Mary Kenny
De Valera In the Dock
The Emergency: Neutral Ireland 1939–45
By Brian Girvin
Macmillan 385pp £25
There is an anecdote – apocryphal, but illuminating – about three Irish aircrew during the Battle of Britain. The pilot is from Cork, the co-pilot from Tipperary and the navigator from Derry. ‘Say what you like about De Valera,’ shouts the Corkman as the firepower whizzes around him during an aerial battle, ‘but at least he kept us out of the war!’
The story illustrates a significant Irish capacity for ambivalence: on the one hand, the majority of the Irish people were quite solidly behind their leader, Eamon de Valera, in committing to neutrality during the Second World War. On the other, people were – and remain – proud of the number
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
Twitter Feed
It wasn’t until 1825 that Pepys’s diary became available for the first time. How it was eventually decrypted and published is a story of subterfuge and duplicity.
Kate Loveman tells the tale.
Kate Loveman - Publishing Pepys
Kate Loveman: Publishing Pepys
literaryreview.co.uk
Arthur Christopher Benson was a pillar of the Edwardian establishment. He was supremely well connected. As his newly published diaries reveal, he was also riotously indiscreet.
Piers Brendon compares Benson’s journals to others from the 20th century.
Piers Brendon - Land of Dopes & Tories
Piers Brendon: Land of Dopes & Tories - The Benson Diaries: Selections from the Diary of Arthur Christopher Benson by Eamon Duffy & Ronald Hyam (edd)
literaryreview.co.uk
Of the siblings Gwen and Augustus John, it is Augustus who has commanded most attention from collectors and connoisseurs.
Was he really the finer artist, asks Tanya Harrod, or is it time Gwen emerged from her brother’s shadow?
Tanya Harrod - Cut from the Same Canvas
Tanya Harrod: Cut from the Same Canvas - Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell
literaryreview.co.uk