What it was like to be an Ancient Roman by David Long

Following on from What it was like to be a Viking, Blue Peter Award winner David Long takes us to Ancient Rome to discover what life was like there.

Illustrated by Stefano Tambellini, this is a short but all-encompassing introduction to life in Ancient Rome aimed at readers of 9 and over (KS2). It introduces children to the history of Rome, from a group of huts to a sprawling empire, and its many accomplishments of roads and buildings, legal systems and calendars, echoes of which can still be seen today.  They can learn about amphitheatres and bath houses, about life in town or country, what Romans ate, what jobs they would have had, the gods and goddesses they worshiped, and what ultimately led to the Empire's downfall.

An excellent introduction to the Roman world whether to spark an interest in history or back up school lessons.

The Fall of the House of Byron: scandal and seduction in Georgian England by Emily Brand

George Gordon, Lord Byron, has gone down in history for his poetry but also for his reputation as someone 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know'. Lady Caroline Lamb, may have been referring solely to her lover when she said this, but a little investigation into his family history shows that it's an epithet that could have applied to many of his relatives as well.

At the start of the eighteenth century, Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire was home to William, 4th Baron Byron, an amateur composer and artist, and his young wife, France. The house was widely admired, the family fortunes seemed secure. But by 1798 when George inherited the title of sixth baron, the building had become a dilapidated ruin, and the fortune dissipated. 

In the intervening years the family had immersed itself in seemingly one scandal after another; murder, elopement, separation and (above all) the running up of mountainous debts seemed to be almost everyday activities for the Byrons, even the daring sea-adventures of John (later vice-admiral), or the quiet, unremarkable life of Richard (who became a vicar) couldn't save the family's reputation.

Emily Brand's fascinating book follows the Byrons' ups and (more frequent) downs, their loves and squabbles, and introduces the reader to lives full of drama and excess. To be honest if they had been fictional characters they'd hardly seem believable.

The style is almost one of fictionalised biography, told on the one hand from the perspective of young George Gordon making his first acquaintance with his ancestral home and family history, and on the other charting the troubles that befell his forebears, and it's a technique which brings them to life on the page. 

There's a lot to take in, especially as the family seem fond of christening children after their uncles or aunts, or even in some melancholy circumstances after a deceased sibling, but I found it an engrossing read which shed a whole new light on the poet Byron's character and heritage.

The Granite Kingdom: a Cornish journey by Tim Hannigan

 Tim Hannigan is a travel writer known for covering far flung destinations such as Indonesia. This time though he's looking at somewhere much closer to home - to his native Cornwall. 

Starting at the Tamar, the traditional boundary separating Cornwall from the rest of England, his journey zig zags from coast to coast heading towards the furthest point of Land's End. It's a journey that could be made in under two hours by car (according to Google Maps, and making allowances for holiday traffic) but this is a slower winding way, mainly on foot, taking the reader up and over empty, boggy moorland and the spoil tips of China clay works, down to tourist-packed hotspots and quiet seaside villages, from places which sound quintessentially English to those with a definite flavour of Brittany in their names. 

Along the way, the author discusses the geology of the area, its history, tries to pin down what exactly makes Cornwall different to the rest of the country, and what it means to be Cornish, while putting paid to a lot of the myths about King Arthur, wreckers, and smugglers. 

Hannigan's own personal history weaves around that of the inhabitants of, and visitors to, this remote-seeming peninsula - of the Neolithic builders of burial cairns, Phoenician tin traders, the early 'tourists' venturing into a barren, desolate area, or, more recently, artists in search of its beauty, and holiday-makers searching for sun and surf.

For many of us Cornwall is the place of summer holidays, with Betjeman's 'Sand in the sandwiches, wasps in the tea', or the setting for the novels of Daphne du Maurier and Winston Graham with rain-lashed moorlands and brooding heroes.The scenery is either balmy and idyllic, or dramatic and wild. It's not the post-industrial landscape of China clay workings and ruined engine houses left from tin mining. It's not the centre of sea trade with European neighbours, or the countryside that thousands left as work there dried up. But this is an insider's view, a behind-the-scenes-look at a place we think we know. Part travelogue, part history, I found this a fascinating read. Apart from a small area around Polzeath, I haven't visited Cornwall as an adult, and now I realise how little I know about the rest of the county. Time, I think, for me to plan a visit. Meanwhile, if you're heading down west this summer, have a read - it may open your eyes.

