4 comments about John the Painter: Terrorist of the American Revolution.

1. This is an excellent, captivating, and well written book. I picked it up the other day on sale and read it in under a day. Warner gives a well documented and investigated account of John the Painter's life and deeds. I read it directly after reading Dan Berg's book on the Weather Underground, and one could, if creative enough, perhaps see some connection between their sabotage oriented propaganda and a sort of lineage coming from John the Painter. Also quite nice about the book is the way that Warner draws out some interesting comparisons between then and now, particularly the way that the Portsmouth and Bristol fires were used to justify the suspension and habeas corpus and other legal rights (in other words, it's not the US who has the first to suspend such in times of danger, real or imagined, and the UK did so before, even if it prides itself on not doing so today, or at least not to the same degree as the US). It is also nice to see someone doing social history / history from below who is interested in their subject, but not totally taken in by it, keeping somewhat of a distance from it at points (which one would one to do with at least certain aspects of John the Painters life even if not others).



2. This book delivers. It is not an exhaustive treatise on the nature of terrorism (which it could have been had the author bowed to the whims of our modern backdrop) but rather a very real and lifelike account of the brief step into the limelight that characterized the life of James Aitken.
   
   The reader truly sees the era through the eyes of not only Aitken, but of the lawmen who chase him and the harried/bumbling port authority that lamented not acting swifter in his pursuit. We feel inside the story, both saddened at a life led astray as well as excited at the narrow escapes and missed opportunities.
   
   John the Painter is a great story that is told with panache and style.



3. Any Americans who pay attention to history take pride in the Revolution that brought the nation its freedom, and all Americans have been shocked by recent attacks by terrorists. What if during the Revolution, there had been a terrorist operating in England on behalf of American freedom? It seems an impossible anachronism, but the strange truth is that there was such a man. He is a historical footnote now, but at the end of his brief life he was one of the most notorious men in England because of his crimes of arson performed against naval targets in furtherance of the American cause against England. This bizarre story is told in _John the Painter: Terrorist of the American Revolution_ (Thunder's Mouth Press) by Jessica Warner, which fetches its subject back from obscurity. The saying "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" does not really apply to John the Painter, whose real name was James Aitken. Shifting through the often obscure vestiges of fact, Warner is not able to document that Aitken was inspired by any patriotic fervor or love of liberty. His motivations remain mysterious, and his crimes ineffectual, at least as far as affecting the American Revolution, so his obscurity is deserved; but this is a lively and welcome examination of a tiny and surprising patch of history.
   
   Aitken was born in 1752, in an impoverished section of Edinburgh. He became a painter, and got an introduction into some basic chemistry and had easy access to flammables, but had small success in his trade. He opted to try his luck in the New World. He arrived in Jamestown in 1773 as an indentured servant. He ran away from his master, and was in different areas of the eastern seaboard for two years. He did not get imbued with the love of liberty while he was there; in fact, he was part of an exodus of Scots back to England in 1775. He heard a conversation in a pub in Oxford to the effect that if the naval dockyards were lost, the navy would be lost, and thus the war would be lost. He then formed the plan of torching Britain's docks. He may have thought that in doing so he could have returned to America as a hero, and become (his great goal) a military officer, but any clear explanation of what he was thinking is impossible. He met with the American representative in Paris, got a small amount of money, and thought he was doing American duty as he torched a few warehouses and docks, with the aim of crippling Britain's navy. He had houses as well as naval buildings as targets, and although no one died, he did (as terrorists do) inflict psychological damage. He was not particularly careful about his work and keeping from suspicion, but policing at the time was primitive. Eventually, someone recognized him, others realized that a housepainter always seemed to be around town before a blaze, and a hunt was begun. It quickly succeeded when a large reward was offered for his capture.
   
