2017/19 Dorothy Whipple: Someone at a Distance (1951) ****

Dorothy Whipple was born and brought up in Blackburn and became a successful novelist between the Wars. She has been championed by Persephone books in this splendid edition published in 2014. This was her last adult novel and, arguably, her best. J B Priestley called her the Jane Austen of the Twentieth century and this is a great novel, showing subtle insight into the pitiless ruthlessness of the narcissist. And Louise, the French companion to old Mrs North, is a study in self regard and how the schemingly attractive person can destroy a happy and companionable marriage, as well as the love of a daughter. I am sure that Jane Austen would have enjoyed this and recognised the players. the wife Ellen who earns the contempt of the French she-devil because she wants to garden and cares not for her appearance is poignant. Sweetly so too are Louise's parents who have a happy and companionable time when she is not there. This novel shows great understanding of people and the delicate balance of their happinesses.

2017/16 Owning The Earth: Andro Linklater (2014) *****

Andro Linklater died of a heart attack at the age of only 68 in 2013 after a strenuous day's cycling on the Isle of Eigg during research for his next book. After Winchester and history at New College Oxford, he joined more than one hippy commune on reclaimed land in rural New England. He concluded that communes didn't work because only the diligent pull their weight. This led to a lifelong interest in land tenure and he became an expert in the colonisation and ownership of land in the United States, which had enthusiastically adopted the English freehold model. Owning the Earth draws together his thinking on land ownership in different parts of the world, the rule of law and the role of land in enabling free market capitalism.

This is an important book and a powerful reminder that we tend to take land rights and a good and defensible title for granted but for most of history land was a common good, over which no one had exclusive rights. This changed as land was enclosed in the relative peace of Tudor England following the long chaos of the Wars of the Roses. There was resistance at all levels to this replacement of the feudal system of mutual obligations by exclusive possession of land in fee simple absolute in possession. Land increasingly became tenanted for rent. This drove innovation and higher yields: England supported a population of about 2 million in 1500 and 4 million 10 years later.

Ultimately the wealth to be gained from sheep farming in particular and the pressure exerted by Parliamentary pressure groups made the change unstoppable, greatly accelerated by 20% of agricultural land's changing hands as a result of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Thomas Cromwell alone bought and sold land in his own right to the value £38,000 and had £7,000 in cash in his house at Austin Friars at his death. The book ranges across North America, Russia, China, Japan and Europe. A fascinating survey in which he points out the very mixed blessings arising from owning the earth.