History Books

Book SynopsisSaturnine and quick-tempered, the formidable North Sea is often overlooked even by those living within a stone's throw of its steel-grey waters. But as playground, theatre of war and cultural crossing-point, it has shaped the world in myriad ways, forged villains and heroes, and determined the fates of nations. It's not all grim, though: the seaside holiday was born on North Sea beaches, and artists, poets and writers have been as equally inspired by glinting sun on the wave-tops as they have the drama of a winter storm. With a wry eye and a warm coat, Tom Blass travels the edges of the North Sea meeting fishermen, artists, bomb disposal experts, burgermeisters and those who have found themselves flung to the sea's perimeters quite by chance. In doing so he attempts to piece together its manifold histories and to reveal truths, half-truths and fictions otherwise submerged...Trade ReviewTom Blass's The Naked Shore is a wonderfully bracing journey around the North Sea. His gaze misses nothing, and his robust prose glitters with story and lore and surprise -- Philip Marsden, author of 'Rising Ground'The sunless subject of the narrative, which threatens to be monotonous, turns out of be almost kaleidoscopically varied ... Blass opens the performance with a virtuoso summary of its history ... Terrifically enjoyable -- Jan Morris * Literary Review *The more I read the more I loved it, precisely because the subject is so slippery between the fingers. Because this is not the rocky definable obvious romanticism of the Atlantic shore, is it, but something much subtler and shiftier and siltier than that: islands which are the remains of half eroded polders, Europe's edgelands, where definitions are scarcely available and lives are half forgotten, a world of marginalia filled with half identities and half histories, leftover stories and arbitrary distinctions. What is lovely about this book is the patience and confidence with which he slowly unfolds his chosen, cold, muddy, delicate world, the shards and twigs and lumps of peat, the social distinctions that do or don't matter, the lives of the herring and the fishermen who long for them, the encountered realities, all conveyed wittily, modestly, lightly, melancholically, full of brilliant findings and unforgettable rediscovered octopussies. The whole book I felt at the end is like a beach which he has strolled along with such a generous eye picking up all the disregarded things that took his fancy. So bravo! Such a good way of conveying the nature of the thing he has explored through the manner of writing about it. Nothing imposed; everything seen for what it is. Above all, you end up really liking him -- Adam NicolsonRich, illuminating and enjoyable ... Blass’s attentiveness and curiosity are such that you are seldom a few pages from encountering an invigorating detail. An arresting fact. Or fantastical coast dwellers and obscure communities. There is much to savour ... An invigorating and atmospheric account of a world that is central to our identity, and it is to Blass’s credit that he keeps its own true nature hovering somewhere only just out of view. * Observer *Blass writes sentences that soar ... He has done enough poking and nuzzling around its waters to make a good effort at giving this dour, dramatic sea is vast, multilingual, beguiling due. * Guardian *Who would have thought that a book about a treacherous expanse of freezing, grey-green water, feared by mariners through the centuries, could turn out to be such a delight? A large and colourful cast of characters marches through the book * Daily Mail *In a wonderfully English way ... Tom Blass zigzags from the Thames Estuary via the British and continental coasts to Shetland, journeying to the desolate edges ... He champions a subtlety of vision, a determination to discern the marvellous in the unprepossessing ... Blass traces telling historical patterns ... Blass’s descriptions of them are a great pleasure in what becomes a fine travel book ... If neither he nor the reader falls for the subject of The Naked Shore, its details reveal a sea bordered here and there by worlds brightly unexpected and transporting -- Horatio Clare * Daily Telegraph *Captivating ... Rich, evocative prose ... The Naked Shore vividly describes some of the wildest, windswept corners of the North Sea and its remote coastal communities ... Part travelogue, part history book and part anthropological study, Blass’s intensely rewarding memoir succeeds in scattering some light into the North Sea’s cold and murky depths, revealing both its wonders and its indivisible relationship with humanity. * Independent *Tom Blass’ riveting new book, The Naked Shore, is so extremely good that we hope it will bring a warmth and richness to your early spring reading. That said, you’ll probably want to dive into this fabulous account somewhere indoors rather than settling down on a blustery beach -- Non-fiction Book of the Month * Guardian *A hugely enjoyable anti-tour, and a wonderful eulogy to an implacable ocean -- Joanna Kavenna * Times Literary Supplement *‘This book records the ambiguous charm of estuaries, discovers the link between herring and sterling, tells strange tales of the Half-Islands and transforms the chilly Northern waters into a realm of mystery and intrigue’ * Daily Mail *

Read more less

Book SynopsisMecca is the heart of Islam. It is the birthplace of Muhammad, the direction towards which Muslims turn when they pray and the site of pilgrimage which annually draws some three million Muslims from all corners of the world. Yet Mecca's importance goes beyond religion. What happens in Mecca and how Muslims think about the political and cultural history of Mecca has had and continues to have a profound influence on world events to this day. In this captivating book, Ziauddin Sardar unravels the significance of Mecca. Tracing its history, from its origins as a barren valley' in the desert to its evolution as a trading town and sudden emergence as the religious centre of a world empire, Sardar examines the religious struggles and rebellions in Mecca that have powerfully shaped Muslim culture. Interweaving stories of his own pilgrimages to Mecca with those of others, Sardar offers a unique insight into not just the spiritual aspects of Mecca the passion, ecstasy and longing itTrade ReviewOne of the best-known Muslim public intellectuals in the world today ... A pioneering writer on Islam * Guardian on Muhammad: All that Matters *Sardar is funny, self-deprecating and humble … One of the wittiest intellectual figures commenting on Islam * Islamic Voice on Muhammad: All that Matters *Britain’s own Muslim polymath * Independent *Readers of Mecca may at times feel they are still accompanying Sardar on his journey as a sceptical Muslim; mostly, they will sense a wide ranging intellectual engagement with a city that has been one of the world’s most important over the last one and a half millennia. In his hands they can appraise how this long history connects with the predicament facing his fellow believers in the world today. -- Geoffrey Nash * ASTENE Bulletin *Ziauddin Sardar’s poignant book Mecca: The Sacred City, describes the desecration of Islam’s holiest site -- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown * Independent *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Hugely enjoyable'' - Kathryn Hughes, GuardianGlorious ... Full of eyebrow-raising and laughter-inducing vignettes'' - Daily TelegraphServants is the social history of the last century through the eyes of those who served. From the butler, the footman, the maid and the cook of 1900 to the au pairs, cleaners and childminders who took their place seventy years later, a previously unheard class offers a fresh perspective on a dramatic century. Here, the voices of servants and domestic staff are at last brought to life: their daily household routines, attitudes towards their employers, and to each other, throw into sharp and intimate relief the period of feverish social change through which they lived. Sweeping in its scope, extensively researched and brilliantly observed, Servants is an original and fascinating portrait of twentieth-century Britain; an authoritative history that will change and challenge the way we look at society.Trade ReviewHugely enjoyable ... a richly textured account of what it felt like to spend the decades of high modernity on your knees with a dustpan and brush ... an excellent addition to the history of domestic service in the 20th century ... Where Servants excels is in describing those placed where the older paradigms of domestic service, inherited from the late 19th century, began to break down -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *Delightfully well-written ... scrupulously even-handed ... Hats off to Lethbridge for so touchingly and comprehensively chronicling those lives that history, like the snootiest of employers, has neglected for so long -- Craig Brown * The Mail on Sunday *Glorious ... Full of eyebrow-raising and laughter-inducing vignettes. But what is most fascinating is Lethbridge’s account of the dark side of the master-servant relationship * Daily Telegraph *Beautifully written, sparkling with insight, and a pleasure to read, Servants is social history at its most humane and perceptive. In broad terms, the world Lethbridge describes is a familiar one, but she nails it all down with the kind of detail that still has the power to astonish, outrage or amuse * Times Literary Supplement *Scholarly, thorough and vastly entertaining ... Lethbridge's style is elegant, detached and slyly witty, and her canvas sprawling and immense * Financial Times *Enthusiasts of bonnets and waistcoats will find Upstairs Downstairs or Downton Abbey all the more enjoyable after reading this nuanced and elegantly written account of the wider context. And in tracing the history of servants throughout the whole of the 20th century, Lethbridge offers a new vantage point from which to reassess British social history -- Lara Feigel * Observer *Humane, perceptive and dispassionate, Servants takes us more deeply and comprehensively than any previous account into the real world of Upstairs Downstairs -- David KynastonAbsorbing ... Lethbridge enables us to hear the voices of her subjects; she skilfully interweaves written and oral testimony ... Empathetic, wide-ranging and well-written * Spectator *Engrossing * Sunday Telegraph *Enlightening and elegantly written social history -- Joy Lo Dico * Independent on Sunday *Enthralling ... Lethbridge shows that the history of life below stairs is just as interesting as the story of life above them * Tatler *Excellent social history ... Anyone who longs to believe Downton Abbey’s comforting portrayal of life below stairs will emerge from its pages disabused of such sentimental notions * Daily Mail *Thoroughly researched and tremendously entertaining ... Illustrated with a host of terrific anecdotes * Sunday Times *Meticulously researched ... It makes a grand sweep, covering a rich swathe of social history which Lethbridge unpicks with delicacy, humanity and humour ... Lethbridge shows how complex and varied the relationship between servant and master could be * The Tablet *Comprehensively reached and charmingly engaging, Servants is a sensitive, humane and penetrating insight into British society * Western Morning News *Absorbing history ... Telling their story so fully and humanely * Economist *Fascinating * Independent *The stories are reminiscent of below-stairs life as depicted in TV’s Downton Abbey * Jewish Chronicle *Neither snobbish nor socialist, Lethbridge has produced a sympathetic and affectionate study, laced with invigorating anecdotes * Intelligent Life *By no means the standard Downton Abbey cash-in. Instead, a brilliantly researched and often eye-opening account of twentieth-century life below stairs * Reader's Digest *Excellent, thoroughly researched -- Paul Bailey * The Oldie *Comprehensive * Good Book Guide *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe second volume of a new and comprehensive biography about one of the history''s most charismatic leaders''a very fine book, which explains Napoleon's extraordinary rise to power and equally meteoric fall, with great erudition, skill and verve'' Spectator''Exemplary scholarship ... A book of meticulous research and beautifully detailed descriptions of Napoleon's military adventures, brings home the full horrific cost of the march on Russia'' New Statesman''Napoleon''s legend is so persistent that it confounds the historical reality in the popular imagination. He himself contributed much towards the construction of his own myth, from his youth even until after he fell from power, when, while in exile, he dictated his memoirs to a group of disciples who took down his every word in the hope that his version of history would prevail. Such were Napoleon''s skills as a chronicler that much of the legend is still unquestioningly accepted..Trade ReviewFive books about wars impressed me this year: Roger Knight’s immaculately researched Britain against Napoleon: the Organisation of Victory 1793-1815; Philip Dwyer’s Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power 1799-1815 which gives, in depth, the other side of that coin * Simon Heffer, New Statesman Books of the Year *The main purpose of the concluding volume of Dwyer’s life of Napoleon is not to explain why he became such a revered general, but rather to unpick his complex character and asses his political and military achievements. He succeeds brilliantly and we are left with a nuanced portrait of a ruthless and far from infallible leader who concealed his defeats, exaggerated his victories and blamed other for his failings ... Philip Dwyer has produced a fitting sequel to his early life of Napoleon Bonaparte that will be hard to emulate. What it lacks in battlefield colour it more than makes up for by its subtle and judicious assessment of Napoleon the man and Napoleon the politician * Literary Review *He is very good on the tensions and rows ripping through the Bonaparte family, which was such an important element in the whole enterprise. Here, as everywhere, he produces nice detail and the telling anecdote ... a very fine book, which explains Napoleon’s extraordinary rise to power and equally meteoric fall, with great erudition, skill and verve * Adam Zamoyski, Spectator *Exemplary scholarship ... A book of meticulous research and beautifully detailed descriptions of Napoleon’s military adventures, brings home the full horrific cost of the march on Russia * New Statesman *When he came to power in 1799, Napoleon famously announced that he was “completing” the French revolution and, in so doing, “ending” it. This tension between the radical aims of the revolution and society’s yearning for stability runs through Dwyer’s splendid second volume of his biography * The Times *

