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Review: The Power of Babel – A Natural History of Language – by John McWhorter
On Amazon Prime Great Courses Signature Collection I watched author John McWhorter present a course on World Language Families and this drew my attention to this literary work. McWhorter is a very intelligent polyglot and makes the study of global languages an interesting and fun-filled adventure. In this book we look at the vast array… Continue reading
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Review: Our Final Invention – Artificial Intelligence and The End of The Human Era – by James Barrat
This book is a quite alarming discussion on artificial intelligence (AI) and how it has the future potential to make the human race extinct. The concept of AGI or human level artificial intelligence is not thought to be that far off from being reality. It is the rise of ASI or Artificial Super Intelligence that… Continue reading
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Review: Life After Dark – A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues – by Dave Haslam
I got excited when this book arrived on my doorstep. At first glance it has all the key ingredients for a great book. Hacienda DJ author, history of British nightclubs – I expected lots of gory detail and exciting anecdotes and couldn’t wait to get to the acid house chapters….The history begins back in Victorian… Continue reading
Acid, acid house, Amazon jungle, Antarctica, Astoria, authorities, birmingham, Bonds, bouncers, Bristol, Britain, British, Britpop, Chicago, China, Chuff Chuff, Club a Go Go, club culture, Clubbing, COcaine, Communist, coomunism, Daddy G, dance music, dancefloor, danny rampling, Dave Haslam, Detroit, DJ, djs, dress code, ecstasy, Encyclopedia, Engels, entertainment, Fredrich Engels, garage, Gary Glitter, guitar, Hacienda, House Music, Ibiza, jazz, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Saville, judge jules, Liverpool, London, LSD, Manchester, Massive Attack, Ministry of Sound, Miss Moneypennys, Mods and Rockers, music, music industry, narcotics, New York, Newcastle, Newport, nicky holloway, nightclubs, norman jay, Paul Oakenfold, promoter, records, rock and roll, Routledge, Sahara, Sasha, Shelleys, Shoom, SPectrum, Summer of Love, superstar DJs, The Animals, The Beatles, The Cavern, The Crawdaddy, The Rollimng STones, TJs, Trip, U.K., UK Music, USA, venue John s9icolo, venues, Vinyl, Wild Bunch, working class -
Review: Red Notice – How I Became Putin’s No.1 Enemy – by Bill Browder
There is irony in this tale as Bill Browder was following in his grandfather’s footsteps in some ways but was also radically poles apart. Browder’s grandfather had stood for Presidential election in the USA on a Communist ticket. Bill Browder was drawn to business possibilities behind the Iron Curtain and in the post Cold War,… Continue reading
Barack Obama, Berlin Wall, Bill Browder, Capitalism, capitalist, City of London, cold war, Communism, Communist, corruption, crime, Eastern Europe, Europe, European, finance, Gangster, Hermitage, Hermitage Capital Management, Hermitage Fund, Human rights, international business, Iron Curtain, jail, Jew, Jewish, John Kerry, John McCain, justice, Kremlin, law, lawyer, London, Moscow, murder, oligarch, parliament, President, President Obama, prison, Putin, Red Notice, Roberrt Maxwell, Russia, Russian, sanctions, Sergei Magnitsky, Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, Soviet Union, Stanford, U.K., United States, USA, visa restrictions, Vladimir Putin, Washington, xorruption -
Review: In The Shadow of Papillon – Seven Years of Hell in Venezuela’s Prison System – by Frank Kane with John Tilsley
Frank Kane and his girlfriend, Sam, after their business was failing in the U.K. made the fateful decision to become cocaine drug couriers in Venezuela. Whilst attempting to fly out from the airport on Caribbean Island, Isla de Margarita, the airport authorities stopped and searched them and discovered the smuggled contraband which was a few… Continue reading
