Paths of Glory--The French Army 1914-1918

This was an interesting book, up to a point. However, it did seem to talk a lot about the British effort for a book supposedly about France. There was also almost nothing about campaigns outside the Western Front, which I'm sure the French were involved in. However, it was interesting to see a little bit more about the Battle of Verdun which is almost always mentioned with regard to the Somme, but rarely gets much more than that. However, it does chart the progress and setbacks of the French Army well. The French did bear the brunt of the fighting in the First World War, but nobody seems to think about them...

The major problem the French faced at the start was their emphasis on the offensive. Even though the Germans were attacking and sweeping in through Belgium, the French had other ideas which blatantly ignored enemy action until it couldn't be ignored any longer. They launched their own offensive into Alsace-Lorraine, which was a major reason for the tension leading up to WWI as it had been taken at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. They had some success at first, but the troops had to be taken away from there and sent to defend France where the Germans had actually broken in. But the trouble was, the French were determined to counter-attack constantly, and to not give up any land. They were still wearing very bright uniforms (which the British had replaced before the Boer War in 1989 and further adapted after the experiences then which pointed out that shiny bits were not such a great idea), making them brilliant targets, and so when they counter-attacked they were decimated. This meant the army lost a large portion of its experienced men, particularly the officers as they tended to lead from in front.

Conscription had been part of the French military for a while, and in theory gave a sort of national unity. In practice, mixing up men from different areas of the country caused problems due to accent differences. It also destroyed the unity within the different regiments, who had originally been all part of the same community (like the Pals regiments), which Anthony Clayton suggests played a part in the French collapse of morale in 1917. This too is well portrayed, along with the way in which the army was pulled back into action.

At the end of the book, he suggests that the experiences of the First World War--a pyrrhic victory for the French in the end--was what led the French to collapse so fast in the Second. I don't particularly agree on that point. For one thing, although it would have permeated the social consciousness, they weren't the same people who were fighting again. Many people admired Hitler's style of government, and, as demonstrated by the creation of Vichy France, they were mostly okay to live under it (the Resistance, according to Churchill's Wizards did not really play much of a part in the ultimate downfall of Hitler and was never much more than a nuisance). In fact, even Gandhi thought Hitler was a decent enough chap at first. I have seen it argued that Britain shouldn't have fought Hitler at all, and certainly the French stood little chance of standing up to Hitler--half because of the lack of political unity, the lack of decisions, and the fact that their army had been run down. Further, there were a few blunders, which left them in an untenable position. It was pretty logical to surrender in that position, rather than attempting to sustain a resistance that could not have served any particular point.

The French Revolution 1789-1799

This one was by Peter McPhee (I would guess there's a fair few books out there with the same or similar titles). I think the best word to describe it is: dry. And complicated. I found it difficult to follow, because my understanding of French is limited to GCSE level (although I did manage to get an A* :D). But there were the odd bits put in without being translated, which unfortunately made very little sense to me. The other part of the confusing side is that he seemed to expect a fair bit of understanding already, which I didn't really have. My only knowledge was related to the storming of the Bastille. It wasn't really a very good introduction. I'd been hoping for something like God's Fury, England's Fire but related to the French Revolution. It did talk a fair bit about the political side of things, and how the Revolution solved some of the French problems, but it was also a little bit boring truth be told.

Some of the stuff about the previous reign was interesting, I'll admit that. The fact that there was no common system of measurement in the country, and every district had their own (sometimes with the same names, even if they were different sizes!), was pretty shocking. And some of what he said about the political system in place, the politics of the mob basically, was interesting. But on the whole, it wasn't really that good. If you want to know about the French Revolution, I don't recommend this one--it left me almost more confused than when I started it.

Whoa, where's the time gone?

It seems like only yesterday I started again at college. Equally, it feels like the summer holidays never really happened. Weird, isn't it? Anyway, I've been crazy busy what with UCAS forms and whatnot. Scary stuff. I really hate doing forms like that, they're so fussy. And it doesn't help that my high school wasn't on the system, so I had to fish out the school number. And then I had to work out what examining board I did which exam with. And I've just found out that it actually needs to be handed in on Wednesday this week, not next Wednesday like we were originally told. Help!