Read more less

Book Synopsis*FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH*''I really can''t recommend this enough - especially if you are going on holiday'' Tom Holland''Delightful ... Lucy Lethbridge has written a glorious romp of a book'' Kathryn Hughes, The Mail on SundayIt is the paramount wish of every English heart, ever addicted to vagabondizing, to hasten to the Continent'In 1815 the Battle of Waterloo brought to an end the Napoleonic Wars and the European continent opened up once again to British tourists. The nineteenth century was to be an age driven by steam technology, mass-industrialisation and movement, and, in the footsteps of the Grand Tourists a hundred years earlier, the British middle-classes flocked to Europe to see the sights.In Tourists, the voices of these travellers puzzled, shocked, delighted and amazed are brought vividly to life. From the discomfort of the stagecoach to the self-contained pleasure palace' of the beach resort, Lucy LethTrade ReviewA sparkling mosaic ... In six gloriously colourful chapters, Lethbridge explores everything from guidebooks to souvenirs, retelling these first tourists’ tales with gleeful relish. -- Dominic Sandbrook * The Sunday Times *Delightful ... witty ... Lucy Lethbridge has written a glorious romp of a book, expertly researched. She has skilfully marshalled her teeming cast of British eccentrics as they tiptoe into foreign parts. For anyone stuck in an airport, or sitting it out on a staycation, this is an inspired choice for your holiday reading. -- Kathryn Hughes * The Mail on Sunday *I really can't recommend Lucy Lethbridge's new book on the history of tourism enough - especially if you are going on holiday. -- Tom HollandSo much varied research has contributed to this excellent book that it is a treasure-trove of many more significant facts than one can cite. -- Gillian Tindall * Literary Review *Pleasingly nerdy ... Lethbridge is as good on the sketchbook-carrying Victorians as she is on the Caravan Club of sturdy mobile homeowners. -- Caroline Eden * Financial Times *Absorbing … Lethbridge is an engaging guide, charting with wit and a wealth of sources everything from the Victorian Nordic craze to changing attitudes to sun and sea -- Mary Miers * Country Life *Lethbridge’s well-researched history draws on first-hand accounts of British tourism from its early days. It is laced with humour, lampooning the snobs of yesteryear and poking fun at various pretensions and quirks. -- Tom Chesshyre * The Critic *A fascinating study of the emergence of the UK’s travel industry, from the end of the Napoleonic Wars through to the package holiday boom and on to the Instagram era, taking in tour guides and guide books along the way. Lethbridge casts a canny, sharp eye on the British traveller’s often-misguided perceptions of both themselves and their hosts. * Wanderlust Magazine *Enjoyable … Lethbridge, a percipient social observer and deep thinker, is a good guide to the whole story. She has read everything there is to read on the subject. She has a breezy tolerance of the ‘British know-nothings’, blundering over formerly beautiful sites with their guidebooks and their ignorance of European languages and culture … She is especially funny on water cures and hydropathy … She is kindly, and amused, when describing the quest for the picturesque. -- A.N. Wilson * The Oldie *Filled with little gems -- Jack Blackburn * The Times Diary *Brilliantly observed ... a fascinating portrait of Brits abroad -- Kim Smith * Bury and West Suffolk Magazine *Lucy Lethbridge’s warmth and wit make her the perfect tour guide to the intriguing history of the British abroad. * Lucasta Miller *Full of human interest and fresh insights, Tourists offers a wonderfully enjoyable account of one of the defining phenomena of the past two centuries. * David Kynaston *To write well about the attempts of the British to enjoy themselves in that fraught territory ‘abroad’, you need a sense of the ridiculous, an eye for the poignant, the ability to leaven a mass of date with wit. In Tourists, Lucy Lethbridge ticks all the boxes. * Andrew Martin *Praise for SERVANTS: Glorious ... Servants is full of eyebrow-raising and laughter-inducing vignettes. But what is most fascinating is Lethbridge’s account of the dark side of the master-servant relationship. * Daily Telegraph *Beautifully written, sparkling with insight, and a pleasure to read, Servants is social history at its most humane and perceptive. In broad terms the world Lethbridge describes is a familiar one, but she nails it all down with the kind of detail that still has the power to astonish, outrage or amuse * Times Literary Supplement *An enthralling social history of the past century, told through the eyes of those who served ... Here, the voices of servants and home helpers, largely ignored by history, are brought to life. And what a life! ... The book is full of fascinating titbits ... Lethbridge shows that the history of life below stairs is just as interesting as the story of life above them * Tatler *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat happened to the European mind between 1605, when an audience watching Macbeth at the Globe might believe that regicide was such an aberration of the natural order that ghosts could burst from the ground, and 1649, when a large crowd, perhaps including some who had seen Macbeth forty-four years earlier, could stand and watch the execution of a king? Or consider the difference between a magus casting a star chart and the day in 1639, when Jonathan Horrock and William Crabtree watched the transit of Venus across the face of the sun from their attic, successfully testing its course against Kepler's Tables of Planetary Motion, in a classic case of confirming a scientific theory by empirical testing.In this turbulent period, science moved from the alchemy and astrology of John Dee to the painstaking observation and astronomy of Galileo, from the classicism of Aristotle, still favoured by the Church, to the evidence-based, collegiate investigation of Francis Bacon. And if tTrade ReviewBritain’s most eminent publicly engaged philosopher * Scotland on Sunday *If there is any such person in Britain as The Thinking man, it is A. C. Grayling * The Times *Grayling is particularly good at illuminating the knottiness of moral discourse * Sunday Times *There is an immense depth of human wisdom on display here, and five minutes with any passage will have you contemplating all day * Independent on The Good Book *Very interesting … His account of the transition from magic to science is fascinating, and he demonstrates persuasively that the 17th century did indeed see a revolution in habits of thought and understanding of the physical world -- Allan Massie * Scotsman *This sprint from the tenets of superstition to an increasingly revealed reality is a wonderful subject * Glasgow Herald *Grayling is a natural educator … He provides concise and helpful summaries of pertinent events and ideas * Spectator *His chapters on Bacon’s freethinking, on Newton’s scientific method and on Locke’s political theory are models of their craft * Tablet *A fascinating look at where we come from * Western Mail *Anyone who can steer this particular reader through the labyrinth of diets and edicts and treaties that populate The Thirty Years’ War deserves the highest praise. And Grayling is a model of clarity … As a survey of the period, The Age of Genius is fascinating [and] as an account of the development of ideas during one of the most exciting periods in Western history, The Age of Genius excels. Its scope is remarkable and it wears its learning lightly * Literary Review *A characteristically lucid but impassioned account of the power of ideas to change the way we see the world -- P.D. Smith * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Arab revolts changed the Middle East forever. A movement for democratic change has dissolved into chaos and bloodshed. States are collapsing. Out of a wave of sectarian fervour unleashed by these changes has emerged the merciless cruelty of Islamic State. Has the promise of the Arab Spring been lost? Can the West win a new War on Terror' against ISIS? Will a new generation of Arab strongmen crush the young revolutionaries who fought so hard for change? Drawing on a deep knowledge of the region and access to many of the key players, BBC Bureau Chief Paul Danahar explains how the history of the Middle East before the revolts has created the current turmoil. This updated edition includes a new Introduction, a revised chapter on recent events in Syria, new material on the rise of ISIS, and a new Afterward that brings the book completely up to date.Trade ReviewDanahar weaves a complex narrative into a lively, accessible read, much of which should withstand the passage of time … A solid but easygoing compendium for anyone who wants a read beyond the headlines, done with a journalistic lightness of touch * Daily Telegraph *This is a book about what happened after the Arab leaders were toppled in 2011, after the euphoria went flat and people went home again ... The optimistic take on the Arab revolution, though, is that the coups and massacres are part of a messy process that will eventually lead to more democratically responsive societies. This argument threads its way through Danahar’s remarkable analysis of the Arab Spring and I would like it to come true ... Danahar, an old Iraq hand, knows his sectarian fault lines and is a good guide. And, exceptionally for an Arabist, he deftly weaves in the problems of Isreal ... This is a book that tries to engage with people who can speak for everyone in the Spring, from Brotherhood activists ... To Israeli and Egyptian generals. It is written in a spirit of adventure ... And is all the better for it * The Times *The New Middle East is far and away the best book I’ve read on the effects of the Arab Spring: an excellent amalgamation of the scholarly and the journalistic, which gives it both a magisterial overview and the precision of close-up experience. Country by country Danahar has gone through the most important countries of the region, tracking the causes of change and the likely effects, and each of his judgments seems to me to be precise, enviably clear, thoroughly grounded and highly impressive. The world will move on after The New Middle East, and there will be major new developments, especially in Syria, but this book will continue to offer far more than just a snapshot of a particular moment: it will be a text which I, for one, will come back to again and again in order to understand the future * John Simpson *It’s hard to think of a senior BBC journalist better placed to write such a fine book on what the Middle East and the world looks like in the wake of the Arab Spring or one that has more insights … He has managed to achieve what many writers rarely do; to allow the voices of the people he has met, interviewed and worked and travelled with to emerge and to paint a picture of the Arab Spring through their eyes. He has done so in a style that is immediate, accessible and filled with warmth, compassion, realism * Rageh Omaar *Reporters who can analyse, and analysts who spent time on the ground, are rare. Time and again in this thorough, provocative and readable work, Danahar shows he combines the best of both. Danahar has spent years on the ground, working in some of the toughest places in the world. But this is no instant journalist’s account. Every turned page reveals deep research, powerful argument and a talent for acutely observed detail. Anyone interested in the Middle East, its present, past or future, should read this book * Jason Burke *There is lots of writing about the Middle East, much of it muddle-headed and ludicrously partial. It leaves you longing for a book that is clear-headed, honest and intelligent. Paul Danahar has produced such a book. His narrative spans a turbulent time but throughout all the upheavals and horrors he witnesses Danahar is a calm and intelligent witness. There is also great humanity in this excellent book. One is never allowed to forget that the Arab Spring is a narrative of people in extremis * Fergal Keane *Danahar's account has the pacey urgency and vivid colour of on-the-day news reporting ... he gives coherence and shape to the historic shifts taking place. He has a talent for shutting the noise of extraneous detail and laying bare the big picture. This book is trenchant, opinionated, blunt, entertaining and pleasingly readable. If you want a thorough accessible account of what has been going on in the Arab world over the last decade – and the historical context that gave rise to it – look no further * Allan Little *He reports perceptively on the internal contradictions of the Jewish state, from militant settlers to the ultraorthodox Haredim * Christopher de Bellaigue, Guardian *A timely exploration of an unstable region still on the brink of change and revolution * Traveller *Are you confused by the welter in the Middle East, headlines crowded with revolution and coup, Islamism, civil war and resurgent jihad? May I recommend Paul Danahar’s excellent regional survey, The New Middle East: The World After the Arab Spring? Danahar is the BBC’s Middle East bureau chief, experienced and clear eyed. His style is crisp and elegant, equally adept at telling human portraits as interviewing generals and presidents and sketching historical context ... The events of the Arab Spring and its aftermath will continue to defy prediction; but in the meantime, it’s worth reading Danahar to take stock of some of the geopolitical tectonic shifts and the forces that are remaking our old assumptions * Prospect *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2021Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2021Longlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Crown 2021''Fabulous'' - The Times''A milestone in women''s history'' - Observer''Groundbreaking ... a fascinating read'' - HeraldIn Britain today, three-quarters of mothers are in employment and paid work is an unremarkable feature of women's lives after childbirth. Yet a century ago, working mothers were in the minority, excluded altogether from many occupations, whilst their wage-earning was widely perceived as a social ill. In Double Lives, Helen McCarthy accounts for this remarkable transformation and the momentous consequences it has had for Britain. Recovering the everyday worlds of working mothers, this groundbreaking history forces us not only to re-evaluate the past, but to ask anew how current attitudes towards mothers in the workplace have developed and how far we have to go. ''ImTrade ReviewA fabulous new cultural history of working motherhood over the past 180 years … It is truly Big History and Helen McCarthy has rightly made mothers’ feelings and desires her central theme ... McCarthy, measured but sympathetic, has done for working mothers what the historian David Kynaston did for the 1950s -- Melanie Reid * The Times *“There are no typical lives,” Helen McCarthy writes in her impressive and nuanced study. Each is unique. But the best history writing, like hers, shows how representative the individual life is … McCarthy’s is an economic and social history, but she also wants to give “shade and texture” to what has been thought and said about working mothers. In this she succeeds magnificently -- Alison Light * Guardian *Helen McCarthy does a brilliant job of tracking the way attitudes to combining work and motherhood in the UK have changed from the nineteenth century to the present -- Vicky Pryce * Literary Review *Groundbreaking … A fascinating read * Herald *Impeccably referenced … For anyone interested not just in female employment, but in the labour market generally, it will be a valuable resource … McCarthy’s impressive mining of contemporary sources brings one face to face with grinding toil, inadequate diets, and terror of illness -- Alison Wolf * Financial Times *This is an important book … Double Lives is a forceful reminder that attitudes to working mothers change abruptly and that politics, not nature, will decide the future of female employment -- Sarah Ditum * Spectator *Authoritative in scope and calmly judged, but with an ear for voices and an eye for detail, Double Lives is the history we have long wanted of a subject still freighted with emotion and misunderstanding -- David KynastonCarefully researched, stylishly written and highly entertaining. The story is rich with female pioneers. McCarthy’s “women of the world” stand as a reminder that, for many women, ours is a world which has not yet been won -- Praise for 'Women of the World' * Sunday Telegraph *Vivid and engaging. Complexities come out beautifully in the lives recovered in this book -- Praise for 'Women of the World' * Guardian *As McCarthy eloquently argues in this important book full of brilliant vignettes, fighting to the top is usually harder for a woman -- Praise for 'Women of the World' * Independent *

