24 Books To Read Before You Snuff It

Christmas was kind to the Worm: a few new books to devour and feast upon. One particular book caused a breathless flick of the fingers: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Now, normally, the Worm cares not a jot for such lists. However, it is always intriguing to see the shape in which one’s book-reading journey has taken, and how this journey compares with the selection of self-professed professionals.

There have been a few editions of this particular series of books. The Worm’s copy is an international edition; as such, it attempts to move away from the Anglo-American duopoly on fiction. It is split into four sections: Pre-1800, 1800s, 1900s, and the recent 2000s. The usual suspects are to be found (Dickens, Greene, Rousseau feature heavily), but there are a few raised eyebrows and fresh titbits that kept the Worm entertained as he tallied up his own score.

So, 1001 books. The Worm admits now that he has a long way to go. Sixty-four is his own total. Just over 6% of the reads available. O, the shame. O, the humiliation.

The Worm has yet to reach the number of 250 reviews; this in around four-and-a-half years of reading and reviewing… ever since that fateful day when he decided to set up a blog back in the summer of 2009. At this rate – and if the Worm was to be highly selective and stick to the 1001 list – it would take the Worm another four years to reach the magic number.

Of course, this is not going to happen. The Worm hopes to increase the sixty-four number over the course of the coming years, but he also has his eyes on a different, more manageable list: the BBC’s Top 100 Reads. Devised back in 2003, it attempted to seek out the nation’s best-loved books; it brought together an interesting and seductive list. Despite the inclusion of a criminally high number of Harry Potter books, it also includes an engaging road-map of possible future reads. The Worm’s own number stands at a rather modest nineteen. However, 19% surely trumps 6%, whilst allowing the Worm to achieve this target in the space of a year’s serious reading (even allowing for Harry Potter’s banal adventures).

Whilst pondering these lists, the Worm decided to devise his very own list: Books To Read Before One Snuffs It. This has been selected from the reviews over the past four-and-a-half years. Included are every 5 nodder, as well as a few note-worthy and thought-provoking 4 nod reviews. And, so here it is (in order of review):

Season I (2009-10):

Simon Schama – The American Future (2008)
Thomas Paine – The Rights of Man (1792)
Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene (1976)
Joseph Conrad – Lord Jim (1900)
Tacitus – The Annals of Imperial Rome
Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights (1847)
William Shakespeare – Macbeth (1606)

Season II (2010-11):

J.D. Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye (1945)
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels – The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Thomas Paine – Common Sense (1776)
William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury (1929)
Tony Judt – Postwar (2005)
Wilfred Owen – Poems (1920)

Season III (2011-12):
William Golding – Lord of the Flies (1954)
Fyodor Dostoyesvky – Notes from Underground (1864)
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons – Watchmen (1987)
Primo Levi – The Drowned and the Saved (1986)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)
John Hanson Mitchell – Ceremonial Time (1984)

Season IV (2012-13):

T.S. Eliot – Selected Poems (1954)
William Shakespeare – Richard III (1591)
Oscar Wilde – The Importance of Being Earnest (1898)
Mikhail Lermontov – A Hero of Our Time (1841)
Tennessee Williams – A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)

 

The list has a less catchy title than others: 24 Worm Endorsed Reads. But each and every one is a fantastically captivating read in its very own way. Is anyone game to take on the Worm's list?

 

1001 Books Before You Die
BBC's 100 Books

#238 The Ancient Greeks For Dummies (2008)

Author: Stephen Batchelor
Title: The Ancient Greeks For Dummies
Genre: History
Year: 2008
Pages: 320
Origin: read on the Kindle
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5

 

The Ancient Greeks For Dummies is the third of the For Dummies books consumed by the Worm during the summer of 2013. As with the other books, let us not kid ourselves that we are entering upon a highly enlightening read deserving of richly plump nods. 2 nods is all that is to be dished, as previously. But this is not to say that this book is not a worthwhile read.

The author – Stephen Batchelor – is a man who knows his ancient Greeks. He is a fitting guide through hundreds of years of dense history, highlighting the key areas and events. These range from ancient history and prehistoric civilisations (such as the Minoans and Mycenaneans), the onslaught of the Persians, the rise of Athens, the life-style of the Spartans, as well as the conquests of Alexander. As with the other For Dummies books, information moves beyond the narrative of history, with focus on other areas. This includes the home and family, architecture, as well as the famous Greek gods.

This completes the (un)holy trilogy of the For Dummies books (Tudors and Ancient Egyptians for the earlier two). The Worm feels as if he is repeating himself: nice reads, good for an introduction, but completely lacking in substance. It is another well eared 2 nods for the series, with no threat of taking any more. As for the Worm, he intends to go For Dummies hiatus for the remainder of the book-reading season. Overviews are all well and nice: but the real meat of words are needed to be ingested if he hopes to survive the coming winter.

Buy it here

#237 Frank Miller's Robocop (2007)

Authors: Frank Miller (script), Steven Grant (writer), Juan Rose Ryp (artwork)
Title: Frank Miller’s Robocop
Genre: Graphic Novel
Year: 2007
Pages: 210
Origin: read on an iPad
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5

The success of 1987’s Robocop spawned a host of dubious sequels that confirm the law of diminishing returns in a movie series. Before the terrible made-for-TV movies of the later 1990s, the Robocop "franchise" once stood at the point of enduring commercial and critical success. In the hope of creating an engrossing sequel, producers called in the help of comic-book artist Frank Miller.

However, rather than take-on Miller’s (always) interesting ideas, the producers carved up his script and used various elements in two films. The legend grew that Miller’s vision was one that would have satisfied audiences, leading to a rising call for his work to be created in the form of a series of comics. And so the demand brought forth a nine issue series published between 2003 and 2006: Frank Miller’s Robocop.

But, with a catch. Yes, it is based on Miller’s script and original ideas. Yet it does not contain his comic-book writing or art-work (obviously, distinctive hallmarks of Miller’s work). Instead, we have Steven Grant (writing duties) and Juan Rose Ryp (art duties).

Certain plot elements will be known to viewers of the Robocop sequels: a city full of corruption, evil corporations (the infamous OCP), the police and other public services crumbling and full of mistrust, and Robocop’s quest to regain his lost humanity. Regrettably, none of these areas are developed beyond simple ideas. Instead we are “treated” to lots of fighting (Robocop shooting various people and battling bigger robots). Violence attempts – and fails – to cover the absence of a sustaining plot.