   Aitken's efforts terrified Britons, but had none of the effects he had planned. Americans had been suspected of setting the fires (Aitken's incendiary devices had convinced authorities that there was more than one arsonist about) and those who had sympathy for the American cause had reason to be less enthusiastic. He was put on trial for the offence of arson in a naval dockyard, one of the many crimes punishable by death. Warner explains how limited justice was for those accused at the time, and how an informer was hired to befriend the unsuspecting Aitken in jail, in order to get details of his activities. He was found guilty, and sentenced to be hung. There was a customary, but unseemly, race to get his life into print, with different authors vying to be the one responsible for his true final confession. None of them turned out to be very reliable. The prison chaplain refused to give Aitken final communion until he gave a final confession that might be published on its own (with profits to the chaplain). Aitken was hung on high, specifically from a ship's 60-foot mast especially erected in Portsmouth for the occasion. His body was tarred and gibbeted, hanging for years in an iron cage to serve as a warning to others, and pieces of him were taken away for souvenirs. A finger was turned into a tobacco stopper, and was destroyed, as luck would have it, in an incendiary raid on Portsmouth by the Germans in World War II. John the Painter's life was not useful to the Americans, who forgot him entirely, and serves only as a historical anomaly. Warner's telling of a sad tale, however, is full of sympathy for a flawed protagonist and good humor for his peculiar style of making himself famous. He was a failure; his biography is a vigorous, ironic success.



4. I picked this book up because I am very interested in revolutionary America. I found the subject to be interesting, as I had never heard of John the Painter.
   
   This book is written as history books should be written: Like it involves people and not dates. I was given a great sense of how John the Painter's life must have been and what his motivations were.
   
   I also enjoyed the parallels of John Aitken's life with that of many modern day terrorists. The author does not throw these parallels in your face, instead she lays the facts out and you must draw your own conclusions.
   
   Highly recommended for anyone interested in history or current politics.

3 comments about Rudyard Kipling: A Life.

1. This was difficult to read because the author skips around in Kiplings life so It was difficult to follow the sequence of events. Kipling was such an interesting person, I am looking for his official biography written by Carrington.



2. Clearly the best Kipling biography in many years. Mr. Ricketts has a fine touch, especially for Kipling's early years. If his later life wasn't as exotic and interesting, that's Kipling's affair. I think the mainstream reviewers had it right ('Splendid,' said The Atlantic Monthly, 'irresistibly readable,' said The New Yorker). Insightful and engaging.



3. Mr. Ricketts begins well. Kipling's ancestors are well drawn. His first years in India are well done. The years back in England when he was 7-17(roughly) are very well written. The first years as a journalist back in India, when Kipling had great success with poems and stories, is well doen too. So, the first 140 pages are useful. Then the book gets really boring. Kipling leaves India, circles the world and lives in Englamnd then the US. It's really boring. Mr Ricketts seemed to run out of energy. So read the first part and skip the last.

No comments about The World of the Brontes: The Lives, Times, and Works of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.

5 comments about Lord Cochrane, Seaman, Radical, Liberator: A Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series).

1. 
   Lord Cochrane started his legendary naval career in the British navy as a fourteen-year-old midshipman. He possessed a natural talent for seamanship and rose to the rank of Captain. In war he was particularly successful displaying daring tactics and brazen courage. His career progressed in spite of his brashness that offended the higher ranks of
   the British navy. He took on a life long crusade against the old boy cronyism that harmed that country's naval effectiveness. Lord Cochran carried the idea of reforming the Navy in middle age when he became a Member of Parliament. In later life Britain finally recognized this man of naval genius who at an advanced age was openly encouraging a steam-powered navy. A man that was vastly more at home with sea battler than as a Member of Parliament, Lord Cochran became a Captain for hire to the newly emerging nations Peru, Chile, Brazil, and Greece where he did quite well in all his battles almost always against the odds.
   He had a storybook action packed life, a very rewarding book that has been brought back into print.



2. Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, was a larger than life Scottish nobleman, adventurer, and ardent libertarian. Christopher Lloyd wrote this biography of Lord Cochrane in 1947, and it is one of six "Heart of Oak Sea Classics." Lloyd depicts Cochrane as a masterful naval tactician whose uncompromising political idealism provides the hubris for classic tragedy. The stark irony of Cochrane's two careers is that his genius in battle derived from his innovation, reconnaissance, and preparation, whereas his consistent failures in politics derived from his headstrong impetuousness. Cockrane's naval victories during the Napoleonic Wars were remarkably heroic, and won him fame and fortune while he was still quite young. His abrasiveness, however, undid all the good, and much, much more. His depth of despair at the hands of his political adversaries is absolutely unimaginable. His arduous rehabilitation involved his enlistment in the revolutionary struggles of Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Greece. He returned to Britain hesitantly, unsure if he would be arrested and executed. The outcome warms the heart, and vindicates his life struggle. Lloyd's representation of Cochrane is remarkably objective, and nothing is more fascinating than genius and imbecility combined in the same person. It's history; it's a psychological thriller, and a biography you couldn't conceivably make up.



