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What are you reading - Part III.


Whofan

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Interesting read that covers political battles often as fierce as the naval ones. Dimbleby delights in chronicling a good fiasco from either side of the conflict; much ink is spilled, for instance, concerning the USA's reaction (or lack thereof) to U-boats rampaging up and down the Eastern Seaboard and the costly battle between the Royal Navy and Bomber Command for the allocation of long-range aircraft.

 

Recommended with caveats:-

You know how Stephen Fry likes to use archaic and obscure, often long words often ending in '-ous' or '-ude' that will have you scuttling off for the nearest thesaurus? So does Dimbleby. Whereas Fry comes across as endearing, even enlightening, Dimbleby comes across as smug. The latter is also fond of very long sentences. It all seems to fizzle out once the troops go ashore in Normandy, Dimbleby contending that the battle had been won by then, perhaps it had been. 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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The ever-readable Angus Konstam's take on Johnny Walker unleashing his game-changing tactics protecting Convoy HG76, featuring input gleaned from Eric 'Winkle' Brown's "Wings On My Sleeve" (he was one of HMS Audacity's Martlet pilots). Culminating in Konstam's piecing together of various accounts as events reach a potentially confusing climax. I particularly like Konstam's device of introducing U-boat captains with a brief biography and from then on referring to their vessels prefixed by the captain's name - it makes events much easier to keep track of.

 

Gripe alert: Having described Konstam as 'ever-readable', I feel I must point out that my copy had some irksome printing errors that diverted my attention from the well-paced narrative and an erroneous sentence about Portland being in Devon, hopefully rectified in any future editions.

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Bill Bryson, the road to Little Dribbling. Another walk, with comments, around England. 

A very intelligent and interesting observation of the state of the country. First published in 2015. 

It cost me 50p from  a charity shop, and is highly recommended 

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Bomber boys by Patrick Bishop - 30p from a charity shop.

 

Superb narrative of RAF Bomber Command from the outbreak of war.

 

Recommended. 

 

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On 16/09/2024 at 16:31, Pete in Lincs said:

Bill Bryson, the road to Little Dribbling. Another walk, with comments, around England. 

A very intelligent and interesting observation of the state of the country. First published in 2015. 

It cost me 50p from  a charity shop, and is highly recommended 

Pete,

 

I've got this and read it, as you say a highly intelligent and interesting book.,

 

I thinlk Bill Bryson is one of the best modern authors, his abilty to combine wit, humour intelligence and finely drawn observations are second to none.

 

Well, possibly second to James Herriott, whose books have a particular, personal achievement; I fell out of bed laughing so much at one, not once, but twice!

 

Different books and different times, I might add.

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Just finished Arnhem Black Tuesday, by Al Murray (yes, that Al Murray). Stunning book and a different slant on the usual re-telling. The author takes a single 24 hour period (00.00 Tuesday to 24:00 Tuesday, 19th September 1944) and tells the often disjointed and confused story of the day. In particular he deliberately leaves out some of the hindsight knowledge and context that we know, and tells it from the perspective of the soldiers on the ground in that 24 hour period and what they knew or didn't know about what was going on elsewhere.

Murray provides enough background that casual readers will understand the wider context, but no more. I enjoyed Al Murray's 'Command' book and this one is possibly even better.

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Hi John, if you're interested Al's talking with Paul Woodadge on WW2TV on the 19th. If you've not watched WW2TV before Paul has some top notch authors and guests on.

 

Andrew

 

 

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Dating from 2007 but only now crossing my path,

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The rave reviews on the cover are actually largely justified, this is an epic work running to well over 600 pages as the author takes us from VE-day to the end of 1951.

A now largely unimaginable world of rationing, shortages, pitiful living conditions, and those that lived there.

Unavoidably political, and concentrating on urban and industrial experiences, the author looks at the reasoning behind various 

attitudes and policies, and the consequences of the financial crisis that the country suffered.

For all the breadth of coverage, the rural experience, however, is almost entirely neglected.

That criticism aside, it is a fascinating read and makes one wonder if, perhaps, now we have reached another extreme where we have too much.

 

Matt

 

 

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Having finished reading the first trilogy again, I have embarked on re reading the second Dune Trilogy and have stalled in the middle of God Emperor, just not gripping me, so put it on pause for now.

Over the summer I started on The Chronicles of St Marys by Jodie Taylor which looks quite promising.

My great problem is as a School Librarian I spend £9,000 a year on books and will occasionaly slip a few books in to the latest order that I think are worth reading...

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@Farmer matt ,

 

Matt,

 

I wholly agree with you.

