Title: God's Secretaries
Product review: I suppose because the author is the descendant of Nigel Nicolson, of the Vita-Sackville West connection, reviewers are full of praise for this book. And it's subject matter is of interest to secular and religious readers alike. However, to say, as some have, that this is "elegantly" written is to put expectation and sheer fawning ahead of reality. Consider this clumsy sentence: "Even London, by far the biggest city in England, and on its way to becoming the biggest in Europe, over which on bad days a smog of coal smoke already hung, was still rural in its corners." Syntax doesn't get more tortured than than. This is not to mention sentences that sometimes reach beyond 65 words. It is as badly written a book as I have ever read and those reviewers who are carried away with the Nicolson name should consider carefully the limits of sycophantic behavior. The King of England was never treated better for less reason.
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