Read more less

Book SynopsisOver a million Indian soldiers fought in the First World War, the largest force from the colonies and dominions. Their contribution, however, has been largely forgotten. Many soldiers were illiterate and travelled from remote villages in India to fight in the muddy trenches in France and Flanders. Many went on to win the highest bravery awards. For King and another Country tells, for the first time, the personal stories of some of these Indians who went to the Western Front: from a grand turbanned Maharaja rearing to fight for Empire to a lowly sweeper who dies in a hospital in England, from a Pathan who wins the Victoria Cross to a young pilot barely out of school. Shrabani Basu delves into archives in Britain and narratives buried in villages in India and Pakistan to recreate the War through the eyes of the Indians who fought it. There are heroic tales of bravery as well as those of despair and desperation; there are accounts of the relationships that weTrade ReviewA stirring, fascinating and fresh account of a part of our history that should be declared Not Forgotten * Ian Hislop *A beautifully written book that gently yet powerfully reminds of the debt freedom owes to the Indian soldier and nation. It is compellingly different and it's timing perfect. It serves humbly to remind we British of the debt we owe the people of the sub-continent and of the ties that irrevocably bind us together * Lord Richards, Former Chief of Defence Staff *Shrabani Basu has captured the epic drama and the human tragedy of World War I with an artist's eye and a historian's mind. Her narrative vivifies a chapter of modern history that had dullened into sepia * Gopal Gandhi *In this moving chronicle of dauntless courage and human fortitude, Shrabani Basu restores to history and to greatness valorous men orphaned by the king they served and forgotten by the country they loved * Shashi Tharoor *Basu’s book tells us of children as young as 10 who fought in the frontline; of special arrangements made by the British to accommodate caste and religion, including separate funeral provisions; of the enduring blight of untouchability, even on foreign shores; and of outstanding examples of bravery, earning 11 Indians the Victoria Cross * The Hindu *In her new book For King and Country, the historian Shrabani Basu movingly explores the ordeals, and the achievements, of the million-plus Indian troops who fought for the Empire in the First World War * Independent *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn innovative and insightful exploration of the passionate early life of Socrates and the influences that led him to become the first and greatest of philosophersSocrates: the philosopher whose questioning gave birth to the ideas of Western thought, and whose execution marked the end of the Athenian Golden Age. Yet despite his pre-eminence among the great thinkers of history, little of his life story is known. What we know tends to begin in his middle age and end with his trial and death. Our conception of Socrates has relied upon Plato and Xenophon men who met him when he was in his fifties and a well-known figure in war-torn Athens. There is mystery at the heart of Socrates' story: what turned the young Socrates into a philosopher? What drove him to pursue with such persistence, at the cost of social acceptance and ultimately of his life, a whole new way of thinking about the meaning of existence? In this revisionist biography, Armand D'Angour draws on neglected sources to eTrade ReviewSympathetic and irreverent … A demythologised Socrates is revealed, not so much debunked as rendered newly human … All this is done in prose of easy elegance and authority … Socrates is one of the very few philosophers whose thoughts on love are worth reading * Daily Telegraph *In this brilliant study, Armand D’Angour refocuses the works of Socrates the Philosopher by looking afresh at the life of Socrates the Man. In doing so, he provides new insights not just into Socrates but into ancient Greek thinking as a whole -- Peter Frankopan, author of 'The Silk Roads'Write the name Aspasia on your hearts! History, as told by men, has often erased the role of women. Our new champion Armand D’Angour has pieced together the evidence – that a woman of great intellectual powers helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy. This is a delicious and exhilarating piece of serious scholarship -- Helena KennedyD’Angour sets about his task with admirable imagination, even a touch of literary flair ... Highly readable -- Patrick Kidd * The Times *A terrific read * Literary Review *A fascinating and revelatory book. A penetrating combination of tremendous scholarship, imagination and sympathetic understanding -- William BoydA learned, agile and slickly written book … [D’Angour] offers an erudite guide to the intellectual culture of the time … [I] couldn’t help admiring his grasp of the material and his ability to communicate it compactly -- Tim Whitmarsh * Guardian *Who was Socrates? D’Angour guesses that the majority of people who know something about him will answer that Socrates was ‘a thinker, wise man, or philosopher of ancient Greece.’ If your answer was along these lines, then you need to pick up this book … Not only clearly well-researched, but it is also enjoyable to read * All About History *A book that succeeds brilliantly in achieving something that I had always assumed was impossible: providing a historically grounded portrait of the man Socrates may actually have been. Not merely eye-opening, it is thrilling and moving -- Tom HollandArmand D’Angour’s new readings of Plato’s dialogues bring a new Athenian world to life … Plausible and beautifully written -- Josephine QuinnWho was Socrates? Surprising insights abound in Armand D’Angour’s new, even radical, biography of the brilliantly eccentric, earthy, and brave provocateur-philosopher. Socrates in Love is deeply thoughtful and delightfully written -- Adrienne Mayor, author of 'Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology'The most nourishing book I have read this year * praise for The Greeks and the New, Spectator: Book of the Year Selection *A fantastic, engaging book … Not to be missed * praise for The Greeks and the New, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *The book is well-written and fun to read—it has itself some of the gleam and glamour of the new, and I expect that its readers will give it kleos * praise for The Greeks and the New, Classical Journal Online *Engaging and aptly original study * praise for The Greeks and the New, Times Literary Supplement *A learned, agile and slickly written book … D’Angour offers an erudite guide to the intellectual culture of the time … I couldn’t help admiring his grasp of the material and his ability to communicate it compactly -- Tim Whitmarsh * Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA spellbinding portrait of the Hampstead Modernists, threading together the lives, loves, rivalries and ambitions of a group of artists at the heart of an international avant-garde.Hampstead in the 1930s. In this peaceful, verdant London suburb, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson have embarked on a love affair a passion that will launch an era-defining art movement. In her chronicle of the exhilarating rise and fall of British Modernism, Caroline Maclean captures the dazzling circle drawn into Hepworth and Nicholson's wake: among them Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Herbert Read, and famed émigrés Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, and Piet Mondrian, blown in on the winds of change sweeping across Europe. Living and working within a few streets of their Parkhill Road studios, the artists form Unit One, a cornerstone of the Modernist movement which would bring them international renown. Drawing on previously unpublished archive material, Caroline Maclean's electrifying CirclesTrade ReviewCaroline Maclean has given us a finely researched, superlatively written and always enthralling account of the private lives and entangled love affairs of a group of artists who changed the face of British art – and whose ideas about architecture speak to us as urgently as ever. A wonderful book -- Miranda SeymourFrom Bauhaus to bohemian love … the intricate lives and art of interwar modernists are captured in this hugely enjoyable and well-plotted book … Circles and Squares is a skilful work of synthesis * Guardian *A fascinating, extremely moving account of an attempt at communal living right in the heart of London. So many of the major artists of the twentieth century are here. Questions of how to live and how to make art jostle together and there's much to inspire and challenge us now -- Lara FeigelIn this engrossing, superbly written biography, Caroline Maclean explores the vanished world of the Hampstead Modernists of the 1930s. Her cast list reads like a “who’s who” of the pre-war British art world -- Huston Gilmore * Daily Mirror *Bloomsbury’s dead. Long live Hampstead ... Maclean brings this charged decade, in which a slice of London bohemia debated endlessly how best to live and love, and shook British art from its stupor in the process, to glowing life … She recreates beautifully the strange mix of buoyancy and instability that characterised the decade * Daily Telegraph *Full of entertaining snapshots … Maclean does much to recreate the atmosphere of Hampstead. One wants very much to be there -- Laura Freeman * The Times *As a tale of journeys both geographical and emotional, and relationships that withstood conflicting ideals and frequent rearrangements, the book is captivating and wide-reaching … Caroline Maclean’s enthusiastic, even breathless, canter through British art in the 1930s shows us where this country was once almost at the vanguard -- Marina Vaizey * The Arts Desk *Caroline Maclean’s breezy account of Hampstead in the 1930s offers abundant evidence that the area really was a hotbed of new ideas, new forms and new ways of living ... [The book evokes] a sense of an era in which it was bliss to be alive, and in love, and bursting with creativity and the possibilities of making life and art in new ways * Literary Review *[A] riveting group biography of artists, architects and writers flourishing in England during the 1930s … [The book] fizzes with the creative energy of the times — and is refreshingly short on sentiment … Maclean is the perfect biographer — self-effacing, non-judgmental, unobtrusive -- Catherine Taylor * Financial Times *As an introduction to 1930s modernism, Circles and Squares is terrific * Sunday Times *[An] impeccably researched social history -- Hettie Judah * The i Paper *This is a story of brave and sometimes brilliant souls defying convention to live and work as they wish -- Rowan Moore * Observer *Maclean’s group biography brings this charged decade, which shook British art from its stupor, to glowing life * Daily Telegraph *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''John Keay is the master storyteller and historian. This grand narrative of Himalaya is as epic as the mountains and peoples he describes'' Dan Snow''Adds the human element to the hard rock. And what a rich vein it is'' Michael PalinHistory has not been kind to Himalaya. Empires have collided here, cultures have clashed. Buddhist India claimed it from the south, Islam put down roots in its western approaches, Mongols and Manchus rode in from the north, and, from the east, China continues to absorb what it prefers not to call Tibet. Hunters have decimated its wildlife and mountaineers have bagged its peaks. Today, machinery gouges minerals out of its rock.Roughly the size of Europe, the region is one of the most seismically active on the planet. Summers bring avalanches, rainfall triggers landslides and winters obliterate trails. Glaciers retreat, rivers change course and whole lakes quietly evaporate.To some, Himalaya is an otherworldly realm, profoundly life-chanTrade ReviewWonderful … In prose that feels as effortless as it is entertaining, Keay paints a fascinating picture of this magical region, covering everything from geology, glaciers, tectonic plates and botany to the spiritual and religious evolutions of humans -- C P W Gammell * Literary Review *There cannot be any current anglophone writer more knowledgeable about the region. -- Jonathan Buckley * Times Literary Supplement *Adds the human element to the hard rock. And what a rich vein it is -- Michael PalinExcellent -- Michael Dirda * The Washington Post *John Keay is the master storyteller and historian. This grand narrative of Himalaya is as epic as the mountains and peoples he describes -- Dan SnowFrom palaeontology to mysticism, from the East India Company to mountaineers, this is dazzlingly wide-ranging, brilliantly researched and elegantly told -- Ranulph FiennesThe guru of modern writers on Himalaya. Here, after a lifetime’s travel and reflection, is the story of the most important region on earth -- Michael WoodA dazzling collision of storytelling and scholarship, and the culmination of a lifetime’s research and experience, this is surely John Keay’s masterwork. He tackles the epic subject of the entire Himalayan region, through human history, and brings to it his own distinctive style – at once authoritative and colourful, stirring and droll, ambitious yet humble. A compelling portrait of a uniquely vulnerable region -- James McConnachieLet John Keay be your guide: he has decades of first-hand experience in the region, he wears his extensive learning lightly and he is a magnificent storyteller -- Chris BoningtonJohn Keay’s stunning book is meticulously researched and a gripping read. It lays out the long-standing allure of Himalaya, from the geographical and environmental to the archaeological and cultural. -- Kavita PuriA compendium of centuries of outsiders’ quests for scientific understanding of every aspect of the Himalayas — from its geology, topography and natural history to questions of anthropology and social history. No potential angle is left unexplored -- Amy Kazmin * Financial Times *The term ‘tour de force’ doesn’t do Keay's Himalaya justice. A beautiful work by one of the world’s foremost historians, the book is meticulously researched and written with Keay's particular flair. Comparable in its page-turning addiction to a fictional thriller, this will go down as a seminal work on the Himalaya. -- Kenton CoolPoetically written ... A wonderfully digressive read, with rich portraits and stories of those who made their careers and fame from Himalaya -- Maximillian Morch * Asian Review of Books *A wonderful book about an extraordinary place ... Keay's undertaking in print is as vast in its scope as the area it seeks to enclose between the covers of this single, handsomely illustrated volume ... Truly a place of wonder, wonderfully caught -- Peter Stanford * Church Times *A book that is meant to be savoured, not to be conquered. Enjoy the ride -- Mandira Nayar * The Week, India *The appropriate crown for John Keay’s writing on Asia. His study of the Himalaya marks the grand finale to his prodigious twin histories of India and China. Roll over Edward Gibbon. The powerful reimagining of the Himalaya from the structural perspective adds to the mountaineering and mythological lore, while the magisterial style is lightened by marvellous one liners… One of the best and easily the most informed books on the Himalaya -- Bill Aitken, author of Seven Sacred Rivers

Read more less

Book SynopsisA reissue of Rachel Holmes''s landmark biography of Dr James Barry, one of the most enigmatic figures of the Victorian age.James Barry was one of the nineteenth century's most exceptional doctors, and one of its great unsung heroes. Famed for his brilliant innovations, Dr Barry influenced the birth of modern medical practice in places as far apart as South Africa, Jamaica and Canada. Barry's skills attracted admirers across the globe, but there were also many detractors of the ostentatious dandy, who caused controversy everywhere he went. Yet unbeknownst to all, the military surgeon concealed a lifelong secret at the heart of his identity: on his death Barry was claimed to be anatomically female and in fact a cross-dresser.Vividly drawn and meticulously researched, The Secret Life of Dr James Barry brings to life one of the most enigmatic figures of the Victorian age, elevating its subject to a latter-day transgender icon and is a landmark in the art of biography.Trade ReviewMeticulously researched and fantastically discursive * Independent Magazine *Wonderful -- Amanda ForemanSerious, sympathetic and absolutely fascinating * Mail on Sunday *

