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Behind-The-Books Blog
Articles by Georgina
Farewell blog by Georgina Phipps
Friday, July 15th, 2011
Once upon a time, and presently, presently ago, there lived a big yellow-haired heffalump who ruled over a vast sprawling grey jungle of stone and fumes and expensive paninis and quite brilliant open-air Shakespeare. And deep in the heart of this jungle was burrowed a warren, and inside the warren was a cave hewn of [...]
The Forgotten Highlander
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
February 1942. Singapore. Weight: 135lbs. Surrender to Japanese. 900 miles standing in overcrowded cattle truck. 100 miles forced march through jungle. Whipped to move faster. Beatings if you fall behind. Hard labour on the ‘Death Railway’. No shoes. No clothes. Two cups of rice a day. Beatings if you work too slow. Beatings if you [...]
Inspired by the Spanish Civil War…
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Today my beady history-spy eye was rewarded for its daily scour of the news sites with this interesting nugget of information: National Archives files have been released (and are free to download) detailing the names of 4,000 Britons who in the 1930s went off to fight in the Spanish Civil War - read more here…
What [...]
Ideology and Emotion - are the two incompatible?
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Unsubstantiated by research or reader surveys Thought for the Day: a truly great novel doesn’t just entertain, it is also an attempt to instruct, inform or enlighten readers about a real societal, political, ethical or other issue. But what of the novels whose overriding, original purpose is to instruct, the novels for whom entertainment is [...]
Asterix and Obelix and Neuroscientists…
Friday, June 17th, 2011
The only comic I was ever serious about as a child was Asterix, so I suppose I ought to be pleased that the adventures of the indomitable Gaul have been given the academic scrutiny, the particular subject of analysis being the occurrences of traumatic brain injury in the books. Read Guardian article here…
Yet as interesting [...]
HELP WANTED
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
It’s not often I feel sorry for millionaire infants with names like ‘Apple’ and ‘Moses’, but in view of the intensive education two such children are about to be subjected to, a little sympathy is not absurd. For last week a notice roughly along the following lines was posted:
‘Wanted: private tutor to teach two kiddies [...]
Magical Mystery Mews!
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
The first time I took the bus to work, I got a little bit excited. Not because I thrill at being squashed against a cigarette-reeking city commuter on a springless seat, but because my bus route takes me past Abbey Road studios and over the iconic crossing – rather happy-making, for a Beatle maniac. A [...]
Happy Birthday Bob!
Thursday, May 26th, 2011
And if you hear vague traces of skippin’ reels of rhyme…
…you may do your tambourine in time, but it ain’t no poem, sunshine. At least, according to those tiresomely self-righteous elements of the Guardian readership who so often seem to take pleasure in bemoaning the ‘sad dumbing down of the country’. Nevertheless, this week, in [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (The Epilogues)
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
The Epilogues
Well, my Tolstoyan brethren, it has taken three months of reading and five months of blogging. But now, at last, the inkwell has run dry, the poor paper-merchant is made redundant, and Mrs Tolstoy’s pleas for attention may finally be satisfied: for it turns out [...]
If politicians were literary characters, what characters would they be?
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
This week, during Prime Ministers Questions, the representatives of our nation continued to rummage through the shallow drawers of their popular culture knowledge to pull out a reference that, they hoped, the House would cheer, the public would relate to, and the press would report on. David Cameron’s attempt to be modern stretched as far [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Books Thirteen to Fifteen)
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Books Thirteen to Fifteen
The French are in Moscow and the Russians are without, vacillating between activity and lethargy, apparently on the brink of disintegration, suddenly propelling themselves uncompelled into attacks on the invaders. Kutusov is not a happy pensioner. His commanders delay when they should attack [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Books Eleven & Twelve, Part II)
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Books Eleven & Twelve, Part II
Last week, as you may recall, another one of our gallant heroes snuffed it. The ranks of our epic are thinning, and the survivors are bunching together for protection. Before Prince Andrei had the decency to succumb to his wounds, the [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Books Eleven & Twelve, Part 1)
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Books Eleven & Twelve (Part 1)
Having thrashed the French at the Battle of the Borodino, the Russian army sportingly decides to retreat, and now finds itself at the beginning of book 11 with its back pressed hard against the shuddering walls of Moscow. Quite what is [...]
Banned Books
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
On Tuesday Lara made mention in her blog of the BBC Book List Challenge – that list currently doing the internet rounds of the 100 absolute must-read books. If however, you feel that with your job, your other books, and the TV, the leaky tap, the school runs, the nightly naps, and emptying the bin, [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Book Ten)
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Book Ten
Summer, 1812. As the French army advances like an unstoppable steam roller across Russia, it is clear that Napoleon means business. At least that is clear to any reasonable creature, but not, inevitably, to that cantankerous old troublemaker Prince Bolkonski, who refuses to abandon his [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Book Nine)
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Book Nine
It is Book Nine, and we have reached, in this summary exercise, the halfway point of War and Peace. It is also now, and will till the end remain, 1812: a pivotal year for European history, and, it transpires, this novel. For henceforward the book [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Book Eight)
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Book Eight
We finished Book Seven with Sonya blissfully enraptured with a fiancé by her side, and Natasha desperately pining for a fiancé many miles away, having a whale of a time in the Swiss Alps. But in Book Eight it soon transpires that Natasha, despite all [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Book Seven)
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Book Seven
If Tolstoy had ever written a brochure for the Russian tourist board, book seven would surely be it. Called home to help sort out his family’s dire financial problems (don’t be deceived by their owning several houses, thousands of serfs and, thanks to Nicky’s [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Book Six)
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Book Six
In Book Five, as you studious little blog-followers no doubt remember, quite a lot of good ink was spilt telling the tale of how Pierre sought to pull himself out of the mire adulterous Helene had sunk him in. Well, you’ll be happy to hear [...]
War and Peace: A Summary (Book Five)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
My summary of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy continues…
Book Five (A time for slow reflection)
Being the observant little pumpkin that he was, Tolstoy could not help but notice the tendency of couples rendered asunder to recover from their sundering in very different ways. We consequently have Helene, abandoned by chubby hubby Pierre for her [...]
Currently we are...
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...Reading
West End Front, by Matthew Sweet. Lesley: A look at what was going on behind the dazzling exteriors of the grand London hotels like the Ritz and the Savoy during WW2. Chock-full of interesting details.
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