In the recent edition of The Critic (a fabulous magazine, which has rapidly come to provide a refreshing challenge to the current literary and cultural zeitgeist) my friend Paul Lay bemoaned the paucity of good non-fiction writing in 2022. He should know; he’s made something of a career of the subject. He suggests that the fault is (I paraphrase here) - at least partly - the growing timidity of publishers to commission ruthless, well-written analysis in the face of what can only be seen as activist propaganda. I think he’s right. This is a hardly scientific assessment, but in a visit this week to my local independent bookshop I was faced with a choice of only two books on the subject of Winston Churchill, one by Geoffrey Wheatcroft and the other by Tariq Ali. Both are exponents of a hard left anti-Churchill school that purports to be scholarly but is anything but. I noted this earlier this year when I was asked to review Caroline Elkin’s contextually illiterate
An interesting selection. I thought Anna Keay's book was brilliant and enjoyed Devil Dogs and the Siege of Loyalty House a great deal. I actually didn't get on with Anthony Beevor on the Russian Revolution, he took on a hellish job trying to compact so much history and so many protagonists into the book and it didn't come together as a coherent read for me. Devil-Land by Clare Jackson was a worthy winner of Wolfson imho, and I also recommend 'How the World Really Works' by Vaclav Smil.
An interesting selection. I thought Anna Keay's book was brilliant and enjoyed Devil Dogs and the Siege of Loyalty House a great deal. I actually didn't get on with Anthony Beevor on the Russian Revolution, he took on a hellish job trying to compact so much history and so many protagonists into the book and it didn't come together as a coherent read for me. Devil-Land by Clare Jackson was a worthy winner of Wolfson imho, and I also recommend 'How the World Really Works' by Vaclav Smil.
I have spent a small fortune this year on what I consider quality historical non-fiction. It's there if you know where to look.