The Page 99 Test

Marshal Zeringue of the "Page 99 Test" blog recently set me an interesting challenge:

'I wonder if you might be interested in helping with a blog post that would tell readers more about Churchill's Empire [...]

The "test" is simple: Is Ford Madox Ford's statement "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you," accurate for your book?'

Here is what I wrote.

I also got this mention in the correspondence columns of the New Yorker.