• Do It Yourself Diplomacy: The Leaderless Revolution [Book Review]
  
  (tags: carneross )

An attempt to chart society's attitudes to children in Britain from the earliest times to the present day, using literature. archaeology, historical records and of course social policy research for the most recent period. I had a couple of minor frustrations with the framing of Cunningham's analysis – the narrow geographical focus meant that he is comparing British children of a particular historical period largely with British children of other historical periods, and I think it might have been possible to learn from comparison with other countries (the Commonwealth gets a small look-in, but the rest of Europe, including Ireland, does not). And I actually felt he pulled his punches on one of his key arguments, that children should actually be listened to – though this emerges as an important theme of the book, the reasons why children are often not listened to, and why this might be a Bad Thing, are not really explored. 

One tangential statistic which I found interesting – the average marriage age for British women in 1970 was 22! I have done some limited and not terribly systematic research of my own on this and found a fairly but not universally consistent picture of the average marriage age for most women being mid to late twenties (and men a couple of years older) in Europe since the medieval period, so that's a pretty colossal and temporary drop. Of course it was a declaration of independence in many cases. Edited to add: see comments for actual statistics, which tell a different story.

I found myself sympathetic to, but not certain about, Cunningham's conclusions: that childhood itself is becoming eroded as a concept in today's Britain, where overstretched parents do not have the social resources available to them that future previous generations had, and young people often stay living with their parents much later than used to be the case; and that the media coverage of the most egregious criminal cases tends to project the role of impotent victim onto children, rather than actually listening to them, and perhaps this is driven by the wider uncertainty about childhood and parenthood that Cunningham identifies. But I'd have liked some harder facts as well.

• ‘We heard Ireland was a good place to have a baby’
  
  #savita There are no words.
  (tags: savita )
• Tragedy, shame and outrage as pregnant Savita dies in Irish hospital because of Catholic dogma and political cowardice
  
  #savita There are no words.
  (tags: savita )
• Savita Halappanavar and the Long Shadow of the X-Case
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Vigils and protests over Savita held
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Independent expert to be appointed in Savita review
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Ireland, The World’s Most Principled Country, Allows Savita Halappanavar to Die In Agony
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Savita Halappanavar’s medically unnecessary death
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Woman ‘denied a termination’ dies in hospital
  
  #savita
  (tags: )
• Pregnancy, risk and magic heartbeats: A post about abortion and life
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Savita Halappanavar performs at the Diwali 2010 festival
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Savita’s husband remembers her final hours
  
  #savita
  (tags: savita )
• Did Irish Catholic law or malpractice kill Savita Halappanavar?
  
  #savita Short answer: Yes.
  (tags: savita )

2003
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
City of Saints and Madmen, Jeff VanderMeer
Floater, Lucius Shepard
Double Star, Robert Heinlein
The Separation, Christopher Priest
Ersatz Nation, Tim Kenyon

2004
Science Fiction: The Best of 2003, ed. Jonathan Strahan and Karen Haber
Missing Man by Katherine MacLean
Year’s Best SF 9, ed. David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.

2005
Moving Mars, by Greg Bear
Olympos, by Dan Simmons
A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin
Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
Smoke and Mirrors, by Neil Gaiman
Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link
The Darkness That Comes Before, by R. Scott Bakker
The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Counting Heads, by David Marusek

2006
Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2006 edition, edited by Rich Horton
Science Fiction: The Best of the Year, 2006 edition, edited by Rich Horton
A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin

2007
A Storm of Swords, by George R.R. Martin
The Prestige, by Christopher Priest
Eurotemps, edited by Alec Stewart
Mutiny In Space, by Avram Davidson
The Happy Prince and Other Stories, by Oscar Wilde

2008
The Adventures of Captain Underpants, by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets, by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds), by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman, by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of the Naughty Nostril Nuggets, by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers, by Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, by Dav Pilkey
Year’s Best SF 13, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Science Fiction Hall of Fame: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time, edited by Robert Silverberg
Heart of Stone, by C.E. Murphy
House of Cards, by C.E. Murphy
Hands of Flame, by C.E. Murphy

2009
Queen City Jazz, by Kathleen Ann Goonan
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
The Pollinators of Eden, by John Boyd
Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang, by Kate Wilhelm
The Swoop, or How Clarence Saved England, by P.G. Wodehouse

2010
The Thunderbirds Bumper Story Book, by Dave Morris
Analog 6, edited by John W. Campbell Jr
The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald
The Book of Lost Tales I, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home, by James Tiptree, Jr.
Utopia, by Thomas More

2011
I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett
The Demon Headmaster, by Gillian Cross
The Treason of Isengard, by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton
Heart of the Sea, by Nora Roberts
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin

There are some books here which I mainly remember for how strongly I bounced off them – Ersatz Nation, Olympos, The Darkness That Came Before, The Pollinators of Eden. But there are many more that I thoroughly enjoyed, and my list below has several cases where one book stands for several by the same author. With that in mind, my five most memorable are:

Smoke and Mirrors, by Neil Gaiman – I actually think Gaiman’s talents are best displayed when he is subjected to some external discipline, whether that be a co-author or the constraints of format, which is why I chose this rather than American Gods from the above list. Here he has a set of short stories – some very short indeed – which have lingered in my mind long after the electronic device I read them on stopped functioning, all excellent.

