‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.’ L. P. Hartley’s famous opening is used by Gilda O’Neill as an epigraph to her delightful foray through 19th-century murder and mayhem, but in truth, as she shows in The Good Old Days, the past is our native country. Things were not different then: they were exactly the same. Mass murder has not disappeared; nor has the sale of women and children for sex; nor has robbery, nor street crime, nor mindless violence.
Wrath of God: the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755
Stranger in the House: Women’s Stories of Men Returning from the Second World War
The Cellist of Sarajevo
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
St Pancras Station
Pea-soupers and telegraphic paralysis
A Dictionary of Victorian London: An A-Z of the Great Metropolis
The Boogie and Ginnie double act
Shared Histories: Transatlantic Letters Between Virginia Dickinson Reynolds and her Daughter Virginia Potter, 1929–1966
The master and the loyal retainer
Visiting Picasso: The Notebooks and Letters of Ronald Penrose
The Goddams and the snail-eaters
That Sweet Enemy
Maggi Hambling: The Works and Conversations with Andrew Lambirth
Bamboo
The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Change the World
54 replies / Last reply: 20 November 2009 9:59
0 replies / Last reply: 19 November 2009 14:54
0 replies / Last reply: 14 November 2009 15:33
0 replies / Last reply: 13 November 2009 13:20
4 replies / Last reply: 12 November 2009 18:17
1 Britain’s AWOL ally - Fraser Nelson
2 A phonecall to Kelly looks better than not mentioning expenses - Peter Hoskin
3 Fatal inexperience - Humphrey Carpenter
GASCONY, SW France, near Condom-en-Armagnac 13th Century stone house, 21st Century luxury for 12 in 5 en-suites. 50 acres +
IF YOU ARE PLANNING A CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION and looking for some light entertainment, you can now hire London's busiest steel
BOSC LEBAT, SW France. Only 45 minutes from Toulouse Airport with daily flights from most provincial airports avoiding the horrors
Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine
Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
All Articles and Content Copyright ©2009 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved
Comments
There are currently no comments for this article.