Seems OK to me....!

Absolutely PERFECT!

Just Finished Reading: A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift [53pp] 

This consisted of five short articles of which ‘A Modest Proposal’ was the longest. As the author was writing in the early-mid 18th century several things immediately jumped out at me. First was the sometimes-odd spelling. As far as I know, what we now regard as modern ‘correct’ spelling is a comparatively recent affair. I’ve noticed this a few times in Classics including some very odd spelling in works of Jane Austen. Personally, I like the fact that such things are left in unchanged. The most prominent difference between ages is the seemingly random use of Capital letters (for emphasis?) and what seems like the overuse of punctuation. None of that makes for a smooth or fast read – although you do get used to it in longer novels. I used to struggle with older text styles but, after some effort, started to actually enjoy it. 

The first thing I enjoyed here was a short – 3 page – piece called ‘A Description of a City-Shower' which amused me with the descriptions of public behaviour during a random downpour. I particularly liked the observation of women ‘shopping’ without any intention of buying anything just to get out of the rain. As someone who has done exactly that it all felt very modern and normal. 

The titled ‘Modest Proposal’ was a piece of political satire that, I imagine, was quite harsh at the time and still, even after around 300 years, managed to retain at least some of its dark humour (or that might be me to be honest). I can certainly imagine the political ‘elites’ reading it, chuckling, and then thinking twice about it – just as the author no doubt intended.  

Whilst interesting for a number of reasons, this brief booklet doesn’t really ‘translate’ well over the centuries. I’d be the first to admit that my knowledge of Britain in the 18th century is limited (to say the least) so I definitely missed some of the charged rhetoric aimed at people who I’ve never heard of before. I think also that the power of political satire, looking back so long, seems a pale imitation of what we’re used to today. Or maybe our satire is just less sophisticated or subtle. One thing this slim volume has done is to prompt me to read more about the time it came from – so that’s a win, I think.  

Welcome to February - we MADE it! This is one of my favourite months here at SaLT as its Love & Relationships Month. So, get ready for Romance with, of course, a Cyberkitten *twist*. 

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

I tend to go in splurges when I’m adding books (and other things) to my Wish List. Often if I’m reading something the author will reference a book or other author which will prompt some investigation. For example, I’ve been reading about the immediate post-war period recently, so I’ve become a little obsessed with the Cold War. Other things that might prompted a quick bit of splurging are YouTube videos or movies. So, here’s what I’ve added recently... 

The Two Hundred Years War: The Bloody Crowns of England and France, 1292–1492 by Michael Livingston 

The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War by Nicholas Thompson 

George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis 

The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between by Michael Dobbs 

The Last Titans: Churchill and de Gaulle by Richard Vinen 

1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World by Phil Craig 

To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power by Sergey Radchenko 

The World of the Cold War: 1945-1991 by Vladislav Zubok 

No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One by Andrew Lambert 

A Shellshocked Nation: Britain Between the Wars by Alwyn Turner 

Unsurprisingly, they’re all non-fiction and all history – but it's my ‘thing’. When (or even IF) I get around to reading these is anyone's guess, but that not an issue and never has been. I have to keep track of things SOMEHOW!

The SIZE difference between a B-29 and a B-36 is AMAZING!

An impressive overview I thought I'd share..........

Happy Birthday: Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939) was an American author. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book.

In addition to the success of his printed works, his books have second lives and continuing influence through adaptations for films and television. His novels and short stories were adapted into 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre.

Pearl Zane Grey was born January 31, 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. His birth name may have originated from newspaper descriptions of Queen Victoria's mourning clothes as "pearl grey". He was the fourth of five children born to Alice "Allie" Josephine Zane, whose English Quaker immigrant ancestor Robert Zane came to the American colonies in 1673, and her husband, Lewis M. Gray, a dentist. His family changed the spelling of their last name to "Grey" after his birth. Grey later dropped "Pearl" and used "Zane" as his first name.

Grey was an avid reader of adventure stories such as Robinson Crusoe and the Leatherstocking Tales, as well as dime novels featuring Buffalo Bill and Deadwood Dick. He was enthralled by and crudely copied the great illustrators Howard Pyle and Frederic Remington. He was particularly impressed with Our Western Border, a history of the Ohio frontier that likely inspired his earliest novels. Grey wrote his first story, Jim of the Cave, when he was fifteen. His father tore it to shreds and beat him.

Because of the shame he felt as the result of a severe financial setback in 1889 due to a poor investment, Lewis Grey moved his family from Zanesville and started again in Columbus, Ohio. While his father struggled to re-establish his dental practice, Grey made rural house calls and performed basic extractions, which his father had taught him. The younger Grey practiced until the state board intervened. His brother Romer earned money by driving a delivery wagon. Grey also worked as a part-time usher in a theater and played summer baseball for the Columbus Capitols, with aspirations of becoming a major leaguer. Eventually, Grey was spotted by a baseball scout and received offers from many colleges. Romer also attracted scouts' attention and went on to have a professional baseball career.

