5 comments about Looking for Jimmy: A Search for Irish America.

1. Great book! Well-written tales of growing up Irish American; NYC based, but rang lots of Boston bells too.



2. A big fan of Quinn's historical fiction novels "Banished Children of
   Eve" and "Hour of the Cat," I knew I was in the hands of an expert
   author and historian in "Looking for Jimmy." Quinn gets personal in
   this collection of essays about the Irish in America. As he shares
   stories of his family, I'm reminded of my own, or the lack thereof.
   The older generations didn't speak much about Ireland or the trials
   and harsh tales of their immigration and integration into the new
   world. Quinn notes the silence and dearth of artifacts. The phrase
   "Watch the quiet ones" comes to mind. May as well say, watch the
   Irish ones. Thankfully, Quinn is not quiet. He watches them all,
   researches, studies and considers, takes account and conveys the story
   and motivation of a people across generations.
   
   It's all too common for modern society to neglect its ancestry. The
   melting pot warrants, yet makes it harder to figure identity. Quinn
   bravely and enthusiastically explores one important and special
   ingredient in that pot, the Irish. He takes us to the movies with
   James Cagney, to the legendary story of hero Michael Corcoran, to many
   places the Irish permeated and permeate. What it means to be
   American, has a lot to do with what it means to be every other
   culture. Quinn's "Looking For Jimmy" helps us find him and appreciate
   the Irish element in the fabric of America. If we're lucky, there's a
   little bit of Jimmy in all of us.



3. The great Irish labor leader and 1916 rebel James Connally once said,"It's easier to explain socialism to the Irish than to explain the Irish to the socialists." I've always found depictions of Irish Americans--even more that the Irish in Ireland--to be riddled with stereotypes, both favorable and unfavorable. Why, I've wondered, couldn't anybody "explain" Irish Americans to their fellow Americans--i.e., capture all the confouding complexity of this people in their long day's journey from famine and rural serfdom to the top of the New World? Maybe no one story can ever capture the whole journey, but for me "Looking for Jimmy" comes as close as anyone will ever manage. I was deeply moved by this book, and though, unlike the author, I no longer have any association with organized religion (I describe myself as a "disorganized Christian"),I found his observations on faith to be filled with truth. If you're not Irish American but want to find out about them, read this book. If you are Irish American and want to find out about yourself, do the same.



4. This book answers the question once and for all; Are all the NY Irish dead and buried in Calvary Cemetary??? Not so.....Quinn's book riveted me from the first word written. So many of the reflections were identical to my own family and their experience in New York. The silence of our past, the quest for respectability, the fierce fidelity to the faith. I was torn between laughing and crying at the similarities.
   
   Besides the magnificent analysis and brilliant prose, I appreciate Quinn's indebtedness to the parochial school system; I too am a product of a Christian Brothers high school, then Fordham (much to the dismay of my high school teachers, no Manhattan College in my future...my father had the Jesuits at Xavier and Georgetown)
   
   If you are a New Yorker of Irish descent, this is a must read. Too few of my generation appreciate the sufferings and sacrifices of our ancestors; we have succeeded upon their shoulders. This book crystalizes that fact, and challenges us to keep faith with that past as we look to the future



5. Peter Quinn is a master storyteller and with his prose he tries to keep alive the enduring and rich legacy of Irish-American contributions to the history and foundations of American life.

No comments about Remember, Remember the Fifth of November.

No comments about Pádraig Ó Fathaigh's War of Independence: Recollections of a Galway Gaelic Leaguer (Irish Narrative Series).

No comments about Sainted Women of the Dark Ages.

1 comments about Tommy Makem's Secret Ireland.

1. I ordered the book because of the author. I have long enjoyed his singing, and admired his song writing ability, so expected to enjoy the book. I was not disappointed. Makem gives us a tour around his favorite spots in Ireland, taking us to less familiar places. The travelogue is interspersed with anecdotes about his own experiences in these places. The book is well-written, enjoyable reading. Anticipating a trip to Ireland in the near future, I have just ordered my fourth copy of the book.

No comments about Braveheart: From Hollywood to Hollyrood.

4 comments about Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled.

