Constantly leaping from place to place, some fascinating, some not, he is always cutting away from the moment to pick it up elsewhere. The man may know history but he doesn’t know drama or storytelling at all. I have never put down a book more frequently or picked it up to try again so frequently. This is bewildering, confusing and irritating. Eschewing all attempts to keep the dramatic flow focused, instead we get tons of not on the spot reports.

I feared the worst when the opening sentences contained three of the most awful cliches in modern journalism: “all about optics,” “getting up close,” and “drilling down.” Unfortunately this is precisely what he promises to do, and indeed delivers, constantly shifting from one scene to another a bit further down the road, a few minutes later. I found this one of the most dissatisfactory books on one of the most fascinating reversals of fortune in all history – the fall of the monster Robespierre. Despite a foreword by Barry Humphries I failed to be captured by these less than legendary tales from The Colony Club. Like junkies, people addicted to their own poison are often less interesting than they think. Tales from the Colony Room Darren CaulfieldĪll alcoholics are alike. Or the fact that the human need to name everything in the Universe is destined to be hopeless as there aren’t even enough words to fit the stars in our Galaxy.Ī Short History of Humanity Johannes Krause and Thomas TrappeĪnd a whole new science, the genetic journey of human kind, history found in DNA. How scientific names celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels.ĭoesn’t mention Monty Python’s extinct snake.

Extraordinary great history.Ĭharles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider The secret History of Israel’s targeted assassinations. I don’t find Prior a realistic character. What to do with one of theirs who protests the war.

Hatchet awaiting evil rarity