The well known The Rest is History podcaster writes in this book about the enduring legacy of Christianity in Western culture, secular society and politics. Most of our liberalism and radicalism somewhat paradoxically arising out of fundamentally Christian values, and hence in our present secular context prove harder to uphold because they are now removed from their original religious justifications. A fascinating read.
An excellent piece if exploration and revisioning of numerous significant female figures from the Anglo Saxon period onward. rescuing them from relative obscurity and bringing them back vividly to life. Quite often early history is about applying imaginative conjecture to fill in the gaps between what is known or is implied, which Ramirez does brilliantly here.
A personal exploration of what is currently a most contentious issue - the British Empire and its legacy. Samghera handles this with a gently questioning, and remarkably nuanced approach. What makes this book quite compulsive read is the way he gently and impartially teases out how the views of Britain's colonial past have not just formed our view of our place in the world, but also reshaped the self view of those cultures we dominated and controlled.
A strain of two time frames are interwoven through this second novel from the Booker prize winning author. Here we are in the tightly knit world of families and gangs of youth, at war over territory and influence. In the middle of all this pressure to conform to other people's expectations is Mungo, discovering who he is, hiding his first gay affair and a camping weekend that turns into a horrible nightmare. A gripping, gruesome, but slightly structurally weaker follow up to Shuggie Bain.
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Another fabulous concoction from Burnet, part faux documentary, biography, crime novel, and exploration of how we establish what is true or not. It wrong foots you very cleverly, and has a truly appalling bad man at its centre in conman psychologist Collins Braithwate. Fact & Fiction get more blurred as even the crime novelist gets deconstructed. Tense stuff, but scathingly funny too.
The Professor has lost his long term memory, so anyone who becomes his housekeeper has to remind him who he is, who they are, almost every time they meet. This is a delightfully touching tale of friendship and compassion as the housekeeper and her son try to give her charge a more rounded and fulfilling life.
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