READ ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?

[Stanley]

Nothing remotely like cheating Richard. One of the things I found out when I did the LTP is the incredible amount of hours you have to spend once you have invested the time doing the actual interviews. Believe me I would not like to do another stint like that. It takes your life over!

[Stanley]

The book on the T34 tank arrived yesterday........

[Stanley]

Read the T34 book..... Took me back to the days in Berlin when we were expecting them to roll in one day......

[Stanley]

Been tooi busy with reposts and writing to read much of late but I keep dipping into Tsung Zu, The Art of War. Fascinating stuff!

[Stanley]

Re-reading Arthur Ransome, 'Racundra's first cruise'. The modern edition with biographical notes is well worth seeking out. I think I'll repost 'From Russia with Love' the BET article i did on it.

[Stanley]

Carrying on the nautical theme I'm re-reading 'Sailing Alone Around the World' by Joshua Slocum. Brilliant book, if you've never come across it add it to your list. The first man to sail alone around the world. Incredible story.

[Stanley]

I came across an interesting piece in Sailing Alone in which Slocum speculated about a woman emulating his feat. He thought it was very likely to happen. Well in front of his time, this was written in the 1890s. Sailed from Australia to Boston via the Cape yesterday...... Books can transport you to other worlds. Oh dear... that's triggered me off. Time I read Asimov again!

[Stanley]

I made a mistake, not Asimov, Arthur C Clarke. Read 2001 again yesterday, written before we got to the moon but Arthur had the technology right.

[Stanley]

Finished the 2001 trilogy plus one. I am still amazed to be reminded that when the first geostationary satellites were put in space the concept couldn't be patented because Clarke had forecast the possibility years earlier.

[Stanley]

Reading 'The White Rabbit', the story of man who was frequently dropped into Occupied France in WW2 to organise the Resistance. Well worth looking out for. See this LINK.

[Stanley]

White Rabbit: LINK. Harrowing story because he details his torture by the Germans but well worth a read.

[Tardis]

Fatal Colours, The battle of Towton 1461, England's most Brutal Battle by George Goodwin

This does actually cover the deaths of Clifford and the Flowers of Craven, which took place the day before. A list of names would be very interesting

The book takes quite a bit of time explaining the historical context and hypothesising that the King was suffering from schizophrenia.

The battle itself is about 30 pages in the total 240,

OK, but not entirely remarkable

[Wendyf]

Tardis,if you are looking for a list of names involved in the Battle of Towton try this website.

[Stanley]

I've been reading 'Secret Weapons of WW2' by Gerald Pawle and 'The Secret War' by Brian Johnson, Long time since I last looked at them but fascinating to look back at the innovative effort that went into fighting the war, some of them a failure but most were the start of new technologies. I'm up to my knees in radar and wireless navigation. Right up Ian's street!

[Nolic]

Windy, the Towton website is superb - an absolute mine of information which can occupy anyone with the slightest interest in the period for days and weeks. Thanks for the link. Nolic

[Wendyf]

It's good isn't it? I read about it in the Yorkshire Post a year or so ago. Here is another one to try, it's a Medieval Soldier database. (Sorry, nothing to do with books....)

[Tardis]

Thank you for that link, there would be weeks of work just trawling through that little lot.

A quick scan did bring out several local names, besides Clifford, but not really how many men at arms they fielded.

Since they were all butchered the day before Towton, I'm surprised that they didn't leave a gap as big as that as the first day of the Somme for local communities (relative battle size considering population)

[Stanley]

Finished Secret War and in the process gathered some interesting aircraft names. I shall have a furtle and see what I can find to post on Winged Heroes.....
I'd forgotten much of the book and it was very interesting re-acquainting myself with the enormous ingenuity displayed and the flexibility of the government in allowing resources to investigate all the ideas, even the most outlandish. Worth looking up Panjandrum on the web if you've forgotten about it. One thing not mentioned when they described PLUTO was the fact that they couldn't find a winch powerful enough to drag the pipe up the beach on the French coast so they took a steam ploughing engine over to do the job. I often wonder what happened to it. (LINK)

[Stanley]

I'm reading Jack Nadin's book about the East Lancs Mining Industry. He interviewed old miners and it's a fascinating read. It comes as a bit of a shock to be reading local history recounted by men who were born after me....
Came across another book I have to read. published this year, "The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-century Spain". Preston, Paul; Hardcover; £9.99. Must stop buying books....

