No comments about The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson.

No comments about Benjamin Disraeli: Scenes from an Extraordinary Life.

2 comments about The Real James Herriot: The Authorized Biography.

1. This is a most enjoyable book allowing a glimpse into the life of one of my favorite authors. It was interesting to learn about the situations that molded the life of James Herriot (Alf Wight).



2. -James Herriot was a country animal doctor who recanted his life into stories, which became All Creatures Great and Small and other books and audios. His son, Jim Wight, upon his father's death, composed a tribute to a man we all thought we knew in The Real James Herriot. The abridged audio version is narrated by TV's James Herriot, actor Christopher Timothy. His familiar tramping of the characters and Herriot's words makes him the perfect choice to read this veneration.

5 comments about Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry.

1. I found this book interesting, though somewhat less than I had hoped. Still, it is a good book for anyone interested in the actions of D-Day and in particular, the 29th Divisions role in the invasion. Cawthon tells a good story but I found myself wanting to know more about certain things he talked about. Most of which I'm sure he never knew the details of, but it appears that he had probably, simply forgot most of the facts needed to flesh out the story lines.



2. "Other Clay" by Charles R. Cawthon.
   Subtitled:" A Remembrance Of The World War II Infantry".
   University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2004.
   
   This is a well written personal memoir, written the way all personal memoirs should be written: less on the preliminary training, more on the actual combat experiences. The author's emphasis is on the action in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), with a fairly brief introductory section highlighting the people involved, the training involved and the feelings involved in anticipation of the D-Day landings.
   
   Charles R. Cawthon (1912-1996) served with the 2nd Battalion, 116th Regiment, commonly known as the Stonewall Brigade of the 29th Infantry Division. Recall that the 29th Infantry Division shoulder patch was a circle made up of blue and gray, in a yang and yin arrangement, meaning the both Northern and Southern outfits in one division. Cawthon was part of the gray section; the southern group that once, years ago, had been commanded by confederate General Thomas Jackson, "Stonewall" Jackson. Cawthon's personal memoir begins with his company, "H Company", Virginia National Guard, mustering in the armory to take the oath as they entered federal service on 3 February 1941. In the next 33 pages or so, the author describes preparation for the invasion of Europe, moving quickly through an analysis of the ethnic make-up of the men in the command, to their training and their shipping overseas. The entire division went on the Queen Mary, a Cunard Line ship that was fast enough so that she could outrun German submarines. On page 22, Cawthon describes how the Queen Mary cut the cruiser, HMS Curacao in half with loss of 332 seamen, "... there was a bump and then a tremor underfoot, and a shout that we had run down one of the escorts." With this quiet and un-excited writing, the author recounts how 332 men died in oil-coated cold seas. On page 33, Charles Cawthon quietly describes how a man, in training on the beach went up to an uncovered mine, and, for some reason, tapped the top of the mine with the toe of his boot. "There was a blinding flash and a clap of sound, and he disappeared as by a magician's sleight of hand. The illusion terminated in pieces of anatomy plopping into the sand around us." This is presented in quiet, well-written prose. The landing on D-Day, 1944, the ineffectiveness of their precautions to keep weapons dry, and the casualties suffered (more than 50%by Cawthon's 2nd Battalion) are all quietly recorded in good English prose that keeps you reading and reading.
   
   This same understatement is carried throughout the book and throughout the ETO, from the battles in the hedgerows of Normandy, to Operation Cobra, to the time in October 1944 when he is wounded in the leg. Even when describing K-rations, his prose is understated, "...the soldier ate the part least offensive to his taste...For me, the sugar cubes were the most familiar tasting, and, in the belief that they yielded energy, I consumed them heavily... " He expresses concern with the replacements, whose way to war "... was hard, crowded and dull. ... to join strangers in facing death or great injury". He describes the replacements as innocent and somehow pathetic ..."I felt an ancient among children, knowing and dreading what they were to meet". (Page 81).
   
   I found this book to be well worth reading.



