c o n t e n t s may 2 0 1 2 • i s s u e 3 9 8

Editor Nancy Sladek Deputy Editor Tom Fleming Editor-at-Large Jeremy Lewis Senior Editor Jonathan Beckman Editorial Assistants Frank Brinkley • Tom Williams 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 | m a y 2 0 1 2 2

f r om the p u l p i t 1 D J Taylor holy war r i or s 5 Timothy Brook

Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem Carol Delaney • The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyage of Vasco da Gama Nigel Cliff 6 Jonathan Sumption

The First Crusade: The Call from the East Peter Frankopan 8 Thomas Asbridge

In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World Tom Holland h i st or y 10 Leslie Mitchell

Why Spencer Perceval Had To Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister Andro Linklater 11 Leanda de Lisle

The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England Dan Jones 12 Nicholas Vincent

The War on Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe R I Moore 14 John Guy

Our Man in Rome: Henry VIII & His Italian Ambassador Catherine Fletcher 15 Leo McKinstry

The Dam Busters: The True Story of the Legendary Raid on the Ruhr James Holland 16 Anna Reid

Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag Orlando Figes 17 Donald Trelford

Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974-1979 Dominic Sandbrook 19 Hugh Bicheno on four memoirs of fighting in the Falklands b i o g r a p hy & d i a r i e s 20 Joan Smith

As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Diaries 1964–1980 Susan Sontag 21 Richard Overy

Witness to History: The Life of John Wheeler-Bennett Victoria Schofield 22 Frances Spalding

Lucie Rie: Modernist Potter Emmanuel Cooper