 

This is the first part of his 6 volume social history of the UK, to finish with the election of Thatcher in 1979.

 

I’ve read this one, and also Family Britain (51 to 56) and the third volume, Modernity Britain, (56 to 62).

 

As much as anything else it was fascinating to read what was happening in the UK just before, and my first 12 years on this earth (50 - 62) - I think this is the main reason I bought these books., but forgetting my personal interest, I found all 3 simply fascinating books to read.

 

I bought the first book of volume 4, A Northern Wind, (62 - 65) a couple of weeks ago and will be reading it soon.

 

Also, I have read all but the latest in a similar themed series of books by Dominic Sandbrook, which so far runs from 1956 in 5 volumes to 1982.

 

His books tend to be a little lighter in reading, Sandbrook will often discuss phenomena such as the Beatles and fashion at some length.

 

I’ve also read his book, The great British dream factory, which is as much as anything an examination of social culture in the ‘70’s, and that book was turned into a tv series.

 

It seems odd that two historians should write such “blockbuster” histories of the same period (1950’s to 1980’s) but they are written in different styles, and sometimes different emphases, but for me, they complement each other in telling the story of Britain over my first 30 years.

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Thanks @Whofan,I will look out for the Sandbrook volumes.

I will try and get the next Kynaston one to follow first though.

 

I do regret not taking more interest in such matters when my grandparents were alive, although I am not sure they would have been too forthcoming if I had.

 

Matt

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11 minutes ago, Farmer matt said:

 

Thanks @Whofan,I will look out for the Sandbrook volumes.

I will try and get the next Kynaston one to follow first though.

 

I do regret not taking more interest in such matters when my grandparents were alive, although I am not sure they would have been too forthcoming if I had.

 

Matt


As I said, they have different styles and emphases, Sandbrook probably being the lighter, but I found their books complemented each other.

 

My father was a bit forthcoming about living in the Forest of Dean as a boy ; his descriptions of village life (Lydney) in the 30’s - from the butcher 2 doors down that slaughtered cattle, sheep and pigs on the premises to his school routine were immensely fascinating.

 

 

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In my ceaseless quest to become my neighbourhood's leading authority on matters WWII nautical, I picked up this hefty paperback that chronicles every convoy that made the hazardous trip to Northern Russia and back in some detail. The heroic, tragic, pathetic and surreal presented in a well-written style by the well-followed author of the seafaring Nathaniel Drinkwater novels set during the Napoleonic wars.

 

Particular care is taken to ensure that the reader understands the multi-national nature of the merchant convoys. There are even albeit brief passages on the Soviet navy's involvement. I can't pay the author a higher compliment than immediately ordering his book on the Malta convoys.

 

 

 

 

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After @Whofan's glowing endorsement on the previous page, I got a copy of Brother in Arm by James Holland. I'd go so far as to say that it is probably the best book onWW2 I've read. On a personal level anyway, it sure ticked a lot of boxes & I had more than my normal share of putting it down & staring into space with a large lump in my throat moments. The biggest coming when he described the Battle of the Reichswald & named the formation my Dad, an Army Doctor was attached to, the 53rd Welsh Div. At that time the SRY were in formation with the 12 KRRC who my Dad had served with in North Africa. I recall him telling me that toward the end of the war, he'd gone over to where the 12th were hoping to bump into some friends he'd made among them in Nth Africa, only to meet a man he knew as the batman to an officer he'd been particularly friendly with. The batman told him the officer had been killed by a sniper only a few days previously. It affected Dad decades later & the senselessness of so many of the late war losses suffered by the SRY really brought that home to me. Any incredibly well put together book, though as a map nut & wanting to know just where they were, I found the sometimes lack of tie up with places in the text & on the maps frustrating, so tended to read with a European road atlas open on my lap.

Now reading a book that was a recent Fathers day present from my sons. The Antipodean Express, by Gregory Hill, the story of his quest to travel from his home in Wellington to it's exact antipode in Spain, using rail as a means of travel as much as possible. I'd started it before Brother in Arms & have picked it up since, very much enjoying it.

Steve.

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1 hour ago, stevehnz said:

After @Whofan's glowing endorsement on the previous page, I got a copy of Brother in Arm by James Holland. I'd go so far as to say that it is probably the best book onWW2 I've read.

Many thanks for that Steve, I do hesitate to recommend books - and records, films, tv or radio programmes because my taste can often be different from most others.

 

It’s nice then to see someone else find something I’ve enjoyed (I’m sure you understand my meaning here about a history of war) at the very least interesting.

