Genre: History

Review – Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife

Posted June 15, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife

Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women

by Hetta Howes

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 298
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives? And how can we hear their stories?

Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four extraordinary women who did. Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a "no-good wife". In their own ways these four very different writers pushed back against the misogyny of the period. Each broke new ground in women's writing and left us incredible insights into the world of medieval life and politics.

Hetta Howes has spent her working life uncovering these women's stories to give us a valuable and unique historical biography of their lives that challenges what we think we know about medieval women in Europe. Women did earn money, they could live independent lives, and they thought, loved, fought and suffered just as we do today.

This mesmerizing book is an unforgettably lively and immersive journey into the everyday lives of medieval women through the stories of these four iconic women writers, some of which are retold here for general readers for the first time.

Hetta Howes’Ā Poet Mystic Widow Wife does a pretty good job at discussing the lives of medieval women in general, while reflecting specifically on Marie de France, Christine de Pizan, Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich. If considered as intending to shed light on those lives specifically, it feels pretty disorganised and lacks detail on Marie de France and Julian of Norwich — which is in part due to lack of sources and in part due to choosing poorly (though there may not be many good choices).

Overall, it didn’t quite work for me. I think it was the general feeling of it not being super organised, for a start; each section would jump around slightly in time and place, trying to touch on the four women regularly, but not always managing to link them in to the chapter’s themes very well.

Perhaps it’s partly a matter of style; while Howes’ style is readable, I didn’t love it. Her sources are pretty sparse, and overall this might all be explained by the fact that she’s qualified in medieval literature (which probably informed her choice of sources) rather than history. Literature was my first field of study as well and one in which she’s more qualified than I am, and medieval literature in particular has an overlap with understanding medieval history… but it’s not the same. I know a lot about the role of medieval women through that same literary lense, and maybe I was hoping for something a bit more rooted in named sources. I was also hoping for more about Marie de France, whose works I studied (in translation).

In any case, if you’re looking for an accessible, chatty sort of popular history, with reimaginings about what Margery Kemp and Christine de Pizan thought and felt, this might be more up your street. If you’re here for Marie de France or Julian of Norwich, perhaps not.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – A Mudlarking Year

Posted June 9, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Mudlarking Year

A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure In Every Season

by Lara Maiklem

Genres: History, Memoir, Non-fiction
Pages: 358
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

For over two decades, Lara Maiklem has been scouring the banks of the tidal Thames looking for objects - lost or discarded - that tell forgotten stories. In this charming sequel to the bestselling Mudlarking, Lara widens her search beyond the river and reflects on life lived post-pandemic, reminding us that it's possible to draw meaning in the most unlikely of places.

As she searches the foreshore through the changing seasons, she is at times aided by the gentle illumination of the falling winter sun or hindered by bright summer skies and lashing rain. Yet, by working in harmony with the unpredictable terrain, she finds solace in aligning with the elements and uncovering the treasures that are bestowed by the tide. From medieval pilgrim badges and Tudor love tokens, to Georgian wig curlers and Victorian pottery, each passing day unearths ordinary and extraordinary objects that tell the rich story of London's past and its inhabitants.

I liked Lara Maiklem’sĀ Mudlarking quite a bit, as I recall, and I was fascinated by the bits and pieces of historical information, the unfiltered nature of it all. Those same aspects felt more irritating here in this book, though — there’s no organisation to it, just the turning of the seasons, so there’s a lot of repetition.

In the end, I think the problem is that it comes out more as autobiography than history or even a discussion of mudlarking, and thus is just generally not my thing. There are still the same fascinating snippets, albeit with some info that I’m certain is repeated from Mudlarking, but… it doesn’t feel like anything new, and I don’t like Maiklem enough as a person (on this level of acquaintance, anyway) to be spending this much time with her. I especially don’t care enough about her kids, their process of going up, and how often she’ll leave them and her wife and just go down to the foreshore because she feels like it.

She’s mostly responsible, as mudlarks go, in relation to protection of the environment and archaeology — at the very least, she’s smarter than to say in print that she breaks the rules — and critical of other mudlarks who are less responsible, but she’s also kinda… exclusive? She seems to feel that parts of the river belong to her, and she won’t tell others where she found something, and that attitude hits wrong.