As could be expected from Miller, the result is chaotic and dark. The themes of a near-future that has decayed and become overrun with crime is one continually referenced in Miller’s work. Furthermore, we have the inter-slicing of media and TV commentary that was used so effectively in Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. However, rather than a cutting-edge device and revolutionary – as it was three decades ago – the result there is tired and clichéd.

As for the art-work, it attempts to create a highly detailed waste-land of a city. However, the panels are filled with dense and unimportant features, all of which becomes an annoyance that prevents the story proceeding at an adequate pace. In the climatic fight sequence the action is actually hard to follow, leading to some confusing sighs from the Worm. Never a good sign, he can tell you!

Very much hyped, unfortunately Frank Miller’s Robocop fails to live up to the lofty expectations of the fan-base. The script does not pay-off all of the years of misplaced hope. But perhaps it is the character that is at fault: apt for a one-off movie, rather than a failed “franchise” of half-arsed films, animation and heartless comic-books. It looks increasingly likely that the character of Robocop will not join other great protagonists of fiction – an Othello and Sherlock Holmes – and will remain an interesting idea that entertained for a two-hour period back in the 1980s.

Buy it here

#236 Always Right (2013)

Author: Niall Ferguson
Title: Always Right
Genre: Kindle Single
Year: 2013
Pages: 30
Origin: bought for 99p on the Kindle
Nod Rating: 1 nod out of 5

 

There is a saying that one learns more about someone at the end of a relationship than at the beginning. O, how fitting this is for the Worm’s very own relationship with Niall Ferguson. Back in the salad days of 2009 the Worm devoured a fair number of Ferguson books. These included The War of the World (4 nods), Empire (3 nods), and his edited volume Virtual History (4 nods), gaining Ferguson a total of eleven fruitful nods from the Worm during the first book-reading season. Then, silence…

Once seemingly so energetic, bringing history and debate to life, Ferguson became stale and stagnant. The warning signs were there, particularly in his television series Civilization: The West and the Rest (and his annoying use of the “killer apps”). However, the Worm decided to plunge right in and pay the ninety-nine pence needed to download Ferguson’s Kindle Single centred on Margaret Thatcher. After all, at least one retrospective read on one of Britain’s defining Prime Minister’s was in order… right?

Always Right – as the title loudly declares – is a fawning defence of Thatcher’s time in government. Within the space of thirty pages Ferguson manages to raise the bar of sycophantic prose, wagging his finger and telling the poor reader to remember the good of Thatcherism, and to ignore the left-wing propaganda spouted through the conduits of social media. As Ferguson writes:

‘this little book is unapologetically based on the great woman theory of history….she was right much more often than her critics… Those who have had the bad taste to celebrate her death will probably not read this book, not least because it will remind them of just how wrong they were in the 1980s.’

Used as evidence is the decline in living standards. ‘Nothing worked’, he argues. ‘The trains were always late. The payphones were always broken… Worst of all were the recurrent strikes. Strikes by coalminers. Strikes by dockers. Strikes by printers. Strikes by refuse collectors. Strikes even by gravediggers.’ Thankfully for us all, Britain economically recovered, putting an end to tense industrial relations and by bringing back employment. And what of privatization? Ferguson, wisely, remains coy: ‘How far it succeeded in this continues to be debated.’

Yet Ferguson over-eggs his pudding. All progress of the past three decades is assigned to Thatcher: car ownership, holidays abroad, telephone communications, colour television, the growth of gyms and health culture. All of which completely ignores the vast advances made in technology and media communications in this period. Sorry, Mr Ferguson, but Thatcher is not responsible for digital media, for mobile phones, for the ability to travel to Spain on low-budget holidays. Unfortunately, Ferguson is so far up the anal cavity that he is unable to see or speak sense.

Describing himself unconvincingly as a ‘punk Tory’, the author states that Thatcherism was ‘so impressive’ due to its ‘aggressiveness’. Ferguson recounts parties of his youth and various debates, as if his undying support for Thatcher’s vision of Britain was something to be proud of.  He uses Thatcher’s “triumph” as a way to gain his own revenge against left-wing historians and other schools of historical thought. They, he argues, were wrong to attack her: ‘her legion of left-wing academic critics were just part of hat she attempted to save Britain from.’ It is as if tired of years of ridicule for support of the Tories, Ferguson has decided to hit back, using Thatcher’s death as a vehicle in which to trumpet his own conservative values.

Regrettably, Ferguson appears to have lost any sense of balance. All of which has the Worm rather worried: was balance and reliance of real evidence ever apparent in the earlier reads? Perhaps, the Worm has been taken in on a scam all along. Such is the disappointment in this slim volume that the Worm has come to the conclusion that his relationship with Mr Ferguson is at an end.

Buy it here

#235 The Eugenics Wars: Volume Two (2002)

Author: Greg Cox
Title: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Volume Two)
Genre: Science Fiction
Year: 2002
Pages: 330
Origin: read on the good old Kindle
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5

 

Having read the first volume to this story, the Worm decided to return for more. Not out of particular desire for enjoyment, but rather because the Worm hates to leave a read unfinished. Volume One (reviewed here) outlined a plot that combined elements of one of Star Trek’s premier villains – Khan – alongside minor characters from an episode in the Original Series in the late 1960s. It ended with Khan a free man who attempts to bring about World War Three and the supreme rule of the genetic supermen. The people to stop him? Gary Seven and his sidekick Roberta Lincoln.

Weaving in real life events with his fictional story, Greg Cox does an intriguing job. The reader finds another interpretation of the Balkans crisis and the destabilisation of India. Furthermore, the threat of the ozone layer – involved in Khan’s planning of Earth’s destruction – is threaded throughout. At the end of this volume the author includes a ‘Historical Notes’ section, emphasising the expansion of research for the writing of the book. However, fiction clearly triumphs over fact. There was opportunity for Cox to go further, by bringing in more real events and thereby creating a sterner rod in which to support his clearly outlandish plot.

Other annoyances include the character of Khan; the reader will find it hard to match up this youthful portrayal with the one famously played by Ricardo Montalban. Whilst Gary Seven’s sanctimonious personality wears incredibly thin incredibly fast.

