Kerwin Swint – The King Whisperers
April 22nd, 2011 by Sara
The King Whisperers by Kerwin Swint follows the political lives of some of the most influential (if not powerful) figures in history. The book’s focus is not on Kings, Sultans or Presidents, but rather on those people who were their advisors, counsellors and officials. Using forty seven case studies to outline ten different types of ‘King Whisperer’, and spanning all the way from biblical time to the twenty first century, this book certainly attempts to cover a lot of ground within its 327 pages.
The first thing that struck me when I opened this book was the style of writing. Being a bit of an academic myself, I was expecting some fairly long-winded, detailed sentences containing lots of jargon. You know, the sort of thing that only people with Politics Degrees would be able to understand. On the contrary however, I found the style to be straightforward and readily accessible. Subheadings for the different case studies break up the chapters well, giving natural breaks in the text for those of us who are always busy and cannot (unfortunately) read a book in one sitting. The use of colloquialisms, and at one particular point, a pop culture reference “…Hans Gruber of Die Hard, played by Alan Rickman.” (The fact Mr. Rickman was mentioned for any reason gets so many extra points from me!)
Kerwin Swint: Author
Indeed, at certain points it becomes so informal, that I almost longed for something with a little more bite to it. One of my consistent mild irritations at this book is the lack of referencing within the text itself. It was only halfway through the second chapter, turning to look up something in the bibliography that I realised there were endnotes! I was only half impressed by this however, because there were no corresponding numbers anywhere in the text. This lack simply concluded in my not using the endnotes at all, since I had to guess where they would be applicable to, or remember the last one I just read. This would have meant me flicking back and forth, and not being as engaged with the text itself.
I do have to give Mr. Swint credit for his bibliography and index however. The book is obviously well researched, and for an academic like myself, it means I don’t feel the need to go and ensure that every fact written in there is correct. It gives me not only peace of mind to take the text as fact, but the index also allows the reader to use the book itself as a reference point if necessary.
Although I enjoy learning about History in most forms, there were some figures mentioned in this book that I had never heard of before…which means that dates in the sub headings of each study would have been more than welcome. In more than one case, I had to read through half a page or a whole page of text before I got the date which enabled me to put it into any sort of context.
Despite the one or two mild problems I had with this book, I found it to be a very well researched and surprisingly engaging read. We have an academic with a sense of humour! This book actually has a lot of personality, and its accessibility means it ought to appeal to a wide audience. Anyone with an interest in Politics, History or even Sociology should take a glance at this wonderful piece of non-fiction.
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Book Trailer for the King Whisperers
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