An entertainingly over-stocked historical digest of life during London’s liveliest decade of the 17th century, 1660—70. Picard, a lawyer at Gray’s Inn and an amateur historian, is uninterested in writing a revisionist work of that most uncharacteristic era in English history, which takes in the post—Civil War return of the monarchy, the growth of Great Britain’s mercantile empire, and the devastating Great Fire, out of which modern London arose. Picard’s book is essentially lively social history with a materialist slant and skirts complicated politics to devote itself to a minute examination of mundane life from every angle. Picard gathers evidence and testimony to create something like the contemporary grab-bag almanacs, throwing in an exceptional range of information under headings for education, sex, clothing, housework, cooking, city planning, and entertainment, just to name a few. Sources naturally include the diary of Samuel Pepys, that of the underrated John Evelyn, and the eclectic biographical briefs of John Aubery. Picard also unearths small treasuries of first-hand data: the travelogue of Cosmo, the young grand duke of Tuscany, who took in London in a reverse of the Grand Tour; educator Hannah Wolley’s “conduct” books like The Accomplish’d Lady’s Delight, a Cooking Book, and Guide to the Female Sex; heraldic scholar Randle Holme’s Academy of Armory, whose descriptions of anything appearing on a coat of arms reads like the era’s Sears catalogue; and the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, a cornucopia of civil papers, e.g., rewards for stray cows, plans for waterworks, petitions on behalf of brothels, and requests to —Sam. Pepys— for naval supplies. Beyond her assiduous research, Picard displays remarkable sympathy for those who lived in the Restoration era, getting under the age’s skin even to the extent of imagining wearing stays. Picard’s engaging survey energetically rummages through the attic of London’s colorful past. (24 pages b&w illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: May 27, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-18659-2
Page Count: 330
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1998
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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