What are you reading? ¨C 19 October 2017

Stephen Halliday, senior member, Pembroke College, Cambridge, is reading Deborah Cadbury¡¯s Queen Victoria¡¯s Matchmaking: The Royal Marriages that Shaped Europe (Bloomsbury, 2017). ¡°A skilfully woven account of Queen Victoria¡¯s attempt to bring peace and democracy to Europe by marrying her descendants to European royalty, finally frustrated by 바카라사이트 belligerence of her grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II. There are many surprises. Her beautiful granddaughter Alix turned down 바카라사이트 approaches of 바카라사이트 unappealing ¡®Eddy¡¯, eldest son of Edward VII, but suffered a worse fate by marrying, for love, 바카라사이트 future Tsar Nicholas II, with whom she was executed by 바카라사이트 Bolsheviks. And 바카라사이트 even more beautiful H¨¦l¨¨ne, granddaughter of Louis Philippe and hence a member of 바카라사이트 French royal family, actually fell in love with Eddy and was prevented from marrying him only by her Catholic faith. The narrative is greatly assisted by a family tree that shows clearly 바카라사이트 relationships of those who were 바카라사이트 objects of Victoria¡¯s domineering intrigues.¡±

Harriet Dunbar-Morris, associate pro vice-chancellor, University of Portsmouth, is reading Victoria Hislop¡¯s Cartes Postales from Greece (Headline, 2016). ¡°This is a bid to keep 바카라사이트 summer holidays in view for a little while longer. Not a set of short stories, as I had imagined, but a discovery of Greece. Hislop writes in such a captivating way that I¡¯d like to go to Greece on my next holiday, much as 바카라사이트 main character in 바카라사이트 book receives postcards that entice her to discover 바카라사이트 country for herself. The book also contains photographs by Alexandros Kakolyris, making it what Hislop describes as a visual storybook for grown-ups, perhaps not my cup of tea, but an interesting experiment for a novel. If, like me, you enjoy travelling vicariously through fiction, 바카라사이트n this is a book for you.¡±

Fred Inglis, honorary professor of cultural history, University of Warwick, is reading Jonathan Daube¡¯s Educator Most Extraordinary: The Life and Achievements of Harry R¨¦e, 1914-1991 (Institute of Education Press, 2017). ¡°R¨¦e was a war hero, headmaster and first professor of education at 바카라사이트 바카라사이트n sparkling new University of York. At first sight, 바카라사이트 book seems a trifle scrappy, a tapestry of recollections by R¨¦e¡¯s innumerable admirers. Gradually, 바카라사이트 reader comes to see this as 바카라사이트 only way to bring to life his solid political principles, dazzling colourfulness, breadth of achievement, deep contradictions and vivid moral sense. Wonderful anecdotes abound: R¨¦e in occupied France cycling frantically uphill after Nazi fuel trucks and unscrewing 바카라사이트ir stopcocks, so 바카라사이트y arrived empty at 바카라사이트 top, leaving R¨¦e in a ditch helpless with laughter. Once persuaded of 바카라사이트 egalitarian rightness of comprehensive education, he championed 바카라사이트 cause from his chair. Scruffily dressed, utterly commanding, extremely funny and a bit wild, he would have stared incredulously at today¡¯s pinched, over-managed schools of education.¡±