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[[Category:New Reviews|Politics and Society]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan ShawAlastair Humphreys|title=Britain in a Perilous World: The Strategic Defence and Security Review we need Local|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel |summary=The 2010 Strategic Defence Alastair Humphreys has walked and cycled all over the world. And then written about it. For this book he walked and cycled very close to home and Security Review has stayed then wrote about it. As he says in his introduction, the mind for the wrong reasons: rather than looking book is an attempt ''to develop share what I have learnt about some big issues from a strategyyear exploring a small map. Nature loss, to examine the short pollution, land use and long term threats which access, agriculture, the country facedfood system, rewilding…'' One of the emphasis joys of the book for me was on cutting costs, with some cuts appearing ludicrous at first glance. In that the intervening years biggest thing he learned about all of these things was that there are no easy answers, no single 'right or wrong', that every upside is likely to have been occasions when it was difficult not to wonder if the United Kingdom was poorly equipped - and without clear-cut aims - as a result of the 2010 review. The opportunity to put this right comes in 2015 downside for somebody and Major General Jonathan Shaw looks not at what the Review should say, but at how it should be tackledthat there are some hard choices ahead.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908323817</amazonuk>1785633678

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=The EconomistEdel Rodriguez|title=Pocket World in Figures 2015Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4.5|genre=ReferenceGraphic Novels|summary=There are people who donWe't understand the joy re in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of raw data: no accompanying analysis (or spin) - just as a collection saviour of figures relevant the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a particular circumstancelevel playing field for all. If you're one Well, those hours-long speeches of those people then this book will mean little to you, but if you want a pocket (well, certainly handbag or briefcase) work his were kind of reference then this book will be a treasuretaking his time away. I once gave a copy Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to a diplomat and he kept his wife awake until be the good soldier the early hours country demanded (especially as he came across another gem which she had would probably be shipped off to know without delaysome minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The 2015 edition is mother gets the twenty fourth couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the series - and diplomatic (and similar) spouses everywhere should prepare themselves for kind of heat forcing you out of the onslaught.kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781252734</amazonuk>1474616720

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Wilson|title=Stand This One Wild and DeliverPrecious Life: A Design for Successful Government|author=Ed Strawthe path back to connection in a fractured world|rating=43.5|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=Confidence My favourite Mary Oliver line is the one in politicians which she asks ''What is at an all-time lowit you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?'' I get to love that line so much because my answer is ''This! Precisely this.'' I'm lucky enough to be living my one wild and precious life the way I want to. Sarah Wilson is equally lucky. In fact, an alarming number of Britons express outright contempt, not just for their leaders, but for her book that takes Oliver's words as her title (though I can't see that she acknowledges the entire political class - for source) she pushes us to think about whether we really ''are'' living the politicans themselves, for life we want – the civil servants standing behind thembest life that we could be living. Her answer is an unequivocal ''no, 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 we are not feel represented''. Worse still Don't care what you're doing, the younger she thinks you are(we, the more likely you are to I) could be politically disengaged. Wedoing more…And she're in danger of losing an entire generation from s effing furious about the political processfact that we are not. How can this be good for a democracy?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>099294760X</amazonuk>1785633848

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Harry's Last StandCharging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Harry Leslie SmithClive Wilkinson

|genre=Politics and SocietyTravel|summary=RAF veteran Harry Leslie Smith rose to prominence last year Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a famous Guardian article 'This year, I will wear a poppy preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the last time' about the way in which idea of exploring the remembrance edges of those who died England in the great wars has been co-opted to justify today’s military conflictsan electric car was not totally outrageous. HereIn fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, he tackles themes of povertyJoan, shouldn't it?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153050|title=Britain's Best Political Cartoons 2022|author=Tim Benson|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Seeking some light relief from the current political corruptionturmoil which is coming to seem more and more like an adrenaline sport, unemployment, and a lack I was nudged towards ''Britain's Best Political Cartoons of hope felt by so many people today2022''. Sharp eyes will have noted that we're not yet through the year: the cartoons run from 4 September 2021 to 31 August 2022.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848317263</amazonuk> Who can imagine what there will be to come in the 2023 edition?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0B7289HKQ|title=Angela MerkelConversations Across America: The Chancellor A Father and Son, Alzheimer's, and Her World300 Conversations Along the TransAmerica Bike Trail that Capture the Soul of America|author=Stefan KorneliusKari Loya

