History Books
Transworld Publishers Ltd Too Important for the Generals Losing and Winning
Book SynopsisWar is too important to be left to the generals' snapped future French prime minister Georges Clemenceau on learning of yet another bloody and futile offensive on the Western Front. One of the great questions in the ongoing discussions and debate about the First World War is why did winning take so long and exact so appalling a human cost? After all this was a fight that, we were told, would be over by Christmas. Now, in his major new history, Allan Mallinson, former professional soldier and author of the acclaimed 1914: Fight the Good Fight, provides answers that are disturbing as well as controversial, and have a contemporary resonance. He disputes the growing consensus among historians that British generals were not to blame for the losses and setbacks in the war to end all wars' that, given the magnitude of their task, they did as well anyone could have. He takes issue with the popular view that the amateur' opinions on strategy of politicians such as LloyTrade ReviewAllan Mallinson puts his case compellingly in a stimulating overview of the war. He combines the authority of a soldier-turned-military historian with the imaginative touch of the historical novelist. -- Lawrence James * The Times *Allan Mallinson puts his case compellingly in a stimulating overview of the war. He combines the authority of a soldier-turned-military historian with the imaginative touch of the historical novelist. -- Lawrence James * The Times *Very readable . . . excellently researched . . .a must for anyone interested in military history and the interface of political and military power; the fact that, 100 years on, historians are still in such disagreement demonstrates just how important and absorbing the debate remains. * COUNTRY LIFE *Provocative . . . succinctly summarises the big battles of the conflict, before discussing the commanders' shortcomings, which is his theme.' -- Max Hastings * SUNDAY TIMES *Mallinson . . . argues persuasively that those charged with sending men into battle should have given a better account of themselves. As the nation commemorates one of the darkest chapters in British Army history, it is hard to disagree. * SOLDIER magazine *
£11.69
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Terracotta Army
Book SynopsisThe Terracotta Army is one of the greatest, and most famous, archaeological discoveries of all time. 6,000 life-size figures of warriors and horses were interred in the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of China - each is individually carved, and they are thought to represent real members of the emperor''s army. This is the remarkable story of their creation, the man who ordered them made, their rediscovery and their continuing legacy as a pre-eminent symbol of Chinese greatness.The First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, was king of the Chinese state of Qin and the first man to unite China into a single empire. He built the first Great Wall and brought a single written script to the whole country. He was an inspired and ruthless ruler, but one also beset by paranoia and a desire for immortality. He is still considered the founding father of the modern state of China. On his death in 210 BC he was buried in a giant mausoleum near modern-day Xi''an. Legends of the treasures contained therTrade ReviewMan does for the reader that most difficult of tasks: he conjures up an ancient people in an alien landscape in such a way as to make them live. * Guardian *
£10.44
Transworld Publishers Ltd Hunting Evil The dramatic true story of the Nazi
Book SynopsisAt the end of the Second World War some of the highest ranking members of the Nazi party escaped from justice. Some of them are names that have resonated deeply in twentieth-century history - Eichmann, Mengele, Martin Bormann and Klaus Barbie - not just for the monstrosity of their crimes, but also because of the shadowy nature of their post-war existence, holed up in the depths of Latin America, always one step ahead of their pursuers. The nature of their escape was as gripping as any good thriller. They were aided and abetted by corrupt Catholic priests in the Vatican, they travelled down secret ''rat lines'', hid in foreboding castles high in the Austrian alps, and were taken in by shady Argentine secret agents. The attempts to bring them to justice are no less dramatic, with vengeful Holocaust survivors, inept politicians, and daring plots to kidnap or assassinate the fugitives. Guy Walters has travelled the world in pursuit of the real account of how the Nazis eTrade ReviewFirst-rate -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *It is gripping and well documented, and deserves a lasting place among histories of the war. * Telegraph *The stuff of thrillers ... An enthralling book and a sobering one. * Patrick Bishop *Absorbing and thoroughly gripping . . . Walters proves emphatically that the reality of Nazi hunting is far more fascinating than the myth. -- James HollandHunting Evil is a model of meticulous, courageous and pathbreaking scholarship * Literary Review *
£13.49
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Real Great Escape
Book SynopsisGuy Walters is the author of several books on the Second World War, including Hunting Evil. A former journalist on The Times, he writes widely on historical topics for the national press. He lives in Wiltshire with his wife, the author Annabel Venning, and their two children.Trade ReviewGuy Walters strips away the myths to reveal the real story behind the film and finds the truth to be no less thrilling. This is utterly compelling and once again shows there is no better investigator in this field. * James Holland *
£11.69
Ebury Publishing Wood M In Search Of The Trojan War
Book SynopsisDetailing the rediscovery in Moscow of the so-called jewels of Helen and the re-excavation of the site of Troy begun in 1988, which continues to yield new evidence about the historical city, In Search of the Trojan War takes a fresh look at some of the most excited discoveries in archaeology.
