 |
|
| Home History Eng. Lit Novels Compilations and editorial work Articles Reviewers' comments Gallery Contact me | |
Peter Rowland
Biographer and Historian
www.peterrowland.org.uk
|
|
| Home History Eng. Lit Novels Compilations and editorial work Articles Reviewers' comments Gallery Contact me | |
Peter Rowland
Biographer and Historian
www.peterrowland.org.uk
Some reviewers' commentsThe Last Liberal Governments"Mr Rowland is stimulating, provocative and never dull." - Times Educational Supplement "A sober and workmanlike history.... Mr Rowland describes these events with great skill." - David Marquand, Observer "A scholar with a good sense of balance and proportion." - British Book News "An enjoyable excursion." - Times Literary Supplement "Deserves to be widely read." - Sir Charles Petrie, Illustrated London News "He writes remarkably well. The book sweeps along as easily as an adventure story.... and the cool and commonsense way in which he picks his way through thickets of tangled testimony and the professional skill in marshalling his material makes the reader feel from the start that he is in unusually safe hands." - David McKie, Oxford Mail "Rowland puts the skids under the famous last Liberal administration: he shows that there was no programme of social reform nor any propaganda for it at the elections, argues that little enough was ever achieved, and holds that a turning point was encountered in 1909 when for political reasons ministers who had little interest in radical measures found themselves forced to espouse them. It is too early to say whether this iconoclasm will catch on." - G.R. Elton, Modern Historians on British History, 1485-1945 (1970) Lloyd George"Competent and complete." - The Times "It is the best biography we have." - The Economist "Peter Rowland has far surpassed earlier biographers.... This is a welcome work - comprehensive, scholarly and readable."- Brendan Clarke. Irish Independent "More than pleasantly readable. It is a hefty volume, 804 pages plus an excellent index; a well researched and critically sympathetic attempt not only to tell the story of a remarkable career but to find out what manner of man the 'Welsh wizard' really was." - Edward Rogers. Methodist Recorder "The book is not light reading, nor dramatically inspired, but fair and full and factual, certainly the definitive Lloyd George, as of now, so far as matter of record goes. For an historian who is not a full-time professional but a working officer in local government, Peter Rowland's 860 pages are a tour de force of achievement." - The Northern Echo "The story is a good one. And Rowland's manner of telling it quietly attractive. There is no reason why this version should not, at last, give us a standard account of the whole of Lloyd George's life in the light of modern academic knowledge, and give some pleasure into the bargain." - John Vincent, New Society "An outsize account of an outsize figure. The reader's interest never flags, partly because the author is a good writer, and partly because Lloyd George is an entertaining, surprising subject.... This biographer tells us [what Lloyd George did], and also provides a masterly political panorama as background to the life of a colourful, complicated rogue and great statesman." - The New Yorker "A succinct, careful and judicious account of what surely is more than an ordinarily fascinating man." - The New York Times "Mr Rowland deserves credit for bringing forth this masterpiece of scholarship. Without sacrificing clarity, he leads us through each event of Lloyd George's life. Research is exciting work, and Mr Rowland's monumental biography is proof of it." - Orin Wise, The Columbus Dispatch "On the whole, it is well written and workmanlike - the result of massive research. And it is indispensable reading for any serious student of the first quarter of this century." - Lord Boothby, Books and Bookmen "Mr Rowland has not written the definitive biography, but he has a solid achievement to his credit, and he is very fair. It will be a long while before it is replaced." - Robert Blake, The Sunday Times "Not only the most up-to-date [one-volume] biography but also the fullest and in many ways the best.... As a biographer, Mr Rowland's forte is straightforward narrative. He knows the story well and he tells it very well." - John Grigg, New Statesman "A narrative style that scarcely ever limps. There is great energy and purpose with Mr Rowland as our guide.... No one would fault his industry, and his book makes a very pleasant long weekend's reading." - A.J.A. Morris, The Political Quarterly "Not a word of it is dull." - Ian Bradley, Oxford Mail "The best single-volume biography" - Chris Wrigley, Dictionary of Liberal Biography (1998) "His book is the first full-length biography of Lloyd George for more than 20 years, and a great improvement on its predecessors.... In general Rowland's book is a substantial work of political biography, the more remarkable in that it is the leisure-time work of a busy administrative officer at the Greater London Council. Professional historians must tremble at competition from an amateur of such stature." - A.J.P. Taylor, The Observer But, in all fairness, it must be acknowledged that a couple of those "professional historians" instantly made it clear that they personally had no intention whatsoever of "trembling". "No one has yet written a good biography of Lloyd George ... [and] Peter Rowland has scarcely met the challenge." - Robert Skidelsky, The Spectator "Peter Rowland has produced a detailed, painstaking narrative - which manages to make Lloyd George unbelievably dull." - Kenneth O. Morgan, Times Educational Supplement And, to round