Over the years, Grey spent part of his time traveling and the rest of the year writing novels and articles. Unlike writers who could write every day, Grey would have dry spells and then sudden bursts of energy, in which he could write as much as 100,000 words in a month. He wrote longhand in pencil with little punctuation and his first draft was the final one. Punctuation was added later by secretaries when they were preparing the manuscript for publication.

[I read Riders of the Purple Sage back in 2018 and found it interesting. I'm a LONG time fan of the Western movie so with luck and a bit more effort I might just read more of Zane and other Western authors. Its certainly something I aspire to!] 

Just Finished Reading: 1941 – The Year Germany Lost the War by Andrew Nagorski (FP: 2019) [305pp] 

I have long argued that Germany made three significant mistakes in 1941 which essentially lost them the war, so it was good to find an author (another journalist rather than a historian) that agreed with me. But although we were definitely on the same page the author of this excellent history was rather more nuanced than I was.  

The first, arguably less vital mistake, was not finishing off the British on their left flank after losing the Battle of Britain and indefinitely ‘postponing’ the invasion known as Operation Sealion. Hitler was, apparently, sure that Britain posed a low threat as she was under constant air attack and the vital Atlantic convoys were under constant pressure. Hitler assumed that she would eventually have to ask for an armistice before widespread starvation set in. He wasn’t completely off base but failed to take into account Churchill’s ‘bulldog’ spirit and Roosevelt's growing assistance in Britain's war effort. 

Oddly, Germany’s (or actually Hitler’s) second mistake was at least in part supposed to address his first. The planned invasion of the Soviet Union was supposed to take out a future potential ally of Britain (thereby making Britain's situation hopeless) and also discourage further American involvement in the European war. After the lightening victories in the West even the sceptical German army commanders started to believe that they could defeat Russia in a matter of 2-3 months. This was despite, or maybe because of, the lack of any adequate intelligence of Soviet capabilities or even decent maps of the region. The initial attack – aided immensely by the fact that Stalin had refused to believe that such an attack was coming despite mountains of evidence to support it – was a huge (indeed unexpected) success and seemed to validate Hitler’s belief that a simple door kick would be enough. Here’s were the authors nuance comes in... In the earliest days, as German forces advanced into Poland and the Ukraine, at least some of the locals saw the Wehrmacht as liberators rather than invaders (which is rather difficult to wrap your head around knowing what was coming). But this opportunity was very quickly thrown away as the advancing German forces were told to neither stop nor take prisoners. It wasn’t long before the ‘liberated’ became partisans – another fatal mistake. 

Belief trumped reality when, after months of conflict, frontline commanders sent back requests for winter clothing. As the Russians, who had been dying or surrendering in their millions at this point, were expected to collapse at any minute now such frivolous (indeed almost treasonous) requests were denied. Indeed, despite being within sight of the outskirts of Moscow itself, Wehrmacht commanders were ordered to swing south to finish off Ukraine before returning to take the Soviet capital and communication hub as the first snowflakes began to fall. Interestingly, as civilians and government officials began to leave Moscow, Stalin was just about to board his armoured train for the ride East when he suddenly changed his mind and returned to the Kremlin. From that moment anyone seen leaving or looting was shot on sight. By the time the Germans returned the cities defences had been enhanced and fresh units from the Far East had begun to arrive. 

Hitler was eager for his Far East Axis partner Japan to attack Russia in 1941, but Japan had other ideas. Not only was it committed to operations in China, but it was just about to launch its fateful attack in the Pacific. Spies inside the German embassy in Tokyo knew that no attack against Russia was forthcoming and Stalin, eventually, believed them and repositioned hardened winter trained troops west to defend Moscow. Three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Hitler made probably his biggest mistake of the war. With little advantage to himself he declared war on the USA in support of the Japanese attacks. His military commanders were appalled but Hitler believed that the Japanese would draw the majority of American forces against them – and hold them – and that the American economy couldn’t transform from peace to a war footing in time to prevent an Axis victory. He was, as we now know, wrong. 

This was a MUCH better read than my previous book on this fateful year. Part of that I think was the author's primary focus on Europe (especially Germany & Russia) although there was much too on American moves and attitudes to the war itself and the situation in China. Another thing which helped the narrative move along was the fact that the author didn’t need to repeatedly ‘change gears’ from a high to low level focus on the personalities involved. Here we (mostly) stayed at the policy/command level rather than literally in the trenches – though there was some of that sprinkled throughout. This was a very well written detailed account of a pivotal year in WW2 and goes a long way to explain exactly why Germany lost it. I’m looking forward to reading more by this author who certainly seems to know his stuff. Highly recommended.  

Just one more 1940’s focused history to come next before leaping to the 1960’s...