Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir (1999)

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did read Alison Weir's biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of King Henry II and mother of Kings Richard and John, finishing it in June 2020. This took a while, as it is rather long, but more particularly because the cast is quite extensive and they often have very similar names, suggesting some Equity card system would be useful for French dukes and the like, as each paragraph needs to be read slowly to get them straight. The author follows the sources so closely she starts to think like them: unless she is being tongue in cheek when she writes, for example "the fact was that Geoffrey [of Brittany] was dangerous, slippery, treacherous and grasping" (p. 207). No  insight into Eleanor as the feminine aspect of medieval life will be found here. Most of the book is a gruesome rendition of leaders resembling mafia barons, avenging perceived slights. In fact, I am not convinced anyone really knows much about Eleanor other than on which date she happened to be somewhere, and not always even that, either. Nevertheless, this is a thorough account of the bloodletting around her. 

Churchill: Walking with Destiny

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did read Andrew Roberts' biography of Churchill "Walking with Destiny" (2018), mainly in Agios Gordios. It is very heavy, as I became particularly aware while walking there over the hills from the airport. But perhaps not quite heavy enough - as a drama it is not easy to follow clearly what the other leading politicians of the period of the age were up to: Asquith, Lloyd George, Attlee flit in and out of the narrative like butterflies, pretty things visible only when entangled in the web. Also some important elements remain mysterious, at least to me, such as the gold standard controversy, the fall of Singapore, and if I am not mistaken we last hear of the Chindits deep in the jungle, where they may still be, like those Japanese on the bypassed islands, for all I know. The style is workmanlike, infelicities are rare - the repetition of 're-election campaign' on p 955, the occasional injudicious outbursts against fellow-travellers or other critics - particularly the leaders of India (apparently contributing nothing to the defence of the subcontinent against Japan, maladministering the relief of famine, and advising Britain to surrender to the mercies of Hitler); an odd list of internet rumours (p981f) that no-one who reads this sort of tome will have (previously) heard of; and the captioning of a photo (no. 67) of Kay Summersby. As for WSC himself, the book is a little tiresome as it runs through the early period pointing out how episodes of his early life pointed to his 'destiny'. Indeed in whole it is not far from hagiography - a typical section goes: 1. Churchill says or does something dubious; 2. people criticise him for it; 3. the author points out that Churchill in fact turned out to be right in the end, or if not, just reflected the attitudes of his time.  This would be comical, with any other subject. Though for this subject I am not sure the author is not right. There are several cats in the book, though unlike Nelson and the Munich mouser, Jock (p.991) is not indexed.