Read more less

Book Synopsis___________________BASED ON THE ACADEMY AWARD WINNING FEATURE DOCUMENTARY___________________''Wonderfully moving ... a noble story, beautifully told'' - Daily MailWith a preface by Lord Richard Attenborough, this is a moving collection of accounts from some of the 10,000 children rescued from the Nazi Regime and brought to the UK by the Kindertransport scheme - and an important contribution to our national conversation about how we treat refugees.In November 1938, international public opinion was shocked by the news of Kristallnacht - the anti-Jewish pogrom that led to the burning of synagogues and the first mass arrests of Jewish men. Twelve days later, the British government implemented the Kindertransport plan, which allowed many children to leave the horrors of the Nazi regime and find temporary refuge within British families and hostels. By the time war was declared in September 1939, this brave undeTrade ReviewWonderfully moving ... a noble story, beautifully told * Daily Mail *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn enjoyable, highly readable history that manages to bring murky, often fiendishly complex events into the light' Sunday TimesItaly emerged from the Second World War in ruins. Divided, invaded and economically broken, it was a nation that some people claimed had ceased to exist. And yet, as rural society disappeared almost overnight, by the 1960s, it could boast the fastest-growing economy in the world. In The Archipelago, historian John Foot chronicles Italy's tumultuous history from the post-war period to the present day. From the silent assimilation of fascists into society after 1945 to the artistic peak of neorealist cinema, he examines both the corrupt and celebrated sides of the country. While often portrayed as a failed state on the margins of Europe, Italy has instead been at the centre of innovation and change a political laboratory. This new history tells the fascinating story of a country always marked by scandal but with the constTrade ReviewIt’s an astonishing achievement, and structurally so innovative: a pointillistic portrait of a complicated country as the title suggests. It captures the sweep of post-war Italian history but is so precise and detailed as well. The assembling of great stories, anecdotes, quotations and characters makes reading it effortless but also immensely rewarding -- Tobias JonesAn enjoyable, highly readable history that manages to bring murky, often fiendishly complex events into the light, providing insight and clarity. That is no small achievement * Sunday Times *[A] lively history … Superbly researched * Observer *‘[A] breathless and entertaining (or despairing) voyage through postwar Italy … A pleasure to read. It is not just about politics. It is also full of characters, vignettes and interesting facts -- Donald Sassoon * Literary Review *Admirable … Foot’s expertise in an illuminating range of subcultures is deep * Daily Telegraph *This deft history book guides readers through Italy’s turbulent, complicated (and corrupt) postwar history * The Times *[A] fine, ambitious book ... A series of neatly written tableaux and portraits * Herald *A bold and challenging, accessibly written, portrayal of a country ... Even the expert reader will find much of interest in it. -- Stephen Gundle * Modern Italy *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Amusing, charming, stimulating, urbane'' - THE TIMES''Revelatory'' - GUARDIAN''Restores Clive Bell vividly to life'' - Lucasta Miller______________Clive Bell is perhaps better known today for being a Bloomsbury socialite and the husband of artist Vanessa Bell, sister to Virginia Woolf. Yet Bell was a highly important figure in his own right: an internationally renowned art critic who defended daring new forms of expression at a time when Britain was closed off to all things foreign. His groundbreaking book Art brazenly subverted the narratives of art history and cemented his status as the great interpreter of modern art. Bell was also an ardent pacifist and a touchstone for the Wildean values of individual freedoms, and his is a story that leads us into an extraordinary world of intertwined lives, loves and sexualities. For decades, Bell has been an obscure figure, refracted through the wealth of writing on Bloomsbury, but here Mark HuTrade ReviewAmusing, charming, stimulating, urbane -- Laura Freeman * The Times *[A] meticulously researched and well-informed account ... Revelatory ... Hussey's patient recuperative work is important in reminding us that the significant players in last century's art history often refuse to fit our sentimental requirements -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *Offers a missing piece in the familiar Bloomsbury jigsaw ... Mark Hussey ... moves around the complex history of the Bloomsbury Group with near-faultless command. He is also a suave and sophisticated historian, able to link Bell’s life very effectively with the historical moment -- Frances Spalding * Literary Review *This spirited, urbane figure emerges engagingly from the shadow of his more famous contemporaries in this first definitive biography * Town & Country, Book of the Week *With this entertaining and nuanced biography, Hussey has filled in a valuable piece of the Bloomsbury jigsaw, providing rich new insight into a major player in the story of 20th-century art -- Francesca Wade * Apollo *A book of real substance written with style and panache, copious fresh information and many insights. Throughout, one senses that a strong mind is in control of the material – the whole literary performance is persuasive and confidence-inducing -- Julian BellThis sympathetic and painstakingly researched portrait restores Clive Bell vividly to life, both as a man and as a cultural figure whose art criticism influenced a generation -- Lucasta MillerHussey gives us a ... nuanced, complex portrait of Clive Bell, celebrating his accomplishments without obscuring the less appealing aspects of his character ... Perceptive ... [A] remarkable book ... There could not be a more fitting tribute to Clive Bell and his life’s work * Literature Cambridge *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE A page-turner with the authority of history' PHILIPPA GREGORYAs gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read' SARAH WATERSLondon, 1938. Alma Fielding, an ordinary young woman, begins to experience supernatural events in her suburban home. Nandor Fodor a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical research begins to investigate. In doing so he discovers a different and darker type of haunting: trauma, alienation, loss and the foreshadowing of a nation's worst fears. As the spectre of Fascism lengthens over Europe, and as Fodor's obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes ever more disturbed. With rigour, daring and insight, the award-winning pioneer of historical narrative non-fiction Kate Summerscale shadows Fodor's enquiry, delving into long-hidden archives to find the human story behind a very modern haunting.An empathetic, meticulous Trade ReviewHidden realities of a different kind lie beneath the story of Kate Summerscale’s The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story, which delves into the 1930s case of the “Croydon Poltergeist”, investigated by Nandor Fodor, chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research * Guardian, Autumn highlights *Gothic, dark and scandalous ... A gripping account * Sunday Times *A chilling real life ghost story ... This book scared me witless * Red *Expertly told, with all the twists and turns of a chilly novel by Wilkie Collins or Barbara Vine ... The more Summerscale delves, the more she finds out about the hidden compartments of the human mind -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *A terrific true ghost story ... her best book since The Suspicions of Mr Whicher ... She has achieved the perfect balance between her central story and its cultural context. * Guardian *With The Haunting of Alma Fielding, Kate Summerscale does for ghosts what she did for a murder in her very successfulThe Suspicions of Mr Whicher * Times Literary Supplement *Riveting ... One of the many great pleasures of The Haunting of Alma Fielding, as in all of her work, is her knack of recreating the feverish atmosphere of the time -- Daisy Goodwin * Sunday Times *A detective novel, a ghost yarn and a historical record rolled into one. Blending fact and fiction, it is an electrifying reconstruction * i paper *Summerscale revisits these strange events with her customary wide research and in lucid and unadorned prose…she draws a convincing and compelling portrait of a moment of mass anxiety in which so deep was the longing to believe that anything could become believable * Literary Review *London, 1938, and a young woman begins to experience supernatural events. Is she really haunted, or is something else going on? The author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher investigates * Observer, Autumn highlights *With her eye for evocative period detail, her sensitivity to the quirks and poignancies of human motivation, and her brilliant storytelling skills, Summerscale has taken this corker of a case and made it as gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read -- SARAH WATERSAn engrossing, weirdly timely book about the relationship between the bodily self and the trauma of a haunted mind * Metro *Prepare not to see much broad daylight, literal or metaphorical, for days if you read this ... the atmosphere evoked is something I will never forget * The Times *Astonishingly gripping. As ever, she offers fascinating insights into what the story tells you about the era in which it unfolded and spotting ingenious parallels in contemporary art and literature, but without ever allowing the narrative pace to slow up * Sunday Express *As with her previous books, Summerscale weaves personal records with meticulous research carried out over three years, to not just resurrect the people involved, but the world in which they live. We are walking with the dead, but the author is conjuring something more believable, more unsettling, than anything you will find in a dodgy seance hall * Evening Standard *Summerscale’s account of their strange relationship is astonishingly gripping, with the bonus of a pleasingly chilling spookiness * Daily Mirror *Summerscale's unsettling story offers her most nuanced, empathetic work to date - a bright and engrossing tale of the grey space between hoax and haunting * Prospect *The uncanny underscores everything in this based-on-history ghost story from the author of The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher. Alma Fielding, a woman living in Croydon in the 1930s, appears to be haunted by a poltergeist intent on destroying her home. Is it genuine, is it coming from her own state of mind, or is it seeping in from the real spectres of the pre-war world? * Sainsbury's Magazine *The Suspicions of Mr Whicher author returns with another intriguing nonfiction story. It is 1938 and poor old Alma Fielding’s home is being disturbed by the Croydon Poltergeist * The Times, Autumn highlights *A page-turner with the authority of history - The Haunting of Alma Fielding will stay with the reader as powerfully as the mystery at the heart of the story. Why should a woman - happily married and moderately well off, smash up her own home blaming a poltergeist. Or, if she was in the grip of another will - who was it? An unvarnished account of unknowable things at a time of deep unease -- PHILIPPA GREGORYAnother true-life mystery from the author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher * Sunday Times, Autumn Highlights *This spooky narrative non-fiction is as gripping as any thriller and the perfect read for winter nights. Summerscale delves deep into historical archives to bring to life the strange story of a woman whose home appears to be haunted by what becomes known as the Croydon Poltergeist * Good Housekeeping *An empathetic, meticulous account of a spiritual unravelling; a tribute to the astonishing power of the human mind - but also a properly absorbing, baffling, satisfying detective story -- AIDA EDEMARIAMSuperb ... The Haunting of Alma Fielding will have you up all night and grip you to your bones ... An extraordinary feat of historical research and imaginative sympathy. Alma emerges from the pages a living, breathing woman - and one you can't forget. Kate Summerscale has another smash hit on her hands -- KATE WILLIAMSThis real-life mystery is riveting and recreates the feverish atmosphere of the time * The Times, The best paperbacks of 2021 *Praise for Kate Summerscale: She has turned a sepia photograph into a film that runs through the mind in glorious and unimpeachable Technicolor -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Summerscale's brilliance lies in charting, with beautiful precision, a story's strange echoes and reverberations -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *No other writer could have made the case so fascinating and so vivid ... It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed -- Cressida Connolly * Spectator *An extraordinary book which will stay with you * Daily Express *Gripping... Summerscale is an exquisite storyteller. She is judicious in her use of detail, subtle in her unspoken connections between the past and the present -- Daisy Goodwin * The Times *The finest documentary writing -- John le CarréAbsolutely riveting -- Sarah Waters * Guardian *As Kate Summerscale has proved before, she has a wonderfully sharp eye for stories which turn out not to be quite what they seem... a remarkably heartening story * Daily Mail *Scrupulous and occasionally startling -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *Simply superb -- Alexandra Harris * Guardian *Extraordinary -- Philippa Gregory * Daily Telegraph *I was hooked after the first few pages. It's as good as non-fiction could possibly get -- Victoria Hislop * Daily Mail *A scalpel-sharp investigative mind -- John Carey * Sunday Times *I can't think of another book which takes you so fast into the smells, tastes and atmosphere of that time -- Doris LessingNothing less than a masterpiece -- Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century' New York Times Book ReviewTrade ReviewWritten by one of our generation's most respected historians, it charts the Great War from its inception with a rigorous attention to dates, facts and statistics but coloured in with human perspective and poetry * BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH *One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century * New York Times Book Review *Written by one of our generation's most respected historians, it charts the Great War from its inception with a rigorous attention to dates, facts and statistics but coloured in with human perspective and poetry * BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH *

Read more less

Book Synopsis480 BC. Arimnestos of Plataea has already lived through several lifetimes'' worth of adventure, from being a rich man''s slave in Ephesus to winning glory at the battle of Marathon against the might of the Persian Empire. But the gods - and the Persians - aren''t finished with him yet. As an experienced sea captain - his enemies might say pirate - he has a part to play in the final epic confrontation of the Long War between the Greeks and Persians, the Battle of Salamis. It is a battle where many debts of blood will be repaid, ancient grudges settled, fame won and treachery exposed, where the Greeks must finally bury their differences and fight as one - for against them Xerxes, the Great King, has assembled the greatest fleet the world has ever known, his sworn purpose to brutally extinguish the flame of freedom and make every Greek his slave.Trade ReviewCameron's ability to conjure up what Homer called "the battle haze" might make the ancient bard proud - GLOBE AND MAIL[A] great page-turner - ANCIENT WARFAREThe minutiae of military logistics, the mediations in inter-tribe rivalries, and the casual contemporary scene-setting prove unexpectedly engrossing ... a sword-slash above the rest of its ilk - IRISH EXAMINERThe battles ... are described with enormous verve and power. The ruthless intrigue and politicking that dominate his court are also brilliantly evoked. And, as fate and his own insatiable desire for conquest and glory drive Alexander towards death in Babylon at the age of 32, a genuine sense of an extraordinary personality emerges - SUNDAY TIMES on God of WarA sweeping, deeply moving epic that takes the reader into the heart of a different time and culture - HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW

