No comments about Courtships of Queen Elizabeth: A History of the Various Negotiations for Her Marriage.

No comments about Love And Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great And Prince Grigory....

2 comments about Darkness Visible: Memoir of a World War II Combat Photographer.

1. Darkness Visible has personal interest for me, because my father served with Mr. Sumners. Mr. Meyers spent time at our home when I was young and came to my dad's memorial service in 1990, and left me with the promise of a wake attended by the "army buddies". I enjoyed reading about events from another perspective and the kind words of Mr. Sumners about my father, Ralph Butterfield.



2. Charles Sumners (with the help of Ann Sumners) wrote with his memory book "Darkness Visible" a book which was overdue for a long time: Who didn't wonder under which dangers and conditions the often single pictures have arisen when looking at the photos in the many publications to the World War II? For me, in the meantime, it has become an important means of work at my researches as a German historian, publicists and documentary movie director, who actively has a good look at this time! Charles Sumners manages important attempts to think with his memories and he activates to further intensive researches! This applies to me particularly with reference to the photo which can be found on the title page of the book - the photo which made Charles on April 4th, 1945 in the village of Oberdorla near the city of Mühlhausen, Germany! With this photo Charles Sumners has been placed in the elite of the combat photographers in the WWII! "Darkenss Visible" is also a very intimate and also gripping report of the insides of his 166th Photo Signal Company, and of friendships which arose in the face of the daily dangers and endangerings and lasted up to the death of the ones involved.

   I have read hundreds of American and German books at my researches about the WWII - "Darkness Visible" is part of my "Top Ten" if I carry out a qualitative evaluation! I wish that this book will find a large and broad readership in the USA and in all the world; and I wish as well that a translated edition is published of "Darkness Visible" in Germany soon, too! What Charles Sumners writes makes thoughtful... The book has seemed very late - but still not too late!

No comments about The Qianlong Emperor: Son of Heaven, Man of the World.

1 comments about Debrett's Illustrated Fashion Guide: The Princess of Wales.

1. I have this book, and at the time of its publication was very timely in its documentary of the Princesses' dress. Of course, since its publication, Princess Diana's fashion look changed even more. However, for great color photos and wonderful reminders of the Princess, it makes for great memoriabilia.

No comments about Anne, The Private Princess Revealed.

1 comments about King Stephen.

1. I was hoping for a text that would be easier to read. Matthew is at best ponderous. There is good, solid information here, but the author's stilted style virtually overcomes the usefulness of the information.

4 comments about King Zog of Albania: Europe's Self-Made Muslim Monarch.

1. Ahmet Zogolli (Zogu, King Zog) is one of the great 'characters' of the early twentieth century. Born into a powerful clan in Northern Albania, he was destined to be a leader of men from birth. But Zog wanted to be more than just another petty warlord, he wanted to be a King. Jason Tomes has done a yeomanlike job of turning this 'myth' into a real person, he has shown him (as much as possible) with all his faults and gifts; trying his best to see through the smoke screen that swirls around him.
   
   The man who at 22 was a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army, Minister of the Interior at 24, President at 29, King at 34 and ex-King at 45, is not an easy one to pin down. Like Albania during the second half of the twentieth century, little was published or known of the goings on during the early days of the Republic/Kingdom. Even today, few people could tell you much about Albania, much less find it on a map. It was the only country carved out of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW1 that did not have a nationalist movement. The country was created more to keep it out of the hands of Greece and Yugoslavia than anything else.
   
   Under the Ottomans, the valleys were divided up into separate administ- rative area that were each ruled by a Bey who then reported to a Pasha who had power over a larger district. Albania was made up of more than six districts one of which was Kosovo. When the Balkans were divvied up at Versailles, Albania ended up over 90% Albanian, but, leaving more Albanians living outside of the country than in. The Greeks wanted the South which was Greek Orthodox, and the Yugoslavs wanted the north which was Roman Catholic (as part of Croatia).
   
   Zog managed to set-up a government in Tirana (which was the middle of nowhere) and stage manage a government by playing off the different Beys against each other. He relied heavily on a gendarmarie that was primarily made up of his historical supporter (from the Mati Valley). While holding off both the Greeks and Serbs (Yugoslavs) he became more and more indebted to the Italians and finally lost his Kingdom to Mussolini in 1939.
   
   As an ex-King he only was acknowledged by Turkey and Egypt, and during his time in England during WW2 he was never given any recognition or money for guerilla warfare from the Allies. The country was handed to the communist insurgents under Enver Hoxha (with a lot of help from Stalin and Tito) at the end of the War. He finally died a recluse in the south of France.
   