£14.24
Ebury Publishing The Domesday Quest
Book SynopsisIn 1086, Domesday Book, perhaps the most remarkable historical document in existence, was compiled. This tremendous story of England and its people was made at the behest of the Norman king William the Conqueror. It was called Domesday, the day of judgement, because ''like the day of judgement, its decisions are unalterable''. In Search of the Roots of England is not only a study of the ancient manuscript but an attempt to analyse the world that Domesday Book so vividly portrayed. By skilful use of the Domesday record historian Michael Wood examines Norman society and the Anglo-Saxon, Roman, and even the Iron Age cultures that preceded it. ''Wood is a perceptive, entertaining and enthusiastic companion.'' Sunday Times ''Wood is a lively storyteller.'' Washington Post
£14.24
Ebury Publishing Auschwitz
Book SynopsisTHE SUNDAY TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER''Superb'' ANDREW ROBERTSIn this classic book, highly acclaimed author and broadcaster Laurence Rees tells the definitive history of the most notorious Nazi institution of them all. We discover how Auschwitz evolved from a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners into the site of the largest mass murder in history - part death camp, part concentration camp, where around a million Jews were killed. Auschwitz examines the mentality and motivations of the key Nazi decision makers, and perpetrators of appalling crimes speak here for the first time about their actions. Drawing on Rees''s landmark documentary and material from the Russian archives, which challenged many previously accepted arguments, this book reveals significant and disturbing facts - from the operation of a brothel to the corruption that was rife throughout the camp.This is the story of murder, brutality, coTrade ReviewThank God that occasionally books of the stature of Laurence Rees's superb Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution are published... Fascinating. * Evening Standard *Excellent * The Independent *A key to understanding man's inhumanity to man * The Guardian *Well-written with striking testimonies from bystanders, perpetrators and victims. The interviews with SS men, and sundry European Fascists, are genuinely revealing, and must have been exceptionally difficult to negotiate * Daily Telegraph *Devastating. Rees's research is impeccable and intrepid. Ultimately he does at the gut level what Hannah Arendt achieved some 40 years ago at the level of philosophy: he forces the reader to shift the Holocaust out of the realm of nightmare or Gothic horror and acknowledge it as something all too human. Scrupulous and honest, this book is utterly without illusions * Washington Post, USA *
£11.69
Ebury Publishing Top Gear My Dad Had One of Those
Book SynopsisGiles Chapman's motoring writing has included The Independent, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, Evening Standard, Condé Nast Traveller, Auto Express, Top Gear magazine, Classic & Sports Car, and Octane. He is author of nine books, including Moving Objects, Car Badges (2005) and TV Cars (2006). He was voted Jeep Consumer Writer Of The Year, 2006.Richard Porter is script editor for BBC's Top Gear, a columnist for Evo magazine and contributing editor for Top Gear magazine. He is author of BBC Books' Crap Cars (2004).
£13.49
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) When Israel Was Young
£23.74
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) Clothing and Nudity in the Hebrew Bible
Book SynopsisChristoph Berner is Professor of Old Testament at Christian-Albrechts- Universität, Kiel, Germany.Manuel Schäfer is Assistant Lecturer in Old Testament at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.Martin Schott is Assistant Lecturer in Old Testament at Friedrich- Alexander-Universität, Erlangen- Nuremberg, Germany.Sarah Schulz is Senior Lecturer in Old Testament at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nuremberg, GermanyMartina Weingärtner is Lecturer at the Institute of Protestant Theology at the University of Augsburg, Germany.
£42.99
Faber & Faber The Sacred Wood Essays on Poetry and Criticism
Book SynopsisThis seminal book, Eliot''s first collection of literary criticism, appeared in London in 1920, two years before The Waste Land. It contains some of his most influential early essays and reviews, among them ''Tradition and the Individual Talent'', ''Hamlet and his Problems'', and Eliot''s thoughts on Marlowe, Jonson and Massinger, as well as his first tribute to Dante. Many of his most famous critical pronouncements come from the pages of The Sacred Wood.Reviewing his career as a critic in 1961 Eliot wrote that ''in my earlier criticism, both in my general affirmations about poetry and in writing about authors who influenced me, I was implicitly defending the sort of poetry that I and my friends wrote. This gave my essays a kind of urgency, the warmth of appeal of the advocate, which my later, more detached and I hope more judicial essays cannot claim.'' This urgency is still apparent more than eighty years after the essays first appeared.