3. This is an interesting book. Perhaps not as good as I'd initially thought, and hoped, but good nonetheless. From what I can tell the book wasn't written till the late-80's early 90's, although it is based in part on a trio of articles written in the 70s and early 80s. I think it suffers - as a memoir - from having been written so long after the event. Notably, there is an almost complete absence of spoken word interactions, and in a way it almost seems like Cawthon is writing about someone else.
   
   I really, really liked Cawthon's modesty. Also, the changing character of the division over it's months in battle was interesting. The importance of personal relationships was brought out well, both at the peer level, and at the superior level (e.g., his good first impression with Gerhardt, which made things a little easier with this notoriously difficult man for Cawthon later). The emphasis he put on psychological casualties and the 'voluntary' nature of being a rifleman in the US Army in WWII was enlightening, and isn't something I've seen much - or any - discussion of elsewhere (although ... Bowlby and Milligan do so for the British Army, as does Mowat for the Canadian Army).
   
   OTOH, there was strangely little information about the mechanics of running an infantry unit in battle (unlike, say, Wilson or Johns). I also tired of Cawthon's repeatedly going off on little tangents then pulling up short with "but that belongs in a later part of this story" - he did that a lot with Howie, in particular.
   
   On a minor note; the maps were ok, but I think are the worse for having been borrowed from another context rather than having been drawn specifically for this one. OTOH, those official history maps really are nice, and it is profoundly unlikely anything similar would have been produced just for this book.
   
   Would I recommend this book? Well, yes, but not to all and sundry. The 29th Inf Div has been blessed with a number of very good biographers (Johns "The Clay Pigeons of St. Lô", Balkoski "Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Division in Normandy" and "Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944", and Cawthon), and I would recommend it to anyone who's read either or both of those others, but perhaps not as a first read.
   
   I'm glad I read it, but I think it'll be a long while before I read it again, or even refer to it.



4. I gave up on this book in the third chapter. The author remembers very few details and readily admits he has to rely on his scanty notes. To fill the pages he uses his vast knowledge of the Civil War and ancient history.



5. The Yanks (as the British call us) put very little trust in government or politicians, and with good reasons. An old proverb explains that "Dumb crooks go to prison, while smart crooks go into government".
   
   U.S. politicians have a long history of selling the Yankee people out to British foreign policy. President Wilson sold out America during World War I by helping the British sleeper cell to propagate propaganda, declaring war against the Central Powers, and setting up the Committee on Public Information to "sell the war to America". After the war, the Yanks felt betrayed and said "NEVER AGAIN".
   
   Then came Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR, too, sold the Yanks out to British foreign policy. After the British sounded the alarm that the Russians were winning against Germany and all of Europe would fall to the Soviets, FDR provoked the Japanese to hit at Pearl Harbor and sat on his hands to let it happen. Afterward, the Yanks went war crazy and were sent to Europe to fight the Germans so as to stop the Soviets' westward advance. Churchill, who held both American and British citizenships, was instrumental in his work through the British fifth column to get the Yanks back to Europe (see Nicholas John Cull's "Selling War").
   
   In 1941 when Pearl Harbor was allowed by FDR to be hit, a young Charles R. Cawthon joined the 116th Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division of the United States Army. This book, then, is a memoir of a lad who was caught up in "the gambling table of governments" as Tom Paine once put it. Cawthon was sent to England to train for the D-Day invasion at Normandy, then went in with the second wave at Omaha Beach. He writes "Next I recall standing beside a small, rural hotel and the bodies of three Americans who had met final appointments there. The corporal of a live squad of the 16th Regiment deployed around the hotel told me that the dead had been there when he had arrived; he did not know their outfit". Cawthon spent most of the day trying to find his squad and is eventually reunited with his unit.
   
   It is interesting to note that he was a Yank fighting for the Union Jack: "Assuredly, that night I did not speculate on whether the shade of Old Jack might be drawn from the shadows to this battle-swept place on the coast of France". FDR's Pearl Harbor created American-powered British Empire - strange bedfellows indeed! I wonder what George Washington or Andy Jackson were thinking at the time - were they rolling in the graves?!
   