Anyway, I've been back for one full week and one part week (had Monday/Tuesday off the week before last). I'm getting a fair bit of homework, but I've got frees now so so far I've been able to do large portions of it at college. Today, for example, I did all my maths, history, and ancient history homework in my free period, and had time left to read :D. That was good. It meant I didn't have to do any over the weekend--just read.

I've started doing AS Ancient History (or Classical Civilisation as it seems to be called, sounds a lot posher I have to say!), which is quite fun. Although it is weird to be in a class with a load of first years. But it's pretty interesting. The democracy stuff is fascinating, and it's kind of strange to see how they determined to keep the power out of the hands of a small group of people by allocating offices by lot etc. To be perfectly honest, we've been looking at similar stuff in Modern History (although related to modern/more modern British politics), and allocating by lot doesn't seem to be such a good idea when you remember that Education Ministers randomly switch to Armed Forces etc. Very interesting stuff, although I have to confess I do still prefer Modern. We're doing WWII!, which I've never had chance to study properly before, although we have looked a bit at the build up to it in GCSE.

Anyway, I think that's about it with regard to updating on life. Now I just need to somehow catch up on all those book reviews. I might skip a few, certainly the ones I've written about on here before.

Rather Unexpected...

[I actually wrote this on Sunday, not today. I've just not been on laptop connected to internet since then.]

Well, today was a bit of an unexpected day. I was, as I described earlier, somewhat thrown in at the deep end with regard to Junior Church. Well, I say thrown in at the deep end, to be honest, I jumped although I was expecting the water to be a little shallower. Still, I enjoyed it. Then there was the whole playing around with a laptop thing, which I kinda decided to do off my own bat, but still, not something I would expect to do. I'm now lying on my bed, typing this into open office because I don't yet have wireless (and probably never will at home, it's a bit too unsecure for my parent's liking and I have to say I agree with them on that), on a laptop. Which I never really expected to have. I knew I'd probably get one before I went to uni, but I wasn't expecting my granddad to give me his old one, well before I'm going away. Seems to be working perfectly fine. Still getting used to the keyboard a bit, though thankfully there don't seem to be too many random letters in not quite the expected position. Anyway, that wasn't the most unexpected thing that happened today...

It appears that I can play the drums. Yeh, I say that as though I didn't realise it. I kinda didn't. Got to church this evening, and Buster apparently said to my mum that Hil wasn't here so it looked like we wouldn't have a drummer. Mum half volunteered me, so I thought why not and hopped on down, not really expecting anything to come of it. Hil duly turned up, but then said she didn't want to play, she wanted a night off. So all of a sudden, yes I was playing the drums at church. Bear in mind I have never played with a group before—a few months ago (maybe around Easter time, maybe before that even) we got the electric drums out and I had a bit of a go with mum. Since then I haven't played them. But I sat down and had a bash and it went pretty well. Talk about jumping in at the deep end (again, can't really say I was thrown in, it was my choice to go for it). I have to say though, I did quite enjoy it, especially when I was starting to get the hang of it. My dad said on the way home 'wasn't that a bit stressful', and to be honest, I never really felt that stressed. Church on a Sunday evening is an environment I feel very comfortable in, so I was okay with that. I think God had a hand in it too :D. In fact, I know he did, cos there is no way I could've done that in my own strength—I was shaking after my last clarinet exam, and clarinet is something I feel a heck of a lot more comfortable with than the idea of me playing drums. Apparently it sounded okay. Buster said I lost the beat slightly once or twice, but that I did pretty well over all, so I guess that was okay. So yeh, a bit of a day of firsts for me.

I only joined for the hat

This was a brilliant book. The title caught my eye--it looked quite amusing. It was, but it was also very interesting. Filled wtih recollections from not just the author, but also her friends. It deals with the WRENs, something I knew very little about. I mean, you hear about the women in the RAF, but I never really considered that there were women in the Royal Navy and that they actually did some pretty interesting jobs.

