Tag: non-fiction

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 – 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 children’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’s 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’ 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 about 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 exposé 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 women’s and men’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 – Blind Spot

Posted May 7, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Blind Spot

Blind Spot: Exploring and Educating on Blindness

by Maud Rowell

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 106
Series: Inklings
Synopsis:

Two million people in the UK live with sight loss, and many more worldwide. Yet the general population knows very little about the day-to-day life of the blind, who must move through a world not designed with them in mind, from city planning and technology, to pop culture and education. What’s more, blind people often fall off the pages of our history books, despite being some of the most prolific figures in their fields.

In Blind Spot, Maud Rowell challenges readers to think differently about what they may take for granted, carrying them on a whirlwind tour through time and space - from Japanese tube stations to the 18th century museum - to showcase what the world looks like for someone who does not see. She offers practical insights based on her own experiences, as well as spotlighting incredible blind pioneers - explorers, artists, scientists, and more - through history and the current day, unearthed through her own research and interviews.

In educating us about the realities of sight loss, Maud shows us how to be aware of our own blind spots, offering the knowledge needed to become better, more tolerant members of diverse communities. Society needs to support everyone - it's time we caught up.

A while back, I was a volunteer for the RNIB (that’s the Royal National Institute for the Blind, in the UK), which means I have a bit more awareness of the accessibility options for the blind in the UK (and in general) than most. Even so, I was trained by a sighted person, and all the volunteers I knew were fully sighted. Maud Rowell’s Blind Spot makes me wonder what, in consequence, we missed.

If you’re curious about accessibility for blind people (not just in the UK, but also in Japan), about experiencing art and museums as a blind person, being a visual artist while blind, and lost blind role models, this is definitely one for you.

It’s short, like all books in the Inklings series, and thus it can’t possibly be exhaustive — but it’s a window into that world, nonetheless.

Rating: 4/5

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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 Rome” is a medieval proverb, but it's also true: today's European roads still follow the networks of the ancient empire—and these ancient roads continue to grip our modern imaginations as a physical manifestation of Rome’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 travel—and routes for conquest and creativity—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 CĂĄdiz 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.” 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’s 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 – Mood Machine

Posted May 1, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Mood Machine

Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist

by Liz Pelly

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 288
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

An unsparing investigation into Spotify’s origins and influence on music, weaving unprecedented reporting with incisive cultural criticism, illuminating how streaming is reshaping music for listeners and artists alike.

Drawing on over one hundred interviews with industry insiders, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Mood Machine takes us to the inner workings of today’s highly consolidated record business, showing what has changed as music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized, and autoplayed.

Building on her years of wide-ranging reporting on streaming, music journalist Liz Pelly details the consequences of the Spotify model by examining both sides of what the company calls its two-sided marketplace: the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all. The music business is notoriously opaque, but here Pelly lifts the veil on major stories like streaming services filling popular playlists with low-cost stock music and the rise of new payola-like practices.

For all of the inequities exacerbated by streaming, Pelly also finds hope in chronicling the artist-led fight for better models, pointing toward what must be done collectively to revalue music and create sustainable systems. A timely exploration of a company that has become synonymous with music, Mood Machine will change the way you think about and listen to music.

Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist is quite the antidote to the optimism of Glenn McDonald’s You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song. Of the two, McDonald’s is based on personal experience but necessarily also very close association with Spotify (and most likely some NDAs). Liz Pelly’s book is based on a lot of varied sources, both official and unofficial, and from artists affected by Spotify as well (something which McDonald doesn’t touch on at all).

In the end, because it’s thorough, Mood Machine is also repetitive. The problems with Spotify at each turn are essentially the same: it was never about music, only about something that could be used to deliver ads packaged acceptably; privacy concerns; issues about artist remuneration; the seeding of playlists with throwaway tracks commissioned by Spotify (something which Glenn McDonald specifically denies, by the way) in order to pay fewer royalties… etc, etc. You can get the gist by reading any good reporting on Spotify.

All in all, it mostly solidifies my intent to continue doing what I already do: supporting artists directly wherever possible, even if I discover their music via sources like Spotify or YouTube where I can listen free/supported by ads/for a small subscription. Which is to say, despite the dramatic blurb, it didn’t change the way I think about and listen to music; it isn’t that revelatory, if you’ve had your eyes and ears open.

