Want to know what books Peter Hitchens recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Peter Hitchens's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
Constantine FitzGibbon | 3.95
Peter HitchensThis is by Constantine FitzGibbon, about whom I know very little. He lived a rather rackety life and is, alas, no longer with us. The title comes from a haunting Browning poem called ‘A Tocatta of Galuppi’s’, which contains the words ‘Venice spent what Venice earned’, and these lines: (Source)
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2
The #1 New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner Allen Drury's Advise and Consent is one of the high points of 20th Century literature, a seminal work of political fiction-as relevant today as when it was first published. A sweeping tale of corruption and ambition cuts across the landscape of Washington, DC, with the breadth and realism that only an astute observer and insider can convey. Allen Drury has penetrated the world's stormiest political battleground-the smoke-filled committee rooms of the United States Senate-to reveal the bitter conflicts set in motion when the President... more The #1 New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner Allen Drury's Advise and Consent is one of the high points of 20th Century literature, a seminal work of political fiction-as relevant today as when it was first published. A sweeping tale of corruption and ambition cuts across the landscape of Washington, DC, with the breadth and realism that only an astute observer and insider can convey. Allen Drury has penetrated the world's stormiest political battleground-the smoke-filled committee rooms of the United States Senate-to reveal the bitter conflicts set in motion when the President calls upon the Senate to confirm his controversial choice for Secretary of State. This novel is a true epic showing in fascinating detail the minds and motives of the statesmen, the opportunists, the idealists. From a Senate old-timer's wily maneuvers, a vicious demagogue's blistering smear campaign, the ugly personal jealousies that turn a highly qualified candidate into a public spectacle, to the tragic martyrdom of a presidential aspirant who refuses to sacrifice his principles for his career-never has there been a more revealing picture of Washington's intricate political, diplomatic, and social worlds. Advise and Consent is a timeless story with clear echoes of today's headlines. Includes Allen Drury's never-before-published original preface to Advise and Consent, his essay for the Hoover Institution on the writing of the book, as well as poignant personal memoirs from Drury's heirs. less Peter HitchensThis is all about the United States and it’s a novel based really, I think, on the Alger Hiss/Whittaker Chambers hearings, but it fictionalises them beautifully. If you read this book and then you watch, in future, a hearing on the confirmation of a secretary of state or a supreme court judge, you will understand far better as a result of it how these things happen than you otherwise would. It is... (Source)
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3
Originally published in 1953, IN THE WET is Nevil Shute's speculative glance into the future of the British Empire. An elderly clergyman stationed in the Australian bush is called to the bedside of a dying derelict. In his delirium Stevie tells a story of England in 1983 through the medium of a squadron air pilot in the service of Queen Elizabeth II. more Originally published in 1953, IN THE WET is Nevil Shute's speculative glance into the future of the British Empire. An elderly clergyman stationed in the Australian bush is called to the bedside of a dying derelict. In his delirium Stevie tells a story of England in 1983 through the medium of a squadron air pilot in the service of Queen Elizabeth II. less Peter HitchensShute was an engineer and a successful aircraft designer. People who judge the standard of their books by slightly higher measures than I do, might think that these books read more like engineering than like fiction. But the fact is they are very well engineered and they all have an understanding of what prewar society was like and they have a strong hatred of snobbery, which he particularly... (Source)
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4
Lionel Davidson's debut thriller was a massive success on first publication in 1960. The New Yorker said it was 'so enriched with style, wit, and a sense of serious comedy that it all but transcends its kind.' Newsweek thought it 'downright superb', and it won the Gold Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association.
Young Nicholas Whistler, dissolute and disillusioned, lives a life of monotony in London. Caught up in a petty money-lenders' dispute, he is sent to Prague to discharge the debt by carrying out a simple assignment. Instead he is dragged deep into the... more Lionel Davidson's debut thriller was a massive success on first publication in 1960. The New Yorker said it was 'so enriched with style, wit, and a sense of serious comedy that it all but transcends its kind.' Newsweek thought it 'downright superb', and it won the Gold Dagger Award of the Crime Writers' Association.
Young Nicholas Whistler, dissolute and disillusioned, lives a life of monotony in London. Caught up in a petty money-lenders' dispute, he is sent to Prague to discharge the debt by carrying out a simple assignment. Instead he is dragged deep into the dangerous world of Cold War espionage and the battle for atomic supremacy. Trapped between the secret police and the amorous clutches of the mysterious Vlasta, Nicholas realises he is now a spy, whether he likes it or not. less Peter HitchensMany years ago I was told by the wife of Jack Jones, who had in her distant youth been a Comintern courier – gold one way and messages the other – that whatever else I did I should go to Prague, where you could encounter the faint echoes of prewar Europe and was also an astonishingly beautiful city. So in 1977, when it was not fashionable to go there and when stag nights were not held there and... (Source)
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5
Foster’s dramatic skill is well-known in London’s West End theaters. So perhaps it wasn’t so surprising when he was hired by an American newspaper publisher to cover the trial of Yordan Delchev for treason. Accused of membership in the sinister Officer Corps Brotherhood and of masterminding a plot to assassinate his country’s leader, Delchev may in fact be a pawn and his trial all show. But when Foster meets Madame Delchev, the accused’s powerful wife, he suddenly become enmeshed in more life-threatening intrigue than he could have imagined. more Foster’s dramatic skill is well-known in London’s West End theaters. So perhaps it wasn’t so surprising when he was hired by an American newspaper publisher to cover the trial of Yordan Delchev for treason. Accused of membership in the sinister Officer Corps Brotherhood and of masterminding a plot to assassinate his country’s leader, Delchev may in fact be a pawn and his trial all show. But when Foster meets Madame Delchev, the accused’s powerful wife, he suddenly become enmeshed in more life-threatening intrigue than he could have imagined. less Peter HitchensIt’s about a show trial and it’s also a moment in the life of Eric Ambler, who I think is one of the most intelligent and illuminating thriller writers of the 20th century, when he goes through that moment that a lot of left-wing people go through when he realises that what he used to believe in isn’t sound any more, and he does it with his usual great intelligence and his fine plotting and... (Source)
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