Class In Britain, by David Cannadine

An extensive & somewhat academic anaysis of class structures in Britain from the 18th Century up to the end of the 20th Century. There are apparently three different models: them & us; hierachical; & tripartite (upper, middle, lower). The author explores the evolution of each model & the wider consequences that had upon the society of each century.

It doesn't sound like the most entertaining read does it? & you'd be right! However the argument of how each class is assumed to have its own political party when in fact it doesn't was quite interesting & a novel one to me.

Finally I found it worth perservering with until the end because the author presented an interesting contemporary analysis of Britain's class structure in comparison to the United States. Included within this section were some noteable suggestions on how Britain can become more classless (as various politicians have promised to make Britain) for example by scrapping the ludicrous honours system.

I don't recommended it for a light read on Britain's class foibles though.
3/5

The Hot Topic, by David King & Gabrielle Walker

A punchy & informative book which presents the facts of & dissects the arguments on man-made climate change. One of the authors, David King was the UK government's Chief Scientific Advisor for 7 years so knows a thing or two about the topic & that familiarity & depth of knowledge is obvious, even if just from the amount of evidence provided within the references.

What made me appreciate the book even more though was the acknowledgment that man-made climate change is here to stay for the foreseeable future & that sensible measures must be taken to limit its damage & to reduce CO2 emissions to prevent the effects from getting far worse. Furthermore these measures can be carried out using current technologies which needn't cause the bankruptcy of any country that implements them.

I found this argument a refreshing message from the usual doom-mongers & the refusenik stance of various Western countries mostly responsible for the problem which neatly exposes the reasons for a lack of progress in tackling this problem for the lie that it is.

Negatives in the book were that some of the chapters were necessarily statistic heavy, which doesn't (usually, for most people) make for the best read.
4/5

Rubicon, by Tom Holland

An erudite, entertaining & very readable book on the rise & fall of the Roman Republic, why it happened & who made it happen. For once the usual cover blurb in its praise & its awards were not for nothing. The book successfully captures the details of the major players' characters, as well as the shocking brutality of the times, in a concise & contemporary manner, in contrast to often dry translations of original sources. Although always an interesting subject it's no mean feat to tell the complicated story in such a readable way, a way that has seen this book win so much praise, including mine - I've only knocked off one star because I wanted it to carry on.
4/5