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, by Ursula Le Guin – again choosing a short story collection rather than A Wizard of Earthsea because I think it shows the author’s early genius at her most versatile, with several literary jewels which have stuck in my mind since I first read this decades ago.

A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin – where to an extent the part stands for the whole, and yet also there’s something particularly impressive about the way the first volume in the series sets us up for so much more to come without losing the reader in the mass of geographical and psychological detail.

The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald – my favourite book by a favourite writer, looking at old lore meeting new technology in near-future Istanbul, the author’s typical lush descriptive prose carefully channeled to hit the reader between the eyes.

I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett – there’s a lot of Pratchett on this list (as I suspect will be the case for other months as I work through the year) but I don’t think it’s just that this is the most recent one that I have read; as well as rounding off the very successful Tiffany Aching stories, it contains some deep reflections on life as a whole as one approaches its end.

Honourable mentions:
Utopia, by Thomas More
Science Fiction Hall of Fame: The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of All Time, edited by Robert Silverberg
The Book of Lost Tales I, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
The Separation, by Christopher Priest / The Prestige, by Christopher Priest
The Happy Prince and Other stories, by Oscar Wilde

We’re slowly working our way through Being Human, and have reached the second series during which all three of the published Being Human novels are set. I saw two of them the other weekend and bought them, and have ordered the third, and have now read the first, a decent effort by Simon Guerrier illustrated on the front cover by Leonora Crichlow looking at us sultrily through a noose whose rope is transparent.

It’s tricky to write novels set during the fairly tight continuity of a TV show, though one format that works well here is the Being Human version of the Doctor Who / Torchwood monster-of-the-week, in this case a ghostly woman called Gemma, whose presence in our heroes’ lives provokes them to help her find her own closure after the her son’s death. The truth turns out to be pretty tough to uncover and also rather unpleasant in detail, with the ghosts of wronged Bristolians thronging the pages. Gemma is quite a good character study in character manipulation, and is indeed herself the main obstacle to reaching the answer; in the end Mitchell’s key motivation for solving the mystery and getting rid of her is that she is driving Annie up the walls.

Meanwhile George is excused most of the Gemma sub-plot to get hooked up with some friendly colleagues who want him to father their child. But apparently there is more of that in the next book.

• Could a member of an extraterrestrial species be U.S. president?
  
  “…a country that could elect Warren Harding has obviously set the bar pretty low…”
  (tags: uspolitics )
• Commissioners on Twitter: how are they doing?
  
  Good analysis from @jonworth (though drop the @Klout score FFS).
  (tags: twitter eu )
• How Japan Turned the United Kingdom into a Cute Anime Girl
  
  Norn Iron as trailing hat!!!
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…the Relief Party searching for Captain Robert Scott and his colleagues made a grim discovery.

We have found them—to say it has been a ghastly day cannot express it—it is too bad for words. The tent was there, about half-a-mile to the west of our course, and close to a drifted-up cairn of last year. It was covered with snow and looked just like a cairn, only an extra gathering of snow showing where the ventilator was, and so we found the door.

It was drifted up some 2-3 feet to windward. Just by the side two pairs of ski sticks, or the topmost half of them, appeared over the snow, and a bamboo which proved to be the mast of the sledge.

Their story I am not going to try and put down. They got to this point on March 21, and on the 29th all was over.

Nor will I try and put down what there was in that tent. Scott lay in the centre, Bill on his left, with his head towards the door, and Birdie on his right, lying with his feet towards the door.

Bill especially had died very quietly with his hands folded over his chest. Birdie also quietly.

Oates' death was a very fine one. We go on to-morrow to try and find his body. He was glad that his regiment would be proud of him.

They reached the Pole a month after Amundsen.

We have everything—records, diaries, etc. They have among other things several rolls of photographs, a meteorological log kept up to March 13, and, considering all things, a great many geological specimens. And they have stuck to everything. It is magnificent that men in such case should go on pulling everything that they have died to gain. I think they realized their coming end a long time before. By Scott's head was tobacco: there is also a bag of tea.

Atkinson gathered every one together and read to them the account of Oates' death given in Scott's Diary: Scott expressly states that he wished it known. His (Scott's) last words are:

"For God's sake take care of our people."

Then Atkinson read the lesson from the Burial Service from Corinthians. Perhaps it has never been read in a more magnificent cathedral and under more impressive circumstances—for it is a grave which kings must envy. Then some prayers from the Burial Service: and there with the floor-cloth under them and the tent above we buried them in their sleeping-bags—and surely their work has not been in vain.