There was the usual admin-type stuff of course, but there were also far more exciting duties. Like teaching submarining and torpedo aiming. Did you have any idea they let WRENs do that? I certainly didn't. It sounded quite exciting, and the WRENs were once allowed out onto a real submarine, to see if they could do it for real. I seem to recall they did manage to hit one of the targets, which is quite impressive as I would imagine the simulator and the actual would be quite different. Another thing the WRENs were involved with was the Navy equivalent of the RAF's plotting table. Again, not something I ever thought of, but I suppose they'd have to have one in order to keep track of their ships, and convoys. Apparently one of the WRENs was on duty plotting her fiance's convoy when the news came in that some of the ships had been hit, which must have been rather terrifying.

All in all, it sounded like an incredibly exciting experience. I would've quite enjoyed it I reckon... You get a real sense of the atmosphere amongst the WRENs, I would really recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Home Front and the role of women in the Second World War. Or just those of you who would like an amusing, if sometimes rather poignant, and lively read.

Junior Church

Well, today I did Junior Church at Fresh Manna. Well, part of it. I got a call on Thursday night from Ruth, she said could I do the under fives on Sunday. So I said sure, came up with an idea and a bit of a plan, including an activity. Got it all ready on Saturday evening. I made ten baby Moseses out of salt dough, and baked them all (and since I had some left I made some other things too), which was quite good fun. Painted them up this morning. And I ended up getting to church and after a bit of confusion based on the fact I was supposed to be going in with the rest of my group today, I wound up teaching the whole of Junior Church, with a load of parents listening in, about Moses, and then handing round my Moseses. There were just enough apparently, because I then had to scurry off to my group. Nicky and Ruth both said I did pretty good. Apparently the babies went down well :D. Unfortunately, the origami boxes were rather more complicated than anyone else had anticipated (actually, they're not that hard, but you do need to have someone to show you how to do it), so they didn't manage to do that. I enjoyed it any rate, will hopefully get to do it again some time.

As an added aside: I am writing this on a laptop for the first time ever. My granddad gave me his old one, dad's modified it a little so it has enough ram to actually load the antivirus, and now it seems to be working pretty good.

The Guns of Naverone

Classic thriller. What more can I say, really? This was one of the first Alaistar MacLean books I read, I've reread it at least three times now.

Captain Mallory and his group of four other men are going into Naverone 'the hard way'. A mission which is almost suicidal, in order to destroy the Guns of Naverone so that the men on Kheros can escape. A fascinating and thrilling action story unfolds, laden with tragedy, adventure, and great characters who persevere despite various setbacks (including the fact that Miller has vertigo). I love this book. You should read it.

Running Blind

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the other books by Desmond Bagley. Part of it was that the hero didn't really seem all that heroic. I read it while I was in Cambridge, and it was good enough to make me want to stay up and finish it off, but I felt a little disappointed. It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, but not as good as the others. The detail about Iceland was very well written, and if I hadnt got quite annoyed at Stewart for being not particularly heroic, I would have thought him quite a good character. I just have a preference for spies to be heroes. It was a great plot though, and even if I'm not a great lover of women who just provide a rather 'dumb blonde' sort of attraction, this was not quite as much of a 'dumb blonde' as I've noticed in most books of this era.

I definitely recommend Desmond Bagley, though I don't think this is one of his best works.

Baptisms!!!

On Saturday it was a baptism service for Fresh Manna down at Tanterton (we don't have a baptism bit in our 'church', what with it being a university building). It was really good, great to see Simon and Tom and Becky all getting baptised.

On the way home, Mum and Dad dropped me off in town so I could go to the teenage reading group, but it wasn't very good. We didn't talk about books at all, and I kinda wished I'd just gone home.

Soaked

Well, on Friday I was lucky enough to have all the periods I had free consecutively in the afternoon. However, as soon as I set off for home on my bike, it started to throw it down. So I got drenched. Meh.

I also went to an Oxbridge meeting in the morning, where I found out that I apparently should apply to Cambridge rather than Oxford because of the whole resitting thing. But that means doing a HAT test. Although the Oxford course does look pretty good. So yeh, don't know what to do about that yet. I'll go to the Oxford open day on the 18th, hopefully that will help me decide, although I am inclined to go for Oxford.

I got masses of stuff to do over the weekend (and extra two days off), but I've now done a lot of it. Almost all the form stuff, and some of the rest of it. Why did every single teacher thing it would be a great idea to give us loads of work for these two days off? Still, I suppose I shouldn't complain.

Resitting...

