Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman

This is my second ‘serious’ book for the month, one of those tomes where you read a chapter at a time in order to take it all in with time for reflection. Amanda Foreman is a terrific biographer, someone who does excellent in-depth research but is capable of writing in an accessible, extremely readable style. There’s nothing dry about this biography at all – indeed I found myself itching to get back to it to discover the next chapter in the remarkable Duchess of Devonshire’s life. So, how about this woman, born in 1757 and active socially and politically and romantically for 49 years? What a personality! What influence. This is period where there’s a lot going on: the American War of Independence, the French Revolution, the Regency crisis and the madness of George III, the Napoleonic Wars, the ascendency of the Whigs. This is a period of really much greater female power, just before the ascendency of the Victorians, which put a stop to all that with pursed lips. Georgiana is in the middle of all of it, deeply involved with the Whigs, best buddies with the Prince, and moving in political circles as possibly the greatest influencer of the time. But wait there’s more: her lover and/or best friend, Bess, who moves in and becomes Georgiana’s husband’s lover as well, then a whole slew of other lovers and consequent illegitimate children for Georgiana, Bess, Georgiana’s sisters, the Duke. Oh yes, she’s a writer as well. It’s as engrossing as a soap opera but all of it is true. I read this after seeing The Favourite, the outrageously entertaining film about Queen Anne and the struggle for power between her two favourites/lovers. At the time I thought the director had been taking a bit of dramatic licence, but after reading about Georgiana’s world, I’m not at all sure! This is an unmissable read for anybody who is interested in history and this remarkable woman.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

It took quite a while to get through this book because I needed to stop after each chapter to try to process what I’d learned. I’d describe this book as popular science, in other words, scientific thought made accessible with clear writing, good story telling and examples, and patient logical explanations of complex issues. It traces the rise of humankind through revolutions: the cognitive revolution (put simply, the emergence of complex language that gave us the ability to imagine), the agricultural revolution, the unification of humankind (who said globalization was something recent?), and the scientific revolution. While I know the detail won’t stay with me – indeed most of it has disappeared already :( - what has stayed with me is the sense of human beings as mere animals who have exploited evolution to rise to dominance. There is no guaranteed future for us. I’ve often described myself as a humanist but although it is obvious if you think about it, I’ve never before considered that this puts homo sapiens on a pedestal above other life forms. As a humanist I am saying that the individual is the centre of all things. I’m really not sure how comfortable I am with this. So this is a book to get you thinking about all sorts of things about the human condition. It warrants re-reading.