Anthony Sattin
Monster on the March
Don’t be put off by the beginning of James Palmer’s first book. After a creaky start, it gets very much better as the story develops. The same cannot be said of his subject. The bloody baron of the title was Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. It’s not a name many of us will have heard before, although he did have a walk-on part in Peter Hopkirk’s Setting the East Ablaze. But if there is any sense left in the book world, many more of us will know about him through this remarkably accomplished debut.
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'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
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency
'We have all twenty-nine of her Barsetshire novels, and whenever a certain longing reaches critical mass we read all twenty-nine again, straight through.'
Patricia T O'Conner on her love for Angela Thirkell. (£)
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad