Hurricane R4118: The extraordinary story of the discovery and restoration of a great Battle of Britian survivor by Peter Vacher

This is an interesting story of an airplane. The author discovered the aircraft in state of scrap at an Indian university, bought it and restored it. The history of the aircraft was most thoroughly investigated, and the restoration recreated an aircraft that fought in the battle of Britain.

Most amazing is that the author traced the men who flew the machine, or their families, and their stories form part of the book.

And if the guns were found by the UK Customs, would we be held for gun running? We decided we just had to take the chance and leave the guns undisturbed in the wings.

Jackson's Dilemma by Iris Murdoch

My second try of an Iris Murdoch novel. Essentially a series of intertwined love stories, muddled by the secrets they keep from each other. In the middle stands Benet, who inerited his uncle's house and role as facilitator. Through it all is Jackson, Benet's servant and jack of all trades, a man with no history and a mesmerizing influence on everybody.

I'm a bit irritated by the revealing of the fuzzy thoughts of the characters.

'You see, I've let you be, and you've been wondering how we can live, and how poor we shall be —'
'It doesn't matter, we shall be together —'
'Well, I'm — about money — actually I'm not short of it — at all — I am really — well — really I'm a millionaire.'

You — Bran, you did that, you broke that window?'
'Yes,' said Bran calmly. 'Somebody had to start something.'

The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser

In essence, this work is the combined biographies of the six wives of Henry VIII, very nicely entwined to show the effect they had on each other. The backdrop of this is of course renaissance Europe, in the throes of church reformation. The concentration in this book is on the women themselves.

Quite apart from his wives, I'd like to see a comparison between Henry VIII and Stalin, in how their execution of once-close companions compared.

It took the spirited sixteen-year-old Christina of Milan, secure in Brussels under the protection of her uncle, the most powerful man in Europe, to stifle a giggle behind her hand when King Henry's envoy referred to his master as 'the most gentle Gentleman that liveth'