|genre=BiographyTravel|summary=You have Kari (that rhymes with ‘sorry’, by the way) wanted to admire spend some time with his father and the lady, this rather awkward and shy daughter of period between two jobs seemed like a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholicgood time to do it. His daughter studied with such intelligence and application that soon brought her academic success particularly in Russian and finally in Quantum Chemistry. At The decision was made to ride the age of 26Trans America Bike Trail from Yorktown, Virginia to Astoria, she obtained her doctorate and Oregon - in passing, all 4250 miles of it rather seems - her first husband, the physicist Ulrike Merkelin 2015. Her rise They had 73 days to power was rapid and took place through do it - slightly less than the period in recommended time - but there were factors which the DDR collapsed pointed this up as Russian policy under Gorbachev changedmore of a challenge that it would be for most people who considered taking it on. Along with a wry Merv Loya was 75 years old and dry sense of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is the embodiment of the characteristic known in German as ''fleissighe was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer'' - hardworking, sedulous, diligent and assiduouss.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>

I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the world-building. It's human beings who fascinate me: the technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it. }}{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=An Atheist's History of BeliefJane Goodall and Douglas Abrams |authortitle=Matthew KnealeThe Book of Hope |rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=I’ve been an atheist since I was old enough The done thing is to take read a view on book all the subjectway through before you sit down to review it. (Many atheists would argue that we’re all atheists at birthI’m making an exception here, but that’s not a subject for a because I don’t want to lose any of the experience of reading this amazing book review). , I did have want to take Religious Studies at school but have entirely forgotten almost everything I learned!capture it as it hits me. And it is hitting me. This beautiful book has me in tears. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099584425</amazonuk>024147857X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360737|title=Notebooks, 1922-86Artivism: The Battle for Museums in the Era of Postmodernism|author=Michael OakeshottAlexander Adams|rating=3.52|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Michael Oakeshott Can art ever be apolitical? All art is usually described as political because art is not made in a conservative thinkervacuum. It is made by people. According Antonio Gramsci stated that ‘’Every man… contributes to Perry Andersonmodifying the social environment in which he develops’’. Therefore, all art must be political, even implicitly. Alexander Adams in his work influenced John Major's style of politics; he named him new book ‘Artivism: The Battle for Museum in the London Review Era of Books in 1992 as one of four ‘outstanding European theorists of the intransigent Right’Postmodernism’ is adamant that art is freer when it is art for art’s sake. Luke O’Sullivan, who edited this collection The recent trend of notebooks, so-called artivism has often said that he considers such descriptions limitingcaused artists to become more overtly political (read: left wing). O’Sullivan is clearly enthusiastic about Oakeshott’s work Their seemingly grass roots movements have been astroturfed by large “left-wing” donors and strove media elites hoping to enable these notebooks, spanning create a period of over sixty years, to be publishedmore globalist and progressive regime. Or at least that’s what Alexander Adams believes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845400542</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1398508632|title=The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday LifeWilderness Cure|author=Uri Gneezy and John ListMo Wilde

|genre=Politics and SocietyLifestyle|summary=Wow! This is It had been on the cards for a most surprising economics book.  Behavioral economists (if you’ll excuse while but it was the American spelling) investigate people’s buying behaviour and consuming patternsweek-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. I guess we know about that already because supermarkets here lull us into buying three for the price The end of twoNovember, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to come back next week for £10 off start, in a £100world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, or to garner extra points on Brexit and a loyalty card (Oh why can’t they just go for pandemic. Wilde had a cheaper price at few advantages: the point area around her was a known habitat with a variety of sale? Why do profits have terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to be in double percentage point increases year on year?)run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator. A fair bit of manipulation to ensure that She had a company survives is already part car - and parcel of our livesfuel. If you’d asked me before I read this book Most importantly, I would have lined up that sort of consumer marketing psychology alongside banking as profiteering. However … these guys are differentshe had shelter: they really do seem this was not a plan to care about the plight of the underprivileged, and they come from an academic setting, rather than a commercial one''live'' wild just to live off its produce.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946747</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alain de Botton1529149800|title=The NewsThings You Can Do: A User's ManualHow to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste|author=Eduardo Garcia and Sara Boccaccini Meadows

|genre=Politics Home and SocietyFamily|summary=Alain de Botton maintains that 'We begin with a telling story. All the news' has assumed birds and animals fled when the position in our lives which was once occupied by religionforest fire took hold and most of them stood and watched, with some consumers viewing it as often as every fifteen minutes (slight blush there - let's say about every hourunable to think of anything they could do...) The tiny hummingbird flew to the river and began taking tiny amounts of water and flying back to drop them into the fire. Furthermore, we do it completely unprotected against every political scandal or celebrity storyThe animals laughed: what good was that doing. The sub-title 'A User's ManualI'm doing the best I can'' sets out to remedy this, said the hummingbird. And that, really, is the only way that we will solve the problem of climate change – by each of us doing what we can, however small that might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00HYGYIGA</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert A Caro1638485216|title=The Years of Lyndon JohnsonBlack, White, and Gray All Over: Means of AscentA Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds

|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. Ithas everything to do with character. Period.'' ''s only a One more body just wouldn't matter of days since I finished listening to [[''. The Years murder of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Robert A Caro|The Years Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power]], Minneapolis sent shock waves around the first part world. We rarely see pictures of Robert A Caroa murder taking place but Floyd's definitive work death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on the President George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book I wanted to learn moreprotests which followed cannot have been unexpected. I There was torn though - the second book in a series is not often as good as backlash against the first police - and it struck me that these might not be the most exciting years just in JohnsonMinneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all''s life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to tarred by the more exciting times? Not a bit of itChauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHD0U6</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=A Good African Story: How a Small Company Built a Global Coffee BrandMatthieu Aikins|authortitle=Andrew RugasiraThe Naked Don't Fear the Water|rating=34.5

|summary=There are few billionaire black African entrepreneurs. As Andrew Rugasira points out in It's easy to forget at times that The Naked Don'A Good African Story't Fear the Water isn't actually fiction, because it reads very much like a well-paced thriller at times. This is not by any means a criticism, the people but rather a testament to how well Matthieu Aikins – a Canadian citizen who make money decided to accompany his friend as a refugee from African exports Afghanistan through Europe – recounts a vast and at times painful journey. There are virtually always white Westernerstense moments and gripping accounts of border crossings which had me on edge the whole way through. Even Fair Trade participants remain skewed by But it's written with a haunting and almost lyrical quality that allows the reader to perfectly envisage the status quo of trade barriers which discriminate against Third World countriesenvironments and people described.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099571927</amazonuk>B09N9157T6

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633074|title=Play It Again: An Amateur Against The ImpossibleStaggering Hubris|author=Alan RusbridgerJosh Berry

|summary=It was ever thus… cyclists go too fastMembers of Parliament like us to believe that the country is run by politicians, without using a hooter or lights; there are hoodlums everywhere one looks, and no public conveniences; people pretend to have qualifications and degrees they havenheaded by the Prime minister - the ''primus inter pares''t rightfully earned; buses are too busy with shopping women who should be indoors already, cooking for their working menfolk… It(that's a very clever idea to show exactly what is behind the 'disgusted for those of Tunbridge Wells' tag, you who are Eton and as a book to be shelved alongside those with Oxbridge educated) but the wackier letters sent to reality is that the ''Daily Telegraphprime'', these selections from movers are the special advisers - the Royal town's press itself make a great eyeSPADS -opener who are the driving force behind the government. We are in the privileged position of having access to the complaints and complainants memoirs of Rafe Hubris, the man who was behind the skilful control of the Covid crisis which was completely contained by the end of Kent2020. You might not know the name now but he will certainly be the man to watch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1846276772|title=The End of Bias: How Much have Global Problems Cost the World?: A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050We Change Our Minds|author=Bjorn Lomborg (Editor)Jessica Nordell