Read more less

Book SynopsisHUNTER KILLER: a submarine designed to pursue and attack enemy submarines and surface ships using torpedoes.Trade Reviewan exciting, thought-provoking and very instructive book, most strongly recommended * SCUTTLEBUTT *Ballantyne has written an excellent book, presenting many exciting and never before told stories from British submariners who served during the Cold War...it is surely one of the most enthralling of Cold War submarine thrillers. -- Cem Devrim Yaylali * WARSHIPS INTERNATIONAL FLEET REVIEW *Ballantyne has persuaded former submarine captains to share not only their stories about life aboard what German wartime submariners called "iron coffins", but also some of the largely unknown details of their deployment, including their crucial role in the Cold War. * DAILY EXPRESS *I've found no other book that delves so comprehensively into the underwater battle space during those tense years. -- Julian Stockwin * Author of The Kydd Series *

Read more less

Book SynopsisJAM BUTTIES AND A PAN OF SCOUSE is a gritty yet heart-warming memoir set against the backdrop of Liverpool''s tightknit working-class docklands community. The story covers Maggie Clarke''s upbringing in the tenements close to the docks, the River Mersey and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal: an area notorious for having the worst slums in Britain, yet the closest community as well.At the tender age of 11, Maggie Clarke finds herself the matriarch of the family when her Irish mother runs off with another man. Leaving school at 14 to work at a local factory putting sticks into lollies, she is determined to make a better life for herself and her family - before starting her own family with her childhood sweetheart, who she marries at 19 after ''falling in the family way''. She has one night of married life with her husband before he is sent to India with the Navy and is devastated when she never hears from him again, presuming him a casualty of the war that is raging at home and abTrade ReviewThis gritty memoir... is both an inspiration and an eye-opener. -- Pam Norfolk * LANCASHIRE EVENING POST *This is the fascinating memoir of 95-year-old Maggie Clarke... and it's an at time heart-wrenching tale of family trauma, hardship and happiness grabbed in stolen moments. It's also an insightful chronicle of an ever-changing city. * CHOICE MAGAZINE *

Read more less

Book SynopsisA complete history of White Hart Lane, the home of Tottenham Hotspur from 1899 to 2017 and the setting for some of their greatest successes.For a football supporter, a real fan, there is nothing more evocative than the journey to their home ground, a place where they have experienced the highs and lows that the game brings - delight, despair, hope, pain and, occasionally, pure joy. But while those stadiums seem permanent, they are not.In May 2017, White Hart Lane, the backdrop to more than a century of Spurs history, staged its final game. With the active support and endorsement of the club, who have granted him exclusive access to senior figures and historical documents, Martin Lipton pays fitting tribute to the glory days at the Lane. He has talked to, among others, Jimmy Greaves, Martin Chivers, Pat Jennings, Glenn Hoddle, Ossie Ardiles, Chris Waddle, Teddy Sheringham, Jurgen Klinsmann, David Ginola, Gareth Bale and Harry Kane. And he has also interviewed fTrade ReviewFantastic detail from Martin. Some of the things that happened i'm aware of but others not. Terrific read. -- Shane Reid * TOTTENHAM ARMY *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''It''s brave and honest, and not a moment too soon.'' Afua Hirsch, Brit(ish)''[An] outstanding myth-busting book. Everyone should read it.'' Bernardine EvaristoWhat is the experience of Black men in Britain today? Never has the conversation about racism and inclusion been more important; there is no better time to explore this question and give Black British men a platform to answer it. SAFE: 20 Ways to be a Black Man in Britain Today is that platform. Including essays from top poets, writers, musicians, actors and journalists, this timely and accessible book is in equal parts a celebration, a protest, a call to arms, and a dismantling of the stereotypes surrounding being a Black man. What does it really mean to reclaim and hold space in the landscape of our society? Where do Black men belong in school, in the media, in their own families, in the conversation about mental health, in the LGBTQ+ community, in grime music -Trade ReviewA much needed anthology -- Layla Haidrani * Cosmopolitan *This landmark anthology of essays exploring the Black British male experience from Derek Owusu isn't strictly an LGBTQ+ book. But an impressive roster of contributors, journalist Musa Okwonga's chapter The Good Bisexual is a long overdue - and delicate - insight into the challenges black bisexual men face, from queer puberty, the double burden of racism and homophobia, homophobic harassment in the workplace, and ultimately, self-acceptance. A refreshing insight, given that black, bi men's experiences are routinely rendered invisible. * Dazed *An outstanding book of essays' * INDEPENDENT.CO.UK *These essays burn with passion, dismay, pride, and longing. They're a wake-up call, a prayer, a plea, a promise. They say: this is who we are, and this is what you've been missing. * Stephen Kelman, author of Man Booker-shortlisted Pigeon English *An urgent, moving, inspiring series of essays that pulses with honesty and directness. I found myself nodding with recognition as I read so many of the pieces; I felt heard and understood as I read so many of the pieces. It's a collection that I - we - need so much right now. * Michael Donkor, author of Hold *Black men have been reduced to stock one dimensional characters in the public imagination. This collection explodes those myths, exploring the multi-hued textures of Black British masculinity in all its strength, vulnerability and diversity, providing an intimate window into the lives beyond the statistics, the stereotypes and the headlines. Charged with the air of the confessional, I imagine these stories will be the catalyst for many long overdue, and often taboo, conversations. * Emma Dabiri *Safe is the literary equivalent of secretly watching a black British male wake up, wash his brutalised body, plaster over his wounds and, with a final grimace, wear the clothes that he will allow the world to see. There is a quality of searing honesty, a revelation of the fears and doubts that haunt the men in this collection (and their like) daily - and a confession of the utter exhaustion of walking through the world bent under the weight of stereotypes. Here, the contributors have found, as Jesse Bernard puts it, 'a safe pocket' to express themselves in, and in so doing, in Courttia Newland's words to 'walk in a straight line and to live'. Safe is a vital book of witness and validation; an important read for everyone, but for young men of certain hues, it contains islands of affirmation that may well save a life or two. * Nii Ayikwei Parkes *This is not a book you read, but a book you witness. Derek Owusu has brought together important voices in British culture, authors you can actually feel digging deep into their experiences and sharing things that have not been written before. It's brave and honest, and not a moment too soon. * Afua Hirsch *This is an inspiring collection of essays. There is nothing like reading the thoughts of black men speaking honestly, openly, personally and intellectually. There is nothing like this because it seldom happens. This really is where the revolution starts. Every page of this book breaks down stereotypes of what being a black man is. It is refreshing to read the truth of men expressed as eloquently as they are in these pages. I was inspired. I found hope.This is power stuff my people. There is no holding back here. These might be essays by black British men, but they are relevant to all of us in the diaspora. Hold this book close to you and stay Safe. * Benjamin Zephaniah *We all know the narrative, images and media stories around Black men often play to negative stereotypes, but in this collection, we see Black men re-writing those scripts to explore their identities and their experiences in their own words.This anthology is utterly unique... I can't think of a book like it. * Diane Abbott MP *A really eye-opening and vital book on the Black British male experience. * Matt Haig *SAFE is rarely polemic, its aim is not to influence policy, but to depict the Black British experience in all its messy glory, thereby showing that young black men have rich and varied lives. * VICE *This outstanding myth-busting book asks us to consider our black British brothers as individuals who are as multi-dimensional as the rest of the human race. Everyone should read it. * Bernardine Evaristo *With sharp commentary and frequent bursts of honesty and humour, SAFE is unafraid to share its authors's vulnerabilities and make public their ambitions * NEW STATESMAN *A seminal and vital book that passes the mic back to black men. -- Kemi Alemoru * gal-dem *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book was the biggest-selling puzzle book of 2018. And now it is back, and bigger and better than before!

