Richard Davenport-Hines

This is an exploration of the Titanic disaster through the colourful and varied lives of some of the 2000 plus people, passengers and crew, who sailed on her notorious maiden voyage in April 1912. The story has been told so many times, but this is a somewhat different approach that allows us glimpses into the lives of a huge and varied cast of characters from American millionaire industrialists, to poor immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Middle East taking all they had in the world with them in a quest for a new life in the United States promising better economic conditions or freedom from religious or racial persecution. While fascinating in concept, it quite often threatens to become little more than long detailed lists of people and brief details of their backgrounds without much of a narrative structure. The usual range of dramatic, colourful horrific and pathetic incidents that one would expect are present here though, so this has quite a powerful impact in reminding the reader about many aspects of this most famous of maritime disasters.… (altro)

An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo I think you'll either love this book or hate it. If you are English and understand the class system you have a chance of finding out. If you are not English thus whole thing may mystify you.Meticulously documented and annotated throughout, the author sets the scene chapter by chapter before the final drama unfolds. Without the preceding chapters that give the prevailing mores of the times in great detail, I think the scale of this scandal would be lost when looked at from the viewpoint of today's permissive times. The context is everything when dealing with historic events. What shattered the world a hundred years ago would not raise an eyebrow today.Example: In relation prosecuting Ward for living off immoral earnings, which was a put-up job, it was inconceivable at the time that either Christine Keeler or Mandy Rice-Davies could be self actualising females who could decide for themselves who they had sex with. Women having sex outside of marriage with different men at that time could only be, by definition, prostitutes.Rife with contradiction between the Establishment's stated morality and those of its ranking members, the ease of outright lies and their acceptance at all levels within the Establishment, the contrasts could not be clearer. Hypocrisy was and still is the hub of British class culture. The corrupt self-righteous newspapers calling for the blood of minor transgressors still rule the day in that God-forsaken land.Similar in context to the book about the Kray Twins that I read recently, another lid lifted of the filth and depravity of those who make the rules.… (altro)