3. Lord Cochrane won an astonishingly brilliant series of victories in three different British ships against the French and Spanish during the Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. The first 80 pages of this biography cover his astounding career in single-ship actions, and the inability of the Admiralty to understand his innovations. The next 55 pages deal with his ignominious Radical parliamentary career and financial fiascos. Another 46 pages cover his attempts to free a series of colonies from their Iberian or Ottoman masters, and how the rebels repeatedly frustrated victory and, of course, didn't pay up. The final 21 pages cover his attempts to restore his honor and his contributions to the deveopment of a recognizably modern navy. The editors say this 1947 book was selected for its congenial style and vignettes of Cochrane, not because it is the last word on the irascible man. This biography is superseded in accuracy by those employing additional family and governmental papers made public since the 1960's and listed in the brief bibliography.

   Fans of naval fiction should note that Forester's Hornblower frequently adopts Lord Cochrane's audacious naval exploits, as do many other series' heroes. Forester having appropriated Lord Cochrane's real adventures, Dudley Pope's Lord Ramage series seems to depend more on invented exploits to fill out the same general historical progression. O'Brian's Jack Aubrey also partakes of Cochrane's political ineptness and suffers his finanacial scandal (see especially the early Aubrey novels). While occasionally you see inspiration from Cochrane's later attempts to aid South Americans win their freedom from Spain (Forester, O'Brian, Cornwell), no novelist has taken up Cochrane's inventions (like ship lanterns, tar derivatives, chemical warfare!, and steam warships). This book might slightly disappoint some fiction fans because it lacks details or even a brief description of ALL of Cochrane's remarkable exploits in his Biscay or Mediterranean theaters of operation. But for any fans of Fighting Sail, Lord Cochrane is the inspiring source, and Lloyd's book a well-written introduction.




4. A thoroughly researched and beautifully written treatment of the life of one of Great Britain's most important heroes from the Age of Fighting Sail. I've devoured everything I can find on the Royal Navy for years -- this is among the most memorable volumes available! Lord Cochrane was a naval commander in war (and peace) whose talents almost rivalled the great Nelson's, and unlike Nelson he lived to a ripe old age. In a surprisingly "modern" twist to Cochrane's biography, he was duped into a financial scandal that led to bad headlines, ugly partisan politics, and a nasty court case. His subsequent efforts on the part of Latin American nations to help them win independence from Spain make him a veritable nautical Simon Bolivar. Author Lloyd brings this amazing man to life with compelling prose.



5. Lord Cochrane was, by all accounts, a superior naval officer. He was inventive, bold, imaginative, extremely meticulous in his preparations for action, and capable of great theatrics in the service of victory in battle, in capturing prizes, and in befuddling the enemy. He treated his men honorably at a time when abusing them was the norm and he rewarded them handsomely from the prize revenues he engendered. As a result he was adored by his subordinates and never had trouble recruiting personnel to serve under him.

   He was a model which inspired aspects of Jack Aubrey and Hornblower and other fictional characters of the Anglo-French wars. His true life was even more tumultuous than the fiction it spawned, for he became a naval hero in Chile and in Peru, in Brazil, and in Greece as he participated in each of those countries' wars of independence.

   When on land, Lord Cochrane was an inept, impetuous, cantankerous politician (he was a member of parliament for 10 years), who had no notion of the art of politics, and therefore was repeatedly demolished by his enemies, which were many. It is amazing that the brilliant and disciplined naval officer and tactician would become a bumbling, disorganized politician, but that is precisely what happened. He was involved in financial scandals, his honors and medals were removed, and his purse squandered and lost. It is likely that this honorable man was never guilty of the charges for which he was convicted (stock fraud), but the truth shall never be known for sure.

   He lived a long life (1775 - 1860) and by the time he died at 85 he had managed to (mostly) repair his honor, his finances, and his reputation, more as a result of the political changes around him than as a result of having learned political lessons.