 

I do agree with you about the lack of maps to cross reference text to, but other than that it was a book I found emotional and hard to put down.

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On 17/09/2024 at 22:35, John Tapsell said:

Just finished Arnhem Black Tuesday, by Al Murray (yes, that Al Murray). Stunning book and a different slant on the usual re-telling.

John, 

 

I was reading an article in the Guardian earlier, What books I read in September- it's an article every month for guardian writers and then members of the public to say what they read in the month - and one of the contributors said they'd read this very book and like you, gave It a very good rating.

 

I've just finished Chris Bryant's Code of Conduct, about how parliament is so dysfunctional, and how he'd like to see it improved, and am halfway through a crime novel called Conviction, about a barrister conducting the defence of a man, who's blackmailed into throwing the defence so the (innocent) man gets convicted ... And whose terrible secret will be made public if she doesn't throw the case.

 

 

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A Fying Start by Hugh 'Cocky' Dundas. Its a hard back and pretty old... the edges of the pages have yellowed. A good read.

Quite interesting facts about why the early Typhoons crashed and shed their tails aswell  as the cockpit fumes situation.

 

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Too much Thomas Hardy, to the extent that I am now something of a connoisseur of old paperback editions, especially Penguin from the 1970s and 1980s.

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Harrier 809 by Rowland White about the sea harriers and the Falklands war in '82

Looking good so far, written very much in the style of his excellent book Vulcan 607 about the Black Buck raids on the Falklands 

 

Ian :) 

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On 03/10/2024 at 12:00, Redstaff said:

Harrier 809 by Rowland White about the sea harriers and the Falklands war in '82

 

I read this earlier this year and found it very engrossing. A lot of research clearly went into it (the perspective of what the Argentine pilots were up against was very interesting) and there were a good number of nuggets about the conflict I'd never heard before.  

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 Warships hold a certain fascination and tend to hog the limelight in many naval histories, but as the author states, they are merely weapons - useless without a crew. In this volume, he attempts with some success in doing for the Royal Navy what Patrick Bishop did for the Royal Air Force in 'Fighter Boys' and 'Bomber Boys', with a nod to Stephen Ambrose's 'Citizen Soldiers' in the title. If you liked those books, you'll get on very well with this one.

 

It's a good insight into what the men involved went through - from pre-war nights ashore with their German counterparts to the end of the Pacific conflict, with 'Jack' questioning his place in a society that once saw him as the living embodiment of a nation now coming to terms with the fact that Britannia was no longer 'top dog' in the ruling the waves department (bouncing straight into David Kynaston's 'Austerity Britain' - as recently mentioned in this very thread - might prove a worthwhile excercise).

 

Amidst the humour, horror and heartbreak, the story of a Royal Marine from H.M.S Rodney being caught committing 'conduct unbecoming' with an Orcadian sheep and the after effects struck me as something you don't often get at the top of a model kit's instuction sheet. As a modeller (somewhat lapsed latlely, I must confess) I was also semi inspired by the junior officers of a Tribal class destroyer flotilla attending a fancy dress party as whatever tribe their ship was named after. 54mm figures placed next to 1/700 or 1/350 ships might make an interesting display...but I digress.

 

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Following on from Austerity Britain, I have just finished Family Britain. It begins with the Festival of Britain,and runs through near 700 wide reaching and even handed pages to the debacle of Suez.

The main themes are housing, education, and entertainment, along with 'standards', with the Princess Margaret/Townsend saga illustrating the latter debate very well.

Society was still very much class-bound, and seemingly finding refuge in its many inhibitions, but in material terms life was rapidly improving for most.

The first stirrings of racial tension, and the nascent phenomenon of rock'n'roll are just two of the emerging cracks that will no doubt shatter the peace in the next volume, Modernity Britain, which I have just  purchased today.

 

Matt

 

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I just finished The skies of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. That seems to be as far as the Dragon books go in their history.  Then I found I had Moretta, one of the earlier books. So a I've started on that. It's a long time since I read any of them and I still need a few more as I'm really enjoying them. 

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 I'll wager that a lot of people would find this book pretty boring. However, being the proud owner of a miniature Hawkins class cruiser, I found it an invaluable resource detailing the often mundane exploits of an ordinary sailor whose main preoccupations are the next run ashore and mail catching up with his ship... oh, and his Ahabesque yearning for HMS Hawkins to finally track down the German surface raider at large in the same area, in order for Leading Seaman Turner to have his long-awaited 'smack at the Boche'. Useful (low-res, it has to be said) photographs further enhance the story.

 

One to look out for in charity shops and jumble sales. 😉

 

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