In the end, Seven and Roberta are successful in bringing down Khan’s plan for domination. Khan’s own raging and egocentric personality – traits of his creation – are seen as flaws that are beaten by the humans. He is caught and sentenced to a prison-stasis on board a space-ship, all of which nicely ties-up the character’s appearance in the Original Series episode Space Seed in which he is found by a young William Shatner.

Cox’s novel fills in the blanks of Khan’s creation and origins. And ultimately, that is all that his two volume series is. As stated in the review for Volume One, the plot is far too integrated within the Star Trek world that it is off-putting to the casual reader. However, thankfully for that proud race known as Trekkers (or Trekkies), the universe of Star Trek will continue to be expanded, written and read, for many years to come. The Worm just isn’t sure if he will be one of them.

 

Read the review for Volume One here 

Read more about the author here

#234 The Ancient Egyptians For Dummies (2007)

Author: Charlotte Booth
Title: The Ancient Egyptians For Dummies
Genre: History
Year: 2007
Pages: 370
Origin: read on the good old Kindle
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5

 

What is this? Another For Dummies book consumed by the Worm? Are standards slipping? What is the reason for this? And can the Worm continue to ask questions rather than complete a review?

Yes, dear readers, a second For Dummies book in the current book-reading season. In fact – brace yourselves – this is the second of three For Dummies reads. Three! The Worm went a little crazy during the month of August and binged on The Tudors For Dummies (review posted during November), The Ancient Greeks For Dummies (to be posted soon), and this book, The Ancient Egyptians For Dummies. It appears these easy-reading textbooks are an addiction in which the Worm needs to wean himself off. Or does he? (Apologies, yet another question).

Written by Egyptologist Charlotte Booth, The Ancient Egyptians For Dummies was the Worm’s first foray into this period of history. A brief and gentle read will bring to life – in a basic way – the society of ancient Egypt. Thankfully, Booth cuts out the dense terminology that has put off the Worm from accessing this period of history previously. Instead, a portrait of this age (or indeed, ages) is built up: of various pharaohs, military victories, epic buildings and – of course – those mummies.

Of particular interest is the story of those who set out to discover Egypt’s ancient past. These include the Victorian adventurers who deciphered hieroglyphics and who walked into tombs that had remained untouched for centuries.

As with The Tudors For Dummies, there is nothing of specific interest: however, this series of books should be used for just one thing. An introduction. The Worm’s whistle has been whetted; ancient Egypt is no longer a topic off his reading limits.

Charlotte Booth's website

Buy it here

#233 The Betrayal of Richard III (1959)

Author: V.B. Lamb
Title: The Betrayal of Richard III
Genre: History
Year: 1965
Pages: 110
Origin: bought in a charity shop for £2.99
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5

 

The discovery of Richard III’s body in a Leicester car-park has provoked debate and activity within this period of history. Lamb’s book, The Betrayal of Richard III, could just as easily fit in as a freshly published book in 2013, despite it being originally published in the 1950s.

Lamb attempts to do away with hundreds of years of whitewashing and Tudor propaganda. Instead of the villainous Richard who, as Shakespeare once wrote, murdered his brother, a king and his son, his wife, and nephews, the case of Richard’s innocence is put forward. The villainy lies not with Richard’s actions, but rather with the treachery of those he surrounded himself with.

The reader is shown the beginnings of Richard, his reign as king, his removal and then the succeeding historical writing that has painted the former king – arguably England’s last true king – in an unfavourable light. Lamb’s chapter ‘The Legend is Established’ looks at the histories of Polydore Vergil, whilst other chapters concentrate on Sir Thomas More and Shakespeare’s involvement in the traditional view of Richard as the scheming tyrant who got his just deserts.

It is refreshing to see the flipside to this established debate. However, such is Lamb’s blindness that annoyance is a constant factor within this read. Richard, no longer the villain, is taken to the extreme: portrayed as a saint. Let us read a few examples:

‘There is no truth in the story that the people turned against him; his downfall was brought about by a combination of adverse circumstances, the disloyalty of three discontented nobles, and one scheming woman.’

All of which ignores the importance and causes of the small rebellions against Richard, as well as the reasoning behind the Stanleys switch of allegiance between Richard and his successor, Henry Tudor. Also, we have this:

‘Entirely loyal himself, he was unable to recognise treachery in others or to deal with it with sufficient ruthlessness.’

This, the same Richard who had some of his closest advisors and friends – Hastings and Buckingham – alienated and then executed.

Lamb speaks of ‘facts’; but cannot see the woods for the trees. Furthermore, Lamb uses the defence of “no evidence” time and again. Yes, there may be minimal evidence for some of these events, but this does not mean the historian should simply shrug and move on. No, the historian – a historian who wishes to piece together the dots – must go beyond and attempt to weave together a narrative with the best information possible.

However, despite being a book ignored for its flaws, the book should be read and enjoyed for this very reason. There are many mistakes and annoyances, particularly in Lamb’s ignorance of reality. However, like a good pantomime, it is nice to have a read every now and then in which the Worm is shouting at the words running on the line.

Richard continues to have both his detractors and supporters. The recent find of his body will undoubtedly encourage more scholarly activity. Hopefully it keeps the same spirit of Lamb’s work, but instead injected with reason and intelligence.

 
Buy it here

#232 Confessions of a Transsexual Porn Star (2007)

Author: Meghan Chavalier
Title: Confessions of a Transsexual Porn Star
Genre: Autobiography
Year: 2007
Pages: 220
Origin: read on the good old Kindle
Nod Rating: 1 nod out of 5
 

 

Undoubtedly, this book has the most bizarre title that the Worm has yet to read. Yes, dear readers, it beats – hands down – other winners of the Odd Book Title Award, including the toilet history Flushed With Pride and even the poetry volume Once I Was A Washing Machine.

As it says on the tin, Confessions of a Transsexual Porn Star follows the life of a transsexual within the porn industry. Meghan Chavalier is an interesting character: originally born a male, who later found adventure in various locations around the United States, before eventually entering the porn industry. Today, as her intriguing website demonstrates, she has attempted to forge together the role of author of transgendered books and singer of low-budget music videos.

