Search results for ""The History Press Ltd""

This delightful book is filled with fascinating and enchanting folklore and histories of both coast and sea. Even if you are not a coastal dweller, you will find magic and wonder in some of England''s oldest and strangest tales. A lovely read. - Annie WorsleyEngland is a maritime nation. Our folklore and history is peppered with tall tales of the high seas: mysteries of the great ocean, the unknown world beneath the surface of the salt sea, and the liminal coast where the sea-gods meet our lives on the land.Here is a collection of traditional folk tales from the coasts and seas of England. Lisa Schneidau retells the old stories with a contemporary twist: dragons and monsters, sailor heroes and ghost ships, mermaids and shapeshifters. Immerse yourself in these salty sea stories, and learn about England's heritage, magic and relationship to the mysterious ocean world that surrounds us.

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'Janet Dowling is magic and her stories bring the wonders of the night sky onto the page. She has journeyed from Polar ice to Pacific islands in search of tales which will re-enchant the heavens under which we all live and which so many of us forget.' - Jeremy Harte, The Folklore SocietyDiscover the Greek myths that are laid before you in the stars. Explore the folk tales of other cultures that have their own stories of the stars to guide the ancients in planting, navigating, and knowing when the beasts migrate across the plains.Start your own adventure to answer the question 'Whose constellation is it anyway?' in this compelling collection of folk tales of the night sky.

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Conscription, a feature of the British Army in wartime, did not cease with the end of the Second World War. For almost another two decades, men were conscripted for National Service and two years in the armed forces.For many it brought some discipline to their lives, for others, they got to see the world. Some fought in action in Cyprus, Malaya, Kenya, Korea and in many other far-flung parts of the dwindling empire. During the Cold War, it also ensured Britain could call on a professionally trained group of men in times of war.It was all to end by the early 1960s, but hundreds of thousands of men were trained using the information enclosed within the pages of The National Serviceman’s Handbook, a compilation of the various army training manuals issued throughout National Service.

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From alpacas to zebus, crocodiles to wombats, journey through the individual histories of bizarre garden pets and their often bizarre owners. Who would dream of keeping a bear in the summerhouse, or a peccary in the park? Find out why the artist Rossetti favoured a wombat over a zebu, and if hares make good pets for depressed poets.Dr Twigs Way uncovers a secret world where crocodiles lurk in the fernery and flamingos stalk the shrubberies. From the Roman period to the modern day, discover the story of armadillos kept by merchants in London and Queen Charlotte’s filthy-tempered zebra. These are quirky tales of animals in the garden.

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The great passenger liners of the twentieth century make for iconic images of maritime history and design. Ships of Splendour presents the development of passenger ships across the twentieth century, from the 1920s, through the 1940s, and the heyday of the 1950s and ’60s, until the onset of the jet age.The fleet includes famous passenger ships, such as the great Cunarders; titans of the North Atlantic, like the United States, France *and *Michelangelo; and other icons, including the Southern Cross, Windsor Castle, Canberra *and *Oriana. Homage is also paid to the smaller liners, which were just as important in shaping the history of modern seafaring – ships such as the Aureol, Batory, Guglielmo Marconi, Hanseatic, Queen of Bermuda and Willem Ruys. Replete with notes, facts and anecdotes about these ships, the history of the passenger liner is broken down ship-by-ship and decade-by-decade. These ships return to the high seas once again in superb detail and vibrant colour.

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Gerrards Cross, known for its open common and picturesque Latchmore Pond, had been a place of resort ever since the 1790s. Genteel houses sprang up, attracting enough wealthy visitors that it began to be known as the ‘Brighton of Bucks.’ The opening of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway in 1906, with a station at Gerrards Cross, gave hundreds of Londoners the opportunity to live in ‘Beechy Bucks.’Gerrards Cross: A History celebrates the energy and imagination of the pioneer architects, builders and estate agents who ensured that Gerrards Cross became a high-class residential area, both socially and architecturally. It also applauds the entrepreneurs who opened their new shops and services when the commuter houses were still on the drawing board, and the brave newcomers who brought their families to live in the country, but depended utterly on their reliable train service to London.

