I've read quite a few books recently, but they are shorter ones as I am trying to clear space

The Shortest History of England by James Hawes (review copied from Goodreads)

>2/5, would not recommend. Will not be keeping.

>Got it new on clearance, if I had paid full price for it I would be very annoyed. I know it is a short pop-history book but it has a lot of flaws. No listed sources or even sources for economic/number graphs for things like for amount of gold paid to the Danes or aircraft production before WWII. The only source I saw was with a graph was about the ethnic makeup of the American colonies vs the makeup of the British army. It also misses out a lot of details, for example it mentions the Mayflower ship and just says the group wanted to be away from royal control, no mention of puritans or religion at all. There are a lot of simple maps and diagrams, the kind that would be on a powerpoint presentation. The main argument of the book is basically the north-south divide and the (often foreign or at least more Europeanised in culture) elites vs the poorer native English, rather than focusing on major events or political policies. The author also argues that English (and broader British) history is basically a power stuggle between London+ the South East vs the rest of England+the other celtic areas. There is a point to it but the author takes it way too far (I don't entirely disagree with him but I wanted more history, less political argument). The medieval bit is just a long rant of oppressive Norman colonisers and the suppression of the English. The more modern stuff is basically another rant about how the north-south divide and the culturally different elites led to Brexit (which the author clearly opposes, but that is politics not history). Years ago I read Hawe's 'Shortest History of Germany' and liked it, but now I'm thinking less of it as his book about my own country was so lacking in detail so what did he get wrong about another country?

True Stories of the Second World War by Paul Dowsell (3/5 stars)

True Stories of the Blitz by Henry Brook (2/5 stars)

True Stories of D-Day by Henry Brook (3/5 stars)

>The 'True Stories' books is a box set. About 150-170 pages each. Aimed at a sort of older child audience I think (this was not clear on the box) - swearing is censored and while it mentions death (I mean they are WWII books) it isn't particularly graphic in terms of descriptions. Overall they were fine. The 'True Stories of the Second World War' was the best as it had the most variety and it also had a short further reading section at the end for each of the stories (like the Bismarck or snipers in Stalingrad).

I'm just about done with Palaces of Pleasure: From Music Halls to the Seaside to Football, How the Victorians Invented Mass Entertainment, by Lee Jackson. I've got about 50 pages ago but that is football (I''m not generally interested in sports) plus a short conclusion. (I got it for free, but not as a gift or anything just left behind in a hotel for anyone who wanted it, in case of bias)

>3.75/5 stars. Short at 260 pages. Overall I enjoyed it more than I expected. Entertaining and academic at the same time, covers a good mix of stories as well as policiy and legislation towards the various forms of entertainment, such as music halls, dance halls, gin palaces etc. It sort of front loads the stuff that didn't last as long like music halls, the stuff that had a longer lifespan such as British seaside resorts (which started to decline in the 1960s-70s) or football comes right at the end of the book. Covers a lot of themes such as profitabilty, class, perceptions of morality, reasons for long-term decline, prostitution (prostitutes seem to be a constant presence for the first half of the book) etc. Also I liked that included groups that opposed the various new forms of entertainment for more practical than moral reasons, such as old brewers and pub owners vs the new gin shop owners. I don't consider myself to know a lot about the Victorian era but I found accessible.

>Probably worth a read if interested in the Victorian period or social history in general.

Anyway now a short fiction break as I've got a Discworld and Expanse book to look forward to