Sort of nostalgic reading: "State of Emergency: How We Were - Britain 1970-1974 by Dominic Sandbrook

I have over time read a number of political biographies, memoirs and diaries of the people who helped shape the Britain of the 1970's, but this is the first time I have read a genuine history book about a time I personally lived through. The first thing to say about Sandbrook's book is that this is a genuinely scholarly record of the period. You might guess that from the length - 768 pages to cover four or five years! - and from the endnotes, which account for a 6 or 7 millimeters of the book's thickness. This is the third in a series of histories of recent modern Britain, following "Never Had It So Good" which covers the period from Suez to the Beatles, and "White Heat", an account of Swinging Britain in the late sixties. (I learn this from the cover blurb; I haven't read either of the others.)

Culture and violence: "The Last Mughal" by William Dalrymple

First, disclosure. This book was not read, but listened to in the form of an audio book. The four CD set took four and a half hours and was thus (nearly) perfect for a drive back from Strasbourg this week. Obviously, that means it was abridged, so this can't be a 100% review. (By the way, a good audio book and cruise control on the car help the time of a journey go by extremely well, as well as disinclining you to stressful competitive driving.)