Allan Mallinson
Ruling the Waves
Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain Great
By Andrew Lambert
Faber & Faber 492pp £20
This is a timely book, in that Britain’s naval future is in debate – or rather, should be in debate. Commentators speak of a ‘sea blindness’ in politicians and opinion formers – an inability to realise the importance, in terms of threat and potential, that the watery covering of the planet represents to an island nation on the edge of Europe and the Atlantic with worldwide economic, social and political interests. After the astonishing, deeply humiliating and profoundly disturbing incident of HMS Cornwall’s sailor-hostages in the Arabian Gulf in 2007, the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, said of the Royal Navy’s reputation: ‘Because [it] is hard won, it is not easily undermined.’ He was, of course, utterly wrong. Not only did that failure – from the very bottom to the very top of the Navy – have grave strategic repercussions, it revealed serious systemic problems that have still not been confronted (for all HMS Cumberland’s recent despatch of Somali pirates).
Andrew Lambert is widely considered to be the country’s foremost naval historian. Admirals is as much a history of the Royal Navy – how the reputation of which the Defence Secretary spoke was indeed hard won – as it is of the remarkable men whose vision and powers of command
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
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm