schopflin's reviews
717 reviews

I'm so disappointed by this book because there's a fascinating story inside - one about how Charles Lamb and his associates owned and personalised their books, and how this enhanced their value to various transatlantic book collectors and sellers. This is supposedly a popular book, not an academic one, but Gigante seems so in thrall to her primary sources that she runs from quotation to quotation without ever telling a coherent story. I also wonder if she is actually not a book historian but a literary one, hence constantly quoting from texts rather than writing about the volumes they appeared in. I kept waiting for the book to start and eventually had to acknowledge this scattergun mess was the whole book. I'm the perfect audience for a version of this book, just not this one. 

Clever and funny like all Marian Keyes. It has the usual generic caveats - and I can never quite believe in her Throughoughly Decent Men. The main problem with this one, having read 'Rachel's Holiday' recently, is that the Walsh sisters are supposed to be so different, but the inside of Maggie's mind isn't so different from Rachel's. Since she created at least eight distinctly believable characters in 'Grown ups' maybe that's something that's come with time. 

This is very well written but it's hard to become emotionally-involved with the characters or really believe in their attachment. This may have been the intention - they are shown as being selfish and often capricious and rude to servants. But the detail is beautiful and the evocation of place extraordinary. 

I started off wondering why the author would think I was interested in the amateur theatricals of some privileged Edwardians I knew nothing about. But as you read on she does paint the lives of these women and I was drawn into sympathy with them. I also have to admit I probably give Fabians less leeway than I might the Mitfords, for example. It also has some good observations on biography and privacy. Worth reading. 

Laura Cumming writes so well, not just about art, but about humanity. This is a fascinating book that has reignited my interest in Velázquez and drew me in with its story of a painting and the man who lived it. 

A really excellent example of polar history writing. Entertaining in its storytelling, it includes wonderful character portraits and has an honest reflection on what the actual point is of north pole exploration. 

I was intrigued by the girls school setting of this book, and thoughts of an extra-sapphic Miss Pym's Disposal and Gaudy Night. But I just couldn't sustain any interest in the characters. I probably should have tried to make it to page 100 but sometimes life's too short. 

To begin with I absolutely hated the Disney-National Geographic narrative style. But it ended up being not too intrusive and this was a pageturner. Interesting and effective in how it portrays human failure to forgive and understand. 

Highly entertaining and readable, yet thoughtful and provocative. How do you define freedom, and 'the right thing' when you live through ideological regime change. 

I found this is a difficult book to grapple with but I'm glad I have read it. As a sufferer from Long Covid I found the conflated histories of chronic illness and hypochondria unsettling. Surely they are opposites. But Crampton is well aware of the distinctions and I think makes a good case for what they have in common, especially in a world where we have too much information at hand. I am lucky not to be afflicted with health anxiety and this book encouraged me to think with compassion of those who are, as well as reflecting on the context within which we experience health problems and treatment.