Read more less

Book Synopsis''In Detective Eddie Giral, Chris Lloyd has created a flawed hero not just for occupied Paris, but for our own times, too'' KATHERINE STANSFIELDParis, 1940. As the city adjusts to life under Nazi occupation, Detective Eddie Giral struggles to reconcile his job as a policeman with his new role enforcing a regime he cannot believe in but must work under.He''s sacrificed so much in order to survive in this new world, but the past is not so easily forgotten. When an old friend and an old flame reappear, begging for his help, Eddie must decide how far he will go to help those he loves.He can remain a good man and do nothing, or risk it all in a desperate act of resistance...Praise for Chris Lloyd and Detective Eddie Giral''Terrific'' SUNDAY TIMES''Gripping... a vivid recreation of Paris under German Occupation'' ANDREW TAYLOR''A thoughtful, haunting thriller'' MICK HERRON''Sharp and compellinTrade ReviewA corpse is discovered in a derelict jazz club, its lips sewn tight with twine. The victim, Eddie finds out, is an old lag who should be in prison. After he learns that other criminals are also out on the streets, given early release in mysterious circumstances, he realises that he has stumbled on a conspiracy involving French criminals and German occupiers. A page-turning, morally complex thriller. (Best Historical Fiction Books of 2023) * SUNDAY TIMES *Chris Lloyd follows up the excellent The Unwanted Dead with another terrific slice of historical noir. In his vivid recreation of Paris under German occupation, French policeman Eddie Giral - trapped between Nazis, gangsters and his own conscience - finds himself morally compromised following the discovery of several mutilated bodies. Once again, the prose sparkles with Lloyd's mordant wit and gallows humour, illuminating the depravity of an evil regime. * VASEEM KHAN *Lloyd does a masterly job of conjuring a hungry, defeated Paris. Eddie is a convincing protagonist; a flawed man trying his best to be a good one. * THE TIMES *It's the book Raymond Chandler might have written if he had lived and breathed the Nazi Occupation of Paris... Paris Requiem is more than a historical crime novel, it's a tour de force. To read it is to have lived in occupied Paris, to have experienced its many-layered devastation. But to read it is also to have walked, in Eddie Giral's skin, through the decisions and betrayals, the compromises and dubious triumphs of an investigation which should, by rights, have killed him. * ALIS HAWKINS *A haunting and eye-opening portrayal of life under occupation. * ADELE PARKS *A stellar sequel to 2020's The Unwanted Dead. In 1940 Nazi-occupied Paris, police detective Eddie Giral, a wise-cracking maverick determined to stay faithful to his responsibilities despite the risks to his life, investigates the death of a man found in a jazz club...Little details, such as the occupied city now being governed by German time, which runs an hour ahead of French time, bring the period to life. Admirers of J. Robert Jane's St-Cyr and Kohler series will be delighted. * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review) *[A] superbly atmospheric thriller, which oozes moral ambiguity. * BOOKLIST (starred review) *This smart historical thriller centers on a WWII-era Paris policeman who finds himself working on behalf of the occupiers, pushing him into a moral crisis and a new case that forces him to confront the true extent of the damage being done to the soul of his city. * DWYER MURPHY, CrimeReads Editor in Chief *Lloyd paints a vivid picture of Paris: the lines of people trying to buy highly rationed food, the jazz clubs where they try to escape their miseries, and their persistent attempts to block out the brutal facts of the occupation. The plot action is suspenseful and intense. The characters-both heroes and villains-are vividly drawn. This is definitely a captivating read! * HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY *In Chris Lloyd's historical mystery "Paris Requiem," the year is 1940. The City of Light is occupied by German troops. The Eiffel Tower is closed. All songbirds have fled . . . [Detective Eddie Giral] ekes partial wins out of this amoral game: "Private triumphs I could share with no one"-except the spellbound reader. * WALL STREET JOURNAL *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''THE HOTTEST ACTION WRITER AROUND'' EVENING TELEGRAPHDISCOVER THE WILDLY ENTERTAINING, ACTION-PACKED JACK WEST SERIESFormer SAS soldier Jack West is on a mission to save the world, no matter what - or who - it might cost him.Still reeling from the loss of his daughter, and with his rivals far ahead of him, Jack must race across the globe to complete the ancient Trial of the Mountains.With the odds already against them, Jack and his crew will soon discover that a new player has entered the race, a general so feared that he had been locked away in the deepest of dungeons.Only now this general has escaped and he has a horrifying plan of his own...* * * * *PRAISE FOR THE JACK WEST THRILLERS''An action hero worthy of Lee Child'' Sydney Morning Herald''Thrilling, action-packed adventure from cover to cover'' GuardianTrade ReviewPure escapism. An action hero worthy of Lee Child * Sydney Morning Herald *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe studies here deal with the first half of the period of almost four centuries (1191-1571) when Greeks, Latins, and other groups coexisted on the island of Cyprus. Under the French-speaking Lusignan dynasty, the Kingdom of Cyprus gradually evolved from a fragmented cluster of indigenous and alien linguistic and religious communities to a more unified yet still multicultural society of Cypriots by the end of the reign of King Hugh IV (1324-59), a process that was redirected in the wake of the Genoese invasion in the 1370s. The ecclesiastical history of Early Frankish Cyprus has traditionally been seen as one long national (Greek) struggle against foreign (Latin) efforts at forced doctrinal and ritual assimilation. In this volume Dr Schabel presents a more nuanced view, with new interpretations of general trends and specific events in the history of the Greek and Latin clergies on the island, the involvement of the crown, the papacy, and the eastern and western emperors, and the relaTrade Review'These are perceptive papers, and, together with the appearance of the Bullarium, they mark a significant enhancement in our understanding of the first two centuries of Lusignan rule in Cyprus.' Crusades '... a very rich and useful collection.' Catholic Historical ReviewTable of ContentsContents: Preface; The status of the Greek clergy in early Frankish Cyprus; The myth of Queen Alice and the subjugation of the Greek clergy of Cyprus; Martyrs and heretics, intolerance of intolerance: the execution of 13 monks in Cyprus in 1231; The Greek bishops of Cyprus, 1260-1340, and the Synodikon Kyprion; The Latin bishops of Cyprus, 1255-1313, with a note on Bishop Neophytos of Solea; Frankish Pyrgos and the Cistercians; The inquisition against Peter de Castro, Vicar of the Dominican province of the Holy Land in Nicosia, Cyprus, 1330 (with Christina Kaoulla); Elias of Nabinaux, archbishop of Nicosia, and the intellectual history of later medieval Cyprus; Archbishop Elias and the Synodicum Nicosiense; Hugh the Just: the further rehabilitation of King Hugh IV Lusignan of Cyprus; Addenda and corrigenda; Name index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisVinyl: A History of the Analogue Record is the first in-depth study of the vinyl record. Richard Osborne traces the evolution of the recording format from its roots in the first sound recording experiments to its survival in the world of digital technologies. This book addresses the record''s relationship with music: the analogue record was shaped by, and helped to shape, the music of the twentieth century. It also looks at the cult of vinyl records. Why are users so passionate about this format? Why has it become the subject of artworks and advertisements? Why are vinyl records still being produced? This book explores its subject using a distinctive approach: the author takes the vinyl record apart and historicizes its construction. Each chapter explores a different element: the groove, the disc shape, the label, vinyl itself, the album, the single, the b-side and the 12 single, and the sleeve. By anatomizing vinyl in this manner, the