So… all in all, just not for me.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Jane Austen in 41 Objects

Posted June 4, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Jane Austen in 41 Objects

Jane Austen in 41 Objects

by Kathryn Sutherland

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 224
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Among objects described in this book are a teenage notebook, a muslin shawl, a wallpaper fragment, a tea caddy, the theatrical poster for a play she attended, and the dining-room grate at Chawton Cottage where she lived. Poignantly, the last manuscript page of her unfinished novel and a lock of hair, kept by her devoted sister, Cassandra, are also featured. Objects contributing to Austen's rich cultural legacy include a dinner plate decorated by Bloomsbury artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Grayson Perry's commemorative pot from 2009, and even Mr Darcy's wet shirt, worn by Colin Firth in the 1995 BBC adaptation.

More than two hundred years after Jane Austen's death at the age of just forty-one, we are still looking for clues about this extraordinary writer's life. What might we learn if we take a glimpse inside the biographies of objects that crossed her path in life and afterward: things that she cherished or cast aside, that furnished the world in which she moved, or that have themselves been inspired by her legacy?

This is a different kind of biography, in which objects with their own histories offer shifting entry points into Jane Austen's life. Each object, illustrated in color, invites us to meet Austen at a particular moment when her life intersects with theirs, speaking eloquently of past lives and shedding new light on one of our best-loved authors.

I’m not a huge Jane Austen fan — I’ve read some of the books and did enjoy them (sorry, Mum, I know you reaaally don’t like Austen), and I can appreciate their importance as literature, but I’m no Janeite. I think that’s probably the primary audience for this book, but for me, I was attracted by the “x in y objects” format, which I always enjoy.

This is a nicely presented variation on that theme, with full colour glossy images, short descriptions of the signifiance of each, and even the ability to just dip in and out if you want (there’s no overarching narrative). I might possibly prefer a slightly more organised and deliberate style, where each object leads to another, or there’s a stronger chronological theme (though the items are somewhat in time-order).

I did find that the introduction was a bit overly scholarly compared to the actual contents, so if you find that’s bogging you down, and you’re still interested in the contents, just skip it. It’s 22 pages long and took me 15 minutes to read, compared to the 50 minutes it took me to read the other 167 pages…

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Graves

Posted June 2, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Graves

The Graves: Srebenica and Vukovar

by Eric Stover, Gilles Peress

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 334
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

This book is the harrowing account by Eric Stover, with photographs by Gilles Peress, of how, from a hell of mud and decomposing bodies, Haglund began to piece together the victims' identities and the terrible ways they died. Over 40,000 Muslim refugees were living in and around Srebenica when it fell to the Serbs, under General Ratko Mladic in July 1995. Of the men who fled, or were rounded up by Serb troops, many were never seen again. Stover talks to the surviving families, women and children including the women of Srebrenica still clinging to the hope that their men are alive even as Haglund's investigations prove otherwise. Mladic has since been charged with crimes of genocide. But Stover identifies a lack of political will to arrest the criminals and bring them to trial. Until then, justice will not have been done.

Gilles Peress and Eric Stover’sĀ The Graves: Srebenica and Vukovar is, as it should be, horrifying. It’s illustrated with many many photographs, but also has a certain amount of explanatory text (especially partway through) which gives context, explains the images chosen, etc.

The main quibble I have is with the presentation, which I found annoying — I had to spin the book around, and the text doesn’t always run in the directions you’d expect. I think it’d have been better at coffee-table book size, despite the weirdness of thinking of a book like this as anything like a coffee-table book.

Still, a valuable read, if awful.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

Posted May 27, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

by Sally Coulthard

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 333
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

For most of human history, we were rural folk.

Our daily lives were bound up with working the land, living within the rhythm of the seasons. We poured our energies into growing food, tending to animals and watching the weather. Family, friends and neighbours were often one and the same. Life revolved around the village and its key spaces and places ā€“ the church, the green, the school and the marketplace.

