Category: Reviews – Books
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Trench Art by Nicholas J. Saunders
Materialities and Memories of War Now, this is a book about World War One which truly deserves a wide audience, dealing as it does with an aspect of the Great War not as well-known as it should be. Basically, “Trench Art” refers to art created from the waste of war: crucifixes made of bullets, engraved…
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The Making of Tombstone by John Farkis
Behind The Scenes of the Classic Modern Western I love Westerns and Tombstone is one of my all-time favourites. It doesn’t hurt that it stars John Carpenter’s acting alter-ego Kurt Russell. I do hope that one day John and Kurt go the whole hog and actually do a Western together. After Escape From New York,…
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Reviewing history
More historical fiction book reviews by Steve Earles Cornwall: Romans to Victorians by Derek Tait One of my earliest memories is a childhood holiday to Cornwall, indeed to this day I still have a keyring from that holiday as a keepsake. I also have a great nostalgia for the original Poldark tv series (though not…
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Book reviews by Steve Earles
Historical rebellions The Gunpowder Plot Deceit by Martyn R. Beardsley The Gunpowder Plot is still a very significant part of the fabric of British society to this very day (though this year it was Boris Johnson rather than Guido Fawkes that was burned in effigy). We all think we are familiar with the tale… but…
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Hammer Complete by Howard Maxford
The Films, The Personnel, The Company There are a great many books about the much-loved Hammer Films, many of them very worthy, but if you only buy one, make it ‘Hammer Complete’, it really is Hammer Complete. Howard Maxford is a superb writer; his book is well researched, entertaining, and good-humoured. It’s also an invaluable…
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Witches and historical “bad girls”
Bad Girls From History: Wicked Or Misunderstood? By Dee Gordon Now, this would make a great present, and in our current climate this book is very relevant. Among others, this book covers the lives of La Voisin, the 17th Century Queen of All Witches (a great title, she sounds like she comes straight out of…
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The Race To Save The Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
I really enjoyed reading and reviewing Helen Rappaport’s previous book Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd 1917. As I wrote in my review of that book at the time, as well as being an informative and entertaining read, Caught in the Revolution is an historically important book, collecting as it does many valuable viewpoints and insights…
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‘The Duke of Monmouth: Life and Rebellion’ by Laura Brennan
The Restoration is one of my favourite periods of history and the Duke of Monmouth is a significant character of this time. In 1660, Charles II, son of the murdered Charles I, was restored to the English throne following the death of Cromwell. The Duke of Monmouth was the illegitimate son of Charles II (the first…
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Bryant and May: Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
To my mind Christopher Fowler is the great unsung hero of modern popular literature, which is a compliment – Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins were all popular writers, and Fowler fits well into their company. Christopher has written more than forty novels at this stage (I’ve read many of them, and none of them disappoint),…
