Family history, tracing ancestors Books

Book SynopsisPreserve your life story and pass it down to your family in this beautiful keepsake memory book.Grandma's Story is a guided journal thoughtfully designed to help grandmothers record their special memories and share them with their grandchildren and family. Designed by bestselling artist Korie Herold, this keepsake book offers writing prompts and journaling pages to guide grandmothers along as they record their life’s most precious moments. This book is the perfect gift for Mother's Day, birthdays, or any time of year for your grandmother.Sections and writing prompts include:• Early Childhood: What was your house like growing up? What were your favorite toys or playtime activities?• School Years: What did you think you wanted to be when you grew up? What were you like as a teenager?• Work and Travel: What was your first job? What family vacations do you remember the most?• Love and Family: What’s your best relationship advice? How did you feel when you found out you were going to be a grandfather?• Character and Values: What do you value most in life? What family values do you hope to pass down?• Hypotheticals and Curiosities: What's something you wish you had done differently? What's the best advice you ever received?• Words of Wisdom: Additional space to write letters to your familySpecial features include:• Elegant linen with gold foil cover• Acid-free and archival paper• Layflat design allows you to easily write in the book• Carefully developed designs and prompts allow to you reflect and remember

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Book Synopsis'A brilliant, authoritative, surprising, captivating introduction to human genetics. You'll be spellbound' Brian CoxThis is a story about you. It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story, because in every one of our genomes we each carry the history of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration and a lot of sex. In this captivating journey through the expanding landscape of genetics, Adam Rutherford reveals what our genes now tell us about human history, and what history can now tell us about our genes. From Neanderthals to murder, from redheads to race, dead kings to plague, evolution to epigenetics, this is a demystifying and illuminating new portrait of who we are and how we came to be.***'A thoroughly entertaining history of Homo sapiens and its DNA in a manner that displays popular science writing at its best' Observer 'Magisterial, informative and delightful' Peter Frankopan'An extraordinary adventure...From the Neanderthals to the Vikings, from the Queen of Sheba to Richard III, Rutherford goes in search of our ancestors, tracing the genetic clues deep into the past' Alice RobertsTrade ReviewI very much enjoyed and admired . . . A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived -- Bill Bryson * OBSERVER Books of the Year 2016 *An effervescent work, brimming with tales and confounding ideas carried in the "epic poem in our cells". The myriad storylines will leave you swooning . . . Rutherford, a trained geneticist, is an enthusiastic guide -- Colin Grant * GUARDIAN *A thoroughly entertaining history of Homo sapiens and its DNA in a manner that displays popular science writing at its best -- Robin McKie * OBSERVER *A brilliant, authoritative, surprising, captivating introduction to human genetics. If you know little about the human story, you will be spellbound. If you know a lot about the human story, you'll be spellbound. It's that good -- Brian CoxAdam Rutherford's book is well-written, stimulating and entertaining. What's more important, he consistently gets it right -- Richard DawkinsIf you are ethnically British, one thing is certain: your ancestors definitely had sex with Neanderthals. On the other hand, they probably didn't have sex with Vikings, who, it turns out, did a fair bit more pillaging than raping. And, depending on the flakiness of your earwax, it is just conceivable that your relatives' unattractiveness to hairy and horned invaders was related to their body odour. DNA is fragile, confusing and contains a lot of pointless data. But unlike other accounts of human history it doesn't lie. Adam Rutherford's soaring book is an exposition of what this new science really tells us about who we are -- Tom Whipple * THE TIMES *One of the most extraordinary things about this book is its sheer breadth. Rutherford, a writer and geneticist, weaves from our genes a fascinating tapestry of human history from its most primitive origins to its sophisticated present, and beyond ... The writing is concise and often funny, and Rutherford never takes himself or his subject too seriously ... It is one of those rare books that you'll finish thinking you haven't wasted a single second -- Brad Davies * INDEPENDENT *Magisterial, informative and delightful -- Peter FrankopanRutherford takes off on an extraordinary adventure, following the wandering trail of DNA across the globe and back in time. And on the way, he reveals what DNA can - and can't - tell us about ourselves, our history and our deep evolutionary heritage. From the Neanderthals to the Vikings, from the Queen of Sheba to Richard III, Rutherford goes in search of our ancestors, tracing the genetic clues deep into the past . . . Wide-ranging, witty, full of surprises and studded with sparkling insights - Rutherford uncovers the epic history of the human species, written in DNA -- Alice RobertsA captivating delight. With witty, authoritative and profound prose, Adam Rutherford tackles the biggest of issues - where we came from, and what makes us who we are. He does more than any author to cut through the confusion around genetics, and to reveal what modern genetics has to say about our identity, history and future -- Ed YongGenetics is opening up the past as never before - Adam Rutherford puts the genes in genealogy brilliantly -- Matt Ridley

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Book SynopsisThe perfect gift for any dad, this keepsake memory book is a special place to record special moments, stories, and advice that you want to pass down to your children one day. Dad’s Story is a guided journal thoughtfully designed to help dads of all ages write down memories that they want to preserve and share with their children and family. Designed by bestselling artist and author Korie Herold, this keepsake book provides dads with thoughtful writing prompts and plenty of journaling pages to record memories from their childhood, school years, early adulthood, and more. Show dad that you love him and want to hear more about his life with this timeless gift that’s ideal for Father's Day, birthdays, or any time of year. Sections and writing prompts include: Early Childhood: What was your house like growing up? What were your favourite toys or playtime activities? School Years: What did you think you wanted to be when you grew up? What were you like as a teenager? Work and Travel: What was your first job? What family holidays do you remember the most? Love and Family: What's your best relationship advice? How did you feel when you found out you were going to be a dad? Character and Values: What do you value most in life? What family values do you hope to pass down? Hypotheticals and Curiosities: What's something you wish you had done differently? What's the best advice you ever received? Words of Wisdom: Additional space to write letters to your family Special features include: Elegant linen with gold foil cover Acid-free and archival paper Layflat design allows you to easily write in the book Carefully developed designs and prompts allow to you reflect and remember

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Book SynopsisDiscover all the details you never knew about your mother’s life with this beautiful keepsake journal filled with over 100 prompts.  A Mother’s Life is organized into chapters covering your mother’s childhood and youth, starting a family, family traditions, reflections and wisdom, and more. Thought-provoking prompts and questions and inspirational quotes about mothers will encourage your mother to reflect and dig deep into her memories and stories. Reveal your mother’s unique story by asking:What were you afraid of when you were a child?When you were in high school, what did you imagine for you future? Describe what it felt like when you became a new mother.  Features:  Beautifully designed imitation leather cover User-friendly rounded corners Compact 6.35 × 8.25 size  A Mother’s Life is a perfect gift

