I've enjoyed all his SF but have found the last couple of 'normal' novels less inspiring. Agree, Excession was great. Still rate Player of Games. Of his other books, The Bridge was good and also Espedair Street. And apologies for the errant 'e'. What was I thinking...:) Andy

"Tobruk the great siege reassessed" by Frank Harrison OK

I've just finished The Polish Officer by Alan Faust, good spy type stuff.

I just finished "The Minutemen and their World" by Robert A Gross, recommended by RtL. Planning to hunt RtL down and make him eat this book. Arg! Boring social history ... first half of the book described the succession of insignificant local pastors and mind-numbing, petty parish politics. I learned stuff, but it was damn painful. I am currently reading "The Minute Men" by Gen (ret'd) John R Galvin, also recommended by RtL. Seems to be a very good book. I am thoroughly enjoying it. RtL may have redeemed himself.

I've just finished The Polish Officer by Alan Faust, good spy type stuff. I read that recently - I really enjoyed it and will look out for his other novels. Being a slow reader (why read when you can paint :) I am still on Brett's "The British Auxiliary Legion in the First Carlist War" and have made a cheeky start on "Arnhem" by Lloyd Clark. Also on the pile is the Banking Act 2009 :hmm: .

Just got hold of "Die Wahrheit" (The truth) by Leopold Trepper. He was the head of the spy ring "Rote Kapelle", (EITHER "red orchestrer", OR "red chappel". Depends on the mind of the translater at the time, and as the name was given them by the Gestapo, who knows?), who partly fought underground against Hitler, then against Stalin after the war. I will know more when I read it.

Were they anything to do with Rotte Wedding, which I recall from the Sven Hassel books was a commie suburb of Berlin, and also a song?

No. Rote Wedding is STILL Rote Wedding. That goes back to the days of Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht. It was a hot bed of Bolshevism and Socialism even in Bsmarcks days. We also have the "red triangle in Schöneberg. That was the workers quarters in this part of the city (West). Both areas were hit heavily by the S.A (Brown shirt) inspired riots, that eventualy lead to the Reichstag fire, and then to Hitlers siesure of power....(petty it was not just a siesure, in my opinion.) No, the "Rote Kapelle" were a spy ring. They may WELL have had a lot to do with the Bolshovik groups in Wedding and Schöneberg, but as I said, I will know more when I read it.

This month I have mainly been going all c18th... The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815 by NAM Rodger - Very enjoyable. Rodger's has a keen eye for the pithy comment and seems to pack in the detail effortlessly. A good companion piece to the Brendan Simms book. Crucible of War: The SYW and the Fate of the Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 by Fred Anderson - Another real page-turner. Also covers the critical postwar period, so may be of interest to AWI freaks as well. Very good. Oh, and shitloads of Ospreys (again!) as well.

I second the recommendation of Fred Anderson. I like the way we can blame George Washington for everything that went wrong with the world in the 1750s.

Hermann Wouk. "Caine mutiny". MUCH better than the film of the same name.

Hermann Wouk??? Is that a guy who beat the Roamns in the Tetoburger Wald and then cooked Chinese to celebrate?

I've just finished Conn Iggulden's Ghengis Khan Trilogy (very good, a historical charachter I know next to nothing about) and I'm currently re-reading Hornblower (all the Omnibuses/Omnibi)