Author: Mike

Books I’ve read – 9

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If you are as old as me, then you will remember the Pentagon Papers (first mentioned in the New York Times in 1971 and the furore they caused, which turned a Daniel Ellsberg into a hero (in my opinion) of free speech.

The Afghanistan Papers is a similar set of data, mostly from declassified secret interviews (SIGAR) of US military and others involved in the Afghan conflict, collected into a riveting read by the Washington Post Journalist & author Graig Whitlock.

If you want to know why and how the US government tried to keep their many secrets secret about the Afghan conflict, then this book is a must-read.

Yes, I am back to reading another of Kate Mosses historical fiction books. This time, book one of the Languedoc Trilogy, Labyrinth. It’s a lengthy read, with some 694 pages! But a great story. Again, based on methodical research.

I am not sure what draws me to her writing, maybe it’s the area this one and the previous The Burning Chambers series are set in.

I’ve been to this area of France a number of times over the years and interestingly looking at the end pages at the back of this book and looking over some old photos, I seem to have done The Labyrinth Walk of Carcassonne without even knowing it! A great read. Sepulchre is next!

Now for a bit of education. What do I know about the eastern regions of Russia and China? Siberia, a desolate place full of past Gulags and China with its vast agricultural areas and its Ice Festival in Harbin!

For much of its length, the Amur River forms a water border between Russia and China, this book looks at the history and peoples of these regions. Colin Thubron (80 years old when he made this trip), brings to life the different regions on his journey, following as closely as possible the route of the river.

It taught me a lot about this area and extensive use of Google Maps helped understand that these regions are not a desolate as I first thought.

Books I’ve read – 8

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Not so long since my last post, catching up!

Another deeply researched book as usual from Barbara Tuchman and, like A Distant Mirror, a book you cannot put down when you start reading it.

Although originally published in 1962 about a subject that happened in 1914! I had not read this book before now. I have no idea why not. Did I discover new facts about the early days of the World War One? Yes I did.

It’s amazing what you think you know from past teachings until you read something like this and up crops a host of new facts you never knew about. This is another must read book, filled with some interesting photos and full of notes, sources and a great index.

After the book above, a lighter read.

I had not heard of this author before, but William Boyd has written a well-thought-out story in this one. Apparently his first of what looks like many, from the list on his Wikipedia page,

Kept me entertained right through to the end. Another good read.

With a few more that I have received from friends, it looks like I will get to know Mr. Boyd a bit more over the coming months.

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Another new author for me! Recommend by my sister and what a great read it is. Has really researched his story and brings together an interesting police duo of Inspector Wyndham and Sergeant Banerjee.

Set in 1919 Calcutta and having visited the place once on business in the early 80s, it was interesting to read the differences described and yet similarities that remained in my mind from my visit.

A great tale, well told and kept the pages turning. It looks like Abir Mukherjee is well on his way to being a successful author, He has me hooked, as I have already bought the next instalment – A Necessary Evil in the series.

Books I’ve read – 7

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Five months! Now, where has that time gone since I last posted about books. But at least I have been reading. Here’s another three…

A very interesting book that explains the background, origin and battles fought over earlier centuries that today allows us to simply pick up a jar of Nutmeg, Cinnamon or many other spices without having any inkling of the history of the contents.

This another book that benefits from the use of the Web. Well, at least in my case. So much extra info to be read about as you work through this book.

Packed full of notes, a great Bibliography, lots of illustrations and an excellent index, this book will take you on a great journey of exploration into the history of just why Spice’s meant so much then and still do today.

Many of us like mushrooms and as part of the Fungi family, this book opens up a whole new world about how fungi are interconnected and how that affects just about everything we touch, smell and see.

I’m pretty sure I did not know much about Fungi, apart from those you ate or saw growing on a rotting log on the country walk. However, but this book has certainly changed that.

With over 20 pages of notes, some great illustrations, an extensive bibliography, this book takes some reading, but in the end you get to know just what’s under that mushroom you have just picked!

Amazingly, I purchased this book in 2016 and then somehow it disappeared into a box in my study till rediscovered during a tidy up earlier this year!

I served in the Royal Navy for nearly 16 years and apart from a short stint (four days on loan to fix some equipment) submarines we definitely not for me.

This book (all 835 pages!) is a great read and amongst the many subjects it covers, it is also a great way to find out about the Perisher, or Submarine Command Course to give it its official title. All potential Submarine Captains must pass it first time, if you don’t, you’re out! Surprisingly, there is some thinking about changing that.

Books I’ve read – 6

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What a book! It’s taken me over six weeks to read this book. It contains so much information about a subject I thought I knew, but clearly didn’t. Also, as is custom now with me, when reading factual books it took me to many places on the Internet.

I just did not know how much fighting there was between the various ‘tribal’ factions before the Europeans came to India. I also did not know how much Afghanistan and other States had invaded these lands.

