Great book! If you want to read a real romantic comedy (instead of a slightly amusing sorta-funny romance) then this is it.

They have even made a TV movie based on this book (re-named "Recipe for Revenge") a few years ago! Well! I guess I'll have to see that!

Far from being a didactic review of 20th Century warfare, the lessons that Kolko proffers in "Century of War" amount to nothing more than adhering to the spirit and principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was unanimously adopted by the UN soon after WWII. Here's a taste of some of Gabriel Kolko's sober and invaluabe insights into how an era of tranquility might be constructed and the forces (liberal economics/modern state-capitalism) that are ultimately responsible for this century of destruction:

g...there is nothing in the current momentary hegemony of the ideology of market economics in the ex-Communist world and formerly statist Third World countries that can create permanent tranquility. So-called liberal economics caters exclusively to the needs of individuals rather than to common interests and shared group relations in a civil society that poses essential restraints on peoplefs freedom to exploit and asserts public over private interests. Liberal economicsf devotion to personal egotism and avarice as the fundamental basis of social organization has been a persistent source of misery and societal instability since the school of thought was founded two hundred years ago. Economic liberals have no inherent commitment to political freedom and human rights, and suffer from the stigma of having repeatedly abandoned civil liberties... in order to preserve their individual privileges... g

gThe future of mankind and the very existence of rational civilization and human relations are hostage to this state of affairs, and the morality and desirability of todayfs dominant social systems are linked directly to the issue of war and peace.h

gRadical opposition will inevitably reemerge as long as the political and economic crises so characteristic of the nations of the world as they now exist continue... But the basic premise that while society owes everyone a reasonable material minimum, individuals in turn also have to have a constant duty to weave significant networks of social cooperation and interaction, is no less vital. Social responsibility that operates reciprocally between a society and its members has hardly been considered in the general socialist literature, but it remains a precondition for the emergence of a more rational human organization, and above all of truly radical politics based on changing both society and people-and thereby the world.h

"Century of War" is a superb analysis of the causes and effects of modern warfare and its effects on rational civilization. An invaluable contribution to the history of human civilization.

This book contains a selection of essays from various role-players in the Angolan/South African conflict, including the famous essay by Nobel Prize-winner, Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Operation Carlota", and a few of "Fidel Castro's" speeches.

While a lot of this is propaganda, it at least gives an impression of the war from the Cuban and Angolan perspective.

This book needs to be read in conjunction with one of the books written from the South African perpective, such as the one by Fred Bridgland "The War for Africa" and others, and you need to draw your own conclusions.

The human suffering that this war generated, is still a legacy of the Southern African Continent, with the issue of the remaining landmines bringing this issue to the attention of the media once again, particularly with the visit of Lady Diana just recently.

For anyone who wishes to gain a balanced view of the progress of the war, as well as some of it's roots, this book is one of the key elements to garnering that information.

The only thing many people know about William Morris is his wallpaper, and of Rossetti is that he dug up his wife's grave to retrieve poems he'd buried with her (including poems to his mistress). Clever As Paint not only explains how someone could do something like that, but makes it seem like a reasonable thing to do. Siddal's ghost refusing to give him the wording to the poem seems natural as well - what wife would ever give her husband the text to a love poem written to another?

Clever as Paint is beautiful and useful: a very funny black comedy, based on solid historical research. It benefits from being read, and reread, since there are so many levels to the play. It's witty without sacrificing compassion and even though it is very funny, the despair and grief of Rossetti is genuine. The poetry quoted is glorious and the book includes sheet music for Siddal's poems composed by Elizabeth Parker.

This play is a delight for people who know nothing of the Rossettis, and a joy for those who do.