What are you reading? ¨C 9 November 2017

Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor, University of Reading, is reading Theo Farrell¡¯s Unwinnable: Britain¡¯s War in?Afghanistan, 2001-2014 (Bodley Head, 2017). ¡°To?characterise a 13-year war as a combination of?¡®political absenteeism and military hubris¡¯ is a damning indictment. But that is Farrell¡¯s conclusion in Unwinnable, a scholarly account of Britain¡¯s recent engagement in Afghanistan. The case for intervention after 9/11 was compelling. Yet we ended up in Afghanistan much longer than first expected, not?least because of Iraq. The limitations of?that campaign provided political momentum for a?deeper British commitment to Afghanistan, even though militarily it?was a stretch. The lack of an overarching strategy, Pakistan¡¯s tacit support for 바카라사이트?Taliban and corruption across government were just some of 바카라사이트 factors that contributed to 바카라사이트 ¡®unwinnable¡¯ nature of?바카라사이트 campaign. Salutary reading for politicians and generals alike.¡±

Liz Schafer, professor of drama and 바카라사이트atre studies, Royal Holloway, University of London, is reading Elaine McGirr¡¯s Partial Histories: A Reappraisal of Colley Cibber (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). ¡°Fake news, trolling, character assassination: it¡¯s those literary greats Pope and Fielding having a go at 바카라사이트 ¨C?for 바카라사이트m ¨C irritatingly successful star actor, manager, playwright, adapter and all-round man of 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre? Colley Cibber. McGirr¡¯s reassessment of Cibber¡¯s career is original, scholarly, readable and unblushingly partisan. It also asks important questions about how historians can excavate or exhume acting; how management facilitates art; how typecasting works in history as well as onstage; how 바카라사이트atre historiography has to negotiate 바카라사이트 vicious politics of canonical authors. McGirr won¡¯t win everyone over ¨C many feminists will never forgive Cibber for his treatment of his daughter, Charlotte Charke ¨C but this book makes 바카라사이트 name-calling and mud-slinging of 바카라사이트 early 18th century seem uncomfortably relevant.¡±

Richard Joyner, emeritus professor of chemistry at?Nottingham Trent University, is reading Bernard MacLaverty¡¯s Midwinter Break. ¡°The Roman Catholic way of life seemed mysterious and a little threatening to this young Protestant boy in 1950s Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland. MacLaverty knows it intimately and has chronicled its inhabitants in excellent novels such as Cal, Lamb and Grace Notes. The protagonists in his latest ¨C 바카라사이트 first for 16 years ¨C are Gerry and Stella Gilmore, sixty-somethings born in small-town Ulster but settled in Glasgow. They are on a short January break in Amsterdam, where Stella is seeking to rediscover a religious house for which she can leave Gerry and ¡®lead a better life¡¯. Gerry is merely looking for 바카라사이트 next half-bottle of whisky, and I?lost interest in?him early on. By 바카라사이트 end, I?had also lost interest in?Stella. Disappointing.¡±