Churchill's Wizards

This was such a fun book to read. It was completely awesome! The stories of deception and cunning that were employed in both World Wars, from the early efforts of the camofleurs, to the later, sophisticated deception operations including creating an entirely false alternative D-day landing, sticking documents in a dead body and floating it into occupied France, and racing about the desert with various false armies and camoflauged real ones. It covers deception from the earliest efforts at avoiding aerial reconnaissance, through sniper covers, false trees (one of which was unfortunately struck by a shell after a great deal of effort getting it into place and destroyed), dazzle paint, paranoid inventors who believed that the Germans had disguised entire roadways under massive false terrain, and all the way through to D-day. Incredibly well written, it turned what could have been a dry and dull book into not just an informative but also a fascinating read. I'd highly recommend this book, as it adds a fascinating insight into how the art of camoflauge came to be what it is today, and how deception was used throughout the Second World War to get the Germans to look in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like I said, it's a fun book to read and I really enjoyed it.

History of Military Aviation

I read up to the end of the Second World War bit in this book, and to be quite honest I was disappointed. I think the trouble is, it was trying to cover to big a period. There were some skimpy mentions of the early early part, like the early use of balloons as observation platforms (eg Boer War), and about the really early stuff in Britain. I think there was too much focus on the English side too, and yet they missed out some of the mega journeys (like the one over the Atlantic! Which was even done by naval aviators!), which obviously had an impact on the rest of it. I suppose the part on the First World War was okay as a summary, but that's really all it was. I got a bit bored to be honest and gave it back to the library. I wouldn't really recommend it except as a starting point--if you know much about it already, it doesn't say much new. In fact, there were only the odd one or two details which I didn't know about. The pictures were quite impressive and large scale, but the real problem is that it was trying to cover over a hundred years of aviation history in one volume. I have a bigger one now that covers the history of aviation up to about 1936 when it was published, which is made up of a series of articles. The first one was about the flight across the Channel in 1909, and there was a very relevant point made--the idea that you could be completely out of sight of land and could only see the sea below doesn't seem all that major to us now, but to Bleriot it would have been pretty stunning. If his engine went wrong then (which was quite likely--there was another man who was on the verge of doing it before him but had to ditch, then tried again on the same day and again had to ditch, though both times he was rescued), he would've been stuck. It had never been done before, and the engines were unreliable enough over land, where at least you had a half decent chance of finding an empty field and landing there. Anyway, the History of Military Aviation basically has good pictures and not amazing commentary alongside it. If you ever happen to see Aerial Wonders of Our Time though (and you have an interest in the subject...), I would highly recommend you grab it.

The Guilded Seal

Wow! I started reading James Twining because the book just happened to be in a buy one get one free and it looked like a cool cover (I know, I know, don't judge a book by the cover, but I read the blurb too, which also made it sound cool). So I got it, and boy am I glad I did. I've now read all three in the series, and I wish there were more.

Basically, they're about an art thief, the best in the business, who decides that it's time to leave the game. So he ends up setting up a business with his ex-fence in order to help people recover stolen works of art and to suggest security improvements using his own experience. That doesn't really do it justice, but I don't want to just post them one after the other and do them individually. They're really really good basically, and I'd highly recommend them if you'd like to read a crime novel from the 'other' side. So yeh, well worth investing a bit of time into these books. They're quite fun to read, and the main character (Tom Kirk), is absolutely ace. If they did this as a film (and did it well, some books have been done shockingly badly like Eragon), he's the sort of character everyone would be drooling over, because he's got such depth and yet he comes across as so quick and fun, the sort of person you'd want to spend time with. So that was a whiz speed review of James Twining. Watch this now, I'll click on post and then realise I've actually written about him already. Never mind.

10K Shout Out!!!

Yay!!!! I hit ten thousand words a little bit earlier. I'm now on eleven thousand, but ten thousand's a mile stone. And I hit it three days early (not literally I hope, that could be quite painful to hit a mile stone, they're pretty solid...). So yes, that's ten thousand words into a brand new novel. All in three days. I've also finished off my English Lit coursework and an essay for my distance learning course. Which I guess is a bonus (although for both of those my problem was more cutting down the word count, because I had too much to say and not enough words to say it in). Anyway, I hit ten thousand words. And so far the only unexpected thing has been a contingent of robots, but as I'm writing sci-fi, I guess that doesn't really matter too much. Robots are just fine in sci-fi.

