Love: A Curious History in 50 Objects
Edward Brooke-Hitching (Simon & Schuster, £30)
THE vogue for list books—begun by Neil MacGregor’s History of the World in 100 Objects—must peter out before long, but, for the moment, Edward Brooke-Hitching is an assiduous supplier, at the rate of about a book a year since 2015. He is a former factfinder for the BBC series QI and a collector of curiosities as well as facts, which makes him a perfect match for the genre.
As I began to read his latest, I had an uneasy feeling of déja vu, which I hoped would not turn into déja reviewed. Luckily not, although at least one illustration was indeed familiar from the previous book, The Madman’s Gallery, which I did review a year ago. However, who could forgo the chance to give the Penis Tree of Massa Marittima another outing?
It is in good company, as, once again, Mr Brooke-Hitching has may or may not celebrate a marriage, but it is amusing that its serene image precedes the section on ‘Hans Talhoffer’s 1459 Fight Book—the history of the husband-and-wife duel’. Another satisfying, but oddly unexpected pairing comes in the section on Romantic Monuments, in which the Taj Mahal leads, by way of the Bibi-Khanym Mosque at Samarkand, to our own dear Albert Memorial.
