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ANNE OF CLEVES - HENRY'S LUCKIEST WIFE
and for over 40 mainly positive reviews of
CATHERINE HOWARD - HENRY'S FIFTH FAILURE
see amazon.com
To see the latest FIVE book reviews about
OF GUNS & MULES and OF GUNS, REVENGE & HOPE (below)
please see BOOKS on amazon.com
Thank you.
One of the reviews on amazon.com for:
Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward?
by Karena Fagan of CLASSICS WITHOUT ALL THE CLASS
http://cwatc-bookclub.blogspot.com/2013/03/review-will-the-real-william-shakespeare.html
Shakespeare fans, do I have a book for you. I just finished David Lawrence-Young's Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward? Haven't heard about it? It seems few have according to Goodreads, but this is a book worth seeking out.
University lecturer Daniel Ryhope is stunned when a colleague declares, "William Shakespeare was a con man! A faker and a forger!" He had spent his whole career believing that the Bard himself created all his plays and sonnets, but suddenly is plagued with uncertainty. Along with two colleagues and his wife, Beth, he embarks on an academic journey to find out who was the real William Shakespeare.
What I enjoyed about this novel the most was its information. Lawrence-Young delivers real sources and real theories and puts them in an entertaining format. Personally I have a hard time with non-fiction because it can be delivered rather drily. This was the wonderful combination of fact and fiction. I also liked the addition of lines from the plays and the sonnets thrown in along with the fact Lawrence-Young didn't leave the ladies out of his speculation. Equal opportunity suspicion.
I like it.
I will warn if you're looking for the suspense and action a la "Da Vinci" code, this isn't your book. It's simply not that kind of mystery. There's no antagonist even. Just the characters' simple (yet complicated) gathering of sources and information then debating it around the dinner table.
In my opinion, the plot didn't need the distraction of a bad guy waiting in the wings, it was good enough to just sit at the table and debate the facts. To keep it from getting stale, the author often used the first person narrative of the sources his characters were investigating, as in the case of Delia Bacon, a writer who participated in the Shakespeare author question.
THE VERDICT
BUY If you are a devoted Shakespeare or literary history fan.
BORROW If you enjoy a little fact with your fiction then add a bit of mystery.
Karena Fagan
Further reviews about "Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward?" can from April 2013 be found on the book review site -GOODREADS
Note: Another review of this Shakespeare book appears at the foot of this page.
Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward?
by Karena Fagan of CLASSICS WITHOUT ALL THE CLASS
http://cwatc-bookclub.blogspot.com/2013/03/review-will-the-real-william-shakespeare.html
Shakespeare fans, do I have a book for you. I just finished David Lawrence-Young's Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward? Haven't heard about it? It seems few have according to Goodreads, but this is a book worth seeking out.
University lecturer Daniel Ryhope is stunned when a colleague declares, "William Shakespeare was a con man! A faker and a forger!" He had spent his whole career believing that the Bard himself created all his plays and sonnets, but suddenly is plagued with uncertainty. Along with two colleagues and his wife, Beth, he embarks on an academic journey to find out who was the real William Shakespeare.
What I enjoyed about this novel the most was its information. Lawrence-Young delivers real sources and real theories and puts them in an entertaining format. Personally I have a hard time with non-fiction because it can be delivered rather drily. This was the wonderful combination of fact and fiction. I also liked the addition of lines from the plays and the sonnets thrown in along with the fact Lawrence-Young didn't leave the ladies out of his speculation. Equal opportunity suspicion.
I like it.
I will warn if you're looking for the suspense and action a la "Da Vinci" code, this isn't your book. It's simply not that kind of mystery. There's no antagonist even. Just the characters' simple (yet complicated) gathering of sources and information then debating it around the dinner table.
In my opinion, the plot didn't need the distraction of a bad guy waiting in the wings, it was good enough to just sit at the table and debate the facts. To keep it from getting stale, the author often used the first person narrative of the sources his characters were investigating, as in the case of Delia Bacon, a writer who participated in the Shakespeare author question.
THE VERDICT
BUY If you are a devoted Shakespeare or literary history fan.