It’s the first book written by William Dalrymple that I have read, it’s a very well researched book with great footnotes and explanations and a real insight in into the way the East India Company operated across the various states of India. History is sometimes not very pretty, but this book is straight forward in its telling, including all its gory details. A very good read.

This is the fourth and final instalment of The Joubert Family Chronicles series from Kate Mosse. What a great read and finale to a story that has spanned some 300 hundred years in its making.

I did not like the third instalment – The Ghost Ship – as I thought it wandered of the main the theme and to me at the time of reading, it was just a bit of a Pirate story. However, in hindsight (always a wonderful thing) and now having read the last instalment, I see it a bit more clearly in the whole series.

I have not read any of Kate Mosses books before these, but it has spiked my interest and will be using a birthday gift voucher to purchase The Languedoc Trilogy.

James Clerk Maxwell is not a name that springs to mind in most people’s thoughts. But if you look around at the modern world, his influence is everywhere. As the person who discovered Electromagnetic Waves, his discovery led to the eventual development of the Radio, Television, Radar to name a few and even today’s ubiquitous Smartphone. I also know his name from a photography point of view, as he is credited with taking the first colour photograph.

This excellent short book from Wiley is well worth the cost and Basil Mahon (ex REME) has done a very good job in covering Maxwells life and works and how he influenced the work of many others including Albert Einstein. In a modest way, I would not have had a technical career in the Royal Navy without Maxwells discoveries

It caught my eye… 6 -2025

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There’s a lot of commentary around Donald Trump at the moment, far too much to delve into it in a single post, but there was a great article about Patrimonialism in The Atlantic magazine last week.

One Word Describes Trump is still available for free on the Atlantic website and it is very much worth a read.

Patrimonialism for me is very much the word to describe Donald Trump.

A sign of the times! DanePost has announced that they will be ending the delivery of letters from the end of 2025.

Is this a trend that will now move out across the whole of Europe? Certainly, as more Postal Services are privatised, prices will go up – it currently costs £3.35 to post a letter in Denmark!

With the sale of Royal Mail recently being approved by the UK Government, might we see similar dramatic changes to UK letter deliveries?

Shock Horror, Skype is closing down!

Certainly it is the end of what was a very good app, I used it a lot many years ago, but it seems to have been overtaken by App’s like Zoom & WhatsApp to name two.

Microsoft has posted a ‘Transition to Teams‘ article, I guess that’s where I might end up!

It caught my eye… 5 -2025

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I am in the process of clearing up the piles of papers in my study and came across an old article (2009) about Cinerama, a forerunner of today’s IMAX. Cinerama was a great idea at the time that sadly did not catch on, but not before it brought a travelling Cinema (in a tent – like a Circus) to the UK and a number of other European countries.

Making a new search on the web this week led me to find a few new links about Cinerama, including one about a young (at the time) Junior Projectionist who worked at the UK travelling Cinerama during the mid 1960’s in the UK.

I remember going to see a show when it was in Paignton (we lived in Plymouth), an amazing film experience. But sadly, no more. Though, you can still be able to see some Cinerama films at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford.

Keeping on the theme of Cinema, it was great to Medicinema win an award at the 2025 BAFTA’s.

I had not heard of this organisation before seeing this year’s BAFTA’s awards. Good to see how Cinema can be used as part of recovery during a stay in Hospital.

In a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) current has not declined in the last 60 years. Despite the fact that no one seems to still be able to predict if it will suddenly collapse or not.

It just goes to show how difficult it is to accurately predict climate change, and particularly how the impact of it will at some stage affect us all.

For me, the Ocean Currents hold the secret to what will happen, so it’s important that we pay attention to all the details that these studies contain.

It caught my eye… 4 -2025

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This is a map from quite a while ago, 2014 in fact. This was one of the first times that a group of people really tried to gather together a good set of subject data that could be easily searched down to a very local level. It certainly did not try to cover everything, but it was a good source of information for its time. It even spawned a book.

The data sets used covered information from various sources, such as the Office for National Statistics (ONS), The Met Office, Public Health England to name a few. A full list of all the data sources used is available. The project, run by the Small Area Health Statistics Unit at Imperial College London, seems to have come to a close not long after the publication of the book. Time and data collection has really moved quickly over the subsequent 10 years, with Information/Statistics about every conceivable subject at the drop of a hat!

Defence spending is a big topic of conversation at the moment across the whole of Europe and with the next UK strategic defence review due in the Spring of 2025, it will be interesting to see how the UK.Gov intends to spend its scarce financial resources, given the recent comments by the US Trump administration.

Here’s a set of listings of how much various countries currently spend on Defence? Not a subject that is going away.

Britain From Above recently updated its pricing and added some more images to its archive. It’s a fascinating site where you can lose track of time looking through the various historical images.

There are now quite a few other historical aerial mapping sites to visit.

UK Aerial Photos, National Collection of Aerial Photography, Britain from the air: 1945-2009 and the Royal Air Force Museum to name a few.