1. A compelling biography is usually characterized by two elements: good writing and an interesting subject. Unfortunately, this book is a little short on both fronts. Princess Margaret began life with every advantage--she had loving parents, an exalted position in society, material wealth, beauty, wit, and even musical talent. From a young age, she could be described as charming. But she was destined to become an "also ran" after her sister assumed the throne when she was only 21. She played off Queen Elizabeth's dutiful image by at first attempting a love match to Peter Townsend that was ultimately vetoed, and then by shifting gears to become the "bad girl" of her era. Excess followed; there were too many days of Famous Grouse whiskey, cigarettes dangled from long holders, a husband who sparred with her and some unsuitable lovers. Her beguiling ways could flip quickly into a rude imperiousness that was perhaps justified by her birth but not by her lifestyle or accomplishments. She became tedious to the public who paid her bills.
   
   Heald had a good shot at this biography, having access to some of the major players who knew PM and being granted permission to use the royal archives to enrich his portrayal. But his rather scholarly approach finds its quagmire in an overabundance of trivial details. You get to read about how many brooches she was given, her meal choices, her preferences for the minutiae of official visits. Who cares? And there are footnotes on almost each and every page, introducing all personae. Do we really need to be told who the Rolling Stones are? Or the lesser known people that we have never heard of before and will never give another thought to? Heald's playing the academic to portray a dissolute princess lacks the drama and verve I think she would have appreciated.
   
   In the final analysis, he didn't like her much either. She ended her life badly, with lung problems and strokes and scalded feet that never healed. In reflecting on the question of whether or not he felt better for having known her as a biographer (even having met her in person), he answered with a sad "not really." Her pompous and self-destructive behaviors made her an unsympathetic figure, and even Heald admits that "some of her friends thought it a pity that she didn't die earlier" and noted that her obituaries "were mostly in a range from grudging to venomous." If you want the facts of Princess Margaret's life they are here, but this is not a book you read for pleasure.



2. I enjoy biography, but this one was heavy going. The author writes beautiful prose, his research is impressive, the footnotes identifying the dramatis personae are helpful, but the book bogs down in a seemingly endless account of the minutia of organizing Margaret's royal appearances while the arc of her relationships with her family, the public, and lovers is almost ignored. Her courtship, the birth of her children, her life in the Caribbean and the eventual breakdown of her marriage and health are glossed over to the point where it's easy to lose interest in this fascinating woman.



3. This is a thorough book about Princess Margaret's life. A life of struggles with moments of joy, just like most people's lives. This book shows that though she was royalty, life plagued her. She may not had to worry about many things that they average person did, but she still suffered. She found ways to cope and experience joy also. Good book.



4. This is absolutely the very last book that I will ever read about Princess Margaret as I'm sure that I've read everything that could possibly been written about her and her life. What a poor, wretched,unhappy woman she was..spoilt dreadfully and therefore unable to feel any kind of satisfaction in her life. Idolized by her father as a child, she reacted with spoiled petulance to any form of discipline and managed to charm her way out of trouble with her mischievous sense of humour, but, always walking in her sister's shadow. Her truculent attitude towards what she considered was the correct way to speak to her, may have been accepted and expected, centuries before but even in the second half of the 20th century, total subservience to members of the royal family was a thing of the past and, only in her immediate circle of cronies, did she recieve the grovelling, self effacing behaviour that characterised her needs. Her self indulgent life style caused her to suffer from poor health and she ended her sad life as a lonely, sick woman...what a waste!.

2 comments about The Courtesan's Revenge: The Life of Harriette Wilson, the Woman Who Blackmailed the King.

1. The author has really done justice to this biography, resisting I am sure the temptation to `sex' the book up, which would have been totally wrong and also unnecessary. This is a wickedly funny biography, a story of a woman, whose name many people will never have heard. It is the life story of Harriette Wilson, who became one of the most famous and most sought after courtesans in the whole of England.
   
   Harriette's beauty was a rare sight to behold when many women, even of a young age were disfigured with pox marks or the loss of their teeth and any of the other multitude of diseases prevalent at the time. But apart from being beautiful she was intelligent and funny. The author has managed to draw from a multitude of sources, which have enabled her to distinguish fact from fiction. Although having said that, Harriette led such an extraordinary life that at times the book reads more like a novel than a biography.
   
