Arts Reviews Archive

  • <p><strong>Title</strong>: Pegasus Bridge<br /> <strong>Author</strong>: Stephen E Ambrose<br /> <strong>Paperback</strong>: 256 pages<br /> <strong>Publisher</strong>: Simon & Schuster 2002<br /> <strong>Language</strong>: English</p> <p>Ambrose book is a great read for anyone with even a passing interest in the event but it is not without its faults. It’s purpose should be thought of as an introduction to this amazing event in military history rather than a definitive or in-depth history of the action.</p> <p>Growing up on war movies and historical miniatures gaming, I’ve pretty much always been aware of the efforts of Johnny Howard‘s lads to take and hold the bridges over […]</p>

    Review: Pegasus Bridge

    Posted on 16 January, 2012 | No Comments

    Title: Pegasus Bridge
    Author: Stephen E Ambrose
    Paperback: 256 pages
    Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2002
    Language: English

    Ambrose book is a great read for anyone with even a passing interest in the event but it is not without its faults. It’s purpose should be thought of as an introduction to this amazing event in military history rather than a definitive or in-depth history of the action.

    Growing up on war movies and historical miniatures gaming, I’ve pretty much always been aware of the efforts of Johnny Howard‘s lads to take and hold the bridges over […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p><strong>Title</strong>: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society<br /> <strong>Author</strong>: Lt. Col. Dave Grossman<br /> <strong>Paperback</strong>: 416 pages<br /> <strong>Publisher</strong>: Back Bay Books (revised) 2009<br /> <strong>Language</strong>: English</p> <p>This is a fascinating read which ultimately tries to cram too much into too small a book. Depending on which of its many and sometimes conflicting aims you are considering, it either succeeds marvellously or fails dismally. At its heart, however, the book explores what happens to men on the battlefield, what it takes to make them kill and how they live with the knowledge […]</p>

    Book Review: On Killing

    Posted on 16 December, 2011 | No Comments

    Title: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society
    Author: Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
    Paperback: 416 pages
    Publisher: Back Bay Books (revised) 2009
    Language: English

    This is a fascinating read which ultimately tries to cram too much into too small a book. Depending on which of its many and sometimes conflicting aims you are considering, it either succeeds marvellously or fails dismally. At its heart, however, the book explores what happens to men on the battlefield, what it takes to make them kill and how they live with the knowledge […]

    Continue Reading...

  • Magnatune is a record label which only publishes online. You can't get music from them in CD format but you can make yourself an account for either downloading or for streaming their artists. For me, this is where I get my fill of early, medieval, renaissance, baroque and lute music. (At this point, I predict half of you have stopped reading and the other half have pricked up your ears. There's plenty of other music and genres from folk to industrial and metal available. Keep reading.)

    Magnatune: Get Your Early Music Here

    Posted on 25 November, 2011 | No Comments
    Magnatune is a record label which only publishes online. You can't get music from them in CD format but you can make yourself an account for either downloading or for streaming their artists. For me, this is where I get my fill of early, medieval, renaissance, baroque and lute music. (At this point, I predict half of you have stopped reading and the other half have pricked up your ears. There's plenty of other music and genres from folk to industrial and metal available. Keep reading.)

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  • <p>Title: A Model Victory: Waterloo and the Battle for History<br /> Author: Malcolm Balen<br /> Paperback: 304 pages<br /> Publisher: HarperPerennial (2006)<br /> Language: English</p> <p>I was looking for a small and accessible history of the Napoleonic Wars or of Waterloo (most books on the subject are neither) when I found this gem. It’s not so much a history of Waterloo, as I originally thought, but a description of how of the Battle for the Battle of Waterloo in which various force vie to be the one who writes the history of that fateful day — a much more interesting subject as it turns […]</p>

    Review: A Model Victory

    Posted on 9 September, 2011 | No Comments

    Title: A Model Victory: Waterloo and the Battle for History
    Author: Malcolm Balen
    Paperback: 304 pages
    Publisher: HarperPerennial (2006)
    Language: English

    I was looking for a small and accessible history of the Napoleonic Wars or of Waterloo (most books on the subject are neither) when I found this gem. It’s not so much a history of Waterloo, as I originally thought, but a description of how of the Battle for the Battle of Waterloo in which various force vie to be the one who writes the history of that fateful day — a much more interesting subject as it turns […]

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  • <p><strong>Title</strong>: Inquisition<br /> <strong>Author</strong>: Edward Peters<br /> <strong>Paperback</strong>: 362 pages<br /> <strong>Publisher</strong>: University of California Press, 1989<br /> <strong>Language</strong>: English</p> <p>This brilliant study is immensely valuable to the amateur historian on three levels. The least of these is how it shows the Inquisition as the outcome of the legal system of Ancient Rome. It also examines in detail the organization, procedures, process and results of the various inquisition throughout an 800+ year history based on the notoriously meticulous records recently released from the Vatican Archive. More importantly, it compares the process of the inquisition to that of secular courts […]</p>

    Review: Inquisition

    Posted on 26 August, 2011 | No Comments

    Title: Inquisition
    Author: Edward Peters
    Paperback: 362 pages
    Publisher: University of California Press, 1989
    Language: English

    This brilliant study is immensely valuable to the amateur historian on three levels. The least of these is how it shows the Inquisition as the outcome of the legal system of Ancient Rome. It also examines in detail the organization, procedures, process and results of the various inquisition throughout an 800+ year history based on the notoriously meticulous records recently released from the Vatican Archive. More importantly, it compares the process of the inquisition to that of secular courts […]

