Review: In the Heart of the Fire, by Dean Koontz
I must be the last person on the planet to discover Dean Koontz, who has sold something like 450,000,000 books. (I’m not making that up.). This one is a novella, part of series about a,…
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Review: Hitler’s Private Library: The Books that Shaped his Life, by Timothy Ryback
There are a few things that Hitler and Stalin shared, despite the obvious differences. Both men began their lives deeply committed to their faith, and considered life as clergymen, before turning on the church. Both…
Review: Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power, by Timothy Ryback
Writing history has one serious problem: how does an author maintain suspense when the outcome is known in advance? Timothy Ryback does this very successfully in Takeover where one can easily imagine another result in…
Review: Dissolution, by Nicholas Binge
What a strange book. It has elements of time travel, but it’s not really a time travel book. Much of it consists of an interrogation taking place we don’t know where in which the interrogator…
Review: Stalin, by Harold Shukman
This is one of a crop of very short biographies of Soviet dictator published in recent years. Here is what I loved about it: Harold Shukman is a well-known academic, an expert on Soviet history….
Israel has had enough of Netanyahu
Public opinion polls in Israel consistently show that Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government cannot win the next election. The parties of the centre and left are consistently polling higher than those of the right. And it’s…
Review: Red Widow, by Alma Katsu
First of all, that’s a great title for a spy thriller. But “Red Widow” is not a great spy thriller. Having spent many hours reading it, I don’t see the point of the story. Not…
Why the Left should support increased defence spending
The Left has a long and proud history of anti-militarism. One cannot help but look back in admiration at the American Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs who went to prison after making an anti-war speech…
Belarus: Time for solidarity
Last week I interviewed Lizaveta Merliak, who runs Salidarnast, a group campaigning in support of the embattled independent trade union movement in Belarus. Liza was an activist in the Belarusian unions who was forced to…
Review: The Crossing Places, by Elly Griffiths
I read best-selling author Griffiths’ latest novel, which involved time travel, and in the end I wasn’t impressed. But I have friends who are really hooked on her crime fiction starring Dr Ruth Galloway, an…