The Queen is dead, long live the King! You have to hand it to the Brits - they really know how to go all out with the pomp and hoopla around any big royal event. The death of Queen E Two has provided monarchists worldwide with the greatest show in royal history. Aside from …
Author: richardsleftbank
Retired, when in a late life crisis, began to write - started a blog and now, three novels later, the rest still isn't history.
9/11 REVISITED
It’s been twenty-one years since the al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11 and the occasion was marked in America this week by a number of ceremonies commemorating the nearly three thousand people killed. The attack itself was a message for North Americans who, up until then, were remarkably insulated from the radical ideologies that spawn global terrorism. …
KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST BY ADAM HOCHSCHILD
King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild – Houghton Mifflin, 1998 – If you’ve ever wondered why so many African countries continue to be in disarray, long after they chucked out the colonial system, this is a book that you should read. King Leopold II of Belgium (1835 – 1909) managed to carve out a huge …
THE LAST GARDEN IN ENGLAND BY JULIA KELLY
The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly, Gallery Books 2021 - What better time spent than enjoying the delights of a resplendent garden? The famous gardens of the world are the result of landscape designers attempting to enhance, harmonize or tame nature in a way that reflects their will. But landscape gardening is a …
THE NEW RELIGION
In 'Murica, the Publican Party has embraced a new religion and the rest of world is going to feel the wrath of the Almighty if they don’t shape up and sign on! The new theology trumpets the REAL TRINITY: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Smokes - Rump! HALLELUJAH! In anticipation …
A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME
When I was growing up back in the cretaceous period, there were many words to describe homosexuals: queers, poofters and fags being common. Needless to say, these words were used in a derogatory manner – a kind of verbal put-down for the intolerant to assert their supposed superiority, or insecurities, against those who were different. …
THANK YOU JEEVES BY PG WODEHOUSE
THANK YOU, JEEVES BY PG WODEHOUSE, Herbert Jenkins, 1934 - Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves are ranked among the great comic duos in English literature. P.G. Wodehouse wrote thirty-five short stories and eleven novels featuring the two, beginning in 1917 with the short story ‘Extricating Young Gussie’ and finishing in 1974 with the novel …
A GAME OF THRONES BY GEORGE R R MARTIN
GAME OF THRONES BY GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, Bantam Spectra, 1996 – With the book already claiming ‘classic fantasy’ status and HBO making a hash of the series on television, I decided it was time to get acquainted with the ‘Game of Thrones’. It turns out to be one of those fantasies where the lure of …
FABLE BY ADRIENNE YOUNG
Fable by Adrienne Young, Wednesday Books, 2020 - Imagine this - a heroine, having just found true love and her place in a hostile world, finds herself betrayed, beaten, abducted, tied to the mast of a villain’s ship as his vessel heads out to sea. It’s the sort of thing you expect in the beginning/middle …
THE MYSTERY OF RIGHT AND WRONG BY WAYNE JOHNSTON
The Mystery of Right and Wrong by Wayne Johnston, Knopf Canada, 2021 - My first introduction to Wayne Johnston was his book ‘The Colony of Unrequited Dreams’, which I think is as good a book as has ever been written in Canada. ‘The Mystery of Right and Wrong’ is a much more difficult novel than …
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