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''Ajay's passion for conservation and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Wicken Fen ooze out of every single page'' - Iolo WilliamsTucked away in the flat lands of rural East Anglia lies Wicken Fen, so loved for its big skies and tiny creatures, boasting over 9,000 recorded species. For 125 years, this wildlife sanctuary has been cared for by the National Trust. A dedicated team look after this precious wetland of international importance, working with herds of free-roaming horses and cattle and weathering the elements to cope creatively with the dramas of a life outdoors at the cutting edge of conservation.Wetland Diaries is a seasonal account of ranger life on Wicken Fen, saving a once widespread landscape and revealing the spectrum of emotions experienced in the process. Ajay shares the spirit and atmosphere of the Fens, offering an insight into the privileges and pressures of managing semi-wild animals in one

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How did our ancestors use the concept of demons to explain sleep paralysis? Is that carving in the porch of your local church really what you think it is? And what’s that tapping noise on the roof of your car..? The fields of folklore have never been more popular – a recent resurgence of interest in traditional beliefs and customs, coupled with morbid curiosities in folk horror, historic witchcraft cases and our superstitious past, have led to an intersection of ideas that is driving people to seek out more information.Tracey Norman (author of the acclaimed play WITCH) and Mark Norman (creator of The Folklore Podcast) lead you on an exploration of those more salubrious facets of our past, highlighting those aspects of our cultural beliefs and social history that are less ‘wicker basket’ and more ‘Wicker Man’.

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‘A lively book that captures the essence of a modern monarchy and a new Elizabethan era’ - Lyndsy Spence, The Lady‘Down-to-earth and insightful’ - Daily MailIt is 1952 and Britain is changing. The Second World War is over, but the country is still scarred, recovering from six years of horror and still in the grip of food rationing. The British Empire is crumbling as countries fight for their independence both literally and physically. And George VI, the king who had refused to abandon London, is dead.Thorns in the Crown is the story of a country on the precipice, divided between those who held firm to old values and traditions and those who were fighting for modernity and progression. Featuring memories and reflections of those who were part of the coronation, Barry Turner presents a unique look at Britain as it came to terms with the second Elizabethan age.

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From regicides to revolutionaries; from fascists to anarchists; from Tom Paine to Tom Wintringham, this book is a history of noble ideals and crushing failures in which Clive Bloom takes us on a journey through British history, exploring our often rocky relationship with the ruling elite. A History of Britian's Fight for a Republic reveals our surprising legacy of terrorism and revolution, reminding us that Britain has witnessed centuries of revolt. This is a history encompassing three bloody civil wars in Ireland, the bombing campaigns by the IRA, two Welsh uprisings, one Lowland Scottish civil war, uprisings in Derbyshire and Kent, five attempts to assassinate the entire cabinet and seize London, and numerous attempts to murder the royal family.This new and revised edition takes the story of modern monarchy back to its origins in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and forward to the reign of Charles III and includes the story of the continuing struggle for democratic rights and republican values from medieval times up to the present struggle for Scottish and Welsh independence.

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'This book is an extremely important part of women's social history. Read it!' - Maxine PeakeRobin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Krays … All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are their female equivalents? Where are the street robbers, gang leaders, diamond thieves, gold smugglers and bank robbers?Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of female crooks from the seventeenth century to the present. From Moll Cutpurse to the Black Boy Alley Ladies, from jewel thief Emily Lawrence to bandit leader Elsie Carey and burglar Zoe Progl, these were charismatic women at the top of their game. But female criminals have long been dismissed as either not ‘real women’ or not ‘real criminals’, and in the process their stories have been lost.Caitlin Davies unravels the myths, confronts the lies and tracks down modern-day descendants in order to tell the truth about their lives for the first time.

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Joseph Stalin was one of the most ruthless and authoritarian dictators in world history, who plunged Russia into a barbarous nightmare, leaving behind a damaged nation and a legacy of grief.This concise biography presents Lenin’s heir from his humble and troubled beginnings to the highest rank of all: General Secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin: A Pocket Biography is an accessible account of a complex tyrant, perfect for students or anyone taking a first look into modern Russian history.

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The summer of 2022 saw the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, the first time in British history that a monarch has reached this remarkable milestone.As the event was the first of its kind to be televised, images from the ceremony inside Westminster Abbey are instantly recognisable. Far less familiar are the scenes in the streets outside, where huge crowds assembled to see a procession of state coaches and historic regiments marching past public buildings festooned with patriotic banners and colourful grandstands erected outside many famous landmarks.Using a private collection of more than 200 rare images of London’s West End, Protect and Keep looks back to the day that the Queen pledged herself to her country. It provides a unique and precious record of an historic occasion: the day of the Coronation as it was seen by ordinary members of the public.