   Tomes shows the tragedy of how Albania never was important enough to anyone but the Italians (and then as a colony) for Zog to be able to create a viable government. He talked as if he wanted to create a constitutional monarchy, but first he had to create a country and an educated middle class. He was not altogether altruistic, since he probably stole half the money that came into the country as aid from the Italians, but then he strikes one as a realist and put himself in the forefront whenever he could.



2. Noel Malcolm calls it fantastic - this should be enough of a reason for anyone who has interest in Balkan history and politics to read this book. Well researched, balanced but witty and with a tat of the usual Western cynical eye describing Balkan events, people or politics. I doubt there is a more well researched book ever written, in any language, on King Zog and the period of the Albanian Monarchy.



3. In hindsight, it was probably inevitable that King Zog of Albania would be driven from his throne in 1939. A British diplomat who worked with Zog found him amusing, but believed the King would probably end up assassinated. The conditions in Albania made that a very likely fate. It is a time and place well described in this groundbreaking biography of King Zog written by Jason Tomes.
   
   When Albania broke from the Ottoman Empire in 1913, it was a poor and rural country. The Ottomans had forbidden the teaching of the Albanian language in the schools and many of the people were illiterate. There had been very little done in recent years to develop the country and it was isolated from neighboring Europe by its mountainous terrain and perhaps because it was largely a Muslim country.
   
   The Ottoman system of benign neglect did nothing to discourage the clannishness of the Albanians. Europeans were skeptical that there could even be an independent Albania. Zog saw that it was necessary to make Albanians into citizens, instead of clansmen. This would not be an easy task. The "average Albanian knows nothing about nationality," Zog said. "He has always looked up to the head of his tribe, or his Bey, as the supreme authority."
   
   Ahmet Zog was born in 1895 in Mati environs. He spent some of his adolescence in Istanbul, soaking up the political atmosphere of the Young Turks. He returned when Albania was liberated and later fought alongside the Austrians against the Italians who were occupying part of Albania. The Austrians, who had designs on Albania, considered the young chieftain useful enough to keep in Vienna in case they would need him after the First World War. Later, Zog staged a coup d'état with the help of Yugoslavia and, during his reign, he made Albania into an Italian satellite state.
   
   Zog picked up foreign languages and some sophistication that many of countrymen didn't have, but he also needed to maintain his Albanian roots. Zog was born the son of a Mati Chieftain and his clansmen were his power base. As described in Edith Durham's "High Albania," northern Albania was the land of the blood feud, a place reminiscent of the West Virginia of the Hatfields and the McCoys, where people asked not what their neighbor died of, but who had killed him. His clansmen were both credits and debits to him. It was with their help (and well distributed gold) that Zog was able to overthrow the republican government of Fan Noli. Yet, even when he was trying to introduce laws outlawing blood feuds, he was obligated to participate in them to keep face with his clansmen.
   
   The story of Zog's reign is mostly one of manipulation by the Italians. The Greeks and Serbs were both interested in carving up Albania, but the Italians were the neighbors with the most money. The Italians built roads and sold the Albanians weapons (often hopelessly obsolete) and made Zogist Albania into a puppet state. For his part, Zog got a good deal of loot, including funds for "a white silk tunic with gold frogging, epaulettes...a white fur hat with plume, a black cloak, and white patent leather boots with gold spurs." Besides looking the part of a king, he became rich as one by often getting the better part of a deal, as when he pocketed 300,000 lira selling the Italians inaccessible forestlands in Mati. He always regarded refusing a bribe as looking a gift horse in the mouth, Tomes writes. After Zog was exiled from Albania, he moved from country to country burdened with the many cases of gold that he had acquired during his regime.
   
   Besides being a biography of a scoundrel dominated by an even bigger scoundrel (Mussolini), Tomes gives some interesting descriptions of Albania in the 1920s and 1930s. He describes the capital of Tirana as city that smelt of mutton and coffee grounds, which was covered in a cloud of dust in the summer and slimy mud in the winter, and where school children were required to recite a catechism that included the lines "where does the mud seem sweeter than honey? In Albania." Many Albanians were more Turkish in manner than the Turks in Atatürk's new republic, yet they were still drawn to European and American culture. Tomes writes about moviegoers who boggled at the fancy-dress films of Greta Garbo while scoffing at westerns and war movies as being hopelessly unrealistic.
   
   Zog was a hard-working ruler and physically brave, but when the Italians overthrew him, the people hardly noticed. Tomes even writes that the invading Italians made the country more prosperous. When Zog (or "bird" in Albanian) became king and rather hopefully named himself King Zog the first, he was mocked abroad as King Bird I. Yet he couldn't name himself "King Ahmet" because he didn't want to be seen as a Muslim ruler and yet he couldn't disavow Islam. Looking at Zog's reign, it is easier to understand how later Albanian rulers became suspicious of foreign powers and organized religion.
   