That scene can never leave my memory. We with the dogs had seen Wright turn away from the course by himself and the mule party swerve right-handed ahead of us. He had seen what he thought was a cairn, and then something looking black by its side. A vague kind of wonder gradually gave way to a real alarm. We came up to them all halted. Wright came across to us. 'It is the tent.' I do not know how he knew. Just a waste of snow: to our right the remains of one of last year's cairns, a mere mound: and then three feet of bamboo sticking quite alone out of the snow: and then another mound, of snow, perhaps a trifle more pointed. We walked up to it. I do not think we quite realized—not for very long—but some one reached up to a projection of snow, and brushed it away. The green flap of the ventilator of the tent appeared, and we knew that the door was below.

Two of us entered, through the funnel of the outer tent, and through the bamboos on which was stretched the lining of the inner tent. There was some snow—not much—between the two linings. But inside we could see nothing—the snow had drifted out the light. There was nothing to do but to dig the tent out. Soon we could see the outlines. There were three men here.

Bowers and Wilson were sleeping in their bags. Scott had thrown back the flaps of his bag at the end. His left hand was stretched over Wilson, his lifelong friend. Beneath the head of his bag, between the bag and the floor-cloth, was the green wallet in which he carried his diary. The brown books of diary were inside: and on the floor-cloth were some letters.

Everything was tidy. The tent had been pitched as well as ever, with the door facing down the sastrugi, the bamboos with a good spread, the tent itself taut and shipshape. There was no snow inside the inner lining. There were some loose pannikins from the cooker, the ordinary tent gear, the personal belongings and a few more letters and records—personal and scientific. Near Scott was a lamp formed from a tin and some lamp wick off a finnesko. It had been used to burn the little methylated spirit which remained. I think that Scott had used it to help him to write up to the end. I feel sure that he had died last—and once I had thought that he would not go so far as some of the others. We never realized how strong that man was, mentally and physically, until now.

We sorted out the gear, records, papers, diaries, spare clothing, letters, chronometers, finnesko, socks, a flag. There was even a book which I had lent Bill for the journey—and he had brought it back. Somehow we learnt that Amundsen had been to the Pole, and that they too had been to the Pole, and both items of news seemed to be of no importance whatever. There was a letter there from Amundsen to King Haakon. There were the personal chatty little notes we had left for them on the Beardmore—how much more important to us than all the royal letters in the world.

We dug down the bamboo which had brought us to this place. It led to the sledge, many feet down, and had been rigged there as a mast. And on the sledge were some more odds and ends—a piece of paper from the biscuit box: Bowers' meteorological log: and the geological specimens, thirty pounds of them, all of the first importance. Drifted over also were the harnesses, ski and ski-sticks.

Hour after hour, so it seemed to me, Atkinson sat in our tent and read. The finder was to read the diary and then it was to be brought home—these were Scott's instructions written on the cover. But Atkinson said he was only going to read sufficient to know what had happened—and after that they were brought home unopened and unread. When he had the outline we all gathered together and he read to us the Message to the Public, and the account of Oates' death, which Scott had expressly wished to be known.

We never moved them. We took the bamboos of the tent away, and the tent itself covered them. And over them we built the cairn.

I do not know how long we were there, but when all was finished, and the chapter of Corinthians had been read, it was midnight of some day. The sun was dipping low above the Pole, the Barrier was almost in shadow. And the sky was blazing—sheets and sheets of iridescent clouds. The cairn and Cross stood dark against a glory of burnished gold.

Copy of Note left at the Cairn, over the Bodies

November 12th, 1912.
Lat. 79° 50´ S.

This Cross and Cairn are erected over the bodies of Capt. Scott, C.V.O., R.N.; Dr. E. A. Wilson, M.B., B.A. Cantab.; Lt. H. R. Bowers, Royal Indian Marines. A slight token to perpetuate their gallant and successful attempt to reach the Pole. This they did on the 17th January 1912 after the Norwegian expedition had already done so. Inclement weather and lack of fuel was the cause of their death.

Also to commemorate their two gallant comrades, Capt. L. E. G. Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons, who walked to his death in a blizzard to save his comrades, about 18 miles south of this position; also of Seaman Edgar Evans, who died at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier.

The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Relief Expedition.
(Signed by all members of the party.)

My diary goes on:

Midnight, November 12-13. I cannot think that anything which could be done to give these three great men—for great they were—a fitting grave has been left undone.

A great cairn has been built over them, a mark which must last for many years. That we can make anything that will be permanent on this Barrier is impossible, but as far as a lasting mark can be made it has been done. On this a cross has been fixed, made out of ski. On either side are the two sledges, fixed upright and dug in.

The whole is very simple and most impressive.

On a bamboo standing by itself is left the record which I have copied into this book, and which has been signed by us all.

We shall leave some provisions here, and go on lightly laden to see if we can find Titus Oates' body: and so give it what burial we can.

We start in about an hour, and I for one shall be glad to leave this place.

Thanks to for flagging this up to me back in March, and to Brenda Clough for inadvertently jogging my memory at the weekend.