   This book by Christopher Lloyd, a professional naval historian, has the scholar's convincing tone and language throughout. It has a fair index and bibliography. The book is highly recommended to the Aubrey-Maturin fans who are forever expanding their collections with ancillary historical volumes that allow for additional enjoyment of the series.

No comments about John Bellew, a Seventeenth-Century Man of Many Parts.

5 comments about The Beatles: The True Beginnings.

1. This book is heavy with pictures on every page,including rooms The Beatles painted and played in,clothes they wore before the leather look,a diagram of The Casbah. Many stories about people and events that took place there."As was written,It was hot and sweaty.No booze,just coffee and coke and fantastic live music."If you are wondering who Roag Best is,he is the son of Mona and Neil Aspinall.



2. 
   
   A fascinating book about the inception of the Beatles, or "pre-Beatle" era, if you will. The beautiful archival photographs will certainly delight all readers as well as the memorabilia. Readers will certainly get a feel for early-1960s Liverpool (1960-62) and the environment in which the Beatles flourished.
   
   Thanks to this book, fans can actually see the club where the Beatles' fame was soon launched. The world's number one band cut their musical teeth in the Casbah, owned and run by drummer Pete Best's mother, Mona Best. The club opened in 1959 when the Quarrymen-Silver Beatles were coming into their own. This underground rock club was the precursor to its American counterparts such as the Hard Rock Cafe and the Fillmore East and Fillmore West, to name three.
   
   This fresh perspective of Beatle history includes Mona Best's story as well as other members of the Best family. Pete Best, the Beatles' first drummer was unceremoniously ousted from the band in August of 1962. Ringo Starr replaced him and the rest is, well, history. Fans will undoubtedly feel as if they are watching the Beatles evolve from relative local obscurity into the musical juggernaut they became and remain to this day.



3. I love this book! Makes me want to fly to Liverpool now and visit. Pete Best, who was drummer for the Beatles before they kicked him out with no explanation, gives us a fabulous treat. His mother ran the Casbah Club in Liverpool in the family home's basement. After Pete was booted out, the club sort of died down and was closed. It remained sealed up for many, many years, until it was opened. Original murals done by the Beatles still on the walls, microphones, and other items were found, and the club reopened to people who wish to come and see the only remaining original club, with even the original walls! Let the Cavern try to claim that! Color photos, inside stories, more make this a sensational book. Beatle fans, Merseybeat fans, music historians, Scousers, etc...BUY IT!



4. The story behind this book is one of the secrets in the Beatles tale. Neil Aspinall, who still works for the Beatles as director of Apple Corps, looking after their legacy and business interests, classmate of Paul McCartney's at the Liverpool Institute, was Pete Best's good friend. When the band needed someone to help them move their equipment from gig to gig, Neil was hired because he had a car. Throughout the band's story, Neil was the road manager.

   Neil lived with Pete's family for a while in the early years. He had an affair with Pete and brother Rory's hip, relatively young, Indian mother, Mona. They had a child together, Roag.

   When Pete was tossed out of the Beatles, he told Neil to choose between the job with the band and his living with the Best family. Neil chose the Beatles. He was not allowed to see his son grow up.

   This is that son's book.




5. Will any true Beatles fan ever admit that there is no need for any further information regarding the Fab Four? Absolutely not --- the strong popularity of THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY is evidence enough that a voracious audience still exists for Beatles lore in all shapes and sizes.

   THE BEATLES: THE TRUE BEGINNINGS really encompasses two book ideas: the Merseybeat music scene in Liverpool from which the Beatles developed, and Pete Best's experiences as an early Beatle. Either of these ideas, developed fully, would make interesting reading. As they are, however, two slender ideas are crammed into one unfocused book with big pictures and sparse text. Even so, I get the impression that this book was a stretch --- does any fan, no matter how obsessive, really require a picture of the case in which Pete Best carried his drums? How about a shot of the spare guitar strings he found inside?