   Lady Liberty had served America well until the twentieth century when the politicans rejected her and sold us out to British empire. It is past time to return to our libertarian roots and chart the course for the future of a free America rather than a corporatist Amerika, British-style. In conclusion, the reader will finish the book probably with a heavy heart from having spent a day in time with poor Cawthon and "the dupes of the game".

1 comments about Nell Gwyn.

1. This paragraph just added:
   Derek Parker's so-called biography of Nell Gwyn is about as grounded in reality as his books on astrology, his major claim to fame. Forget Parker and buy Charles Beauclerk's "Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King" (2005). Beauclerk is a direct descendant of Charles II and Nell Gwyn, but more importantly he is a scholar who did his homework and invests years of research in his fascinating, eye-opening biography. He casts a fresh eye not only on Nell, but also on Charles II and Restoration London.
   
   My original review:
   
   I am disappointed to report that Derek Parker's "Nell Gwyn" is a travesty of scholarship. I give you three (of many) cases in point:
   
   Chapter 2, page 14, he writes: "In exile, during the Interregnum, he [Charles II] and his friend Rochester (fn5) cut a swathe through the Continent's available women." The footnote then identifies Rochester as "John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-80), a close friend of Charles throughout their lives."
   
   The Rochester who cavorted with Charles on the Continent was Henry Wilmot, the 1st Earl of Rochester, John's father, who saved Charles's life when he was forced to flee England. John wasn't even a teenager until Charles returned from France.
   
   Chapter 4, page 74, the author writes: "Rochester himself wrote a not particularly good play, 'The Rehearsal.'"
   
   In all other scholarly works I've read on the subject, "The Rehearsal" is attributed to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, a member of "The Merry Gang." It is quite likely that Rochester contributed ideas, as he was wont to do for many of his playwright friends, including Dryden, but he was not the author of "The Rehearsal." Furthermore, the play was quite good, and groundbreaking, just not a classic.
   
   Chapter 3, page 52, the author writes: "Dryden saw them [Charles Hart and Nell Gwyn] as Philidor and Mirida in 'All Mistaken,' by his brother-in-law James Howard -- a low comedy in which most of the entertainment derived from the attempts of a fat courtier, Pinguister, to court a pretty maid (Mirida, played by Nell). Hart rolled about the stage with Nell in his arms, rising occasionally to rush from the stage unbuttoning his breeches in order to deal with the consequences of a purge which someone had given him."
   
   This is not at all what happens in "All Mistaken." Pinguister takes the purges voluntarily from his Doctor in order to lose weight so that Mirida will marry him. And, when they are rolling about on the stage, she is not in his arms, she is distant from him rolling away from him as he rolls toward her, because she has promised to marry him if he can catch her. She is making Pinguister her 6th "fool" to round out her half dozen. And he doesn't "rise occasionally" to go purge; he can't even get up without her help. When she does help him up, she takes him on in a swordfight and disarms him. It is also possible (I emphasize possible) that this performance by Nell was what captured Charles' attention and led to their affair.
   
   It appears that, rather than read the plays Nell appeared in, the author found it more convenient to read someone else's inaccurate descriptions.
   
   To attribute "The Rehearsal" to Rochester is inexplicable.
   
   Not knowing the difference between Henry Wilmot and John Wilmot suggests that the author is not really familiar with the life of Charles II, and, if he's not familiar with the life of Charles II, he cannot possibly have anything worthwhile to contribute to our knowledge about the life of Nell Gwyn.

1 comments about A Dublin Girl: Growing up in the 1930s.

1. Elaine Crowley weaved a wonderful story that did combine humor and pathos in a way that left the reader hopeful...to the very end. I imagine Ms. Crowley as being an extremely grounded and delightful person, in spite of the "hard times" she endured during her childhood years. And isn't that always the "best" gift we can give to ourselves/offer to others? Rather than staying stuck in her own bitterness, anger, resentment and/or rage---it's nice to see an author "get into it" (when "it" isn't very pleasant at all!), but come through it victoriously. She's someone I would have liked to know personally; her family is no doubt extremely fortunate to have her. Mary in Northville, MI

3 comments about On the Trail of William Wallace (On the Trail of).