The book is a refreshingly honest look at one of the planet’s biggest industries. Chavalier attempts to tell the nitty-gritty of the porn industry behind the scenes, including some revelations of the rich and famous:

‘A guy called and said he wanted to party. My friend told him that there were three of us there and he was interested in all of us. He didn’t take long to show up and when he did my friend asked him to show her his dick so that we could make sure he wasn’t a cop. I wasn’t really looking at him at this point and honestly didn’t care who he was until I realised it was C.S. I told my friend she didn’t need to worry about him because he was a movie star. He came in and he was obviously drunk and high on something. I think this was around the time that he was going through all of his drug problems. C.S. is definitely a sex freak.’

C.S. Hmm… Charlie Sheen, anyone?

Her book, thankfully, is not centred fully on the porn industry. Rather, it is a tale of her early years and eventual transformation. It expresses more of her doubts, confusion and uncertainty of her youthful years. All of which could have been very engrossing, if only the book was not written in a sloppy manner, thereby aggravating the Worm on many pages. Undoubtedly, it would have benefited from proof-reading and some structural editing to avoid repetition.

Chavalier writes of the experience of putting together the book: ‘Most people thought that it must’ve taken me a long time to write my first book, honestly, it only took me two weeks.’ And here, folks, is the problem.

 
Buy it here

#231 The Eugenics Wars (2001)

Author: Greg Cox
Title: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh (Volume 1)
Genre: Science Fiction
Year: 2001
Pages: 390
Origin: read on the good old Kindle
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5

 

Whilst reading Star Trek articles on Wikipedia – as one does – the Worm somehow stumbled upon the expanded universe that seemingly incorporate millions of novels featuring the likes of Captain Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard. One particular two-part series struck the Worm’s imagination: a secret history of the twentieth century that combined the character of Khan (recently resurrected in the blockbuster Star Trek Into Darkness) and a minor creation from the original series, Gary Seven. Science fiction and history had collided together: this was all the Worm needed to get reading.

In Star Trek mythology the Eugenics Wars was an event that occurred in the 1990s; a race of supermen took control of the planet, before being jettisoned into outer-space. This outlined was written as part of the original series in the 1960s, when the 1990s seemed a long way off. The character Khan – the leader of these supermen – resurfaced in a motion picture, establishing himself as a cult villain within the canon. This book, written by Greg Cox, returns to the original source material. But rather than place Khan in outer space in the distant future, he attempts something slightly more radical: the story of Khan’s time on Earth in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. What’s more, in an attempt to tie in Earth’s real history as well as the imagined Star Trek universe, Khan’s place within these decades is formed as a “secret history”, using real events such as the fall of Communism and ethnic cleansing in the hope of producing a page-turning adventure story.

This volume – the first of two – is set in the early 1970s. Khan is a child prodigy and generally an unknown quantity; his home environment – a giant research laboratory – is besieged by Gary Seven and his accomplices (Roberta Lincoln). Seven succeeds in destroying the work of “evil” scientists, but the fall out of this means that the planet is under threat of a young generation of potential power-hungry super-beings.

Cox attempts to build a thriller full of suspense, blending real events with his imagination: all of which can be deemed a success. Of course, Cox is no Shakespeare… or indeed, any other in-depth, gripping writer (of which there are only truly a few). However, his novel is one of action, if not emotional or intellectual depth. The Worm was mostly hooked with the weaving together of fiction and non-fiction; unfortunately for the outcome of the novel, Cox appears to have missed a few open goals in terms of real-life events to feed from.

As such, this volume – and Star Trek fiction as a whole - is commendable, but unfortunately not recommendable to those outside the science fiction family.

 

Buy it here

#230 The Tudors For Dummies (2010)

Author: David Loades & Mei Trow
Title: The Tudors For Dummies
Genre: History
Year: 2010
Pages: 360
Origin: read on the Kindle
Nod Rating: 2 nods out of 5

 

The Dummies series of books is seemingly everywhere. The trademark and standout yellow of its covers can be found in all good – and bad – bookshops, from high cost to the bargain basement. They have found success is taking dense subject matter and breaking it down for the unwashed masses in the hope of enlightening us all. There are around two-thousand (yes, two-thousand!!) titles in the series. It is a surprise to the Worm, then, that he has not gotten his mitts on one of them.

This all changes with The Tudors For Dummies title in the series. At the helm of this book is a duo authorship of David Loades and Mei Trow. Loades is well known in Tudor-reading circles as a man who has researched and written heavily on the Tudor monarchs Henry VIII and Mary. Less well known to the Worm is Mei Trow: a historian and novelist who has appeared on documentaries as both expert and presenter. A dream-team of Tudor history? Let us find out.

The Tudors For Dummies devotes sections to the “Big Tudors” (Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth), as well as one on the “Little Tudors” (the ill-fated Edward VI and Mary – deemed by the authors as the ‘Forgotten Tudors’). Furthermore, the book – like others in the Dummies series – devotes a section to ‘The Part of Tens’. This is a countdown list of ‘Tudor people’, of architecture, events, and other ‘Tudor firsts’.

The proceedings are all as to be expected: the Battle of Bosworth, the troubles of Henry VII’s reign with imposters and pretenders, the passing of the baton to the next generation, and his son’s desire to become a king feared by all. The section on Edward and Mary are of interest, with the author duo feeling enabled to go off the script and pick out some intriguing snippets of detail. But the main action is resumed with the section ‘Ending with Elizabeth.’ The reader is treated to her battles with religion and then the greater threat of the Spanish and their Armada fleet. The book is neatly wrapped up, with a short examination of the Tudors’ lasting legacy to Britain.

Although there is minimal detail, luckily the book is spruced up with anecdotes and appealing facts; all of which makes the reading experience a pleasurable one. Furthermore, Loades is unshackled from his usual academic sphere, adding a sense of personality to the chief Tudor protagonists. For example, how about this on Henry VIII: ‘Henry began his reign promisingly enough as a handsome, talented Renaissance prince with a 19-inch waist, but he became a bloated monster who terrified his subjects and whose soul the pope sent to hell’. Furthermore, we are also treated to the humour behind the relationship of Henry and Anne Boleyn: ‘Henry certainly fell for Anne, the daughter of a Kentish knight, longing, in his own words, to “kiss her pretty dukkys”. Dukkies meaning – of course – her breasts.

This is the first For Dummies read for the Worm. Although it failed to deliver the dizzy highs of inventive and authoritative history writing, it entertained and filled in gaps of knowledge. It is not comprehensive, but serves as a solid introduction to the Tudors of the sixteenth century. Therefore, the Worm will be back for more reads in the For Dummies series.

 

Buy it here!