£10.44
Faber & Faber Modern Greece A Short History
Book SynopsisAcclaimed for its penetration, balance and insight, Modern Greece tells the story of Greece and the Greek people from the founding of Constantinople to the late twentieth century.''Very readable, very informative.'' Sunday Times
£9.49
Faber & Faber Inventing the Victorians
Book SynopsisSuppose that everything we think we know about ''The Victorians'' is wrong? That we have persistently misrepresented the culture of the Victorian era, perhaps to make ourselves feel more satisfyingly liberal and sophisticated? What if they were much more fun than we ever suspected? Matthew Sweet''s Inventing the Victorians has some revelatory - and entertaining - answers for us. As Sweet shows us in this brilliant study, many of the concepts that strike us as terrifically new - political spin-doctoring, extravagant publicity stunts, hardcore pornography, anxieties about the impact of popular culture upon children - are Victorian inventions. Most of the pleasures that we imagine to be our own, the Victorians enjoyed first: the theme park, the shopping mall, the movies, the amusement arcade, the crime novel and the sensational newspaper report. They were engaged in a well-nigh continuous search for bigger and better thrills. If Queen Victoria wasn''t amused, then she waTrade Review'This is a profoundly stimulating and entertaining book'. D. J. Taylor, Sunday Times; 'Matthew Sweet has opened a blast of fresh air into the hothouse of Victorian studies. His book is packed with weird and wonderful information'. Spectator; 'He tells his revisionist version exceedingly well, describing a lurid thrill-seeking populace avid for sensation. Colourful characters parade through chapters that demonstrate how innovative, fast-paced, diverse and radical the era was. Sweet has turned his scholarly research through the detritus of high and low 19th-century culture into a page-turning piece of pop-culture history... A darned good read, and no mistake,' Big Issue
£10.44
Faber & Faber Edmonds D Bobby Fischer Goes to War
Book SynopsisPERFECT FOR FANS OF NETFLIX''S THE QUEEN''S GAMBIT''Gripping.'' SUNDAY TIMES''Pure drama.''INDEPENDENT''Compelling.''NEW YORK TIMESBobby Fischer Goes to War by David Edmonds and John Eidinow details the occasion when Bobby Fischer met Boris Spassky in one of the most thrilling and politically charged chess matches of all time.For decades, the USSR had dominated world chess. Evidence, according to Moscow, of the superiority of the Soviet system. But in 1972 along came the American, Bobby Fischer: insolent, arrogant, abusive, vain, greedy, vulgar, bigoted, paranoid and obsessive and apparently unstoppable.Against him was Boris Spassky: complex, sensitive, the most un-Soviet of champions. As the authors reveal, when Spassky began to lose, the KGB decided to step in. . .
£10.44
Faber & Faber The Lunar Men The Friends Who Made the Future
Book SynopsisLed by Erasmus Darwin, the Lunar Society of Birmingham was formed from a group of amateur experimenters, tradesmen and artisans who met and made friends in the Midlands in the 1760s. Most came from humble families, all lived far from the centre of things, but they were young and their optimism was boundless: together they would change the world. Among them were the ambitious toy-maker Matthew Boulton and his partner James Watt, of steam-engine fame; the potter Josiah Wedgwood; the larger-than-life Erasmus Darwin, physician, poet, inventor and theorist of evolution (a forerunner of his grandson Charles Darwin). Later came Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen and fighting radical. Led by Erasmus Darwin they joined a small band of allies, formed the Lunar Society of Birmingham (so called because it met at each full moon) and kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Blending science, art, and commerce, the Lunar Men built canals, launched balloons, named plants, gases and miner
£999.99
Faber & Faber The Queens Agent
Book SynopsisElizabeth I came to the throne at a time of insecurity and unrest. Rivals threatened her reign; England was a Protestant island, isolated in a sea of Catholic countries. Spain plotted an invasion, but Elizabeth''s Secretary, Francis Walsingham, was prepared to do whatever it took to protect her.He ran a network of agents in England and Europe who provided him with information about invasions or assassination plots. He recruited likely young men and ''turned'' others. He encourage Elizabeth to make war against the Catholic Irish rebels, with extreme brutality and oversaw the execution of Mary Queen of Scots.The Queen''s Agent is a story of secret agents, cryptic codes and ingenious plots, set in a turbulent period of England''s history. It is also the story of a man devoted to his queen, sacrificing his every waking hour to save the threatened English state.