Well, I went to history today and discovered that although I got an A overall, John still thinks I ought to resit my Crimean/Boer/WWI module, so I guess I will. It's to do with addy uppy stuff. Then he got me kinda worried and said I need to check with Cambridge whether I'd be okay cos I only got a B in the second exam. I just looked though, and it all seems fine. So yeh, there you go. First history lesson with John today, he seemed pretty good. Not quite as friendly as Elisa perhaps, but I don't suppose he needs to be. And he has a Scottish accent, which is a definite bonus :D. The new Cherub book (and Pilgrim's Progress) arrived from Amazon today. Guess which I started reading?! Actually, I've finished it, and it said at the back that there's only going to be one more Cherub book :*(. Plus, and this is gonna sound really geeky, all my other Cherub books are paperback, and all the covers line up because of that (they have a little band of a different colour at the top with the Cherub logo), and the hardback one isn't going to line up. And plus the book is shaded rather than solid colour. So it doesn't match! But yeh, that's really a very minor gripe when I realise that I totally could not have waited any longer for the new one to show up. A year already since The General! So while I don't want the series to end, I can't wait for the next already!

First Day Back at College

Well, I went into college this morning, and when I finally got there (I hate busses), I worked out what room I was in, managed to get into Cecilia's after a bit of faffing, and tootled on up to C202. I met Martin (my Lit teacher) on the way up, and he said 'well done' on my exam, and then told me they were probably gonna send off for my script to use as an example! And then he said he didn't think he had me this year :(. Turns out he was right. But anyway, I got up to where my form room was, and nobody was there at first cos I was kinda early, but I didn't know where anyone would be so I figured I'd go straight up. I was there a little while when Vic came up, but turns out she was in a different room, two doors down. So I was still on my bill. A few more people from my old form started showing up, and they were all in 204 as well. It was starting to look like there was gonna be a form of just me, which was a tiny bit worrying. The teacher stuck her head out and asked me to go in, so I went in, and felt a wee bit nervous, especially when she revealed that I was the only person from my previous form in this new one. People trickled in, and we ended up with the grand total of... 6. Yes, you read right. I went from a form of 23 last year, to my new form which should have 9 but today for some reason had 6. Anyway, we did the adminny stuff, and for some reason I've been put on sociology again even though I didn't want to do it.

Then it was break, so I went and found Rachael. Even though she's not in my form (or even in the same block for it!), we've got the same frees, so that was good. Then it was back up to C202, only to be told we had to go to EB7. But I have now come to the conclusion that this room does not exist. We looked everywhere! At least we rediscovered my form tutor, who is really nice. Then she got us all to talk to each other, cos none of us actually knew any of the others, and then it was off to AS 'Classical Civilisation' (Ancient History really, but ya know, they like to give stuff posh names). Only the teacher wasn't there because she doesn't work on Wednesdays and she wasn't expecting anybody... So I had a free instead. Then Maths, which was okay, lunch--great fun to see everyone again--and English Lit. Not as good as with Martin, but I think my teacher seems pretty decent, so that's okay. Then off to Bethany, and this is why I hate buses. I can cycle to Bethany from college in approximately 20 minutes. The bus took half an hour. I can cycle home from Bethany in under 30 minutes (it's all downhill). The buses took me near enough an hour. Which is ridiculous. And plus buses are otherwise unpleasant--crowded etc. Still, I am alive and I had a great first day back at college :D.

