J.N.L.
Myres
Of
all the Oxford History books i have read so far ~ maybe a quarter of
them altogether ~ this has been the least
satisfying, i’m afraid. Why? I’m not really sure, in detail,
except that it seems to be the one in which the least amount of good
history is given. Or, to be specific, my kind of history. There is
all to much here of an explanation of why we don’t know enough, and
how we know what we know, but all of it seems to rely on just enough
specialist knowledge that it is just beyond my ken, leading to a
feeling of constant struggle to catch up and understand, which is not
a pleasant feeling to have as i read. I can’t say i didn’t learn
at all, because that simply wouldn’t be true; the truth is that i
have not learned as much as i wanted, with the result that i am left
still partially in the dark about the period of sub-Roman history, as
it seems to be called, not really understanding how the Saxons and
their colleagues came, to where (or even, fully, whence), when, and
in what manner they settled and blended or otherwise with the
established population. I can’t even tell, really, if this is a
fault in myself or in the book, or mine expectations for the book,
which may have been incorrect. In the end, all i can do is reiterate
my response from the first sentence, that i am not well satisfied
with having finished this one of the series.
Bernard
Whimpress, Nigel Hart
An
account of a dozen Test matches between England and Australia, those
in the authors’ view as being of particular
value or interest for the strength of the game. I enjoyed it, but
not as much as i had hoped i might, not being as fluent in cricket as
i’d like. In some ways, i really can wish quite strongly that i
didn’t move to Canada when i was ten ~ for all the benefits it
bestowed, it also caused some pains, which surely Mum & Dad must
have foreseen and decided that the benefits outweighed the costs. As
a result, though, i find that although i know some names, some
characters have made a sufficient impact that even in Canada or the
US i heard of them, most are completely unknown to me, and events
which the authors take as read aren’t, and, to be sure, some of the
terms and ideas are insufficiently developed here (which is
understandable) for me to understand fully. Again, a shame, but an
interesting read. I should like to see the concept developed for
other sports; i think it could be interesting.
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