Book review of the week

In the Spectator of 27 April Richard Davenport-Hines reviews Death in the Baltic: the World War II sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff by Cathryn J Prince. It’s a positive review but he ends:

The book also has a page of acknowledgments sploshed with outlandish emotional effusions such as ‘Perched upon my soul, you are my laughter and my light.’ Perhaps Americans are sincere when they talk like this, but Europeans only murmur such nonsense when they are young, drunk and trying to wheedle their way into having sex with someone who is feeling tired.