London

On the 27 we went to London for the day. I managed to stay up late the previous night, reading The Black Sun by James Twining (brilliant book!), so I was pretty knackered when we had to get up early and head on down for London. Had a great day though. We visited the British Museum again, and I have to say, it's one of the real must sees in England. The statues they have there are stunning, and I mean stunning. It's also incredible to think how they ended up in London, because most of them came ages ago and so probably came on wooden ships with sails. I know there's a bit of a thing about we shouldn't really have nabbed stuff from other countries, but I asked the guide about how these humongous statues ended up in the Museum, and she said that the British consul was asked by people at home who were concerned to see if the government would let them take the statues to Britain because the local people were mushing them up for mortar. So it's probably a good job they did take them. And it does mean that in going to the one museum (if you have the time), you can wander through its galleries and get a glimpse of life in just about every part of the world. Next on the list was lunch, which was okayish, but the chicken pie was too salty for my liking (and the portion was a bit small too :( ). Anyhow, after that we were going to the Tower Bridge museum, but when we got there we realised it would entail heights (which I'm really not good with) and didn't actually seem all that interesting, so we tootled along the side of the Thames on a bus, until I saw this pretty amazing cathedral (not St Paul's; it was a really really old one, as in founded pre-William the Conqueror) and we got off and had a look round and a drink. Then James insisted that we had to go on a Tube journey just for the sake of going on the Tube (the fact that we'd used it to get to the Museum apparently wasn't good enough for him). Mum and I got off a bit earlier to go back and have a look at some bookshops we'd spotted earlier--we'd already had a look in Hayles, which was quite amazing, so we then went in a couple of others too. And yes, I did buy some books--three to be precise. My own copy of the novel that kept me up the previous night, and two non-fiction. Then we had tea, at this fantastic Italian. We were looking for somewhere to go, and we'd seen a couple of places with pizzas sat around looking a bit limp, but then we walked past this place where the chef was stood pretty much in the window spinning pizzas around. So we went in there, and I had some fantastic pasta with mushrooms (and nibbled some of Mum's pizza too :D). Then we tootled home on the train. A long, long day, and pretty exhausting, but great fun too.

The Satan Bug

It appears I may have reviewed this particular book before, seeing as it popped up when I was writing the title in. Never mind. It's such a good book I don't mind writing about it again. I think the word which best describes this book is 'fascinating'. From the incredibly well done first person narration which reveals details about the main character bit by bit and leaves you seeking more info about this enigmatic and intriguing man, to the plot itself which is magnificent in both scale and execution, to the nitty-gritty of the action, this book is one of those that a) you read over and over, and b) still keeps you up to an insane time in the morning every time you do so, regardless of the fact that you already know how it ends and know what twists and convulsions it will go through to get there. The truth of the matter is, I suppose, that the book follows such a sinuous, twisting plot that it's very difficult to grow bored of this. So yeh, fascinating about sums it up. That and the fact that I would really really recommend this to anyone who likes thrillers or conspiracy theories or any of that lark.

Cross Country

Yeh, this is the newest book in the Alex Cross series by James Patterson (unless he's gone and released another since I last checked. It was okay. An interesting plot, and for once Alex Cross did not jump into bed with anybody. Or at least, when he did, he just lay there next to a woman and did nothing else! Which is quite amazing for a James Patterson book (I have to confess, I do tend to skip completely or at the very least skim those bits...). Alex Cross determined to go after this guy known as the Tiger, who was involved in a couple of messy murders. He stumbles into corruption etc. I thought the portrayal of Africa was a tiny bit moralising and OTT regarding the whole crooked crops, everything's awful and so on. I know it is, but it struck me in a rather similar vein to The Final Warning (Maximum Ride book 4, and you honestly don't want to read it). IE James Patterson had a bee in his bonnet about a 'big issue' and decided to spread the word around using his stories. Fine, but Alex Cross really wasn't the person to get the point across. A different person would've been better, because yes Alex Cross has had to draw his weapon etc but at the end of the day he's a psychiatrist not an action hero. If you want a book that deals with the issues around Africa and is also a great read, go with Bait. The other thing that bugged me is that the threat to Alex's family has been done so many times before in previous novels (and I haven't even read all of the Alex Cross ones). It would be interesting to see how Alex would relax to get home to a scene of slaughter--the kidnapping thing (and I'm not too bothered about giving the plot away because this book is not worth reading) was out of character for the villain. It was, to be quite frank, ridiculous. By the end of the book, I wanted the bad guys to win, if only to get rid of Cross' irritating smugness (and somehow he kept right on bouncing back after being beaten up--something I thought only I was guilty of doing, and then only in my first drafts when I start running out of ideas and just decide to shoot people). I also wanted Nana and the kids to get splatted, which shows how bad this book was, because in the past books I have quite liked the character of Nana. So yeh, don't bother with Cross Country, unless you want to see what has been a pretty good series (I quite enjoyed Double Cross, enough to buy a copy secondhand) brought to a pathetic end. I can't honestly say I'll be reading any more James Patterson books, the quality seems to be declining with every new release.