CONTENTS

T HIS MONTH ’ S PULPIT is written by Kathryn Hughes, author of George Eliot: The Last Victorian and The Victorian Governess. Her most recent book, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, is published by 4th Estate.

J OHN G RAY is Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics.

A NDREW R OBERTS ’s most recent book, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, was published in September by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Asked by George Stephanapoulos on ABC’s This Weekprogramme what was the latest book that he’d read, President George W Bush said: ‘I’m reading A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900.It’s a great book.’

D IANA A THILL is the author of Stet and Yesterday Morning: A Very English Childhood, both published by Granta.

J OHN B REWER teaches in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology.

C HRISTOPHER C OKER is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and author of several books on international security.

R ICHARD O VERY ’s The Dictators: Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia was awarded the Wolfson Prize for History 2005 (Penguin).

D AVID P ROFUMO ’s Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir is published by John Murray.

J AMES D ELINGPOLE spent the Eighties wishing he could be the next Rupert Everett. Sadly being neither beautiful enough nor sufficiently gay, he had to become a hack instead. His next book, a compendium of rants called How To Be Right, is published in March by Headline.

B LAIR W ORDEN is Research Professor of History at the University of London.

E LISABETH L UARD has been writing about food for twenty years. Her latest book, Truffles, is published by Frances Lincoln.

PULPIT

FOREIGN PARTS

BIOGRAPHY

SHORT STORY

HISTORY

MEMOIRS &DIARIES

11

K ATHRYN H UGHES

44

66

88

99

1111

1122

D ANIEL J OHNSON Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews David Pryce-Jones A NDREW R OBERTS Dangerous Nation: America and the World 1600–1898Robert Kagan J ONATHAN M IRSKY The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama Thomas Laird Beyond Seven Years in Tibet: My Life Before, During, and After Heinrich Harrer V ICTOR S EBESTYEN Revolution in Hungary: The 1956 Budapest Uprising Erich Lessing A Good Comrade: János Kádar, Communism and Hungary Roger Gough J USTIN C ARTWRIGHT Portrait with Keys: The City of Johannesburg Unlocked IvanVladislavic H AZHIR T EIMOURIAN The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End Peter W Galbraith

1144

1155 1177 1188 2200 2211

2233

J OHN G RAY Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution Hugh Brogan P AUL J OHNSON Mellon: An American Life David Cannadine D IANA A THILL Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature Linda Lear J OHN B REWER Edmund Curll, Bookseller Paul Baines & Pat Rogers C HRISTOPHER C OKER Dean Acheson Robert L Beisner P AUL A DDISON Churchill’s Man of Mystery: Desmond Morton and the World of Intelligence Gill Bennett A NDREW T AYLOR Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to AmericaFelipe Fernández-Armesto

2244

M AGGIE G EE Ring-barking

2288

3300

3322

3333

3355

3366

3377

R ICHARD O VERY Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953 Geoffrey Roberts R ALEIGH T REVELYAN Anzio: The Friction of War – Italy and the Battle for Rome 1944 Lloyd Clark G ILES M ILTON Breaking the Chains: The Royal Navy’s War Against White Slavery Tom Pocock F RANK M C L YNN Why Alfred Burned the Cakes: A King and his Eleven-Hundred-Year AfterlifeDavid Horspool P IERS B RENDON Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez and Decolonisation Wm Roger Louis B LAIR W ORDEN The Last Revolution: 1688 amd the Creation of the Modern World Patrick Dillon J ONATHAN K EATES The War of Wars: The Epic Struggle between Britain and France, 1793–1815 Robert Harvey

3399

M ICHAEL B ARBER Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir Gore Vidal

Editor:N ANCY S LADEK Deputy Editor: T OM F LEMING Editor-at-Large: J EREMY L EWIS Editorial Assistant: P HILIP W OMACK

Contributing Editors: A LAN R AFFERTY , S EBASTIAN S HAKESPEARE Business Manager: R OBERT P OSNER Advertising Manager: T ERRY F INNEGAN Classified Advertising: D AVID S TURGE Founding Editor:D R A NNE S MITH Founding Father: A UBERON W AUGH Cover illustration by Chris Riddell Issue no. 339

LITERARY REVIEW Dec 2006 / Jan 2007

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