Grand unified books thread

[CountDeMoney]

"Over dinner, Stephen had baited her into declaring that she'd like to see the Middle East bombed to a parking lot."


Holy shit, CdM will fall in love.

[Barrister]

Playing this at work, I got - "Occasionally, the moderator will choose to take on a specific role in the focus group interview."

Work version - sounds like fun.

Let's see...

Thus, substantial interference with the trial process by causing undue delay and expense or by creating an appearance of substantial unfairness at any stage of the proceedings may result in a conviction for contempt, regardless of prejudice to the accused".

Kinky.

[PDH]

"Those whom they defeated either had to pay tribute or face the full onslaught of the Assyrian war machine, which under Assurnasirpal acquired a deserved reputation for savagery."

...
...
I think I got Seedy's...

[Kleves]

Stumbling along Halsted's crowded sidewalks, his dress uniform now as filthy as a set of battlefield fatigues, Avery fled from the paranoia of accusing glances to a dirty crawlspace beneath a riveted riser for the local maglev line.

[crazy canuck]

"Such expenses represent part of the price that the plaintiff has to incure to secure his bargain"

[Malthus]

That was pretty good, Mr. Druid, but why'd it take ya so long?

[Ed Anger]

"Those whom they defeated either had to pay tribute or face the full onslaught of the Assyrian war machine, which under Assurnasirpal acquired a deserved reputation for savagery."

...
...
I think I got Seedy's...

Go on. I'm mildly turned on.

[Eddie Teach]

That was pretty good, Mr. Druid, but why'd it take ya so long?

Which form were you in? Cat, bear, treant, fat chicken with antlers...?

[Admiral Yi]

The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, by Piers Brendon.

Some early fun facts: a higher proportion of white crewmen died on slavers than did slaves.  When the slave trade was abolished, half of British long distance shipping was involved in the trade.  Disruption of food supplies to Jamaica caused by the American Revolution was the impetus for Bligh's trip to Tahiti to acquire breadfruit.

[Malthus]

The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, by Piers Brendon.

Some early fun facts: a higher proportion of white crewmen died on slavers than did slaves.  When the slave trade was abolished, half of British long distance shipping was involved in the trade.  Disruption of food supplies to Jamaica caused by the American Revolution was the impetus for Bligh's trip to Tahiti to acquire breadfruit.

The first fun fact makes perfect sense: most people on slave ships who died, would have died of disease, and White crew members would have less resistance to African diseases than Africans.

Hence the old sailor's ditty:

The Bight of Benin! The Bight of Benin!
One comes out, when a hundred went in!

[Sheilbh]

I'm currently reading Peter Mandelson's memoir. Like all good ones I think it sometimes reveals more than the author intends.

I think this is the best of the New Labour books I've read.

Mandelson's got an interesting story even before Tony and Gordon start rowing. He was grandson of a great Labour Minister (and Deputy Prime Minister) and his parents were family friends of the Wilsons. As he said in his high camp speech at Labour Party Conference, he was born into the Labour Party. So it's interesting to read him reflecting on his time as a reformist council member in Lambeth when it was run by Trots and then as media director for Neil Kinnock. It's also the only thing I've ever read that makes the European Commission seem interesting.

It's striking how little he mentions his private life despite now being 'comfortable in his own skin' and there's a sense that it's something he'll never be willing to talk about. So there's mention of a lover in the 80s and his outing by the News of the World during the 87 election campaign, there's a few fleeting references to Reinaldo later on in the book. But I feel there's an interesting story to be told that we don't get. Being a gay man (and known as a gay man) trying to help resurrect Labour in the 80s must have been quite difficult and there must have been effects from it though we're never really let into that side of Mandelson.

Which is the best point of the book. It's got a very good ghost-writer, or Mandelson wrote it himself because there's a real tone to the book. He's clear, vain, funny and often faux-innocent (after one argument with Brown he 'accidentally' let the door shut heavily creating the impression he'd stormed out and slammed the door - and he remembers that detail 13 years later ). The Corfu-Osborne incident is a brilliant example. He's very dismissive of 'dripping poison' into Osborne's ear about Brown, apparently Osborne did most of the talking and Mandelson occasionally nodded. When that got out and, very shortly afterwards, it emerged Osborne had been seeking party donations from ex-pat Russian oligarchs Mandelson is faux-naive about how that story emerged. Though he does note it helped his position.

It's also fascinating on Brown especially and seems to me pretty damning on Blair.

Darling and Douglas Alexander also emerge well. At one point planning the 2010 campaign Harriet Harman suggests a theme of 'family, future, fairness'. Darling replies 'how about fucked?' Alexander 'Futile?' Mandelson 'Finished.'

Currently reading a sort of moneyball account of football.

[Savonarola]

I just finished The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, by Peter Hopkirk.  It's a thrilling account of the British and Russian involvement in central Asia through the 19th and early 20th Century.  Since Hopkirk focuses on the accounts of individual men the book reads like an adventure novel.

The book was first published in the 1980s when the parallels between the Soviet and British invasion of Afghanistan were becoming obvious.  It was republished in 2006 when the parallels between the US-British and British invasion of Afghanistan were becoming obvious.   

[crazy canuck]

I just finished The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, by Peter Hopkirk.  It's a thrilling account of the British and Russian involvement in central Asia through the 19th and early 20th Century.  Since Hopkirk focuses on the accounts of individual men the book reads like an adventure novel.

The book was first published in the 1980s when the parallels between the Soviet and British invasion of Afghanistan were becoming obvious.  It was republished in 2006 when the parallels between the US-British and British invasion of Afghanistan were becoming obvious.   

Yeah, its excellent.

[Queequeg]

Anyone know any good books on overall history of British-Indian relations? Including BEIC, the Raj and postcolonial period.

[The Brain]

lol postcolonial