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pickI devoured this book. Part genealogical mystery, part loving mémoire, part philosophy of war and empire, it was shot through with Palin‘s intelligence and humor. Thanks to my cousin @barbwire for a lovely birthday present.
pickThis is a brilliant, wide-ranging book, telling the forgotten (or deliberately airbrushed) story of the millions of colonial and non-white troops who served in World War One, the patronising and racist attitudes they encountered, and how the backlash against them fed into the ideology and rise of the Nazis in Germany and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan in the USA.
Many of us read Owen, Brooke, & Sassoon if we want WWI poetry so their peer, a lesser-read Jewish working class British poet, is a revelation. “Break of Day in the Trenches” has been called the greatest single poem the war produced. The classical and English literary heritage that was the unquestioned possession of an Anglican establishment poet such as Brooke is less available or relevant to Rosenberg, which may account for his relative neglect
Bk2 of October #BookMail is this latest NF. Years ago a young Michael Palin, just before his Monty Python days, was given a box full of family history, photos, diaries & letters. Tossing it aside till the pandemic, he found a photo of a Great-Uncle Harry & became intrigued. Research found he died in the Somme in WWI, but not before having a very interesting life. A nice signed addition, now I have two Python alumnus signature.🐍
Went to bed at 1.45am. Awake again at 5.45am. Looking after a sick parent must be what having kids is like.
The lack of sleep is probably why I found this sentence so unfathomably funny.