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Airmen and soldiers, knights and pages, gentlemen and rogues: to you we say stiffen your lip and tighten your sword belt! Tie down your trebuchets, wax your moustache and delve into this manliest of manuals, containing everything the well-bred British man needs to know.The Manual for British Men teaches day-to-day skills such as how to besiege a castle, fire a longbow, correctly clean a Maxim machine gun and capture an enemy trench; sporting sciences such as jousting, fencing and boxing (Queensbury Rules, of course); and domestic essentials such as how to hunt, kill, clean and cook a wild boar.

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Tom's new anthology contains a wide pantheon of supernatural beings, from the dangerous Blue Men of the Minth and the jealous mermaid of Caithness to the gentle selkie folk who live between two worlds in stories harvested from the coastlines, lochs and islands of his native lead.' - Coast magazine Book of the MonthScotland has over 11,600 miles of coastline, so it's no surprise that the sea and shore have been inspiring folk tales for millennia.In Scottish Folk Tales of Coast and Sea, Orkney storyteller Tom Muir weaves tales from this lore-steeped shoreline, finding selkie folk, pirates and even the devil in the liminal space between land and sea. Learn how death was captured in a nut, how a mermaid wreaked her revenge and how whirlpools were created. Discover a land beneath the waves, the mysterious island of Tir-nan-Og and a chorus of demon cats but beware the most grotesque monster of them all, the hideous Nuckela

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The debt medicine owes to botany is not commonly appreciated. In the past, medicine relied almost entirely on plants, and even today, many western medicines are plant derived. Despite this, historians have largely neglected the study of domestic medicine, practised by the ordinary person and passed down through generations, in favour of ‘official medicine’. The History of Domestic Plant Medicine brings together manuscripts, letters, diaries, personal oral interviews and other primary evidence to produce a detailed picture of the medicinal use of native plants in Britain from 1700 to the present day. Recording for posterity this neglected aspect of our heritage, it is a valuable contribution to the study of the folklore of modern Britain and a fascinating piece of social history.

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One of the most decisive battles in military history, Waterloo saw the culmination of a generation of war to bring a definitive end to French hegemony and imperial ambitions in Europe. Both sides fought bitterly and Wellington later remarked that ‘it was the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life’.In this bloody engagement, more than 20,000 men were lost on the battlefield that day by each side, but it was the Anglo-Allies who emerged victorious. Their forces entered France and restored Louis XVIII to the throne, while Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, where he later died.Waterloo was a resounding victory for the British Army and Allied forces, and it changed the course of European history. In this concise yet detailed account, historian Gregory Fremont-Barnes tells you everything you need to know about this critical battle.

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‘James Seay Dean is the noted authority on these voyages … he provides a sympathetic treatment of life aboard ship in some of the most challenging circumstances these redoubtable sailors faced “beyond the line”.’ – Professor Barry Gough, maritime historian ‘A fascinating and informative account of the development of Tudor and Stuart sailing ships. Its examination of their architecture, sailing, and tactics, especially as it is set within the international political context, makes a most interesting story.’ – Bryan Barrett, Commander RN, ret. From jacktar to captain, what was life like aboard an Elizabethan ship? How did the men survive tropical heat, storms, bad water, rotten food, disease, poor navigation, shifting cargoes and enemy fire? Would a sailor return alive? Sea Dogs follows in the footsteps of the average sailor, drawing from the accounts of sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century ocean voyages to convey the realities of everyday life aboard the galleons sailing between England and the West Indies and beyond. Celebrating the extraordinary drive and courage of those early sailors who left the familiarity of their English estuaries for the dangers of the Cabo Verde and the Caribbean, the Rivers Amazonas and Orinoco, and the Strait of Magellan, and their remarkable achievements, Sea Dogs is essential reading for anyone with an interest in English maritime heritage.

