Earlier this year we gave six reading groups the opportunity to read the titles shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2014. You can read a selection of their reviews below.
Empires of the Dead, David Crane
Though dressed as a historical biography, this book is also a chapter in the delicate ongoing tale of humanity, and of our need and compulsion to assert and affirm it – in this instance through gratefully respecting and honouring those who both sought and were sent to defend and protect it with their own lives.
Crane writes with mindful passion, and it has been a pleasure reading this (sadly largely) forgotten story. A highly recommended read for those fresh to the field, as well as seasoned historians.
Elin Angharad
h3. Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography,
Charles Moore
Charles Moore has written an extensively referenced unbiased, analytical account of Margaret Thatcher’s life from birth to end of the Falklands War. It details a social history of the time adding layers that enhance and give depth to the more political thread. It details from where ideas came that later informed policy. It shows that that the path to success was long and had to be worked for, as is true for the majority of us in life.
It is an interesting, easy and enjoyable read. I would recommend it for it’s social and political history.
Sarah Jane Taylor
Return of a King, William Dalrymple
Return of a King by William Dalrymple was a worthy selection for the Samuel Johnson Prize Shortlist – at no stage of reading was I disappointed. The intricacies of Afghan tribal warfare, family blood feuds, doomed Royal ascensions and Anglo-Russian political espionage were painted in stunning detail and clarity by William Dalrymple.
Ignorance, superiority complexes and failures of leadership abound among the British Officer classes – often leading to fatal consequences. Sir Alexander Burnes, a man of ill-repute still in Afghanistan receives a more considerate view in Dalrymple’s text but he is one of only a few British to escape with his reputation enhanced or softened.
Darren John
The Pike, Lucy Hughes-Hallett
I picked up this biography knowing nothing of its subject, Gabriele d’Annunzio. It transpires that in his lifetime d’Annunzio was very well known and a truly successful writer of novels, plays and poetry. He worked on his own cult of celebrity and notoriety and had many lovers and mistresses, all of whom he would treat callously and cast aside when he felt that someone more exciting had caught his attention. A small and unattractive man, his fame and charm seemed enough to ensnare numerous beautiful women.
I found the character of d’Annunzio odious and repellent but Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s writing is very well crafted, engaging and readable. This is a book that I would recommend to anyone interested in the history of the time as d’Annunzio’s story is the backdrop to the rise of fascism in Italy and the rise of Mussolini.
Kate Hillesdon
Under Another Sky, Charlotte Higgins
An amusing non fiction work about Roman Britain written in a way that made me think. I was surprised to find a shortlisted prize book to be so readable and approachable. There is no question that this is an accurate work of serious Roman studies, but she populated it with such rounded characters that it made it accessible to an uninitiated reader as myself.
It would have been nicer to have had colour pictures and a colour cover. I feel it misrepresents the contents of the book and would maybe get it left on the shelves away from the browsing shopper or library reader.
Anne Sharpe
