Reviews

A new book aiming to restore India's place in the ancient world is a treasure trove of insight and anecdote, writes Kapil Summan. On 1 September 1783, the 24-gun man o' war HMS Crocodile arrived in Madras. A Porcupine-class warship late of the British defeat in America, its most precious asset was t

The public must surely wish to have a comprehensive narrative of the course of conduct by a medically qualified person resulting in the deaths of many babies, and they have it with this book. The shock of the whole scenario is not of a fanciful or unique set of circumstances, regrettably, as similar

John Hill Burton was an advocate from 1831 and he became a significant figure in nineteenth century Scottish thought. His contribution is reassessed in this impressive study by an independent scholar. Burton’s practice may not have amounted to much, and in 1854 he was appointed secretary to th

The study of crime in a specific area is hardly a new idea: famously, Jack House wrote The Square Mile of Murder, which has its own Wikipedia page, about four classics of the genre in Glasgow. Neither is the study of crime in wartime a new idea, as can be seen in the bibliography to this new contrib

The "story of law’s reasonable person" is one that has "many beginnings and no end", according to Professor Valentin Jeutner, of Lund University, Sweden. Identifying the concept of such a person is not an easy task, given, as the professor discovered, there are over 250 statutes and 10,000 cou

Events previously known as the ‘English Civil War’ are now given different titles because of a general recognition by historians that separate events elsewhere collectively constituted a single entity. Some historians have described events as ‘The British Civil Wars’. The war

The purportedly whole story of the grim events at 10 Rillington Place, London has been offered to the public in different forms over the years but what version is complete, and separately, an accurate one? It is not difficult to see why the appalling events there draw in new commentators with each g

With Donald Trump taking legal advice on how to retain a US base on the Chagos Islands, Tom Marshall reviews a new book by Philippe Sands KC which reveals Britain’s duplicity in its dealings with the islanders of its last colony. The Chagos Archipelago, a small group of islands in the Indian O

If the interested reader thought that just about everything that could have been written about British intelligence agencies had been published, then this new history will probably be a revelation, writes Robert Shiels. From the founding of the Secret Service Bureau in 1909, women worked in every ar

A monumental new history of Irish republicanism in Dundee reveals much of the Irish diaspora experience in Scotland and leaves Graham Ogilvy impressed by its thorough research. As a young boy I walked through the derelict tenements of Tipperary every day to get to school and in the evening, after sc

Messrs Reeves and Friedman with this study present a modern sociological view of ‘the British elite’. Who are the purported elites, or, following one definition, the ruling minority?

Wendy’s Moore’s biography of Vera Holme and Eveline Haverfield, or simply Jack and Eve, is a deeply entertaining insight into the lives of two extraordinary Edwardian women in love. Jack had grown up comfortably, but the sudden loss of her father in childhood meant her early life was not

All books require to have a focus and a boundary to their subject-matter. The author "accepts" the Victorian use of the term "female detective" was a broad one, initially modest roles developing in to more serious occupations with personal accountability in court. Her book is "unusual in bringing re

Graham Ogilvy reviews Paul Tweed's new book about his life as an international libel lawyer to the rich and famous. Paul Tweed is a familiar figure on television and in the newspapers. Representing celebrity clients has made him something of a celebrity himself, and now he tells his story in a new b

The military-industrial complex of the United States was the subject of a chilling warning by President Eisenhower and a new book reveals how Silicon Valley has morphed to make it ever more deadly. On one view, a better title for this book might be ‘The politics of public procurement’ as