No comments about Tommy Atkins War Stories - 14 first hand accounts from the ranks of the British Army during Queen Victoria's Empire.

No comments about Radar Days.

5 comments about Bad Blood: A Memoir.

1. I read through this book in a long afternoon, finding it totally engrossing. The story is about a young girl growing up under the roof of her grandfather, an intellectual vicar who led a double life of sex and booze, and her grandmother, an angry, disappointed anti-intellectual diabetic who lived for the treats of going to movies, candy, and scented soaps. The two detested each other, and their daughter wore herself out and sacrificed her personality to keep the household going in a very marginal way. The daughter had a daughter of her own, the author of this memoir, Lorna Sage. I don't think the point of this story is that her life was a nightmare, though it was hardly happy. It was about how, as humans, we all just keep making messes of our lives, generation after generation, and we all have our own family history and genetics which determine our strengths and our devastating flaws. Lorna inherited her grandfather's "bad blood", along with his use of books to escape both the place he was in (an isolated, wet, postwar depressed backwater), and the mess he was actively making of his life. In the middle of this mess, Lorna used this gift to survive, and even to struggle out of the quagmire by getting an advanced education.



2. This finely written memoir of her childhood as an Anglican minister's granddaughter. Today, or recently, [she died in 2001] Sage is an English literary critic and her memoir is both appreciably granular and endowed with a coherent overview. Highly recommended. Won the Whitbread Biography Award.



3. Holy moly! You wanna talk about a dysfunctional family? Here it is. It's during the years of WWII. The author's father is off fighting for God and country, and her mother is having a delayed adolescence, so author Lorna Sage is shipped to her grandparents house somewhere in rural England. Her grandparents are weird, weird, weird, but it is their very faults that ultimately make Sage, a well-known and powerful literary critic, into the person she becomes.
   Her grandfather is a debauched, intellectual, furious and infuriating vicar whose idiosyncrasies were seemingly limitless. Her grandmother's rage at her lot in life and the man who was responsible for it (and by extension, ALL men) never once abates - and you almost champion her for her constancy.
   Bad Blood reads as wicked fun with a strongly feminist underlying message. I loved it.



4. The story of an unexceptional childhood - mild neglect, some poverty and a very filthy home - neither sordid nor tragic nor eventful enough to be compelling reading. Especially for a person raised in India the dysfunctionality level of childhood/family seems average. The only redeeming feature is Lorna Sage's writing style. Witty and insightful. Normally this should raise a book to atleast 3 and a half stars but somehow this one does not quite make it past "interesting enough to read when there's nothing better to do". To use review cliches since they work so well in describing a book, it is readable but far short of unputdownable.



5. tough childhood, I wish Lorna Sage would write another memoir telling us how she's doing right now.
   I liked the book.

No comments about From Immigration to Suburbia.

No comments about Edward VII.

5 comments about Mary Renault: A Biography (A Harvest Book).

1. I have loved Mary Renault's historical novels about the ancient world since I was a pre-teen and read them today decades later. I was intrigued to see this biography on Amazon and ordered it....must say it was a bittersweet experience to find that a writer I have admired I cannot think of with the same level of admiration...
   
   Sweetman's biography was insightful and gave the knowledge to flesh out what was only a vague skeleton of what I knew about Renault. Her early life was sad and corrosive and could have destroyed someone without her inner drive to be a writer...the fact that she was a lesbian was neither here nor there to me except that it too was a factor in her development as a person and writer...
   
   What was certainly dismaying to me was her apparently inability or lack of desire to be very perceptive about the South Africa where she made her home for decades...Sweetman's explanation for her choices regarding which professional groups to belong to and her method of protest regarding the government's policy regarding the races might be truthful--that she had a distinct aversion to overt conflict and confrontation because of her parents' hostile marriage and the continual criticism her mother gave Renault from her birth onward. But for someone to be so alive and connect to the ancient world of Greece and so oblivious to the ancient worth of South Africa and its tribal cultures, is just a terrible and wasted irony.
   If Renault had chosen to become involved and write with the same skill about African values and ancient culture that she chose to enliven her historical novels of ancient Greece, I imagine she could have been a significant factor in a struggle that is still taking place.
   
   Sweetman attempts to deflect the bigoted and racist views that have perhaps attached themselves to Renault's lack of antipathy to the South African government, but to me it seems that she has a double standard of behavior--as most people do--and that she holds her characters to a higher standard than herself. While she could be very charitable and stauch supporter of those she genuinely cared about, her small inner circle was small for a reason. She did not go out of her way to develop or support a native South African voice and seemed to related everything through the eyes of her own European point of view....While she could enjoy the relatively rustic life style of Greece in the 40s, she never made the same attempt to get to know the people of South Africa in their own locals---not always because the govt prevented it either...
   
