The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo. By Paul Strathern, Published April 1, Atlantic Books. Review by Barbara Lewis.
history
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.
Poetry Review – RARE BIRDS: Angela Topping is moved and impressed by Natalie Scott’s poems about a women’s prison
In more ordinary times, Simon Procter is a British fashion photographer, who has worked with Karl Lagerfeld and John Galliano.
Poetry review – The Unreturning: P W Bridgman salutes Martin Malone’s poetic counter-attack on certain received ideas about the Great War
The risk for any exhibition at Two Temple Place – a glorious late Victorian mansion at Temple, central London – is that the wood carving and stained-glass beauty of the building will steal the show.
Poetry Review – Jim Neat: Stuart Henson appreciates the challenges of constructing fact-based poetry such as Mary J Oliver’s biography of her father
Tomar and the Knights Templar, Portugal. Under vows of holiness, poverty and chivalry, the Order of the Knights Templar, founded around 1120 to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land, achieved much else besides.
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
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • books, history, politics, society, year 2021 • Tags: books, history, politics, Richie McCaffery, society