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  • <p><strong>Title:</strong> D-Day 6 June 1944<br /> <strong>Author:</strong> Stephen E Ambrose<br /> <strong>Paperback:</strong> 656 pages<br /> <strong>Publisher:</strong> Simon & Schuster<br /> <strong>Language:</strong> English</p> <p>D-Day is one of the few truly momentous events of the twentieth century. Ambrose book captures the experience from the recollections and memories of the poor bastards who lived through it. In this, he has created a wonderful record of the build up, execution and aftermath of the event which should be read by everyone. The book’s only fault is that it’s written by an American.</p> <p>The strategy of the book is to start at the widest possible scale then narrow in […]</p>

    D-Day 6 June 1944 by Stephen E Ambrose

    Posted on 22 July, 2011 | 1 Comment

    Title: D-Day 6 June 1944
    Author: Stephen E Ambrose
    Paperback: 656 pages
    Publisher: Simon & Schuster
    Language: English

    D-Day is one of the few truly momentous events of the twentieth century. Ambrose book captures the experience from the recollections and memories of the poor bastards who lived through it. In this, he has created a wonderful record of the build up, execution and aftermath of the event which should be read by everyone. The book’s only fault is that it’s written by an American.

    The strategy of the book is to start at the widest possible scale then narrow in […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>Niccolo Machiavelli is the odd man out on my Italian Renaissance reading list in that he is a political theorist rather than a poet and lived around 150-200 years are the other three authors on the list: Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch. He’s also completely misunderstood by people who have only read his other famous book, <em>The Prince</em>.</p> <p><em>Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy</em> (1517) is Machiavelli’s reactions in essay form to reading the Roman author’s history of the great Republic and looking at the political world of his own day and, in particular, of his home town, […]</p>

    Machiavelli’s The Discourses

    Posted on 1 July, 2011 | No Comments

    Niccolo Machiavelli is the odd man out on my Italian Renaissance reading list in that he is a political theorist rather than a poet and lived around 150-200 years are the other three authors on the list: Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch. He’s also completely misunderstood by people who have only read his other famous book, The Prince.

    Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy (1517) is Machiavelli’s reactions in essay form to reading the Roman author’s history of the great Republic and looking at the political world of his own day and, in particular, of his home town, […]

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  • <p>Next on my Italian Renaissance reading list is the father of Humanism, Francesco Petrarca, better know in the English speaking world simply as Petrarch (1304-76). He spanned the gap between Dante and Boccaccio, being friends with the latter and his dad mostly likely being an acquaintance of the former.</p> <p>I’ve read and studied Petrarch before, at university and after. Reading him in translation is always a bit of a disappointment. The translator can choose either to convey his carefully nuanced meaning complete with complex classical allusions or to capture the easy flowing music of his words. No single translation can […]</p>

    The Venerable Petrarch

    Posted on 3 June, 2011 | 2 Comments

    Next on my Italian Renaissance reading list is the father of Humanism, Francesco Petrarca, better know in the English speaking world simply as Petrarch (1304-76). He spanned the gap between Dante and Boccaccio, being friends with the latter and his dad mostly likely being an acquaintance of the former.

    I’ve read and studied Petrarch before, at university and after. Reading him in translation is always a bit of a disappointment. The translator can choose either to convey his carefully nuanced meaning complete with complex classical allusions or to capture the easy flowing music of his words. No single translation can […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>Next on my reading list of the Italian Renaissance is the <em>Divine Comedy</em> (or <em>Commedia</em>) of Dante Alighieri, written some time between 1308 and 1321 after his exile from his beloved Florence with the expulsion of the White Guelphs. It can in some ways be seen as Dante’s way of dealing with this blow in the same way as Boethius wrote the Consolation of Philosophy to deal with his impending execution.</p> <p>Before saying a few words about each of the three books of the Commedia, I want to point out a couple of things about the whole which I […]</p>

    Dante’s Divine Comedy

    Posted on 20 May, 2011 | No Comments

    Next on my reading list of the Italian Renaissance is the Divine Comedy (or Commedia) of Dante Alighieri, written some time between 1308 and 1321 after his exile from his beloved Florence with the expulsion of the White Guelphs. It can in some ways be seen as Dante’s way of dealing with this blow in the same way as Boethius wrote the Consolation of Philosophy to deal with his impending execution.

    Before saying a few words about each of the three books of the Commedia, I want to point out a couple of things about the whole which I […]

    Continue Reading...

  • <p>I’ve just finished read the Decameron, as part of my literary tour of the Florentine Renaissance, and I want to say a few words about my reactions to it in order to enlighten those poor, benighted illitates out there who haven’t experienced the joy of reading this book. I’m not going to say anything about Boccaccio himself or the book as a whole as you can look that up yourself.</p> <p>The first thing the struck me was the lengthy description of how the Black Plague hit Florence only a couple of years before. Even across a gap of some 650 years, this is gut-wrenching […]</p>

    Boccaccio’s Decameron

    Posted on 6 May, 2011 | No Comments

    I’ve just finished read the Decameron, as part of my literary tour of the Florentine Renaissance, and I want to say a few words about my reactions to it in order to enlighten those poor, benighted illitates out there who haven’t experienced the joy of reading this book. I’m not going to say anything about Boccaccio himself or the book as a whole as you can look that up yourself.

    The first thing the struck me was the lengthy description of how the Black Plague hit Florence only a couple of years before. Even across a gap of some 650 years, this is gut-wrenching […]

    Continue Reading...

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