Wilbur Smith has written 33 books and I have read them all. The minute I see a new book from him in a book shop I buy it straight away. His latest book is called "Those in Peril" and is not based on any of the dynasties that he has written about in the past.

"Those in Peril" is basically about Somali pirates. This is not one of Smith's best offerings, but is for the most part a very good yarn that his fans will enjoy. It is fast paced, bloodthirsty, and violent - but contains the usual love interest and fantastic descriptions of Africa (though the latter is less than in most of his books as a lot of the action is at sea). The central characters are Hector Cross and Hazel Bannock - two almost unbelievable and rich people that most of us can only dream about.

There are plenty of twists and turns - Smith certainly knows how to keep the action going, and his usual graphic descriptions of death may make you squirm. Unlike other novels - there are no descriptions of rich heavily armed hunters killing helpless animals. So un-PC nowadays.

The first 200 pages are high octane - if made into a film it would cost a fortune! But extraordinarily, the book falls completely flat for 40 pages (pages 222-262 to be precise). What a bore this section is, until we get back into the action. You can skip these pages and not miss anything. The end, and climax, is nail-biting - I was expecting it to be predictable, but I was wrong.

A final criticism of an otherwise good read is the thinly veiled racism towards Somalis. It's clear that Smith has little time for them - expressed by his central character who kill them by the dozen. This is a "good guys" versus the "bads guys" where the good guys are good at everything, and the bad guys get almost everything wrong.

Recommended for Wilbur Smith fans - an ordinary read for those new to Smith.

Mike Carter. Journalist. Age 42. Divorced. Buys a BMW. Points it east. Rides 20,000 miles. Rides through 27 countries. Drinks through 27 countries. Has adventures in 27 countries. He's having a mid-life crisis. And he's telling the world about it.

First - I bought this book hoping to enjoy reading how a motorcyclist traveled all over Europe on a BMW R1200GS. However, there is very little for a motorcyclist to enjoy as far as the mechanics of the trip were concerned. I like to see both sides of Robert Pirsig's "Classic" and "Romantic" views of the motorcycle (from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) - but you get no "Classic" (how a motorcycle works), and hardly any "Romantic" (what you can do with a motorcycle) views. Carter could have done this trip in a van and the story would have been very similar.

The book often appears to have been put together very quickly - as if Carter was working to a deadline that had to be met. The last part of his trip from Corsica to London is covered in less than two pages - France didn't make the deadline. In the Epilogue there are two mentions of Spain - but did he ride through Spain at all? Did I miss this in the book? Carter wanted to ride as far as Mount Ararat in Turkey. He gets there (bottom of p227), but five sentences later he turns around and heads home - so anti-climatic. And he talks about his divorce to anyone who listens - all the time.

There are many good tales and adventures throughout the book - and Carter tells this well. The book won the Oldie 2008 Travel Book of the Year - and there is plenty for travelers to enjoy. Most though is about the people Carter meets, rather than the places he goes. 20,000 miles and 27 countries is far too much for a 352 page book - and it shows. Enjoy the tales of strange night clubs, bars, and the people he meets - this is the best part of the book.

I have had two long motorcycle trips myself (Ireland to Southern Portugal, and Ireland to Southern France). I had mechanical difficulties and petrol problems, a sore arse, back trouble, I got lost several times, and had constant worries about the security of my bike. Carter has none of this, or at least doesn't write about it.

Overall - a disappointing book from a biker's point-of-view. I am also not convinced that it makes a good traveler's guide. But it is an interesting "guess what happened to me on my holidays" read.

Last November I attended the book launch of Dr Joost Augusteijn's new biography, "Patrick Pearse: The Making of a Revolutionary, in the Pearse Museum in Rathfarnham". It took me a while to get around to read it, but I have just completed it today and I have to say that it is a fantastic read and an absolute must for folks interested in Patrick Pearse.

Dr Augusteijn told us at the book launch that he had some new material (from the late Marcus Bourke) - so I relished the prospect of learning more about Pearse. The book is divided into several sections that describe in great detail the life of one of Ireland's most respected patriots - he writes about Pearse as a person, cultural nationalist, educationalist, politician, and revolutionary. Pearse as a politician and rebel is relatively well known to most Irish people, but the other parts of his life are not so well known. Each section makes for fascinating reading and Augusteijn shows a mastery of research to provide us with wonderful detail about Pearse's early life. Clearly, Pearse was greatly influenced by his family - Augusteijn makes this point several times and concludes that "crucial in his personal development has been his family surroundings", it was a huge part of what made him. Equally important is the conclusion that Pearse's "thinking can best be understood in the context of his time". This latter point is particularly crucial to debunking the myth of blood sacrifice.

