Daughter of the Desert by Georgina Howell. Pan Books, 2006

The title's 'daughter of the desert' was Gertrude Bell, an ironmaster's daughter from the North-East of England. The book itself was a birthday present from my daughter, Pippa. We are both interested in Gertrude's life and achievements having first met her in a novel based around the Cairo Conference, 1921 when she met with Churchill, T.E. Lawrence and others to negotiate the governance of Mesopotamia, the region we now refer to as Iraq. The origins of present-day Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Palestine also come into Gertrude Bell's story.

What was Gertrude doing there? Well, it is a great story. She explored the Arab areas and made friends with the sheikhs and other Arabs who worked for her on her expeditions.  Remarkable, given attitudes towards women in this region. She learned Arabic and several dialects. She respected and loved their culture and became a major source of information about it.

She came from a very close family and before she went to the Middle East she had been the first woman to gain a double first at Oxford - not many women even got to university then. She became an intrepid mountaineer known to and respected by the male guides and climbers of her day. The climbing episodes I personally found a bit boring but the account of her life as an expert on the Arab world throws a great light on why and what the military are doing there now. The British and French, for example, last century, as allies fought a war in the area against the Turks. Oil for the British Navy was a strong interest. At the time of the First World War 1914-18, the Turkish Empire which controlled the area, was gradually being eased out by force and politics.



Gertrude Bell would have been horrified

Frederick Forsyth

The memorable film 'The Day of the Jackal' was based on one of his books of the same title. This article reminded me of it. Would anyone like to write a review of this famous 'non-new book'? And send it to halvenon@englishwordhelp.com directly or through the pages of the NON-NEW BOOK REVIEW blog.

con referencia a: Frederick Forsyth: 'I lost £2.2m in a share fraud' - Telegraph (ver en Google Sidewiki)

Richard II by Wm Shakespeare and Framed by Tonino Benacquista

Richard II pub. Bliss, Sands & Co, MDCCCXCVIII (1898)
Richard II banishes two nobles: Mowbray, the Duke of Gloucester and Bolingbroke, son of his uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. They have been bickering and accusing each other of treason. While Bolingbroke is in exile, his father John of Gaunt dies and Richard II tries to take over Gaunt's estates.

It is John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, dying, but waiting to see his King and in the company of the Duke of York, who reflects on his admired country and its noble kings (but not the current one) in Act II, scene 1.
The speech often set for schoolboys to learn begins:
"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars..."

Gaunt's son, Bolingbroke, returns to England and it turns out that most of the nobles support him against the King, who only has the Duke of York and the Bishop of Carlisle on his side. Bolingbroke therefore prevails, deposes Richard and becomes King while one of his fans overdoes things. There is always one, right! Saying that Bolingbroke had wished the King was dead, this ONE sets off and does the deed, thus starting a slow fuse to the scattered bush fires known as the Wars of the Roses.

There is more duplicity in the average episode of a 'soap' like East Enders

The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke

If Goldilocks had entered our house on a particular day in early August this holiday summer she would have found all six bears out (probably at the bear beach). If she had lain on our beds she would have found herself lying beside a non-new book left there by its absent occupant and current reader.



Junior Teenage Bear was reading THE HOST by Stephanie Meier (pub 2008).

Senior Teenage Bear was reading THE UNFORTUNATES by Laurie Graham (pub 2002),

Mother Bear was reading PIGS IN HEAVEN by Barbara Kingsolver (pub 1993).

Father Bear was reading BORKMAN'S POINT by Hakan Nesser (pub 1994 Sweden, 2006 England).

Grandmother Bear was reading THE COLOUR by ROSE TREMAIN (pub 2003).



Grandfather Bear was reading THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN pub.2007

by James Lee Burke,

This latest story by James Lee Burke describes Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans followed by Hurricane Rita's on Texas/ Louisiana. There are vivid scenes of violence and squalor as the characters wade through floodwater and crimes too horrible to dwell on. There is beauty too always near in the tropical colour, sound and mood.

Detective David Robicheaux, fights his own instincts as well as criminals, trying to keep his self-respect alongside his strong wife and tough, adopted daughter. His loyalty to his violent friend Clete continually adds distractions to his workload, both public and private, in clearing up the mess of crime in the chaos made by the violence of the hurricanes and the looters. Through Robicheaux, Burke has plenty to say about political neglect and the conflict of factions in this part of the USA.
In the end though Robicheaux's public and private agendas coalesce through his friend Clete as they often did in the other books. If you have never read Burke's books before you have a great treat coming to you: strong on location in Louisiana (and Montana with his character Billy Bob Holland). Colour, crime, quirky characters and relationships give his books a grip on you that may not let you go. You will be in danger of returning often to New Iberia.

My grateful thanks go to Father Bear (above, reading an Icelandic author) who first introduced me to current American writers such as James Lee Burke (reviewed above), Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy. Would anyone like to send me a review of a book by one of these writers?

Please note the double value you get from this website: not just Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In my version there are SIX bears.

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, 1970, Harper-Collins and 19 more books in the series

The first book of a marvellous series of 20 historical novels based on British records of actual events involving the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Excellently described elsewhere, these books are ones that I often return to. They are full of incident, character, the social and intellectual attitudes of the times on land as well as sea, and using the language of the times. O'Brian's wide-ranging research into the sciences of the time particularly Botany and into the practice of Medicine when 'bleeding' was still considered a treatment, and into the historical settings of the time in Australia, Mauritius, Chile and Peru, France, Spain as well as England bring a great feeling of confidence in the content and delight in its variety throughout the series of books. O'Brian was brought to a wider audience by the film starring Russell Crowe, which used content from three books of the series and the title of the first book.

I remember years ago, around 1996 perhaps, waiting to read the next of the series as soon as it was published. These would have been: The Commodore, The Yellow Admiral, The Hundred Days, and finally Blue at the Mizzen. O'Brian died in January, 2000 aged 85.

The esoteric terminology of all the paraphernalia of ships with sails is also present but you may, if you wish, be as impatient with it as one of the main characters, Stephen Maturin, the surgeon, as there is so much more to relish. Master and Commander Jack Aubrey is an action man who also plays the violin,