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Continue reading →: Book Review: A Short History of England by Simon Jenkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars A short history of a country is never going to be an all-encompassing in-depth review of historical events. As such, a book of this sort is always going to be open to criticism and Simon Jenkins’ book has certainly received plenty of that. Some,…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
This book by Robert Greene is, without a doubt, one of the very worst books I’ve ever read. It is ghastly on multiple levels. I do try to read an eclectic range of books and push myself to read recommended books I wouldn’t normally bother with. I can’t recall is…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Sunburn – The unofficial history of the Sun newspaper in 99 headlines by James Felton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars I can’t remember now how I came across James Felton originally. I think it was finding his book ’52 Times Britain was a Bellend’, which I loved, reviewed, and then found him on Twitter. Since then, I’ve just come to think of Felton as…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Dishoom – From Bombay with Love by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar & Naved Nasir
My rating: 5 of 5 starsSeveral years ago, a friend from the blogging world introduced me to Dishoom in Shoreditch. It was an instant love affair (with the place, not the friend) and now, whenever I’m in London, I always make sure I go there for lunch or, better still,…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 4 of 5 starsI almost never read the reviews of others before writing my own review. I don’t want to be coloured by the opinions of others and reviews are, always, merely our opinions turned into judgements. There’s no point me writing a review then if I’m just…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars I read Bates’ ‘Love For Lydia‘ last year and was not especially entranced by either the writing or the whole raison d’etre of the story. Rich people being boringly melodramatic doesn’t fill me with a great deal of sympathy for the characters, to be…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Memory Illusion -Remembering, Forgetting, and the Science of False Memory by Julia Shaw
My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was fascinated by Dr Shaw’s work on false memories long before reading her books. When I decided it was time I really did read something of hers, I was distracted by her super book on evil -it just had that delicious “ooh!” factor…
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Continue reading →: Book Review: The Adopted Child’s Story by A.H.M. Beattie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars This final book in the trilogy by A H M Beattie concludes what has been a deeply personal adventure which the author captures superbly. With the first book dealing with her birth mother and the second with her adopted mother, Beattie turns in this…