1. I think this ia a great book for those who want to learn a quick history of William wallace, as well as a guid to memorials in Scotland. For those who are planning a trip to Scotland, and also are intrested in the story of William Wallace I recomend this book. I also recomend trying to find it at a local bookstor instead because I bought mine for $14.99 brand new.



2. I ordered this book from Amazon,the book started out a bit slow but I was soon to find myself not being able to put it down.I think anyone who reads it will find what a well put together book this is,a must read!



3. I picked this book up in a book store in Scotland. I am a big fan of Braveheart and the William Wallace Story. This part guide book part travel essay is a great way to read about and follow the history of Wallace. Fans of William Wallace should also check out a website this author is associated with. Its something like "mcbraveheart.com" Again, if you are planning to visit scotland and love Braveheart, get this little enjoyable book. You will be glad you did.

No comments about Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn 1772-1853 (Studies in Maritime History).

1 comments about Francis Bacon (Princeton Paperbacks).

1. Zagorin has not added much to the great mystery of Francis Bacon. He has written a superficial understanding of the life and as a result left out many salient aspects that would have provided greater insight into Bacon's motivations and philosophy. Save your money on this one and buy a copy of Alfred Dodd's:"Francis Bacon's Personal Life Story"instead.

2 comments about Diana, Princess of Wales: A Tribute (BBC).

1. I listened to this audiobook on my commute to/from work. Even after arriving home, I actually sat in my car, in my driveway, to continue listening to it. It is a fascinating account of a beautiful, courageous person who learned to use her resources and privilege for the greater good, making the most of her (short) time on earth. If you question how she could have been the most popular and loved woman on earth (and still is), then this book will answer that for you.



2. I'm genuinely shocked there are no reviews to date of this double CD!
   
   Beware of a BBC documentary! Boy, can they dig out the dirt and have absolutely no problem at all with rubbing it into the person's face forever more! I guess they couldn't (or wouldn't) do that with Diana, Princess of Wales, as this was released within months of her death.
   
   Either way, this is an excellent audio documentary that chronicles Diana's life from birth to death and seemingly every major detail in between - from the intense media scrutiny that followed her for a good portion of her life, to the excitement leading up to the "Wedding of the Century," to the birth of her beloved sons, to her marital difficulties that the world is very familiar with by this point in time, to her well-publicized battles with depression and bulimia, and, finally, to the unprecendented outpouring of emotion in England - the depth and scale of which was never experienced in recent memory there - that followed her death (and I don't think I'm exaggerating by stating that).
   
   I am 31 and, truth be told, I wasn't a fan of the late Princess's when she was alive. I didn't hate her, but I wasn't crazy about her, either. It was only after her sudden death that I got into her (and, no, I will never, ever forget what I was doing when I heard the news). I've since read countless books about her life and respect her for the fact that she was able to come from a broken home and, eventually, a broken marriage herself, and try to turn it into something positive by helping the people who needed it the most.
   
   At one of the lowest points in her life (which probably would have been in the early-90s), she bravely fought against the very well coordinated palace machine that set out to destroy her by conveying to the public an image of Diana as a loony bin ready to kill herself at any moment. Through it all, though, Diana prioritized and remained a committed mother and a devotee to the charity work that, as it turned out, was one of the only sources of comfort to her (besides her beloved William and Harry).
   
   What comes through crystal clear with this documentary is the fact that Diana was on her own when it came to the continuous press inquiries into every detail of her life. The palace staff, and the always up-to-date and in-touch Queen herself, stood by the sidelines and watched Diana with the philosophy of "sink or swim." Naturally, a young woman who's all of 19 when the press first trained their cameras on her would have had zero idea of how to handle herself with the media and would become friendly with, and even dependent on, photographers because she sure wasn't getting any help from the palace!
   
   Some could assume this is a fluff piece on Diana designed to make money from her death, and that could very well be true to some extent. But the BBC didn't attempt to rewrite history and presented the facts as they happened and that's what makes this audio documentary a pleasure to listen to and absorb.
   
   The two CDs run for about a total of two hours, but it's so worth the time if you want to get a better picture of Diana. (A bonus that was included with the original CD was a {very!} abbreviated copy of her pedigree.) - Donna Di Giacomo