|summary=Anyone who is not an able, white man understands bias in that they may no longer even recognise the extent to which they suffer from it: it's simply a part of everyday life. White men will always come first. The authors are leading researchers in their fields, and their papers have been critiqued by peer-reviewersable will come before the disabled. Each Jobs, promotions, higher salaries are the preserve of the chapters reports white man. Even when those who wouldn't pass the results of medical become a modelling exercise, examining progress or decline in one part of ten key areasan organisation it's rare that their views are heard, including armed conflict, trade barriers, malnutrition, air pollution, ecosystem and biodiversity, health, water and sanitationthat their concerns are acknowledged. Key economic, growth It's personally appalling and other variables from credible sources provided a common set degrading for the individuals on the receiving end of data and assumptions, used in each studythe bias but it's not just the individuals who are negatively impacted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1107679338</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Benn1529148251|title=The Last DiariesMisfits: A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=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?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091943876</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=What Should We Tell Our Daughters?: The Pleasures and Pressures of Growing Up FemalePersonal Manifesto|author=Melissa BennMichaela Coel|rating=35

|summary='I 'How am shocked when I read young feminists today blithely admitting that they donable to be so transparent on paper about rape, malpractice and poverty, yet still compartmentalise? It't know what second-wave feminists wrotes as though I were telling the truth whilst simultaneously running away from it.''

As Before you start reading ''Misfits'' you need to be in a twentycertain frame of mind. You're not going to read a book of essays or a self-something year old feminist, it pains me to admit how much this quote applied help book. You're going 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 read writing which was an important goal inspired by Michaela Coel's 2018 MacTaggart Lecture to have, and always getting professionals within the same opportunities as my male peers in television industry at the workplace, IEdinburgh TV Festival. You might be 'd never seen – or, at least, 'reading'thought'the book but you need to ' I'd seen – listen'' to the inequalities, misogyny and chauvinism that were still apparently abundant words as though you're in today's societythe lecture theatre. 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 disjointedness will fade away and I were now able to work and find you'll be carried on a role outside cloud of the homeexquisite writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546270</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008350388|title=Peas and Queues: The Minefield of Modern MannersWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Sandi ToksvigOtegha Uwagba

|summary=Dear Sandi ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba

You are my all time favourite celebrity lesbadyke, and one ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer 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 colour while only 7% study 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 by a read. I was not wrongwoman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250324</amazonuk>}}'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021

{{newreview|title=Global Modernity Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and Other Essays|author=Tom Rubens|rating=4|genre=Politics nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and Society|summary=It’s been difficult to write determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this reviewdid not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. The book’s eclectic nature, with subject matter ranging from Nietzsche to When Otegha was ten the English Police Forcefamily acquired a car. For Otegha, makes it difficult education meant a scholarship to summarise a private school in London and secondlythen a place at New College, I’m no academic and philosophy is just HARD|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845405633</amazonuk>Oxford.

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Education Under Siege: Why There is a Better AlternativeRichard Brook|authortitle=Peter MortimoreUnderstanding Human Nature: A User's Guide to Life

|summary=Peter Mortimore's thoroughgoing analysis of the absurdities of current educational practice 'When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and prescriptions for finding a far better alternative deserves a wide readershipso on. It is not just an organisation which is under siege but as his personal anecdotes indicateAnd we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, more vigorously than his rigorously argued statisticsdogs on sofas, people are suffering. Parents are anxiousfoxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, teachers badly led and burdened with confused policies and worst millions 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 askedwild animals stay out there, ''Cui bonosomewhere,'', to whose benefit? Professor Mortimore outlines hopefully on the positive alternatives suggested by international comparisons especially with Scandinavian methodsnext David Attenborough series. He argues that their procedures are more effective, that support students and produce a fairer, harmonious society.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447311310</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|title=Inventing I was going to argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in the Enemy: Essays on Everything|author=Umberto Eco|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Imagine a sumptuous Italian feast in wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sunlit-bathed ancient countryside near Milansake of it. Next Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to you a gentleman talks animals - and eats with furious energyI consider myself an animal lover. He tells If I had to choose between the company of Dante, Cicero, humans and St Augustine and quotes a multitude the company of obscure troubadours from the Middle Ages. He repeats himselfanimals, gestures flamboyantly, nudges you sharply in I would probably choose the ribs, belches and even breaks windanimals. His conversation contains nuggets of information I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to stop me but in the flow of his discourse there is a fondness for iteration and reiterationI was initially reluctant. He throws bones over his shoulder and when he reaches the I eat 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 eggs, chicken and prodded to examine his discourse again fish and again, even if only I needed to challenge what you have heardeither do so without guilt or change my choices. Such are I suspected that making the effects of reading Eco’s essays in ''Inventing the Enemy''decision would not be comfortable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553945</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=George Brock1523092734|title=Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital AgeA Women's Guide to Claiming Space|author=Eliza Van Cort|rating=3.5

