What are you reading now?

[richardfinegold]

I love old aeroplanes and found Greg Baughen's "The rise and fall of the French Air Force - 1900-1940" to be quite fascinating if you have interest in the inter-war years. The book tackles the issue of aircraft development in France and how it went from producing the best aircraft of the First World War to some designs prior to the outbreak of the Second World War which were barely flyable. It is fascinating because the French were effectively looking to produce one aircraft which could carry out mult-combat roles and ended up with a suite of fighters and bombers which could barely function. When the French received reports of the capabilities of the Spitfire they flatly refused to believe the claims and continued developing inferior planes. However, the book does stress that the British, Germans and Americans along with the French struggled to develop effective aircraft in the 1930s.

Just finished David Grann's "The Wager" which is about a ship assigned to Admiral Anson's fleet and was shipwrecked in the 1740s . The survivors were abandone on a remote island off the coast of Chile and managed to rebuild a viable boat which they then navigated back to Brazil, The style of writing is quite light as is typical for American historian but the story is an absolute page-turner and recalls a tale of survival as impressive as Shackleton's. I really enjoyed this book.

The French primarily kept their Air Force mothballed during the German invasion. If they had aggressively attacked the German columns trudging through the Ardennes then the outcome could have been very different

[smittims]

The policy of the British and French governments was to avoid dropping bombs on German soil in the vain hope that it would persuade Hitler to do likewise. In the same way,they expected the war to be an economic stand-off which they were , on paper, well-placed to win. It was of course a tragic mistake, as their blockade succeeded so well that it provoked Hitler into the Blitzkrieg campaign .

The Fench air force was frequently described as the world's largest, but quantity didn't ensure quality. Maybe their best brains had been killed in 1914-18, when French losses were not only greater that British but also a higher proportion of the country's smaller population.

[Ian Thumwood]

The French primarily kept their Air Force mothballed during the German invasion. If they had aggressively attacked the German columns trudging through the Ardennes then the outcome could have been very different

Baughen's book is really insightful with regards to the poor performance of the French Air force in 1940. There were combinations of factors but manufacturing became an issue by the time they got their act together. I think there wasone plane produced by Potez which had such poor stability that Polish pilots refused to fly it. It was a catalogue of disasters that culminated in poorly designed, under-powered aircraft and an inability to produce planes that fulfilled their perceived requirments. The book is fascinating as so much is unfamiliar and interesting to see that other countries had their own procurement issues too. British aircraft form that era were not much better either other than the likes of Hurricanes and Spitfires. The book advises that even America produced it's fair share of duds in the 1930s. It does not seem to have been a great decade for aircraft design.

[AHR]

Marguerite Young, 'Miss MacIntosh, My Darling.' This could take some time.

[smittims]

I'm enjoying a re-read of Henry VI part 2. What a nasty character Margaret is. Just like Ann in The Brothers, she's the one we all love to hate.

For some time now I've preferred reading Shakespeare plays and imagining my own ideal staging to seeing or hearing them performed. The modern acting style in Shakespeare is anathema to me, as is the fashion for 'modern' or 'relevant' staging.

[LMcD]

I'm enjoying a re-read of Henry VI part 2. What a nasty character Margaret is. Just like Ann in The Brothers, she's the one we all love to hate.

For some time now I've preferred reading Shakespeare plays and imagining my own ideal staging to seeing or hearing them performed. The modern acting style in Shakespeare is anathema to me, as is the fashion for 'modern' or 'relevant' staging.

Quite the opposite in my case - I can only get through a Shakespeare play if I can watch what's going on as I read the sub-titles!

[smittims]

Ah, yes. Someone saw me watching the old Russian film of Hamlet (the one with music by Shostakovitch) , and knowing I had no Russian, asked me how I could understand it without subtitles. I said 'well, I don't need subtitles. It's Hamlet!'

[richardfinegold]

Baughen's book is really insightful with regards to the poor performance of the French Air force in 1940. There were combinations of factors but manufacturing became an issue by the time they got their act together. I think there wasone plane produced by Potez which had such poor stability that Polish pilots refused to fly it. It was a catalogue of disasters that culminated in poorly designed, under-powered aircraft and an inability to produce planes that fulfilled their perceived requirments. The book is fascinating as so much is unfamiliar and interesting to see that other countries had their own procurement issues too. British aircraft form that era were not much better either other than the likes of Hurricanes and Spitfires. The book advises that even America produced it's fair share of duds in the 1930s. It does not seem to have been a great decade for aircraft design.