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Book SynopsisLike Lorna Sage''s Bad Blood A masterpiece' RACHEL CUSKGiving up the Ghost' is award-winning novelist Hilary Mantel''s uniquely unusual five-part autobiography.Opening in 1995 with ''A Second Home'', Mantel describes the death of her stepfather which leaves her deeply troubled by the unresolved events of her childhood. In ''Now Geoffrey Don''t Torment Her'' Mantel takes the reader into the muffled consciousness of her early childhood, culminating in the birth of a younger brother and the strange candlelight ceremony of her mother''s ''churching''. In ''Smile'', an account of teenage perplexity, Mantel describes a household where the keeping of secrets has become a way of life. Finally, at the memoir''s conclusion, Mantel explains how through a series of medical misunderstandings and neglect she came to be childless and how the ghosts of the unborn like chances missed or pages unturned, have come to haunt her life as a writer.Trade Review'She is by turns facetious, matter-of-fact, visionary and comical but always totally riveting.' Daily Telegraph 'Simply astonishing - clear and true.' Guardian 'An extraordinary story, sometimes comic, often grim, but most importantly it is a story of survival.' Spectator 'A masterpiece of wit…[the] past, so thoroughly vanished, is made to live again here.' Rachel Cusk ‘What a remarkable writer she is. She is piercingly, even laceratingly observant … a very startling and daring memoir; the more I read it the more unsettling it becomes.’ Helen Dunmore ‘I was riveted. It’s raw, it’s distressing and it’s full of piercing insights into a first-rate novelist’s mind.’ Margaret Forster ‘A stunning evocation of an ill-fitting childhood and a womanhood blighted by medical ineptitude. Hilary Mantel’s frank and beautiful memoir is impossible to put down and impossible to forget.’ Clare Boylan

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Book SynopsisA beautiful book to record your family history, with space for family and individual records, ancestry charts, family traditions and achievements

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Book Synopsis''Beautiful, like a muddy journey through time . . . a really important book'' RAYNOR WINN, author of The Salt Path Lisa Woollett has spent her life combing beaches and mudlarking, collecting curious fragments of the past: from Roman tiles and Tudor thimbles, to Victorian buttons and plastic soldiers. In a series of walks from the Thames, out to the Kentish estuary and eventually to Cornwall, she traces the history of our rubbish and, through it, reveals the surprising story of our changing consumer culture.Timely and beautifully written, Rag and Bone shows what we can learn from what we''ve thrown away and urges us to think more about what we leave behind.Trade ReviewLisa Woollett's beautifully descriptive language intertwines the stories of the river's history with that of her family, like a muddy journey through time. But it's so much more than that - in recording the waste and the lives we've left behind she's given us a chance to change our ways and possibly head towards a cleaner future -- Raynor WinnWonderful . . . If you loved The Salt Path, you'll love this book. A glorious celebration of where the natural world meets the human (and the messes we make) -- Viv GroskopRag and Bone digs deep into the mud of the Thames estuary, and comes up with something compelling and urgent - history told through rubbish. Lisa Woollett is a genuine mudlark, alert and closely attuned to the ways of the intertidal zone. A fascinating book -- Philip MarsdenA delicious confection of a book, blending history and memoir with thoughts and close observation. I so enjoyed watching shadows of the past flit across Lisa Woollett's watery pages. It is a timely book, too, when, as Woollett writes, "our waste threatens to overwhelm us" -- Sara WheelerTracing the remote and recent past - her own, and ours - through watery debris, Lisa Woollett conjures up, in poetic prose and brilliant stories, the spin cycle of history. In Rag and Bone, she elegantly picks her way through the trash, to reveal something gloriously and richly strange: a portrait of what we were and what we might become -- Philip HoareMudlark and beachcomber Lisa Woollett journeys into her family's past, our collective history and our possible futures. Subtle, dark and funny, with flashes of beauty and wonder, Rag and Bone is a compelling meditation on the consumer culture and its consequences -- Caspar HendersonEntrancing -- Patrick GaleLisa Woollett spins narrative gold out of literal dross in this gorgeous story of our waterways that lulls you like a punt on the Cam before making you seasick at the damage we've wrought on the oceans * Evening Standard, Books to Read This Summer *Absorbing . . . Woollett has a gift for bringing to life the strange borderlands of the foreshore * Observer *Discursive, lyrical and intriguing . . . Woollett writes beautifully * Literary Review *Rag and Bone is more than a history in a hundred objects: it is a meditation on our relationship with objects themselves * Times Literary Supplement *[A] beguiling blend of memoir, nature writing and social history * The Bookseller, Editor's Choice *More than personal memoir, this is a powerful book that has much to say about the present and future state of our world * Countryfile *Woollett weaves the story of her own London family within the wider social history of recycling . . . the book is illustrated with photographs of her finds arranged in ways that often say as much as the words do about the subject matter * Caught by the River, Book of the Month *A constant delight . . . highly recommended * Eden Magazine *Accompanied by the fantastically beautiful photographs of her finds, Woollett . . . traces her own family history in poetic prose * Simple Things *[Woollett's] mudlarking (preferred tool: a butter knife) reveals no end of social history washed up on the shore and awaiting interpretation * Strong Words *Subtle, lyrical and funny * The Lady *

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Book SynopsisFROM THE WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTIONTWICE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONTHE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR''Unforgettable'' CosmopolitanKingsolver blends a fierce and abiding moral vision with benevolent concise humour.'' New York Times Book ReviewWhen six-year-old Turtle Greer witnesses a freak accident at the Hoover Dam, her insistence on what she has seen, and her mother''s belief in her, lead to a man''s dramatic rescue.But Turtle''s moment of celebrity draws her into a conflict of historic proportions. The crisis quickly envelops not only Turtle and her mother, Taylor, but everyone else who touches their lives in a complex web connecting their future with their past.Pigs in Heaven travels the roads from rural Kentucky and the urban Southwest to Heaven, Oklahoma, and the Cherokee Nation, testing the boundaries of family and the many separate truths about the ties th

