My favorite historical fiction author of books about the Plantagenet era in England and France is Sharon Kay Penman. A peripheral character in several of her books is William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. Marshall was such an intriguing personality that when I learned of Thomas Asbridge’s non-fiction biography of the man, I snapped it up. […]
Book Review: Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
February 18, 2015 By Leave a Comment
I’ll always remember the scene in the movie A Man for All Seasons where Sir Thomas Moore, being tried in Henry the Eighth’s Star Chamber, confronts the man who betrayed him. Seeing the man’s medallion which proclaims him Governor of Wales, he remarks “I can understand a man selling his soul to the devil for […]
“Don’t Know Much About History”-Art Garfunkle
February 15, 2015 By Leave a Comment
This was a line in a popular song in the late 1960s. Art Garfunkle was not alone. The fact is, huge numbers of Americans really don’t know much about history. When I was writing The Death of Carthage, people would ask me what the book was about and I would say “The Second and Third […]
Book Review: Darkness Over Cannae by Jenny N. Dolfen
January 17, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Darkness Over Cannae is a work of art, in both the literary and the pictorial senses. It is lush with strikingly rendered illustrations, created by the author herself, which bring to life the sights one might have witnessed before, during, and after the battle. In Darkness over Cannae, Jenny Dolfen tells the story of the […]
Book Review: Losing our Way, an Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America
January 14, 2015 By Leave a Comment
This book is painful to read, but if you read no other book this year, this is the one you should read. Hebert delves into the deterioration of American society from a prosperous society with a huge middle class, a sound infrastructure, and an educated populace, to its present state where the a much reduced […]
Book Review, Outlander of Rome by Ken Farmer
December 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment
I would hesitate to recommend this book to serious readers of historical fiction as some of the historical inaccuracies would make one grind one’s teeth, or perhaps explode into paroxysms of laughter. I think, however, that the author knows his history and that the inaccuracies are intentional. He’s putting the reader on, perhaps out of […]
Book Review: Las Legiones Malditas by Santiago Postaguillo
December 16, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Las Legiones Malditas (The Accursed Legions) is the second in a series of three novels by Santiago Postaguillo about the life of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Carthage in the Second Punic War. The books are written in Spanish with no English translation available, but if your Spanish is up to the task, […]
Book Review: Scipio Rising by Martin Tessmer
November 11, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Martin Tessmer is a talented writer, Scipio Rising is fast passed and absorbing. The depiction of the Battle of Cannae is excellent, but his account of the aftermath of the Battles of the Upper Baetis is muddled and inaccurate. Readers who have studied the Second Punic War in detail, however, will be annoyed by the […]
Book Review: Watchmen of Rome by Alex Gough
November 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Watchmen of Rome takes the reader to the mean streets of Ancient Rome during the reign of Tiberius. Elissa is a priestess of the Carthaginian deities Baal-Hammon and Tanit, having received training from her mother, religious lore passed down in secret since the destruction of Carthage some 180 years before. She has a plan to […]
A Conspiracy?
October 23, 2014 By Leave a Comment
I recently received a request from a friend on Face Book, I’ll call him Jesse, to watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEV5AFFcZ-s. While I have doubts about much of what is claimed in this video, it raises some important points that should be addressed. I wrote the following letter to Jesse, which I would like to share […]
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