Dress Codes - review

Posted on: 1 October 2021

Is fashion frivolous? Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History acknowledges that it can judged to be, but also shows that it is and has been a serious matter. Whether we want them to or not,...

★★★★☆ (2021)

review

Past Mistakes - review

Posted on: 24 September 2021

Close your eyes and conjure up an image of Christopher Columbus… Did you do it? What did you see? If you are anything like me you will envisage a cheerful little fellow wearing a captains hat,...

★★★★☆ (2020)

review

Augustine - review

Posted on: 10 September 2021

Introduction The tagline for this book could be ‘a biography of an autobiography’ – it conveys a sense of what Robin Lane Fox manages to achieve in his award winning book, an analysis of how one of...

★★★★☆ (2015)

review

About Time - review

Posted on: 10 September 2021

Clocks are about more than just telling the time. At one level this is a statement of the obvious: we all know that the watch you wear is not chosen purely for its practicality as a time-keeping...

★★★★☆ (2021)

review

Thebes - review

Posted on: 2 September 2021

In 371 BCE the Thebans achieved one of the most shocking victories in the history of warfare, by trouncing the previously invincible Spartans at the battle of Luectra despite being outnumbered almost...

★★★★☆ (2020)

review

In Defence of History - review

Posted on: 25 August 2021

I have never knowingly met a post-modernist. Perhaps I have been going to the wrong parties – back in the days when I went to parties. I am keen to meet one. If you are one or can introduce one get in...

★★★★☆ (1997)

review

Castlereagh - review

Posted on: 14 August 2021

Why Bew why now? John Bew’s biography of Robert Stewart (generally known as Viscount Castlereagh, the courtesy title he held most of his adult life) was published ten years ago, which raises the very...

★★★★☆ (2011)

review