things off, there was also an unexpected lament from an unexpected quarter: "The length demands a hefty £8.75." - Time & Tide Two Macaulay compilations - The History of England in the Eighteenth CenturyandThe History of England from 1485 to 1685"One of the grander recent enterprises of the Folio Society is to continue, as it were by other means, Macaulay's History of England which, on his death in 1859, had only reached as far as1702, with the death of William III. But now Peter Rowland has constructed from Macaulay's essays for the Edinburgh Review and some of his Encyclopaedia Britannica contributions a handsome volume which gives a fair sense of how the history might have continued." - The Guardian "Macaulay never lets his readers down.... It is difficult to resist quoting from the admirable volume (confined to members of the Folio Society) edited by Peter Rowland and introduced by Professor Kenyon." - Robert Blake, Illustrated London News "Whatever Macaulay might have thought of such a literary artifice, it is agreeable and sometimes amusing to have his views on the period from 1702 to his own time laid out in this accessible and consecutive form. The charm of the book is less in the narrative, which is frail, or in the argument, which is often partisan, than in Macaulay's general historical reflections, which are always worth reading. The print and binding, as one might expect of the Folio Society, are a delight; Professor Kenyon supplies an elegant introduction; and the editor has been modest and discreet in inserting linking-passages." - Norman Gash, History "Macaulay remains one of the great historians of the pre-professional age.... Admittedly, those by-products of his creative energy to which his expositions of history before 1685 are confined do not display him in full glory; and like all Liberals he found the sixteenth century too hard to bear to judge it well!" - G.R. Elton "Biographies and diaries give the eye-level view of people and events, while history gives us the overall view. In the Folio list, this overall view is supplied by a number of outstanding works, such as Peter Rowland's compilations from Boswell's arch-enemy, Thomas Babington Macaulay. As a Whig historian, Macaulay is out of fashion at the moment and good editions of his writings are scarce. The History of England from 1485 to 1685 and The History of England in the Eighteenth Century are both excellent examples of his clarity of vision and the power of his narrative." - Michael Holroyd A Dickens compilation - My Early Times"This is a bold piece of literary reconstruction indeed. Peter Rowland has taken [material written by Dickens from a range of sources] to create a narrative of the first 27 years of his life. And remarkably well it works, too.... He presents us with an uncannily vivid first-person account of a young life so full of painful injustices that Dickens abandoned his own attempt to write about it directly. Well, now we have it indirectly. The notes are best left for later for those interested in the sources behind the research. The account itself is marvellous." - Kent Life (and also Surrey County Magazine) "In this gripping compilation by Peter Rowland [we engage first hand with material which] was a source of inspiration and amusement as well as despair [to Dickens]. He was to get David Copperfield out of it, and scenes in many other novels. And yet the sense of shame remained.... Today every writer who can proclaims with pride his impoverished origins, and, like the Yorkshire tycoons in the inimitable sketch of Monty Python, vie with each other in boasting of the early hardships and humiliations they were compelled to surmount. Dickens had his own way of doing the same thing of course, but - leaving comedy and vanity aside - our openness about such matters does suggest a healthy change in the class system between Dickens's times and our own." - John Bayley, Evening Standard "There is no doubt that the editor has carried out a remarkable piece of literary detection, and for lovers of Dickens's novels this volume will offer a further insight into, and understanding of, the author's life and work." - A.W., This England "As I became more and more involved with the book ... I realised what a lot more I was getting to know about Dickens.... I had to agree that the undertaking was worth it. And it has certainly resulted in a very enjoyable read." - Alan Watts, The Dickensian "Peter Rowland has compiled and edited just about all of Dickens's identifiably autobiographical writings…. Although necessarily synthetic and to some extent fanciful (since it is not always clear in the sources where fact ends and fiction begins), his entertaining compilation is also of considerable scholarly value, being scrupulous in identifying its components." - Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens (ed. John O. Jordan) (Cambridge University Press, 2001) To counter-balance the preceding praise, the following grumbles must also be recorded: "This is an enthusiast's book by an old-fashioned Dickensian ... [and] the compilation covers the usual ground from Portsmouth and Chatham to the blacking warehouse to the publishing phenomenon.... A more serious objection is that reliance on Dickens's own words works well for the early years, but distorts his life during the 1830s by failing to convey the exuberance and conviviality with which he celebrated his success with equally sociable friends.... [A] scissors and paste [production]." - J.A.D., Times Literary Supplement This particular reviewer managed to get the title of the book wrong, announcing that it was called 'My Early Years'. He also failed, unaccountably, to fully register the fact that Dickens himself was writing for 99% of the time, and that the editor was solely dependent upon whatever the great man chose to relate of his early life. If he had declared 'What a wonderful jolly fellow I was, and how my friends and I enjoyed ourselves!', or words to that effect, then such a quotation could certainly have been embodied in the text. But - alas - Dickens failed to do so. And nobody would have been happier than the editor if a stream of newly-discovered revelations had come to light, totally different from "the usual ground" to which JAD had lodged his weary objection. "Scissors and paste" - as made emphatically clear in the book itself - were indeed the two crucial elements in its compilation. Fatuity, masquerading as scholarship, sometimes knows no bounds. The Disappearance of Edwin Drood