The section on Pearse's time as an educator and teacher were especially interesting to me. I did not know that Pearse had traveled to Belgium and Wales to study bilingual language teaching. His ideas for Learning and Teaching on both St Enda's and St Ita's schools were way beyond the norm for the early 20th century - very progressive and student centered.

Patrick Pearse was passionate about everything that he did - and this passion jumps out at you from every page of this meticulously researched book, there are hundreds of references at the end to prove this point. The book builds on our knowledge of earlier biographies of Pearse - in particular the one written by Ruth Dudley-Edwards. The book is not written in a popular history style - there are far to many quotations and references for that. Nevertheless, readers (like me) of popular history books will still enjoy this as it is not heavy going, and is very much easy to read.

Given the times that are in it for Ireland today, and that I have heard and read several times in the media bland statements resurrecting the memory of Pearse describing our economic disaster: "Is this what the men of 1916 died for?", I will end with this Pearse quote (also cited in Augusteijn's book, p290):

The men who have led Ireland for twenty-five years have done evil, and they are bankrupt now even in words. They have nothing to propose to Ireland, no way of wisdom, no counsel of courage.
(From the "Ghosts" pamphlet, 25th December 1915. P.H. Pearse)

Abraham Lincoln is considered by many, including me, to be one of the greatest leaders of all time. Many biographies have been written about him, as well as many books about the American Civil war. This is the second biography of Lincoln that I have read - seven years ago I read Jan Morris's "Lincoln: A Foreigner's Quest". This (rather light-weight) book left me wanting to read more about Lincoln, but it has taken me quite a while to get around to it.

Ronald C. White Jr writes a fantastic account, not just of Lincoln's life, but there is also some fascinating examination of the words and prose of Lincoln's most famous speeches. For popular history readers, this is an easy to read book. While it has over 60 pages of references at the end, it is not too academic and is written with lightness in mind. This book should have a wide audience, even for those who are familiar with Lincoln's life and death. White does not over dramatize anything - even Lincoln's assassination which is described in just one page.

While Lincoln is remembered for preserving the Union and freeing the slaves, White also paints a picture of a man who changed his opinions as war ravaged the country and slavery became more central to victory or defeat. However, White also points out (p276) that in 1858 Lincoln stated, in a debate with his rival for the presidency Stephen Douglas, in Charleston "I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people". By the end of the war he had emancipated the slaves, even though by today's standards the above statement would be regarded as an extreme form of racism.

Lincoln's speeches still resonate today, and are expertly dissected by White. In his short (10 sentences) Gettysburg address he concluded: "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth". Oh how I wish that leadership of this quality was in evidence in poor old Ireland today as we struggle with economic and political turmoil at the end of 2010.

In his inauguration speech in 1865 Lincoln is also famously quoted as saying "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations". Hugely emotive words that Ronald White describes as Lincoln asking his audience to "enter a new era, armed not with enmity but with forgiveness". While this was said after the end of the Civil War, and we are not at war in Ireland today - I think that our future leader, whoever he or she is, could do worse that read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address and his 1865 inaugural address. For that matter, they should also read this book by Ronald White - inspiration and leadership are on every page.

I have just completed reading Hugh Ambrose's new book The Pacific, based on the lives of five men and their experiences in the Second World War fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. The Pacific is also an HBO 10-part miniseries which I watched on Sky before the summer. On TV this was a Saving Private Ryan type of experience with a lot of action and graphic detail of death and destruction during the fighting. The TV programme is based on the lives of marines Eugene Sledge, Robert Leckie, and John Basilone. The book is slightly different in that while it features Sledge and Basilone - it almost totally omits Leckie (for which Ambrose both justifies and apologises for), but also concentrates on Austin Shofner, Vernon Micheel, and Sidney Phillips. This works quite well in that Ambrose states that it was not just the Marines who won the war in the Pacific, but other parts of the US armed forces as well.

Ambrose's accounts of Sledge and Basilone in the war are very similar to the way they were portrayed in the TV programme - these were two extraordinary men, and Ambrose paints a picture of bravery and devotion to duty that is both horrible and astonishing. Their experiences were horrific, Basilone (awarded the Medal of Honour) dies on Iwo Jima, but Sledge survives, having participated in some of the most vicious fighting of the war. It's hard to imagine that Japan and the USA fought such savage battles only a generation ago.