[Stanley]

I came across a sad story on page 168 of Jack's book. Two lads from Water Village, Jack Hitchen and Fred Williams told their grandmother they would go and find somewhere where they could shelter during any air raids. It was late August 1939. They went off up Dean Lane and were never seen again. It was believed they had gone into the old workings of the derelict Dean Colliery and had either got lost or had an accident. Miners from Grimeside and Nabb Pit went up on the moor and searched the old workings but found nothing. Wherever the lads went they are still up there somewhere. A sad story.....
I'm expecting the book on Spain to arrive today but am filling the gap between Jack's book about the Burnley Miners by re-reading Stanley Williamson's definitive account of the 1934 Gresford Colliery disaster. Not the most cheerful reading in the world but that's the way my mind works. I like to remind myself of how things were because this gives me a better handle on what today's social history actually means. I have to say that one of the results of this is that I see signs today of the hardest working and lowest paid workers losing the advantages they gained in the fifty years after WW2. A sad commentary on a rich modern society with all the advantages of modern technology.

[Stanley]

Finished Gresford, a sad read that still tugs my heart strings. All those poor lads left down there being slowly crushed as the strata settles on them...
My Paul Preston book on the Spanish Holocaust arrived yesterday. I do not understand book publishing. The retail price of the book is £30, the hard cover is on Amazon for £18 plus P&P. The US price retail is $35. Remember that this book has only just been published. My copy cost less than £10 including P&P and when I opened the package I found I had the edition manufactured in America to a very high standard, very likely better than the UK version. It was brand new. I am not complaining, I have a perfect first edition hardback at a bargain price but the mind boggles. How did this copy get from America to my door so cheaply?

[Tizer]

Where did you buy it from? I've just done a search and Bookfinder shows hardback copies new from £17 and Abebooks £17 upwards for s/hand hardback copies. Amazon UK sell it at £18, Amazon in the US at $22 (£14). Were you just lucky?

[Stanley]

Must have been Peter. It was from Pumpkin Books via Abe Books on Bookfinder. Perfect copy.... One of life's little mysteries.
Have started the book and it is excellent. Far easier to read than Beevor and I think this is because he has collaborated with local historians in Spain and gives specific local examples, far more immediate and easy to grasp. A shocking story unfolding and he shows that in the later years of Franco many archives were destroyed to protect Franco's image. I shall report again later.....

[Tardis]

I have some books on the spanish civil war, personal ones from those who fought mainly, Toynbee's, one spaniard (an innocent...) and another. I think there are more in a box somewhere too. Plus I have a tome on the aircraft used

[Stanley]

Preston is going down well. He uses the evidence from the local historians to clearly lay out the precursors to the 1936 rebellion. The various sections of the right wing (there were many of them!) fomented fear of a revolution by the global Jewish/Communist/Anti-Catholic/Nationalist attack on Spain and characterised the landless peasants and anyone on the Left opposing them as sub-human/Jewish/Muslim/'African'. I knew that this view had been promoted but had no idea of the scale and ferocity of the campaign. They were laying the foundations of what Preston describes as the Spanish Holocaust and he is making a convincing case. He has tapped into sources which go some way towards compensating for the fact that in the later days of the Franco regime there was a concerted effort to destroy any archives which could reveal just how despicable the rebels' tactics were. This is the element that has been missing from previous accounts of the conflict and I can see why he is so well-regarded in Spain. Easy to read and understand because he can name the individuals and chart their contribution to this propaganda campaign. I didn't know until now that they were helped by Goebbels in Berlin who added the rebels' lies to his campaigns and re-circulated them back to Spain giving a spurious authority to the lies. Mussolini was financing the rebels as well. A very nasty picture is emerging......
The book is getting a lot of attention. I was talking to Janet in Oz yesterday and she knew about it. There is a large Spanish population in Australia, many of whom migrated to escape the war. The first time their story has been told so clearly.