Showing 1 - 10 of 16
America's saviour
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 18/10/2019
» Bill Clinton wasn't the best president of the United States of America, nor was he the worst. Nor was he the most oversexed. John F. Kennedy had more pillow-mates by far. Yet Jackie Kennedy and Hillary Clinton didn't make a fuss about it.
Ravens' feast
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 27/12/2018
» This reviewer's understanding of historical novels is that the authors do historical research on their topic, using actual figures and imaginary ones where need-be, to write essentially factual and hopefully interesting stories. But not all historical novelists follow this form. Some are more concerned about their own largely fictitious story than the actual events behind it.
Isis destroyed
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/09/2018
» As most of the hijackers responsible for the 9/11 outrage were Saudi Arabian, it stands to reason that the US would take the kingdom to task. Instead, Washington turned its ire on Afghanistan and Iraq. How could that be? In fact, it made sense. America is Saudi's biggest oil customer and didn't want it to stop flowing, the more than 3,000 dead at New York's Twin Towers notwithstanding.
The Dark Ages
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 08/09/2017
» I was taught that the Roman Empire fell to the barbarians in 476 AD. My next grade teacher was vague. There were the Dark Ages, Medieval times and Middle Ages. I heard the word Byzantine only once, when the Turks captured Constantinople in 1455 AD. The Crusades took place halfway between.
Child victims
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 16/06/2017
» Novels are supposedly fictional, imaginary. Similarities to persons and places are coincidental. Which is a legal way of saying: "Don't blame us" -- authors and publishers -- "for sticking it to actual people and/or places."
More Nazi bashing
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 30/09/2016
» Scholars of ancient times are discovering that the further back their research takes them the more history and myths become entwined. There seems to have always been priests to explain the meaning and workings of the cosmos, coming up with new religions to support their explanations.
Sherlock Holmes is back
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 02/09/2016
» Yank Bonnie MacBird who pens and edits Hollywood films and gives courses at UCLA in creative writing, is obsessed by Sherlock Holmes. She has not only read and re-read the books numerous times, but researched their author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Imitating his style, it was only a matter of time before she tried her hand at it.
Crisis of conscience
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 11/07/2016
» There isn't a community, hamlet or metropolis that doesn't have crime. And anywhere there is crime there are police. And where there are police, there are people to write about them, journalists and novelists. They tend to portray the police as more efficient than they are, to make the reader feel more safe.
Empires don't endure the ages
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 23/05/2016
» Empires have come and gone throughout human history -- some lasting more than a millennium, others less than a century. Contemporary historians keep analysing the reasons for their rise and fall. They peruse the same documents and works of earlier historians and eyewitnesses, yet often arrive at differing conclusions.