Agua Verde, army, biography, British Consul, Cartel, COcaine, drug smuggling, El Dorado, Henri Charrière, Human rights, Isla Margarita, jail, John Tilsley, Latin America, Military, murder, narcotics, narcotrafficking, Papillon, prison, raqueta, San ANtonio, smuggling, Spanish, Travel, U.K., Venezuela, violence, war, warfare -
Review: The Great Game – On Secret Service in High Asia – by Peter Hopkirk
The Great Game, as immortalised by Rudyard Kipling in ‘Kim’ was the nineteenth century adventures in espionage between Russia and the U.K. across Central Asia. Both sides were on the verge of a full on military confrontation and sought advantage. The Russian Tsars sought territorial expansion across Asia and always had their eye on the… Continue reading
Afghanistan, Anglophobe, Asia, Britain, British, British Empire, British Geographical Society, China, CrimeaN WAR, espionage, exploration, Geographical Society, Geography, Great Britain, India, intrigue, Kim, London, Persia, Queen Victoria, Rudyard Kipling, Russia, Russian, Russophobe, spy, St Petersburg, The Great Game, Tibet, Tirkmenistan, Tsar, U.K., Vodka -
Review: Russians Among Us – Sleeper Cells & The Hunt for Putin’s Agents – by Gordon Correra
I’ve read Gordon Correra’s previous work in espionage literature and for this reason I was drawn to seek out this new offering. In the current climate of the Russian invasion of Ukraine under ex KGB spy, Vladimir Putin, I felt that this relatively recent work would highlight some of the ongoing dangers of Russian spies… Continue reading
Alexander Litvinenko, Alexander Poteyev, CIA, cold war, Communist, coomunism, DOnald Trump, espionage, FBI, FSB, Gordon Correra, GRU, illegals, KGB, London, mi6, Novichok, Polonium, Putin, Russia, Russian, Salisbury, Sergei Skripal, sleeper cells, Soviet Union, The Americans, the west, U.K., Ukraine, USA, Vladimir Putin, war -
Review: On War – by Carl von Clausewitz
In addition to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, this book authored by Prussian officer Carl von Clausewitz is the quintessential classic book on military theory. The book (although this edition was only an abridged version) puts forward in detail theory for all elements of war, from politics to military leadership, from defence to attack. It… Continue reading
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Review: Memoirs – by Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev was one of the most influential and critical figures of the twentieth century. When I was growing up in the 1980s he was part os a set of international world leaders that seemingly had much more influence over people than the political leaders of today. Gorbachev was the last leader of he Soviet… Continue reading
Baltic States, Belorussia, Berlin Wall, Boris Yeltsin, cold war, Communism, Communist, Crimea, espionage, François Mitterand, glasnost, Gorbachev, KGB, Mad, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Military, NATO, Nomenclatura, perestroika, Politburo, Politics, Putin, Ronald Reagan, Russia, Soviet Union, Stalin, Ukraine, USSR, Vladmir Putin, Warsaw Pact, World Leader -
Review: Putin’s People – How the KGB took back Russia and then took on The West – by Catherine Belton
The author of this, the best study of Vladimir Putin that I have read to date, is Catherine Belton, a Financial Times journalist that was based in Moscow. It is a comprehensive study of the rise of Putin and how he has cemented a Tsar-like power as head of the New Russia. We go from… Continue reading
Belton, Boris Berezovsky, Boris Yeltsin, Brexit, Capitalism, Catherine Belton, cold war, Communism, Conservative, Conservative Party, Conservatives, corruption, crime, DOnald Trump, Dostoyevsky, espionage, Financial Times, FSB, Gangster, KGB, Kremlin, London, Londongrad, mafia, Mikhail Khodorkhovsky, Moscoow, Moscow, oligarch, Organised Crime, organized crime, Panama Papers, Putin, Roman Abramovich, Russia, Russian Mafia, siloviki, Soviet Union, spy, St Petersburg, Tambov, Tambov Group, Trump, Trump Towers, Tsar, U.K., Ukraine, USA, USSR, Vladimir Putin
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