• Pratchett’s Women III: Werewolf Glamour & the Sexing of Dwarves
  
  Tansy looks at the early Guards books.
  (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality sf )
• How I learned a language in 22 hours
  
  And much else about research in Africa.
  (tags: drcongo languages )

It's been a political sort of week, hasn't it? So I thought I should try and list those real-life politicians who have a Doctor Who connection. I don't know of very many and I am sure that the list can be expanded.

Members of Parliament

Here's one you may not have heard of: Stephen Lloyd, the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne since 2010, has claimed that he appeared in both Doctor Who and 'Allo 'Allo under a stage name during his brief acting career in the early 1980s. My intense research of IMDB suggests that he may have been Ray Float, who appears briefly as the UNIT sergeant at the start of The Five Doctors (1983). I am not totally convinced as Ray Float has much more impressive eyebrows, but who knows what happens to one's eyebrows in thirty years?

More obviously, Ann Widdecombe, the Conservative MP for Maidstone and the Weald from 1987 to 1997, appeared as herself in The Sound of Drums (2007); of the couple of dozen people who have played themselves on Doctor Who, I think she is the only politician.

Members of the House of Lords

Sal Brinton, Baroness Brinton since 2011, worked on a couple of Doctor Who stories as a production assistant in the late 1970s. I once asked her for more details, but failed to note the answer – I think Horror of Fang Rock (1977) was one of them.

Floella Benjamin, Baroness Benjamin since 2010, appeared as Professor Rivers in four out of the five series of The Sarah Jane Adventures. Like Sal Brinton she is a Liberal Democrat.

(The Earl of Portland, who was briefly a member of the House of Lords before the 1999 reforms, has appeared in two Big Finish audiosMember of the European Parliament

Michael Cashman, Labour MEP for the West Midlands since 1999, played First Officer Andrew Bilton in Time Flight (1982).

Others

I am sure that this can be only the tip of the iceberg; David Tennant is of course a Labour Party activist and may end up playing a different role some day; Cheryl Hall, who played Shirna in Carnival of Monsters (1973), missed out on a parliamentary seat in 1997 by less than 4000 votes and was at one time leader of the Labour group on Kent County Council. I look forward to further enlightenment in comments.

Edited to add: Andrew Hickey reminds me in comments of the unsuccessful political efforts of Richard Franklin.

• Why Americans Actually Voted For A Democratic House
  
  The blatant gerrymandering of the House of Representatives.
  (tags: elections uspolitics )
• French diplomatic service is the world’s best, UK says
  
  Certainly among the best, from my experience.
  (tags: diplomacy )
• Petraeus affair: Is letter to Chuck Klosterman, New York Times Ethicist, from Paula Broadwell’s husband?
  
  One somehow hopes that it might be.
  (tags: uspolitics )

• Why there isn’t a British Nate Silver
  
  …or indeed for any other country than the USA.
  (tags: elections )
• EU officials ‘hacked’ at Azerbaijan Internet Governance Forum
  
  Who might have done that???
  (tags: azerbaijan computers )
• Wombling Free! The Wombles of Wimbledon
  
  Mari Ness examines a British childhood icon.
  (tags: sf )
• 5 Fun Facts About Bram Stoker On His 165th Birthday
  
  All true!
  (tags: sf )

These are the fiction books, other than SF and comics, and including Shakepeare plays, which I have read in each November since I started bookblogging in 2003:

2003
None

2004
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
The Scheme for Full Employment, by Magnus Mills
The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton
The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson
The Distant Past, by William Trevor
The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith
Tears of the Giraffe, by Alexander McCall Smith

2005
The Days of the Consuls (aka Travnik Chronicle), by Ivo Andrić

2006
None

2007
The Steep Approach to Garbadale, by Iain Banks
Oscar and Lucinda, by Peter Carey

2008
The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett
Emma, by Jane Austen
The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare
Henry IV Part 1, by William Shakespeare
Henry IV Part 2, by William Shakespeare

2009
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
The Black Book, by Ian Rankin
Notre Dame de Paris (aka The Hunchback of Notre Dame), by Victor Hugo
Medea, by Euripides
Nature Girl, by Carl Hiaasen
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner

2010
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantell
The Other Boleyn Girl, by Philippa Gregory
The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai

2011
Ivanhoe, by Walter Scott
Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe
Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by Leo Tolstoy
The Private Eye Annual 2008, edited by Ian Hislop (belongs in this category I suppose)

It's funny how little I remember about some of them – The Distant Past left me pretty cold anyway, but from the blog I appear to have enjoyed The Steep Approach to Garbadale and now can't recall a single thing about it. Anyway, my top five recommendations are:

The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson
Before reading this, I knew Jansson only as the author of the wonderful Moomin books. But it turns out that she was a brilliant and compassionate cartographer of love and affection as well, with a keen eye for island landscapes. A lovely book.

The Days of the Consuls (aka Travnik Chronicle), by Ivo Andric
One of those books about the Balkans which everyone recommends but few have actually read, which is a shame; quite a layered and sympathetic story of diplomats and townspeople in Bosnia during the Napoleon wars, which is more than the sum of its parts.

