Sunday 22 May 2011

Not a Boot Sale Bargain....But Just as Good!

As we have been looking after my grandson this weekend we had to abandon our usual weekly visit to our local boot sale. Mind you, the fact that he had woken us up at 4 am meant that we could have easily gone to one in any event! I must confess to having forgotten just how tiring one year olds are! We did however, manage a visit to out local shopping centre and the two titles you see were duly acquired from the Basildon branch of The Works.


Operation Barbarossa by David Glantz examines exactly what it says on the cover and given that this is on my do list at some point (especially since the advent of Zvezda's Art of Tactic game covering the period in question) it is a welcome addition to the library. Bob Cordery recommended the work of David Glantz for anything Russo-German related but I was somewhat taken aback by not only the sheer quantity of his output on the subject but also, given the specialised nature of the material, the costs of the titles involved! I was highly delighted then, to have picked up a copy of this for £2.99 and guess what? It will be coming on holiday with me!



The second of my £2.99 purchases from The Works is The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple and covers the fall of the Mughal Dynasty if the aftermath of the siege of Delhi during the mutiny of 1857. The Indian Mutiny is not a period with which I am hugely familiar with although the Mughals have been of interest to me for many years so when I saw this sitting on the shelf it was with very little persuasion I parted with the asking price. £2.99 for a £25 hardback is a great buy in anybodies language and so my missed weekly boot sale did not seem quite so bad after all!

At nearly 600 pages this particular title will not be coming on holiday....;-)

2 comments:

Peter Douglas said...

DC

I'll add my voice of support to Dalrymple's "The Last Mughal". It's an excellent book, which gives a really good view from the "other side". The insights into the Rebel command's decision making process (or lack there of). Oh yes and there's a ton of wargaming ideas too.

Enjoy your reading. I predict you'll be eyeing Foundry's Mutiny range shortly!

PD

David Crook said...

Hi Peter,

Oh dear! I hope not - I have a ton of other stuff to getting on with! I have an interest in the North West Frontier but have never managed to look at the Mutiny....until now that is!

All the best,

DC