Gerard Degroot News Today

The critics top eight best books of 2023 based on Christmas selections in UK national newspapers and magazines and publications

The World: A Family History by Simon Sebag Montefiore Simon Sebag Montefiore spent his lockdown writing a history of the world from the Neanderthals to Trump. I

Crucible: Thirteen Months that Forged Our World by Fenby, Jonathan at AbeBooks.co.uk - ISBN 10:  1471155013 - ISBN 13:  9781471155017 - Simon & Schuster UK - 2018 - Hardcover

This is an ‘unceasingly agonising, yet always irresistible’ work

A ‘stunning piece of historical detective work, cleverly structured and grippingly written’

Remarkable reads from the past 12 months, featuring both novels and non-fiction

Lister’s new book is ‘strangely unsatisfying’ as a history of commodified sex

Brought to you by Penguin. In the frontier town of Springfield in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails and property vanishes. People suffer fits, and are plagued by strange visions and dreams. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics, and the community becomes tangled in a web of spite, distrust and denunciation. The finger of suspicion falls on a young couple struggling to make a home and feed their children: Hugh P...

Holland’s latest is war history as it should be written – ‘painful to read, but impossible to put down’

Sir Winston has suffered far less from his critics than from his hagiographers. I have one in particular in mind.