contents august 2015 • issue 434
Editor Nancy Sladek Deputy Editor Tom Fleming Editor-at-Large Jeremy Lewis Senior Editor Jonathan Beckman Chief Editorial Assistant Frank Brinkley Editorial Assistant David Gelber Contributing Editors Michael Burleigh Sara Wheeler • Philip Womack Advertising Manager Terry Finnegan Classified Advertising David Sturge Marketing Assistant Katherine Bogden Bayard Founding Father Auberon Waugh Cover Illustration Chris Riddell
The Literary Review, incorporating Quarto, is published monthly from: 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 Fax: 020 7734 1844 • ISSN 0144 4360 © All subscription enquiries and changes of address to: Literary Review Subscriptions, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH • Tel: +44 (0) 1778 395 165 All advertising enquiries to: Terry Finnegan, Literary Review, 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 Printed in the United Kingdom by: Henry Ling Ltd, at the Dorset Press, Dorchester DT1 1HD • Tel: 01305 251 066 Distributed to newsagents worldwide by: COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Rd, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7QX • Tel: 01895 433 800 Distributed to bookshops by: Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN • Tel: 020 8986 4854 Subscriptions: subscriptions@warnersgroup.co.uk Editorial: editorial@literaryreview.co.uk www.literaryreview.co.uk • @lit_review Designed by Cog Design Literary Review is set in Adobe Caslon and Janet. The latter is a digitisation of an engraved typeface designed by the artist and typographer Reynolds Stone, and named after his wife.
Literary Review | august 2015 2
pulpit 1 D J Taylor history 5 Adrian Tinniswood
Willoughbyland: England’s Lost Colony Matthew Parker 6 Ric hard Overy
The Guardians: The League of Nations & the Crisis of Empire Susan Pedersen 8 Ke vin Jackson
Fracture: Life & Culture in the West, 1918–1938 Philipp Blom 9 Andr ew Roberts
Yanks and Limeys: Alliance Warfare in the Second World War Niall Barr 10 P iers Brendon
Go-Betweens for Hitler Karina Urbach 12 S imon Heffer on four short biographies of monarchs literary lives 13 Ian Sansom
Nabokov in America: On the Road to ‘Lolita’ Robert Roper 14 Ric hard Davenport-Hines
A House in St John’s Wood: In Search of My Parents Matthew Spender 16 James S tourton
Renishaw Hall: The Story of the Sitwells Desmond Seward 17 Jer emy Lewis
Going Up: To Cambridge & Beyond – A Writer’s Memoir Frederic Raphael once more unto the breach 18 John Guy
The Hundred Years War: Volume IV – Cursed Kings Jonathan Sumption 20 Mar y Wellesley
Agincourt Anne Curry outdoor pursuits 21 Michael Bywater
Naked at Lunch: The Adventures of a Reluctant Nudist Mark Haskell Smith 22 L ucy Moore
Speed Kings Andy Bull 23 P eter Oborne
The Awkward Squad: Rebels in English Cricket John Lucas