schopflin's reviews
717 reviews

I do try with the Brighton novels, and some of the characters are engaging, but the anachronisms and other errors are annoying and distracting. 

I started this book wondering why I have such trouble with Charlotte Mendelson's books. So well-written! Such clever observations! And then the frustratingly passive characters then put themselves into excruciating situations and I sat there wincing. I would still recommend this book, but you may need a strong stomach for social embarrassment. 

This book is to be commended for its unsparing honesty. It's absolutely the author's feelings about the illness and death of his young son. Not to be enjoyed, but to be witnessed. 
NB I am someone grieving myself at the time of writing. This isn't a consoling book. He makes it clear his loss can't be compared to any other and he can't empathise with what he sees as lesser losses. This is all absolutely fair, but I don't think this is a great book for anyone grieving 'lesser' losses. 

Well-written and evocative. The period detail was convincing but not intrusive. I liked the characters although I found the main protagonist a bit annoyingly passive. Still that seemed true to the time and the number of choices she had. 

This is a coffee table book but very enjoyable to read cover to cover. The pictures are stunning and the commentary mostly amusing. Occasionally the prose goes a bit Conde Naste Traveller but only occasionally, mostly it's wryly amusing. 

This is a brilliantly shabby and seedy book. The London of the early 1980s when it was written is beautifully evoked. And sometimes it's nice to read about an older woman with no redeeming features whatsoever. However, the characters weren't compelling company and the book was fairly easy to put down. 

I really enjoyed this. I wasn't sure the approach - Deakin's own writings interleaved with others' memories - would work but it created a fascinating picture. He was clearly hugely charismatic, with a winning personality and a wonderful communicator, but selfish, mercurial, entitled and immature, features common in men of his generation. An absolutely fascinating read and a great way to explore human complexity. 

I really struggled with this book. The style is at the same time high handed and imperialistic, as Western travel writing always used to be, and meandering and hard to penetrate. In many places it's reminiscent of the obscure, referential style of the Psychogeographer Ian Sinclair. After a while I realised the real problem is that it is marketed as a history of the Baltics and is in fact a history of the Baltic German aristocracy, for whom the author seems to have a worshipful passion. Consequently, there's no mention of Lithuania, which may disappoint some people, and very little about the lives of ordinary people. However I did learn many things from it and he can certainly evoke a place. 

I am not a birder of any kind but I love Simon Barnes' writing, especially when he is writing about the Norfolk Broads, where he lives. This is a lockdown experiment, as he observes the marsh from the same seat every day. Insightful, funny and moving and I know a bit more about birds than I did. 

Pretty much what you would expect if you have read the first book and mostly as compelling. I only felt I was reading anecdote filler right at the end. A good book for when you aren't feeling well.