£12.34
Faber & Faber Gods Executioner
Book SynopsisCromwell spent only nine months of his eventful life in Ireland, yet he stands accused there of war crimes, religious persecution and ethnic cleansing. In a century of unrelenting, bloody warfare and religious persecution throughout Europe, Cromwell was, in many ways, a product of his times. As commander-in-chief of the army in Ireland, however, the responsibilities for the excesses of the military must be laid firmly at his door, while the harsh nature of the post-war settlement also bears his personal imprint. A warrior of Christ, somewhat like the crusaders of medieval Europe, he acted as God''s executioner, convinced throughout the horrors of the legitimacy of his cause, and striving to build a better world for the chosen few.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Hawkwood Diabolical Englishman
Book SynopsisThe hugely acclaimed, best-selling life of Hawkwood, one of the outstanding figures of English and European history. John Hawkwood was an Essex man who became the greatest mercenary in an age when soldiers of fortune flourished - an age that also witnessed the first stirrings of the Renaissance. When England made a peace treaty with the French in 1360, during a pause in the Hundred Years War, John Hawkwood, instead of going home, travelled south to Avignon, where the papacy was based during its exile from Rome. He and his fellow mercenaries held the pope to ransom and were paid off. Hawkwood then crossed the Alps into Italy and found himself in a promised land: he made and lost fortunes extorting money from city states like Florence, Siena, and Milan, who were fighting vicious wars between themselves and against the popes. This man of war husbanded his use of violence, but for all his caution he committed one of the most notorious massacres of his time - an atrocity Trade Review"'Superb and quite unputdownable... Addictively readable, handsomely produced and compellingly intelligent' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times"
£12.34
Faber & Faber That Neutral Island
Book SynopsisOf the countries that remained neutral during the Second World War, none was more controversial than Ireland, with accusations of betrayal and hypocrisy poisoning the media. Whereas previous histories of Ireland in the war years have focused on high politics, That Neutral Island brings to life the atmosphere of a country forced to live under rationing, heavy censorship and the threat of invasion. It unearths the motivations of those thousands who left Ireland to fight in the British forces and shows how ordinary people tried to make sense of the Nazi threat through the lens of antagonism towards Britain.Trade Review"'Revelatory.' Irish Times"
£13.49
Faber & Faber Storm and Conquest
Book SynopsisThe Indian Ocean, 1809. At stake: Britain''s commercial lifeline to India and naval supremacy. In one fatal season, the natural order of maritime power since Trafalgar was destroyed. Storm and Conquest brings together the terrifying ordeal of men, women and children caught at sea in hurricanes, and those who survived to drive the French from the Eastern seas. All shared a need to prove themselves - to make a career, or a fortune, or a marriage - in places which could be at once magnificent and terrifying.
£11.69
Faber & Faber The Dead Yard
Book SynopsisJamaica used to be the source of much of Britain''s wealth, a tropical paradise for the planters, a Babylonian exile for the Africans shipped to the Caribbean. It became independent in 1962.Jamaica is now a country in despair. It has become a cockpit of gang warfare, drug crime and poverty. Haunted by the legacy of imperialism, its social and racial divisions seem entrenched. Its extraordinary musical tradition and physical beauty are shadowed by casual murder, police brutality and political corruption.Ian Thomson shows a side of Jamaica that tourists rarely see.He met ordinary Jamaicans in their homes and workplaces; and his encounters with the white elite, who still own most of Jamaica''s businesses and newspapers, are unforgettable. Thomson brings alive the country''s unique racial and ethnic mix; the all-pervading influence of the USA; and the increasing disillusionment felt by its people, who can''t rely on the state for their most basic security. At the heart o
£10.44
Faber & Faber Isabella deMedici The Glorious Life and Tragic
Book SynopsisIsabella de'' Medici was the hostess of a glittering circle in Renaissance Florence. Beautiful and liberated, she not only matched the intellectual accomplishments of her male contemporaries, but sought sexual parity also, engaging in an adulterous affair with her husband''s cousin. It was this affair - and her very success as First Lady of Florence - that led to her death at the hands of her husband at the age of just thirty-four. She left behind a remarkable story, and as her legacy a son who became the best of the Orsini Dukes, immortalised by Shakespeare as Duke Orsino in Twelfth Night. Caroline P. Murphy illuminates this often misunderstood figure, and in the process brings to life the home of creativity, the city of Florence itself.
