Summary: in case anyone is looking for reading or gift ideas

In chronological order of reading:

1. Hitler, by Ian Kershaw: an exceptional work of historical biography and the definitive work on the pathetic monster who brought cataclysm to Europe.
2. My Father’s House, by Joseph O’Connor: an outstanding historical thriller of Hugh O’Flaherty – “the Irish Schindler” – and Europeans united against the Nazis
3. The Restless Republic, by Anna Keays: an elegantly written, though overwhelmingly Anglo-centric and bizarrely affectionate account of “Oliver’s” genocidal dictatorship
4. Sword of Honour, by Evelyn Waugh (Men at Arms; Officers and Gentlemen; Unconditional Surrender): Waugh’s war, told with his trademark combination of high comedy and profound melancholy: classics for a reason.
5. Empireland, by Sathnam Sanghera: a gripping and elegantly written survey of the bloody British empire and its echoes in the present day
6. The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron: An superb prequel to the Slough House series: 1990s Spook Straße, Berlin, Moscow Rules very much apply
7. Five Decembers, by James Kestrel:  a surprising and compelling crime story, with a strong echo of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, to the backdrop of WW2 in the Pacific.
8. The Sleepwalkers: how Europe went to war in 1914, by Christopher Clark: an extraordinarily adept and compelling elucidation of the complexities of European politics and alliances that led to the outbreak of World War 1. Basically, it was everyone’s fault… but mostly Serbia.
9. A History of Water, by Edward Wilson-Lee:  a fascinating exploration of an aspect of Portuguese history and attitudes at the outset of Europe’s colonial plunder of the global South
10. Killing Thatcher: the IRA, the manhunt, and the long war on the Crown, by Rory Carroll: insight on the Troubles through the prism of a gripping account of one bloody incident