Finished!

Not Nanowrimo. Just the story I was writing before Nanowrimo. Well, novel. The Ark is now complete, don't ask me how long because it isn't typed up. Any rate, I managed to finish it 22 minutes before Nanowrimo began. And today, I have managed so far 4492 words, which is about two and a half days worth of novel. So far, it's going pretty well. My inter-character conflict is developing quite nicely (and naturally) by itself, with Vari and Patrick hating Sprite's guts, and Emma sitting on the fence a bit. I think she might have to get together with Sprite, but Patrick is definitely chasing her. Definitely. And they're all on the Moon, without any mishap (although Vari was rather intimidated by the pilot telling her he'd 'only' hit the sea seven times in the past twelve months, and as it wasn't that long since the most recent hitting the sea it wasn't their turn for it). And I wrote in Lukas like he asked me too :D. Anyway, that's where it stands at the moment. They're just about to head off for the First Colony, so we shall see what happens.

If I drop off the face of the internet...

If I drop off the face of the internet for a month, it's because I'm in nanoland. My username there is NutmegAngel too, so you can all go see how I'm doing (if you can be bothered :D). But in two hours and forty minutes, Nanowrimo is going to start, and that means I'll be trying to write 50000 plus words in a month. I know this is doable. I've done it twice before in Nanowrimo, and I've hit twice that in a month before now. However, I do also have to keep up with college work, distance learning course, and I'd like to continue reading because I just bought a new book and got a bunch out the library. So, that means that things like going on the internet are probably going to take place less frequently (although there's a high likelihood of me procrastinating over on the Nanowrimo forums... http://www.nanowrimo.org ).

I went to the Kick Off Party today. Off on the train, all on my lonesome, which was quite an adventure in itself (last time I did that was to York Uni, and that was also the first time). I got to Manchester over an hour and a half early (I blame my dad--he took me to the station really early, so I got on an earlier train that was also faster), wandered around the Arndale (is that how you spell it?) Centre for a while, got a book from Waterstones, and then off to the Chinese Buffet. Very fun. We all got goody bags with stickers and even a magnate! Great to chat to people who are about to embark on this crazy and insanely fun adventure. You should do it too :D. And I was amazed that I got treated like a bit of a veteran because this is my third year, and hopefully third win as well (you win if you complete--it's nothing to do with how good your writing is, only to do with the fact that you have to write 50000 words, and technically, yes, you could write the same word fifty thousand times, but where's the fun in that?!). So I guess that does make me a bit of a veteran. There were quite a few new to it. I was surprised, but I guess I shouldn't be. Stuff that good has a habit of gathering an increasing number of people to it. Anyway, I should go and finish off my ancient history homework, and hopefully my current novel, so that I can start at midnight. Two and a half hours to go! Yay!

Less than 1 week to go!!!

Well, it's less than a week until Nanowrimo starts. I'm still thinking I'll go with the same story (archaeology on the moon, so technically sci-fi, but also kinda historical). Although I might skip out the robot thing, or have him less sentient. I already have four major characters, so I don't know that I'll need another. Anyway, this is probably a pointless discussion. They'll probably wind up running off to Pluto or something equally ridiculous--nothing I've done at Nanowrimo has ever gone to plan (in fact, I can't actually think of a single story I've done that's actually gone according to what I expected...). So I also have less than a week to finish writing my current story (archaelogical thriller--a non sci-fi version this time, although I suppose... no, it doesn't really fit in the sci-fi. It's just not definitively set in a specific time. It's round about now, but not really, if that makes sense. Anyway, it's about a search for the Ark of the Covenant, and it winds up being in South America. And there's a golden ship too. I'm quite pleased with it at any rate, and it is almost finished. I just need Jay to get the golden ship off the Opposition, load the Ark back on, and head off to Israel. Just... Nah, it's doable. I've had 10k days before now, and if that's really what I need to finish it off, that's what I'll do.

