1 comments about Churchill and De Gaulle.

1. Excellent description of the complex relationship between these two
   famous WWII leaders. Both faced tremendously difficult odds against
   Germany in June 1940, when the German armies quickly invaded
   Benelux and France, throwing the British divisions back to England.
   At a time where the US was only standing by, and France was overwhelmed by
   a vastly superior ennemy, Churchill had the courage and vision to support De Gaulle's refusal to surrender and subsequent negation of the (collaborationist) Vichy government. The author also provides an excellent
   description of the two men, describing their trials and highly tempestuous relationship, including their enduring -if severely tested- friendship. In the end, it becomes clear that both men indeed truly loved France -and what it stood for, expecting it to fulfill its European role after the war. The book also describes Roosevelt's persistent attempts to undermine De Gaulle while pressuring Churchill to do likewise -- perhaps the origin of the strained rapport betwen France and the US ?

5 comments about Prince Leopold.

1. With this book, the author takes a welcome look at the life of Prince Leopold, fourth and youngest son of Queen Victoria. A fascinating prince, Leopold is one royal that history has more or less forgotten save his sad position as the first known royal hemophiliac. The earnest Leopold was highly intelligent (later Oxford educated), and desperate to live some semblance of a normal life, despite his illnesses (besides his hemophilia, Leopold was also likely a mild epileptic, both of which were not well-known outside of his family). His precarious health also made his already overbearing mother keep an even shorter leash on her youngest son, and his battles for a life separate from her were hard-won.
   
   Zeepvat is by profession a historian, and this book was definitely well-researched. The author includes much correspondence amongst a family of prolific letter-writers, and gives her audience an almost daily account of Leopold's activities and whereabouts. This approach also gives a well-rounded portrait of Leopold's personality, his thoughts on his illnesses, his struggles for independence, and his familial relationships. Aside from his dealings with Queen Victoria, Zeepvat also highlights Leopold's very close relationship with Alice, Grand Duchess of the small German principality of Hesse, and likewise her husband Louis. Zeepvat likewise describes Leopold's Oxford days well, along with the long-lasting friends he made there (Alice Liddell of Alice in Wonderland fame among them) and the happy memories he kept.
   
   The author also offers a theory on Leopold's hemophilia coming from Victoria's mother's family. Though the disease is passed to sons by their mothers, hemophilia was previously unknown on Victoria's maternal side. Hypotheses since Victoria's time have offered suggesting that Victoria's genes were perhaps mutated. Zeepvat points out what little was known about hemophilia even in Leopold's time, and further points out several young boys of Victoria's maternal family who died of what was thought to be usual childhood maladies of the times.
   
   The book is well-written in the fact that it is so rich in historical fact; however, Zeepvat's profession as a historian is evident, as the narrative is not particularly engaging. Also absent is much information on Leopold's wife, Helena of Waldeck-Pyrmont. Though their marriage was brief (it lasted just short of two years, ending in Leopold's sudden death), Leopold had wanted to marry very badly as part of living a more ordinary life. He and Helena had a very happy relationship, unlike many arranged royal unions of the time, and had two children, a rare feat for a 19th century hemophiliac.
   
   Nonetheless, Zeepvat has provided a solid effort with this work on Leopold, giving her audience a good picture Leopold's life, one that was all too short and is remembered far too little.



2. This is a decent biography on Prince Leopold, although the author's theories on how he contracted hemophilia through his mother Queen Victoria was a little over my head, and the author could have made her explanation a bit more clearer. Also, I do wish the author would have made a family tree of Prince Leopold's descendents.



3. This is the first book, of the many I have read on Queen Victoria and/or her children, that focuses on Prince Leopold. Even reading the edited letters between Victoria and her daughter Vicky had very little mention of this child. The book was informative and I learned a great deal regarding her true obsessive and sometimes vicious behavior to Leopold, as a child and as a grown man. I highly recommend it.



4. I'd rate this less than zero, if the rating system allowed me to. This is completely lousy book and a huge waste of money! Many facts are wrong, which is a disgrace for someone of Ms. Zeepvat's experience. Her writing is flat and uninspiring and almost anything of interest is obtained from other books about the subject. Personally I'm sick of all these royal books that are basically re-packaged versions of previous books.



