Joseph O'Neill

One Tory Island Story

The Faber Book of English History in Verse

By

Faber & Faber 445pp £12.95 order from our bookshop

Poets of Bulgaria

By

Forest Books 92pp £6.95 order from our bookshop

Poets make lousy historians. This is because poetry and history, as Schopenhauer aphorised, are antithetical. Poets are surpassed only by politicians in their exploitative relationship with history. Politicians are keenly aware that persuading the people to vote for them is invariably a matter of persuading them to adopt a particular analysis of the past. Consequently, they do not hesitate fraudulently to manipulate the past to their own advantage. Anyone who still believes in a disinterested version of history is therefore unlikely to find it in The Faber Book of English History in Verse, edited by the Secretary of State for Education and Science.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'Her favourite design included a body in the shape of a horse, with a steam engine inside ... The passenger would t… ,
    • Sign up to our email newsletter below! Get free articles, highlights from the archive, and chances to win theatre… ,
    • RT : Founded in 1979, is a trusted independent source for reviews of new books across a variety of genres. A… ,
    • RT : Here we are - "Shelf Indulgence" by Ed Potten, a wonderful read, well worth your time: @Lit_Review,
    • 'Like going to a party hoping to get away as quickly as politeness allowed and at 4am finding myself still engrosse… ,
    • 'Neville never shed his sense of being the junior, and perhaps least-deserving Chamberlain.' From the archive, Mic… ,
    • 'The erecting and immediate destruction of a series of straw men rather detracts from what is for the most part an… ,
    Follow Us