reviews, religion, year 2021 • Tags: books, Emma Storr, history, poetry, religion