Footmarks: A Journey Into our Restless Past by Jim Leary

 When I, and perhaps many of us, think of historic or prehistoric remains what immediately jumps to mind is a castle perched on hill top, or perhaps the stone outline of a Roman fort, maybe an old earthwork where people and animals sheltered from raiders, or perhaps the strange standing stones of Stonehenge or Kilmartin Glen. But these are all static remains. 

 

In Footmarks archaeologist Jim Leary shifts the focus from buildings to the web of  pathways, tracks and roads which lay between them. Often overlooked, despite being literally beneath our feet, these connected farms to pastures, villages to towns, cities to each other. They took people to market, to work, to their holy places, or across continents just for the sake of exploring.  

From footprints 'frozen' in time by estuary mud, via holloways created by the passage of feet over hundreds of years, to long distance pilgrimage routes Leary takes what could have been a very niche subject matter only for academics, and makes it interesting and accessible to the lay reader. Interpreting those footprints captured in mud to bring the group who made them to life - the adults seriously following the direct route, children playing about, dashing this way and that - or following the trail of pilgrims from England to Santiago de Compostela - collecting their souvenir badges on the way - brings an immediacy to the lives of long-forgotten people. 

Footmarks is a really interesting book about the history of, and contained within, paths and roads. History has always fascinated me, and I found this to be a wonderful, illuminating read, showing that people have always being restless and inquisitive, wanting to know what lay beyond the hill, on the other side of the water, or over the horizon

The Mercenary River: Private Greed, Public Good: A History of London's Water By Nick Higham

Clean water available at the turn of a tap is something we all take for granted, at least in the 'developed' world. If you think about it at all it's when something goes wrong and supply fails, or when a documentary about conditions elsewhere reminds you of the value of water piped to your home. Does anyone wonder where their water actually comes from? Probably not; we've grown to expect it to be there when needed. And does anyone ever wonder about WHO decided to pipe water into our homes, and WHY?

These are the thoughts that prompted Nick Higham to research the history behind London's water system. It's basically a tale of two halves - on one hand of the recognition that fresh water delivered via pipes is a basic need, keeping dirt and disease at bay, especially in over-crowded cities; on the other, the realisation that there's money to be made in providing that service. It shouldn't really come as a surprise that such a basic necessity was so easily turned into a source of profit, and at such an early date, but somehow it does.

Medieval Londoners were supplied with water, surprisingly at no cost, via conduits, but as the city grew, so did its need for water, and, from 1619 with the setting up of the New River company, so did the network of pipes carrying it, and ultimately carrying sewerage away. And with the supply of water came other things - the creation of civil engineering, and a new form of financing; the joint stock corporation. The history of London's water supply is seen to be inevitably linked to so many aspects of life from health and hygiene to powering industry to nepotism and financial corruption. 

Considering the complexity and breadth of the subject, The Mercenary River is very readable, balancing anecdotes about the entrepreneurs, investors, and engineers associated with these colossal projects with the overwhelming amount of facts and figures necessarily involved. It's not a light bedside read but if you've an interest in the who and what and why of the development of society than it's very interesting. 

Shadowlands by Matthew Green

 Under Britain's streets, fields and lakes lies another landscape of forgotten villages and towns; places that for natural, economic or military reasons have been abandoned and left to decay. Maybe too many of the populace died of plague for the village to be viable, maybe the sea came crashing through doors too often, maybe authority in the form of city corporations in need of water or the Ministry of Defence needing training grounds decided their need was greater than that of the inhabitants, but all over the country remains can be found of places that for one reason or another people left; sometimes voluntarily, sometimes being evicted.

In Shadowlands, Matthew Green takes us on a tour of eight of these places from Skara Brae on Orkney, hidden for thousands of years under sand dunes, to Winchelsea on the English Channel, where not one, but two, towns have fallen foul of coastal conditions - the first washed away by violent storms, the second decaying slowly as its harbour silted and traders left.

