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The above words were uttered in 1943 by a gentleman called Bernard Gabriel. Mr Gabriel was a piano player who founded a unique club, ''The Society of Timid Souls'' that encouraged timid performers and fear-wracked musicians to come in out of the cold 'to play, to criticise and be criticised in order to conquer that old bogey of stage fright.' The method evidently worked, as many a timid soul claimed to be cured by these unorthodox methods and club membership grew considerably in the years that followed. | The above words were uttered in 1943 by a gentleman called Bernard Gabriel. Mr Gabriel was a piano player who founded a unique club, ''The Society of Timid Souls'' that encouraged timid performers and fear-wracked musicians to come in out of the cold 'to play, to criticise and be criticised in order to conquer that old bogey of stage fright.' The method evidently worked, as many a timid soul claimed to be cured by these unorthodox methods and club membership grew considerably in the years that followed. | ||
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Revision as of 15:53, 31 August 2014
Pocket World in Figures 2015 by The Economist
There are people who don't understand the joy of raw data: no accompanying analysis (or spin) - just a collection of figures relevant to a particular circumstance. If you're one of those people then this book will mean little to you, but if you want a pocket (well, certainly handbag or briefcase) work of reference then this book will be a treasure. I once gave a copy to a diplomat and he kept his wife awake until the early hours as he came across another gem which she had to know without delay. The 2015 edition is the twenty fourth in the series - and diplomatic (and similar) spouses everywhere should prepare themselves for the onslaught. Full review...
Stand and Deliver: A Design for Successful Government by Ed Straw
Confidence in politicians is at an all-time low. In fact, an alarming number of Britons express outright contempt, not just for their leaders, but for the entire political class - for the politicans themselves, for the civil servants standing behind them, even for the Westminster bubble of commentators and policy wonks. We vote for them in ever-decreasing numbers and even those who continue to vote often do not feel represented. Worse still, the younger you are, the more likely you are to be politically disengaged. We're in danger of losing an entire generation from the political process. How can this be good for a democracy? Full review...
Harry's Last Stand by Harry Leslie Smith
RAF veteran Harry Leslie Smith rose to prominence last year with a famous Guardian article 'This year, I will wear a poppy for the last time' about the way in which the remembrance of those who died in the great wars has been co-opted to justify today’s military conflicts. Here, he tackles themes of poverty, political corruption, unemployment, and a lack of hope felt by so many people today. Full review...
Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and Her World by Stefan Kornelius
You have to admire the lady, this rather awkward and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholic. His daughter studied with such intelligence and application that soon brought her academic success particularly in Russian and finally in Quantum Chemistry. At the age of 26, she obtained her doctorate and - in passing, it rather seems - her first husband, the physicist Ulrike Merkel. Her rise to power was rapid and took place through the period in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changed. Along with a wry and dry sense of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is the embodiment of the characteristic known in German as fleissig - hardworking, sedulous, diligent and assiduous. Full review...
An Atheist's History of Belief by Matthew Kneale
I’ve been an atheist since I was old enough to take a view on the subject. (Many atheists would argue that we’re all atheists at birth, but that’s not a subject for a book review). I did have to take Religious Studies at school but have entirely forgotten almost everything I learned! Full review...
Notebooks, 1922-86 by Michael Oakeshott
Michael Oakeshott is usually described as a conservative thinker. According to Perry Anderson, his work influenced John Major's style of politics; he named him in the London Review of Books in 1992 as one of four ‘outstanding European theorists of the intransigent Right’. Luke O’Sullivan, who edited this collection of notebooks, has often said that he considers such descriptions limiting. O’Sullivan is clearly enthusiastic about Oakeshott’s work and strove to enable these notebooks, spanning a period of over sixty years, to be published. Full review...
The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life by Uri Gneezy and John List
Wow! This is a most surprising economics book.
Behavioral economists (if you’ll excuse the American spelling) investigate people’s buying behaviour and consuming patterns. I guess we know about that already because supermarkets here lull us into buying three for the price of two, to come back next week for £10 off a £100, or to garner extra points on a loyalty card (Oh why can’t they just go for a cheaper price at the point of sale? Why do profits have to be in double percentage point increases year on year?). A fair bit of manipulation to ensure that a company survives is already part and parcel of our lives. If you’d asked me before I read this book, I would have lined up that sort of consumer marketing psychology alongside banking as profiteering. However … these guys are different: they really do seem to care about the plight of the underprivileged, and they come from an academic setting, rather than a commercial one. Full review...
The News: A User's Manual by Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton maintains that 'the news' has assumed the position in our lives which was once occupied by religion, with some consumers viewing it as often as every fifteen minutes (slight blush there - let's say about every hour...). Furthermore, we do it completely unprotected against every political scandal or celebrity story. The sub-title 'A User's Manual' sets out to remedy this. Full review...
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent by Robert A Caro
It's only a matter of days since I finished listening to The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power, the first part of Robert A Caro's definitive work on the President and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book I wanted to learn more. I was torn though - the second book in a series is not often as good as the first and it struck me that these might not be the most exciting years in Johnson's life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to the more exciting times? Not a bit of it. Full review...
