REVIEWS

RECOMMENDED READING
THE LUFTWAFFE IN
COLOUR: THE VICTORY
YEARS, 1939-1942
CHRISTOPHE CONY,
JEAN-LOUIS ROBA
Theres no shortage of colourised
images from World War II. Some are
KING CNUT
AND THE VIKING CONQUEST OF ENGLAND 1016
Author: WB Bartlett Publisher: Amberley Price: 20 Released: Out now
CNUT DIDNT JUST DIP HIS TOES IN THE TIDE, HE INVADED ENGLAND 50 YEARS BEFORE WILLIAM
good, transporting us to those dark Ask the man in the street how many times as well as doing what he could in later life to
days of world history, others are England has been successfully invaded and hell atone for the judicious murders of his early
over-saturated and cartoonish, diminishing the raw realism reply, Twice. The Romans and the Normans. life, which had made his grasp on the crown
of the unadulterated photograph on which they are based. Ask a historian, particularly one specialising more secure. The book is thorough in its
Its sometimes easy to forget that genuine colour images in constitutional history, and hell add a third: exploration of the man and his time, although
from the period do exist. The Luftwaffe In Colour collects William and Marys invasion in 1688. a little on the bloodless side. This is no fault
300 such pictures from magazines and private collections, Theyre all wrong. There have been at least of the author, but rather inherent in the limited
which together tell the story of the evolution of one of the five successful invasions of England. These contemporary sources mainly chronicles
worlds most feared air forces, from its pre-war incarnation three, plus the Anglo-Saxons slowly carving an and charters that do not lend themselves to
as a training organisation to the height of its success England separate from Britain and then, 50 rounded character portraits. Later, Norse sagas
during the middle years of the conflict. years before the one date in English history add colour but the careful historian, and Bartlett
everyone kno
GREAT BRITISH in what theyd
ECCENTRICS 150 years.
SD TUCKER This long-o
An inclination towards invasions tha
eccentricity has, for a long time, the reign of E
been considered something thelred, and
quintessentially British. Whether finally succee
its a fair perception or not, his homeland
and how we became such an name is invar
apparent bastion of peculiarity appellation,
is open to debate, but thats not what Great British England, whe
Eccentrics is about. Instead, SD Tuckers book is a his adult life a
celebratory whos who of Britains more colourful, buried, he is
peculiar and outlandish characters. fame as a co
Youll meet anarchic aristocrats, archetypal cat-ladies, the man who
visionary inventors and occultists, as well as familiar. later. Bartlett
Tuckers concise biographies paint Britain as a breeding redress that b
ground for those that feel most comfortable when good job of de
diverging from the norm. remarkable k
together a se
AMERICAN encompassin
REVOLUTIONS, A Norway and m
CONTINENTAL HISTORY, As a sea p
1750-1804 pretensions,
ALAN TAYLOR he could to e
As the hectoring rhetoric during makers of his
the recent US election reminded of the church
everyone, the USA is a patchwork
of ethnic diversity. The thing is,
its been that way for more than
300 years. Ever since its indigenous population was THIS LONG-OVERDUE
first forced from its lands by white European settlers.
Its this inconvenient truth that lies at the heart of Alan BOOK COVERS THE
Taylors new book about the origins and aftermath of the
American Revolution or what he more accurately calls VIKING INVASIONS
the American Revolutions.
To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence, THAT FIRST CRIPPLED
all men might have been created equal, but as Taylor
explains, many men (and fewer women) would find AND THEN ENDED THE
equality in Americas post-revolutionary order. The
subsequent drive west was described by Thomas REIGN OF ENGLANDS
Jefferson as an expanding empire of liberty. In the
event, though, it proved anything but. This book is a WORST KING EVER,
fascinating and timely reminder of the truth behind the
United States of Americas troubled and bloody birth. THELRED
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