Customer Reviews (1)

great gift to those who enjoys good food and good literature
OK, it's a cookbook, so this secret is over now. But did you know that a great (to my opinion the best) writer of modern fiction, covered by generic name of spy novels, was open to a secrets of good cuisine even before he started to read and write? But of course! His mom was a professional chief in a very good restaurant. If James Bond was big on martini, Deighton's Samson has a good understanding with food. It is a great fun to read, and I managed to impress my girlfriend with a simple and tasty meal. She even promised to read one of his novels!!! ... Read more

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There is no more vivid and poignant account than one at first hand, and Editor Ian Hawkins has drawn together numerous stories from those men who served on the 'B' class destroyers and others, weaving them seamlessly together using excerpts from books, news articles, speeches and his own authoritative notes. ... Read more

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Italian Translation of Deighton's spy novel "Yesterday's Spy" ... Read more

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In the galaxy of star chefs currently working in London, none shine brighter than Anton Edelmann of The Savoy. Brought up in Germany, trained in France, and passionately devoted to Japanese cuisine, Edelmann has travelled widely and evolved a unique synthesis of these and other cooking traditions which has made The Savoy one of the city's most exciting eating places. This book explores his progressive and enterprising repertoire and reveals the secrets of his highly individual art. Edelmann begins his book with the essential elements - stocks, sauces and pastries - on which many of the recipes are based. Appropriately named "the building blocks", these include chicken essence, white batter, pesto sauce, sherry vinaigrette, a basic pasta dough and a delicious raspberry sauce to accompany tarts and crepes. Like his soups, which range from cock-a-leekie to corn chowder with shellfish wontons, his first courses show the breadth of his inspiration: tomato and mozzarella tarts, tiger prawns in filo with mango sauce, potato salad with caviar a la Raisa. The choice of main courses is no less stimulating.While traditionalists may be faithful to chicken pie or roast pigeon on a purse of Brussels sprouts, the more adventurous can flirt with Thai crab cakes, navarin of lamb with couscous, or tournedos with pesto and Mediterranean vegetable ragout. Desserts include gooseberry dumplings, plum and frangipane tart with streusel and Anton's "summer teaser". Throughout this collection, with its blend of the familiar and the exotic, the emphasis is on simplicity, harmony and fresh, unadulterated flavours. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

WW II alternative history
This is a fine alt. history novel, and a first rate novel even for mainstream readers (i.e. not alt. hist. fans). The story is set in 1941 after the successful German invasion of England, the background of the plot. (This is not a military history such as McArthur's War.) The hero, a police inspector, is investigating a murder in Shepherds Bush, a section of London. Thru' this he is led into an intrigue which eventually involves the attempted escape from England of King George and an American raid on the British atomic laboratory at Brindle Sands.
One of Deighton's best novels.
M Riley ... Read more

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The best-selling author of Faith provides a gripping account of the early days of World War II, from the brutal submarine battles for control of the seas to the hunt for the German ""Desert Fox."" Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Deighton, Chesterton and the Nature of War
Every so often, unscrupulous pacifists and their kin, bent on protecting some totalitarian government (North Vietnam) or murderous dictatorship (Saddam's Iraq), will play upon popular ignorance about the nature of war. Well-intentioned people can be turned against a necessary and good war by those who place a one-sided emphasis on the confusion, folly, and horror that are a feature of all wars.

Len Deighton's book is a good counter to that manipulation. It subtitle's itself, "An Objective Look at World War II," and for the most part that's true. Americans might like to believe that we had the best tanks in World War II. Anyone who reads Deighton will discover that, if you had to fight in a tank-to-tank encounter, you'd be better off in a Russian T-34 than in a Sherman. In similar fashion, he demolishes any illusions readers might have that Allied strategy was always as wise as we might hope or that Axis strategy was always as foolish as Hitler sometimes made it.

G. K. Chesterton warned of the dangers of this sort of ignorance. Noting that we need to stretch "our imagination to the scale of the war," avoiding the twin evils of exultation and depression, he added, "To be elated when a village is captured in the morning, and cast down again in the afternoon -- this is not to follow the course of a war. It is simply to be ignorant of the very nature of a war." Both the defenders and critics of the Iraqi war would do well to heed his advice.