author shines new light on its impact and appeal.Trade ReviewA Yankee Book Peddler US Core Title for 2013 Special Mention, 2013 IASPM Book Prize. '...this book is actually one of the best and most engaging books on phonography and/or recording formats in recent years.' IASPM Book Prize Jury Finalist, 2013 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research, Best Historical Research on General Recording Topics. A Yankee Book Peddler UK Core Title for 2012 Classified as 'Research Essential' by Baker & Taylor YBP Library Services 'Hats off to the excellent Richard Osborne for producing a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable romp through the musical history of polyvinyl chloride... The author has produced a valuable collection of sound bites and snapshots of what the 20th century sounded like.' Times Higher Education '... a well-written and thoroughly engaging précis of vinyl’s journey from its origins to its constantly shifting presence throughout the 20th Century.' Record Collector '... Richard Osborne has just released the most perfect book: a history of vinyl that does not neglect aesthetic or interpretative considerations, but focuses also on hard facts, and pays attention to technology, and economics... Osborne’s book proves a fascinating and essential read, and an elegant one at that.' InMedia 'Richard Osborne has produced a concise, readable, and well-researched historical study of the vinyl record. The text is not overloaded with scholarly apparatus, although Osborne supports his argument with quotations from primary sources... Vinyl would be an excellent addition to large public libraries as well as academic institutions that teach popular music and the history of recorded music.' CAML (Canadian Association of Music Libraries) Review '... a thoughtful discussion of the relationship between human senses and the physical aspect of records that makes them enduring objects of cultural interest... a fine introduction to both the history of recorded sound and the cuTable of ContentsIntroduction; Chapter 1 The Groove; Chapter 2 The Disc; Chapter 3 The Label; Chapter 4 Vinyl; Chapter 5 The LP; Chapter 6 The 45; Chapter 7 The B-Side and the 12” Single; Chapter 8 The Sleeve; conclusion Conclusion;

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Orientalism, Eroticism and Modern Visuality in Global Cultures scholars look afresh at representations of nineteenth-century âorientalâ bodies, inquiring deeply into their erotic dimensions, tracing their global dissemination at cross-cultural intersections of the visual and the political. Authors consider the impact of eroticized orientalist representations registered on racial and gendered bodies at historical moments across the globe in the media of photography, painting, prints and sculpture by contextualizing the visual within social practices, ethnography, literature, travel writing and the dynamics of imperialism. Authors examine orientalismâs politico-erotic import across not only imperial Britain and France but also throughout India and the Middle East initiating cross-cultural analyses of orientalism outside of Europe. Works studied include Orientalist and homoerotic works by canonic artists such as Ingres, GÃrÃme, Delacroix and Girodet, and lesser-known artists such as scTrade Review’This is an important work. An admirably learned, focused, nuanced volume that follows a theme that is central, but rarely examined in-depth, through a fascinating variety of cultural and geographic locales-from Morocco to India. It should be read by anyone interested in artistic Orientalism and Exoticism, or the complexity and variety of desires they engage.’ Frederick N. Bohrer, Hood College, author of Orientalism and Visual CultureTable of ContentsList of Illustrations ixNotes on Contributors xiiiAcknowledgments xvii1 Introduction: Rethinking Orientalism, Eroticism and Cross-Cultural Visuality 1Julie Codell and Joan DelPlatoPART I: RACE, ETHNICITY AND THE ABJECT ORIENTAL2 Menace at the Portal: Masculine Desire and the Homoerotics of Orientalism 25James Smalls3 Delacroix’s Invitation to the Jewish Wedding in Morocco 55Albert Boime4 Seeing through “The Veil Trick”: Heterotopic Eroticism in Monti’s Sculpture Circassian Slave at the Crystal Palace in 1851 83Joan DelPlatoPART II: DISCOURSES OF PROJECTION AND CULTURAL CROSS-DRESSING5 The Conceit of Burton’s Scar: Orientalism as Identity and Transgression 115Julie Codell6 Other Desires and the Desire of Others 141Mary RobertsPART III: CIRCULATING AND RE-CIRCULATING ORIENTAL EROTICS7 Sapphism and the Seraglio: Refl ections on the Queer Female Gaze and Orientalism 163Reina Lewis8 European Fantasies and Awadhi Aspirations: From a “Turkish” Harem to a Lucknowi Zenana 181Saleema WaraichWorks

Read more less

Book Synopsis From the preeminent historian of comedy, an expansive history of show business and the battles over culture that have echoed through the decades and changed the United States“Outrageous is required reading. An essential book of the social history of the United States—with laughs.” (Steve Martin) There is a common belief that we live in unprecedented times, that nobody got offended in the past, that people are simply too sensitive today, that racism and sexism were once widely accepted without objection. The truth is precisely the opposite. With every step of our cultural history, minorities have pushed back against racist portrayals, women have fought for respect, and people have sought to change the world of entertainment and beyond through a combination of censorship, advocacy, or protest. Likewise, opposing forces have sought to sway public opinion and shape culture through violence and political and eco

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn entertaining journey into the booming world of vintage spirits, the quirky and intensely passionate “dusty hunters” who chase them, and the history they reveal, from an acclaimed author and journalist. In Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits, journalist Aaron Goldfarb goes on an adventure in vintage spirits. This is an intoxicating story of obsessives on the hunt for old bottles of whiskey, tequila, rum, chartreuse—you name it—from estate sales, grandpa’s liquor cabinet, and out-of-the-way and inner-city liquor stores that may just have a case or a few bottles lying around in the basement. What Goldfarb and these “dusty hunters” discover are more than just bottles from bygone brands or old formulations no longer available—they find portals into history. Spirits, once bottled, don’t age like wine. A bourbon from the 1935 lets you savor the end of Prohibition. A 1940s rum cocktail with act

Read more less

Book Synopsis A delicious invitation into one of the largest Médoc vineyards owned by the Rothschild family Château Clarke, a vast estate of Bordeaux wine, has maintained a winemaking tradition for over two centuries. Named after the Irish family that owned the property in the 18th century, the vineyard was later acquired by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in 1973. With a vision and love for wine, Rothschild transformed Château Clarke into the icon it is today—one of the largest Médoc vineyards on a 145-hectare estate where wines and gardens bloom in harmony. Unfolding across four sections—Roots, Leaves, Flowers, and Fruits—Château Clarke tells the story of this estate, from Rothschild’s restoration and redesign of the entire vineyard to the aromatic brilliance of the wine. While the Edmond de Rothschild family continues to carry on this legacy, their archival materials grace the pages, in addition to an a

Read more less

Book Synopsis The rich history of Monaco and UNESCO’s decades-long commitment to world peaceSince 1949, the Principality of Monaco has collaborated with UNESCO on milestone projects and initiatives that continue to shape Monaco and the world’s cultural and educational landscape. Monaco at UNESCO: 75 Years is an in-depth chronicle of this relationship packaged in a beautiful hardcover with more than 150 illustrations. This historical text commemorates this partnership with archival materials documenting the successes and challenges throughout the evolution of heritage protection campaigns and educational and sustainability efforts. Both a celebration of the past and a look toward the future, Monaco at UNESCO symbolizes an unwavering international dedication to world peace.