There planes were inferior, but not worthless. I believe that they downed over 100 Luftwaffe planes during the invasion. One reason Sea Lion never took place was that Goering felt he needed a bit of time to replace their losses . More importantly, had they attacked the German supply columns that were stacked in the Ardennes, even if it meant taking heavy losses, it could have really made a difference

[Ian Thumwood]

Richard

Baughen's point was that the British, American, French and Germans were all beset by issues with aircraft being unable to fulfil their design criteria. The reason so many aircraft from the 1930s are unknown is because they did not remain in service too long. They ether quickly became obsolete or, more often the case, performed poorly. It is quite an interesting book to read if you ever have been involved with procurement.

I am crrently reading Harry Sidebottom's "The Falling sky." I picked this up cheaply and was interested as it is a fictionalised account set during the civil war between Postumus and Gallienus in 265 AD and alot of the action takes play in Autun and Lyon which I both know . The first few chapters were dreadful and I wondered if this book was really intended or teenagers. As I have progressed, it is interesting for the historical context even though I find the dialogue to be a bit crass.

[CallMePaul]

I May Be Some Time by Francis Spufford. I've only just started this book about British obsession with ice and the ends of the earth leading up to Scott's ill-fated polar expedition, but it looks interesting if also a challenging read.

[gradus]

Re-reading The Good Old Cause, Christopher Hill and Edmund Dell's book about our Civil Wars that draws on then-contemporary writing to describe events. It is totally absorbing and eye-opening to read what people writing at the time thought and wrote right across the specrum of opinion. In my view a seemingly forgotten great book.

[smittims]

Yes, I must admit that, although the Civil War is an old interest of mine I hadn't heard of that book, but anything by Christopher Hill has to be worth reading.

I've just started The Garrick Year by Margaret Drabble , a surprisingly modern novel for 1964 . Despite writing about physical attraction, marriage and adultery firmly from a woman's point of view, it isn't a feminist rant, but quite fair to both sides, I think . The reader who passed it on to me said it was 'full of swearing and blaspheming' but I haven't found any so far.

[richardfinegold]

Richard

Baughen's point was that the British, American, French and Germans were all beset by issues with aircraft being unable to fulfil their design criteria. The reason so many aircraft from the 1930s are unknown is because they did not remain in service too long. They ether quickly became obsolete or, more often the case, performed poorly. It is quite an interesting book to read if you ever have been involved with procurement.

I am crrently reading Harry Sidebottom's "The Falling sky." I picked this up cheaply and was interested as it is a fictionalised account set during the civil war between Postumus and Gallienus in 265 AD and alot of the action takes play in Autun and Lyon which I both know . The first few chapters were dreadful and I wondered if this book was really intended or teenagers. As I have progressed, it is interesting for the historical context even though I find the dialogue to be a bit crass.

I am not disputing that French aircraft were inferior to every one else in 1940. The point that I keep making is that they didn’t use them in a time of dire need. Inferior or not, it was s—- hit the fan time. German columns were bunched in the Ardennes for a few days-even a Blitzkreig can’t squeeze an Army through a toothpaste tube- and inferior planes or not, an attack at that point would have been preferable, and done some damage, compared to leaving them in their hangers.
Smittems point that the French were concerned that a bomb might land on the wrong side of the Ardennes border and provoke some sort of incident is nonsense. By that time the French and Germans had been actively fighting each other in Norway and the Phoney War was over. The Germans had attacked French Civilians as well as Military from the air in the first day of the assault on France, not to mention Belgium. Hitting German columns whether they were on one side of the Border or the other was meaningless-the genie was out of the bottle. Nor did the blockade of Germany provoke the Blitz on the UK. The Blitz occurred because Hitler couldn’t mount an amphibious invasion of the UK. He hoped that a severe attack would convince the defeatist elements in the UK that especially with France gone, further English resistance was pointless

[french frank]

Looking forward to reading Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Year's War on Palestine. Very well reviewed but there are a few warning lights: a Wikipedia article of which the neutrality is disputed (of the article not the book), a Guardian review by an author on the same subject flagged at the bottom as 'This article was amended on 7 and 9 May 2020 to comply with Guardian style'. Eh??. I can see opportunities for propaganda (and I'm probably sympathetic to the general bias), so it will be good to keep a critical approach. Factually, it will certainly be useful.

Published four years ago, but probably attracting more attention lately.

[Padraig]

Published four years ago, but probably attracting more attention lately.

Denis Bradley Peace Comes Dropping Slow: My life in the Troubles.

Published recently, not entirely irrelevant to your choice f f.