'Not sure why the title was the 'invention' really, it was a straightforward accessible history of the island. Whizzed through some parts it seemed, but that's probably because I've previously waded through thousands of pages on the Norman era alone thanks to John Julius Norwich. Just made me more desperate to get back to the Mediterranean. We're looking at holidays at the moment, but the prices are astronomical, we've just had to fix the car and the house and I may have a hideous dental bill to come. So a cottage somewhere relatively cheap again this year probably. I really enjoyed 'Utz', it's to my shame I hadn't come across it before. It's the story of an old Habsburg era aristocrat, who keeps his collection of Meissen porcelain in communist Prague, and passes up the opportunity to escape to the West as he cannot bear to be parted with it. Very touching, a poignant evocation of the lost world of mitteleuropa (so right up my street) and a lovely ending.
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