A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee Brand by Andrew Rugasira
There are few billionaire black African entrepreneurs. As Andrew Rugasira points out in A Good African Story, the people who make money from African exports are virtually always white Westerners. Even Fair Trade participants remain skewed by the status quo of trade barriers which discriminate against Third World countries. Full review...
Play It Again: An Amateur Against The Impossible by Alan Rusbridger
I’ve maintained for a long time that I’ll read anything, if it’s well-enough written. So it was with this fascinating memoir, even though it’s a year in the life of an amateur pianist, and I don’t play the piano – or indeed a note of music. I couldn’t even have placed the name Alan Rusbridger in his professional role before I read the book. A quick browse through the first couple of pages on Amazon revealed that the author could indeed tell a clear story: it is his stock-in-trade as Editor of the Guardian. And the book duly held me through a messy, interrupted week of bedtime reading. Full review...
Winter by Adam Gopnik
In this collection of five essays, each one offering a unique and fascinating perspective on the season of winter, Adam Gopnik takes the reader on a captivating journey, exploring history, art and society, through Romantic Winter, Radical Winter, Recuperative Winter, Recreational Winter and Remembering Winter. In each essay, Gopnik focuses on one or two central themes, whilst also touching on surrounding ideas. For example, in Romantic Winter his central topics are art and poetry, however, issues such as changing society, technology, sex and culture are also explored, in relation to these pivotal notions. He also includes two sections featuring collections of artwork to illustrate his viewpoints, which add a charming, individual touch to this book. Full review...
Outraged of Tunbridge Wells: Original Complaints from Middle England by Nigel Cawthorne
It was ever thus… cyclists go too fast, without using a hooter or lights; there are hoodlums everywhere one looks, and no public conveniences; people pretend to have qualifications and degrees they haven't rightfully earned; buses are too busy with shopping women who should be indoors already, cooking for their working menfolk… It's a very clever idea to show exactly what is behind the 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' tag, and as a book to be shelved alongside those with the wackier letters sent to the Daily Telegraph, these selections from the Royal town's press itself make a great eye-opener to the complaints and complainants of Kent. Full review...
How Much have Global Problems Cost the World?: A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050 by Bjorn Lomborg (Editor)
The authors are leading researchers in their fields, and their papers have been critiqued by peer-reviewers. Each of the chapters reports the results of a modelling exercise, examining progress or decline in one of ten key areas, including armed conflict, trade barriers, malnutrition, air pollution, ecosystem and biodiversity, health, water and sanitation. Key economic, growth and other variables from credible sources provided a common set of data and assumptions, used in each study. Full review...
The Last Diaries: A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine by Tony Benn
Throughout my life I've found that whilst I might not always agree with Tony Benn's politics, whatever he had to say would give me food for thought - and frequently changed the way that I viewed a situation. He's a wonderful mixture of supreme intelligence and humanity which is so rarely found - particularly in modern-day politics and it was with some misgivings that I opened this volume of his diaries, given that the slipcover speaks of the compensations and challenges of old age and the disadvantages of growing older, the loneliness of widowhood, the upheaval of moving from the family home of sixty years and the problems of failing health. I've always been relieved that Benn has never quite achieved the status of national treasure, but surely he couldn't be in decline? Full review...
What Should We Tell Our Daughters?: The Pleasures and Pressures of Growing Up Female by Melissa Benn
'I am shocked when I read young feminists today blithely admitting that they don't know what second-wave feminists wrote.'
As a twenty-something year old feminist, it pains me to admit how much this quote applied to me. Having grown up knowing that college and university were paths I could definitely take, never being told that settling down and finding a husband was an important goal to have, and always getting the same opportunities as my male peers in the workplace, I'd never seen – or, at least, thought I'd seen – the inequalities, misogyny and chauvinism that were still apparently abundant in today's society. The feminist movement had always seemed like an amazing wave of new ideas that had happened forty or fifty years ago. It was the reason my mother and I were now able to work and find a role outside of the home. Full review...
Peas and Queues: The Minefield of Modern Manners by Sandi Toksvig
Dear Sandi
You are my all time favourite celebrity lesbadyke, and one of the reasons I’m so very excited to be heading to Denmark this coming weekend (are all people there like you? Please say yes). For this alone, I had to get my mitts on your latest offering. I wasn’t that fussed about obtaining a book on manners previously, having always thought mine were quite ok, but I knew your take on the matter would be suitably hilarious and well worth a read. I was not wrong. Full review...
Global Modernity and Other Essays by Tom Rubens
It’s been difficult to write this review. The book’s eclectic nature, with subject matter ranging from Nietzsche to the English Police Force, makes it difficult to summarise and secondly, I’m no academic and philosophy is just HARD Full review...
