In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire Laurence Bergreen (HarperCollins, 440 pages, $30) Francis Drake, son of an English clergyman of modest means, was a pirate, an explorer, a navigator, a world traveler to beat all world travelers, a vice admiral of the small but…
Churchill & Son Josh Ireland (Dutton, 464 pages, $34) Despite an inauspicious beginning, Churchill & Son is a thoughtful study of a father-son relationship during the storms that rocked the 20th century. Randolph Churchill has now prompted six books —…
One of the great insights of Edmund Burke’s monumental treatise Reflections on the Revolution in France is his defense of the principle of inheritance in government. Burke argued against certain radical theorists who claimed that Britain’s limited monarchy meant that…
With the surge of Bernie Sanders, visible even from across the Atlantic, the nuggety issue of “class” seems to be raising its ugly head in U.S. politics. If ever there was a case of society shooting itself in the foot,…
“Nah, ’e still ’asn’t peed.” She might have been talking about an aging dog, but, no, she was referring to me. It was a few hours after an operation on my sinuses, my first experience of hospital surgery for many…
A month ago, terror struck an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. As concert goers were leaving the arena, a 22-year-old Manchester-born Islamic Extremist detonated a nail bomb, killing 22 and injuring over 100. Chaos filled the scene in the following…
In Thursday’s 2017 British general election, we saw shifts of opinion and change of mood within the United Kingdom: Theresa May and Scottish Independence are both on their way out. While the conservatives may have lost their majority in parliament,…
The attacks in London on Saturday are the latest in a series of terror strikes that have led to the deaths of over 30 civilians of various nationalities. British PM Theresa May has expressed the outrage of most British people,…
London A week after the historic Brexit referendum I attended what we might call its sequel. As Americans will recall, throughout Great Britain on June 23 all of the country’s bien-pensants ever so unctuously voted against Brexit — that is…
