Deft masterstrokes on a vast canvas
Reviewed by Belu Maheshwari
Fractured Times: Culture and Society in the Twentieth Century
by Eric Hobsbawm
Little Brown. Pages 319. Rs 699
When you are reviewing a book written by an unquestioned master of the craft, who became a legend in his lifetime, you read the book twice over. This is the last book from the stable of the great historian of the 20th century, who though a prolific writer never lost sight of the importance of research, and analysis.

A skyfaller reminisces
Reviewed Khushwant S. Gill
From Fatigues to Civvies Memoirs of a Paratrooper
by Lt. Gen. V. K. Nayar, (PVSM, SM) (Retd)
Manohar Publishers. Pages 458. Rs 1,395
What is it that makes a great soldier, a great officer, and a great Army? Read Lt. Gen. V.K. "Tubby" Nayar’s memoirs and you'll come away with a fairly good idea of what lies at the root of the military experience and what makes it all tick. But there's more, as this paratrooper's stint as Governor of Manipur takes us into the politico-administrative world and reveals what it takes to be a good administrator.

Straight from the sets
Reviewed by Suresh Kohli
Talking Cinema
by Bhawana Somayya
HarperCollins Publishers India. Pages 222. Rs 299
An interesting, retrospective compilation of the scribe’s conversations with stars, artistes, directors and their reflections on various aspects of films and filmmaking in Mumbai over the past decade or so by someone who has spent a lifetime chasing them. Nowhere in her brief introduction does the author define the selection process from over a thousand she must have penned down over the decade. Each of the 30 pieces has a line or two that requires a reflective pause.

A treat to be savoured
Reviewed by Aradhika Sharma
This is a heavy book — heavy in the weight of it; in the thought of it; the length of it, the poetry of it and the sheer, drugging beauty of it. Written originally in Urdu by the author (Kai Chand Thay Sar-e-Asman), and reworked in English by him, the book is a mirror of its time —the decline of the Mughal Empire. Perhaps it is fitting then that the book’s plot deals with (but not merely with) the breathtakingly beautiful Wazir Khannum, who elopes with an officer of the East India Company.

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