Heart of Herts, book review. (Hertford Writers' Circle)

I have to admit, I read very little non-fiction, but a couple of my favourites in this collection fell into that category, which is what reading is all about I think: discovering something new.

From medieval Hertford, to time travelling spaceships, fiction to non; from teen romance, through a Saxon invasion, to the end of the world, this collection of short stories has the lot.

Where would we be, I wonder, without a place to scatter loved ones ashes, Charlotte Holmes excavating bones and a squeaky hospital door?

This volume contains works from eighteen different writers, with styles so eclectic, that you'll never be lost for something new. We have the plague, we have ghosts, we have historic and science fiction, there is death, (obviously) but there is life too, and love, lots and lots of love.

With such strong writing, vivid pictures of ancient lands and ghostly schools are conjured with aplomb, and one’s imagination runs wild; wild like the Meads that separate Hertford from Ware, wild like the storms that surge across open fields, wild like the Pageant fever that gripped Hertford in 1914.

To single out any particular author or story for merit here, would be wrong for two reasons: one, because I enjoyed them all in different ways - some were historic, factual, some were not, some were humorous, whilst others were sad, and having made Hertford my home for the last decade or so, I have had the honour of meeting some of these authors, which brings me to the second reason for keeping my opinions to myself: I'm too gutless to praise one of them over the others!

Oh, sod it, we're all adults here. This is, Mad Mike’s Writing Blog after all. Since when have I shied away from an opinion?

Ken Boyter: if you'd like to stand and receive your prize. Your depiction of what must have been a very difficult time in your life, honours those involved beautifully, and as I said at the beginning, non-fiction isn't something I dabble in much, but now, thanks to you, my eyes have been opened.

If anyone reading this post would like a copy of this collection, please message me or, head to: http://www.hertfordwriterscircle.org/anthologies.html, where you can contact the Hertford Writers' Circle for a copy.

Enjoy.

Finest Years, Churchill as Warlord. (Max Hastings)

Well this was an interesting read. 

Not fast paced but interesting all the same. 

For example, who knew just how many mistakes one of the most famous men in history made, during his tenure as PM throughout World War II? 

Who knew how little the Americans were prepared to assist Britain, during our darkest hour?

Who knew how bad our armed forces performed through much of the conflict, compared to their Russian and German counterparts?

Winston Churchill, as we all know, was an exceptional orator, and from the moment he took his place at the PM's table, he inspired a nation with his speeches, some of which are as famous today as they were 70 years ago.

What he wasn't, was a military tactician. It didn't help that he had an army from the dark ages, using tactics from a different age. We shouldn't forget that the French army, (the largest in the world at the time), offered little resistance to Hitler's Wehrmacht during the battle for France, either.

The biggest shock for me though, was just how unhelpful and capitalistic America was when their supposed ally was in dire straits. How Churchill kept his head and continued to chip away at the then President and not just throw his toys out of the pram, underlines just what a great leader he was. 

How he kept his temper when our once enemy, turned ally, Stalin, started dictating the pace through 1944-45 and the Americans jump to his tune, is again, a mark of the man. A lesser man would have had a spat with the President, kicked off at the Russian, and who knows where that would have left Britain. 

Talking of capitalism, America had no intention of entering a war to assist an ally, (Britain and France declared war on Germany remember, when they invaded Poland [our ally] along with Russia, not for money, or profit, but because it was the right thing to do. America on the other hand, only entered the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, and even then they continued with their lend lease agreement, which virtually bankrupted Britain by the wars end to the tune of £3 billion.  

A great ally then!

As usual, Max Hastings has done his research impeccably here, we have Russian diplomats with their opinions of Churchill, (not often favourable) Americans profiteering to the detriment of their ally, Churchill's highs and his many lows, his good side and his bad, but overall, this book gives the reader an in depth and probably as truthful a picture of the great man himself, Winston Churchill, as you are ever likely to read.

Four stars for this one then - it needed more pace to get five - but that is not a slur on the author, he did everything he could with the historical facts.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves, book review. (Lynne Truss)

Lynne Truss hits the nail on the head with this book. 

Funny, rude, damned-right threatening at times, but perfect for all of those who were uneducated in the why's and wherefore's of punctuation in the 1970's - 80's (of which I was one) 

This is the book I carry with me now, dipping in and out whenever the urge or the need takes me. 

I suppose you might say that I haven't really read this book, because I will probably still be reading up on the multiple uses for a comma, for years to come, and never quite get my head around the beauty of the other thirteen punctuation marks; period (read: full-stop), question mark, exclamation mark, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, braces, apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipses, (since you asked) but I'll keep at it.

Thank you for this book Lynne, and if our paths should ever cross, just remember, I was educated (went to school) in the 70's and 80's, so be nice.
To learn more, visit www.lynnetruss.com

A fantastic 'Catastrophe'. Max Hastings does it again.

Well, Max Hastings' latest book Catastrophe, makes for horrific reading.

He takes the reader through the years that lead up to the 'Great War' as it was called at the time, and how just a few people in power, made the decisions that would end the lives of millions. 

The book looks at both the eastern front as well as the western conflict, it charts the inadequacies of the leading generals and how their incompetence lead to such devastation over the first few months of the conflict. On one day alone, 27,000 French men died, 27,000! This tally doesn't include the injured or the German, British, Russian, Austrian, Hungarian or any of the other nations that were fighting that day, just the French. 

The book finishes at the end of 1914, so if as a reader you want to know what happened throughout the war, you will need further reading, but if like me, you just want to find out how it all went so disastrously wrong, this is up to Max Hastings' normal high standard, and you won't be disappointed. 

A solid four stars.
Inspiration for the day goes to all those thousands of men and women who helped the wounded, lonely and bereaved during and after this dreadful catastrophe.