Education Under Siege: Why There is a Better Alternative by Peter Mortimore
Peter Mortimore's thoroughgoing analysis of the absurdities of current educational practice and prescriptions for finding a far better alternative deserves a wide readership. It is not just an organisation which is under siege but as his personal anecdotes indicate, more vigorously than his rigorously argued statistics, people are suffering. Parents are anxious, teachers badly led and burdened with confused policies and worst of all pupils are pressurised from early infancy. Reading his book you might be forgiven for wondering a) why so many young students are being abused by such distress and b) as Cicero might have asked, Cui bono, to whose benefit? Professor Mortimore outlines the positive alternatives suggested by international comparisons especially with Scandinavian methods. He argues that their procedures are more effective, that support students and produce a fairer, harmonious society. Full review...
Inventing the Enemy: Essays on Everything by Umberto Eco
Imagine a sumptuous Italian feast in the sunlit-bathed ancient countryside near Milan. Next to you a gentleman talks and eats with furious energy. He tells of Dante, Cicero, and St Augustine and quotes a multitude of obscure troubadours from the Middle Ages. He repeats himself, gestures flamboyantly, nudges you sharply in the ribs, belches and even breaks wind. His conversation contains nuggets of information but in the flow of his discourse there is a fondness for iteration and reiteration. He throws bones over his shoulder and when he reaches the cheese course - definitely too much information on the mouldy bacteria! When you finally get up things the elderly gentleman has said prompt your imagination. You are better informed, intrigued and prodded to examine his discourse again and again, even if only to challenge what you have heard. Such are the effects of reading Eco’s essays in Inventing the Enemy. Full review...
Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age by George Brock
At about the turn of the century most people on the street where I live had a morning paper delivered and a good number also got an evening paper. The queue at the newsagent in the village would be out of the door each morning as people picked up a paper on their way to work. I can't remember when I last saw a newspaper boy (or girl) on their rounds and we only buy the weekend papers as an indulgence with a more leisurely breakfast. Times have changed - and there's no sign that the situation is likely to settle in the near future. Full review...
Against Their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War America by Allen M Hornblum, Judith L Newman and Gregory J Dober
If I told you that doctors had been using human beings in the most horrible of medical experiments, that they had done things like tie toddlers to beds to insert live pathogens into their eyes, injected children with radiation, sterilised those thought to be subhuman and even castrated a child just to get a supply of tissue for a lab experiment, you might very reasonably assume I am talking abut Nazi Germany. I am not. Full review...
Across the Pond by Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton is a Brit (Manchester born, no less) who now lives in Dublin with his American wife and children, so he seems well placed to write a book about the difference between us and them, there Yanks. Mid way through the pages, he even stops to tell us that in a way he had to write this, because when he wishes to read a book, he writes it. To read someone else’s, he suggests, is ‘an unwarranted invasion of their personal space’. That’s how so very British he is. Full review...
High Sobriety: My Year Without Booze by Jill Stark
On the first of January 2011 Jill Stark woke up with the hangover from Hell. She was no stranger to them: at thirty five she'd been binge drinking for more than twenty years and was in the dubious position of being the health reporter who wrote herself off at weekends. And by 'wrote herself off' I mean being seriously drunk on a very regular basis, having consumed vast quantities of alcohol and having regularly put herself in danger of serious illness, unwanted pregnancy and assault. But on that first day in January Stark decided that she was going to do something about it and the initial decision was that she would spend three months on the wagon. Full review...
A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa by A T Williams
Almost ten years ago on a Sunday morning back in September 2003, British Troops raided a hotel in Basra. It was a difficult period in the occupation, six months on from the U.S. led invasion. Temperatures were more than 50 degrees centigrade. Members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR) took ten suspects in for questioning from a hotel in the vicinity of insurgent weaponry. The Iraqis were hooded, plasticuffed, forced into stress positions and subjected to karate chops and kidney punches by the British. Other men and officers watched, walked by or wondered at the stench that resulted from vicious punishment. After 36 hours of torture, a 26 year-old hotel receptionist lay dead by asphyxiation. His grossly disfigured body bore 93 individual injuries. There are now in the region of another 250 individuals, men and women, whose families are making legal claims to have been killed in further encounters with British patrols or prison guards. Full review...
From The Fatherland, With Love by Ryu Murakami
From The Fatherland, With Love is a 2005 Japanese novel set in the then-near future of 2011. Fatherland (as I will abbreviate it) explores the social and political ramifications of one speculative scenario: what if North Korea invaded Japan? Full review...
The Society of Timid Souls: Or, How to be Brave by Polly Morland
'I see no reason why the shy and timid in any community couldn’t get together and help each other.'
The above words were uttered in 1943 by a gentleman called Bernard Gabriel. Mr Gabriel was a piano player who founded a unique club, The Society of Timid Souls that encouraged timid performers and fear-wracked musicians to come in out of the cold 'to play, to criticise and be criticised in order to conquer that old bogey of stage fright.' The method evidently worked, as many a timid soul claimed to be cured by these unorthodox methods and club membership grew considerably in the years that followed. Full review...
