Oh no, not more books . . . !

I may have mentioned before that a neighbour/friend and I swap periodicals.  I give him The Spectator and he gives me The Saturday Review section of The Times.  I have just opened, rather late, the last edition he gave me and what do I discover?  Books, more books and even more books!  Following my recent birthday, the books surrounding my armchair look like the Berlin wall!  Will I live long enough to read them, I wonder?  So I need more books like a hole in the head but - dammit! - they are so tempting.

For a start there is "The British Are Coming: The War for America 1775-77" by Rick Atkinson.  The Times gives it a rave review but, of course, this volume of only - only!!! - 550 pages merely covers the first two years!  Apparently two more volumes are expected later.  My first thought was my old Jewish accountant's favourite expression, "I should live so long my life already!"  Next up was "Working with Winston: The Unsung Women Behind Britain's Greatest Statesman" by Cita Stelzer.  This is based on the numerous ladies who provided secretarial skills for 'Winnie'.  There is a great truth that if you really want to know about a 'great man', ask his valet!  In this case, I'm sure the ladies in the Churchillian 'back-office' can provide some classic insights.

Finally, there is a review of a man hitherto unknown to me and I sincerely hope he stays that way!  I refer to the late Mr. Richard Holbrooke, an American, er, 'political advisor' who seems to have been up to his elbows in every bloody American conflagration from Vietnam onwards!  From the various reviews I have skimmed, nobody liked him because he was, in the main, an enormous pain in the arse!  Mind you, his life story, "Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century" might throw some sonsiderable light onto American foreign affairs, so perhaps I will keep it book-marked!

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

I've always put Holbrooke in the same box with Robert McNamara. Always about, always involved, always knowing more than anyone else. Many of our diplomats inhabited the same "box". A large box. Mercifully, now under ground.