And yet rural life is oddly invisible our historical records. The daily routine of the peasant, the farmer or the craftsperson could never compete with the glamour of city life, war and royal drama. Lives went unrecorded, stories untold.

There is, though, one way in which we can learn about our rural past. The things we have left behind provide a connection that no document can match; physical artefacts are touchstones that breathe life into its history. From farming tools to childrenā€™s toys, domestic objects and strange curios, the everyday items of the past reveal fascinating insights into an often-forgotten way of life. Birth, death, celebration, work, crime, play, medicine, beliefs, diet and our relationship with nature can all be read from these remnants of our past.

From ancient artefacts to modern-day memorabilia, this startling book weaves a rich tapestry from the fragments of our rural past.

Sally Coulthard’sĀ A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects pretty much explains itself in terms of content. Each entry is pretty short, and focused on a particular item (though it may ramble around the subject before or after introducing the item). Each is included as a pen-and-ink sketch, usually at the end of the chapter.

I found at times that the objects were… not what I’d choose, or the potted histories were a bit rambly/random, but overall it’s a format I enjoy in and of itself, and I had fun reading it. I’d say take the historical accuracy with a heaping of salt, as it lacks any kind of references (not just numbered references, but in my edition, any kind of references at all). More one to read for entertainment and to see someone else’s train of thought on the matter than for information.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Fighting Fit

Posted May 22, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Review – Fighting Fit

Fighting Fit: The Wartime Battle for Britain's Health

by Laura Dawes

Genres: History, Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 250
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

At the beginning of the Second World War, medical experts predicted epidemics of physical and mental illness on the home front. Rationing would decimate the nation's health, they warned; drugs, blood and medical resources would be in short supply; air raid shelters and evacuation would spread diseases; and the psychological effects of bombing raids would leave mental hospitals overflowing. Yet, astonishingly, Britain ended the war in better health than ever before. Based on original archival research and written with wit and verve, FIGHTING FIT reveals an extraordinary, forgotten story of medical triumph against the odds. Through a combination of meticulous planning and last-minute scrambling, Britain succeeded in averting, in Churchill's phrase, the 'dark curse' on the nation's health. It was thanks to the pioneering efforts of countless individuals - doctors, nurses, social workers, boy scouts, tea ladies, Nobel Prize winners, air raid wardens, housewives, nutritionists and psychologists - who battled to keep the nation fit and well in wartime.

As Laura Dawes shows, these men and women not only helped to win the war, they paved the way for the birth of the NHS and the development of the welfare state.

Laura Dawes’Ā Fighting Fit: The Wartime Battle for Britain’s Health was a fascinating choice for me, with my interest in infectious diseases, and especially given my electives (which included a module about nutrition and infection). It’s basically the perfect case study for many of my interests, though sadly it doesn’t discuss tuberculosis at much length (and WWI and WWII were times when tuberculosis infection numbers increased after having been in decline).

As a note of caution though, I would point out that it really is aboutĀ Britain, not the British Empire. It gives no picture of how things went outside of the islands that constitute Great Britain. So it is quite narrow in scope, and I suspect it’d be a less triumphant picture if it discussed the wider picture: there’s some reference to the soldiers fighting, but mostly just to the populace at home, and pretty much nothing to the wider world.

But as I’ve implied, it paints a surprisingly rosy picture of health in the UK during the war, with some bumps here and there (haha) as refugee children passed around childhood diseases rife in the cities they came from to host families in the country, or respiratory infections rippled through bomb shelters. It discusses some fascinating experiments and number crunching that led to conclusions about how to provide people with rations, and the results of rationing. It was an endeavour that seems to me very linked to the formation of the NHS, and that makes it extra interesting reading at this time, when the NHS is being eroded.

One thing I will say… if you have phobias about biting insects, there’s a whole chapter you might want to skip which discusses scabies, lice, etc. It really made me feel itchy — I even had a nightmare about it afterwards, because this is one subject that still makes me feel rather anxious. I suspect the descriptions of some of the scabies experiments would make anyone feel itchy! So, reader beware on that front.