£11.69
Faber & Faber The Assassins Gate
Book SynopsisThe Assassins'' Gate recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. The consequences of that policy are shown in the author''s vivid reporting on the ground in Iraq, where he made several tours on assignment for The New Yorker. We see up close the struggles of individual American soldiers and civilians and Iraqis from all backgrounds. Here is the full range of ideas and emotions stirred up by America''s most controversial foreign-policy venture since Vietnam.Trade Review"* probably the most valuable book about the lead-up to the war, and the period before the Iraqi election of January 2005 - The Times * informative and lively... An excellent reporter, Packer emerges as one of the few Western journalists who developed a feel for Iraq. - Mail on Sunday * absorbing... It's a riveting tale of mixed motives, willful connivance, skewed ideology and sheer incompetence... Meanwhile, the invasion of Irq seems to defy analysis, although Pakcer does an excellend job here. He has trodden the dusty ground, talking to countless Iraqis, and he knows how awful Saddam really was. - Guardian * Packer's strengths in telling this story are fastidious research and his parallel career as a novelist... he is drawn to the intimacy of human experience... He is an intellectual too but, unlike most of the Iraq war intellectuals, Packer came to Iraq burdened neither by the rigid certainties of the pro-war camp, not the absolutism of the anti-war camp... Instead, Packer admits he was an ambivalently pro-war liberal. And it is exactly this sense of ambivalence... that allows him to cross-examine so powerfully what unravelled in Iraq. - Observer"
£12.34
Faber & Faber Bring the Noise
Book SynopsisFrom Morrissey and Nick Cave to The Streets and Kanye West, this is the book that explores the links between hip-hop and rock. Reynolds has focused on two strands: white alternative rock and black street music. He''s identified the strange dance of white bohemian rock and black culture, how they come together at various points and then go their own way. Through interviews he has carried out as a top music journalist for the last twenty years Reynolds is here able to tell a story of musical rivalry which no-one has told before.The approach is similar to Rip It Up and Start Again: a cultural history told through the music we love and the stars and movements that have shaped the world we live in.
£17.00
Faber & Faber Family Romance A Memoir
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.
£12.34
Faber & Faber Tremlett G Catherine of Aragon
Book SynopsisThe image of Catherine of Aragon has always suffered in comparison to the heir-providing Jane Seymour or the vivacious eroticism of Anne Boleyn. But when Henry VIII married Catherine, she was an auburn-haired beauty in her twenties with a passion she had inherited from her parents, Isabella and Ferdinand, the joint-rulers of Spain who had driven the Moors from their country.This daughter of conquistadors showed the same steel and sense of command when organising the defeat of the Scots at the Battle of Flodden and Henry was to learn, to his cost, that he had not met a tougher opponent on or off the battlefield when he tried to divorce her.Henry VIII introduced four remarkable women into the tumultuous flow of England''s history: Catherine of Aragon and her daughter ''Bloody'' Queen Mary; and Anne Boleyn and her daughter, the Virgin Queen Elizabeth. ''From this contest, between two mothers and two daughters, was born the religious passion and violence that inflamed England for centuries,'' says David Starkey. Reformation, revolution and Tudor history would all have been vastly different without Catherine of Aragon.Giles Tremlett''s new biography is the first in more than four decades to be dedicated entirely and uniquely to the tenacious woman whose marriage lasted twice as long as those of Henry''s five other wives put together. It draws on fresh material from Spain to trace the dramatic events of her life through Catherine of Aragon''s own eyes. ''Enthralling biography . . . this lively and richly detailed book . . . describing the queen''s fierce battle to retain her crown, Tremlett brilliantly breathes life into the shadowy figure of a stubborn and finally heroic woman.'' Daily Telegraph
£13.49
Faber & Faber Contested Will
Book SynopsisFor two hundred years after William Shakespeare''s death, no one thought to argue that somebody else had written his plays. Since then dozens of rival candidates - including The Earl of Oxford, Sir Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe - have been proposed as their true author. Contested Will unravels the mystery of when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote the plays (among them such leading writers and artists as Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Mark Twain, Helen Keller, Orson Welles, and Sir Derek Jacobi)Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro''s fascinating search for the source of this controversy retraces a path strewn with fabricated documents, calls for trials, false claimants, concealed identity, bald-faced deception and a failure to grasp what could not be imagined. If Contested Will does not end the authorship question once and for all, it will nonetheless irrevocably change the nature of the debate by confronting what''s re
£12.34
Faber & Faber When God Made Hell The British Invasion of
Book SynopsisSince 2003, Iraq has rarely left the headlines. But less discussed is the fact that Iraq as we know it was created by the British, in one of the most dramatic interventions in recent history. A cautious strategic invasion by British forces led - within seven years - to imperial expansion on a dizzying scale, with fateful consequences for the Middle East and the world. In When God Made Hell, Charles Townshend charts Britain''s path from one of its worst military disasters to extraordinary success with largely unintended consequences, through overconfidence, incompetence and dangerously vague policy. With monumental research and exceptionally vivid accounts of on-the-ground warfare, this a truly gripping account of the Mesopotamia campaign, and its place in the wider political and international context. For anyone seeking to understand the roots of British involvement in Iraq, it is essential reading.