Oh yeh, I also have two books to read before Friday evening for the History Readers group, although I'm part way through both (started one, realised I really couldn't follow it, decided to read the other first and then I had a bit of an idea of what the guy was talking about--we're doing the Fall of the Roman Empire, and I think that was one of the things I missed when I lived in America--at any rate, I know very, very little (or I did, I'm starting to learn a lot more now). So yeh, that to do, a bit more of my distance learning course to do, and a couple more books to read. Including a massive massive massive one that I got from the car boot today, which was published in 1936, and therefore is just about aviation pre WWII, which is the bit that I'm really interested in! This might be the nice fat, interesting book I've been looking for since I started reading Biggles. Hmm... it's smiling at me. I might just go read a chapter or so, and then read the Roman ones. That sounds like a good idea. Bye :D

They Fought For the Sky

This is basically the only book I've really come across that's dedicated just to WWI aviation as a general history of it. There are some books on specific aircraft (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces), and generally a WWI book will mention them in the vaguest terms, as will (usually) a history of military aviation, although they quite often just start with 1918 when the RAF was formed. Unfortunately, I don't think it's in print. One sec. Yeh, I've just looked on Amazon and the most recent edition they have is 1977. But it's really good. I was totally gripped, and it wasn't just because I love WWI aviation (at least, I don't think it was). I really enjoyed it.

There was more mention of the thrilling exploits of the RNAS in Belgium, though I got the impression that a lot of it came from Churchill's book... There were a lot of references to Churchill too, although to be fair, Churchill was Chief of the Air Ministry or something along those lines, and also as the Minister for the Navy he was involved with the RNAS too.

It was a really good introduction to the air war, with sections on the people involved (the aces), the aircraft, the tactics. However, I don't think it really went deep enough to be completely satisfying. I still want to know more. I saw one or two new books in a bookshop in London on the topic, but they don't seem to have them at the library (with the exception of First Blitz, which is absolutely excellent, but does only cover a limited aspect of the air war). Still, it was an enjoyable book, and the pictures were great because I was trying to put strings on a Sopwith Triplane at the time, and the instructions with the model weren't very good, so I was able to see what it should look like.

Blest Rehearsal

So, I said a while back that I'd volunteered myself to play my clarinet at Blest at the next one. Well, nothing happened for a little while, and then I got a text saying the rehearsal was on Tuesday. Lukas very kindly picked me up after my clarinet lesson (I had an hour on Tuesday because my exam was Thursday), and took me to Inglewhite. Please don't ask me where that is, I really have no idea. I've only ever been there and back in the dark. It's a gorgeous little church though, and it kinda looks from the inside like somebody's chopped the back end off. I was a little bit nervous--I'd never been to a Blest rehearsal before, I didn't know what I was going to be asked to do or anything. But all the folk were really nice and totally put me at ease.

John got me to improvise along with this drone thing which was made by the keyboardy-piano with a bit of sellotape, and the guitar people. He told me what key, so at least I knew what sharps and stuff when I'd transposed it up one, but I've never really improvised with other people before, so that was kinda interesting. Then I was doing that into a microphone, which was even more scary, but I got used to it. So yeh, we improvised stuff around a lot, which was really fun once I got into it. The church just made me feel so creative, with the only lights from the heaters which glowed red, and all the nice churchy sculpture stuff on the building and the rest of it. It was really fun. And then we were doing one of the songs accapello, so then Lukas volunteered me to sing. Which I'm fine about. And then I realised I had to sing into a microphone, which I've never done before. But it was quite good fun, and I couldn't really hear myself so that was okay. Yeh, I enjoyed it. Totally worth being somewhat tired the next day as I didn't get home till quarter to midnight. But I wasn't too sleepy, and I didn't do anything stupid (like try to eat cereals with a knife...). Oh, apart from going to get some bread for toast and opening up the bread/cereal cupboard and then staring stupidly at the cereals trying to remember what I was there for. But it was great fun. Can't wait till this Tuesday :D.

The World Crisis Part 1 1911-1914

Winston Churchill's book :D. I happened to see it and thought I'd see what he said about the first world war, seeing as it was mentioned in my history text book. I really enjoyed it actually. Although I was a little disappointed when I started it and realised that I hadn't bought the whole thing, and that loads of the later stuff was missing (the edition I've got appears to have the first two volumes in it, although I'm not entirely sure yet...). Anyway, having got to the end of Part 1 I figure that as most editions will have that bit as one book on its own this was the right place to review it.

