In his own words
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Cox’s Navy
Review: This book was sent to me from my old mate that lives on the Orkney Islands, where all the action takes place. It’s interesting to read about places that you are already familiar with: Stromness, Kirkwall, Lyness and so on. In 1919 the German imperial fleet was interned at Scapa Flow in Scotland as…
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An Alien Heat
Review: If they are brief, I usually read the acknowledgements at the front of a book. This one was to some dudes, and the members of Hawkwind, and a chap named Lemmy. Yes. That. Lemmy! Turns out before forming Motörhead Lemmy was in a psychedelic band called Hawkwind. With Michael Moorcock! He was a musician…
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The Last Spike and Other Railroad Stories
Review: Found this book for free on Kindle, a public domain book, and it was surprisingly good! Back in the steam engine railroading days the men working on the rails pursued a dangerous and frequently deadly occupation. As a result of this, stories about life on the iron road became very popular and pulp magazines…
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Death Comes for the Archbishop
Review: I held off on reading this for a long time. I’m nearly done the complete works now and decided not to put it off any longer. This is because: But I was wrong in putting this one off for so long. There is a reason that this is one of Cather’s most recognized and…
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In a Free State
Review: The fourth Booker Prize winning novel I have read since beginning my quest of reading all 50 plus winners. Like all the others I have read there is no questioning the brilliance and reasons for winning. But like a lot of the others this one was pretty dark and very serious. Ferris Bueller gets…
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A Lost Lady
Review: Post operative I really needed this. I was reading a collection of Ray Bradbury’s short fiction and bailed on it. Not that I don’t love Bradbury but I needed a novel to identify with the characters, to feel and see the scenery from a different time and place. To take me out of myself…
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One of Ours
Review: Obviously I’m biased, being a Willa Cather devotee. But I believe that objectively this is a really good novel. Also it’s set in and around the Great War so again I’m almost bound to like it. This is the story of Claude Wheeler, from small town American whose life and the lives of all…
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The First World War
Review: What new things could a student of the Great War like Neilos possible learn? Oh… so much. It is true that for years I have read and listened to all sorts of material on this conflict. And it is still as clear as trench-mud. There was so much even leading up to August 1914…
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Thames Mudlarking
Review: What a neat little volume, about a neat little hobby. Mudlarking is essentially beachcombing, but on the Thames River. The things that people discover at low tide are always unique. Thousands of coins, tube tokens and clay pipes. But also an authentic Victoria Cross medal and fossils of Neanderthal humans. Plenty of pictures and…
