Fifty Years of Europe : An Album

Rating:
Summary: A Personal And Enticing View Of Europe
Review: An extraordinarily informative and entertaining look at Europe's fascinatingly varied history and landscape. Not to be missed by anyone interested in things European, or indeed, in things human. This is part biography, part geography, part history and part politics. And it works on all levels. Read it! Please...

Rating:
Summary: Europe in Little Bits
Review: Jan Morris is one of my favourite writers. Historian of the British Empire and Venice, intrepid world traveller whose books are always enriched by well judged doses of historical detail, she has a fine direct style and an eye for the unusual. "Fifty Years of Europe" is described as an album because it consists of dozens of short essays and fragments written over a period spanning World War II to the nineties. Morris tries to lend some coherence to this collage by grouping the entries under thematic headings, but it's hard to escape the feeling that the book is an attempt to patch together bits and pieces from various writer's notebooks kept over the years. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, and Jan Morris is nothing if not a good raconteur, so the book provides plenty of browsing pleasure. Morris fans will enjoy it, but if you are a newcomer I would suggest that you start with her books on Oxford, Manhattan, Venice or (for history buffs) the magnificent Pax Britannica trilogy.