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National Treasures/Caroline Shenton

National Treasures -Saving the Nation’s Art in World War could easily have been a dull record of logistics but Caroline Shenton’s humour, readability and depiction of colourful characters involved spares it from that fate It was a considerable task and achievement to save the paintings of the [...]

April 9, 2022 // 0 Comments

Anatomy of a scandal/Sarah Vaughan

I am reading Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan, a political thriller shortly to be dramatised on Netflix. It is not very good. Firstly the characters are flimsily based upon Boris Johnson/David Cameron (Oxford ex-Eton toffs) and a Conservative sex scandal – all familiar territory to [...]

March 27, 2022 // 0 Comments

The End of The Affair/Graham Greene

My late mother read this novel when pregnant with me. I still retain her copy but I have just re-read it via audio book. The narrator was that excellent actor Colin Firth. That narration is in the “I” form and that of Maurice Bendrix, an author himself, having an affaire with Sarah Miles who [...]

March 24, 2022 // 0 Comments

Kiss Myself Goodbye/Ferdinand Mount

This is the story of the aunt of Ferdinand Mount who was the former editor of the Times Literary Review and advisor of Mrs. Thatcher. He called her Aunt Munca but she gave herself many names in her life journey from childhood in a poor part of Sheffield to a suite in Claridges and a house in [...]

February 25, 2022 // 0 Comments

Prague Fatale (Philip Kerr) and Berlin Nightfall (Jack Grimwood)

It is the best testimony to the writing of Philip Kerr that after reading a few chapters of Prague Fatale I realised I have already read it. I was sufficiently engaged and engrossed to continue to its end. It’s set in the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia when Reinhard Heydrich, the ruthless [...]

February 23, 2022 // 0 Comments

Art & Crime/Stefan Koldehoff and Tobias Timm

Art & Crime is an account of looters, forgers, and fraudsters in the art world by two German journalists. They concentrate on Germany, though a small player in the art market. In 2018 the global art market was valued at $67 billion of which Germany only represented 1%. The book begins with the [...]

February 17, 2022 // 0 Comments

7 Days in Venice/Gianmaria Dona dalle Rose

I have now finished Gianmaria Dona’s guide to Venice. Although it is just 133 pages this is something of a feat as it is written in Italian – an English translation is in course of being published. Gianmaria is well-qualified to write such a guide as he is Venetian and his family one of [...]

February 8, 2022 // 0 Comments

The One and the Other/Philip Kerr

This novel – written in 2006 but published after the author’s death – reflects the best and the worst of Philip Kerr. The best? His sense of location, his knowledge of the Third Reich and the creation of the “Good German” cop Bernie Gunther. The worst? The failed attempt [...]

February 3, 2022 // 0 Comments

To Bath (and back again one day)

I had previously visited Bath only five times in my life – three of them day expeditions to watch the Harlequins play “away” Premiership matches against Bath Rugby – and so my wife and I, delighted to take up the suggestion of the Rust’s esteemed sports editor that we join him at The Rec [...]

February 2, 2022 // 0 Comments

Venice

Monty Don has a new programme on Gardens of the Adriatic and a Venetian friend of mine – G – whom I met first in Tunisia nearly 40 years ago has written a walking guide to the city. So in this extraordinary time, where travel is so difficult, I was able to enjoy two different takes on [...]

January 10, 2022 // 0 Comments

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