BORROW If you enjoy a little fact with your fiction then add a bit of mystery.
Karena Fagan
Further reviews about "Will the Real William Shakespeare Please Step Forward?" can from April 2013 be found on the book review site -GOODREADS
Note: Another review of this Shakespeare book appears at the foot of this page.
OF GUNS AND MULES
When eighteen-year-old David Levi is arrested together with his father and friends and deported from their home in Palestine by the Turks, none of them knows what the future holds. But their spirits soar when they are offered the chance to enlist with the newly formed Zion Mule Corps, a service unit of Jewish soldiers commanded by the legendary ex-Russian war hero Joseph Trumpeldor. Their orders: to help the British army in its WWI Gallipoli offensive. David and his friends grow to manhood in the trenches, fighting first in the Zion Mule Corps and later with Zev Jabotinsky s dream unit, the Jewish Legion. Fighting from the Jerusalem Hills to Es-Salt, and from Es-Salt to Um Es-Shert near the Dead Sea, the Jewish Legion makes a significant contribution to General Allenby's successful drive to expel the Turks from Palestine. This eminently readable historical novel takes us on a journey to the dawning of the modern State of Israel, leading up to the days of the British Mandate for Palestine. Narrated with humor, gripping battle scenes, and a touching love story, Of Guns and Mules makes the history of pre-state Israel come alive.
Thoughts: This is an historical novel about the ZMC, the Zion Mule Corps, and their contributions to the battle of Gallipoli and the effort to drive the Turks out of the Middle East. It's more of an historical account told in fictional form, though. In fact, it reads mainly like a memoir and if I had been told that David Levi, the main character, was an historical person that had simply recounted his tale to the author, I would not have been surprised. The author's knowledge of history makes for a story that rings more true than a "regular" historical novel, and instead of a fiction-writer's poetic flourishes, Lawrence-Young's story recounts the less than poetic experiences of these young heroes of “pre-Israel.” The story is the better for it, I think - I felt like I got a real taste of the dust and the anguish they lived through rather than an emotional experience - especially since I just returned from a trip to Israel where I traveled to some of the areas mentioned in this novel and I know just how true the author got his descriptions of the land. The story ends at the demobilization of the Jewish Legion, but if (as I hope) the author decides to write about the Haganah in a similar fashion, I will definitely read on. (From: One Swede Abroad)
Thoughts: This is an historical novel about the ZMC, the Zion Mule Corps, and their contributions to the battle of Gallipoli and the effort to drive the Turks out of the Middle East. It's more of an historical account told in fictional form, though. In fact, it reads mainly like a memoir and if I had been told that David Levi, the main character, was an historical person that had simply recounted his tale to the author, I would not have been surprised. The author's knowledge of history makes for a story that rings more true than a "regular" historical novel, and instead of a fiction-writer's poetic flourishes, Lawrence-Young's story recounts the less than poetic experiences of these young heroes of “pre-Israel.” The story is the better for it, I think - I felt like I got a real taste of the dust and the anguish they lived through rather than an emotional experience - especially since I just returned from a trip to Israel where I traveled to some of the areas mentioned in this novel and I know just how true the author got his descriptions of the land. The story ends at the demobilization of the Jewish Legion, but if (as I hope) the author decides to write about the Haganah in a similar fashion, I will definitely read on. (From: One Swede Abroad)
GUNPOWDER, TREASON & PLOT
GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT
A Novel by David L. Young. Arima Publishing, Suffolk. 2006. 234pp.
Reviewed by Michael Shackleton "Southern Cross" newspaper, South Africa.
Guy Fawkes belongs to the history of England, but in South Africa he has little meaning other than a name attached to the annual fireworks of November the Fifth.
David Young tries to give us a historical context and appreciation of the big repercussions of November 5 1605 in British history. A small group of Catholic loyalists were determined to dethrone King James I, a Catholic who supported the ascendancy of Protestantism by destroying king and parliament in one 'terrible blow" by igniting barrels of gunpowder secretly placed beneath Westminster Hall.