On the way, he takes the reader to Wharram Percy, left a ghost town after the Black Death and a subsequent change in farming practices, 

Trellech on the Welsh Marches near Chepstow - once a bustling place feeding the English settlers need for iron armaments and accoutrements of war

Dunwich where a Medieval city on the Suffolk cliffs has gradually crumbled into the sea.

St Kilda which had to be abandoned by its inhabitants when its population dropped to unsustainable levels as young people sought a life beyond their inhospitable, isolated island home.

The lost villages of Norfolk taken over during WW2 for military training, and never given back.

And, the most poignant perhaps because it's still remembered by people who grew up there, the valley of Capel Celyn in North Wales, lost to Liverpool's growing need for water.

Part history book, part travelogue, this is both an engaging and informative read, bringing these locations back to life, and placing their growth and decline within a wider context of social change around them. Green also digresses into how previous visitors/generations have responded to these places - from touristy explorers of the Enlightenment looking for noble savages on the islands of St Kilda, to the romantic poets mourning the passing of Dunwich or Winchelsea.

I've always had a curiosity about the past, and forgotten places such as this have a mysterious pull about them - trying to imagine the lives of the people who lived and worked there, their sadness (or perhaps delight) at leaving - more so than the ruins you might find lurking under a shopping mall, so this books was definitely MY kind of thing, and I'd greatly recommend it to anyone with even a mild curiosity about the past.

Superior by Angela Saini

"Where did the idea of race come from, and what does it mean? In an age of identity politics, DNA ancestry testing and the rise of the far-right, a belief in biological differences between populations is experiencing a resurgence. The truth is: race is a social construct. Our problem is we find this hard to believe.

In Superior, award-winning author Angela Saini investigates the concept of race, from its origins to the present day. Engaging with geneticists, anthropologists, historians and social scientists from across the globe, Superior is a rigorous, much needed examination of the insidious and destructive nature of the belief that race is real, and that some groups of people are superior to others."

Non-fiction books on politics and social issues don't usually form part of my reading, but I'd been watching David Olusoga on TV where he mentioned race science as part of the justification of slavery, then caught Angela Saini at the online version of  Edinburgh Book Festival talking in greater depth about the subject, and wanted to know more about how pseudo-scientific ideas take root and influence public opinion.  

In a vague way I knew before of the theory that people can be divided into different races, and that some are not as intelligent (or even as 'human') as others. It was used to give 'justification' for the slave trade, for robbing indigenous peoples of land and wealth, and returned in a different form in Nazi Germany. It's a ludicrous idea, and one that I believed was totally discredited today, not one still lurking around. Superior has definitely proved to be an eye-opening read.

Saini takes the reader through the development of race theory, how it affected Europeans interaction with indigenous population of  Africa, Australia and America, and how it continues today in the social and economic effects it has on black people. What surprised me most was its proliferation today. Modern genetic studies have surely proved once and for all that 'race' is a social or cultural concept, but people still want to believe they are in some way 'better' than others - than their neighbours, the folks in the next town, neighbouring country - and unfortunately there'll be someone on the internet or in specialist, right wing journals, ready to support their claims with alleged scientific evidence. 

Superior is definitely a book that deserves the adjective 'thought provoking'. I understand now where the prejudices of my parents' generation came from, and was left feeling that it's so very easy to feed those prejudices with dodgy scientific 'facts'.

Lost Dog: a love story by Kate Spicer

Kate Spicer is a mid-forties freelance journalist living a drug- and alcohol-fueled life which is starting to seem increasingly empty and meaningless, until she decides to adopt a dog - and it's love at first sight. Wolfy is a huge shaggy lurcher who completely transforms life for Kate. She soon comes to prefer snuggling up at home with him in the evening to late night parties, early morning walks instead of the once-perpetual hangover. Then the unthinkable happens; left overnight with Kate's brother, Wolfy runs away. Kate and her partner Charlie are desperate. They search the streets of London, set up a Facebook page, and through the internet attract a host of well-wishers and helpers (and sadly some trolls too). Their relationship is pushed to the limits but everything will be perfect if Wolfy can be found.

This autobiographical story is both a very personal tale of redemption, and a wider reflection on the relationship between humans and dogs. Most dog owners can't claim to have had their lives changed dramatically in the way that Kate's was, but we all understand the unconditional love that dogs bring into our lives, and the very special place they hold in our hearts. 