I was slightly surprised at how nicely written it was, but then, Churchill was once a journalist. It's definitely biased towards naval events, and Churchill suggests that the naval arms race was the main reason for the war. Hmm... Interesting that he then goes on to advocate increasing our arms in the inter-war years. You would've thought that if he saw that as pretty much the cause of WWI he'd want them to avoid it in the prelude to WWII. Obviously it's all somewhat slanted what with being a bit of a personal account based a lot upon memory and stuff, but it's still really interesting. There's a lot of documents included, memos and stuff like that, from whatever Churchill was involved in at the time. And he seems to have had a knack of getting involved in just about everything. You get a real sense of energy and determination from the sheer flurry of messages that were sent all over the place, particularly when you realise that this must just be a fraction of the messages sent. I think the fact that there is so much primary source quoted in it makes it a much stronger book--you can see for yourself what Churchill's talking about. Although I have to confess it does get a little tedious to read through all the beurocratic stuff.

There was one fascinating passage about something I'd never heard about before, and as I have a bit of a thing for WWI aviation, I was quite surprised. Basically, a squadron of the RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service, I suppose you'd call it the forerunner of the Fleet Air Arm, although it was amalgamated into the RAF in 1918 and the FAA didn't come about until later) went to Belgium, sat on the shore, and started harassing the Germans. They started out just using their planes, then the Squadron Leader thought it'd be a great idea to start using armoured cars to bash the Germans on the ground as well. So they started racing round the countryside, using the planes to scout and the cars to attack any small enough convoys of Germans they happened to see around. Apparently (although I've no idea how Churchill could have learnt this, it might just have been him deciding that it had a huge effect because he had a bit of a thing for commandos), this caused quite some chaos, quite out of proportion to the size of the force deployed. Churchill says this is where he got the idea for the tanks, although how much that was his own idea (after all, the Germans were developing something similar, completely independent of the British). An interesting book at any rate.

The Second World War

This is the John Keegan one. I was surprised when I started reading this and it said it wasn't a complete history. It looked pretty big to be a non-complete history. It was one of the books my history teacher recommended, and I thought I might as well get hold of a copy. I didn't bother with the A-level books because I'd got the ones from that series on Russia and I thought they were pretty rubbish--they had definitions for all the words I understood, and no definition for the odd word they used that I didn't really know what it meant. Which was annoying as you can imagine. Anyway, I read this book, and I found it really interesting.

Unlike the Osprey books, it did a good job of focussing on the military stuff like I expected it too. It was very well structured, with the war split into six sections, based on time and theatre. I found the chapter on the 'Resistance and Espionage' very interesting--basically Keegan said that the resistance movement was pretty useless and just wasted lives. That did surprise me--I'm sure they served some purpose (although thinking about it, I don't know what precisely... Maybe they didn't.). However, he does say that the 'sigint' (signal intelligence, basically Ultra) section was a lot more useful.

The sections which focussed in on battles were also very interesting. I enjoyed reading about the carrier battle (I never really realised that Midway was the first...). And there was the Battle of Britain, tank battles, city battles, all sorts. I can highly recommend this book. There was also a lot about the strategy and the decisions that had to be taken regarding it (for example relating to the opening of the second front, and how Churchill was desperate to push it back to 1944 in order to get the build up and preparations sorted so as to minimise casualties). I thought it very balanced with regard to which bits he chose to focus in on, and with regard to the coverage of both sides.

Anyway, I would highly recommend it as a very good general history of the Second World War. Maybe it isn't entirely comprehensive, but all the major bits are covered in good detail, and it's well written. I read it through like a proper book, but it could also be used for reference (I have a feeling I'll be rereading bits and pieces when we start studying the actual war rather than just the build up in history).

Fluffy Rugs, Polishing Silver, and Tidying a Room...

When I got back from college last night, I decided to do something I'd been saying I'd do for ages. I decided that I'd find the silver polish under the sink and actually polish the necklace I ended up with which was my Aunty Gladys's. It was rather tarnished, but I'd been wearing it anyway, because it's also pretty. But I sat down with a bit of kitchen roll and went at it, and I'm glad I did. I never realised silver was so shiny! It looks quite impressive now. I then managed to break one of the links pulling it over my head to try and decipher the hallmark... But my dad fixed it, so that's okay :D.