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Book SynopsisIf you want to learn to read and know about old handwriting, this is the only book you will need.Trade Review“This educational guide will help you master the reading of old handwriting from the 19th Century back to the court hands of the 16th. It covers the terminology used when transcribing, but the main emphasis is on practical learning in order to decipher old documents, on the importance of ‘having a go’ and persisting." * Family Tree magazine *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018WINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 2018A SUNDAY TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR 2019''A masterpiece of history and memoir'' Evening Standard''Superb. This is a necessary book - painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting'' The Times__________________________________________________Little Lien wasn''t taken from her Jewish parents in the Hague - she was given away in the hope that she might be saved. Hidden and raised by a foster family in the provinces during the Nazi occupation, she survived the war only to find that her real parents had not. Much later, she fell out with her foster family, and Bart van Es - the grandson of Lien''s foster parents - knew he needed to find out why.His account of tracing Lien and telling her story is a searing exploration of two lives and two families. It is a story about loTrade ReviewAstonishing. Van Es has created a masterpiece of history and memoir, concluding on a note of reconciliation, hope and great love * Evening Standard *An extraordinary, harrowing story of loss, survival and love * Guardian *Deeply moving, this is a remarkable memoir * Sunday Times *Powerful . . . extraordinary * Irish Times *Brought to life with family photographs and diary entries that add further impact to Lien's harrowing memories and testimony - this deeply affecting and fascinating story is guaranteed to haunt you * Sunday Mirror *Remarkable - the story of one traumatic childhood, deeply moving, and told with great dexterity, allowing the wisdoms of today to run parallel with the absorbing narrative of wartime events * Penelope Lively *Compassionate and thoughtfully rendered, the book is both a memorable portrait of a remarkable woman and a testament to the healing power of understanding. A complex and uplifting tale * Kirkus *A nuanced, moving, and unusual "hidden child" account * Publishers Weekly *Superb. This is a necessary book - painful, harrowing, tragic, but also uplifting * The Times Book of the Week *Fascinating, beautifully written. Van Es carefully salvages Lien's story and creates a deeply moving and complex book about war, atrocity and human suffering * The Oldie *Sensational and gripping . . . shedding light on some of the most urgent issues of our time * Judges of the Costa Book of the Year Prize 2018 *Luminous, elegant, haunting - I read it straight through * Philippe Sands, Author of East West Street *Deeply moving. Writes with an almost Sebaldian simplicity and understatement * Guardian *Harrowing and beautiful * Bookseller *An awe-inspiring account of the tragedies and triumphs within the world of the Holocaust's "hide-away" children, and of the families who sheltered them * Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones *The Cut Out Girl is a reminder of the extraordinary richness of archives and the treasures released by scholarly research * TLS *An extraordinary story, harrowing, deeply affecting. This fascinating story is guaranteed to haunt you * People *A moving story of personal and family history, with a scholar's objective eye for the bigger picture. * Irish Times *Harrowing . . . profoundly moving * Daily Express *

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Book SynopsisFrom grandma to her grandchild with love: this fill-in keepsake journal is perfect for passing on family history. Grandma, what was your life like? This charmingly illustrated book will help grandchildren better know and understand their grandmother. On every page, grandma can collect and write down her thoughts, stories, experiences, and cherished memories. In addition to space for filling in the family tree and posting photos, questions throughout prompt her to discuss her childhood, wedding, honeymoon, birth of her children, and other precious moments. When the book is complete, it will be a record of the past the future generations will treasure forever.

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Book SynopsisRecord and preserve your grandmother’s life story for future generations with this beautiful keepsake journal with over 100 prompts to guide her memories.Grandmothers are often the keepers of family stories. But chances are there’s a lot about your grandma you still don’t know. With A Grandmother’s Life, she can share her stories, both the main events and the lesser known chapters. Did you know your own grandparents? What were they like? How did you meet my grandfather? What was my parent like as a child? Did you have any important mentors? Who inspired you? These are just a few of the many prompts that together will reveal your grandmother’s unique story.Designed to let your grandmother choose the topics she wants to explore, thought-provoking prompts help you discover:  The world your grandmother was born into—from important events of the era to the common technology a

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Book Synopsis''Grimly funny and superbly written, with a twist on every page'' Hilary Mantel''Delightfully compulsive and unforgettably original'' Hadley Freeman''Wonderful, funny and wise'' Kate SummerscaleShortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize 2021A Sunday Times, TLS, Spectator and New Statesman Book of the Year Aunt Munca never told the truth about anything. Calling herself after the mouse in a Beatrix Potter story, she was already a figure of mystery during the childhood of her nephew Ferdinand Mount. Half a century later, a series of startling revelations sets him off on a tortuous quest to find out who this extraordinary millionairess really was. What he discovers is shocking and irretrievably sad, involving multiple deceptions, false identities and abandonments. The story leads us from the back streets of Sheffield at the end of the Victorian age to the highest echelons of English sTrade ReviewAunt Munca flees the streets of Sheffield for a suite at Claridges, getting younger by the year and leaving behind her a trail of brazen lies and shattered pieties. In his family memoir, Ferdinand Mount pursues her with wit and skill through a career in which crime pays, marriage is for a week, and children are lost like old gloves. Kiss Myself Goodbye is grimly funny and superbly written, with a twist on every page. -- Hilary Mantel, author of the Wolf Hall TrilogyDelightfully compulsive and unforgettably original. Mount unpeels the layers of this mysterious life with the tenacity of an experienced detective and the excitement of a fresh-eyed enthusiast. -- Hadley Freeman, author of House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish FamilyExtraordinary … shed[s] a brilliant light on the strangeness of people’s lives, the need for disguise and masquerade, the shame that drives people to act in the most peculiar ways, the ghosts that reside, unburied, within us. -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *Wonderful, funny and wise -- Kate Summerscale, author of The Suspicions of Mr WhicherDelicious … As well as an ear for the cadences of a sentence, Mount has a remarkable ability to convey the feeling of place … Beneath the surface of this sparklingly wry book you sense all kinds of unexplored feelings of abandonment and loss. * The Oldie *Mount is one of our finest prose stylists and Kiss Myself Goodbye is a witty, moving and beautifully crafted account of one woman’s determination to live to the full. * Daily Telegraph *An extraordinary book * Tatler *Unique and immensely enjoyable. I only wish it were longer. * Spectator *Kiss Myself Goodbye is a work of beauty. The simple truthfulness of Ferdinand Mount’s storytelling is irresistible. * Literary Review *...A superbly written and jaw-dropping memoir. * Daily Telegraph *Veering giddily from grand guignol to poignant melancholy, this is an exquisitely wrought portrait of a wickedly fascinating woman. -- Jane Shilling * Daily Mail *...this book, which is partly a family history and partly a detective novel, with extraordinary revelations and an impressive cast of characters dotted through the narrative. -- Roland White * The Sunday Times (Culture) *Witty, moving and beautifully crafted, Kiss Myself Goodbye is a “masterclass” in bringing long-buried secrets to light. * The Week *[Mount ]… vividly captures bygone Britain. * Daily Record *It needs a writer of wit, imagination and empathy to carry me along from one layer of the tissue to the next. Mount is such a writer. * The Oldie *A wonderful memoir of the author’s aunt – deadpan, shrewd and very dryly funny. -- William Boyd, bestselling authorTable of Contents1 Angmering-on-Sea 2 Georgie 3 Buster 4 Charters 5 Brightside 6 Crawford Mansions 7 Eileen and Elizabeth 8 W. F. 9 Brightside Revisited 10 Seven Hills Postscripts Thanks Picture and Text Credits

