Max Hastings
Philip Ziegler's Mountbatten remains for me the most pleasing book of the year. Ziegler defied the expectations of all those who thought sycophancy unavoidable in an official biography of this kind. He wrote with elegance, perception, wit, and judg- ment. So did Selina Hastings in her Nancy Milford — one of the best, because it is the least sentimental, views of the clan. The author seems to have all the qualifications to become a formidably effective biog- rapher of a heavyweight subject next time around. Christopher Andrew's Secret Ser- vice is the best book on the British intelli- gence community for some years, a scho- larly study that also includes all the choi- cest anecdotes. Andrew vividly reveals the suspension of judgment that overcomes successive British governments dealing with intelligence matters; they vacillate between crass breaches of security and pathetic timidity in controlling the services. Ronald H. Spector's Eagle Against the Sun also deserves an honourable mention, a very readable single-volume account of the World War II Pacific campaign. It is useful for an American to remind British readers of the vast scale of the naval war in the Pacific, by comparison with the struggle at sea in the western hemisphere.
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