   After Zog and the Second World War, the communists came to power under the Stalinist Enver Hoxha. His regime was so repressive that many Albanians today hold King Zog in some esteem. Tomes calls this a sobering thought.



4. Obscure subject, but a wonderful book -- thorough, well-researched, and well-written. If you're a history buff, this is a must-read.

5 comments about Diana: A Tribute in Photographs.

1. I just loved this huge/thick Book...The pictures are simply AWESOME & HRH Princess Lady Diana looks simply BEAUTIFUL (whether as a child, teenager, youth, adult, wife, mother, social worker or as a Princess)...So go BUY it, if u still LOVE her the way I do.



2. This book is a memorial edition of a similar book these guys did of the Princess some time before her death. It has quite a few pictures that you'll rarely see elsewhere, probably because O'Mara is our pal Andrew Morton's publisher and they had worked with him and in effect used the Princess to get a hot seller.



3. This is by far one of the best and most tasteful photographic remembrances for the late princess. The pictures, ranging from her childhood to her public duties as Princess of Wales, all show Diana as the real, beautiful, kind, wonderful, HUMAN person she was. You don't just see the public photographs of her, but also, as has been said in reviews before, personal photographs from her family albums. This is a fabulous book, and most definitely recommended!



4. O'Mara in his tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, uses pictures which were taken by her father, the late Earl Spencer for her years as a toddler, her childhood, and her youth. Naturally, he selects those which were her favorites. His photographic tribute begins with Diana as a toddler and goes through her untimely and tragic death. This tribute contains many photographs from her childhood and youth which I had never seen before.

   In the forward, O'Mara writes: " I once wrote that Diana, Princess of Wales, was the most loved person in the world. Now that she has been tagically taken from us, I realise that my words were not strong enough. Diana was a treasure; not just a national treasure, for her light was too bright to shine in one country alone, but a treasure to be shared with the world. The unprecedented level of worldwide grief for her has shown that the people's princess had no equal and can never be replaced. ....

   "In preparing this tribute to Diana I have been stuck by the warmth that beams out from the Diana in the pictures - beautiful? Naturally - but it is that straight-forward human warmth of her expression which leaves the lasting impression."

   O'Mara has each picture tastefully arranged and captioned according to place, date, etc. This is truly a beautiful tribute to a beautiful, young princess who will live forever in our hearts.

   This is a hardback book which measures 83/4x12 inches and contains 160 pages.




5. I was lucky to go to the preauction showing of her gowns with my professor. This woman epitomizes what a 20th Century princess and Princess Royal should be. She is the true Once and Future Queen of England and Charles should be truly ashamed of himself and his selfish, immature behavior.

5 comments about Diana: Her Life in Fashion.

1. My favorite thing about this book is the many close-ups of the materials in many of the dreeses that the Princess Diana wore. Seeing the intricate bead work onont the pink Cahterine Walker dress that she wore on the Indian tour in 1992, gave me such an added appreciation to the beauty of that dress.There is another really nice close up of the beautiful lilac Lot 52. There are many other close-ups of many of her gowns, too many to mention. This book is on my "must have" list.



2. This book didn't add much. Most of the information and pictures have been seen elsewhere.



3. Georgina Howell clearly takes the Andrew Morton (read Diana) point of view on the Princess's persecution by the palace and casts her as a kind of saint in a fashion-conscious hagiography. The text was a little too hyperbolic in deifying Diana, yet perhaps that is appropriate, as few have done so much for fashion in our century.

   But this book has redeeming qualities that make it worth the time. First, it does cite instances of Diana's fashion faux pas that are gossipy and interesting, for example her dressing-gown dress by David Sassoon and her slip-style dress by John Galiano for Dior. It is also quite meticulous about citing designers and recounting their memories of dressing Di. This humanizes a commercial name and gives the reader a sense of what her patronage meant to these fashion houses.

   The best aspects of the book are the appendices listing the auction catalog by piece and the designer listing with short biographies. This is a wealth of specific information that couture-ophiles will love.




4. Georgina Howell has provided the world with a unique perspective on how Princess Diana revealed her inner thoughts and feelings through her outward style and clothing. This book is especially meaningful to me because it was a gift from my sister Darla who joined me at the Christies Auction in 1997 and travelled with me to Althorp last summer. She wrote a small poem on the gift card and ended by saying "We sat with celebrities of glamour amid, waiting for Christies to open the bid. We bid and we raised until bowing to fate, but our memories are captured on Page 208." And sure enough, there we are: my sister, myself and Bid Paddle #212.



5. A very interesting study in how a person's clothing reflects what is going on in that person's life! The back has short bios of the fashion designers of Diana's clothing/shoes/hats, and a listing of the dresses sold at the auction. For those of us who don't own a copy of the auction catalog, this is almost as good as having one. HOWEVER, the critic before me is right: too many typos for the money!