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Book SynopsisDNA research is one of the most important and rapidly advancing areas in modern science and the practical use of DNA testing in genealogy is one of its most exciting applications. This accessible, wide-ranging introduction, the first British publication in this field, has been revised in a completely new edition with new topics and illustrative case studies. It offers a clear and practical way into the subject, explaining the scientific discoveries and techniques and how it can be used by genealogists to gain an insight into their ancestry. The subject is complex and perhaps difficult for traditional genealogists to understand but, with the aid of this book, novices who are keen to take advantage of it will be able to interpret test results and use them to help answer genealogical questions which cannot be answered by documentary evidence alone. It will also appeal to those with some experience in the field because it places the practical application of genetic genealogy within a wid

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Book SynopsisIn Climbing Days, Dan Richards is on the trail of his great-great-aunt, Dorothy Pilley, a prominent and pioneering mountaineer of the early twentieth century. For years, Dorothy and her husband, I. A. Richards, remained a mystery to Dan, but the chance discovery of her 1935 memoir leads him on a journey. Perhaps, in the mountains, he can meet them halfway? Climbing Days is a beautiful portrait of a trailblazing woman, previously lost to history, but also a book about that eternal question: why do people climb mountains?

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Book SynopsisA major work of economic, social and political history, Niall Ferguson's The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker 1849-1999 is the second volume of the acclaimed, landmark history of the legendary Rothschild banking dynasty.Niall Ferguson's House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets 1798-1848 was hailed as a great biography by Time magazine and named one of the best books of the year by Business Week. Now, with all the depth, clarity and drama with which he traced their ascent, Ferguson - the first historian with access to the long-lost Rothschild family archives - concludes his myth-breaking portrait of once of the most fascinating and power families of all time.From Crimea to World War II, wars repeatedly threatened the stability of the Rothschilds' worldwide empire. Despite these many global upheavals, theirs remained the biggest bank in the world up until the First World War, their interests extending far beyond the realm of finance. Yet the Rothschilds' failure to establish themselves successfully in the United States proved fateful, and as financial power shifted from London to New York after 1914, their power waned.A stupendous achievement, a triumph of historical research and imagination.—Robert Skidelsky, The New York Review of BooksNiall Ferguson's brilliant and altogether enthralling two-volume family saga proves that academic historians can still tell great stories that the rest of us want to read.—The New York Times Book ReviewSuperb ... An impressive ... account of the Rothschilds and their role in history.—Boston GlobeNiall Ferguson's new book The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook will be published in January 2018. Trade Review"A stupendous achievement, a triumph of historical research and imagination."—Robert Skidelsky, The New York Review of Books"Niall Ferguson's brilliant and altogether enthralling two-volume family saga proves that academic historians can still tell great stories that the rest of us want to read."—The New York Times Book Review"Superb ... An impressive ... account of the Rothschilds and their role in history."—Boston Globe

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Book SynopsisSurvey of the activities of one of the most important cross-Border families, the ancestors of Robert the Bruce. Robert de Brus, the "conquisitor of Cleveland, Hartness and Annandale", who came into England among the followers of Henry I, was also a close companion and mentor of David I, king of Scots. The lands he acquired from bothkings were divided between his sons, from whom two lines descended: the lords of Skelton, influential Northerners who played an active part during the baronial troubles in the reigns of John and Henry III, and the prominent cross-Border lords of Annandale, co-heirs of the substantial Chester and Huntingdon estates and progenitors of King Robert Bruce. This study takes a fresh approach to the Brus family by assessing the achievements of the two lines in parallel while examining the extent of their power and the development of their lordships; it highlights the inter-relations between the barons of England and Scotland during two hundred years of comparative peace between the kingdoms. Of additional interest is the appendix of an extensive handlist of charters of the Brus family of both lines. It will be a welcome addition to the existing body of works on English baronial families and on Anglo-Scottish cross-Border lords of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.Trade ReviewAs a further contribution to the literature on those individuals and their kinsmen who operated in the multiple kingdoms of the British Isles, the book does its job with clarity and concision, offering a sensible and unglamorous survey of its principal themes. As the first monograph devoted to Robert de Brus and his descendants, it will rightly serve as the new point of reference for the Bruses and their lands. * EHR *Does an admirable job of uncovering the origins and development of the Brus clan. [...] A well-written, detailed and valuable book, and deserves to be read by anyone either with an interest in Border life and politics, or the larger Anglo-Scottish situation in the later Middle Ages. * YORKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL *A rewarding illumination of a specific medieval baronial family. * THE AMERICAN GENEALOGIST *A highly impressive monograph on the neglected history of the Brus family. [...] Dr Blakely's remarkable success in creating an intelligible narrative from some highly complex charter evidence makes this perhaps the most persuasive and enjoyable of all dynastic histories of the North. * NORTHERN HISTORY *Magisterial. [...] All those interested in King Robert I of Scotland will regard this book as the definitive study of the family which produced him. * TRANSACTIONS of the DUMFRIESSHIRE AND GALLOWAY NATURAL HISTORY AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY *This impressive book is a welcome exception to the well-rehearsed claim of historians (and their publishers) that their research 'fills an important gap' in current scholarship. * HISTORY *

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Book SynopsisThe history of Ireland is one that was long dominated by the question of land ownership, with complex and often distressing tales over the centuries of dispossession and colonisation, religious tensions, absentee landlordism, subsistence farming, and considerably more to sadden the heart. Yet with the destruction of much of Ireland's historic record during the Irish Civil War, and with the discriminatory Penal Laws in place in earlier times, it is often within land records that we can find evidence of our ancestors' existence, in some cases the only evidence, where the relevant vital records for an area may never have been kept or may not have survived. In Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, genealogist and best-selling author Chris Paton explores how the surviving records can help with our ancestral research, but also tell the stories of the communities from within which our ancestors emerged. He explores the often controversial history of ownership of land across the island, the rights granted to those who held estates and the plights of the dispossessed, and identifies the various surviving records which can help to tease out the stories of many of Ireland's forgotten generations. Along the way Chris Paton identifies the various ways to access the records, whether in Ireland's many archives, local and national, and increasingly through a variety of online platforms.

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Book SynopsisScotland is a land with a proud and centuries long history that far pre-dates its membership of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Today in the 21st century it is also a land that has done much to make its historical records accessible, to help those with Caledonian ancestry trace their roots back to earlier times and a world long past. In Tracing Scottish Family History on the Internet, Chris Paton expertly guides the family historian through the many Scottish records offerings available, but also cautions the reader that not every record is online, providing detailed advice on how to use web based finding aids to locate further material across the country and beyond. He also examines social networking and the many DNA platforms that are currently further revolutionising online Scottish research. From the Scottish Government websites offering access to our most important national records, to the holdings of local archives, libraries, family history societies, and online vendors, Chris Paton takes the reader across Scotland, from the Highlands and Islands, through the Central Belt and the Lowlands, and across the diaspora, to explore the various flavours of Scottishness that have bound us together as a nation for so long.