#229 The Story of Writing (1995)

Author: Andrew Robinson
Title: The Story of Writing
Genre: Language
Year: 1995
Pages: 220
Origin: a tried and trusted library book
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5

 

‘Writing is among the greatest inventions in human history, perhaps the greatest invention, since it made history possible.’

This is the central argument within Andrew Robinson’s engaging book The Story of Writing. In the space of two hundred well-designed pages, Robinson manages to chart writing’s history: from the early days of cave paintings to its various branches and off-shoots. The Worm finds such boasting of ‘350 illustrations, 50 in colour’ as rather endearing; harking back to innocent times when colour was a feature that was useable as a bragging instrument. However, there is a greater seriousness within the print itself.

Robinson focuses on some of the key developments in writing. These include the story of the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone; extinct forms of writing (including cuneiform and hieroglyphs, as well as the interesting Linear B script); as well as those pesky undecipherable scripts such as Cretan Linear B, Etruscan inscriptions and the fabulously named Rongorongo. We chart the evolution of the alphabet, with a particular focus on Chinese and Japanese and how it exits within the media and society in the present day.

The reader is treated to various detours down confusing alleyways of human language, forever turning back upon Egyptian hieroglyphics (of which the author is assuredly obsessed). Like the splendid Bill Bryson, Robinson picks up the story of those daring adventurers who deciphered the ancient scripts in the Victorian period. These include the likes of such enigmatic names as Jean-Francois Champollion and Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson.

The Worm can safely say that he has never read a more authoritative and entertaining book on hieroglyphics. In fact, the Worm has never read a book on hieroglyphics; which makes the first sentence of this paragraph appear rather redundant. However, the Worm confidently states that the read caused much chin-stroking merriment that he will consider reading subsequent books on hieroglyphics; on which the author, Andrew Robinson, is clearly to thank. The Story of Writing is not a classic of a text, and perhaps – and quite rightly should be if research continues – it will be superseded within a time. However, it is an entertaining text that makes the throat utter glottal sounds of wonder at the discovery of the vast amount of facts that abound on every page. With the reader now knowing the Worm’s depth of hieroglyphic knowledge, they can be content with feeling secure that The Story of Writing can provide a nice introduction into this confusing, bamboozling and wonderful world.

 Buy it here

#228 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Title: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Genre: Short Fiction
Year: 1892
Pages: 300
Origin: read on the Kindle
Nod Rating: 4 nods out of 5

In recent years, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has received amorous glances from the Worm. Two book-reading seasons ago the first Sherlock Holmes adventure, A Study in Scarlet, was read; whilst last year’s book reading season began with a read of The Sign of the Four. What better way, then, to kick-off this (rather delayed) review than with yet another from the Sherlock Holmes collection.

The twelve stories that make up The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (A Scandal in Bohemia, The Adventure of the Red-Headed League, A Case of Identity, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, The Five Orange Pips, The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb, The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches) were first published in the Strand Magazine between 1891 and 1892; being collected and sold in book form later in 1892. They show Sherlock Holmes and his trusted companion, Doctor Watson, in a series of adventures in which the duo really come into their own; establishing the power of a myth that has endured right through to the present day.

These twelve short stories manage to show Holmes at work in a greater variety of situations that the previous novels. Again, the distinction is drawn between the shut-down when not working on a case, as he drifts into his ‘drug-created dreams’ before arising when ‘hot upon the scent of a new problem’. As Holmes himself explains, he feeds and thrives off the action of the cases of crime: ‘It saved me from ennui… my life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.’

Holmes’ unorthodox practices and reasoning is further detailed by a mystified and intrigued Watson. This includes Holmes needing to go into a slumber when smoking what he deems ‘a three-pipe problem’:

‘He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put his pipe down upon the mantelpiece.’

We also witness Holmes becoming the master of disguise (in A Scandal in Bohemia), in which Watson describes the change: ‘It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.’ Furthermore, the growth of Watson’s own deductive powers are much improved; although there are plenty of sharp comments from the chief detective: ‘You see, but you do not observe.’

The collection established the Holmes-Watson connection. Furthermore, it has cemented the legend of other characters, notably that of Irene Adler (‘To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman’). The short story format provides greater energy to Holmes-Watson tag-team. The earlier novels (A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four) lose interest throughout the reading experience; far better to concentrate Holmes within smaller – and sillier – mysteries that allow his full personality to spill out onto the page. For this principal reason, the Worm sees 4 nods as a fitting return for stories that have cemented themselves as classics.

 

Buy it here

Read the Worm's review of A Study in Scarlet here

Or his review of The Sign of the Four  here

Forever Delayed: 2012-13 Season Review

Regular readers of this blog may have asked themselves in recent months: “Where is the usual twelve-month end of season review?” The Worm himself has managed to avoid the vast number of petitions set up and sent to 10 Downing Street in order to bring about a decision on the “Missing End of Season Review” debate currently being waged throughout these islands. But even the Worm has come to a conclusion: enough is enough. It can be delayed no longer!

What is the reason for such a delay (coming around three to four months than per usual)? One of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, once said: “You may delay, but time will not.” This is true. However, a rival founding father – Thomas Jefferson – also wrote that “delay is preferable to error.” Try to think of the Worm working away in his basement, surrounded by the books of the past year, his hair a mess and bags under eyes due to lack of sleep and worry: just who deserves to earn a slot in the Top Ten List?!!

Seasons past have been kinder to the Worm. There have been sure winners and losers, the good reads and the bad reads. And since the early days – the beginning of 2009 – the “Noddies” have attached such a large importance that the Oscars have attempted to copy certain elements (a court case is currently pending on this issue!). Just who was to win Read of the Year; which book was to come away with the high acclaim; and which book would find itself the unwilling bearer of the Shredder Award – all big questions. No wonder that Dave Cameron wanted to settle the matter once and for all.

In total 52 books were read from July 2012 to the end of June 2013. These ranged from the usual suspect genres of novels and history books, to also include political and language-based reads. The very first read of the year (reviewed in August 2012) was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tale, The Sign of Four; and the last was the recently reviewed short story The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Neither of these reads found themselves in the eagerly anticipated Top Ten reads of 2012-13:

 

1)      Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot (5 nods)

Previous winners of Read of the Year have included two autobiographies concentrated on the Second World War (by William Shirer and Primo Levi), sandwiched in-between William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. This time around, no book was stronger than this fantastic collection from T.S. Eliot. Contained are his early works (Prufrock), the mesmeric 'The Wasteland', and highlights of later collections.