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‘Beautifully told, this book brings a fascinating and compelling story to a wider public. A “must read” for those interested in women’s lives in the past.’ - June Purvis, Professor (Emerita) of Women’s and Gender History, University of Portsmouth, UK‘This important and absorbing book presents a unique history of Kitty Marshall. This is first-class history and a first-rate thriller.’ - Professor Clive Bloom, author of A History of Britain’s Fight for a RepublicKatherine ‘Kitty’ Marshall was destined to break with convention. Brought up in a socially active family, her inherent rebellious streak came into play in 1901, when she daringly divorced her husband and joined the newly founded Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), campaigning for women’s suffrage.In 1904, she married solicitor Arthur Willoughby Marshall and the couple soon became a powerhouse team in the movement: Arthur defending the suffragettes in court while Kitty, trained in jujitsu and a member of the WSPU’s elite team ‘the Bodyguard’, helped her close friend Mrs Pankhurst evade the clutches of the authorities under the infamous Cat and Mouse Act. All the while, Kitty was under the watchful eye of the Metropolitan Police, and in particular Detective Inspector Ralph Kitchener, who frequently encountered the Marshalls in his work trailing the suffragette ‘mice’.Following events as they unfolded on both sides, Mrs Pankhurst’s Bodyguard is a gripping account of Kitty and Arthur’s incredible work and their fight for political equality.

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‘This book should be in your hands!’ – Medieval History Magazine'A detailed and readable account of Hotspur’s life that conveys a sense of the endemic violence of the Border Marches.’ – Northern History‘Boardman has studied the battlefields of Otterburn, Homildon Hill and Shrewsbury and combines knowledge of terrain, weapons, and tactics with contemporary narratives to produce feasible reconstructions and explanations of what actually occurred.’ – Michael HicksImmortalised by Shakespeare in Henry IV, Part I, Henry Percy, nicknamed ‘Hotspur’, is among the best known of all his warlike characters.As the young, honourable but impatient rebel soldier whose chivalrous exploits on the battlefield end in disaster at Shrewsbury in 1403, Hotspur is the archetypal anti-hero: a character of such tragic and dramatic significance that even his well-known nickname has passed from history into legend. But who was the historical Henry Percy, and why did his rise to fame bring him into direct confrontation with his king?This fully updated book tells the story of the real Henry Percy and his overbearing family, and how the survival of a great northern dynasty led to open rebellion and ultimately military failure.

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Looking towards the future can be daunting, but with Future Hackers, the sequel to The Future Is Now, you can prepare for the exciting changes that lie ahead.From technological advancements to cultural shifts, the coming years will bring unprecedented transformations that will shape our lives in ways we can't even imagine.This book is your essential guide to understanding these changes and adapting to them with optimism and confidence. With expert insights into the latest trends in work, leadership and technology, Future Hackers is your indispensable tool for thriving in a rapidly changing world. Whether you're a business leader, a student, or just someone who wants to stay ahead of the curve, this book will help you navigate the road to 2030 and beyond.

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In The Last Ten Years, author Brian J. Dickson presents stunning colour photographs from the collections of three enthusiasts of the Seafield Railway Club in north London.Meeting regularly at New Southgate station to record the steam-handled traffic, their focus was initially on all things connected with the former London and North Eastern Railway, but as steam traction became restricted to smaller and smaller areas of operation, regular visits were made further afield, to the north-east of England, Scotland and the former London Midland and Scottish Railway sheds and lines.This record of steam locomotion in its final years of mainline usage, from 1959 to 1968, is sure to enhance any steam railway enthusiast’s library.

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Millions live there, millions more visit each year – but how many really know London?Find out: How New York’s famous Central Park came to be modelled on a seventeenth-century London square When Primrose Hill almost gained a pyramid even larger than the Great Pyramid of Cheops Why about 640 people came to be drowned in the Thames in a single night What the royal family might do to escape London if the balloon ever goes up

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Major General Rea Leakey was one of the Royal Tank Regiment’s greatest heroes of the Second World War. As a young tank commander, he fought Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the Western Desert of Egypt, before becoming trapped for six months in the siege of Tobruk and temporarily joining the Australian infantry as an honorary Lance Corporal. He later returned to the European theatre in 1944 and served as a Churchill tank commander in Normandy, the Rhine and Germany. Despite it being strictly forbidden, Leakey kept a diary throughout his soldiering career. Based on this valuable account, Leakey’s Luck documents Leakey’s wartime service in its entirety, and offers a view of the war through the eyes of a man who was there at the ‘sharp end’. Many of his exploits were hair-raising, some even too fantastic to believe. Incredibly, Leakey’s luck held out throughout the war, and he remained in the British Army until retirement in 1968.