Overall, I found it a surprisingly quick read, and definitely fascinating.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – The Virtues of Underwear

Posted May 11, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Virtues of Underwear

The Virtues of Underwear: Modesty, Flamboyance and Filth

by Nina Edwards

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 285
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Laced with illustrations of undergarments both prosaic and exotic, a global exposƩ of the hidden meaning of knickers, lingerie, and everything in between.

This book unravels the intimate narratives woven into the fabric of our most personal garments. From the first loincloths to the intricate layers of shapewear, the narrative explores the concealed world of underwear as a silent communicator of individual desire and societal affiliation. As an indicator of the pulse of fashion, underwear has evolved from minimalism to intricate designs with new materials. Beyond its role in denying our corporeal nature, underwear safeguards and exposes, reflecting our innermost desires and past experiences.

From clean underclothing resisting carnal urges to the protective embrace of fabric, this book illuminates the profound, often hidden stories told by the garments beneath our outer layers. It rewards the reader with historical insights into both womenā€™s and menā€™s underwear and global cultures of dress.

If I look back at reading Nina Edwards’ The Virtues of Underwear, it’s hard to say quite what I took from it. I definitely found it interesting and a fun read, but it feels like the information was a bit badly structured — I wouldn’t know where to turn in the book to follow-up on and remind myself about something, even though the chapters are loosely themed. That can be fascinating to read (and it’s probably like talking to me, let’s be honest), but it makes it hard to have a structured idea of what I think of it, too.

I think it’d be a good read for a broad history of underwear and how people have felt about it, and how it’s changed over time (both the underwear worn and the attitudes toward it). I think it’s less good if you want a reference work to refer to about the history, though, because I think it’s more interested in the attitudes that informed choices of underwear, as the subtitle (“Modesty, Flamboyance and Filth”) indicates. I enjoyed it.

It has a pretty good references section, and some interesting images included, including e.g. cartoons that mention underwear, which can be very revealing about prevailing attitudes.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Roads to Rome

Posted May 6, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Roads to Rome

The Roads to Rome

by Catherine Fletcher

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 400
Rating: one-star
Synopsis:

Inspired by original research and filled with color and drama, this is an exploration of two thousand years of history as seen through one the greatest imperial networks ever built.

"All roads lead to Romeā€ is a medieval proverb, but it's also true: today's European roads still follow the networks of the ancient empireā€”and these ancient roads continue to grip our modern imaginations as a physical manifestation of Romeā€™s extraordinary greatness.

Over the two thousand years since they were first built, these roads have been walked by crusaders and pilgrims, liberators and dictators, but also by tourists and writers, refugees and artists. As channels of trade and travelā€”and routes for conquest and creativityā€”Catherine Fletcher reveals how these roads forever transformed the cultures, and intertwined the fates, of a vast panoply of people across Europe and beyond.

The Roads to Rome is a magnificent journey into a past that remains intimately connected to our present. Traveling from Scotland to CƔdiz to Istanbul and back to Rome, the reader meanders through a series of nations and empires that have risen and fallen. Along the way, we encounter spies, bandits, scheming innkeepers, a Byzantine noblewoman on the run, young aristocrats on their Grand Tour, a conquering Napoleon, John Keats, the Shelleys, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and even Mussolini on his motorbike.

Reflecting on his own walk on the Appian Way, Charles Dickens observed that here is "a history in every stone that strews the ground.ā€ Based on vibrant original research, this is the first narrative history to tell the full story of life on the roads that lead to Rome.

Catherine Fletcher’sĀ The Roads to Rome was a miss for me. It took me months to read, slowly, because something about the style or content was just completely undigestible for me — I literally couldn’t remember what I’d just read, more than half the time. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly it is about it, but I just couldn’t retain any of it. Take this with a pinch of salt: maybe it’s just me.

Ostensibly, the subject is fascinating to me, but I think part of the problem is the format: it’s partly Fletcher’s own travelogue and thoughts about her own travel, about which I couldn’t possibly care less. The history gets unspooled in disconnected snippets, surrounded by her comments on her hotels and train trips. Yawn.