£13.49
Faber & Faber Molotovs Magic Lantern
Book SynopsisWhen Rachel Polonsky went to live in Moscow, she found an apartment block in Romanov Street, once a residence of the Soviet elite. One of those ghostly neighbours was Stalin''s henchman Vyacheslav Molotov. In his former apartment, Rachel Polonsky discovered his library and an old magic lantern. Molotov - ruthless apparatchik, participant in the collectivizations and the Great Purge - was also an ardent bibliophile.Molotov''s library and his magic lantern became the prisms through which Rachel Polonsky renewed her vision of Russia. She visited cities and landscapes associated with the books in the library - Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Akhmatova and many less well-known figures. Some were sent to the Gulag by the man who collected their books.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Keeping Up With the Germans A History of
Book SynopsisIn 1996, in the middle of watching an ill-tempered football match between England and Germany, Philip Oltermann''s parents tell him that they are going to leave their home city Hamburg behind and move to London.Inspired by his own experience of both countries, Philip Oltermann looks at eight historical encounters between English and German people from the last two hundred years: Helmut Kohl tries to explain German cuisine to the Iron Lady, the Mini plays catch-up with the Volkswagen Beetle, and Joe Strummer has an unlikely brush with the Baader-Meinhof gang.Keeping Up with the Germans is a witty look at the lighter-side of Anglo-German relations over the last 100 years.
£11.69
Faber & Faber The Other Paris
Book SynopsisParis, the City of Light, the city of fine dining, seductive couture and intellectual hauteur, was until fairly recently always accompanied by its shadow: the city of the poor, the outcast, the criminal, the eccentric, the wilfully nonconforming. In The Other Paris, Luc Sante gives us a panoramic view of that second metropolis, whose traces are in the bricks and stones of the contemporary city, and in the culture of France itself. Richly illustrated with over three hundred images, The Other Paris reclaims the city from the modern bon vivants and speculators; scuttling through the knotted streets, through the whorehouses and dance halls, the knock-out shops and hobo shelters of the old city.
£17.00
Faber & Faber Bitter Freedom Ireland In A Revolutionary World
Book SynopsisThe Irish Revolution - the war between the British authorities and the newly-formed IRA - was the first successful revolt anywhere against the British Empire. This is a vividly-written, compelling narrative placing events in Ireland in the wider context of a world in turmoil after the ending of a global war: one that saw the collapse of empires and the rise of fascist Italy and communist Russia. Walsh shows how developments in Europe and America had a profound effect on Ireland, influencing the attitudes and expectations of combatants and civilians. Walsh also brings to life what Irish people who were not fully involved in the fighting were doing - the plays they went to, the exciting films they watched in the new cinemas, the books they read and the work they did. The freedom from Britain that most of them wanted was, when it came, a bitter disappointment to a generation aware of the promise of modernity.
£13.49
Faber & Faber Jeal T Explorers of the Nile
Book SynopsisBetween 1856 and 1876, five explorers, all British, took on the seemingly impossible task of discovering the source of the White Nile. Showing exceptional courage and extraordinary resilience, Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, Samuel Baker, David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley risked their lives and their reputations in the name of this quest. They journeyed through East and Central Africa into unmapped territory, discovered the great lakes Tanganyika and Victoria, navigated the upper Nile and the Congo, and suffered the ravages of flesh-eating ulcers, malaria and deep spear wounds. Using new research, Tim Jeal tells the story of these great expeditions, while also examining the tragic consequences which the Nile search has had on Uganda and Sudan to this day.Explorers of the Nile is a gripping adventure story with an arresting analysis of Britain''s imperial past and the Scramble for Africa.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Ship of Fools
Book SynopsisFor twenty years, Ireland''s economic miracle was supposed to be the envy of the world. Low taxes, light regulation and an ''anything goes'' attitude seemed to have created boundless prosperity. And then, as in Iceland, the glittering palaces vanished in the heat of the global financial meltdown. For years, those with economic power had been investing in a gigantic property bubble.In Ship of Fools Fintan O''Toole tells the story of this dizzying rise and sickening fall. Ireland may have had a tiger economy, but those in charge of it had not lost their taste for sweetheart deals, back-handers and bribery. This is the essential analysis of Ireland''s economic suicide.