While Sidney Phillips is a minor character in the TV programme, he features more in the book. Phillips, Micheel, and Shofner are perhaps more interesting to read about as their story is not covered on TV. All five men are fascinating and brave characters - they are almost hero worshipped by Ambrose who is clearly in awe of the marines and their fight in the Pacific. There is no sympathy for the "japs", who were in a different way just as brave as the marines.

The book has a "thrown together" feel - it is very "bitty" and jumps around between the different characters far too much. I would have preferred a longer run for each character (as in the TV series), rather than the constant switching back and forth. One thing is clear though - this is an incredibly well researched book. For a book of a modest 449 pages of script, there is an astonishing 1,072 references. There are also quite a number of footnotes, many not needed in my view, and also some annoying repetitions throughout. Apart from these minor aberrations, the book is a worthwhile read. If you have not seen the TV series, make sure you do so as it will give an even better idea of what the men of The Pacific endured.

John Lennon was a hero to many people, as he still is to me. Ever since I started to listen to him belting out "Twist and Shout" on an old Beatlemania 45rpm vinyl record on our mono record player at home, I have been a huge fan of the Beatles and Lennon. I remember exactly where I was when I heard he had been shot - I was taking part in a Trinity College marine biology trip to Ballyvaughan, Co Clare. I was standing at a fireplace in a cottage waiting for breakfast when our bus driver Vinny, (who was first up `cos he wasn't drinking the night before!) told me the news. For others, the deaths of Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Diana Spencer mark moments of shock in their lives - Lennon's senseless killing was the one for me.

Philip Norman has written a fantastic account of John Lennon's life. He paints a picture of a man who led an extraordinary life from the violence of the Blitz during which he was born - to the violence of his death. Lennon was no saint or scholar when he was growing up, and there is lots of detail about his school days, his family problems, and the early music beginnings. I was interested to see that he was not good at school, failing his O-level exams. How could this be for such a musical genius? It seems that while he was very intelligent, he had no interest in learning and rejoiced in rebelling against "the system". Only his Aunt Mimi seems to have any control over him. I wasn't as familiar with his first 20 years as I was with his last 20 years - Norman's book provides a superb background to the formation of Lennon as a musician. It is very well researched and written in a very easy to read style.

There are many explanations about the background to some of his songs. As a Beatles fan I knew a lot of this already, but there was plenty of new stuff for me. His many love affairs and promiscuity are also detailed - he certainly got laid a lot! The book ends with his death and there is virtually no comment on his legacy. There is (for me) a pointless section at the end of the book where Norman talks to Lennon`s second son Sean. This adds nothing to the book as Sean was just a child when Lennon died and had very few memories - the interview simply repeats Norman's description of John's time looking after Sean in the Dakota apartment.

At the time of his death I recall reading an obituary in the Trinity News. The last line is still imprinted on my brain and expresses my thoughts about his death: F*ck you Mark Chapman, f*ck you.

I picked up Dava Sobel's book "Longitude" at a second hand book sale this week of 1. This must be one of the best 1 I have ever spent - it is an excellent book which I read in just two sittings. The book is short (175 pages) - and I was already familiar with the story of John Harrison and his efforts to win the Board of Longitude prize for solving the biggest problem on the 18th century - how to determine longitude at sea. See a summary in the article John Harrison and the Longitude problem on the British National Maritime Museum website. The story of John Harrison was also made into a two part film starring Jeremy Irons and the wonderful Michael Gambon as Harrison - this film is based on Sobel's book.

Sobel does a wonderful job of describing the problem of determining Longitude at sea. She describes the numerous efforts of many inventors to claim the £20,000 prize for a "Practicable and Useful" way to help navigators at sea figure out where they are. Harrison's rivalry with the Rev Maskelyne, and his difficulties with getting his time-pieces approved by the Board of Longitude are lovingly described by Sobel, who is clearly in awe of Harrison. It is well written and extremely easy to read - as she notes in the "Sources" section at the end - the book "is intended as a popular account, not a scholarly study".

Throughout the book I felt that I would have liked to have seen some diagrams of the insides of the H-1 to H-5 clocks and watches, and to better understand what some of the parts looked like. For example, it is only now (after finishing the book) that I found out what an "escapement" is - see a description in Wikipedia. I was constantly looking back at the (small) photographs inside the front cover as a reference point. As Sobel writes on her website "Roughly one-quarter of the many letters I received after the publication of Longitude complained that the book contained no pictures, maps or diagrams". This lead her to produce "The Illustrated Longitude" with William J.H. Andrewes. I must watch out for this.