   I was just disappointed to find her less than I hoped...although I don't imagine it will prevent me from enjoying her novels as much as I always have...



2. Just couldn't get into this book, especially written as it is by someone who knew Renault. No one admires the author more than I, and books like THE CHARIOTEER, THE LAST OF THE WINE and THE PERSIAN BOY have been for me jewels in the crown of life. So I looked forward to this biography as a tantalising mystery finally about to be solved--Renault unmasked at last! No, sorry, it just didn't happen for me. Sweetman seems fixated on Renault's sexuality, which I don't discount or revile from, but which to me is not the essence of her books, the thing that makes them great. So what is it that makes them great? Her intelligence! Renault is the most intelligent author I've ever read; intelligence seems to stream out everywhere, along with tastefullness and a wonderful compassion for humanity. And style! What a fabulous stylist! I can read and re-read her books endlessly just for the style, not to mention the insight, the fabulous observation of detail. These are the qualities I wanted to find out about. Who was this woman? How did she become such a great person and a great author? Well, I don't know because Sweetman's biography doesn't tell me. We get the facts, yes, especially about her lesbian relationship, and we discover some of her activities while writing the books, most notably a trip to Greece. But we discover almost nothing about her general opinions, her tastes, all those things one asks about in order to uncover a person. For instance I would have liked to know her opinion of some of the fine historical films emerging at the time she was writing her historical novels, most notably Ben-Hur and Spartacus. We hear that she quite liked Quo Vadis, but little information is given. And what music did she listen to (only the Caesar Franck sonata is mentioned)? What did she like to eat? There are a million questions, few of which Sweetman answers. And I miss any decent literary criticism. At one point Sweetman remarks that a certain editor seemed insensible of Renault's literary excellence, but then so does Sweetman himself given how few words he expends on it. How for instance did Renault develop such a brilliantly unique style? I remember first reading THE LAST OF THE WINE (at 16) and being fascinated by a style unlike anything I'd ever encountered, a way of contructing sentences that seemed at once earthy and punchy and the height of elegance and sophistication. How did she come to this?
   Well, no good ranting, I suppose. The book isn't bad, it just seems like a golden opportunity wasted. Obviously the definitive Renault biography has yet to be written--but I suspect it never will be simply because Renault didn't wish to be uncovered. Apparently Sweetman interviewed her in '82. I've never seen the interview, but I suspect she said very little of a personal nature. I suspect she made a point of throughout her life of saying little of a personal nature.



3. It is well-written, and easy to read. I especially appreciated the episodes and explanations of the circumstances, political movements, and her struggles which inspired Mary Renault to write each story. Now I understand how each story was created, and what was on her mind when she wrote them.
   When I first read her , which is a remarkable book, one of her best, I couldn't understand why she didn't take more pages to write about Alkibiades and the defeat of the Athenian fleet. This is the kind of scene she normally takes time and writes in great, vivid details. It seemed so odd and out of her character that she just skimmed through it (although it still came out all right). I had to read it twice to understand what exactly happened, and even after I understood, I wasn't satisfied.
   Well, the mystery was solved now that I know that the publishing company had forced her to eliminate so many pages, she had to cut out one-third of the book. That particular scene was the one that suffered. I don't blame her if she never forgave the publishing company. We the readers have been deprived a great deal.

   I was also tickled to read that she had to let her secretary go because the secretary wanted to improve her grammar!

   Her relationships with her parents, friends and her agents, editors, correspondents, and especially with her companion Julie are heart-warming. This biography brought her person alive and vivid, and now I can look at her works from another dimention.




4. Mary Renault, with her delicate handling of alternative sexual interests, touched a chord in a lot of people, whatever their orientation. This is the story about how little Molly Challans (with her love of cowboys and books) because the best selling author of historical novels set in both Bronze age and Classical Greece, Mary Renault.

   One might almost have predicted the loveless marriage that produced her. Her mother's least attractive qualities seem to resonate in the character of Olympias (Alexander the Great's mother)in her later series (written after her mother's death and final betrayal). The absent or ineffective fathers in her books reflect her other father's physical and emotional distance from his family.

   And around her momentous events of the 20th century occur-- World War I and II, the rise of the Nationalist Party in South Africa, the liberalization of sexual mores in Britain and the United States, and the struggle against appartheid.