We went to Southport today, and looked in a ridiculous number of charity shops for books, and would you believe that I didn't find a single one I wanted? Not even in the awesome bookstore which is the only place I know of that regularly stocks Biggles books! They had a bunch of Biggles ones in, but I already had all of them :(. It's getting far harder to find the ones I haven't got yet... maybe that's something to do with the fact that I've got fifty odd out of maybe 90ish. Anyway, I did get a new fluffy brown rug, because my cream(ish) one which I've had for ages was getting a bit manky. So I have a new rug. And I need to tidy my room now. But I don't really feel like doing it... Meh, it needs doing. I shall have to find homes for my only dvd and the three xbox games my brother gave me. Next to the videos on my bookcase I'm thinking, and the National Geographics can then go under my bookcase. That would work.

A Short History of England by Cyril Ransome

I have to say, I really enjoyed this book. I mentioned it before, and I found it really interesting. I don't know how easy it would be to actually get hold of a copy, because I got this for 20p from the Church Fate up the road (is that the right fate? I can't remember if there's different spelling. Hang on, dictionary.com is called for... Oops. It's Fete, not Fate. But my inbuilt spell checker doesn't like it. Never mind. Moving on.). I was just curious, in part because I like old books and this one's certainly in that category--the edition I have was published in 1907--in part because of the description 'from the earliest times'. I don't know a whole lot about the earliest times. We've never really studied them (with the exception of a brief look at the Battle of Hastings, with a multiple choice test I remember failing miserably only because I got the numbers mixed up about four questions in and from then on put the right answers in the wrong box...).

It starts off with looking at 'the English race', which I found very interesting, because it's no longer PC, particularly with all the connotations of Aryan race. Anyway, this book was apparently to be used as a sort of text book, so I guess it was just fine to say that sort of stuff back in 1907. There was stuff on the Conversion of England to Christianity, about the early kings (did you see pictures of the stuff they've just found down near Stoke-on-Trent? It's incredible! Imagine what it would feel like to just be randomly digging up, expecting nothing more than perhaps a coin or a bent bit of old metal, and finding such incredibly carved gold! Wow!). Then comes the Norman Kings, and it was interesting that this book says that 'though it was a hard thing for the English to be conquered, still their descendants have derived greater benefits from their defeat than they could possibly have done from their victory'. This is pretty much the opposite to what the other book on Harold the Conquorer I read suggested. I wonder how much of it was down to changing appreciations of what it was like back then. Anyway, it continues to follow the course of British History right the way through to the death of Queen Victoria, and then slightly beyond so that it can close with the end of the Boer War. It's fascinating to read, not just in the history that's told but in the way it's told. Some of the reporting is not entirely how we're accustomed to seeing it. For example, what's generally called the Crimean War is referred to as the Russian War. There is a little bit about teh campaign in the bombarding of Russian ports in the Baltic, about Sardinia joining in with the French and Britsh, and the Russians taking Kars from the Turks, none of which was ever mentioned in the history text books we had... There is reference to the 'disgraceful mismanagement of the war by Lord Aberdeen and some of his collegues', but Florence Nightingale doesn't get a look in, and nor does the Charge of the Light Brigade. it's interesting to read about the 'China Question' in 1900, with teh European Powers talking about splitting it all up between them, and 'the real Chinese problem still remains to be settled'. I know I'm focussing a bit on the later stuff, but I find it interesting to see what they perceived as major problems.

The Conclusion does a pretty good job of summing up the general themes of the book. It talks about the growth of the British Empire, and there was a lot of focus throughout on politics, with the gradual opening up of the vote to different classes. The ending reads thus: 'No other country in the world can look back upon such a long career of advancement in liberty, and at the same time of almost unbroken success as a conquering and colonizing people. Let us hope that the British of the future may not be unworthy of their ancestors--a hope which every boy and girl in the country may do something to make good; and let it be truly said of us, as was untruly said of some of the Roman emperors, that we have successfully united two things--Empire and Liberty.' I've just included that because I found it really interesting to look at how they saw their Empire. I wonder what Cyril Ransome would think of the country he obviously has great love and respect for were he to see England today. The Empire is all but gone. The politicians are pretty well despised for their mucking up of expenses, and apparent inability to tell the truth. Nobody cares much for the Monarchy, and I'm pretty sure that anti-social behaviour isn't exactly what he hoped when he said about every boy and girl doing something to help advance Britain. However, it was intended as a textbook, so there's a good chance (I would assume) that things weren't overly rosy back then either.