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHe analyzes the geopolitical causes of conflict and prospects for resolution, assesses implications of the impasse over economic zones in the eastern Mediterranean where Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, and Turkey all have claims, and reflects on the meaning of borders and frontiers today.Trade ReviewMore scholars will probably re-examine the dramatic vicissitudes that have transpired in the tri-border region in the near future. Kaufman's exhaustive research will serve as an important resource for all of them. -- Mori Ram Antipode The main contribution of this work is its rich empirical quality. To shed light on the struggle over borders, the author has consulted American, British, French, Israeli, and United Nations (UN) documents, along with some Arabic material. The book is theoretically informed, drawing on the academic literature of subjects such as border conflicts, sovereignty, borderlands, and state formation without necessarily seeking to contribute substantially to the development of theories... The work's painstaking attention to detail makes it extraordinarily valuable for scholars of Israel-Lebanese-Syrian relations and essential for those interested in border disputes between these countries. -- James R Stocker H-Diplo A meticulously detailed, carefully written account of the geopolitics of a very small but highly contested area... The construction of the book unfolds like an elegant mathematical proof, in which the reader is shown how a led to b and then to c, and how a sequence of various elements, piled on top of one another in chronological succession, have led to this apparently insignificant area becoming a major point of contestation in the Arab-Israeli conflict. -- Peter Sluglett American Historical ReviewTable of ContentsList of Maps and FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: Mapping the Tri-Border Region1. Colonial Mapping2. Mapping the Mandates3. After Independence4. The United Nations: Mapping, Mediating, and Peacekeeping, 1949–20005. Cartographic Wars: The Israeli Withdrawal from South Lebanon and BeyondPart II: Borders, Boundaries, and Frontiers, 1924-19826. The Making of the Tri-Border Region, 1924–19497. During and Between Wars: 1949–19738. Fatahland: How Lebanon Became a Frontline State9. Whose Water Is This? Boundaries and Hydropolitics10. Crossing Boundaries: The Trans-Arabian Pipeline and the Arab-Israeli ConflictPart III: The Shebaa Farms Dispute and Beyond11. A Fabricated Border Quandary?12. The Shebaa Farms, Hizbullah, and Lebanese Sovereignty13. Joha's Nail? Israel and the Shebaa Farms14. Resolving the Dispute? The United Nations in the Tri-Border Region, 2000–2010Conclusion: On Cartography, Sovereignty, and ConflictNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisExamining hardboiled fiction through Flaubert, New Yorker cartoons through modernist painting, and Bette Davis through Hegel and Marx, Transatlantic Aliens challenges and changes the way we understand modernism's place in midcentury American culture.Trade ReviewWriting with the style and vocabulary of modern intellectualism, [Norman] demonstrates the culture to which new scholars can aspire. Highly recommended. ChoiceTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1Homeless Aliens and Dialectical Culture Critique: C. L. R. James and Theodor AdornoChapter 2 The Yankee from Berlin: George GroszChapter 3The Big Empty: Raymond Chandler's Transatlantic Modernism Chapter 4 The Taste of Freedom: Simone de Beauvoir, Vladimir Nabokov and the Intellectual Road Trip Chapter 5 Saul Steinberg's Vanishing Trick: Modernism, the State, and the Cosmopolitan Intellectual Conclusion: Not to Grin is a Sin Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisSuffrage at 100 looks at women's engagement in US electoral politics and government over the one hundred years since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In the 2018 midterm elections, 102 women were elected to the House and 14 to the Senatea record for both bodies. And yet nearly a century after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the notion of congressional gender parity by 2020a stated goal of the National Women's Political Caucus at the time of its founding in 1971remains a distant ideal. In Suffrage at 100, Stacie Taranto and Leandra Zarnow bring together twenty-two scholars to take stock of women's engagement in electoral politics over the past one hundred years. This is the first wide-ranging collection to historically examine women's full political engagement in and beyond electoral office since they gained a constitutional right to vote. The book explores why women's access to, and influence on, political power remains frustratingly uneven, particularly foTable of ContentsIntroduction. From Voting Power to Political PowerStacie Taranto and Leandra ZarnowChapter 1. A History of Women in American Politics and the Enduring Male Political Citizenship IdealStacie Taranto and Leandra ZarnowPart I. Voting Rights Real and Imagined: Women's Political Engagement in the Decades after Suffrage, 1920s-1950sChapter 2. Commemorating the History of the Nineteenth Amendment: The National Woman's Party and the Politics of Memory in the 1920sClaire DelahayeChapter 3. After the "Century of Struggle": The Nineteenth Amendment, Southern African American Women, and the Problem of Female Disfranchisement After 1920Liette GidlowChapter 4. "My Money's on the Mare": Lessons from the 1930 US Senate Campaign of Ruth Hanna McCormickJohanna NeumanChapter 5. "A Dead Husband Is a Better Ticket to Congress Than a Log Cabin": The Public Discourse of Widows in Office, 1920-1940Katherine ParkinChapter 6. Beyond the New Deal Network: Mary Elizabeth Switzer at the Federal Security Agency, 1939-1945Dean KotlowskiChapter 7. Elizabeth Peratrovich, the Alaska Native Sisterhood, and Indigenous Women's Activism, 1943-1947Holly Miowak GuiseChapter 8. "These Men Have Such Dominant Positions": The Women's Committee for Educational Freedom and the Gendered Battle for Liberalism in the 1940sNancy Beck YoungChapter 9. "I Have Talked to You Not as Women but as American Citizens": The Gender Ideology of Presidential Campaigns, 1940-1956Melissa Estes BlairPart II. Women's Political Leadership Takes Shape: Reform and Reaction, 1960s-1980sChapter 10. From Suffragist to Congresswoman: Celebrating Political Action, Women's History, and Feminist Intellectuals in Ms. Magazine, 1972-1984Ana StevensonChapter 11. "You Know Where I Stand": Louise Day Hicks and the Politics of Race, Class and Gender, 1963-1975Kathleen Banks NutterChapter 12. On the Shirley Chisholm Trail: The Legacy of Suffrage and Citizenship EngagementBarbara WinslowChapter 13. Envisioning the National Women's Conference: Patsy Takemoto Mink and Pacific FeminismJudy Tzu-Chun WuChapter 14. Married Congresswomen and the New Breed of Political Husbands in 1970s Political CultureSarah B. RowleyChapter 15. Madame Ambassador: Jeane J. Kirkpatrick and Global DiplomacyBianca RowlettPart III. Looking Toward a New Century for Women in Politics, 1990s-2010s Chapter 16. Palin versus Clinton: Feminism, Womanhood, and the 2008 Presidential ElectionEmily Suzanne JohnsonChapter 17. Tribute Politics: How Feminist History Became a Reference Point in the 2016 ElectionNicole EatonChapter 18. Rooted in Community: The Scholarship of Chicana Leadership and ActivismMarisela R. ChávezChapter 19. Pave It Blue: Georgia Women and Politics in the Trump EraEllen G. RafshoonChapter 20. Putting Women on a Pedestal: Monument Debates in the Era of the Suffrage CentennialMonica L. MercadoChapter 21. Toward a New New Deal . . . and the Women Will LeadEileen BorisAcknowledgmentsContributorsIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisNow updated A comprehensive, 500-year history of technology in society. Historian Thomas J. Misa's sweeping history of the relationship between technology and society over the past 500 years reveals how technological innovations have shapedand have been shaped bythe cultures in which they arose. Spanning the preindustrial past, the age of scientific, political, and industrial revolutions, as well as the more recent eras of imperialism, modernism, and global security, this compelling work evaluates what Misa calls the question of technology.In this edition, Misa brings his acclaimed text up to date by drawing on current scholarship while retaining sharply drawn portraits of individual people, artifacts, and systems. Each chapter has been honed to relate to contemporary concerns. Globalization, Misa argues, looks differently considering today's virulent nationalism, cultural chauvinism, and trade wars. A new chapter focuses on the digital age from 1990 to 2016. The book also examines Trade ReviewThis book is indispensable and exciting reading for both scholars and a wider audience.—Emanuela Scarpellini, Technology & CultureTable of ContentsList of Figures and TablesPrefaceAcknowledgmentsChapter 1. Technologies of the Court, 1450–1600Chapter 2. Techniques of Commerce, 1588–1740Chapter 3. Geographies of Industry, 1740–1851Chapter 4. Instruments of Empire, 1840–1914Chapter 5. Science and Systems, 1870–1930Chapter 6. Materials of Modernism, 1900–1950Chapter 7. The Means of Destruction, 1936–1990Chapter 8. Promises of Global Culture, 1970–2001Chapter 9. Paths to Insecurity, 2001–2010Chapter 10. Dominance of the Digital, 1990–2016Chapter 11. The Question of TechnologyNotesEssay on SourcesIndex

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe best introduction to England As most important dynasty A DAVID STARKEYTrade ReviewMagnificent * HISTORY TODAY *The best history of the Tudors in print, but don't take our word for it Gripping and told with enviable narrative skill: a delight * THES *Vivid, entertaining and carrying its learning lightly -- PROFESSOR EAMON DUFFYThe best introduction to England's most important dynasty -- DAVID STARKEY

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Otley has changed and developed over the last century.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Wensleydale & Coverdale have changed and developed over the last century.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Richmond upon Thames has changed and developed over the last century.

Read more less

Book SynopsisExplore the secret history of Aldeburgh to Southwold through a fascinating selection of stories, facts and photographs.

Read more less

Book SynopsisJon Mountfort explores the iconic British toy, and offers hints and tips that will delight current and prospective collectors, as well as the general Scalextric enthusiast.

Read more less