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did; a lyrical exploration, both geographical and psychological, of Black life in the United States – without the Biblical reference one might expect from the title.

Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantell
Possibly unfair that I read this at the same time as the far inferior The Other Boleyn Girl, but I think it more than stands up on its own as a densely written, detailed historical and psychological study on Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry VIII's key courtiers. I see the sequel is out so suspect I will reread this before reading it.

Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe
Brilliant tale of a woman two hundred years after Thomas Cromwell, making a living by various unseemly methods in the streets of London, the countryside, and ultimately America, at one point accidentally marrying her own brother (as you do), with rich social commentary.

Honourable mentions
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton
The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, by Leo Tolstoy

• Puerto Rico vote first step in making island 51st U.S. state
  
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  (tags: )
• Amazing 3D drawings which leap off the page
  
  Extraordinary.
  (tags: art )
• The GOP And Me.
  
  A Muslim and former Republican writes a long, heartfelt piece.
  (tags: islam religion uspolitics )
• On the green man
  
  Was the green man, that pagan spirit of nature, in fact England’s secret symbol of resistance to Norman oppression?
  (tags: history )
• How FOX News helped Romney lose
  
  A media specialist writes.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• The Outsider’s Guide to Supporting Nonviolent Resistance to Dictatorship
  
  A handbook.
  (tags: politics )

…in Belgium, our prime minister is a gay socialist native French speaker from an immigrant family; and the controversial bit is that he is a native French speaker.

Just sayin’.

Another of the 2-in-1 Doctor Who books published last year, the vaguely common theme being reptiles – dinosaurs in the first story, space snakes in the second.

4) Terrible Lizards, by Jonathan Green

An attempt at homage to Conan Doyle’s Lost World – the Doctor, Amy and Rory find themselves on a ship carrying explorers to seek the Fountain of Youth in Florida in 1880 and get stuck in a time rift with dinosaurs. It doesn’t work terribly well, the plot being reminiscent of one of the more nonsensical TV episodes, Amy screams and bursts into tears at any minor setback, and the one black character is the first to be eaten by the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

5) Horror of the Space Snakes, by Gary Russell

This is much more like it. The Doctor, travelling alone, arrives on a Moonbase (explicitly the same one visited by his second incarnation) which is suffering unexplained pressure drops and disappearances. There’s also a crowd of teenage visitors who have won a ticket to the Moon from their favourite TV show. There are, of course, space snakes, and lots of continuity references (and slight reimaginings) to satisfy long-term fans, and a fairly inventive ending which will satisfy most readers.

On the whole these 2-in-1 books have been about average but this is an unusual case of a weak story published along with a rather strong one.

• Stuck at Stage Three
  
  On grief.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• Insider Knowledge — Crooked Timber
  
  How does information really flow – if it does at all?
  (tags: information )
• Will Catalonia secede?
  
  Doe the Zeitgeist favour separatism?
  (tags: belgium scotland catalonia )
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  Brilliant film – well worth getting from iTunes / VOD.
  (tags: westernsahara )

by Walt Whitman

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara–nor you, ye limitless prairies–nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite–nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser-loops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon's white cones–nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes–nor Mississippi's stream:
–This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name–the still small voice vibrating–America's choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen–the act itself the main, the quadriennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous'd–sea-board and inland–
Texas to Maine–the Prairie States–Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West–the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling–(a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's:) the peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity–welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
–Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify–while the heart pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.

(with thanks to Niall Johnston on Facebook for reminding me of this.)

• United States presidential election, 1800
  
  Electoral college delivers a tie, House of Representatives elects Jefferson on 36th ballot.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1820
  
  Monroe gets 228 electoral college votes of 229 cast.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1824
  
  John Quincy Adams chosen by House of Representatives despite being poor second in popular vote.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1836
  
  VP candidate on winning ticket fails to win electoral college (but elected by Senate).
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1856
  
  Election of only known gay president (his long-term partner had been elected Veep in 1852).
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1876
  
  Bitter disputes over votes from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina; finally popular vote loser declared winner of electoral college.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1888
  
  Incumbent president wins popular vote but loses electoral college.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1912
  
  Incumbent runs for reelection and comes third, which is tricky in a two-party system. Also incumbent Veep dies the week before the vote.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1940
  
  Incumbent runs for third term, and wins.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1944 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
  Incumbent runs for fourth term, and wins.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1952
  
  The last time (before 2008) that neither incumbent Pres nor Veep was on the ticket.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 1968
  
  Last time a third-party candidate made a serious impact (George Wallace winning 5 deep south states).
  (tags: uspolitics )
• United States presidential election, 2000
  
  Loser of popular vote wins electoral college
  (tags: uspolitics )
• Election Forecasts – FiveThirtyEight Blog – NYTimes.com
  
  The best site on the polling for this year’s election.
  (tags: uspolitics )

The Portrait of a Lady is one of several long and slowly digested books that I have been reading recently (still working on the other two). I found it a remarkable book. Henry James has taken the traditional high-society romance, and recast it quite substantially into a story centred on his heroine Isabel, her early loves and her disastrous marriage, with no happy ending promised. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes – we completely miss the first years after Isabel’s marriage in which she bears and loses a child, and the astute reader will spot the truth about Madame Merle long before Isabel does. But James is also writing about the artistic experience of Americans encountering Europe – Isabel and many of the other characters are American, but only one chapter is set across the Atlantic, the rest being mainly in England and Italy – and also for the effect of art on the soul – not always positive; one of the many unattractive aspects of Isabel’s husband is that he is more interested in antiquity than in her. There are a lot of memorable characters including the courageous Isabel herself, and not all of them are quite what they seem. I think it was F.R. Leavis’ The Great Tradition that put me onto this one, and I am very glad that it did.