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Book SynopsisFatherhood is the debut novel from award-winning poet Caleb Klaces, combining prose and poetry in an experimental work of verse fiction. Following the birth of their first child, a couple move out of the capital to the northern countryside, where they believe the narrator’s great-grandfather, a Russian emigrant, was laid to rest. The father dedicates himself to parenting, writing and conversation with his dead ancestor, newly conscious of the ties that bind the present to the past. It is a time of startling intimacies, baby-group small talk, unexpected relationships and tender rhythms, when every clock seems to tell a different time, and the solidity of language is broken. As his daughter begins to speak, the father’s gentleness turns to unexplainable rage. He begins to question who he must protect his child from – the outside world or himself. Their new house, the family discover, is built on a floodplain.Moving between history, memory and autobiography, its shifting form captures a life and language split open by fatherhood. An experiment in rewriting masculinity, it asks how bodies can share both a house and a planet.

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Book SynopsisBlood on the Thistle is an examination of the life and times of a remarkable Scottish family, the Cranstons of Haddington, East Lothian. It focuses on a period from about 1880, when the young, hard-working parents, Alec and Lizzie Cranston, arrived in Haddington, through to 1920, when the family they had produced, torn apart by the Great War, broke up as its surviving members pursued separate lives around the globe. Of seven sons who served in the First World War, four died and two more were horrifically wounded; only one, the youngest, returned home physically unscathed. This book explores the effects of this extreme sacrifi ce on the sons themselves as well as the loved ones they left behind, particularly their mother, Lizzie, who mourned them for the rest of her days. This is the tale of how a once proud and aspirational Scottish family was devastated by war, and how the effects continued to ripple through time and generations. Until, a century later, the threads of this remarkable family are finally drawn together again, in a book that is at once a superb documentary account and a moving tribute to a generation.Trade Review'An impossibly sad story' - THE SCOTSMAN 'A movingly re-imagined history' - FAMILY TREE

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Book SynopsisOrganize your ancestry research while creating a beautiful keepsake to pass on to future generations with Our Family Tree. Find your way through your family history and record your results with this beautiful keepsake. Whether as a gift to a relative or for yourself, this modern family tree allows for multi-generations and their activities to be included. Customizable and inclusive, make this truly your own through: this charming guide to your ancestry includes: Ancestral charts for you, your partner, and your family members Records for citizenship and immigration Places to record your and your families' favorite things A place for chosen family, including pets Blank pages for pasting in photographs and mementos And more! An introduction from renowned genealogist and author of Finding your Family Tree Sharon Leslie Morgan helps guide you on your journey with helpful tips and a research checklist to set you on your course of discovery. No matter how thorny your family tree may be, discovering your ancestry can connect you to an essential part of your identity. Get this easy-to-use, beautifully illustrated keepsake to remember your family history and try your hand at genealogy.

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Book Synopsis**THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** **WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD** 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment.Trade Review[A] wonderful book -- Dame Felicity Lott * Waitrose Weekend *In a decade where memoir became the dominant genre, this immensely evocative family history told via the journey through the generations of some Japanese miniature figures stood out -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times, *Books of the Decade* *An evocative narrative of art, inheritance and loss * Homes & Antiques *From a hard and vast archival mass...Mr de Waal has fashioned, stroke by minuscule stroke, a book as fresh with detail as if it had been written from life, and as full of beauty and whimsy as a netsuke from the hands of a master carver. * The Economist *This remarkable book... a meditation on touch, exile, space and the responsibility of inheritance... like the netsuke themselves, this book is impossible to put down. you have in your hands a masterpiece. -- Frances Wilson * The Sunday Times *

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Book Synopsis''A triumphant family memoir'' Hallie Rubenhold''Powerfully told...an impressive work'' The Times''Gives a voice to the voiceless'' Australian Book ReviewIn this remarkable book, Carmen Callil discovers the story of her British ancestors, beginning with her great-great grandmother Sary Lacey, born in 1808, an impoverished stocking frame worker. Through detailed research, we follow Sary from slum to tenement and from pregnancy to pregnancy. We also meet George Conquest, a canal worker and the father of one of Sary''s children. George was sentenced - for a minor theft - to seven years'' transportation to Australia, where he faced the extraordinary brutality of convict life.But for George, as for so many disenfranchised British people like him, Australia turned out to be his Happy Day. He survived, prospered and eventually returned to England, where he met Sary again, after nearly thirty years. He brought her out to Australia, and they were never parted again.A miracle of research and fuelled by righteous anger, Oh Happy Day is a story of Empire, migration and the inequality and injustice of nineteenth-century England.''A remarkable tale...drawing chilling parallels to the inequalities of our times'' ObserverTrade Review[A] remarkable tale...drawing chilling parallels to the inequalities of our time... A book that is both a heartfelt outpouring of pity and sorrow and an irate demand for restitution... Oh Happy Day deserves to be called Dickensian. -- Peter Conrad * Observer *Fascinating... [Oh Happy Day] evokes echoes of the present in speaking about the past, as all great works of history do. It's a gripping narrative. -- Erica Wagner * Harper's Bazaar *Oh Happy Day gives a voice to the voiceless and adds another major work to Carmen Callil's formidable achievements. -- Brenda Niall * Australian Book Review *Oh Happy Day is a phenomenal achievement... The book covers great swathes of history... These are intriguing stories. -- Dani Garavelli * Herald Scotland *An absorbing account of empire, migration, the poverty of injustice and enduring love... The book bristles with Callil's righteous anger at the injustices meted out to her forbears, and at the parallels for our own times. -- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller *

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Book SynopsisHancox is the Tudor hall house in rural Sussex where Charlotte Moore grew up, and where she lives today. It''s been in the family since her ancestor Milicent Ludlow, young, single and an orphan, took it on in 1891 and began to enlarge the house and manage the farm. Hancox tells the story of the house and the family over the following thirty years, in the long run-up to the First World War.In one sense it''s a rural idyll: the arrival of the car disturbs this peaceful agrarian world, but apart from that the rhythms of the countryside go on as they had for centuries before. But all was not quite as it seemed: Milicent made a distinguished marriage but her husband harboured a secret. Milicent herself gradually succumbed to religious fanaticism. And the death of the youngest boy at Ypres devastated the family, bringing the idyll to a painful end.Using extraordinary archive material held at Hancox today, Charlotte Moore weaves an Edwardian tale of madness and jealousy, lov

