The Last 10 Books (I added to my Wish List) - June 2026 

I ordered a book off my Wish List last week and almost before I realised it had added three more to it. This happens a LOT, at least to me. One of the things that prompts such behaviour is, of course, the ‘useful’ feature of “people who bought/viewed this also bought/viewed” which leads me down a book adding rabbit hole powered by the surge of a sudden tsunami. The other major gateway drug to book adding is the growing number of BookTubers that regularly show up on my feed. Most of their videos don’t cause me to go on an adding frenzy, but some... oh my.... Only one recently added book was from another source. I had just re-watched the classic 1964 movie Zulu (which I remember watching at the cinema bit COULDN’T have been IN 1964 as I don’t think my dad would’ve taken a FOUR-year-old to see it!) which go me wondering about the real battle... So, the new additions are: 

Zulu Rising: The Epic Story of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift by Ian Knight 

Ricochet: Guns, Greed, and the American Way of Violence by Mike McIntire 

Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers by Hannah Lucinda Smith 

Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Yeganeh Torbati 

The August Coup: The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia 1985-1991 by Robert Service 

1873: The First Great Depression and the Making of the Modern World by Liaquat Ahamed 

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight 

Stealing Hitler's Rocket: The Incredible Mission to Smuggle a V-2 Rocket Out of Nazi-Occupied Europe to Britain by Guy Walters 

Pearl Harbor: Japan's Greatest Disaster by Mark Stille 

Alexander: God, King, Man by Edmund Richardson 

It's the usual history heavy mix but still a fair range of subject areas. But, as usual, I’ve ZERO idea when I’ll get around to actually reading them – if I ever do... But that’s all part of the fun. 

Happy Birthday: Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

Born in Kaunas, Lithuania (then within the Russian Empire), to a Lithuanian Jewish family, Goldman immigrated to the United States in 1885. Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair in Chicago, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands. She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate industrialist and financier Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Frick survived the attempt on his life in 1892, and Berkman was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Goldman was imprisoned several times in the years that followed, for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth.

In 1917, Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with 248 others—in the so-called Palmer Raids during the First Red Scare and deported to Russia in December 1919. Initially supportive of that country's October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power, Goldman changed her opinion in the wake of the Kronstadt rebellion; she denounced the Soviet Union for its violent repression of independent voices. She left the Soviet Union and in 1923 published a book about her experiences, My Disillusionment in Russia. While living in England, Canada, and France, she wrote an autobiography called Living My Life. It was published in two volumes, in 1931 and 1935. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Goldman traveled to Spain to support the anarchist revolution there. She died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1940, aged 70.

During her life, Goldman was lionized as a freethinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and denounced by detractors as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution. Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism. After decades of obscurity, Goldman gained iconic status in the 1970s by a revival of interest in her life, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest.

Just Finished Reading: A History of Britain in 21 Women by Jenni Murray (FP: 2016) [276pp] 

It is a truth (generally acknowledged) that many women have been ‘written out’ of History. Part of this is through ignorance, but part of it is intentional and at least part of the authors intentions with this interesting book was to put part of that oversight right. Another part was to showcase women she admires and who she took as examples to aspire to. Most of the list was pretty obvious – indeed unavoidable – given British history. Women such as Boadicea (using the old spelling that both the author and I grew up with) and Elizabeth I are shoe-ins on any such list as this. Others I was either unaware of – like Aphra Behn (a 17th century playwright) or Ethel Smyth (a 19th century composer) or only knew in passing.  

Naturally a good chunk of the text, and a good number of the women listed, revolved around the movement for and the gradual increase of the Rights of Woman, with an expected chapter on Mary Wollstonecraft, and included Emmeline Pankhurst, Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Constance Markievicz who was the first woman MP elected in the 1918 General Election. Nancy Astor (also getting her own chapter here) was actually the first woman MP to take her seat in the House of Commons as Constance Markievicz had refused to do so as a member of Sinn Fein who boycotted the English parliament in protest at the lack of Home Rule for Ireland. 

The last few women on this list had the extra ‘wrinkle’ of having actually being interviewed by the author during her career as a journalist. These included Labour politician Barbara Castle (who I liked), Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (who I voted for TWICE) and fashion designer Mary Quant (who I definitely want to read more about). Rounding the list out was Scottish SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon whose political career has been.... ‘interesting’ to say the least, especially lately! 

Overall, this was an interesting read which introduced me to a few objects of further interest as well as showcasing the fact that women did actually exist in the historical past and did actually have an impact on British history. One of the things I find most gratifying, even in just the 10 years since the publication of this work, is the number and range of women's biographies from across the globe that have plucked important (and often fascinating) women from the previous obscurity they had been condemned to inhabit. Definitely worth your time for both snapshots of British history and as an introduction to some of the women who helped shape it. More to come. 

Obviously fake, but VERY funny... especially if you've used the Tube in a normal summer, never mind on a record breaking June heatwave - hottest June day since 1976... and BOY do I remember 1976!!!

Just Finished Reading: The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison [53pp] 

This was a short collection of short stories from the acclaimed author of the 1952 classic Invisible Man. All four were about different aspects of the black experience mostly in the US – from casual racism to targeted violence.  

For me the best of the bunch was the last one – and not just because it was based in the UK (actually in Wales). Called ‘In a Strange Country’ it told the story of an American black sailor in WW2 looking around the local area after his ship had docked to unload supplies in Britain for the war effort. Set upon by several white American soldiers he is rescued by some locals and taken to a local pub to recover. Bought a pint of beer by one of his rescuers he really doesn’t know how to respond and struggles to understand how white men are treating him so well. Slowly he begins to understand that the locals are treating him simply as a ‘Yank’ and as someone who came from another country to help them fight a common enemy – Germany. Later taken to the local hall he is introduced to more people who look past his skin colour and who appreciate his more than decent singing voice. 

I’ve heard of several real incidents like that after an increasing number of American servicemen – both black and white – were based in Britain during the run-up to D-Day and after. As the American services were still segregated at that point some insisted on segregated pubs and other venues when based in the UK. Without such a history here, they were denied that request which caused some friction between white and black Americans some of whom were forced to either mix or leave for the first time in their lives. I image both sides were hit by the significant culture shock. I’ll see if I can find some history books covering this interesting topic from a US and UK perspective.  

Dear GOD we're getting **ANOTHER** Prime Minister....!!! I did think he'd have more balls to fight for it but I guess that's par for the course. So, SEVEN Prime Ministers in TEN years.... ONE every 18 months.... Don't you just LOVE stable government.... [lol] Let's hope the NEXT guy lasts a bit longer..... I guess we'll see in 3 years (or less).