• British have invaded nine out of ten countries – so look out Luxembourg
  
  Andorra and Belarus are among those in the clear.
  (tags: history )
• Something Else Like… Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga
  
  If you like Bujold, you might like these.
  (tags: sf )
• The Directed Gaze
  
  PK watches Timon of Athens, in different circumstances.
  (tags: shakespeare )
• End of life care through the eyes of a doctor and a patient
  
  Rebutting the Daily Mail.
  (tags: health death )
• East Coast Bias
  
  Dems yet to run official Pres or VP candidate who’s not from Eastern or Central time zones.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• Internet Voting in the U.S.
  
  Why it is a *very* bad idea.
  (tags: elections internet )

This was America’s best-selling novel in 1912; a feelgood romance between a young man who grows vast numbers of medicinal herbs in the Indiana woods, and a girl who appears to him in his dreams. She needs to sort out some mildly complex family issues (evil uncle, dead mother, estranged grandparents); he needs to persuade her that she loves him; it’s fairly obvious how things will work out. (I notice that the more recent of the two Hollywood adaptations had to invent a whole new rival romance subplot to make the story interesting.)

The best bits in the book are Stratton-Porter’s lyrical descriptions of the scenery:

They were at the foot of a small levee that ran to the bridge crossing Singing Water. On the left lay the valley through which the stream swept from its hurried rush down the hill, a marshy thicket of vines, shrubs, and bushes, the banks impassable with water growth. Everywhere flamed foxfire and cardinal flower, thousands of wild tiger lilies lifted gorgeous orange-red trumpets, beside pearl-white turtle head and moon daisies, while all the creek bank was a coral line with the first opening bloom of big pink mallows. Rank jewel flower poured gold from dainty cornucopias and lavender beard-tongue offered honey to a million bumbling bees; water smart-weed spread a glowing pink background, and twining amber dodder topped the marsh in lacy mist with its delicate white bloom. Straight before them a white-sanded road climbed to the bridge and up a gentle hill between the young hedge of small trees and bushes, where again flowers and bright colours rioted and led to the cabin yet invisible.

I don’t think I have heard of even half of the individual species named there, but it adds up to a very pleasing picture, and every chapter has several passages like this.

On the other hand, the characters are a little too perfect to be true, apart from the evil uncle of whom the opposite is the case, and also one or two points where our hero gets a bit manipulative with our heroine, though he does get a mild comeuppance from it. Not too long, compared with some of the other century-old blockbusters I have read.

Home computer has given up, starting with Blue Screen Of Death and now refusing to boot at all. (Almost four years old, Windows XP.)

I guess we’ll just have to get a new one, but wondered if anyone has tips for how to retrieve data from the old hard disk? Especially if there is reliable expertise not too far from Leuven…

This is the first of the books setting up the Faction Paradox timeline which I have enjoyed. The Doctor and Fitz return to Gallifrey in Compassion-as-Tardis, and find themselves implicated in a power struggle between President Romana and one of her predecessors, resurrected by the Faction Paradox. It contains the seeds of numerous ideas which we have seen in later stories, particularly the Gallifrey audios (though they of course feature Romanas I and II, whereas here it’s clearly another Romana), and ends with the original Tardis regenerating itself and the Doctor stuck on Earth with amnesia – both picked up more recently in Big Finish continuity. Most importantly it rounds off a significant story arc, going back to the start of the BBC Eighth Doctor series in some ways, and does so very satisfactorily. Sometimes Who stories playing with Gallifreyanm drama and temporal paradoxes get too clever for their own good, but this is just about right. Very satisfying.

• Denis MacShane: The Jar of Humiliation
  
  A former British ambassador writes.
  (tags: ukpolitics )
• Obama’s secret weapon: Democrats have a massive advantage in targeting and persuading voters.
  
  The development of political marketing technology.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• siderea: [lj] Credit where credit is due
  
  An appeal for sanity re livejournal.
  (tags: livejournal )
• Mikhail Saakashvili’s Smash Hits: 10 choice Caucasian cuts from the recent past of Georgia
  
  Georgian politics through Youtube videos.
  (tags: georgia )
• Om Banna, the motorcycle deity
  
  “Hundreds of devotees turn up every day to pray for a safe journey, often bearing liquor.”
  (tags: religion )
• Five Myths About The Electoral College
  
  Historical and functional.
  (tags: uspolitics )

This is my tenth year of bookblogging – I started back in November 2003, and next Halloween I shall celebrate the tenth anniversary of starting it all. Buit it may never be too soon to start looking back, and I plan to do that systematically for each month between now and then.