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'An enchanting treasury of magical tales handed down through the ages. Infectious and soul-stirring, these are stories crying out to be shared.' - Ben Hoare, award winning wildlife journalist and nature nerdHave you heard the tale of Black Annis, the witch-demon that lurks beneath a Leicester housing estate? Do you know the legend of the Hunting of the Great Bear, or how the crow brought daylight? Why should you be careful to never insult the moon?Star stories and creature tales, good-old-fashioned ghost stories together with traditional narratives about how the night became kindle the fires of our imagination and deepen our acquaintance with the dark in this compendium of stories to tell out loud.Filtered through the wild imaginations and indigenous tongues of storytellers from all over the world, this collection is rewritten and re-presented here by a master storyteller from the UK, who has been spinning nocturnal narratives around the campfire for three decades. This is a delicious midnight feast of 'tales from the dark side’ to fascinate, terrify, enchant and inform about the night-time realm.

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‘A wonderful account of a life filled with far more ups and downs than its subject’s languid demeanour ever suggested.’ Miles Jupp.Even if the name doesn’t ring a bell, you’d recognise David Tomlinson’s face – genial and continually perplexed, he was Mr Banks in Mary Poppins, Professor Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug. To many, he’s the epitome of post-war British comedy.But at times his life was more tragedy than comedy. A distinguished RAF pilot in the Second World War, his first marriage was to end in horrific tragedy and his next romance ended with his lover marrying the founder of the American Nazi Party. He did find love and security in his second marriage, but drama still played its part in his life – from the uncovering of an earthshattering family secret to the fight for an autism diagnosis for his son, up against the titans of the British medical establishment.Tomlinson may have died over twenty years ago, but his star continues to shine. In Disney’s British Gentleman, Nathan Morley reveals the remarkable story of one of Disney’s most beloved icons for the very first time.

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Princess Diana is seen as the first member of the British royal family to tear up the rulebook, and the Duchess of Cambridge is modernising the monarchy in strides. But before them was another who paved the way.Princess Mary was born in 1897. Despite her Victorian beginnings, she strove to make a princess’s life meaningful, using her position to help those less fortunate and defying gender conventions in the process. As the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, she would live to see not only two of her brothers ascend the throne but also her niece Queen Elizabeth II.She was one of the hardest-working members of the royal family, known for her no-nonsense approach and her determination in the face of adversity. During the First World War she came into her own, launching an appeal to furnish every British troop and sailor with a Christmas gift, and training as a nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital.From her dedication to the war effort, to her role as the family peacemaker during the Abdication Crisis, Mary was the princess who redefined the title for the modern age. In the first biography in decades, Elisabeth Basford offers a fresh appraisal of Mary’s full and fascinating life.

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Luise Urban was born in 1933 into a world about to be turned upside down. Her family lived east of the river Oder. Fatefully, her family were not Nazi Party members and suffered as a result. As the Third Reich crumbled and the Red Army advanced, she was one of 15 million Germans trapped in a war zone during the terrible winter of 1945. Weakened by starvation and forced to flee their home, it was only the bravery of Luise’s mother that saved the family from total destruction.The Oder–Neisse line (Oder-Neiße-Grenze) is the German–Polish border drawn in the aftermath of the war. The line primarily follows the Oder and Neisse rivers to the Baltic Sea west of the city of Stettin. All pre-war German territory east of the line and within the 1937 German boundaries was discussed at the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Germany was to lose 25 per cent of her territory under the agreement. Crucially, Stalin, Churchill and Truman also agreed to the expulsion of the German population beyond the new eastern borders. This meant that almost all of the native German population was killed, fled or was driven out by force.In A Dangerous Game, Luise relives that harrowing time, written in memory of her mother, to whom she owes her life. It is the story of a child, but it is not a story for children.

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On 10 May 1941, on a whim, Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess flew a Messerschmitt Bf 110 to Scotland in a bizarre effort to make peace with Britain; Göring sent fighters to stop him but he was long gone. Imprisoned and tried at Nuremberg, he would die by his own hand in 1987, aged 93. That’s the accepted explanation. Ever since, conspiracy theories have swirled around the famous mission. How strong were Hess’s connections with the British establishment, including royalty? Was the death of the king’s brother, the Duke of Kent, associated with the Hess overture for peace? In the many books written about Hess, one obvious line of enquiry has been overlooked, until now: an analysis of the flight itself – the flight plan, equipment, data sheets, navigation system.Through their long investigation, authors John Harris and Richard Wilbourn have come to a startling conclusion: whilst the flight itself has been well recorded, the target destination has remained hidden. The implications are far reaching and lend credence to the theory that the British establishment has hidden the truth of the full extent of British/Nazi communications, in part to spare the reputations of senior members of the Royal Family. Using original photography, documentation and diagrams, Rudolf Hess sheds light on one of the most intriguing stories of the Second World War.