Books I’ve read – 5

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A heavy seasonal cold/cough/lurgy spread over the last seven days has provided some additional time to catch up with reading, plus a look back at one I read a very long time ago.

The subject of this book is everywhere at the moment with various clips appearing on YouTube Shorts, Facebook/Instagram Reels to name a few places.

It’s an old book (published in 2016) however it’s a great story of just how much effort was required to get the space race going in the early days and how much it relied on ‘Human Computers‘ for accurate calculations.

It’s also a story of the iron will determination to succeed on a chosen career despite all the obstacles thrown at the main characters. It’s a great book; the film was also very good. But I don’t have the T-shirt!

I read this book a while ago but came across it last week while looking for something and it fell off a bookshelf; so, I had to have another look at it.

A great story that brings Hong Kong to life in the mind of the reader – well, it did in mine. I must have visited Hong Kong over 20 times during my lifetime and I never tired of it. Although I have not been there for some 20 years, I never tire of reading stories about the place.

Yes, it has changed and is no more the place I and many others remember. However, books like this bring back fond memories of a time gone by, never to return.

I cannot believe that it is 35 Years since I first read this book and it is still on my bookshelf!

Barbara Tuchmann has written some great books over her literary career, including The Zimmerman Telegram & Note’s from China to name a couple.

I mention this as I choose as part of my Waterstones Christmas gift card another of her books, this time The Guns of August – previously published in the UK as August 1914.

It’s another telling of the early months of WW1; having read several different interpretations of this period, I await with interest her telling of this disaster in the making.

It caught my eye… 3-2025

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Leaving aside the moronic comments made by Trump at the press conference. I have another issue.

Why have many of the headlines and commentary both from the USA news outlets and British news commentators, who in my opinion should know better, kept on saying that the Plane had collided with the Helicopter?

It seems pretty clear to me that the plane was on the final approach to the airport when the helicopter flew into it!

Of course we will have to see what the black boxes say. But I wish there was better and more accurate reporting.

Fire! Fire! Fire! Normally, the main reaction would be to pour water over the fire to put it out. That is true in many circumstances, but the world has become a more ‘complicated’ place, for example, you would not want to use water to put out an electrical fire!

However, over the years, various substances have been created to deal with specialist fires, Foam, Carbon Dioxide, Halon Gas (though banned in the late 1990’s) to name a few. I remember in the navy in the 60’s/70’s the main foaming agent used was Ox’s blood!!!

Well it now seems that there are growing concerns arising from the use of foams containing PFOS and PFOA (perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid), as they have been discovered to be some of the ‘Forever Chemicals‘ that end up (via run-off )in our waterways after a fire has been extinguished. Here’s an interesting report that’ worth reading from the Guardian – 3M knew firefighting foams containing PFAS were toxic, documents show.

Flooded Pitch

It’s rained a lot over the past number of months and it was sad to see that Worcester Cricket Club ground is flooded again. We lived in Worcester for a number of years after I left the Royal Navy and where we purchased our first house.

I managed to get to a few games during our time in Worcester when Basil D’Oliveira played for them. Will they move to avoid future floods? Who knows? But discussions are moving along.

It caught my eye… 2-2025

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Sometimes, the UK’s confusing legal system still appears to be able to deliver unbelievable mistakes.

This is 78 years old Gaie Delay who was jailed for 20 months in 2022 as part of a UK Government ‘crackdown’ on Just Stop Oil protestors. Last Christmas she was release due to medical issues and was to be fitted with a ‘Tag‘ to finish her sentence at home.

Due to physical issues, a correct size tag could not be sourced to fit her. After a number of days; 20 as it turns out, she has now been recalled to prison for those 20 days to finish her sentence! She must be a very dangerous criminal!!! Full story here and here.

With the rise of keyboard and voice operated devices, it seems that the art of handwriting is on a marked decline. I would admit to being one of those who does not write with a pen as much as I used to, though I still sometimes reach out for my lovely Waterman pen (a birthday gift from my sister a few years ago), to use it to write Birthday/Christmas cards.

One interesting fact I learned from this very interesting article (Long-Read) is that as today’s primary school children are not taught to write cursively (joined up writing to you and me) so they also struggle to read it. Amazingly, Finland removed cursive writing from its schools in 2016!

Having spent some of my secondary education years at a Roman Catholic school where penmanship was drilled into you – even the teachers (Nun‘s) used square chalk on the blackboards – everything handwritten had to be in the Italic script style of writing! It’s a shame to see it handwriting slowing disappearing. I’ll have to give myself some ‘Writing-Lines‘ to keep me using my Waterman, so that I don’t lose the physical and mental ability to handwrite something in the future.

I was sad to see that the British Council is facing a UK.Gov funding shortfall and may be forced to reduce its operations around the world. I think this organising does a tremendous amount of work on behalf of the UK and should be looked on as a good use of ‘Soft Power‘. One effect of withdrawing funding, will be an upsurge in the influence of Russia and China in areas where we once promoted our basic core values.