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Books of the Year

Spectator reviewers

Wednesday, 21st November 2007

A further selection of the best and worst books of the year, chosen by some of our regular contributors

David Cannadine’s Andrew Mellon (Allen Lane, £30) is a striking portrait of a great American misanthrope, which will be much enjoyed by those who persist in believing that money cannot buy happiness. I know that one ought not to compliment women in the presence of their husbands, but The Ordeal of Elizabeth March (HarperPress, £25) by Linda Colley (aka Mrs Cannadine) is a rather remarkable piece of archival detective work, the biography of a highly unconventional woman, propelled by

misfortune and curiosity to travel in 18th-century America, Africa and India. Her very existence was unknown before Colley made her a peg on which to hang some characteristically original reflections on the European diaspora of the 18th century. The second volume of F. P. Locke’s Edmund Burke (Clarendon Press, £190 for both volumes) completes a life of the great political theorist and orator which is unlikely to be superseded for a long time. We shall all learn to love the 18th century in the end.

Jane Ridley

The best heavyweight biography that I have read this year is Tim Jeal’s Stanley (Faber, £25). Wise, fair and deeply researched, Jeal’s book sets the record straight on the great Victorian explorer, exonerating him from allegations of racism, brutality and suppressed homosexuality. Jeal has an extraordinary tale of African adventure to tell and he tells it superbly well. A. N. Wilson’s enjoyable and erudite novel Winnie and Wolf (Hutchinson, £17.99) is the story of the romance between Hitler and Winfred Wagner, the composer’s English daughter-in-law. Wilson succeeds in making Hitler into a believable character, as well as giving fascinating insights into the worlds of Weimar Germany and Wagnerian opera. An Alphabet of Aunts by C. M. Dawnay (Jonathan Cape, £14.99) is the perfect solution to everyone’s Christmas present problem: a word-game book to be enjoyed by children and adults alike, deliciously illustrated by Mungo McCosh.

Bevis Hillier