Fiddlers and Whores -- The Candid Memoirs of a Surgeon in Nelson's Fleet

 

Not much mention of the fiddlers, but plenty of the other.

James Lowry never intended for his memoir to his brother, a Presbyterian minister, to be nothing more than personal correspondence. In fact, he says the original was much longer but lost in a shipwreck on his way home to Ireland. 

Lowry chronicled the British Royal Navy sailing between 1797-1804 in the Mediterranean. Much of the attention was around shore leave in Sicily, near Naples, Malta, and France where he was also kept prisoner for a while.

For its time, Fiddlers is not bad travel literature. On p. 138-139, of the 182 pages, Lowry noted the personal growth afforded one who travels.

"It is necessary for every young man that goes abroad, who wishes to be acquainted with the manners and customs of the people, to enter into their society and amusements, for which he must spare no expenses, otherwise he will leave the city or place as ignorant as when he went in," he wrote.

Some of the writing was in a style very difficult to read. This is over 250 years old. Languages change a lot, and he entered the Royal Navy using a rural Irish English dialect. 

Editor John Millyard noted that some adjustments were necessary, and Lowry's travels amounted to a poor man's grand tour. Lowry never married or had children.

Harpoon -- Inside the covert war against terrorism's money masters

 

You think you know someone when you sleep with them, and sometimes you learn you don't. Books can be similar, and different.

Harpoon might be better read from the back first, starting with the acknowledgments. There were two authors involved with Israeli lawyer and first-time author Nitsana Darshan-Leitner in the lead, and Samuel Katz as co-author. There were tons of others involved, including censors over there, as noted in suspicion earlier here on Goodreads. Plenty of eyes, which paid off in one of the best-edited books I've read in years. Possibly ever, and there were 308 pages.

It's all about fighting your battles in the banks and financial institutions. A few might lose their jobs, but bloodletting is drastically curtailed that way. No money, no bombs. Harpoon, named for a special financial warfare wing of Israel's Mossad under Meir Dagan worked to reduce the suicide bombings of the 1980s and '90s. 

I saw an immediate relationship between old England's privateer Sir Francis Drake, and the other Seadogs robbing treasure and gold from Spain to Harpoon. 

I personally favor global peace, regardless of who wins or loses whichever conflict. I've been to the Middle East once, but I wish I could be around for such a day when it's a bit more like Europe in that respect. I spent a few days in Lebanon, but I dream of being able to tour Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Iran like I might France, Germany, or Austria. I know, I'm dreaming. Not in this lifetime, but, if I live a few hundred more years, maybe.

The content moved nicely, there was only a small handful of anything that could be called an error. It was a pleasure to read, and nice to wake up next to. 

It was a bargain, too. Listed on the cover at $27, I got it for $1 at a dollar store. I need to go back there.