"Peter Rowland has provided a neat solution to the mystery of Edwin Drood and has not only emulated Charles Dickens, but has done so through the efforts of Sherlock Holmes, thus in one volume incorporating two sets of fictional characters. Surprisingly enough, it works very well. The writing is good, and the story is quite convincing. One for fans of Sherlock Holmes or Dickens, or indeed anyone who likes a good tale, well told." - Publishing News "There haven't been a lot of Sherlock Holmes pastiches of late, but Rowland makes up for it with this double literary treasure." - The Purloined Letter "By setting a fictional cat to chase a fictional rat, Rowland's tale elegantly obeys the master's stricture." - Mary Carroll, Booklist "No previous knowledge of Doyle or Dickens is necessary; this amusing, clever novel is delicious as it is." - The Lady "A degree of pastiche is inevitable: allow for that and it's a nice piece of classic English mystery-making." - Stephen Walsh, The Oxford Times "Asking the Baker Street sleuth to solve Charles Dickens's unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood is such an obvious idea, someone had to attempt it eventually. A British historian and Dickens scholar has taken it on and done an admirable job.... This is one of the better Sherlockian pastiches." - Jon L. Breen, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine "[Linking Holmes and Drood is] not exactly an original idea, as it has surfaced before ... but this present book is, I believe, the first such of novel length.... Having led up to one of the traditional 'solutions' for much of the book, Mr Rowland cleverly has Holmes come up with another (although the Datchery part is a bit of a fiddle).... A very enjoyable book that should appeal to Sherlockians and Droodists alike, but, if you prefer your endings rational, ignore the last four pages." - Geoff Bradley, CADS [Crime and Detective Stories] "Mr Rowland plays fair with Dickens's characters and with the events of the uncompleted mystery. Likewise he plays fair with the world of Holmes and Watson, creating a successful amalgam of the worlds of two distinct and individual authors.... The narrative rattles along at a cracking pace in a very acceptable simulacrum of the Watsonian style (but was the verb 'familiarise' in use in the 1890s?). All the loose ends are neatly accounted for, with the single exception of the identity of Mr Datchery, and here we are left with a rather mind-boggling hint, which on reflection seems perfectly fair, given Holmes's remarks about the ease with which fact and fiction can merge. Fascinating stuff." - Roger Johnson, The Sherlock Holmes Journal "A somewhat lifeless addition to the Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens pseudo-literature." - Kirkus Reviews "The old deerstalker is called in to solve the mystery of you-know-who 25 years on. Rowland is stylish, witty and full of reverence for the authors he adopts and adapts, but then in Dickens and Doyle he has quite a double-act." - Mike Ripley, Sunday Telegraph "Readers will enjoy the fine facsimiles of dialogue, sights and sounds that originally graced Doyle's tales of the Baker Street sleuth." - Publishers' Weekly "We are treated to Holmes and Watson journeying around haunts created by Dickens, and to a solution which is not entirely inconsistent with some of the points raised by Conan Doyle [in 1930]. In one amusing episode, Holmes and Watson are unable to secure rooms at The Crozier in Cloisterham because members of a Dickens Society have taken all of the accommodation for their annual convention. 'You and I, Watson,' says Holmes, 'thanks to those little case histories of yours which have attracted so much attention in recent times, are in some danger of being immortalized! Who will be able to tell, a hundred years from now, whether we were fact or fiction? Dare we contemplate what enormities, what fabulous exploits, might not be perpetrated in our names? Will there even be', he added with a shudder, 'duplicate versions of myself perambulating the environs of Baker Street at dead of night, equipped with deerstalker hats, bloodhounds and magnifying glasses and accompanied by their faithful Watsons?' Amusing, maybe, and, generally, a good read - but would Holmes really have seen himself in a deerstalker?" - Christopher Roden, Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society [Edward S. Gilbreth, referring to the sleuth's foregoing reflections in the Chicago Sun-Times, exclaimed "You don't foresee the half of it, Sherlock ol' buddy."] "An imaginative and amusing approach to the mystery ... offering an intriguing exploration and explanation of the problems posed by Dickens." - Peter E. Blau, The Baker Street Irregulars "What would have been the outcome if the 'case-history' left unfinished by Charles Dickens had been subjected to scrutiny by Sherlock