The reader follows Kate's path from 'lost woman' to one with a new love and purpose in life - a love which looks likely to disappear forever, but miraculously is found again.Being a regular chatterer on Twitter I knew of the search for Wolfy, and its happy ending, but I was still pulled in by Kate's honesty and willingness to share the good and bad in her life; when Wolfy got lost, I almost felt as devastated as she did. 

Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Penguin (Ebury) 
Genre - non-fiction, memoir, autobiography

Pete Brown at Curious Arts Festival

 By The Mole

Beer. What could be more British than beer? There are just four major ingredients as the book cover says: hops, barley, water and yeast. But barley won't make beer - well, not until it's been malted. Malting is getting the barley to germinate and before it's finished, roasting it. But who found that out? It was being done centuries before the chemistry was understood so how did hat happen? Beer is one fascinating subject in its own right with a tremendous amount of history about it and this book is very much going on my 'wish list'.

And then there's cider... another fascinating subject - but so is the apple tree. Pete Brown talked a little about it's vagaries and unpredictability in cultivation. We all have out favourite apples but do you know that all Bramley apples originated from one tree? Or any other variety? This book explores apples from around the world and their history. Another for my 'wish list'

Climbing Trees at Curious Arts

By The Mole

(This event was part of Niddfest Comes South)

Do you ever look at a tree and think "I could pull myself up on that branch, climb onto that one and work my up" and then move on without even approaching the tree? This certainly happens to me but one day Jack Cooke did approach that tree and started climbing. And since then he has climbed tree after tree after tree. Many of his trees have been in London where, believe it or not, there are 3,000,000 trees.

This book is written so that you can 'dip in' and out of as he tells of different trees he has climbed. Trees where you bump into someone sitting eating their lunch. Trees where someone dials 999 because they think you are going to commit suicide. Trees where you ask a passing stranger for a leg up to get started. Trees where things don't go quite as planned. Bumps and scrapes are the order of the day but you get to see so much from up there as well as in the tree itself. I may start climbing trees again myself. Certainly one I shall be looking to read soon.

Spot the Mistake:Lands of Long Ago by Amanda Wood and Mike Jolley

illustrated by Frances Castle

"Would a Mayan warrior have worn a watch? Would a Viking have used a compass? Test your knowledge of history and spot 20 mistakes in every scene. Then, turn the page to discover if you were right and learn more fun facts about ancient civilisations, including the Ancient Greeks, the Ancient Egyptians, the Romans, the Mayans, the Vikings, and many more!"

review by Maryom

I know I'm not the target reader but I love this book!
It's split into ten sections, each covering a different period of time from the prehistoric Stone Age through the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, China and central America to Medieval Knights, Vikings, the Mughal Empire in India and seventeenth century Caribbean Pirates just like Jack Sparrow! For each time period there's a double-page spread showing typical activities BUT there are mistakes. In each picture are twenty things which do not belong, and which the reader has to spot.
Now, I always find that there's something about a 'spot the mistake' game that drags me in, so obviously I had to try and spot them. Some were obvious - there were no cameras in Ancient Greece, and pirates didn't play on the beach making sandcastles - but there were some I didn't know - no chickens in Neolithic Britain or carrots in the time of the Pharaohs - and some sneaky ones that I couldn't find. Maybe you need sharper eyes than mine, but if you don't spot every mistake, don't worry; the answers are given on the next page, along with more interesting facts about the time period.

Every page has bright, colourful illustrations, and while children are looking at tham and trying to spot all the mistakes, they'll be learning about the past without really realising.



Publisher - Wide Eyed Editions
Genre - Non-fiction, history, children's 7+

How To Be a Grown Up

review by Maryom

For any of you (and, yes, maybe that includes me too) who've ever wondered what the secret is to being an adult, here is Grazia "Agony Aunt" Daisy Buchanan to help. Daisy has made her share of mistakes, with jobs, love, sex, health, and, the biggest, most secret one of them all, money, and now she's drawing on those experiences to offer advice on the minefield that is 'adulting'.


