2 comments about My Boy Jack.

1. I admit I did not know much about Rudyard Kipling, but after seeing the film "My Boy Jack" I wanted to learn to more.
   This book was so beautifully written, I actually couldn't put the book down and had it read in about 3 days.
   I not only learned a great deal about Rudyard but I also learned a great deal about history. Whether you just love to read or love history, I highly recommend this book.



2. Although born in England, I knew very little about Rudyard Kipling. This book covers Kipling's life from childhood thru death and shows how his character influenced his only son into joining the Irish Guards at the beginning of the Great War. His son was killed on his first day in combat and his body never recovered. Now, 77 years later, they think they have found him - or have they ? All the evidence is presented for the reader to decide. A good read.

3 comments about WINSTON CHURCHILL - SOLDIER: The Military Life of a Gentleman at War.

1. In the popular--especially American--mind, the career of Winston Churchill begins in 1940, but in fact he had many careers, and in all of them, he demonstrated courage and a prodigious amount of energy. In Winston Churchill: Soldier, Douglas S. Russell focuses on Churchill's early life as a gentleman and lieutenant in the service of Victorian England. It was, by any standard, an impressive service and Russell takes us through all the key events, illuminating them with informative and entertaining prose.
   
   In a five-year period, Churchill saw combat in four countries, won several decorations including the Spanish Order of Military Merit, became fabulously famous as an escaped prisoner of war, wrote five books, and gained a seat in Parliament. He was not yet twenty-six.
   
   It is an intimidating task to relate the events of such a life, and it is made more challenging by knowing who your subject was to become. Russell's achievement is admirable. He begins with Churchill's childhood--it is well to remember that the future Prime Minister was born forty years before the First World War--and takes us through his days at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst before going on to his service in the 4th Hussars and combat on an international stage. (It is difficult for an American to picture Churchill fighting in Cuba.)
   
   Russell succeeds in showing the best traits of a biographer in this volume. He is engaged with his subject and yet he retains a scholarly distance. It is not easy to maintain such balance with someone who looms as large in our minds as Churchill.
   
   --David Lang at Advance Book Reviews



2. 
   I've read many books about Winston Churchill and this by far is the worst! It almost seems as if Churchill was punished for serving in the military.
   
   I wish the book would have discussed what I believe motivated Winston Churchill for military acceptance, an example; his childhood in boarding school: He was rarely visited by his mother, Lady Randolph, whom he wrote many letters begging her to either come or let his father permit him to come home and stay. I believe his father wanted Winston at home and to be part of his life, unfortunately back then (the late 1800's) a mother always seemed to get her way concerning the children, no matter how wrong she was.
   
   Another note, Churchill participated in what has been described as the last significant British cavalry charge at the Battle of Omdurman. He also served as a war correspondent for the Morning Post. What's terrific is that Sir Winston Churchill wrote and served in the military at the same time! I wonder if that was ever used against him when he ran for office??
   
   Back to the book, Winston Churchill was a great leader and hero, but it is not conveyed to me in this book. It seems the author did not take into account or see all sides of the picture concerning Churchill's military life, especially the truthful people who took the time to show up and support Winston in his endeavors.
   
   To me, the book was vacant, dreadful, and very one-sided. I'm sorry to say that I would never recommend this book to anyone, not even my worst enemy.
   
   Two great books to read regarding Winston Churchill's military life are "Concerning Winston Spencer Churchill," written by Sir George Arthur and "Winston Churchill: The Era and the Man," written by Virginia Cowles.
   
   I hope my review enlightened you and made you think.



3. This book is a labor of love and it shows. In an overture to his political career, Winston Churchill was graduated from Great Britain's royal military academy in 1894, aged twenty, and served as a professional officer (and part-time war correspondent) t for the next six years. He saw action on India's northwest frontier, in Cuba as an observer with the Spanish army during the Cuban insurrection of 1895, in what was then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1898, and in the Boer War in 1899-1900. Then in 1915, after losing his post as a Cabinet Minister, a middle-aged Churchill returned to duty on the Western Front for a year. He thus saw colonial war in Africa and Asia in the late days of the British Empire, when it was considered something of a moderately dangerous sport for gentleman cavalry officers, and in his own middle age when it had become an industrial-scale slaughter in the mud of the trenches of Flanders. Russell tells the story with thoroughgoing attention to detail based on exhaustive research--including visits to the scenes he describes--skipping nothing, from details of uniforms and daily patterns of army life, to tactics and moment-by-moment experiences in battle. No one interested in military history should miss this book.
   
