Saul David
Lyon’s Share
A World on Fire: An Epic History of Two Nations Divided
By Amanda Foreman
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 814pp £30 order from our bookshop
More than a decade has passed since Amanda Foreman burst onto the literary scene with her prize-winning and bestselling debut, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Since then marriage, children and a move to New York have delayed the follow-up. But it’s been worth the wait because A World on Fire, charting Britain’s pivotal role in the American Civil War, is nothing less than a tour de force.
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In 2017 Jan Morris, who died last week, wrote a paean to George Borrow's 'Wild Wales' – 'the most celebrated book written in English about Wales'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/stanzas-at-the-summit
'She drank a lot of wine and some of the great bottles she savoured are listed here. But her biggest appetite was for love, no doubt fuelled ... by the lack of it in her early childhood.'
Cressida Connolly reviews a new biography of Sybille Bedford.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-romantic-jigsaw
I have just spent a wonderful few minutes re-reading the best book review of the year in my opinion. It's by Piers Brendon in September's issue of @Lit_Review. Beautifully captioned as 'Jack the Lad', Brendon takes Fredrik Logevall's JFK: Vol.I apart! It's a laugh a minute. Ouch!