   Harriette Wilson had a sensational and at the same time scandalous life. She was nobody's fool and when her former lovers, some of the most important men in Regency London, including the King himself and no less than four prime minister turned against her, Harriette knew exactly how to take her revenge upon them.



2. Harriette Wilson (1786-1845) was among last of the great courtesans and became one of the most notorious when, foiled in collecting annuities that had been promised to her by several gentlemen in her retirement, she published her "Memoirs" with the intention of blackmailing virtually every man who had visited her boudoir. The lawsuits sent her publisher, John Joseph Stockdale, to debtors' prison. But Harriette Wilson's "Memoirs" were a sensation that thrilled the reading public and caused panic at the highest levels of British government. Wilson was blackmailing King George IV and his royal mistress Lady Conyngham, among a long list of powerful personalities. Author Frances Wilson presents a meticulous and lively account of Harriette Wilson's colorful life, from her birth into a tradesman's family in Mayfair, through her reign over England's demi-monde and seduction of its grande-monde, when she cost £50 (over $3000 today) for just an introduction, to her eventual retirement and publication of her "Memoirs" in 1825, through the last years of her life.
   
   For all that she wrote about herself, Harriette Wilson is a perplexing character. Born before the anti-sex fervor of the 19th century posited chastity as the primarily requirement of femininity and women with any carnal appetite came to be feared, Harriette Wilson valued her freedom above all else. She might have had an aristocratic marriage, but she didn't have the temperament for it. "Constancy and convention in relationships were anathemas to her." That's refreshing. But was Harriette's personality bigger than her talents? She reminds me of Mae West: saucy, bold, flirtatious, and completely convinced that she is the most fascinating and sexiest woman around. So certain is she of her allure that force of will makes it so. She excelled in self-promotion. Was Harriette a wronged woman or a vicious blackmailer? She didn't confine her threats to those who had reneged on promises. She begged money until the end. But if only a few men had paid her what she asked -which many did- Harriette would have had enough money to live on. She handled money poorly and lived beyond her means.
   
   Adding to the considerable drama that followed the publication of Harriette Wilson's "Memoirs" was a rebuttal of Harriette's account by fellow courtesan and former friend Julia Storer Johnstone, which Miss Johnstone called her "Confessions". The "Confessions" are accepted by some as the more truthful account, but Frances Wilson points out that is not the case. Harriette Wilson took liberties with dates and details in her "Memoirs", but many of the events can be verified by secondary sources. When the "Memoirs" must be relied upon for explicit information, they are problematic. The men who successfully bought themselves out of the book do not appear within its pages. So many of Harriette Wilson's liaisons remain a mystery. "The Courtesan's Revenge" is an intriguing biography and an detailed piece of the social history of Regency England's demi-monde. There are 2 sections of illustrations containing more than 30 plates of Harriette Wilson and her contemporaries.

No comments about The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham (1376-1422).

5 comments about Queen Mary 1867-1953.

1. I have owned this book for nearly three decades and have read it several times, and each time is a joy. This book. by far, has to be one of the best "official" biographies of a monarch. When it first came out in 1959/1960 it was a bestseller on both sides of the pond as they say. Take a few hours with it and you will see why. You won't be disappointed!
   
   James Pope-Hennessy does a brilliant job of evoking the life and times of this dignified lady. This book was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II so therefore Mr. Pope-Hennessy had access to all the royal files as well as to the people that knew Queen Mary best. While the book is exhaustive it is by no means dull as the author is a fine writer and knows how to spin a tale. The reader will be enchanted by stories of the young princess growing up as well as inspired by her stalwart devotion as consort during some of the most tumultuous times in England's history. I defy any reader not feel the proverbial lump in their throat when near the end of her life, Queen Mary, aged and infirm, stands at attention as her son's (George VI) coffin passes the palace and utters the phrase, "There he goes," as tears roll down her cheek.
   
   From Mary herself, to her entertaining mother The Duchess of Teck, to the tragic Prince Eddy, to King George V and finally King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary's circle comes to life through anecdote after anecdote. The author also has a fine feel for the eras that surrouded Queen Mary: Victorian, Edwardian, WWI and WWII and into the modern age.
   
