Raymond Seitz
Milestones of Diplomacy
Summits: Six Meetings that Shaped the Twentieth Century
By David Reynolds
llen Lane / The Penguin Press 496pp £25
Summits make such a good topic for historical review that it’s a surprise no one has done it before. It took the felicitous convergence of David Reynolds (the noted Cambridge professor), Blakeway Productions and the commissioning arm of the BBC to launch the project. The television series covers three summits: Munich in 1938, Vienna in 1961, and Geneva in 1985. But Reynolds recognised that three summits do not a book make, so he added three more: Yalta in 1945, Moscow in 1972, and Camp David in 1978. The result is an anthology of top-level meetings which are milestones in twentieth-century diplomacy.
Summitry as a form of political art is a relatively recent phenomenon. The 1520 encounter between Henry VIII and François I on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and Napoleon’s meeting with Alexander I at Tilsit in 1807, qualify as antecedents. But as a general rule, heads of state
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
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
As Apple has grown, one country above all has proved able to supply the skills and capacity it needs: China.
What compromises has Apple made in its pivot east? @carljackmiller investigates.
Carl Miller - Return of the Mac
Carl Miller: Return of the Mac - Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee
literaryreview.co.uk
We are saddened to hear of the death of Edmund White.
We've lifted the paywall on Richard Davenport-Hines's 2014 review of White's Paris memoir.
Richard Davenport-Hines - Scenes from a Literary Life
Richard Davenport-Hines: Scenes from a Literary Life - Inside a Pearl: My Years in Paris by Edmund White
literaryreview.co.uk