Reviews

Against the Wind: An Autobiography by Geoffrey Household

emilymcmc's review

4.0

A somewhat dense and evasive book about Household's very interesting life. It has some of the hallmarks of him at his best -- wit, actually-interesting descriptions of logistics (such as troop movements) -- and some of what I don't like. It's not a must-read on its own, EXCEPT if you also like Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy. It turns out that Household was based in Bucharest and Cairo at about the same time as the Mannings, just as World War II broke out, and moved in the same English-expat world. Incidents that are lightly fictionalized in the Balkan Trilogy are written about factually here. It's plausible that the two writers met, though it's hard to see evidence in either one's books, and it's unlikely they would have enjoyed each other's company. But it's fascinating to read the two books together.