5. In the many books about Queen Victoria's family that I have read, Leopold seems to be known only for his haemophilia. He seems to have been the most popular member within the royal family, although not with his mother, who seemed to see him as a convenient drone. She was notorious for trying to keep her children on a leash long into adulthood. Leopold appears to have overcome these obstacles. In his short life, he accomplished a great deal, he was the first of the royal family to attend Oxford, he was on the boards of a great many charities, he managed to travel, and he worked as an unofficial secretary to his mother.

   This is a well written and researched book. The author provides information on other more obscure members of Queen Victoria's family, such as her half sister Feodora and her family. The family tree of the female side of Victoria's family is the most extensive and interesting I have seen, although it does not solve the question of where the haemophilia in the family came from.

No comments about Lord Shaftesbury.

No comments about Brendan Bracken.

No comments about Royal Lives.

1 comments about Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine: A Biography of the Black Prince.

1. If you're looking for an upbeat, easy-to-read history of Prince Edward, look elsewhere. This is definitely NOT the book for you.
   
   If you are looking for a book that details the life of a great leader, and digs deeply into the machinations behind the events of his times, this is definitely the book to get.
   
   So, point of the review: Armchair historians beware! This is a deep, quite dry history of the Black Prince.

5 comments about Francis Drake: Lives of a Hero.

1. This book has been an excellent source for information concerning Drake's life and the violent political era in which he lived. The combination of several authentic and contemporary 16th Century sources give validity to the generous amounts of information contained therein. Sir Francis Drake became a man of destiny, with the flaws and foibles all such heroic men have; the book shows many examples of his brave humanity in a very brutal age, as well as the hard decisions he had to make in the name of fulfilling his pledge to Queen Elizabeth I to complete the grand and dangerous voyage. The details of his actions during the attack on the Spanish Armada showed a clear picture of his part in the battles; likewise the events after his being knighted were noted (often such progressive accomplishments of his life as a man and official of Plymouth have been beglected in other books). As a writer currently working on an illustrated chronicle of Drake's Circumnavigation, I feel most grateful for the excellent period portraits, pictures and maps which have helped me to gain more visual insight into the complexities of Elizabethan Maritime History. The work has been well-researched; it breathes life into a bygone age, the effects of which still reverberates over 400 years later.



2. I started this book expecting to read of the charismatic sea dog and protestant zealot of school history lessons. Instead a far more complicated and contradictory picture of a man who to modern eyes is both admirable and despicable - much like the Queen he served.

   Here Drake is a man of paradoxes. He started his career on slave ships but grew to despise the trade and became the first European to interact with the Cimarrons - escaped slaves - as equals. Drake was capable of fiery nationalism, and a passionate hatred of Spanish Catholicism but yet consistently treated his Spanish prisoners with the utmost courtesy. Perhaps the greatest duality of Drake was one that was apparent during his own lifetime - his dual service of personal fortune and national, English protestant, interest. To Drake these were not as distinct as they seem today, but perhaps it is the only fault of this book that they are not better resolved.

   John Cummins' excellent book practically reads itself, a highly recommended look at an amazing and complicated man.




3. I started this book expecting to read of the charismatic sea dog and protestant zealot of school history lessons. Instead a far more complicated picture emerges, a man who to modern eyes is both admirable and despicable - much like the Queen he served.

   Here Drake is a man of paradoxes. He started his career on slave ships but grew to despise the trade and became the first European to interact with the Cimarrons - escaped slaves - as equals. Drake was capable of fiery nationalism, and a passionate hatred of Spanish Catholicism but yet consistently treated his Spanish prisoners with the utmost courtesy. Perhaps the greatest duality of Drake was one that was apparent during his own lifetime - his dual service of personal fortune and national, English protestant, interest. To Drake these were not as distinct as they seem today, but perhaps it is the only fault of this book that they are not better resolved.

   John Cummins' excellent book practically reads itself, a highly recommended look at an amazing and contradictory man.




4. Reading about Drake's many seagoing professions, I can't help relating his exploits to those of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. While your average corporate adventurer doesn't risk life and limb on long maritime voyages, the desire for fame and fortune is the same.

   Francis Drake, as Cummins presents him, was a man of common birth who sought to make a name and a great deal of wealth for himself. Early in his career he was a slave trader along with John Hawkins, but if we are to believe what Cummins says, he found it distasteful.