…Now if anyone can tell where to buy Rabbitology’s “Bog Bodies (dorm demo)” track without paying for it on Amazon, that’d be great.

Rating: 4/5

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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’s 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 – You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song

Posted April 24, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song

You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song: How Streaming Changes Music

by Glenn McDonald

Genres: Non-fiction
Pages: 236
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

For the first time in history, almost every song ever recorded is available instantly. Everywhere.

This book charts what music’s dazzling digital revolution really means for fans and artists. As a former data guru at the world’s biggest streaming service, Spotify, Glenn McDonald reveals:

- What the tech giants know about you
- How they serve up your next song
- Whether fans can cheat the algorithm
- Whether jazz is dead and ASMR is the new punk
- Your chances of becoming a rock star

Having analysed the streams of 500 million people, McDonald explores what the data tells us about music and about ourselves, from the secrets of russelÄter in Norway to Christmas in the Philippines.

Statistically, you have not yet heard your lifetime’s favourite song. This book will take you on a voyage of discovery through music’s fast-flowing new waters.

10 bonus playlists of wonder included!

In a way, it’s really hard for me to know how to rate/review Glenn McDonald’s You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song, because he could tell me that Spotify has an arts-and-crafts department just for employees and I’d have to believe him — and when it comes to math (as when he discusses Spotify’s payment model), anyone can blind me with science, I’m afraid.

What I can say is that McDonald clearly has a passion for music, and believes that streaming is fair, equitable, and good for music going forward — or at least not worse for it than any of the other models we’ve had of music getting into people’s hands. He’s fascinated by the diversity of music, and eager for Spotify and other services to bring that music to people and let them try it.

In some ways, I’d rather he stuck to that part, because when he talks about the revenue models etc, it’s always with the caveat that he had nothing to do with that. As such, it’s all very back-of-the-napkin. He also outright contradicts some of the reporting about Spotify (e.g. that they commissioned some music for a flat fee to fill up playlists, so they don’t have to pay out when those songs are listened to) where I don’t know who is right or wrong at all. My instinct is that McDonald is definitely working hard to protect Spotify and cast it in the right light, which seems to be out of love, and may or may not be truly accurate.

I’m now reading Mood Machine, by Liz Pelly, and I get the sense that McDonald’s book is a bit more like a PR machine (even if he doesn’t work for Spotify now) and Liz Pelly’s is more accurate reporting.

Rating: 2/5

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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’s 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 I 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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Review – A History of Britain in Ten Enemies

Posted April 18, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – A History of Britain in Ten Enemies

A History of Britain in Ten Enemies

by Terry Deary

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

Ah, Britain. So special. The greatest nation on earth, some say. And we did it all on our own. Didn’t we?

Well, as it happens Britannia got its name from the Romans, and for the past two centuries we have been ruled by Germans. But then, as Horrible Histories author Terry Deary argues, nations and their leaders are defined by the enemies they make.

The surprisingly sadistic Boudica would be forgotten if it weren't for the Ninth Legion, Elizabeth I a minor royal without the Spanish Armada, and Churchill an opposition windbag without the Nazis. Britain loves its heroes so much we have been known to pickle them in brandy to keep them fresh. And after all, every nation sometimes needs a bit of unifying Blitz spirit (although in an ideal world, we wouldn’t have accidentally let Corporal Hitler go in the first place).

The British have a proud history of choosing their enemies, from the Romans to the Germans. You might even say those enemies made Britain what it is today.

A History of Britain in Ten Enemies is an entertaining gallop through history that will have you laughing as you find out what they didn't teach you in school.

Terry Deary’s A History of Britain in Ten Enemies is pretty much what you’d expect of someone who wrote for Horrible Histories: flippant, irreverent, willing to be sarcastic about everything, and… almost completely unsourced in a gossipy, opinionated account of history. It’s especially jarring when what he writes is contradictory to something I know is a prominent theory (e.g. that the building of wooden henges wasn’t replaced by the building of stone ones, as Deary suggests, but contemporaneous with them and linked to them: wood for the living, stone for the dead).

At that point I settled in to read it more or less for the tone and anecdotes, and to take everything with a heaping of salt. Each chapter does have a couple of references, but since they’re unnumbered and there’s only 2-3, it’s not very convincing.

If you’re just interested in a casual read, it’s probably perfect; for me, the tone didn’t quite land, and it turns out I get really irritated by such flagrant lack fo sourcing.

Rating: 2/5

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