   But the general reader, too, will find it fascinating because the central figure, never lost sight of, is young Winston Churchill--ambitious, outspoken (sometimes to his disadantage,) eloquent, completely loyal to class and country, and absolutely without fear on the battlefields where he narrowly missed death several times. Likewise gifted with a sense of the sweep of history that he later poured into many books. Everyone should make the acquaintance of this genuine and colorful giant in his formative years to learn why he became a great wartime leader. Those of us, like this reviewer, old enough to remember that deep voice using the mightiest resources of the English language to rally Britain and the free world against the Axis even in the darkest moments of World War II will be especially thrilled. Those younger should make his refreshing acquaintance in this age of cookie-cutter politicians.

No comments about Decline to Glory: A Reassessment of the Life and Times of Lady Hester Stanhope (Salzburg Studies in English Literature. Romantic Reassessment, 124).

3 comments about Warwick the Kingmaker.

1. A very balanced biography of this enigmatic figure. It presents his intense energy and desire for good government, but also as an extremely ambitious, proud man who allowed himself to be caught in the web of the great Spider King, Louis XI of France. I wish Kendall had not included his periodic flights of fancy (imaginary dialogue, going into the mind of a man long dead), but this is a highly readable and detailed book.



2. As one of the two best biographies of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, this book enables one to understand the complexities. He was not the "Last of the Barons" - especially since he was an earl ;-), as Shakespeare made him out, but rather a betrayed and fair person who did not want power, but rather good government. The book brings out the trials of a man betrayed and finally defeated, but his ideals lived on. A Warwick! A Warwick!



3. Excellent reading which you won't want to put down. Traces the life of THE KINGMAKER as he is buffeted by the winds of fortune, endlessly rising and falling until meeting his death at Barnet Field. Will make you feel Warwick's surging energy as he carries the fortunes of the White Rose on his back. His self contemplation before the Battle of Barnet is powerful stuff.

No comments about A Policeman's Ireland: Recollections of Samuel Waters, R.I.C. (Irish Narrative Series).

No comments about The Gentleman Usher: The Life And Times Of George Dempster (1732-1818) : Member of Parliament and Laird of Dunnichen and Skibo.

No comments about Warwick the Kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

No comments about Race, Class, and the World System: The Sociology of Oliver C. Cox.

3 comments about Shadow of the Titanic.

1. Eva had loving parents when she boarded Titanic not by choice but their other ship had problems. Her mother had a premonition. She believed the ship was cursed and would never make it's final destination, New York City. Her mother had no idea how right she was. She spent her days sleeping and her nights up keeping watch. Eva and her father disregarded her mother's fear as too much. After all, Mrs. Hart never felt this way before or after Titanic. It's Eva who I remember as a Titanic Survivor speaking up on Robert Ballard's documentary in 1986. Besides being a Titanic survivor, she pursued a singing career and lived in Australia. Although she never married or had children, Eva was by no means, dull or not interesting. On the contrary, she is one of the most memorable because she became a Justice of the Peace in her town of Chelmsford, Essex, England and she was awarded an M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1974 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to the community. Only Herbert Pittman was awarded an MBE for his services to the military during World War II. Pittman was also a Titanic survivor and crewmate who helped the survivors. Besides surviving Titanic, Eva showed how to be a survivor with dignity, grace, and class. She matured at 7 years old when she last saw her father before he perished with all the others. Her tale of survival or her years afterword could have made a film of it's merit worth watching. But most survivors don't want to see another Titanic film no matter how wonderful if it is. They still bear scars themselves.



2. The above speaks for itself



3. I would like to find a copy of the book shadow at a glance but you cant because there is no way to add it to this shopping cart

No comments about Winston s Churchill: The Prophet of Truth 1922-1939 (Winston S. Churchill).