The face of modern-day Cuba is in many respects still frozen in the 1950s, with its classic American cars, horse-drawn carriages & colonial Spanish architecture. In a country where taxi drivers earn more than doctors, understanding Cuba is a compelling but never-ending task.

In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Cuba was plunged into crisis. Having been subsidized by the Soviet Union to the tune of $3 million a day, the country's economy entered freefall. The ban on the US dollar was lifted, the floodgates of tourism opened & the salaries of Cubans in contact with foreigners went into orbit.

Into Castro's fortress of dollar-fuelled hedonism & communist austerity came the American wife of a European energy consultant posted to Havana, & their two small children. Isadora Tattlin befriended Cubans from all walks of life, gave dozens of parties



...

The face of modern-day Cuba is in many respects still frozen in the 1950s, with its classic American cars, horse-drawn carriages & colonial Spanish architecture. In a country where taxi drivers earn more than doctors, understanding Cuba is a compelling but never-ending task.

In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Cuba was plunged into crisis. Having been subsidized by the Soviet Union to the tune of $3 million a day, the country's economy entered freefall. The ban on the US dollar was lifted, the floodgates of tourism opened & the salaries of Cubans in contact with foreigners went into orbit.

Into Castro's fortress of dollar-fuelled hedonism & communist austerity came the American wife of a European energy consultant posted to Havana, & their two small children. Isadora Tattlin befriended Cubans from all walks of life, gave dozens of parties



...

This is the story of ordinary men & women involved in the Rebellion, who were described on the gaol registers & regimental rosters of the time as ' Common Men'. There is little in this book about Bonnie Prince Charlie & other principals of the last Jacobite Rising of 1745. Culloden recalls them by name & action, presenting the battle as it was for them, describing their life as fugitives in the glens or as prisoners in the gaols & hulks, their transportation to the Virginias or their deaths on the gallows at Kennington Common. The book begins in the rain at five o'clock on the morning of Wednesday, 16 April 1746, when the Royal Army marched out of Nairn to fight the clans on Culloden Moor. It is not a partisan book, its feeling is for the ' Common Men' on both sides
- John Grant charging with Clan Chatten & seeing the white gaiters of the British infantry suddenly as the east wind lifted the cannon smoke, & Private Andrew Taylor in a red coat waiting for Clan Chatten to reach him, likening them to 'a troop of hungry wolves'. Culloden reminds us, too, that many of the men who harried the glens as ruthlessly as the Nazis in Occupied Europe were in fact Scots themselves. It recalls the fact that many men in Prince Charles' army had been forced to join him. It shows that a British foot-soldier's wish for a sup of brandy on a cold morning before battle is as much a reality as a Prince's pretensions to a throne. The detail for the story told in Culloden has come from regimental Order Books & manuals, from contemporary newspapers & magazines, from the letters & memoirs of soldiers & officers, eye-witness accounts of atrocity & persecution, & the personal stories of the victims themselves. Culloden is the story not of a Prince, but of a people.
...

Culloden was the last battle on British soil. It marked the end of clan culture & was the harbinger of the Highland Clearances. It ensured the inevitability of the American Revolution & increased the outpouring of Scots across the globe. It is the only battle that British Army regiments are not permitted to include in their battle honours; the only battle that Bonnie Prince Charlie ever lost; & the only battle that the Duke of Cumberland ever won.

Culloden is a battlefield, a graveyard & an iconic site that draws people from all parts of the world. & as they come, they bring with them their stories & their father

...

Following his profoundly influential study, Orientalism, Edward Said now examines western culture. From Jane Austen to Salman ...