Diane Banks

In July 2020, in an attempt to bring my reading rate in line with my book-buying rate, because books are first and foremost a starting point for debate, and because reading is inherently a social activity, I committed to writing a few words about every book I read.

Thoughts and comments welcome.

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Who Are We Now? Stories of Modern England by Jason Cowley

5 days ago
4 min

Who Are We Now? Stories of Modern England by Jason Cowley

Picador, March 2022 The “Condition of England Question” is widely attributed to Thomas Carlyle, dating it back to the mid-nineteenth...

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The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption by Sebastian Mallaby

Apr 18
5 min

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption by Sebastian Mallaby

Allen Lane, January 2022 Many of the household names of the twenty-first century – Apple, Google, Uber, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Twitter –...

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Quant by Mary Quant

Mar 20
5 min

Quant by Mary Quant

V&A Publishing, 2018 (originally Cassell & Co, 1966) I picked up this copy of Mary Quant’s autobiography – originally published in 1966...

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Lily by Rose Tremain

Jan 23
4 min

Lily by Rose Tremain

Chatto & Windus, 2021 My interest in Thomas Coram’s Foundling Hospital - which opened in 1741 and was operational in some form until the...

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The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

Jan 9
3 min

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

Paperback 2021, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (first published in Australia 2019, Allen & Unwin) This was a well-timed read in that it’s set over...

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Silverview by John le Carré

Jan 2
1 min

Silverview by John le Carré

Penguin, October 2021 I first encountered John le Carré, aka David Cornwell, on a conference call shortly after starting at Hodder &...

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The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain by Tristram Hunt

Dec 27, 2021
5 min

The Radical Potter: Josiah Wedgwood and the Transformation of Britain by Tristram Hunt

Allen Lane Books, September 2021 A biography is shaped by the identity, interests and experiences of its author as much as by its...

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Break the Internet: In Pursuit of Influence by Olivia Yallop

Dec 12, 2021
4 min

Break the Internet: In Pursuit of Influence by Olivia Yallop

Scribe, November 2021 I’ve written recently about how so-called “influencer culture” should be seen as a microcosm of wider trends and...

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The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King

Oct 25, 2021
4 min

The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King

Chatto & Windus, 2021 Best known for his books Brunelleschi’s Dome, Leonardo and the Last Supper and Michaelangelo and the Pope’s...

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The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield

Sep 19, 2021
2 min

The Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield

Penguin Modern Classics, 2013 I’ve been meaning to pick up this twentieth century classic for years and, in line with expectations, it...

32 views0 comments

TikTok Boom by Chris Stokel-Walker

Sep 18, 2021
3 min

TikTok Boom by Chris Stokel-Walker

Canbury Press, 2021 It’s been difficult to ignore the rise of TikTok over the last couple of years, though for many its significance...

47 views0 comments

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Jul 27, 2021
2 min

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Bloomsbury Books, 2021 This international bestselling debut is pitched around a pivotal scene in the book, whereby babysitter Emira...

23 views0 comments

Caesar in Kent by Francis T Vine

Jun 27, 2021
3 min

Caesar in Kent by Francis T Vine

Unspecified, 1886 I came upon this volume in my capacity as a trustee of the Eden Valley Museum, a social history museum in Edenbridge,...

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Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill

Jun 20, 2021
2 min

Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill

Vintage, 1999 (Sinclair Stevenson, 1993) Rebecca has recently been in my mind following last year’s Netflix adaptation, starring Lily...

22 views0 comments

Tarzan Economics by Will Page

Jun 7, 2021
4 min

Tarzan Economics by Will Page

Simon & Schuster, April 2021 This book is positioned by its publishers as a “how-to” business book – and by the author on the book’s...

51 views0 comments

The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate

May 19, 2021
3 min

The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate

Hamish Hamilton, 1980; Penguin Classics, 2007 I ordered this modern classic, which I’ve never read, for two reasons: (i) there are an...

49 views0 comments

The Whitney Women and the Museum they Made by Flora Miller Biddle

Apr 27, 2021
4 min

The Whitney Women and the Museum they Made by Flora Miller Biddle

Arcade Publishing, 1999 I’d visited the Whitney Museum a couple of times at its old Madison Avenue location, and was pleased to find...

9 views0 comments

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Apr 5, 2021
3 min

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

HarperCollins, 2019 I’m not a big reader of crime fiction, as I generally don’t care whodunnit. I find the Gone Girls and Girl on a...

46 views0 comments

Capitalism in America: a History by Alan Greenspan & Adrian Wooldridge

Mar 29, 2021
4 min

Capitalism in America: a History by Alan Greenspan & Adrian Wooldridge

Allen Lane, 2018 I read half of this two years ago, in advance of chairing a most enjoyable dinner with Economist political editor Adrian...

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Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Mar 16, 2021
4 min

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Gollancz, 2011 (and limited Orion author party edition, 2014) For a number of years, in the days when we did such things, every February...

34 views0 comments