 

2)      A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams (5 nods)

Also breaking the pattern of the three previous seasons is a play high up on the list (the previous highest ranked play came from Bill Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Season 2009-10). Williams creates believable and relatable characters in mid-twentieth century New Orleans. Following the unravelling of Blanche keeps the reader hooked, line and sinker.

3)      A Hero of Our Time – Mikhail Lermontov (5 nods)

One of the finest works of nineteenth century Russian literature (a time of great heavyweights). Lermontov died incredibly young – from an unfortunate duel when in his late twenties – but he has left this intriguing novel for later generations to admire. It follows a complicated character and his attempts to find his rightful place in the world.

4)      Richard III – William Shakespeare (5 nods)

Shakespeare is no stranger to these end of season lists; in both 2009-10 and 2010-11 he nabbed a slot with his word-playing trickery. Richard III is perhaps one of his best known plays; a myth being created against this son of York that has lasted centuries.

5)      The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde (5 nods)

The Worm – before assuming the alias of the Worm – once read Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray; he found it slightly dull and was put off Wilde for a couple of years. This play makes up for all the time lost. Funny and inventive, it shows Wilde’s wit at his best.

6)      V For Vendetta – Alan Moore (4 nods)

Forget the recent film and instead immerse yourself in the 1980s comic run of V For Vendetta. It shows a writer during the rise of his powers, with scripts and artwork that is captivating and entertaining.

7)      The Spanish Civil War – Hugh Thomas (4 nods)

The Worm thoroughly enjoyed reading this during the summer of 2012. Around 1,000 pages of historical thriller; it is incredible how Thomas manages to explain the complexities of the war and yet maintain a narrative of one of the central clashes of recent history.

8)      The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller (4 nods)

A second entry for graphic novels. This particular one has shaped the character and world of Batman since it hit the shelves in the mid-1980s. It’s legacy may well be dampened with regretful news of a possible Superman v Batman film on the horizon; return to the original source material and see an epic fight of fisticuffs between the Dark Knight and Man of Steel.

9)      How I Escaped My Certain Fate – Stewart Lee (4 nods)

Stewart Lee is one of the cleverest and perceptive voices in the media today. This book – a collection of transcripts (and general musings) is a delight to read. If you wish to escape the drudgery of the bog-standard comedy slopped out on TV today, start looking up Mr Lee right away.

10)  In Cold Blood – Truman Capote (4 nods)

A haunting and – at times – frustrating read. Capote’s book, based on real life events, turns right and left throughout; but its importance and lasting legacy cannot be denied. An interesting thriller that attempts to delve into the human psyche.

 

And what of the category awards:

Read of the Year: Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot

Novel: A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

Short Story: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Play: A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams

Poetry: Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot

History: The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas

Thinker: Guns by Stephen King

Political: Eichmann and the Holocaust by Hannah Arendt

Autobiographical: How I Escaped My Certain Fate by Stewart Lee

Graphic Novel: V For Vendetta by Alan Moore

Longest Read: The Spanish Civil War – 1,000 pages

Shortest Read: Guns – 25 pages

Oldest Read: Richard III – 1591

Bizarre Title: The Darwin Wars

Shredder Award: Marvel’s Iron Man 3 Prelude

Out of the 52 reads only five gained the full 5 nods! In terms of reading formats, the Kindle showed a notable rise (a total of 12 reads), becoming tied with the tried and trusted method of second hand books. In terms of the Genre Wars, History won the season’s title with a total of 11 reads, just 1 ahead of novels. The only other rival to this was the graphic novel, gaining a total of 9 reads.

The Worm could go on with such stats, but he is quite aware that they are meaningless and rather pointless. Furthermore, Prime Minister Cameron is now at the door: he demands closure on this review and its wonderful revelations. Hath no fear, fellow dear readers, the Worm will continue forward into the fifth season; already 25 books have been consumed. Their reviews will be posted shortly!

#227 The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Title: The Yellow Wallpaper
Genre: Short Story
Year: 1892
Pages: 25
Origin: read on the Kindle
Nod Rating: 4 nods out of 5

 

‘But what is one to do?’

The Worm first came across the interesting writer that is Charlotte Perkins Gilman a few years ago in a dusty and musty copy of Herland. Written and set in the first two decades of the twentieth century, a small group of men come across a tribe of women who have lived for generations without the use of males. It is a seminal feminist text, and it blew the Worm away in its pioneering spirit and refusal to bow down to the gender difference nonsense of its period (for example, this was written before females had the right to vote in elections).

All of which is it is a travesty that the Worm has not returned to Perkins Gilman sooner. Her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, is also one referenced by feminist thinkers in the previous century. Its narrator discusses her rest in a bed, and bit by bit she descends into madness with a running connection to the wallpaper within her bedroom:

‘I never saw a worse paper in my life. One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.’

The wallpaper serves a confessional purpose: ‘There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will.’ And it serves another purpose to the reader, as well: an implicit message of the struggle of women in their male dominated world:

‘The front pattern does move – and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great many women behind, and sometimes only one, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. Then in the very bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern – it strangles so…’

Rather than find understanding in her husband, the narrator is patronised (‘Bless her little heart’). Her desired liberation from insanity – and Perkins Gilman’s message of the liberation of women from their enslavement – comes to nothing but a bloody (and confusing) end: ‘Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!’

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a woman who lived life on her own terms (deciding to ‘chose chloroform over cancer’ in a suicide note in the 1935). She could have found a wider audience in the twenty-first century, yet works such as The Yellow Wallpaper have found an enduring readership. Not just for the implicit message, but also in her ability to weave words together. The Yellow Wallpaper is heartedly recommended read.

 

Buy it here

#226 Politics and the English Language (1946)

Author: George Orwell
Title: Politics and the English Language
Genre: Language
Year: 1946
Pages: 30
Origin: read on the Kindle for 99p
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5

‘A writer who is still vividly contemporary… Orwell told the truth’
 Christopher Hitchens
 
The Worm cannot add to the vast collection of superlatives attached to George Orwell. The more the Worm reads, the more he subscribes to the view that Orwell is a heavyweight – and perhaps lynchpin – of twentieth century English fiction.