These are the non-fiction books that I have read, and reviewed here, in each November from 2003 to 2011:

2003
Why is Sex Fun?, by Jared Diamond

2004
None

2005
The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, by Samuel R. Delany
Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz
Up Through an Empty House of Stars: Reviews and Essays 1980-2002, by David Langford

2006
The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century, by Robert Cooper
A Bachelor’s London: Memories of the Day before Yesterday, 1889-1914, by Frederic Whyte
An International Relations Debacle: The UN Secretary-General’s Mission of Good Offices in Cyprus 1999-2004, by Claire Palley
Disaccord on Cyprus: The UN Plan and after, by Clement Dodd
Everything is about Cyprus, by Hasan Erçakica
Skeletons on the Zahara, by Dean King
Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War, by Tony Hodges
Endgame in the Western Sahara, by Toby Shelley
Western Sahara: Anatomy of a Stalemate, by Erik Jensen

2007
William the Silent, by C.V. Wedgwood
Democratisation in Southeast Europe, ed. Dušan Pavlović, Goran Petrov, Despina Syrri, David A. Stone
The Awful End of William the Silent, by Lisa Jardine

2008
Postwar by Tony Judt
Brussels versus the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union, by Christine Mahoney
More Real Than Reality: The Fantastic in Irish Literature and the Arts, edited by Donald E. Morse and Csilla Bertha
Who Goes There (Travels through Strangest Britain, in Search of the Doctor), by Nick Griffiths
30 Hot Days, by Mehmet Ali Birand
Glafkos Clerides: the Path of a Country, by Niyazi Kızılyürek
Elizabeth I, by David Starkey
The Life of Elizabeth I, by Alison Weir

2009
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, by Jared Diamond
From Genocide to Continental War (aka Africa’s World War), by Gérard Prunier
King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild
A History of the Middle East, by Peter Mansfield
Islam: A Short History, by Karen Armstrong

2010
Doctor Who – The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter, by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook
The Love Letters of Henry VIII
The Cyprus Question and the EU, by Andreas Theophanous
Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson
Elizabeth and Essex, by Lytton Strachey

2011
Diana Wynne Jones, by Farah Mendlesohn
Race of a Lifetime (aka Game Change), by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
The New Face of Digital Populism, by Jamie Bartlett, Jonathan Birdwell and Mark Littler
The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. Christopher Haigh
Why Nonviolent Resistance in Kosovo Failed, by Shkëlzen Maliqi
Why Kosovo Still Matters, by Denis MacShane

It’s funny how variable memory is. I have at least vague memories of reading most of them, but can’t recall anything at all about, say, The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of Great Britain and Ireland except that I didn’t think it had enough about Ireland. Likewise few of the collected essays left much impact on me. As far as I remember almost all the Cyprus books were pretty bad, heavily biased in one way or the other, though Kızılyürek’s interviews with Clerides were fascinating. I remember the circumstances of reading From Genocide to Continental War because I was sitting beside the author on an intercontinental plane flight, which is a bit unusual even for me, and after the events of the last week it’s amusing to see Denis MacShane on the list.

To be more positive, I shall list the top five books on this list, and on each of the subsequent lists, with some attempt at justification.

Up Through an Empty House of Stars: Reviews and Essays 1980-2002, by David Langford
When I read this, Langford was still the automatic winner of the Hugo for Best Fan Writer every year, and the pendulum seems to have now swung against him. But he was still the first sf critic I ever read regularly, and his essays are humane and witty, and insightful too as far as I can tell.

The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century, by Robert Cooper
A fantastic pithy summary of how international politics actually works, by one of its key practitioners (who retired this year, though I think we have not heard the last of him.)

Skeletons on the Zahara, by Dean King
An extraordinary story of American sailors enslaved by Africans in the early nineteenth century (rather than the other way round). I am often a bit distrustful of historians who mine a single source, but King adds quite a lot to the original account.

Postwar by Tony Judt
I have read several blockbuster histories of Europe, but this was the one from which I really learned something – specifically about the years immediately after the second world war, when it wasn’t clear that we would be settling into decades of stalemate between vaguely capitalist democracies and vaguely socialist authoritaran regimes, and when the dynamics in several countries might have led to different outomes.

Brussels versus the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union, by Christine Mahoney
This is one book that I keep recommending to professional colleagues. Not much has been written about how people try to influence policy in Brussels, and even less of it is any good. But Mahoney takes a sensible and relatively light comparative approach, based pretty firmly on actual research rather than gut feeling, and the result is very useful.

Race of a Lifetime (aka Game Change), by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
I guess it’s that time of the electoral cycle, but I think even if it weren’t I’d be recommending this excellent insider story of the 2008 election. (The film starring Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is based on only about ten pages of the book.) It’s a well-paced insider story of the campaign, with dynamics which will be painfully familiar to anyone who’s ever been involved in electoral politics, and with some explanation for events which seemed at the time incomprehensible.

