Wednesday, March 6, 2024

COMING UP FOR AIR -George Orwell


 

















Very funny for Orwell, sad in places but a lovely read -"never go back, it will never replace your memories"

OPERATION PEDESTAL -Max Hastings





















Thousands of men thrown into a mincer.  A great read , getting supplies to Malta
 

THE IDIOT - Fyodor Dostoyevsky


 

















Astonishing writing , this was very readable, whereas I found Demons unreadable

ASHENDEN - W. Somerset Maugham


 



















A good set of spy stories, always worth a re-read

A HANDFUL OF DUST - Evelyn Waugh

















The genius that was Waugh
 

INSIDE STALIN'S KREMLIN - Peter S. Deriabin


















Disappointing. Written in the 1st person 30 years after the events was always going to make it suspect.  Deriabin was a genuine defector but this reads like a superannuation supplement.  Mercifully short.



 

TROTSKY -Robert Service


 
















A brilliant complex man but so narcissistic it's surprising Stalin let him  live as long as he did

A SPY NAMED ORPHAN - Roland Philipps


 



















A superb biography.  For once the promotional blurbs on the cover are correct

THE DIARY OF A NOBODY - George & Weedon Grossman


 


















Hilarious

UNACKNOWLEDGED LEGISLATION - Christopher Hitchens


 


















A re-read of a collection from the premier essayist of modern times

THE POPES -John Julius Norwich


 


















A few saints, a few good guys, many, many charlatans and some truly awful people in the 280 Popes covered in this book.

EXORCISING HITLER - Frederick Taylor















    Interesting but not riveting 

TO CATCH A SPY - Tim Tate

  I love seeing politicians made to look foolish, but in this case they did it themselves.  I knew Thatcher was arrogant & I've been...