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Book SynopsisThe Oxford Companion to Family and Local History is the most authoritative guide available to all things associated with the family and local history of the British Isles. It provides practical and contextual information for anyone enquiring into their English, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh origins and for anyone working in genealogical research, or the social history of the British Isles. This fully revised and updated edition contains over 2,000 entries from adoption to World War records. Recommended web links for many entries are accessed and updated via the Family and Local History companion website. This edition provides guidance on how to research your family tree using the internet and details the full range of online resources available. Newly structured for ease of use, thematic articles are followed by the A-Z dictionary and detailed appendices, which include further reading. New articles for this edition are: ''A Guide for Beginners'', ''Links between British and American FamiliTrade ReviewThis book provides invaluable guidance on the practicalities and pitfalls of researching your family tree. * Countryman *In our office the book has become our bible. * Penny Law, Family History Monthly *Invaluable to researchers and genealogists, it is also hugely beneficial as a reference point for historians, social historians, or students. * Jill Morris, Your Family History *A companion that will become every researcher's new best friend. * Jill Morris, Your Family History *Table of ContentsPREFACE; CONTRIBUTORS; THEMATIC ESSAYS; A-Z DICTIONARY; APPENDIX

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Book SynopsisDiscover one family''s fascinating story in this beautiful, sweeping, multigenerational memoir, spanning 19th century south China to modern day Singapore''A captivating, compelling story of history, family loyalty, and personal sacrifice. A fascinating and richly textured multigenerational tale'' Charmaine Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake''I would learn that when families tell stories, what they leave out re-defines what they keep in. With my family, these were not secrets intentionally withheld. Just truths too painful to confront . . .''________In the last years of her life, Teresa Lim''s mother, Violet Chang, had copies of a cherished family photograph made for those in the portrait who were still alive. On the back is the place and date: Hong Kong, 1935.Teresa would often look at this photograph, enticed by the fierceness and beauty of her great-aunt Fanny looking back at her. But Fanny never seemed to feature in the told and retold family stories. Why? she wondered.This photograph set Teresa on a journey to uncover her family''s remarkable history. Through detective work, serendipity, and the kindness of strangers, she was guided to the fascinating, extraordinary life of her great-aunt and her world of sworn spinsters, ghost husbands and the working-class feminists of 19th century south China.But to recover her great-aunt''s past, we first must get to know Fanny''s family, the times and circumstances in which they lived, and the momentous yet forgotten conflicts that would lead to war in Singapore and, ultimately, a long-buried family tragedy.________ The Interpreter''s Daughter is a beautifully moving record of an extraordinary family history. For fans of Wild Swans, The Hare With Amber Eyes, and Falling Leaves this is the next classic in the making.Trade ReviewA captivating, compelling story of history, family loyalty, and personal sacrifice... Teresa Lim's quest to uncover a hidden chapter in her family's history makes for a fascinating and richly textured, multigenerational tale * Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Black Cake *A captivating family history. Lim vividly recreates Singapore in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and lucidly explains historical matters and cultural traditions * Publisher's Weekly *Rich in the little-discussed history of Singaporean Chinese, this multigenerational memoir offers a timeless tale of the quest for identity, wholeness and truth. An eloquently enlightening family history * Kirkus Reviews *'A wonderful portrait of a family. One for lovers of Wild Swans. Hats off to Teresa Lim' -- Hope Adams

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Book Synopsis ''A fine and deeply affecting work of history and memoir'' Philippe SandsDecades ago, the historian Bernard Wasserstein set out to uncover the hidden past of the town forty miles west of Lviv where his family originated: Krakowiec (Krah-KOV-yets). In this book he recounts its dramatic and traumatic history. ''I want to observe and understand how some of the great forces that determined the shape of our times affected ordinary people.'' The result is an exceptional, often moving book.Wasserstein traces the arc of history across centuries of religious and political conflict, as armies of Cossacks, Turks, Swedes and Muscovites rampaged through the region. In the Age of Enlightenment, the Polish magnate Ignacy Cetner built his palace at Krakowiec and, with his vivacious daughter, Princess Anna, created an arcadia of refinement and serenity. Under the Habsburg emperors after 1772, Krakowiec developed into a typical shtetl, with a jostling populationTrade ReviewA fine and deeply affecting work of history and memoir -- Philippe SandsThis poignant journey of discovery provides some profound insights into how hatred can be incited and manipulated to destroy communities, and is all too relevant to what is happening in the region today. -- Adam Zamoyskiextraordinarily moving ... Though he has been thinking about the story and researching it for decades, the writing feels immediate. The book is part memoir, part history lesson about 'old Europe' as a battleground between four empires, and part lament for the lost world of European Jewry. Perhaps the most valuable thing about it for British readers is its reminder of how lucky we are to have welcomed refugees to our shores and not to have exported them. Wasserstein has a deep understanding of places where borders have violently changed every couple of generations and whole populations have been massacred as a result of ideology, religion or whim. -- Victor Sebestyen * Spectator *This formidable book takes pride of place among the growing corpus of literature coming out of the swampy bloodlands. If you want to understand why hate has been unleashed again in Europe, this is the indispensable guide -- Roger Boyes * The Times *Using the lens of his own family's betrayal, Bernard Wasserstein's A Small Town in Ukraine revisits one of the country's darkest moments ... revelatory and dramatic ... [a] noble, nicely detailed enterprise of historical and familial recovery -- Julian Evans * The Telegraph *he employs a microscope to portray the fates of many through an account of very few. Near the scene of his grandparents' murder, he found a memorial to Ukrainian nationalists executed by the Russians after the Second World War more prominent than a plaque commemorating the vastly larger number of dead Jews, "as if to assert that Ukrainians, not Jews, were the true victims of this history and would have the last word". His anger is just, his book a finer monument than any plaque. -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *This is a deeply moving book, beautifully written, all the sadder now that refugees are again trudging those same roads. -- Lucy Beckett * The Tablet *a compelling history, which pays tribute to his ancestors while raising issues that remain tragically relevant today ... alongside this touching personal material, Wasserstein's book vividly traces how what was once a Polish town became 'a predominantly Jewish one' by around 1800 and is 'now almost entirely Ukrainian'. ... among its many other virtues, this book is a sharp reminder of the dangers of turning history into a simplistic morality tale -- Matthew Reisz * Observer *The personal thread of his own family's experiences lends warmth and tragedy to the facts that he meticulously documents. ... succeed[s] in putting a human face to the suffering of ordinary people trapped in the turmoil of physical conflict and political ideologies ... steadfastly refuse[s] to airbrush the past -- Rebecca Abrams * Financial Times *We believe that we think with our minds. But a part of us - a deep and important part - thinks with the blood. Our sense of self is deeply entwined with the places we came from and the people who formed us. ... For the historian Bernard Wasserstein, that origin story includes the violence, injustice and trauma suffered by his family at the hands of the Nazis. But A Small Town in Ukraine is more than just a family biography. It is Wasserstein's attempt not just to chronicle the suffering experienced by his parents and grandparents but also to understand it. His method is to examine, in minute and forensic detail, the history of the place from which they came, the small town of Krakowiec - 'a little place, you won't have heard of it', as his father used to say. ... Wasserstein offers an evocative and detailed portrait of the world that formed his grandfather's and ancestors' lives. ... his book is a moving chronicle of a lost world, written with eloquence and emotional intelligence but without bitterness -- Owen Matthews * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisThe author of The Ruin of All Witches returns with a gripping, vividly told journey of rediscovery, uncovering his uncle's past as a soldier, prisoner, fugitive and partisan in World War Two Italy Malcolm Gaskill knew two things about his great-uncle Ralph's wartime adventures: he'd been a prisoner in Italy, and he'd cut his way out of a train with a knife and fork. Apart from that, he'd faded into family folklore, lost to view. Until, one hot afternoon in an English country garden, a chance conversation set Gaskill on his uncle's trailWhat Ralph really did in the war was, he discovers, even more extraordinary than the exaggerations of family myth. From last-ditch fighting in the Libyan desert and incarceration in a Puglian prisoner-of-war camp, to desperate, dramatic escapes and the assuming of an entirely new identity among the peasants and partisans of the Italian alps, Gaskill traces a life transformed by conflict, while lifting the curtain on a long-forgotten episode of the Second World War.Yet The Glass Mountain is about more than war: it's a haunting exploration of what it means to encounter the past, and how we remember, forget and recover it. As he follows his uncle's path through dusty archives and the landscapes, towns and villages of present-day Italy, Gaskill finds himself confronted by questions that go to the heart of how we think about the people who came before us: Why do stories matter? How much of the past can ever be true?

