Christopher Lee
Ships Hoping to Pass in the Night
The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943
By Richard Woodman
John Murray 800pp £30
DURING THE SECOND World War some 30,000 British merchant seamen died in the Battle of the Atlantic - most of them before the end of 1943. Even that figure may be on the low side: the Registrar-General of British Shipping did not know how many sailors had died ashore of their wounds.
The shipping companies were not much help. When a merchant ship was torpedoed, the lucky survivors took to the lifeboats and rah. The minute they dld so, most of them had their wages stopped: in the view of the majority of shipping lines, sailors in cork life belts were no
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
Under its longest-serving editor, Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair was that rare thing – a New York society magazine that published serious journalism.
@PeterPeteryork looks at what Carter got right.
Peter York - Deluxe Editions
Peter York: Deluxe Editions - When the Going Was Good: An Editor’s Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines by Graydon Carter
literaryreview.co.uk
Henry James returned to America in 1904 with three objectives: to see his brother William, to deliver a series of lectures on Balzac, and to gather material for a pair of books about modern America.
Peter Rose follows James out west.
Peter Rose - The Restless Analyst
Peter Rose: The Restless Analyst - Henry James Comes Home: Rediscovering America in the Gilded Age by Peter Brooks...
literaryreview.co.uk
Vladimir Putin served his apprenticeship in the KGB toward the end of the Cold War, a period during which Western societies were infiltrated by so-called 'illegals'.
Piers Brendon examines how the culture of Soviet spycraft shaped his thinking.
Piers Brendon - Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll
Piers Brendon: Tinker, Tailor, Sleeper, Troll - The Illegals: Russia’s Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West by Shaun Walker
literaryreview.co.uk