Looking Out To Sea

Just finished two books in the last week: Sword Song and Making History, both with a vaguely historical theme.

Sword Song is one book from the middle of a series by Bernard Cornwell, of Sharpe fame. Sword Song follows the adventures of Uhtred of Babbenburg in the reign of Alfred the Great. That’s about 880AD, in case Wikipedia’s not working for you at the moment. It is more or less Sharpe-in-Wessex: orphan boy, good military strategist, brave, canny, etc, struggling against his own incompetent superiors who were born into positions of power, rather than earning them. The language of people and place names takes a bit of getting used to but luckily there’s a glossary to help you translate Hrofeceastre to Rochester and so on. After a while you learn to guess what the modern equivalents might be.

It was enjoyable enough though I don’t think I would rush back for another one. I didn’t feel greatly involved in Uhtred’s struggle nor did I care much for the welfare of the kingdom as a whole. Interesting but ultimately uninvolving.

Making History is the first Stephen Fry novel that I’ve read. I had assumed that his books would be rather obscure or learned — the product of a literature degree, in fact — but if this one’s anything to go by there’s nothing to worry about. A history student finishes his PhD dissertation on the childhood and early years of Adolf Hitler and ends up using a time machine to change the past and prevent Hitler’s birth. So the characters ends up adrift in an alternate twentieth century with his own memories of our century still intact. (There are interesting snippets of fact amongst it all which makes me want to follow up the one or two biographies recommended in the author’s notes at the end. How did the epitome of evil in Western society get to be that way?) The book is funny, prompts interesting questions about the role of circumstance and accident in history and, thankfully, not in the least bit difficult. I am keen to read some more of Fry’s books now.