   Some people have referred to this book as hagiography--a word I detest. It is ironic that what was once considered a brilliant work is today thought of in such light. Actually QUEEN MARY is biography the way biography used to be and still should be. Today there is to much emphasis on the inner thoughts of the subject (if an author does that then doesn't the nook become fiction) to all the salacious details that can be unearthed. I have often wondered why people write about someone just to tear them down.
   
   While Pope-Hennessy does a great job unravelling the life of George V's consort he doesn't resort to any kind of analysis of the woman, which would have been impossible as he did not know her. Therefore the reader is treated to a great story without all that armchair psychology that often bogs down royal biographies today. Sadly, this seems to have become the vogue in this genre in the late 1990s when all those books were written about the late Princess Diana of Wales and members of the House of Windsor.
   
   QUEEN MARY is the chronicle of a remarkable woman and remarkable times that is told with respect and objectivity. The fact that it is still in print says alot about the book itself. If you love history and royalty, and want to read a great biography as the genre should be written, sit down and have a cup of tea with QUEEN MARY, you'll be glad you did.
   ----Michael J. Powazinik



2. After all the gleaming reviews of this book, and because of my interest in the Windsor Royal Family, I read this book with initial relish, and growing ill-ease. It is pure hagiography, the besotted official biographer writes well, and with great love of his subject, but there in no real study of the character of the woman, nor the impact on her of the abdication crisis; no sense of the Queen having the slightest character flaws, or any strong life experiences. What was her voice like: did she have a non-English accent; what about the anti-German sentiment in the country during WWI how did she deal with it? Nothing of this nature was discussed in any detail in this book. It is official court writing; and if you think that that tells you anything insightful or perceptive, then you might like this book. It was all right, but so much was left out that it could have been around 100 pages and could have told this same story. After reading it I feel I know very little about anything other than garden parties, trips to the Continent to visit a beloved aunt, and that the Queen was generally a nice but just moderately intelligent person. I am not looking for shocking details such as the euthanizing of her husband or how she treated her children, but some verisimilitude on real life issues would have been nice. This is evidence that court approved and appointed biographers don't tell very much of the story.



3. Before I read this biography I had no interest in the Victorians, didn't think much of the Royal Family and thought all biographies were boring. This book changed all that. It was the story of a remarkable life, well told, and it covers an important period in history it was good to read- in fact, it deserves to rank as the best biography ever written, even though it's 47 years old!



4. While it's not the fashion these days for biographers to betray afffection for their subjects, James Pope-Hennessy clearly held his in the highest regard. Although born into the fringes of Germano-British royalty, the one-time May of Teck was, by the end of her long life, an icon of British life (she pops up in the oddest places, from a cameo as a waving hand in Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" to a recent BBC film in which she is portrayed by Miranda Richardson as the mother of what we would now call a "differently abled" child).
   
   Pope-Hennessy's biography is at once a respectful portrait of the Queen and a fascinating glimpse into royal life between the Crimean and Second World Wars. It bristles with colorful supporting characters, from the spiteful Lady Geraldine Somerset (whose fly-on-the-wall perspective as a lady-in-waiting gave ample room for her spleen) to the Queen's doting aunt, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz, to the exceedingly patient Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, who had the dubious honor of hosting the elderly queen during her wartime evacuation from London. Presiding over them all is the vast and benevolent Princess Mary Adelaide, the Queen's mother and a memorable figure in her own right. The author bids farewell to the Princess in a lyric passage that would seem at home in Woolf and that, as a teenager first reading the book, made me weep.
   
   With lengthy excerpts from letters and other primary sources, unfailingly acute and frequently amusing observations of the foibles of royalty and those around them, and, in the end, a remarkably balanced view of the Queen, this book is both a model of how an authorized biography can be written and an invaluable resource for those interested not just in the life of one woman but in the times in which she lived.



5. Once in awhile I can judge a book by its cover-I have now owned a copy for 11 years and I also re-read it once a year or so. Mr Pope-Hennessey does a brilliant job bringing a huge cast of charachters to life, and Queen Mary herself is a fascinating study in early 20th century womanhood. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading about women in the royal family. All the elements are there, in great detail-but don't expect dirt digging. But you will not be dissappointed!