After a highly charged two-year campaign, the Scottish people have spoken, and the final vote and tally completed. On September 18, 2014, Scotland voted on the issue of Scottish independence in a massive referendum. The result being that Scotland would stay within the United Kingdom after all — rejecting, by a decisive vote, the call […]
Inspired by the incredible adventures of various historical figures and finally spurred on by the book, Prince Rupert: The Last Cavalier (2007) by Charles Spencer, which I recently read and reviewed — I have compiled a brief list of arguably the ten most adventuresome characters of history. Adventuresome here requires an explanation: Audacity in more
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Suleiman the Magnificent: Scourge of Heaven by Antony Bridge is an engaging, but not exhaustive, narrative of the major events in the life and times of the great Ottoman Sultan Suleiman (r. 1520-1566). I was not disappointed in this book, which reads like a charming storybook. The tome is at times suspenseful, always informative, and
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Soldiers of Fortune: The Story of the Mamlukes (1973) is another undiscovered gem of a book by a scholar, historian, author, and soldier, a British Lieutenant General, Sir John B. Glubb (1897-1986), better known as Glubb Pasha by the Arabs he commanded in the Middle East in his many years of service while in the
The Story of the Mamlukes by British Commander Glubb Pasha (1897-1986) Read More »
The Galleys at Lepanto by Jack Beeching (1982) is a marvelous book, so well researched and mellifluously narrated as to read almost as a fairy tale or an epic romance of yore, elegantly scribed in poetic prose. Foremost among the knights-errant in this tale of chivalry is Don John of Austria, illegitimate son of Holy
Antony and Cleopatra is the seventh and final book in the “Masters of Rome” series of historic novels by Australian author Colleen McCullough. This tome covers the years 41-27 B.C. of the late Roman Republic. At 567 pages, it is shorter than the previous books in the series. Gaius Octavian, now calling himself Caesar Octavianus,
Antony and Cleopatra — The Battle of Actium and the End of Hellenistic Egypt! Read More »