Now a book offering advice on, well, anything, can easily be dry and lecturing in tone, but How To Be A Grown Up is far from that. Daisy offers her advice with a large dollop of humour, and isn't afraid to laugh at herself and her past mistakes, making for a fun, enjoyable read even if you feel you don't need her help. Sometimes her life reads like that of a rom com heroine - messing up at work, being unable to remember the 'night before' or falling for the wrong man, time and again - but along the way Daisy has come up with a plan for surviving adulthood.

 Although aimed primarily at 20-somethings, fresh out of university, and experiencing the world truly on their own for the first time, suddenly without the emotional or financial support of family or long-term friends, it's a book in which lots of us, of any age, could find useful advice. My route to adulthood was very different to Daisy's - I was married with a mortgage at 19, and my first child was born when I was 21 - so I never had wild careful years in my twenties. Even so Daisy's advice would have been helpful - particularly on learning to relax, take time out for oneself, and not dressing to impress or how you feel you 'should' dress, but aiming for something which expresses your individual style.

Obviously there's no simple answer to the problems we encounter in life, but merely knowing that we're not alone, that others go through the same things, suffer the same embarrassments, fears and doubts, can help in itself - it's believing that our problems are unique that often makes them crippling. I'm definitely not the target demographic, but I loved this book, above all because it's fun. Not all the advice will suit everyone (spending anything more than 5 minutes quickly washing my hair in the shower would seem like a chore to me, not a pleasure) but it will start you thinking about how you might take steps to improve your life.


There's only one snag - I think my teen may have been hoping that it would teach me how to be more dignified and less foolish, but actually it's reinforced my tendency to embrace my awkward, inappropriate side, and just be myself.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - self-help, non-fiction

Weatherland by Alexandra Harris

review by Maryom

English weather is renowned for being changeable, so it's not surprising that over the years, and centuries, the attitude of writers, poets and artists towards it has changed too. In this epic work, nearly 400 pages of small type, Alexandra Harris explores shifts in attitude from Anglo-Saxons in the 8 and 9th centuries huddled round the mead-hall fire telling tales of the surrounding cold and dark, through gentleman scientists collating weather statistics, Shelley's delight in things that fly or T S Eliot's parched landscape of The Waste Land, to authors beginning to look beyond today's weather and worry about the impact of global warming. 

Obviously the real weather affects everyone - from frost fairs held on the frozen Thames, to the dreadful summers of 1783 and 1816 when volcanic eruptions (from Laki in Iceland and Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies, respectively) polluted the atmosphere and affected weather world wide or the dreadful hurricane of November 1703 when 'barely a building survived intact', writers and artists have responded and interpreted events. I'm inclined to accept the weather as it comes, wet or dry, maybe complaining if it stays either for too long, and I was surprised to discover that the weather, or at least its representation in art and writing, has been subject to fashion in much the way that the length or cut of skirts might be, and that what was written or painted says as much about the attitude of the author/artist as it does about the actual weather experienced by the public. So, at times, a sunny day has been barely worth mentioning; real weather could only be experienced in a dramatic storm with thunder and lightning shaking the world according to Coleridge or Wordsworth, or by glimpsing the landscape through obscuring mists and tumultuous clouds (Constable). It also reflects the mood of the period too; the Victorian era was damp, drippy, or shrouded in fog; the 1920s with modern housing and transport, drier and brighter. 

Without doubt this work is a vast undertaking, including snippets from authors and poets throughout the centuries, fortunately, there's a useful index at the back, so if, say, you want to find the sections referencing Jane Austen's novels, or changing attitudes to rain (see also drizzle,floods and showers) throughout the centuries you can, but don't expect a tidily laid out book of all-occasion quotes. 

It won't be everybody's idea of a good read, but I found it fascinating, especially the little things that gave insight into life in past times - the fact that before Chaucer no one had really thought to celebrate the arrival of Spring, or that as early as 1661, people were commenting on pollution from chimney smoke! It covers a huge period of writing and art, charting changing attitudes to what surely has to be our favourite topic of conversation, but a couple of omissions surprised me. Although the heatwave of 1976 gets a mention via Ian McEwan's The Cement Garden written in that year, the seeming flurry of more recent books set then - Joanna Cannon's The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, and Maggie O'Farrell's Instructions for a Heatwave are the ones that instantly spring to mind - aren't covered. Another aspect of the relationship between weather and writers not explored, was its use in crime novels - many a crime writer, from Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers to Ellis Peters, has involved snow, floods, or fog, to help along a plot, often working real 'freak' weather into a story.