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Book SynopsisA powerful, intimate memoir of Eritrean-British journalist, Hannah Azieb-Pool, who returns to Eritrea at the age of 30 to meet her family for the first time.What a story. So vivid, honest and moving'' Andrea Levy, author of Small Island''When I stepped off the plane in Asmara, I had no idea what lay ahead, or how those events would change me . . .''In her twenties, Hannah-Azieb Pool is given a letter that unravels everything she knows about her life. She knew she was adopted from an orphanage in Eritrea, and as her adoptive family brought her to the UK, they believed she did not have any surviving relatives.When she discovers the truth in a letter from her brother - that her birth father is alive and her Eritrean family are desperate to meet her - she is faced with a critical choice.Should she go?In this intimate memoir, she takes us with her on an extraordinary journey of self-discovery, as she travels to Eritr

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Book SynopsisExplorer and bestselling author Sir Ranulph Fiennes takes a journey around his vast and eccentric family tree, and reveals an amazing family history.Trade ReviewA whirlwind romp through the annals of time, peopled with the good, the bad and downright mad among the Fiennes clan. * Sunday Telegraph *Fascinating...it is some family tree * Adrian Chiles, The One Show *Praise for MAD, BAD AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW * - *'If you ever struggle to drag yourself out of bed on a winter's morning, pick up a copy of Ranulph Fiennes' autobiography. It's an inspiration.' * Mail on Sunday *'Rip-roaringly readable' * Guardian *'Even readers with a broadly low tolerance for macho heroism will find themselves gripped . . . compelling' * Time Out *'This is the memoir of a supreme sportsman, an uber-earthling who could show the Martians a thing or two about what the best of us can achieve' * Financial Times Magazine *'"Ran' epitomises British phlegm, and he puts all other glory-seekers to shame. His dry wit, self deprecation and steely determination never to feel a scrap of self-pity are in the very best tradition of British travel writing. Long may he continue tomake us glad that we are not him, while we stand in awe.' * Country Life *'Rip-roaringly readable' * Guardian *'Even readers with a broadly low tolerance for macho heroism will find themselves gripped . . . compelling' * Time Out *'It's exhausting just reading about his exploits, so it is a perfect bedtime book. It's delightful to plump up one's duck-down pillows while vicariously enduring Fiennes's successive plunges into the deadly waters of the Artcic, and his festering crotch-rot.' * Helena Drysdale, New Statesman Books of the Year *'It is lively and vivid, and often exciting as we anticipate each plunge into deadly Arctic waters. There are some wonderful throwaway lines . . . So, not an alien species after all but - as they say - a national treasure.' * Spectator *A very funny, moving and inspiriting look back at the family history of one of the greatest explorers ever to live. We all love Sir Ranulph Fiennes, he never disappoints. And this book is no exception. * Bear Grylls *

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Book SynopsisJune 14 is Flag Day, but with so many American flags proudly displayed, every day seems like Flag Day. Perfect for reading together with a young child, F Is for Flag shows in simple terms how one flag can mean many things: a symbol of unity, a sign of welcome, and a reminder that-in good times and in bad-everyone in our country is part of one great big family.

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Book Synopsis''Fascinating ... an extremely courageous work.'' The Lady''Absolutely extraordinary ... Findlay reveals a vast, hidden European story that few nations have ever been brave enough to confront'' Keith Lowe''''Beautifully written, poignant and acutely perceptive'' Sinclair McKay''Moving and powerful'' Julia Samuel......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................In My Grandfather''s Shadow is an unflinching, thought-provoking fusion of memoir and history, and an exploration of the hidden scars left across generations by the conflict and horrors of the Second World War.In a quest to discover the truth about her German grandfather, first a proud Wehrmacht General serving on the Eastern front, then a broken POW on trial for Nazi war crimes, AngeTrade ReviewA remarkable cross-pollination of memoir, psychology and history in which the author comes to grips with being the granddaughter of a Nazi general. * i Paper *Brave ... full of insights and good research. -- Caroline Moorehead * Times Literary Supplement *A compelling journey through guilt and shame that asks fundamental and painful questions about the extent of a family member's participation in one of the biggest crimes of the 20th century. -- Derek Niemann, author of A Nazi in the FamilyIn My Grandfather's Shadow is an extraordinary book. Beautifully written, poignant and acutely perceptive; endlessly thought-provoking and challenging. From the nature of wickedness to the phenomenon of epigenetics, it is also an extremely powerful and different way of seeing the vast and terrible tides of history. -- Sinclair McKay, author of Berlin, Dresden, and The Secret Life of Bletchley ParkSeeking to untangle the complexities of her own life, the author goes in search of a WW2 German general - the grandfather she never knew. The outcome is a powerful and at times painfully honest story that will touch readers at many levels. -- Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich and A Village in the Third Reich

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Book SynopsisIn this acclaimed memoir from the award-winning author of Fragrant Harbour and Capital, John Lanchester pieces together his family''s past and uncovers their extraordinary secrets - from his grandparents'' life in colonial Rhodesia to his mother''s time as a nun - with clear-eyed compassion. A true story of family intrigues, of secrets and lies, as they unfold across three generations.

