contents march 2017 • issue 451 Editor Nancy Sladek Deputy Editor Tom Fleming Editor-at-Large Jeremy Lewis Assistant Editors Frank Brinkley • David Gelber Editorial Assistant Sophie Baggott Contributing Editors Jonathan Beckman Michael Burleigh • Sara Wheeler • Philip Womack Advertising Manager Terry Finnegan Classified Advertising David Sturge Marketing Manager Katherine Bogden Bayard Founding Father Auberon Waugh Founding Editor Dr Anne Smith 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 | march 2017 2
pulpit 1 D J Taylor biography 5 Catherine Fletcher
Be Like the Fox: Machiavelli’s Lifelong Quest for Freedom Erica Benner 7 T homas Shippey
Cnut the Great Timothy Bolton 9 Donald R ayfield
The Last of the Tsars: Nicholas II & the Russian Revolution Robert Service • Lenin the Dictator: An Intimate Portrait Victor Sebestyen 10 David Gelber
Njing a of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen Linda M Heywood 12 Gavin W eightman
Man of Iron: Thomas Telford & the Building of Britain Julian Glover 13 Jo hn Clay
The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test & The Power of Seeing Damion Searls foreign parts 15 Maria Margaronis
Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe Kapka Kassabova 16 Roger Cr owley
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities Bettany Hughes 17 S ara Wheeler
Havana: A Subtropical Delirium Mark Kurlansky history 19 John Gray
Civil Wars: A History in Ideas David Armitage 20 David P ryce-Jones
The Six Day War Guy Laron 22 Jo hn Keay
Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India Shashi Tharoor 23 Joe Moshenska
The Sensational P ast: How the Enlightenment Changed the Way We Use Our Senses Carolyn Purnell 25 Adam L eBor
A Crime in the Family Sacha Batthyány