However, this essay – Politics and the English Language – is not fiction, but rather an analysis of the state of language. Within it he attacks the seeming debasement of the English language; a vehicle hijacked by political demagogues and slack thinkers. Orwell believes that writers have lost their grip on the essentials, and as a result both writer and reader are in a race for the bottom.

Such ideas would be expanded on greatly in one of his most popular works, Nineteen Eighty-Four (particular in the restriction placed on the concept language Newspeak: “doubleplusgood”). And in this essay, Orwell rallies against complacency, the misuses and abuses of the English language:

‘Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent, and our language – so the argument runs – must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influences of this or that individual writer…. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gits rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step towards political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.’

In order to combat this, Orwell constructs a manifesto of Six Rules. The first is never to use a metaphor or simile which you are used to seeing in print and to avoid ‘dying metaphors’ and ‘phrases tacked together like the sections of a pre-fabricated henhouse’. The second is to always use short words, rather than long ones in the hope of gaining ‘precision’. The third recommends always cutting out words if possible. The fourth: use the active voice, rather than passive. The firth rule asks the writer to avoid foreign and scientific words, and especially useless jargon and ‘meaningless words’; hopefully this would remove ‘pretentious diction’. The sixth rule: break any of the above rules rather than say anything ‘barbarous’.

The Worm has mused over these rules, but admits that he has often contradicted them (after all, he believes his book reviews are all ‘sound and fury, signifying nothing’!). And even Orwell breaks the manifesto rules, admitting as much in this essay. However, if such rules are kept in mind, then Orwell hopes that ‘staleness of imagery’ and ‘lack of precision’ can be avoided.

Orwell could be accused of being a pedant. He is scathing of other writers, but he is both clinical and playful in his condemnation of ‘bad English’. The writing – as adhered by his own standards – remains fresh and exciting; just as if it was written in 2013, and not 1946. He remains an honest voice in a sea of filthy lies.

Apologies, George, but an ending metaphor was the best this Worm could do.

 Download Politics and the English Language here

#225 The Day of the Triffids (1951)

Author: John Wyndham
Title: The Day of the Triffids
Genre: Novel
Year: 1951
Pages: 230
Origin: bought from a second-hand bookshop
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5

 

‘When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.’

And so begins one of modern fiction’s great opening lines, the start of influential novel The Day of the Triffids. It is a work that has long fascinated the Worm, chiefly in his televised format of the original series many years ago, and less thrillingly in the 2009 remake. But, just what are these triffids, the Worm hears you ask excitedly?

Triffids are a tall and carnivorous plant species created by Wyndham. They are gangly and have the ability to walk using their roots in a freakishly sinister awkward way. Wyndham leaves the floor open as to their appearance: natural, or – as perhaps more likely – a man-made creation. In civilised society, the triffids are seen as a source of amusement and adornment in homes of the wealthy. But in Wyndham’s world, civilisation is coming to a close.

The book’s narrator and main character, Bill Masen, recounts the growth of triffids in his younger years. As a man who has worked with the fearsome plants, he notes a former co-worker’s ominous words: ‘If it were a choice for survival between a triffid and a blind man, I know which I’d put my money on.’ And, as luck would have, shooting stars falling to the planet result in the loss of sight for most of the world’s population. Bill, ironically in hospital and having surgery on his eyes, finds out – to his horror – that he must use his visual ability in the helping of others. The principal person of his endeavours is Josella (a continuing theme of the book is the rather oddly and awkward character names).

There are many shortcomings in this novel: the lack of a central plot, with the author instead moving Bill here, there and everywhere. Characters come and go, and none of them and entirely gripping or noteworthy. Also, the dialogue is close to cringe worthy, thereby stunting the growth of the characters and the reader’s attachment to them.

But The Day of the Triffids is a book about ideas, rather than plot or characters. This big idea being: what happens when the apocalypse comes. In the book’s introduction (a rather interesting one, the Worm being thankful of his particular edition), Barry Langford notes that the book may ‘sound merely a parody of the worst pulp clichés of fifties science fiction.’ However, Wyndham got there before many others; bringing about further originality with the appearance of the triffids and what they mean for human ingenuity and our ability to play God.

It is Bill’s striving for a brave new world that makes this short book an enjoyable read. Should they revert to a militaristic ‘neo-feudal plan’, turn to socialism, or instead pin their hopes on religious devotion? As Josella states towards the coming of the book’s climax:

‘Do you think we could – do you think we should be justified in starting a myth to help them? A story of a world that we wonderfully clever, but so wicked that it had to be destroyed – or destroyed itself by accident? Something like the Flood again. That wouldn’t crush them with inferiority – it could give the incentive to build, and this time to build something better.’

The next generation are to be left a harsh and daunting inheritance. Such a generation is not recounted in this tale (although there is a somewhat dubious follow-up to Wyndham’s work, The Night of the Triffids… something tells the Worm it will not be enjoyed as much). But Wyndham’s message was originally to the world of the 1950s: that of two rival ideologies and the threat of nuclear devastation. As a message, it rings very true in the twenty-first century.

 

Buy it here

 

The Virginia Woolf-Email Connection

Whilst reading John Naughton’s entertaining book – A Brief History of the Future: The Origins of the Internet – the Worm came across an interesting comparison: that of the technology of email and the author Virginia Woolf.

Allow the author, Naughton, to do the talking:

‘What makes email special is that it’s a strange blend of writing and talking. Although messages are typed, most of them read like stream-of-consciousness narratives, the product of people typing as fast as they can think. They are often full of typos and misspellings, and niceties like apostrophes often fall by the wayside. Indeed I sometimes think that the missing apostrophes are the key to understanding it. Sitting reading e-mail messages I am often reminded of the letters and diaries of Virginia Woolf, surely one of the greatest correspondents and diarists of the twentieth century. Her private jottings have the same racing immediacy, the same cavalier way with apostrophes, the same urgency.’

Naughton goes on to show examples from one of Woolf’s letters (dated 28 December 1929) and a recent email from a friend. The similarities are striking.

‘These two passages are separated by sixty-seven years and a world of social change, yet they clearly belong to the same genre – a highly personalised, subjective, compressed kind of reportage which blends external observations with private experience and eschews the typographic conventions usually employed to distinguish between one and the other.’

The author concludes with the belief that Woolf ‘would have loved email’. If only laptops and iPads were made available to great modernist writers such as Woolf, Joyce and Faulkner! The Worm likes to think that these heavyweights of literature would not be tempted by the dangerous time wasting peril that is Angry Birds.