£11.69
Faber & Faber My Fathers Fortune A Life
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
£11.39
Faber & Faber Ban This Filth
Book SynopsisIn 1964, Mary Whitehouse launched a campaign to fight what she called the ''propaganda of disbelief, doubt and dirt'' being poured into homes through the nation''s radio and television sets. Whitehouse, senior mistress at a Shropshire secondary school, became the unlikely figurehead of a mass movement for censorship: the National Viewers'' and Listeners'' Association, now Mediawatch-uk.For almost forty years, she kept up the fight against the programme makers, politicians, pop stars and playwrights who she felt were dragging British culture into a sewer of blasphemy and obscenity. From Doctor Who (''Teatime brutality for tots'') to Dennis Potter (whose mother sued her for libel and won) to the Beatles - whose Magical Mystery Tour escaped her intervention by the skin of its psychedelic teeth - the list of Mary Whitehouse''s targets will read to some like a nostalgic roll of honour.Caricatured while she lived as a figure of middle-brow reaction, Mary Whitehouse was held in contempt by the country''s intellectual elite. But were some of the dangers she warned of more real than they imagined? Ben Thompson''s selection of material from her extraordinary archive shows Mary Whitehouse''s legacy in a startling new light. From her exquisitely testy exchanges with successive BBC Directors General, to the anguished screeds penned by her television and radio vigilantes, these letters reveal a complex and combative individual, whose anxieties about culture and morality are often eerily relevant to the age of the internet. ''A fantastic read . . . I can''t recommend it highly enough.'' Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 6 Music
£13.49
Faber & Faber Sandstorm
Book SynopsisThe overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi has been one of the twenty-first century''s defining moments: the Arab world''s most bizarre dictator brought down by his own people with the aid of NATO aircraft. Lindsey Hilsum was in Libya when Gaddafi met his squalid end. She traces the history of his strange regime from its beginnings - when Gaddafi had looks, charisma and popular appeal - to its paranoid, corrupt final state. At the heart of her book, however, is a brilliant narrative of Libyan people overcoming fear and disillusionment and finding the strength to rebel. Hilsum follows five of them through the terror and tragedy. This is the story of modern Libyan as it was lived, from the excesses of dictatorship to violent revolution. Sandstorm will take its place in a library of classic books about turning points of history.
£11.69
Faber & Faber Pax Britannica Pax Britannica 2
Book SynopsisThe second instalment of the Pax Britannica Trilogy by Jan Morris, recreates the British Empire at its dazzling climax - the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, celebrated as a festival of imperial strength, unity, and splendour. This classic work of history portrays a nation at the very height of its vigour and self-satisfaction, imposing on the rest of the world its traditions and tastes, its idealists and rascals. The Pax Britannica Trilogy also includes Heaven''s Command: An Imperial Progress and Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat. Together these three works of history trace the dramatic rise and fall of the British Empire, from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. Jan Morris is world-renowned for her collection of travel writing and reportage, spanning over five decades and including such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, A Writ
£11.69
Faber & Faber Napoleon Volume 2 The Spirit of the Age
Book SynopsisMasterly.' Daily Mail Stunning.' History TodayMagnificent.' Literary ReviewNapoleon's life reached its most extraordinary stage between 1805 and 1810. At war with Britain, Russia, and Austria, he unleashed his magnificent Grande Armée. The first resounding victory at Austerlitz was followed by a whirlwind of campaigns, and by 1810 he had divorced Josephine in order to marry the daughter of the Austrian Emperor. The Spirit of the Age illustrates in vivid detail the five years in which Napoleon appeared to be invincible.
£15.29
Faber & Faber Eamon de Valera
Book SynopsisÉamon de Valera is the most remarkable man in the history of modern Ireland. Much as Churchill personified British resistance to Hitler and de Gaulle personified the freedom of France, de Valera personified Irish independence.
£11.69
Faber & Faber 1956 The World in Revolt
Book SynopsisPopular uprisings in Poland and Hungary shake Moscow''s hold on its eastern European empire. Across the American South, and in the Union of South Africa, black people risk their livelihoods, and their lives, in the struggle to dismantle institutionalised white supremacy and secure first-class citizenship. France and Britain, already battling anti-colonial insurgencies in Algeria and Cyprus, now face the humiliation of Suez. Meanwhile, in Cuba, Fidel Castro and his band of rebels take to the Sierra Maestra to plot the overthrow of a dictator... 1956 was one of the most remarkable years of the twentieth century. All across the globe, ordinary people spoke out, filled the streets and city squares, and took up arms in an attempt to win their freedom. In response to these unprecedented challenges to their authority, those in power fought back, in a desperate bid to shore up their position. It was an epic contest, and one which made 1956 - like 1789 and
£13.49
Faber & Faber Iconicon
Book SynopsisA captivating exploration of Britain's most iconic contemporary buildings, from the Barratt home to the Millennium Dome.***TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK*** ''A punchy polemic ... Highly readable.''''A love letter to contemporary buildings and a fantastic account of recent British history, rich in humour.'' NINA STIBBE''Brilliant, encyclopaedic, funny and often cutting.'' DANNY DORLINGAn eloquent, witty, passionate tour of Britain since the 1980s.' JOHN BOUGHTON''Recounts the stories of our lived landscapes with wit, passion and a shot of anger.' TOM DYCKHOFF''Grindrod has spoken to everyone and his observations are humane and acute.'' OWEN HATHERLEYWimpey homes. Millennium monuments. Riverside flats. Wind farms. Spectacular skyscrapers. City centre apartments. Out of town malls.The buildings designed in our lifetimes encapsulate the dreams and aspirations of our culture, while alsTrade Review'Wonderful . . . a new way of looking at modern Britain.', Independent on Sunday, on CONCRETOPIA'About the best history of the intersection of post-war architecture and politics that you could hope for.', Owen Hatherley, on CONCRETOPIA
£10.44
Faber & Faber Walls
Book SynopsisFor thousands of years, humans have built walls and assaulted them, admired walls and reviled them. Great Walls have appeared on nearly every continent, accompanying the rise of cities, nations, and empires. In Walls, David Frye uncovers a story that is more than just bricks and stone: he reveals the startling link between what we build and how we live, who we are and how we came to be. It is nothing less than the story of civilization.