   He later took to a highly successful career as a corsair and explorer, raiding Spanish shipping for gold and becoming one of the first men to circumnavigate the Earth. Cummins' portrayal of Drake as an egalitarian holds up under scrutiny. He employed men of many backgrounds in his crews including African Cimarrons who had escaped from slavery under the Spanish and fled into the jungles of Latin America.

   Cummins explores Drake's exploits in great detail without apparent bias. He doesn't shy away from showing the man's less appealing traits in his portrait. One of the things that stood out was Drake's behavior during the battle with the Spanish Armada. Drake had a hard time suppressing his piratical urges when he often was needed for more military endeavors. Nevertheless, Drake stands out primarily as a man of honor in a tumultuous time.

   If you enjoy biographies, history or just a good pirate tale (that's real!) I highly recommend this book. It's a fascinating story of a man whose inner passion and desire for glory drove him to great things.




5. The Key to Sir Francis Drake was that he was in the essence a shallow water boatman.The technique of long distance navigation had been discovered and exploited by the time Drake hit the water. Drakes first edge in his line of work was that he sailed to the West Indies with shallow water boats on board his transatlantic ships, in partially assembled form or complete 'ready for action' towed behind. His second edge was that he had the sponsorship of the Queen of the Realm, E1. With The Royal Patronage, like 007 he could do whatever, no problem. Let Sir Fancis test his new maritime tactics in the shallow lagoons and bays of the Caribbean against the hated Espanish, if he succeeds everybody's rich, if he fails he's dead. In the early years Sr. Francis exploited every advantage; particularly the huge differences in time and distance between the government of Spain and its Western claims. In Francis' time those regions barely qualified as any governmental area, so far from authority and management they were. Happening upon a likely victim, our pirate simply cut a deal with the site governors, the treasure caravan leaders, and the treasure ship captains in transit. Francis took most but left enough to make the employees rich. He cast off with fair regards for all people, and everybody involved looked forward to the "Good Pirates" return next season. Philip of Spain was more circumspect. Over a period of years he established his authority via clear management lines of responsibility and procedures for the transportation of loot and filthy lugar. After the Spanish King consolidated his realm, Sr. Francis days were done. The Spanish had yet another use for our pirate hero. It was Spanish Literature that was first to elevate Sr. Francis to the place of folk hero, epic warrior, and national poltergeist. For a generation whisper of "El Dragon" was sufficient to warn every child to bed and more importantly every shipping manager, captain and dock clerk to do his best for King and kind.

No comments about George Fox: The Journal (Penguin Classics).

2 comments about The Most Beautiful Man in Existence: The Scandalous Life of Alexander Lesassier.

1. What a modern occurrence: a young man works only enough to get by, seduces every lovely young thing he can, spends himself into bankruptcy, and abuses his professional position, all the while wondering with complete innocence why the world isn't beating a path to his door. But Rosner's book isn't a comedy of 20th-century errors; it's the tale of a Regency-era stud who badly needed to be disabused of his notions. Fear not. He never was. Each few pages brings some fresh misadventure, in which the good doctor thinks he's found the perfect source of free money or true love, while you, the reader, are already squirming in anticipation of disaster. Here's a taste: Lesassier's specialty is obstetrics, at which he actually was quite competent. However, there was that little problem with him seducing his patients. This book does take a certain amount of attention to read. Published for the academic community, it's page after page of small print and few illustrations. It's well worth the effort.



2. This is a remarkably engaging tale based on the in-depth study of an 18th century physician's voluminous diary. In this actual history that reads like a page-turning novel, Rosner brings to life an ambitious, social climbing man from his youth and his training through a career marked by multiple scandals. A reader is forced to wonder how much the world of the protagonist's sexual pecadillos and ambitious exploitative manipulations are reflected behind the scenes in today's medical world. The author has turned scrupulous historical scholarship into a fully engrossing read.

1 comments about Queen Victoria: Fifty Golden Years ; Incidents in the Queen's Reign (English Heritage) (English Heritage).

1. I thought this book was going to be bigger, and less stylized. I came to appreciate it better, though, because of that reason. Its produced very much like it was released in 1887, with that high-Victorian feel, and its size makes it easy to store on a shelf or on a coffee table.
   
   If you admire the Victorian age, or better still, Queen Victoria herself, this is a book that is fun to own and display!