If I had to pick one it would be Robert Cooper; although the last piece in the book rambles a bit off topic, the rest is excellent.

Honourable mentions (also five):
A Bachelor’s London: Memories of the Day before Yesterday, 1889-1914, by Frederic Whyte
The Awful End of William the Silent, by Lisa Jardine
Who Goes There (Travels through Strangest Britain, in Search of the Doctor), by Nick Griffiths
King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild
Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson

• Who Would Win in a Fight Between Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren?
  
  Catherine Butler has the answer (I agree).
  (tags: sf )
• Pumping Water out of Cranberry St & 53rd St. Tunnels – a set on Flickr
  
  Fixing a hole where the rain got in.
  (tags: usa )
• Comet Hergenrother is disintegrating
  
  A missing “neither” in last sentence. I hope.
  (tags: astronomy )
• “Ek Tha Tiger”
  
  The Bollywood film set in Dublin.
  (tags: films india ireland )

…to see people posting “happy birthday” wishes on the Facebook page of an acquaintance who died last December. I guess they didn’t get the memo. I just quietly unfriended him.

• How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement
  
  A first-person account.
  (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality )
• Quivering Puppies: When Good Paranormal Fantasy Sex Scenes Go Bad
  
  Not sure how many of these were good in the first place…
  (tags: writing )
• Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Saying Hurricane Sandy Affected Decision
  
  An interesting development!
  (tags: uspolitics )
• Фотопроект Жени Котенко «Лавочка»
  
  People sitting on the same Ukrainian bench over a four-year period.
  (tags: photos )
• Report On Tax Cuts For Wealthy Suppressed By GOP
  
  Because some politicians feel entitled to their own facts! #fb
  (tags: economics uspolitics )
• In the Footsteps of the Old A1 | Northern Ireland Roads
  
  What the Belfast to Dublin route used to be like!
  (tags: maps northernireland )
• Dear Apple: I’m leaving you
  
  A disaffected fan writes.
  (tags: computers )
• Internet Archive Search: collection:omni-magazine
  
  Every issue of OMNI, 1978-1995
  (tags: ebooks sf )
• Ashton’s visit to secure Balkans’ EU future
  
  Voice of Russia interviews me about US and European policy #fb
  (tags: eu uspolitics my media )

Much below usual this month, partly becuase of two very intense business trips which left me little time to think let alone read and tended to feature flights at antisocial hours, and partly also that I’m nearing the end of three very long books which will push up November’s page count significantly.

Non-fiction: 2 (YTD 44)
The Twilight Lords, by Richard Berleth
Adventures on the High Teas: In Search of Middle England, by Stuart Maconie

Fiction (non-sf): 2 (YTD 41)
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson
The Tartan Sell, by Jonathan Gash

SF (non-Who): 1 (YTD 56)
Conquest of the Amazon, by John Russell Fearn

Doctor Who: 6 (YTD 64)
Torchwood: Consequences, by David Llewellyn, Sarah Pinborough, Andrew Cartmel, James Moran and Joseph Lidster
Day of the Cockroach, by Steve Lyons
The Nu-Humans, by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
The Empty House, by Simon Guerrier
Combat Rock, by Mick Lewis
Infinite Requiem, by Daniel Blythe

~2,300 pages (YTD 64,800)
1/11 (YTD 60/224) by women (Pinborough)
1/11 (YTD 10/224) by PoC (Johnson)
Owned for more than a year: 5 (Adventures on the High Teas, Infinite Requiem, Combat Rock, The Twilight Lords, Conquest of the Amazon)
Other rereads: none (YTD 17/224)

Big 2012 reading projects:
October 31 takes me to Book XIV, Chapter VII of War and Peace, and Luke chapter 4 in the Bible.

Also started:
The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
The Ancestor Cell by Peter Anghelides
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter

Coming next, perhaps:
Goodnight Mister Tom, by Michelle Magorian
The Invention of Childhood, by Hugh Cunningham
Grendel, by John Gardner
The Light That Failed, by Rudyard Kipling
Catholics in Western Democracies, by John Henry Whyte
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, ed by Gardner Dozois
Non-stop, by Brian Aldiss
Collins Business Secrets – Interviews by Heather Salter
A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
Bleeding Hearts, by Ian Rankin
Toward the End of Time, by John Updike
Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman
The Irish Constitutional Revolution of the Sixteenth Century, by Brendan Bradshaw
The Peoples of Middle-earth by J.R.R. Tolkien with Christopher Tolkien
[Doctor Who] The Colony of Lies by Colin Brake
[Doctor Who] Sanctuary by David A. McIntee
Doctor Who Book 5: Monstrous Missions, by Gary Russell and Jonathan Green
The Red and the Black by Stendhal
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Kraken by China Mieville
The Far Side Of The World by Patrick O’Brian
The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857 by William Dalrymple
[Doctor Who] The Burning by Justin Richards