It also made me realise how comparatively sheltered we are these days. Few of us need to spend long periods of time outdoors if the weather doesn't suit us - perhaps why today the emphasis falls on good days when we want to be outside.

Publisher -  Thames and Hudson
Genre - Adult non-fiction, art, weather, literature,

Carrying The Fire by Michael Collins

Review by The Mole

Subtitled "an astronauts journeys" this book is an autobiographical retelling of Michael Collins' flights on Gemini 10 and Apollo 11. Yes, he is the forgotten one, the one whose vital role aboard the command module enabled the first 2 men on the moon (Armstrong and Aldrin) to return to earth after their so historic event.

As a teenager I read and watched everything I could find on the space programs (both American and Russian) - not because I wanted to be an astronaut but because I was fascinated by the engineering achievements that were being made and the leaps forward that were happening.

Collins wrote this account in 1974 at a time when the last Apollo flights had been cancelled, 3 Skylab missions had been flown, the historic rendezvous with Russian Cosmonauts was in the planning and the space shuttle was far from ready. Despite all this I missed this book the first time round and my eldest daughter bought me this for my birthday this year and wrote in a dedication of "To Dad, Love you all the way to the moon, orbit, and back" which I think is lovely but there ought to be an 's' on 'orbit'.

Collins starts the story from his moving to Edwards Air Force Flight Test Centre and hearing about the astronaut program. From here he tells his story with reflections upon his life before.  My only regret with this book is not having read it sooner - like 1974! As a teenager I was fascinated by the technology but did read a few biographies (which, outside of scifi, was the only other genre of books I really read!). Here Collins not only puts men in the rockets, something I obviously knew but didn't really think about, but he actually brings them to life.

Written without a ghost writer it is all his own words (although what editing went on I don't know) and he really can express himself. During his first EVA on Gemini 10 I was genuinely worried for him - which is stupid because we all knew he would return to fly Apollo 11 - and when it came time for his second EVA on the same flight I was hoping it was going to be cancelled! But then I am not a test pilot and would never have wanted to be one. He readily admits to not taking time to stare at the wonders of space but focusing on the mission until time slots presented themselves but when he did look around he describes the sights with hardly an adjective but somehow makes them all the more wondrous for it. At times he seems to worry, as a writer, that he has explained himself enough, for example with reference to seeing the earth from space versus seeing a photograph but he needn't worry because he really makes the point well.

Sometimes 'autobiographies', when ghost written, can make you wonder if the subject is the one you read about but autobiographies without ghosts are generally different - you can get to like the writer or even dislike the writer. I recently read a book on Chris Froome and thought the guy a genuinely nice guy - and I suspect he is - but is that just the guy that David Walsh (the ghost)  knows? I read a  book by a member of one of the shuttle crews and decided, while it was an interesting book, I didn't like the author. Here? Well here is a guy that I would genuinely like to "High Five" and that is rare for me. I don't high five anyone - normally.

I would recommend this book HIGHLY to anyone with the slightest interest in the space program.

Anyway, we try to keep these reviews not too wordy and I've said too much. If you like autobiographies or the space program then read this one - PLEASE. It was republished for its 40th anniversary.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
Genre: Non-Fiction, Autobiography

Intercept The Secret History of Computers and Spies by Gordon Corera

Review by The Mole

My history is in IT for 35 years and have seen it transform from the scary mainframes of the 70s to the science fiction of today, so when I saw Gordon Corera giving a talk on this book at Edinburgh International Book Festival I felt I just had to go and see what it was about. His talk whet my appetite enough to read the book. The book is not technical, nor is Corera, but he details the history of spying through the use of communications technology from 1914 to almost the present day.

The book explores the use of telegraph, telephone, wireless and then the internet to spy, examining how changes in communications have reformed spy techniques to a nine to five office job away from the glamour and gadgetry of 007.

Fascinating from the very first page you have to be prepared for surprises aplenty as Corera lets you in on things that have happened but have not made the headlines. How industrial espionage now focuses on getting in to your competitor's systems and stealing their ideas, plans and even tenders so that you can beat them to the sale yet not get caught in the act.