£11.69
Faber & Faber The Rising Down
Book SynopsisRemarkable.' THE TIMES''Wonderful.' GUARDIAN''Fascinating.'' TELEGRAPH''As a portrait of a place, it's hard to better.' COUNTRY LIFE''A thrill akin to discovering buried treasure.'' RICHARD MABEY''Humane, humorous and joyful.'' RUTH SCURRWhen the celebrated critic and cultural historian Alexandra Harris returned to her childhood home of West Sussex, she realised that she barely knew the place at all. As she probed beneath the surface, excavating layers of archival records and everyday objects bringing a lifetime''s reading to bear on the place where she started hundreds of unexpected stories and hypnotic voices emerged from the area's past. Who has stood here, she asks; what did they see? From the painter John Constable and the modernist writer Ford Madox Ford to the lost local women who left little trace, these electrifying encounters spanning the Downs, Poland, Australia, Canada - insp
£21.25
Faber & Faber Exiles
Book SynopsisA luminous exploration of exile the people who have experienced it, and the places they inhabit from the award-winning travel writer and author of The Immeasurable World and The Moor. ''Breathtakingly good . . . Exiles is completely sui generis.''EDMUND DE WAAL''Atkins spins a marvellous tapestry of colourful tales, beautifully weaving history and travel accounts.''ANDREA WULF, author of The Invention of Nature''A volume for our times.''SARA WHEELER, THE SPECTATOR''A fascinating study of exile and its effects.''OBSERVERThis is the story of three unheralded nineteenth-century dissidents, whose lives were profoundly shaped by the winds of empire, nationalism and autocracy that continue to blow strongly today: Louise Michel, a leader of the radical socialist government known as the Paris Commune; Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo,
£10.44
Faber & Faber Ten Days in Harlem
Book SynopsisRising star Simon Hall captures the spirit of the 1960s in ten days that revolutionised the Cold War: Fidel Castro''s visit to New York.With its cool judgements and blackly comic sense of irony, Hall's book is a rare pleasure to read.'DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Literary Review''A lively account . . . Ten Days in Harlem doesn''t stint on piquant detail.''LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS''[A] perceptive, thoroughly researched and readable study.''IRISH TIMESNew York City, September 1960. Fidel Castro - champion of the oppressed, scourge of colonialism, and leftist revolutionary arrives for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. His visit to the UN represents a golden opportunity to make his mark on the world stage.Fidel's shock arrival in Harlem is met with a rapturous reception from the local African American community. He holds court from the iconic Hotel Theresa as a succession o
£9.99
Faber & Faber You Goddess
Book Synopsis''What guts. What attitude! These are the immortals I wish I'd learned about at school.''OLIVIA COLMAN Channel the feminist power of mythical goddesses in this witty, inspirational gift book. ''Wonderful.'' CERYS MATTHEWSWhether it's the Norse warrior goddess Freya breaking all the rules, the Yoruba goddess Oshun being unafraid to ask for what she's owed, or the Japanese goddess Uzume finding humour and playfulness in even the most embarrassing of situations: this fierce and fantastic tour of 25 ancient deities reclaims these feminist icons for a new generation.Why settle for mere mortal excellence when you could be living like a goddess?Divinely illustrated by Georgia Perry, You Goddess! will help you conquer today's world.
£9.49
Faber & Faber The Passengers
Book SynopsisAn original and profound portrait of contemporary Britain told through the testimonies of its inhabitants.''A spectacularly enjoyable and compelling reading experience . . . funny, moving, surprising and thought-provoking. It humanises literature in this toxic moment.''MAX PORTER, author of Lanny''Seemingly simple yet so deeply profound, The Passengers is an absorbing insight into the lives and minds of so-called ordinary people: their hopes and fears and idiosyncrasies at a specific moment in time.''CLIO BARNARD, director of Ali & Ava and The Essex Serpent''A nation's psyche comes to the surface. The Passengers is not just an oral history of the contemporary moment but, drenched in mood and texture, renders the country itself as a sonic collage.''SUKHDEV SANDHU, GUARDIANBetween October 2018 and March 2021, Will Ashon collected voices people talking
£9.49