This is a wonderful true story that anybody with even a passing interest in history and science will enjoy. Recommended

I have just finished reading Myles Dungan's new book Conspiracy: Irish Political Trials, published by the Royal Irish Academy. It covers seven famous trials from Robert Emmet (1803) to Roger Casement (1916). I found it an interesting read for the most part, but also tedious in others.

While the first chapter on Robert Emmet is very good, if you have already read Patrick Geoghegan's excellent biography of Emmet: "Robert Emmet: A Life" there is little or nothing new - in fact the chapter reads like a summary of Geoghegan's book. Similarly, Jarlath Waldron's "Maamtrasna: The Murders and the Mystery" is a far better account of the Maamtrasna trials. However, the other chapters were a much better read.

The trial of John Magee in 1813 gives an excellent account of the defense of Magee by Daniel O'Connell who clearly manipulated the trial for his own publicity purposes. Dungan does an excellent job here of mingling court transcripts with opinion and analysis. The State Trials chapter, covering the trial of Daniel O'Connell in 1844 is more of a history lesson than an analysis, but still makes for a very good read. In fact each chapter gives a little history lesson - not necessary for your average Irish person who will recall the basics of 19th century history from school.

The Phoenix Park murders in 1882 and trial are covered very well, though there are so many participants that it is hard to keep track. I expect this is because The Invincibles and the murders of Burke and Cavendish are themselves more well known than the five men hanged for the murders (Brady, Curley, Kelly, Fagan, and Caffrey).

The Parnell Commission trial is heavy going - the other sections involving murder and death sentences are easier to understand.

The final section on Roger Casement's trial in 1916 was potentially the most interesting, but perhaps the most disappointing. The chapter is 41 pages long, but most of it is not about Casement - whose trial covers the last 14 pages. Instead we get a history lesson about 1916, and (very good) accounts of the courts martial of Pearse and the other 1916 leaders.

Overall, a worthwhile read. I felt that the extracts from the trial transcripts were very long in places, and there is a very annoying overuse of "[sic]" - a simple comment at the beginning explaining that quotations are original and exact would have covered this. Also - what's with the plastic noose on the cover? Did they have plastic ropes in the 19th century for hangings?

Peter de Rosa's historical novel is an excellent read and and will give the reader a detailed account of what it must have been like during the 1916 rebellion. All the intrigues of a rebellion are there for all to see. I'm told that there are historical inaccuracies in the book, but even though I am very familiar with this period of Irish history I didn't notice anything wrong.

Events are highly dramatized - particularly towards the end of the book when the executions take place. Written evidence records that the 1916 leaders had accepted their fate, but this book paints them all as angelic heroes sacrificing their lives in the cause of Irish freedom - Pearse would "go through death without hurt". Even he must have felt some terror facing a firing squad, but there is no hint of it for any of the leaders facing death. No one can know what was going through their minds at the time, and de Rosa does an excellent job on what it must have been like.

The 1916 Rebellion had a lot of characters and de Rosa keeps the plot and story going with ease. Countess Markievicz makes for an excellent hero, General Maxwell is the villain, Roger Casement is treated favorably - though his part in the rising is almost a distraction in this book, and all the leaders are heroes too. Almost 500 people were killed in the Rebellion and some of the savagery that took place - especially in North King Street, is graphically described.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to potential readers. Whether you are Irish or not you will enjoy reading about this dramatic period in Irish history. Any Irish person reading this will find that your heart will almost be bursting with pride reading about the rebels and their failed dream of an Irish Republic.

Assegai is a typical Wilbur Smith book that will please his loyal fans. After The Quest (which was very poor by his standards), this has Smith back on form. There's lots of action that keeps the reader wondering what's happening next. The central character, Leon Courtney, is a likeable fellow. As other reviewers have pointed out, there is a lot of killing of animals. Some may find this a bit squeamish.

While I enjoyed the book I have one major quibble with it. The book is billed as a Courtney falling in love with Eva, the German industrialist's daughter - but she does not make an appearance until the second half of the book. Advertising is a bit misleading on this.

Finally - the real winner in this book, as in most of Smith's books is Africa. Lots of descriptions of beautiful animals and landscapes - Smith's love of Africa shines through once again.