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Most reviewed: Great Hatred, Little Room

07.04.08 Anna Richardson

Last weekend (4th to 6th April) saw a mix of "most reviewed" titles: Lisa Jardine's exploration of Dutch cultural influence on Britain, Going Dutch (HarperPress); former Tony Blair chief of staff Jonathan Powell's account of the Northern Ireland peace process, Great Hatred, Little Room (Bodley Head); Simon Gray's memoir The Last Cigarette (Granta); and Will Self's new novel The Butt (Bloomsbury) all attracted a similar amount of coverage on the literary pages.

Powell elicited the strongest reaction from reviewers. For example, David Trimble, the former first minister of Northern Ireland and leader of the Ulster Unionists, pored over the book with a predictably keen eye for his Guardian review.

He recognised that, inevitably, the book was "written from Powell's standpoint and leaves out much that the Northern Ireland parties would regard as important". But Trimble added that it "contains many errors and misinterpretations of our position".

In the Mail on Sunday, Peter Hitchens also found fault with Powell, assessing: "This book approaches grand policy and the drama of history, with all the majestic sweep of a bicycle manual." "We get the locations, the architecture, the food," he added, "but nowhere do we get the actual point, a crucial moment in our national decline".

Powell also had admirers, however. Andrew Gimson, reviewing in the Daily Telegraph was impressed and wrote that the book "is of great value for the picture it offers of the style and methods of government in the Blair years". However, the "sheer unscrupulousness" of the methods was also "breathtaking".

Leo McKinstry in the Sunday Telegraph believed Great Hatred was "fascinating" in that "no one else could provide such an insider’s account". He also found that "Powell's account is constantly enlivened by his vivid pen portraits."

MOST REVIEWED (4th to 6th April)

The Butt by Will Self
(Bloomsbury 9780747591757 £14.99)
"In the end, it works" Guardian
"As readable as a blokeish airport novel" Sunday Telegraph
"Self’s distinctive vocabulary is part of the problem" Sunday Times
"Largely picaresque" Times

Going Dutch by Lisa Jardine
(HarperPress 9780007197323 £25)
"Jardine has not written a book, she has invented a subject" Daily Telegraph
"Lacks a sense of direction" Guardian
"Jardine is not always on top of her material" Sunday Telegraph
"Ill-considered, inessential book" Observer

Great Hatred, Little Room by Jonathan Powell
(Bodley Head 9781847920324 £20)
"Powell’s book is of great value" Daily Telegraph
"A fascinating book" Sunday Telegraph
"Like an account of the Great Train Robbery that does not mention the train or the money" Mail on Sunday
"So many examples here of imperfect understanding" Guardian

The Last Cigarette by Simon Gray
(Granta 9781847080387 £14.99)
"Funny, sad and consistently entertaining" Daily Telegraph
"I am grudgingly warming to the Gray persona" Times
"[A work] of rare honesty, humanity and wit" Sunday Telegraph
"An all-consuming, if uncategorisable read" Observer

Media Anna Richardson Most Reviewed

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