I\u2019ve got two books on the go at the moment. Having seen ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ on the stage recently,\u00a0a musical which satirises the senseless carnage of World War I, I felt the need to read in detail about how the War began and how it was conducted.<\/p>\n
1914-1918: The History of the First World War <\/em>by David Stevenson (Penguin) is a superb work. It explains how a group of civilised, Christian nations could set about destroying each other for\u00a0little apparent reason, and how millions\u00a0could go their deaths to win a few yards of earth. A sobering book, showing that humankind learns very little from history.<\/p>\n The second is a thriller by Lee Child, Gone Tomorrow<\/em>. Lee Child is the master. Understated, economical, totally gripping. I dread reading another chapter because it will bring me nearer the end.\u00a0I have to ration myself with severe penitential rigor. Oh that I could write about\u00a0liturgy as Lee Child writes about Jack Reacher, the drifter hero!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having seen ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ on the stage recently, a musical which satirises the senseless carnage of World War I, I felt the need to read in detail about how the War began and how it was conducted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[795],"class_list":["post-2831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recently-published-books","tag-what-were-reading"],"yoast_head":"\n