   A prominent outpost of the Merseybeat scene was Mrs. Best's Casbah Coffee Club, owned and operated by Pete Best's mother, Mona Best. This book is in large part a tribute to the remarkable Mona Best from her sons --- Roag, Pete, and Rory. Mrs. Best pawned her jewelry, placed a bet on a horse, and won the money to buy Number Eight Haymans Green, a giant house whose cellars were transformed into the Casbah when the Best boys discovered rock-and-roll and needed a place to perform and listen to music. The Beatles first performed at the Casbah as the Quarrymen. They played to a crowd of 1,500 and received three pounds as payment.

   You probably know how the story goes. The Beatles were a huge success and got a gig playing in Hamburg, Germany where they endured a horrible, grueling performance schedule and living conditions like something from a Dickens novel (assuming Dickens might ever have written about a German red-light district). In short, the Hamburg experience was destined to make or break the Beatles. It made the Beatles, but Pete Best was not invited to continue their success.

   Is the Best family bitter? Maybe a little; it is their theory that Pete Best was simply so much better looking that he was a liability to the other band members. Also, the title THE TRUE BEGINNINGS seems to imply that they are setting the record straight, but there isn't very much new information here and it's unlikely to change anyone's mind about the Beatles as individuals or as a cultural phenomenon.

   --- Reviewed by Colleen Quinn

2 comments about The Diary of John Evelyn (First Person Singular) (First Person Singular).

1. Evelyn is very different from Pepys, whom he knew. Unlike Pepys, Evelyn was a strait-laced fellow, so we get no juicy stories of his amours. He hardly speaks of his wife and consequently never mentions any arguments they might have had. He tells few personal anecdotes. He also has little to say about the great plague year or the great fire of London. Pepys gives a lot more detail on these subjects.

   What he does deal with rather extensively are the meetings of the Royal Society, of which he was a member. It was hard for me to get excited about these. Nevertheless, it is good to have this book available.




2. John Evelyn's diary is a wonderful source-book for 17th Century England. It covers far more of the period than Peyps' diary (but is a little drier!)and gives a comprehensive picture of life in those turbulent times. Guy de la Bedoyere has done a fine job of editing this diary.

No comments about The Strange Case of R.L. Stevenson.

3 comments about Wind in the Ash Tree.

1. When the hustle and bustle of modern life has you totally frazzled reach for any of Jeanine McMullen's books and slow down. Her descriptions of life on a small farm in Wales are not only delightful but a real hoot. Who would have thought a horse named Doli could create such pandominium? And her little whippet, Merlin; you will never forget some of the stunts he pulls. The goat Little Nana (black-hearted rebel that she is) is also always causing one sort of trouble after another. I just wish Jeanine had written more than three books about her life in Wales.



2. When the hustle and bustle of modern life has you totally frazzled reach for any of Jeanine McMullen's books and slow down. Her descriptions of life on a small farm in Wales are not only delightful but a real hoot. Who would have thought a horse named Doli could create such pandominium? And her little whippet, Merlin; you will never forget some of the stunts he pulls. The goat Little Nana (rebel that she is) is also always causing one sort of trouble after another. I just wish Jeanine had written more than three books about her life in Wales.



3. The marvelous sequel to "A Small Country Living", this book continues with the amusing and touching experiences of a BBC radio broadcaster's life on a tiny farm in the mountains of Wales. Her writing is wonderfully evocative, and her observations are most often funny or ironic. Think of "Under the Tuscan Sun" with looney livestock in place of the luscious food and lots more clouds and damp. Years later, Jeanine McMullen remains one of my all-time favorite writers. And if you love dogs, you'll especially enjoy her books--they're all keepers!!

1 comments about Winston Churchill - The Photobiography.

1. Plenty of biographies have been written about Churchill's life: so why the need for yet another? Just take a look at Michael Pateson's unique Winston Churchill: Personal Accounts Of The Great Leader At War to see the difference. For one thing, comments Churchill made about himself have been paired with previously unpublished, firsthand accounts of those who knew him to provide plenty of detail on Churchill's military background and how it changed his life and perceptions. Paterson adds the recollections of Churchill's superiors, fellow officers, and more to provide fresh material which is not covered in other books. Secondly, Winston Churchill follows a chronological order focusing on his military campaigns, which provides the ability to appreciate the changes in Churchill's strategic thinking over the decades. Finally, Winston Churchill provides plenty of technical references for further study, making it one of the most detailed biographies about Churchill in print. Very highly recommended.