Just one more little thing I want to pick out before I finish. At the start of the book, there was one bit that really surprised me 'the teaching of literature is happily being made a separate department from the teaching of history'. I never realised they were once the same subject. I mean, I shied away from applying for a combined History and English Lit course because I didn't think that it would do justice to either subject (besides which I do prefer history), but they were once the same thing.

It's a really good book in short. If you happen to see a copy floating around (I suppose there must be some, somewhere, or I wouldn't have got hold of one), I'd recommend grabbing it. It was really interesting to read, flowed nicely as a general narrative, and was conviniently split up into chapters based upon which monarch was ruling (and let's face it, in the earlier periods for sure, and still to a certain extent more recently, that was a major consideration, particularly when the monarchs still had a lot of power). It's detailed enough to use as a general reference to get background on a period, and it does cover certain specific events (mainly constitutional or related to the Empire), in quite good detail considering the fact that it's such a broad sweep of history. It's also short enough to read as a continuous narrative like I did. So yeh, I have no idea how many of these might be around and where you might get hold of one, but I'd recommend it all the same.

The Second World War (6) Northwest Europe 1944-1945

I have to say, I wasn't overly impressed. I think it was just too short on such a 'big' chunk of history. Basically, it covered D-Day and after. I think the introduction was part of what put me off. It tried to give the causes of World War 2 in about two pages, along with a summary of what had happened so far. Which, as you can imagine, entailed rather abbreviating it, and to be honest it would've been better off without it. It just meant giving the most stereotypical version of events imaginable and to be honest I'd be amazed if anyone didn't know that already. And again, the book itself didn't really say anything particularly new or special. I suppose it might be worth reading if you don't know anything about the invasion of Northwest Europe etc. However, I wouldn't recommend actually buying it--just get it out the library. It's not something you're really going to want to read again, and it isn't detailed enough to use as a reference book.

Currently Untitled...

So, it's nearly nanowrimo. Well, okay, it's three weeks off, but I'm planning my story, okay? So here's what it's about...

Basically, my main character is an archaeologist called Vari on her last dig before retiring from the field. She's asked to go to the Moon, to look at the history of the Lunar Colonies, from the Space Race during the Cold War, to the destruction of the First Colony (a Quaker settlement which was bombed by the US), through the second Cold War between the EU and US, right up to the present day Troubles since the disintigration of the US left lots of nuclear powered space rockets cheaply available, along with equipment to exploit the Moon's resources. The Moon was modified so that it's got oxygen etc and some plant life, although the main attraction is the gold and other precious minerals, so lots of Enterprisers have gone up and the place is still pretty much a war zone. Vari's assisted by a Moonwalker (an elite special forces soldier based on the moon) and two research assistants. There's quite a bit of conflict between the two groups--they look down on the Moonwalker (who doesn't yet have a name), while he finds them naieve and irritating. There's especially lots of conflict between the assistant Mark and the Moonwalker, because Mark's a pacifist and also rather wimpy and pathetic, and so he keeps niggling at the Moonwalker and asking how he can possibly stand being a soldier and killing people etc. Vari determines to dig at the First Colony, despite the Moonwalker's repeated attempts to dissuade her because it's still very much a disputed area. While they're looking at the remnants of the First Colony, they find something much, much older. As in pre-Egyptian older. And they find a 'man', specially augmented (basically turned into a robot), who calls himself an Immortal when they inadvertantly wake him up. But the civilisation from which he harks was incredibly advanced, and Vari etc are not the only ones interested in him. And the other group is fully prepared to kill to get their hands on the Immortal.

And hopefully this time I won't go too far off track. But you never know with nanowrimo. I have had some rather ridiculous experiences with writing novels in a month. And I've only done it twice (well, as part of nanowrimo. I did write Shadows in the Sky in something like three weeks...). Anyway, we shall see.