   This linear story is probably where the reader should go who wants to know more concrete facts about Mary Renault's life (she pronounced it Ren-olt not like the car). The author at times dips into analysis but doesn't linger there. His main informant seems to have been Mary's lifelong companion, Julia and at times the book seems to be as much about Julia as Mary-- he notes at one point that a friend referred to them as M & J rather than separately.

   I'm still waiting for the definitve evaluation of Renault's novels but until it arrives this book is well worth reading if at times a little on the thin side.




5. I've long been an admirer of Renault's novels; her muscular prose, idealistic philosphies, model heroes, and her affection for gay male characters have struck a very resonant chord in me. After reading Sweetman's biography, I am now very much an admirer of Renault herself: intelligent, talented, courageous and strong. Once she wrote to a friend, speaking about feminists and women in general [she had a lifelong distaste for women, a point on which I now find myself differing]: "..the truth obviously is that [they] do seem to have, as men, some extra reserve of neural strength, some capacity for sustained intensity and inner drive, which women do not possess. I will believe otherwise when given evidence," rather selling herself short, I think, by not recognizing that very intensity and drive in herself.

   Highly recommended for any fan of Renault's.

No comments about The Golden Crown.

3 comments about The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain.

1. This is one of the classics on Nelson works. It has not been available for many years. It was good to have such easy access to this facsimile reprint to be able to add it to my library on Nelson.



2. This book is hard to equal, and maybe impossible to beat, in terms of Nelson biographies. It's one century old but as fresh and relevant and accurate as if it had been written by a modern scholar with the vast array of Nelson papers to aid him or her. Mahan is Nelson's champion; no-one can doubt that. But he's not dishonest when presenting Nelson's strengths and weaknesses. Our admiral had both; which makes him understandable in a very human way. This is a fine book.



3. What, no reviews! Every once in a while you come across a book on a subject you love, and you realize that you have come across the definitive book in the area, and a literary gem, to boot, as well as a book for the ages. This is one of those books. And if you think I say this about many books, alas there are too few of them. I think of Boswell's Johnson, or Sobel's Longitude, or Grant's Memoirs.
   
   I'd been reading and reading about Nelson and naval warfare in the age of sail. I read Mahan's Seapower. Then this book. In it all the details of Nelson's life that had been boring in other books took on meaning as they were weighed and sifted and given significance by the great judicial mind of Mahan, who sits as it were on the high bench and delivers his judgements on Nelson. And these judgements seem carved in oak or stone, so solid do they appear. So that as I read or peruse other tomes on Nelson, of which there are of course so many, Mahan seems already to have defused the controversy by having got there first, thought more intelligently, sifted more evidence, and delivered saner judgements.
   
   It is truly one of the great books, beautifully written. If you want to understand Nelson, read this book. There is no other. And if you don't want to understand Nelson, read it as you might read Grant's Memoirs, because Edmund Wilson and Gertrude Stein thought it one of the great exemplars in our literature of the plain style. That is not to say that there are not a myriad books on Nelson and related topics that the avid enthusiast would want to read. Read them all! Just don't miss this one, too.

No comments about Bellezze della storia d\'Italia: Volume 2.

2 comments about Grandmama of Europe: The Crowned Descendants of Queen Victoria.

1. There's a famous painting by Tuxen (reproduced on the jacket of this fat volume) of Victoria's family gathered around her at the time of her Golden Jubilee in 1887; the crowd fills the royal drawing room. During those celebrations, the women of the family filled ten carriages while the men, including a number of ruling and future monarchs, made up an impromptu cavalry troop. Aronson is an old and skilled hand at producing popular biographies of European dynasties and he uses Victoria's position as matriarch of a vast royal clan to construct an overview in the late 19th and early 20th century of Europe's ruling families on ten thrones, from London and Madrid to Athens and St. Petersburg. This is also a personal and domestic study, focusing on court life, rather than a political history, and it is limited to only the first generation, not their heirs to the present day -- which also means that, except for the future Edward VIII, the author is concerned mostly with Victoria's daughters and granddaughters who married into other royal houses. The author's style is easy and his insights and judgments are astute, making this a good introduction to the modern monarchies of Europe.



2. This book has helped me on more than one occasion, to sort out Queen Victoria's huge family. The book only rates four stars, because I dislike the way it is organized. But the information, as well as the detailed lineage is wonderful. Many of Mr. Aronson's books are out of print, but I find them quite frequently at the Strand in NYC or other used bookstores.