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Victoria
Jane Ridley 2015 (Penguin 2018)



"Queen Victoria inherited the throne at 18 and went on to become the longest-reigning female monarch in history, in a time of intense industrial, cultural, political, scientific and military change within the United Kingdom and great imperial expansion outside of it (she was made Empress of India in 1876). Overturning the established picture of the dour old lady, this is a fresh and engaging portrait from one of our most talented royal biographers."

Victoria was an unattractive person, spoilt and neurotic. She had no interest in politics and not much in world affairs unless it related to her colonies where she ruled as queen or empress. Most of her energies seemed to be spent on forging dynasties by marrying off her progeny to European royals, although a fat lot of good that did us thirteen years after she died when Britain and Germany went to war ruled by her grandsons George V and Wilhelm II. Did she have a sexual relationship with her servant John Brown? I don't really care to be honest.
Only 120 pages or so and well written too so no great hardship incurred in reading it.

The Year's Best Horror Stories: XX
Karl Edward Wagner (editor) 1992 (DAW 1992)



"From a Toronto bar to a little-known Greek isle to a war-torn Vietnamese village to a very private church in the heart of Ohio, this around-the-world trek through the many landscapes of horror is a truly terrifying festival of the macabre. Karl Edward Wagner has once again recruited the best of the best - from such familiar masters of malice as Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, and Brian Lumley to today's brightest new talents - to craft a fitting twentieth anniversary edition for a series which, year after year, has provided readers with that unforgettable chill of fear, that adrenaline rush of terror, and that wondrous feeling of relief at escaping safely back to the security of everyday existence." (publisher's blurb)

A few of the stories weren't bad. Alan Brennert's "Ma Qui", a ghost story set in the Vietnam war, sticks in the memory. Brian Lumley's "The Picnickers" was enjoyable although the "traveller community" might not agree. Hordern was one of the pit villages featured in the collieries of Durham books and is the birthplace of Lumley, who sets this story in the village of "Hardern".
I Bought this book about 30 years ago and after a reviewer said this series of books are becoming scarce I looked on Bookfinder and saw that £20 is the cheapest available.

Eugene Onegin
Alexander Pushkin 1833, translation James E. Falen (OUP 1998)



"Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s imperial Russia, Pushkin's novel in verse follows the emotions and destiny of three men - Onegin the bored fop, Lensky the minor elegiast, and a stylized Pushkin himself - and the fates and affections of three women - Tatyana the provincial beauty, her sister Olga, and Pushkin's mercurial Muse. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it also portrays a large cast of other characters and offers the listener many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and it shows him attempting to transform himself from a romantic poet into a realistic novelist. This new translation seeks to retain both the literal sense and the poetic music of the original, and capture the poem's spontaneity and wit." (publishers blurb)

A 200 year old, 200 page Russian poem - what's not to like.
Not a read that I would have gone for based on my own preferences, this is the 101st book on the extended list of "1001 books to read...". The "Best of..." books are a good way of getting the reader out of their comfort zone and if it doesn't work out you can do a Clive Barker on it.
It turned out that I quite enjoyed it. It's translated into modern English and notes are present for the obscure cultural references so you don't have to work too hard to figure out what's going on.

Men Without Bones
Gerald Kersh 1962 (Black Curtain Press 2013)



This is one of many collections of short stories by Gerald Kersh. I read one a long time ago and really enjoyed it but never saw any others for sale. They were out of print for decades but thankfully several have been republished recently including this one. One critic said Kersh was incapable of writing a dull word and he is extremely imaginative, writing in a wide range of genres. Two of these stories Feature Leonardo da Vinci and explain with wry humour the Mona Lisa's smile and how he almost invented the submarine.
Most of these new editions are only available in America and so they're not cheap but still well worth the extra expense.

Still - William
Richmal Crompton 1925 (MacMillan 1984)



Each of the William books has fourteen self-contained stories, so not really a novel but more of a collection, although I've never seen any of the tales published anywhere else.
Number five in the series introduces William's six year old nemesis Violet Elizabeth "I'll scweem, scweem and scweem 'till I'm thick" Bott, the daughter of a very rich but common as muck sauce manufacturer.
This book is very funny but features racism (William blacks up again), sexism (the outlaws don't like playing with girls), cruelty to animals (William tries to feed marmalade to his pet stag beetle, Arthur), disableism (Violet Elizabeth's speech defect) and is therefore unsuitable for anyone under the age of forty seven.

Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis 1954 (Penguin 2000)



"Jim Dixon has accidentally fallen into a job at one of Britain's new red brick universities. A moderately successful future in the History Department beckons. As long as Jim can survive a madrigal-singing weekend at Professor Welch's, deliver a lecture on 'Merrie England' and resist Christine, the hopelessly desirable girlfriend of Welch's awful son Bertrand." (publisher's blurb)

It's amusing and well written but slightly disappointing given it's reputation as one of the funniest novels of the 20th century. That's often the way of things; if I'd not heard of this book I would probably be saying how brilliant it was. I found it hard to get a mental image of Dixon, unlike Welch who I pictured as Michael Hordern, based on his portrayal of a similar character in "The History Man" on the telly.
I did enjoy it and the catastrophic public lecture is a very funny set piece, it's just these works never quite live up to the hype.
On Time magazine's list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.

Agincourt
Juliet Barker 2005 (Abacus 2010)



"In this landmark study of Agincourt, prize-winning author Juliet Barker draws upon a huge range of sources, published and unpublished, English and French, to give a compelling account of the battle. But she also looks behind the action on the field to paint a portrait of the age, from the logistics of preparing to launch one of the biggest invasion forces ever seen at the time to the dynamics of daily life in peace and war. She shows how the chivalry and piety that underpinned medieval society, and the contradictions inherent in trying to uphold them, were reflected in the fate of those caught up in the brutal power struggles of the period. A mad king, murderous dukes, scheming bishops, knightly heroes, surgeons, heralds, spies and pirates: the story of Agincourt has them all." (publisher's blurb)

As the blurb says, it isn't just about the battle, which only takes up about twenty pages. I think the author does a good job describing the wider context for a lay audience. All the stuff about the political background, administration and logistics is important for a full understanding and I've got the Osprey book on the battle which might provide more information on the armies, weaponry and tactics.
It was an impulse buy from a charity shop so I didn't realise that there was an updated edition published to coincide with the anniversay in 2015. Slightly annoyed about that.

Agincourt 1415
Matthew Bennett 1991 (Osprey 1993)



"Immortalized by Shakespeare, Agincourt is an epic of courage and hard fighting. Brought to bay after the long siege of Harfleur, Henry V's army was soaked, starving and riddled with disease, and facing a French army at odds of more than 3 to 1. How the English beat off their attackers and slaughtered the flower of French nobility is vividly described in this volume. Matthew Bennett is a lecturer at the RMA Sandhurst and a specialist in medieval military history."

The book focuses on the whole of the English campaign, that is the siege of Harfleur, the march north, the crossing of the Somme and Agincourt itself. This is much shorter than the Barker book and has a greater emphasis on purely military matters. There's not really any revelations absent from the Barker but it's nice to get a slightly differnet perspective on a really interesting subject.

Bring the Jubilee
Ward Moore 1953 (Gollancz >2001)



"Hodge Backmaker lives in a United States in which the South won the Civil War, and the Northern states are backward, poor and agrarian, exploited by the powerful and prosperous South. Hodge, a historian specialising in the War of Independence (sic), has the chance to travel back in time. He chooses to visit the decisive Battle of Gettysburg, but despite his efforts to be merely a spectator, he is discovered – with devastating results." (from The Cosmic Cauldron)

The first entry in "100 Best Science Fiction.." is Nineteen Eighty Four which I've already read so I went next to No. 11 as I didn't want to read all the old ones first.
Hodge's trip to Gettysburg changes events so that the Union win, probably for the better although the alternative 1930s and forties don't look that much worse in world terms. It's a tragedy for Hodge though, as the new timeline means that the inventor of the time machine was never born and he's stuck back in the 1860s with his happy domestic life gone for good. Moore doen't address the time travel paradoxes but he writes a good tale with interesting characters and a plot that is more than just a SF thought experiment. The ending is quite moving.

The Trouble With Jennings
Anthony Buckeridge 1960 (Collins 1965)



"Jennings's resolution to be decent to old people like the masters goes awry when he floods the bathroom with a syphon, impersonates Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, and inadvertently causes a fire drill after lights out. But all is resolved at a triumphant Old People's At Home (RIP) in the tuck box room, with some help from Mr Carter and Old Wilkie. Meanwhile, Darbishire has some problems of his own, firstly when Mr Hind chooses him to play a recorder solo at the school concert. Darbishire duly practises his fingering-technique on his toothbrush - a pity that he tries to play said toothbrush on the night of the concert! Soon after that, the butter that he's carrying in his blazer pocket (his contribution to the aforementioned 'At Home' event) melts during a maths coaching session with Old Wilkie - much to the latter's fury." (from wikipedia)

Pretty much the same formula as the previous ten books, maybe not quite as funny as some of the others but still very enjoyable. In the later books Buckeridge started to stray from the formula and introduce girls and tower blocks and crack dens but no sign of these unwelcome novelties just yet.