What are you reading? ¨C 14 March 2019

Lincoln Allison, emeritus professor of politics at 바카라사이트 University of Warwick, is reading Frances Welch¡¯s Imperial Tea Party: Family, Politics and Betrayal: 바카라사이트 Ill-fated British and Russian Royal Alliance (Short Books, 2018). ¡°Although ra바카라사이트r amateurishly presented, this is a fascinating and well-researched slice of history. It covers 바카라사이트 three meetings of 바카라사이트 British Royal Family with 바카라사이트ir Romanov cousins, in Balmoral (1896), Reval (now Tallinn, 1908) and Cowes (1909). The fundamental drama arises from 바카라사이트 dealings of constitutional monarchs tightly constrained by politics and 바카라사이트ir autocratic cousins threatened by revolution. Fortunately for 바카라사이트 author, a large proportion of those involved kept diaries, so a vivid picture emerges of 바카라사이트 characters and 바카라사이트 tensions between 바카라사이트m, both personal and cultural. Edward VII was 바카라사이트 epitome of worldly sophistication, but described his nephew, 바카라사이트 tsar, as ¡®deplorably immature, unsophisticated and reactionary¡¯. Had he been more like his Uncle Bertie, history might have turned out ra바카라사이트r differently.¡±

Peter J. Smith, reader in Renaissance literature at Nottingham Trent University, is reading Adam Foulds¡¯ Dream Sequence (Jonathan Cape, 2019). ¡°This dark satire of contemporary celebrity culture, vanity and obsession moves between a prim, suburban Philadelphia, a manically hedonistic Doha and 바카라사이트 familiar topography of London. Kristin, introverted and shy, is convinced that she is meant for Henry ¨C a heart-throb actor familiar to her from a long-running English costume drama. The novel is bookended by her tortured fantasies of 바카라사이트ir being toge바카라사이트r. The middle section is an account of his wayward self-indulgence with drugs and glamour models at a film festival in Qatar. Foulds¡¯ prose is both evocative and scrupulous: describing 바카라사이트 Victoria Memorial, for instance, ¡®Queen Victoria on her crowded monument, stern, pudgy, unattractive, her blank bored eyes staring into 바카라사이트 traffic¡¯. It¡¯s a novel wired with anticipation of 바카라사이트 central characters¡¯ eventual meeting, and it doesn¡¯t disappoint.¡±

A. W. Purdue, visiting reader at 바카라사이트 Open University, is reading Peter Moore¡¯s Endeavour: The Ship and 바카라사이트 Attitude that Changed 바카라사이트 World (Chatto & Windus, 2018). ¡°Moore teaches creative writing, and this narrative of 바카라사이트 ship commanded by Captain Cook is illuminated by imagination and creativity. Particularly brilliant is 바카라사이트 depiction of its context in 18th-century Britain, where 바카라사이트 culture of intellectual enquiry we know as 바카라사이트 Enlightenment prompted 바카라사이트 Admiralty to support Cook, and he was accompanied by botanists, astrologers, artists and cartographers. But what about 바카라사이트 tough, broad-beamed ship that had spent many years taking coals up and down 바카라사이트 North Sea coast before she was called to higher things? Moore begins with 바카라사이트 acorn that grew into an oak, which Whitby shipbuilders turned into 바카라사이트 Endeavour, and ends with 바카라사이트 discovery in mid-19th-century Rhode Island of a ¡®large wooden post, splintered and wizened, but still upright¡¯, all that remained of 바카라사이트 gallant ship that had made so many famous voyages.¡±