Although no war as complex as WWII can be covered in a single book, this book will stretch your imagination, allowing you view war realistically for what it is and without being deceived by the distortions of either jingoists or pacifists.

--Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II

Blood, Tears and Folly
I think this book is a excellent book because it talks more of the British than the US. I have noticed in many, many books about World War II, that they mention, in passing of the British. I don't think it's right to heap the credit on the Americans and just put a dusting of credit on the British. Therefore, that's why this book is a excellent book.

A gripping tale, though not a reference book
The subtitle of this book ("An objective view of world war 2") is perhaps a bit misleading.First of all, Len Deighton seems too close to the subject to be truly objective.Secondly, the book does not cover the whole of WW2.
Deighton's claim as regards the latter is that the war was essentially decided and the outcome inevitable at the moment the US entered into the fray.So he stops his description of the war in December 1941.Theoretically his view is (I think) correct.However, as a result we get a book that concentrates perhaps too much on the confrontation between the UK and Germany at the expense of the other nations involved.
Having said that, the book is a marvellous read.Deighton has a solid grasp on his subject, and his writing is second to none.This is not a dry reference tome; it is a page turner.Whilst I agree that Deighton at times contradicts himself and is not always accurate, I would recommend the book to anyone seeking an easy to read and well-informed (if not definitive) overview of the first two-and-a-half years of WW2 from a British perspective.

A Close Reading Reveals a Book of Unfulfilled Expectations
A Close Reading Reveals a Book of Unfulfilled Expectations, Errors,and Confusion.

I have reviewed the first edition published by Harper Collinsin 1993.This edition was published in one volume.

"BloodTears and Folly" by Len Deighton is abook, with alimited scope. This book is not a one volume history of World War II such as the one byMartin Gillbert.In fact the subtitle to "Blood, Tears, andFolly", "An Objective Look at World War II," ismisleading.Many of the most important battles of the war, such asStalingrad and Kursk are merely mentioned in passing, and others, Midwayfor example, as far as I can tell, are not mentioned at all.We also getcritiques of men who no role whatsoever in World War II, for example on pp126-30 Deighton dourly describes General Douglas Haig as a man not to bedeterred by failure, or even to learn from it.General Haig commanded theBritish Expeditionary Force in World War I and died in 1928. I guessDeighton gives his take on General Haig as background to World War II.After all the British, and Churchill were against landing troopsin Francebecause of the thought of the casualties suffered in the First World War.There are differences in his treatment of personalities in this book andDeighton's previously published books.In a previous book,"Fighter" he described General Jodl as a "yes-man."Inthis book you read that Jodl was "intelligent and independent"and "in no way a lackey." (p. 437) but later on page 465 we readthat all those present at a meeting between Hitler and General Guderiannodded in agreement at every sentence that Hitler uttered.Among thosepresent was General Jodl.Deighton had it right the first time.There areout right errors as well. The map of "the Air Battlefield" onpage 375 has "Lee Mallory" for "Leigh-Mallory."Thereare errors in the index, for example General Blumentritt is listed in theindex as being mentioned on page 492, where in fact the passage appears onepage earlier. Deighton goes into a great deal of detail inthe areas of the war he does cover.Mostly he chronicles the early battlesof World War II, from the early blitzkriegs in Poland and France, thebattle of the Atlantic, and the Battle of Britain and Barbarosa.Sometimeshe gives too much detail. I found that Deighton some times will give morethan one explanation for an historical event. For example Hitler's decisionto attack the Soviet Union is given two different explanations. On page 437we read that Hitler "felt ridiculous and like most men, he foundridicule an unendurable burden.Hitler detested Marxists and he wasdetermined that they should again be his enemy."On page 494 we read "But despite all of the Nazi talk of "Living Space" in theEast, the German armies invaded the Soviet Union only because Hitler andhis SS men wanted to murder the Jews and the Bolsheviks." ... Read more