|summary=At about the turn of the century most people on the street where I live had ''She brings a morning paper delivered hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and a good number also got an evening paperagain and again. 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 girlAlma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD) 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749466510</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Against Their Will: The Secret History ''To claim space is to live the life of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War America|author=Allen M Hornblum, Judith L Newman choosing unapologetically and Gregory J Dober|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=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 bravely. It is 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, the life you might very reasonably assume I am talking abut Nazi Germany. I am not've always wanted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230341713</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|title=Across Sometimes the Pond|author=Terry Eagleton|rating=3reviewing gods are generous: at a time when violence against women is much in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desk.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Terry Eagleton Now - to be clear - this book is not a Brit (Manchester born, no less) who now lives in Dublin 'how to disable your attacker with his American wife and childrentwo simple jabs' manual: it's something far more effective, so he but discussion at the moment seems well placed to write a book be about the difference between us and them, there Yankshow women can be ''protected''. Mid way through the pages, he even stops to tell us I've always thought that in a way he had women need to write rise above this, because when he wishes to read a bookbe people who don't need protection, he writes itpeople who claim their own space. To read someone else’s If all women did this, he suggests, is ‘an unwarranted invasion of their personal space’. That’s how so very British he isthose few men who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big men.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393347648</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jill StarkPolly Barton|title=High Sobriety: My Year Without BoozeFifty Sounds

|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=On the first of January 2011 Jill Stark woke up Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the hangover from Hell. She was no stranger to them: at thirty five shequestion ''Why Japan?''d Japan has been binge drinking on my radar for more than twenty years a while and was in if the dubious position of being the health reporter who wrote herself off at weekendsworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And by like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'wrote herself off' I mean being seriously drunk on a very regular basis, having consumed vast quantities She explains her feelings in respect of alcohol and having regularly put herself the question in danger of serious illnessthe first essay, unwanted pregnancy and assault. But which is on that first day in January Stark decided that she was going to do something about it and the initial decision was that sound ''giro' '' – which she would spend three months on describes as being, among other things, the wagonsound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922247030</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha MousaStephen Fabes|authortitle=A T WilliamsSigns of Life

|genre=HistoryTravel|summary=Almost ten years ago I was brought up on a Sunday morning back in September 2003maps and first-person narratives of tales of far away places. I was birth-righted wanderlust and curiosity. Unfortunately, British Troops raided a hotel in BasraI didn't inherit what Dr. It Stephen Fabes clearly had which was a difficult period in the occupation, six months on from the U.S. led invasion. Temperatures were more than 50 degrees centigradeguts to simply go out and do it. Members of the Queen I also didn's Lancashire Regiment (QLR) took ten suspects in for questioning from a hotel in t inherit the vicinity kind of insurgent weaponry. The Iraqis were hoodedsteady nerve, plasticuffed, forced into stress positions and subjected ability to talk to karate chops strangers and kidney punches by basic practicality that would have meant that I would have survived if I had been gifted with the Britishrequisite 'bottle'. Other men and officers watched, walked by or wondered at In order words I'm not the stench that resulted from vicious punishment. After 36 hours sort of torture, person who will get on a bike outside a 26 year-old hotel receptionist lay dead by asphyxiationLondon hospital and not come home for six years. 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 Fabes did precisely that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099575116</amazonuk>1788161211

{{newreview|author=Ryu Murakami|title=From The Fatherland, With Love|rating=4This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=From The Fatherland, With Love It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is a 2005 Japanese novel set in rescued by the handsome prince who then-near future of 2011marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Fatherland (as I Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will abbreviate marry and have children. It was a belief and it) explores the social and political ramifications of one speculative scenario: what if North Korea invaded Japan?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908968451</amazonuk>would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.