Laura Hillenbrand’s first book, Seabiscuit, was about the eponymous racehorse whose triumphs lightened the dark days of the Great Depression. Based on meticulous research, the book broadened out into a harrowing – yet heartening – social history of America in the 1930s.

It has taken some time for Hillenbrand to produce her follow-up. This is partly at least because she suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which makes simply getting out of bed, let alone the mammoth task of researching and writing a book, an enormous effort. All the more praise

Literary Review

Feb 2011

Categories

Nigel Jones

Dangers of the Deep

Houses of the Holy

The Hungover Life of Patrick Hamilton

Best of Enemies Worst of Amis

At the Going Down of the Sun

The Potato Peer Who Knew No Fear

Trainspotting

The Gathering Storm

The Most Precocious Premier

Watching the War Go By

Our Man in the City

A Very Modern Battle

Britannia Rules the Waves

Fighting Words

Cool Courage

Blown Away

‘Ordinary Scared Human Beings’

Collective Efforts

Nigel Jones On Five Books On The Great War

In Like Flint

Life on the Ocean Wave

Behind the Wire

Sparks of Humanity

Not What It Seemed