It also moves from discussing the Roman Empire toward more modern stuff, which… if I could retain any of it, would fill a gap in my knowledge about Fascist Italy, but I doubt I’ll remember.

All in all, should probably have just not finished it. Oh well.

Rating: 1/5

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Review – Who Owns This Sentence?

Posted April 29, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 6 Comments

Review – Who Owns This Sentence?

Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs

by David Bellos, Alexandre Montagu

Genres: Non-fiction, History
Pages: 384
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Who Owns This Sentence? looks at how throughout history, principled arguments, greed, and opportunism have ensured copyright's ascendency, and unveils those who are behind a phenomenon that has faced little public debate.

David Bellos and Alexandre Montagu’sĀ Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs is surprisingly readable, for a book on a subject that could be incredibly dry. It helps that they split things down into plenty of chapters, and take one or two examples at a time — they’re quite thorough in discussing the development of each successive law and expansion to law, but the chunks are pretty bitesize for the most part, and the tone is fairly casual.

If you are pro copyright without limit including for corporations, then you probably won’t enjoy the general tone they take, pointing out multiple times (and in multiple ways) that the argument that copyright gives people a livelihood and fosters creativity isn’t a universal truth (people will often create without financial incentives) and that the laws anyway aren’t focused on providing that (you wouldn’t need lifetime + 70 years just for that).

Their argument is that far too much stuff is tied up in copyright in a way that hampers creativity and the sharing of knowledge, and they make a fair case for it, especially when it’s clear that a bare handful of companies own almost all of it anyway, and the net result is that the rich keep on getting richer and richer — based on the hard work of others who are often dead.

That said, it is a fairly opinionated account, so if you want a dispassionate rundown of what copyright is, you don’t want this book.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Sheeplands

Posted April 23, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – Sheeplands

Sheeplands: How Sheep Shaped Wales and the World

by Alan Marshall

Genres: History, Non-fiction
Pages: 256
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Human civilisation was not just created by humans: we had the help of many creatures, and foremost among these were sheep. From Argentina to Australia and from Mesopotamia to Mongolia, just about every country with hills and meadows has adopted and then developed sheep farming as a way of living. And in Wales in particular, sheep played a central role in shaping landscape and culture.

Sheeplands outlines the journeys taken by some of these sheep as they voyaged across the world, both by themselves and with human shepherds, from the earliest human settlements to the present day. Along the way, Alan Marshall paints vivid portraits of the roles sheep have played in the development of the modern world, in times of peace and war, and describes how our sheeplands might continue to influence Wales and the wider world in future years.

Alan Marshall’sĀ Sheeplands is, as it says, a history of Wales (and the wider world) through the lens of sheep and sheep-farming. This isn’t trivial: farming has been very important over the years, and the development of farming techniques, breeds of sheep and ways of transporting the sheep have been vital in the economy, war, colonisation, and everyday lives. I definitely appreciated a history that kept coming back to Wales, specifically, and from a very pro-Welsh point of view.

However… the problem is, the book doesn’t have numbered references, just a list of sources in the back, making it very difficult to follow up a particular anecdote and reference it. Sometimes something is stated as sheer fact when it sounds like mere theory, and sometimes the flippant easy tone elides the author’s lack of knowledge on a subject (“Homer” didn’t “scribe into text” anything, folks; Homer quite possibly never existed — it’s all more complicated than that). Sometimes that doesn’t affect the underlying point, and it didn’t in the case of this example. But. What about inaccuracies in the stuff IĀ don’t have personal knowledge of? How can I tell apart flippancy, opinion, and fact, without proper sourcing?

I know it’s meant for a popular audience, but that shouldn’t mean you put yourself beyond fact-checking. Adding numbered sources doesn’t interrupt the flow for someone who is reading very casually, and allows anyone to look up the source for more information if they’re curious, sceptical, etc.

I did also find that I wasn’t so keen on the personal interjections about the author and his son Shelley. It’s cute, but it doesn’t really add to the narrative for us to be told what the author’s six-year-old son thinks about a given fact or location.

So… there were definitely things I enjoyed about the reading experience, don’t get me wrong, but it did also leave a lot to be desired in other ways.

Rating: 3/5

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