Now I'm the first to admit that I've never been a great fan of Blair or 'new' labour, but coming from a military background I've always been pragmatic enough to understand that when diplomacy fails, or cannot be entered into in good faith the military option can prove to be a viable one, even so, this book makes for very scary reading indeed, five wars in six years was the tally that this book had reached when it was published, and it's a truly sorry tale of our over-stretched, under-funded armed forces being thrown into conflicts worldwide, many seemingly on a whim, and a frightening amount of which remain unresolved.
This book follows Blair from his rise to Prime Minister through to his battle with Iraq, the British public and the BBC. It does leave you feeling a little numb at the sheer arrogance of a man who is convinced he's doing the right thing, but so blinkered by his cabal of yes men and 'allies' that he fails to see the mass of opposition to almost everything he now does. Well worth a read.
If you're in the mood for the new media equivalent of rubber-necking a road accident, this book is ideal as it truly is a car crash in extreme slow-mo, but it makes for an excellent read, bringing back the heady days of internet excess when VC's threw money at any idea that moved and every new media agency in the world was based in the centre of Soho snorting coke (apparently).
Narrated throughout by Boo partner Ernst Malmsten, it's a story of an idea ahead of it's time, based on technology well ahead of the bandwidth available to most users all funded by people that couldn't separate the spin from the business plan, and although this may arguably have been the most spectacular of the dot com failures for anyone with any experience of the dot com boom this will ring some chilling bells, and most concerning to some will be the interesting parallels with a few of the current cluster of Web2.0 start-up's.
Nigella's back with another masterpiece this time it's a weighty tome dedicated to feasting, from Christmas to Eid, and From Funerals to Thanksgiving, Nigella covers them all in her own inimitable style, but don't let the idea that this book is event orientated put you off, as many of the recipes will work year round, and frankly - as with all Nigella books' it's worth buying just for the cake section, which will leave all but the most hard-hearted food cynic drooling.
Well illustrated with beautifully straight forward photos throughout this one is just as much fun to cook from as it is to take to bed and read, inspiring you to spend days on end just pottering quietly in your kitchen, immersed in a thick fug of homely goodness.
Now I'm the first to admit that many of the reviews of this book point out, perhaps in an overly world-weary way, that some of the hints and tips in this book are lunacy, well intentioned lunacy, but lunacy never the less, but the examples that seem to be rolled out for every review I've read of this book make up maybe 5% of the book, the remaining 95% of the suggestions for making your life greener are intensely practical.
The books laid out in a practical way covering different aspects of daily life, from water usage and supermarket packaging through to personal and household hygiene, each section is categorised into suggestions that'll cost nothing through to those that will require significant change or investment of hard earned cash. Give this book a whirl, read it with a pinch of salt and you'll actually end up with some valuable lessons on not only things that make you green, but things that make you slightly richer too; and let's face it - both those things can't be bad!