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Book Synopsis''An unknown place.'' This was what Michael Frayn''s children called the shadowy landscape of the past from which their family had emerged. Shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, My Father''s Fortune sets out to rediscover that lost land before all trace of it finally disappears beyond recall. As Frayn tries to see it through the eyes of his parents and the others who shaped his life, he comes to realise how little he ever knew or understood about them.This is above all the story of his father, the quick-witted boy from a poor and struggling family, who overcame disadvantages and shouldered many burdens to make a go of his life; who found happiness, had it snatched away from him, and in the end, after many difficulties, perhaps found it again.Father and son were in some ways incredibly alike, in others ridiculously different; and the journey back down the corridors of time is sometimes comic, sometimes painful, as Michael Frayn comes to see how much he has inh

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Book SynopsisA beautiful, wise book. It deals with the some of the grimmest aspects of human experience, but it is also one of the most genuinely up-lifting works I have read in years. Emma Brockes'' superb, clear-eyed narration is an object lesson for any aspiring memoir-writer. She Left Me the Gun deserves to become a classic. Zoe HellerWhen Emma Brockes was ten years old, her mother said ''One day I will tell you the story of my life and you will be amazed.'' Growing up in a tranquil English village, Emma knew very little of her mother''s life before her. She knew Paula had grown up in South Africa and had seven siblings. She had been told stories about deadly snakes and hailstones the size of golf balls. There was mention, once, of a trial. But most of the past was a mystery. When her mother dies of cancer, Emma - by then a successful journalist at the Guardian - is free to investigate the untold story. Her search begins in the Colindale liTrade ReviewA beautiful, wise book. It deals with the some of the grimmest aspects of human experience, but it is also one of the most genuinely up-lifting works I have read in years. Emma Brockes' superb, clear-eyed narration is an object lesson for any aspiring memoir-writer. She Left Me the Gun deserves to become a classic. -- Zoe Heller This astonishing, unsettling book examines the relationship between knowledge and love. Vigorously unsentimental, deeply absorbing, and written with fierce wit, It is an unstinting look at what it means to be innocent, at any stage of life, and how obsessively we all seek and avoid the many faces of truth. -- Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree She Left Me the Gun is quite simply an extraordinary book. In the hands of any halfway decent author, this would be an incredible story: a mother with a mysterious South African past who arrived in England in her early twenties with a beautiful antique handgun and a mission to forget who she used to be. In the hands of a writer as gifted as Emma Brockes, it's basically the perfect memoir: a riveting, authentic tale elegantly told. -- Viv Groskop Sunday Telegraph Emma Brockes sets out on a delicate journey to uncover a secret locked in the heart of her own family's darkness. A harrowing tale of murder and incest emerges, unfolding by stages in this utterly compelling psychological memoir. -- John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil The late Nora Ephron suggested the title for Emma Brockes' She Left Me the Gun. Ephron ... was as smart as they come in Hollywood and you only need to read the opening chapters to understand why she took such a close interest in the career of this remarkable young writer and Guardian journalist ... It isn't just the story itself that sets this book apart. Brockes's prose is potent enough to do justice to the power of her insights. And although she is very good at maintaining the tension in the detective part of the story, she has an even more important ability to keep up the emotional suspense. Ephron, her mentor, would have approved. -- Christena Appleyard Literary Review [A] courageous, clear-sighted book, which shifts between memoir and elegy as it examines the persistence of family secrets and the fragile interface between innocence and knowledge. -- Elizabeth Lowry Guardian The resulting memoir is an exemplary family history and immensely brave. It is one thing to delve into dusty archives in Pretoria, "each page containing the split-second possibility of an explosion in my face", but quite another to sit with aunts and uncles you've never met ("a wacky bunch") and ask them to recall a childhood lived in fear and that was exposed in court ... Brockes's descriptions of South Africa and her newly discovered family (towards whom she is loyal and generously affectionate) are astute and, one feels, tempered by the tightly coiled wayward nature of the freshly grief-stricken. It makes the slow pace of the revelations all the more honourable and heartfelt. The result is a wise, tender letter of love to a mother and her incredible sense of love and -necessary self-sufficiency. -- Helen Davies Sunday Times An amazing and harrowing story. In Emma Brockes's consummate, Joan Didionesque prose, it becomes a surpassingly rich meditation on family, endurance, secrecy, trauma, guilt, strength and love ... Intensely personal, but it is also a beautifully written and, ultimately, a redemptive book: deeply impressive, deeply painful, deeply true. -- Kevin Power Sunday Business Post She Left Me The Gun is a triumph for three reasons. The first is the voice. Brockes is often very funny ... Then there is the material itself - not just the story of Paula's childhood but that of the lives of her extraordinary siblings ... Finally, there is Brockes's fearlessness and her resistance to glib interpretation of the facts that are often tantalisingly opaque. -- Claire Lowdon New Statesman Here we have a memoir, detective story and love letter revolving around a violent alcoholic and paedophile - the author's grandfather. Jimmy's crimes and their repercussions were so horrendous that at times one physically recoils from the page. It is a measure of Emma Brockes's artfulness and sensitivity that she has fashioned her material into an enjoyable narrative. -- Sara Wheeler Observer The story itself is a total wow - thrilling, dark, brave and so intense that if it were fiction no-one would believe it. But the writing itself is just so crisp and insightful... I'm not sure I'd have the bravery to read my way through the narrative if it weren't for Emma Brockes's own strength and trustworthiness as a narrator. -- Bidisha The fantastic She Left Me the Gun ... this consummate piece of writing, originating from the death of her mother, manages to encompass memoir, family history, travel writing, investigative journalism and a moving meditation on grief and loss ... Heartbreaking and inspiring in equal measure. -- Doug Johnstone Big Issue in Scotland

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Book SynopsisThis book is the ideal companion for anybody researching their family tree. It provides advice and inspiration on methods and problem-solving and helps the amateur family historian understand what successful professionals do to get results, and why we should copy them. Over ten chapters, it examines the various themes that affect the success or failure of all genealogy research. This begins with an overview of common challenges genealogists encounter and continues with an examination of how to both search effectively and find the right documentary sources. Using examples from her own family history as well as client work, teacher and professional genealogist Helen Osborn demonstrates how to get the most from documents, analyze problems and build research plans. These subjects lead on to recording results, how to ensure relationships are correctly proved, organizing information and presenting your findings. Although the book deals mainly with research in England and Wales, the skills ta

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Book SynopsisTrade Review" Kirsty Wilkinson's guide is recommended for anyone with Scottish relations in their tree. It is an appealing, well-produced and valuable book that provides its own comprehensive insight into sources and research techniques. " * Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine *

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