‘Pandemic 1918: The Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History’ by Catherine Arnold

I picked this up in late 2020, thinking it might be a good thing to know a bit more about pandemics, since we were in the middle of one. It is constructed in an anecdotal way, drawing on many, many sources – and must’ve required daunting amounts of trawling through archives, local newspapers, medical records,

‘Czechmate’ by David Brierley

You know how all the time authors are banging out spy thrillers which are compared favourably to John Le Carré, and you buy it and read it and it is a damp squib compared to the master? Well this book really is as good – if not better – than Le Carré. Huzzah! There are