Today, this indiscriminate use of explosives to slaughter innocent and unsuspecting
people would correctly be labelled as an act of terrorism. But what were the circumstances of the time, and was the plan an honest and sincere way to gain justice for marginalized Catholics? This is one of the questions the author examines as he cleverly weaves his way through this historic novel.
There is more than one narrator of the story, which makes the reader aware of the
issues at stake. The Gunpowder Plot was not master-minded by Guy Fawkes who was a skilled soldier in the use of gunpowder, but by Robert Catesby in league with other prominent Catholic men. Fawkes joined them willingly.
The conspirators were naïve and astonishingly unconscious of how their clandestine meetings in various taverns were attracting the attention of the king's men. Fawkes was easily tracked to the cellars below parliament where he was immediately arrested. Because he was caught in the act, his name has forever been the first one thinks of when referring to the Gunpowder Plot.
The barbaric executions of the conspirators is described graphically. Here the reader can take in and digest just how bitter was the divide between Protestantism and Catholicism in England.
David Young, a teacher of English and history has used his skills to blend historical al facts, characters and events into a compelling tale. Lovers of history and of adventure will be satisfied by the detail and the intrigues of the saga that led to that day day in 1605 that caused a greater than ever persecution of English Catholics more than 400 years ago.
Joseph Lo Bianco (Prof. of Language & literacy Education, Univ. of Melbourne) wrote the following about:
WILL THE REAL WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PLEASE STEP FORWARD?
D. Lawrence-Young takes the often pompous and frequently silly "Shakespeare Authorship Controversy" and turns it into a fast-paced page-turning detective story. All the nooks and crannies of rival candidates are traversed in interesting locations and often funny encounters. The SAC has got under the Shakespeare-loving and teaching David Young's skin and he has turned this irritant into a pleasure to read and from which there is much to learn.
A Novel by David L. Young. Arima Publishing, Suffolk. 2006. 234pp.
Reviewed by Michael Shackleton "Southern Cross" newspaper, South Africa.
Guy Fawkes belongs to the history of England, but in South Africa he has little meaning other than a name attached to the annual fireworks of November the Fifth.
David Young tries to give us a historical context and appreciation of the big repercussions of November 5 1605 in British history. A small group of Catholic loyalists were determined to dethrone King James I, a Catholic who supported the ascendancy of Protestantism by destroying king and parliament in one 'terrible blow" by igniting barrels of gunpowder secretly placed beneath Westminster Hall.
Today, this indiscriminate use of explosives to slaughter innocent and unsuspecting
people would correctly be labelled as an act of terrorism. But what were the circumstances of the time, and was the plan an honest and sincere way to gain justice for marginalized Catholics? This is one of the questions the author examines as he cleverly weaves his way through this historic novel.
There is more than one narrator of the story, which makes the reader aware of the
issues at stake. The Gunpowder Plot was not master-minded by Guy Fawkes who was a skilled soldier in the use of gunpowder, but by Robert Catesby in league with other prominent Catholic men. Fawkes joined them willingly.
The conspirators were naïve and astonishingly unconscious of how their clandestine meetings in various taverns were attracting the attention of the king's men. Fawkes was easily tracked to the cellars below parliament where he was immediately arrested. Because he was caught in the act, his name has forever been the first one thinks of when referring to the Gunpowder Plot.
The barbaric executions of the conspirators is described graphically. Here the reader can take in and digest just how bitter was the divide between Protestantism and Catholicism in England.
David Young, a teacher of English and history has used his skills to blend historical al facts, characters and events into a compelling tale. Lovers of history and of adventure will be satisfied by the detail and the intrigues of the saga that led to that day day in 1605 that caused a greater than ever persecution of English Catholics more than 400 years ago.
Joseph Lo Bianco (Prof. of Language & literacy Education, Univ. of Melbourne) wrote the following about:
WILL THE REAL WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PLEASE STEP FORWARD?
D. Lawrence-Young takes the often pompous and frequently silly "Shakespeare Authorship Controversy" and turns it into a fast-paced page-turning detective story. All the nooks and crannies of rival candidates are traversed in interesting locations and often funny encounters. The SAC has got under the Shakespeare-loving and teaching David Young's skin and he has turned this irritant into a pleasure to read and from which there is much to learn.