Richard Overy
A City Up In Arms
A FEW WEEKS ago I made my first visit to Warsaw. It looks much like any other Central European city: an inner town of old squares, palaces and cobbled marketplaces , and an outer ring of modern high-rise blocks and advertising hoardings, with the Palace of Culture, the one obtrusive piece of Stalin Gothic to remind visitors that Warsaw was a 'people's democracy' in the Soviet bloc for forty-five years after the end of the Second World War.
The unwary traveller would take it all at face value, yet the whole inner city, lined with sombre, dark streets, narrow alleyways and courtyards, is a fraud. In 1944, the city was razed to the ground as comprehensively as any in the path of Dark Age barbarians or the Golden
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma