Adam LeBor
Aftershocks of the Risorgimento
Jerusalem: The Biography
By Simon Sebag Montefiore
Weidenfeld and Nicholson 638pp £25 order from our bookshop
Jerusalem is much more than a narrative account of the many incarnations of our holiest and most contested city. It is a dazzling historical encyclopaedia that brings alive the world of the three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – that have ruled the city almost from its birth millennia ago to the present day. Its splendid historical cast includes scheming kings and manipulative queens, bloodthirsty warlords and genocidal emperors, wild-eyed prophets and alluring harlots.
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
'The authors do not shrink from spelling out the scale of the killings when the Rhodesians made long-distance raids on guerrilla camps in Mozambique and Zambia.'
Xan Smiley on how Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/what-the-secret-agent-saw
'Thirkell was a product of her time and her class. For her there are no sacred cows, barring those that win ribbons at the Barchester Agricultural.'
The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me