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Editor Nancy Sladek Deputy Editor Tom Fleming Editor-at-Large Jeremy Lewis Senior Editor Jonathan Beckman Chief Editorial Assistant Frank Brinkley Editorial Assistants Tom Williams • David Gelber Contributing Editors Michael Burleigh Sara Wheeler • Philip Womack Advertising Manager Terry Finnegan Classified Advertising David Sturge Founding Father Auberon Waugh Cover Illustration Chris Riddell

The Literary Review, incorporating Quarto, is published monthly from: 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 Fax: 020 7734 1844 • ISSN 0144 4360 © All subscription enquiries and changes of address to: Literary Review Subscriptions, FREEPOST RSJB-SUGY-ZKRA, Impakt MMD Ltd, 3-4 Pylon Way, Croydon CR0 4XX • Tel: 020 8683 7151 All advertising enquiries to: Terry Finnegan, Literary Review, 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW • Tel: 020 7437 9392 Printed in the United Kingdom by: Henry Ling Ltd, at the Dorset Press, Dorchester DT1 1HD • Tel: 01305 251 066 Distributed to newsagents worldwide by: COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Rd, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7QX • Tel: 01895 433 800 Distributed to bookshops by: Central Books, 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN • Tel: 020 8986 4854 Subscriptions: theliteraryreview@warnes.co.uk Editorial: editorial@literaryreview.co.uk www.literaryreview.co.uk • @lit_review Designed by Cog Design. Literary Review is set in Adobe Caslon and Janet. The latter is a digitisation of an engraved typeface designed by the artist and typographer Reynolds Stone, and named after his wife.

Literary Review | j u l y 2 0 1 2 2

f r om the p u l p i t 1 Robert Macfarlane h i st or y 5 Robert Bickers

Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, & the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War Stephen Platt 6 Michael Burleigh

The Years of Lyndon Johnson Volume 4: The Passage of Power Robert A Caro 8 Paul Addison

Mr Churchill ’s Profession: Statesman, Writer, Orator Peter Clarke 9 David Cesarani

Letters to Hitler (Ed) Henrik Eberle 11 Peter Marshall

The Late Medieval English Church G W Bernard 12 Edward Vallance

The Road Not Taken: How Britain Narrowly Missed a Revolution Frank McLynn 13 Max Egremont

As They Really Were: The Citizens of Alnwick 1831 Keith Middlemas l i t e r a r y l i v e s 14 David Collard

The Letters of T S Eliot, Volume 3: 1926–1927 (Edd) Valerie Eliot & John Haffenden 16 Jeremy Lewis

Stephen Spender: New Selected Journals 1939–1995 (Edd) Lara Feigel & John Sutherland 18 Catherine Peters

The Dickens Dictionary John Sutherland • Charles Dickens and ‘Boz’ Robert L Patten • Charles Dickens’s Networks Jonathan H Grossman the f or g o t t e n mr f i r b a n k 20 Richard Canning f or e i g n pa rts 22 John Keay

Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo • India Rising Oliver Balch • Following Fish Samanth Subramanian 23 Joanna Kavenna

Names for the Sea: Stangers in Iceland Sarah Moss 24 Richard Cockett

Pakistan on the Brink Ahmed Rashid c o n t e n t s b i o g r a p hy 25 Donald Rayfield

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman Robert K Massie 27 Justin Marozzi

A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa Steve Kemper 28 Toby Thomas

Muckraker: The Scandalous Life & Times of W T Stead W Sydney Robinson 29 Patrick Marnham

Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience: The Life & Work of Joseph Rotblat Andrew Brown a rt 31 Tim Hilton

Turner’s Secret Sketches Ian Warrell 33 Jonathan Keates

Titian: His Life Sheila Hale 34 Lesley Downer

Obtaining Images: Art, Production & Display in Edo Japan Timon Screech 35 Tom Stammers

Speculating Daguerre: Art & Enterprise in the Work of L J M Daguerre Stephen C Pinson 36 Peyton Skipwith

Textile Design: Artists’ Textiles 1940-1976 Geoffrey Rayner, Richard Chamberlain & Annamarie Stapleton f l e s h & b l o od 37 Charlotte Faircloth

Breasts: A Natural & Unnatural History Florence Williams 38 Lewis Wolpert

The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body Frances Ashcroft 39 Thomas Levenson

Circulation: William Harvey’s Revolutionary Idea Thomas Wright g e n e r a l 41 Christopher de Bellaigue

Encounters with Islam: On Religion, Politics & Modernity Malise Ruthven 42 Jonathan Meades

A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys Through Urban Britain Owen Hatherley

43 Rupert Christiansen

Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors & their Orchestras Tom Service 45 Robert Chesshyre

Injustice Clive Stafford-Smith 46 Jon Swaine

Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Shadow of a Secret Nuclear Facility Kristen Ivensen 47 Charles Shaar Murray

The Rolling Stones: Fifty Years Christopher Sandford 48 Kevin Jackson

Gothicka Victoria Nelson 49 David Profumo

Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris Christopher Kemp 50 Caroline Jackson

The A303: Highway to the Sun Tom Fort f i c t i on 51 Elspeth Barker

The Life of Rebecca Jones Angharad Price 52 David Jays

Ancient Light John Banville 53 Matthew Adams

Lionel Asbo: State of England Martin Amis 54 Tom Williams

Joy Jonathan Lee 54 David Annand

The Flame Alphabet Ben Marcus 55 John Dugdale

Dirt David Vann 56 Simon Hammond

Dublinesque Enrique Vila-Matas 57 Frank Brinkley

A Trick I Learned from Dead Men Kitty Aldridge 58 James Kidd

A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel Tom Phillips

60 Jessica Mann Crime 63 Lucy Popescu Silenced Voices 59 Letters 62 Poetry Competition 41 LR Bookshop 19 Crossword 64 LR Classifieds j u l y 2 0 1 2 | Literary Review 3