Holmes? Elucidation, for one thing, and an eventual account of the process from the pen of Dr Watson - something, indeed, very like the spirited narrative provided by Peter Rowland. It comes with all the accoutrements of high drama: crypts, opium dens, disguises, insanity and even the supernatural. A playful and resourceful undertaking." - P.C. [Patricia Craig], Times Literary Supplement "Reviewers should not uncover the secrets of a mystery story. However, it may be revealed that Mr Rowland is evidently abreast of modern ideas in Drood, and has ingeniously woven a number of these into his solution. He is also aware of older ideas. On Jasper he is distinctly modern, while for Datchery he hints at an old fantasy recently resurrected. Drood aficionados will not find here the answers to all their questions, but Mr Rowland has concocted with a light touch an agreeable literary cocktail that will please many other readers in search of entertainment." - Charles Forsyte, The Dickensian "Dear Mr Rowland, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Disappearance of Edwin Drood. I especially enjoyed the scene in which Holmes contemplates the future where he & Dr Watson may be forever portrayed in deerstalker cap and pipe by countless admirers. I found your story so intriguing I read it twice. Both times it was an engrossing tale. Thanks." - a much appreciated letter received from Laura Branstetter of San Antonio, Texas Just Stylish"This is a whimsical tale of another age and should appeal not only to fans of William but also to lovers of the village mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed it." - Geoff Bradley, CADS [Crime and Detective Stories] [Lightning rarely strikes twice, of course, and fame is fleeting, but - bearing in mind the deluge of comments that DROOD attracted - the author was mildly surprised that the comment above, which had been preceded by a brief summary of the plot, appears to be the only review that this little book ever received! An indication of just how difficult it is for "unknown" small-scale publishers, in competition with the big boys, to draw attention to their wares.] Raffles and his creator: the life and works of E.W. Hornung"In his preface Peter Rowland speaks of the `insurmountable problem' of `almost total absence of information about the man'…. But his lively methods, and his happy style - catching at straws which he makes into bricks to build a coherent life for his unhelpful subject - have produced an entertaining book." - Philip Glazebrook, Spectator "I'm just working my way through this excellent attempt at filling in some of the facts behind the fascinating life of E. W. Hornung the author of the Raffles stories......It is so nice after so many years of wondering what Hornung was all about (so little is ever discussed of his life …) to read a book obviously written with such enthusiasm for its subject that draws together so many biographical facts and some interesting quite probably correct conjectures... Hornung was certainly a complex and fascinating man." - Sherlockianly yours, Billy the pageboy, Baker Street Irregulars Newsletter "Peter Rowland, the biographer of Hornung, faced the same problem as I did in trying to write the life of Ernest Bramah: no diaries or family evidence, no contextual anecdotes or contemporaries to interview, few letters. However, as we both found, a close analysis of the author's writing, combined with years of research, can indeed produce biographical material on the most successful of literary recluses." - Aubrey Wilson, in a letter to Daily Telegraph "A bold attempt to reconstruct a biography of Hornung, given that he left no papers or memoirs, and memories were by now very dim, [the book] made insightful use of likely autobiographical elements in Hornung's fiction, and it is unlikely to be surpassed." - Mark Valentine, Book and Magazine Collector, July 2008 What's Where in The Saturday Books"To Peter Rowland those of us who enjoy a series which never lost its opening exuberance and later matured into a lavishly illustrated annual of prose and poetry reflecting the best of post-war Britain, we must be indebted for What's Where in the Saturday Books, a comprehensive guide and index which he has just published at £12.95 under his own Nekta Publications imprint. The thirty-four volumes published between 1941 and 1975 contain the work of many prominent authors, illustrators and photographers but in the absence of a series index accessing their work in some 9,638 pages, or even establishing that nothing from a particular artist or writer was included, is time-consuming. Now Rowland's indexes reveal at once that John Piper provided just a single illustration, to John Betjeman's 'Lord Barton-Bendish' in The Saturday Book No. 16, for 1956, whereas the south London bookdealer Fred Bason contributed twenty-seven articles between 1947 and 1975, including a couple on his mentor, Somerset Maugham.. "The opening two-page Introduction, which includes a brief history of the series, is followed by a breakdown of the contents of each volume and series indexes by People, Subjects and Contributors, each in turn divided into sub-sections; thus under Contributors are indexes of Artists, Authors, Illustrators and Photographers. Whatever your Saturday Books need, here surely it will be answered." - Bookdealer editorial "Mr Rowland, you, sir, are an ace!" - testimonial from an enthusiast in Canberra, 24 May 2014 "Many thanks indeed for the wonderful work you did on the indexes…. You will increase my enjoyment of The Saturday Books beyond just mere random reading." - testimonial from an enthusiast in Ottawa, 27 May 2014 The Collected Stories of Lanoe Falconer
|
