CONTENTS

THIS MONTH’S PULPITis written by Andrew Roberts. His next book, Masters and Commanders: How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West 1941–45, will be published by Penguin in September.

LISAJARDINE’s most recent book is Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s Glory(HarperPress).

GERARDBAKERis the US Editor of The Times.

PHILIP DAVIS’s Sudden Shakespeare appeared in 1996, Shakespeare Thinking in 2007. He is also editor of The Reader magazine.

RICHARDOVERY’s The Morbid Age: Britain and the Crisis of Civilisation 1919–1939will be published by Penguin in the spring.

ADAMLEBORis the author of City of Oranges: Arabs and Jews in Jaffa.

G W BERNARDis Professor of Early Modern History in the University of Southampton and Editor of the English Historical Review. His most recent book, The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church, was issued in paperback by Yale University Press last year.

GERALDBUTT, a former BBC correspondent, is a pilot and writer on aviation.

PATRICIADUNCKER’s latest novel, Miss Webster and Chéérif, is published by Bloomsbury.

AIDANHARTLEYis the author of Zanzibar Chest. Whilst making a Channel 4 Dispatches recently, he was blown up by a roadside bomb, and owes his life to his Somali fixer Duguf. In the year of Dith Pran’s death Aidan says we should remember the unsung heroes of the news business.

PULPIT

THE STATE WE’RE IN

HISTORY

FOREIGN PARTS

BIOGRAPHY

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS

FRANCE

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ANDREWROBERTS

44

55

66

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JONATHANMIRSKY Into the Darkness: An Account of 7/7 Peter Zimonjic MICHAELBURLEIGH Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia Ahmed Rashid CAROLINEMOOREHEAD Standard Operating Procedure: A War Story Philip Gourevitch & Errol Morris GERARDBAKER The Post-American World Fareed Zakaria

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1111

1122 1144

1155 1166

DONALDRAYFIELD The Forsaken: From the Great Depression to the Gulags – Hope and Betrayal in Stalin’s Russia Tim Tzouliadis RICHARDOVERY ‘We Danced All Night’: A Social History of Britain Between the Wars Martin Pugh LESLIEMITCHELL 1848: Year of Revolution Mike Rapport LISAJARDINE Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World Timothy Brook SIMONHEFFER The Kit-Cat Club Ophelia Field ALLANMALLINSON Dunkirk Major General Julian Thompson Dunkirk: The Men They Left Behind Sean Longden

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AIDANHARTLEY The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur Daoud Hari ADAMLEBOR The Last Jews of Kerala Edna Fernandes MIRANDAFRANCE Long After Midnight at the Nino Bien Brian Winter ROLANDHUNTFORD Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared Andrew Brown DEABIRKETT Bandit Roads: Into the Lawless Heart of Mexico Richard Grant

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2266 2288

PETERWASHINGTON House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family Paul Fisher PAULJOHNSON Samuel Johnson: A Biography Peter Martin GWBERNARD A Daughter’s Love: Thomas and Margaret More John Guy

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PHILIPDAVISONTHESHAKESPEAREDBRAIN

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SUDHIRHAZAREESINGH Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799–1914 Robert Gildea ALLANMASSIE The Man Who Outshone the Sun King: The Rise and Fall of Nicolas Foucquet Charles Drazin SARAHBRADFORD The French Renaissance CourtRobert J Knecht

LITERARY REVIEW July 2008

Editor: NANCYSLADEK Deputy Editor: TOMFLEMING Editor-at-Large: JEREMYLEWIS Editorial Assistant: JONATHANBECKMAN

Contributing Editors: SEBASTIANSHAKESPEARE, PHILIPWOMACK Advertising Manager: TERRYFINNEGAN Classified Advertising: DAVIDSTURGE Founding Editor: DRANNESMITH Founding Father: AUBERONWAUGH Cover illustration by Chris Riddell Issue no. 356

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