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
Beasley's Place 