And while hacking is seen as teenagers locked away in their bedrooms (and these still exist) there are also factories and office blocks devoted to hacking.  But it's not just companies and spotty teenage hackers - it's governments as well. And when governments buy technology from abroad how can they be sure that their aren't little surprises in store for the new owner... and has that ever happened? And did America really succeed at interfering with Iran's nuclear enrichment program?

With insights into GCHQ and the NSA, their history, their naivety at times, and their coming of age this book will really help the sceptic to understand the reasoning behind the desire to see our emails and internet traffic and try to explain that's it's all for our own good... so long as controls are maintained. It also cites a few examples where controls where breached.


This really is one excellent book and while I was a technician and did have responsibility for site security of the server farm, this book was not technical and still surprised me time and again. How could some of these things go unnoticed for so long? How could people get in and out so easily? How could people be so cavalier with their own security.

There is so much to this book it is difficult to truly explain what it's about except that the title tries to say it all.

Truly fascinating, a little frightening and although not a coffee time read, it's well worth the time and effort.

Publisher - Orion Books Genre - Non-Fiction

Jamaicans In Nottingham - Author event

On 15th October Norma Gregory launched her book at an evening event in Waterstones Nottingham. The book is non-fiction and is a collection of "narratives and reflections" on the lives and times of Jamaicans who have been influential both inside and outside the Jamaican community of the city.

After refreshments and a chance to make connections with some of the people in attendance, Norma was introduced by Dan, Waterstones event manager, who explained why he saw this as an important contribution to local history.

Local history is something that is frequently overlooked but it is always fascinating and frequently accessible. But what separates "local" history from history because history is always "local" to somewhere?

Norma explained how she came to write this book, determined that it would be her own efforts and resisted suggestions of applying for funding and how the idea of a booklet grew in size to the point where she needed to consider finding a publisher. Having sent submissions to many publishers (chosen by looking at the books on her bookshelf!) she quickly received feedback from Hansib who publish books for Britain's Caribbean, African and Asian communities.

With many photographs from collections and some taken specifically for this project, this book is anything but a dull collection of words and a timeline at the back of the book contextualises all the entries and helps with understanding. This book could have been much bigger but Norma felt that could lose the accessibility that she was keen to foster.

Local history, such as this story, is something that is ignored in the national curriculum but possibly author visits into schools can get this type of thing into the classroom if only for a few short hours.

Norma went on to explain about her next project which is about the Jamaican miners in south Nottingham - something that will be most interesting to hear about as it will include stories of camaraderie at the coal face followed by life above ground.

Norma's website can be found at: http://nottinghamnewscentre.com/

Six Stories and an Essay by Andrea Levy

review by Maryom

With such a plain, unadorned title there's no doubt about what you're getting here - a collection of six stories and an essay from award-winning author Andrea Levy. It brings together 5 previously published short stories, spanning twenty years, with a new one written to coincide with the centenary of WW1, and an essay on how writing has helped the author's exploration of her Jamaican heritage and her relationship to the white society she grew up in. Now you might think that stories sound like fun and an essay a bit dull, but I found it equally fascinating -  not just the inside glimpse of the author's inspiration but the contrasting outlooks of Jamaicans, who saw Britain as their mother country, and the British who know next to nothing about Jamaica, and how, after a brief mention of the abolition of slavery, the West Indies barely get a mention in history books.
These themes recur in several of the stories which draw heavily on the experiences of Jamaicans coming to Britain to settle or to volunteer in the armed forces. Their naive veneration of the mother country - and their sharp awakening to the mistrust and prejudice that awaits them. "Loose Change" looks at immigration from a different angle - many of us claim to be sympathetic to the plight of refugees, but would we really put ourselves out for them?
"The Diary" tells the story of an overlooked theatrical dresser who finds a way to get revenge, and in
"Deborah" a child's game turns nasty.