#224 Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1957)

Author: L.T.C. Rolt
Title: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Genre: Biography
Year: 1957
Pages: 430
Origin: bought from a second-hand bookshop
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5
 

 

In 2002, the BBC conducted a public poll in the hope of piecing together a collection of the 100 Greatest Britons. The list was populated with the usual suspects: Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth (and somewhat annoyingly, Princess Diana). But one name reached a height that surprised all: Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

 
Depending on your location in this fair country of ours (the United Kingdom, that is), Brunel’s name holds a particular attraction. In the westcountry and south of England he is widely seen as the father of the railway and the man who brought transport to the masses through his fine aequducts and famous bridges. He is highly thought of as a true engineering genius who was always stretching for more and better; his name being synonymous with the success of the Victorian age and its engineering magnificence. Who better, one could say, then a biographer who knows a thing or two about engineering. Step forward, L.T.C. Rolt.

Hailed by R.A. Buchanan as ‘the outstanding popular historian of engineering history and biography in the twentieth century’, Rolt completed several biographies on some of rails biggest names (including the big duo of George and Robert Stephenson). The Worm was lucky enough to pick up a cheap copy of a later edition of this book; one that – somewhat charmingly and honestly - kept the inaccuracies of the original edition (as well as Rolt’s erroneous blaming of others for some of Brunel’s mistakes). The book is divided into three sections: the birth and early years of Brunel’s career; his work on the railways and growth of the Great Western Railway company; the outline of his other exploits, including the building of the large ships the Great Western, Briton and Great Eastern. Detail is expanded on in some of Brunel’s notable achievements, as well as his engineering ability: including the Gauge war and his atmospheric experiments on rail.

It is clear that Rolt knows his stuff – the book is packed with engineering know-how. Luckily for the Worm (and other non-engineer enthusiasts) the author knows how to keep things simple and avoid tedious long pieces of dull information. Furthermore, Rolt knows how to string a sentence or two. For example, take his description of Brunel’s tragic viewing of the Royal Albert Bridge at the end of his life:

 

‘on a specially prepared platform truck, while one of Gooch’s locomotives drew him very slowly beneath the pier arches and over the great girders. For his railway career was ended. Broken by the last and most ambitious of all his schemes – his great ship – Brunel was dying… the engineer still blazed with defiant, unquenchable courage'.

 And here we have his writing on the mayhem that was the construction of the Thames Tunnel:

'And what an amazing drama it was, this stubborn struggle between man and earth which went on relentlessly, month after month, year after year in the darkness under the Thames. Always dramatic, and sometimes tragic, upon one occasion it became sheer fantasy’.

However, much of this effect is spoilt by Rolt’s continuing deference and fawning over Brunel throughout the entirety of the book. Rather than take the stance of critical biographer, Rolt plays the role of Head of the Brunel Fan-club. The faults of some of Brunel’s works (rail and boat) is not on the head of the engineer, but on the heads of others; with biased utterances found within each chapter. In places Rolt’s dramatic touches excite him to fever pitch; Brunel, he states with ‘no exaggeration’ was the ‘last great figure of the European Renaissance.’

But, the Worm is ready to forgive such an uncritical piece of work, such is the author’s clear enthusiasm for all things Brunel. Rolt’s sentimentality is shown in his – somewhat naïve words – about today’s biographies: ‘It has become fashionable nowadays not to praise famous men but to belittle them.’ Furthermore, his research is wide-reaching, taking in contemporary sources, family papers, and Brunel’s notebooks (some of which are no longer available for future biographers). As such, Rolt’s piece of work is one of considerable worth, despite its defects.

It is clear that Brunel lived a fantastic life, even if he did die at a relatively young age. The book’s cover notes this work as ‘the definitive biography of the engineer, visionary and great Briton.’ Engineer, visionary and great Briton, he undoubtedly was; but the claim of definitive biography is one that does not hold up.

Buy it here

#223 The Medieval Anarchy: History in an Hour (2012)

Author: Kaye Jones 
Title: The Medieval Anarchy: History in an Hour 
Genre: History Year: 2012 Pages: 60 
Origin: read on the Kindle for 99p 
Nod Rating: 1 nod out of 5 

The Medieval Anarchy is one of those periods in history that get little to no coverage. The Tudors and the Nazis control the airwaves and the book shelves, proving to be the kings of historical popularity. But there are fascinating eras and figures off the beaten track for those adventurous readers ready to discover.

The Anarchy goes under other names, including the Worm’s favourite: Nineteen Years of Winter. It was an English civil war, breaking out on the death of Henry I (a son of William the Conqueror) in 1135. He bequeathed England to his daughter, Matilda, but on his death the key nobles fled to Henry’s nephew, Stephen, who seized the crown (there really should be more King Steves in history). Backed up by her husband and his French held lands, Matilda launched a war against Stephen to gain her inheritance, taking the best part of two decades until a stalemate resulted. An agreement was reached, with Stephen passing on the kingdom to Matilda’s son (another Henry); an event that occurred on Stephen’s death in 1153.

Jones does an adequate job of recounting the narrative of the civil war, stating some of the chief battles and main players. She consults the Anglo Saxon Chronicle which stated: ‘The earth bare no corn, for the land was all laid waste by such deeds; and they said openly, that Christ slept, and his saints. Such things, and more than we can say, suffered we nineteen winters for our sins’.

The Anarchy is little known when compared to England’s seemingly de-facto Civil War, the one waged in the seventeenth century that resulted in the beheading of Charles I. But there is value within this era, including England’s first queen and leading female in politics (Matilda) as well as disagreement and discord between the chief nobles of the country. Both of these features are given greater credence in that popular of dynasties, the Tudors, that it is a shame that similar attention cannot be paid here.

Ultimately, the book does what it says in its title: History in an hour. Such a remit, then, does not bode well for those wanting an in-depth analytical look into the past and the key events that happened. However, the Worm finds it hard to find a difference between this particular book on the Anarchy when compared with a Wikipedia article. If anything, the Wikipedia articles holds greater treasure for the interested reader, allowing hyperlinks to all and sundry (and the Wikipedia-surfers amongst us will attest to whittling away hours clicking on link after link). Therefore, the reader is best keeping their one pound and logging onto the information-highway for all their needs. People still say “information-highway”, right?