The stories are by turn funny, disturbing, thought-provoking and, most importantly, enjoyable reads. My favourite was incidentally the shortest - "February" with its description of a Jamaican winter, the cool breezes, ripe fruit, and scented flowers - and the twist at the end, the seemingly unbridgeable gap, that it's not at all what an English teacher expects to hear.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher -  Tinder Press
Genre - Adult fiction, non-fiction, literary, short stories

Atlas of Adventures - illustrated by Lucy Letherland

Review by The Mole

The world is a much smaller place than the world of 50 years ago, a time when I remember books of this type adorning my "bookshelf". The articles in this book are things that many readers will actually have chance to travel the world to see in their lifetime - and these adventures are accessible to travellers the world over.

Beautifully illustrated with plenty of colour, the pages are packed with short sharp facts that make each page easily readable by the young and less intimidating than the books of my generation.

See London from the London Eye, or the Northern Lights from a glass igloo in Finland, or Monarch butterflies by their million in Mexico. Visit a festival in Hong Kong, or a horse parade in Spain, or just put your feet up and watch penguins in the Antarctic. Sights, sounds and experiences the world over are here to tempt you.

If, like me, international travel is not your thing then you can use search engines and websites to "visit" many of these places from the comfort of home.

A truly delightful book that children will love but you may just find yourself looking at your annual holidays differently.

Publisher - Wide Eyed Editions
Genre - Non-fiction, travel, children's 7+

Something About a Bear by Jackie Morris

review by Maryom

 Come with the Brown Bear as he introduces eight different bears of the world - Polar bear, Moon bear, Sun bear, Brown bear, Spectacled bear, American Black bear, Sloth bear and Giant Panda - lovingly captured in their habitats by Jackie Morris's paintings. They fish in freezing rivers, doze through the heat of the day in treetops or swim in the ocean..... but which is the best bear of all?

To call this an illustrated children's book doesn't do it justice; Something About A Bear is an absolutely gorgeous book bound to delight children and adult bear-lovers alike.  Each double-paged spread captures the essence of a bear with a combination of words and pictures. Although non-fiction  it reads like an enchanting story book. The lavish paintings bring these beautiful wild animals so vividly to life that I almost felt I could reach out and touch their fur, and each is accompanied by words which describe the bear, its habitat, its food, its life in general.

 There are more 'plain' facts at the end of the book for those who want them, and links to conservation websites. The author is also running an on-line auction of the book's proofs with all money going to the charity Hauser Bears


It makes an excellent companion book to I Am Cat, which introduced the wide variety of wild cats from lions to lynx to Scottish wild cat in a similar way - a great idea if you're looking for complementary but not identical books for two children.

Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - picture book, non-fiction, bears,

Take It Cool by Jonathan Pinnock

review by Maryom

 Author Jonathan Pinnock has always felt that his surname is about as far removed from cool as you can get; you may get Pinnocks who are strange, eccentric or even mad but at "two consonants away from disaster" being cool eludes them. Then, searching through a pile of second-hand records, he stumbled on something that would change his whole outlook - a reggae single "Take It Cool" by Dennis Pinnock. At last a Pinnock who was well and truly cool - but also, curiously, a Jamaican black Pinnock, as far removed from the author's white West Country background as it's surely possible to get. Could there really be any family ties between Dennis and Jonathan?

Now, the author had guessed before he started out on his quest that any, even the shallowest, search into Jamaica's past was going to lead him to the slave trade and plantation owners - so he was rather hoping there wouldn't be a connection! Even so he tracks down the early Pinnock colonists of the seventeenth century and their descendants, including one who quickly earns the name "Dog-face Phil". Alongside this story, he tries to track down Dennis himself via record label back-catalogues and that miracle of research tools, the internet, in the hope that one day the cool and un-cool branches of the Pinnocks may meet.
If you've watched the BBC's Who Do you Think You Are? you'll know that researching family history is a lot of pot-luck - sometimes it's full of surprises and stories, while sometimes it's of little interest to anyone beyond relatives. Having read Jonathan Pinnock's fiction, I expected him to turn what could be a plodding piece of research into something interesting and fun - and he did!  The different threads are easily-followed, and build an amusingly-told story that held the attention of a non-Pinnock with no interest in reggae (I didn't even recognise the names of it's stars!)

And for anyone interested in researching their own family history, there are a few pointers at websites and organisations that may prove useful

Maryom's review - 4 stars

Publisher -   Two Ravens Press
Genre - non-fiction, family history