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In the 1930s Lady Lucy Houston was one of the richest women in England and a household name, notorious for her virulent criticisms of the government. But politics had been far from her mind when, as young Fanny Radmall, she had set out to conquer the world. Armed with only looks and self-confidence, she exploited the wealth and status of successive lovers to push her way into high society. Brushing off scandal, she achieved public recognition as an ardent suffragette, war worker and philanthropist. Having won control of her third husband’s vast fortune, she enjoyed the trappings of wealth – jewellery, couture, racehorses and a luxury yacht – but she wanted more. Seeking influence in national politics, Lady Houston financed the first flight over Mount Everest, backed secret military research, and facilitated the development of the Spitfire aircraft. Engaging with famous contemporaries such as Winston Churchill and Oswald Mosley, Lucy sought her own public voice and so purchased a newspaper. Seeking to expose the Prime Minister as a Soviet agent and promote Edward VIII as England’s dictator, Lucy was loved as a patriot but loathed as a troublemaker. Adventuress draws upon hitherto unpublished archival material to reveal how Lucy Houston achieved her fame and fortune, and how she exploited them.

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The rollercoaster career of Tony Lock, extending over twenty-five years, is the saga of a resilient cricketer who triumphed over adversity.He was an inspirational figure in Surrey’s seven consecutive championship wins in the 1950s when he forged a feared spin partnership with Jim Laker for both club and country. Controversy stalked Lock as a bowler during his destructive rule with Surrey and England but the return to the orthodox style of his youth brought renewed acclaim. He rejoiced in another role as captain in reviving the fortunes of Leicestershire and Western Australia, where he led the state to victory in the Sheffield Shield.Tony Lock was, for a legion of admirers, an incorrigible showman, with boundless enthusiasm for the game. It was said of him, for instance, that when he appealed at the Oval, someone else was given out at Lord’s. Tony Lock: Aggressive Master of Spin is an engrossing study that reveals the paradox of a volatile and vulnerable man, but an astonishingly durable cricketer; his memory will endure.

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Walmesley wrote this travellers' guide in 1821, at a time when, just after the Napoleonic Wars, the Channel Islands were becoming known as a quiet retreat for inexpensive retirement and a destination for educated tourists. The text provides contemporary source material for the historian, with penetrating comments on individuals, families, houses, gardens and estates. His own sketches of well-known places are instantly recognisable, despite the changes of the intervening years. The islands are revealed as still essentially rural and largely unspoilt.

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Domesday Book is a statistical survey of England in 1086 A.D. it is a census of the population and productive resources of the country, of their value and of who held them. It was unmatched in Europe for many centuries, the product of a sophisticated and experienced English administration, fully exploited by the Conqueror’s commanding energy. Its name is known to everyone – and everyone can now have access to its text, and, within the limitations of contemporary scholarship, its meaning. It is difficult to exaggerate the important to local historians and archaeologists of the availability of a cheap edition of this fundamental source, for the first time in 900 years. The Domesday Survey was arranged by counties, or shires, and so is the Domesday Book Series. These are the ancient counties that survived with little change until 1974.

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Domesday Book is a statistical survey of England in 1086 A.D. it is a census of the population and productive resources of the country, of their value and of who held them. It was unmatched in Europe for many centuries, the product of a sophisticated and experienced English administration, fully exploited by the Conqueror’s commanding energy. Its name is known to everyone – and everyone can now have access to its text, and, within the limitations of contemporary scholarship, its meaning. It is difficult to exaggerate the important to local historians and archaeologists of the availability of a cheap edition of this fundamental source, for the first time in 900 years. The Domesday Survey was arranged by counties, or shires, and so is the Domesday Book Series. These are the ancient counties that survived with little change until 1974.

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The Story of Durham traces the evolution of a city that medieval writers likened to Jerusalem, which Ruskin termed one of the wonders of the world, and which Pevsner, more modestly, called one of the architectural experiences of Europe. To Bill Bryson, meanwhile, Durham appeared ‘a perfect little city’ with ‘the best cathedral on planet Earth’. The city is a physical manifestation of a significant event in our history: the Romanesque cathedral and castle together constitute this country’s monument to the Norman invasion, the last of our country. Beautifully illustrated, this popular history by a leading academic will delight residents and visitors alike.

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Do you remember collecting shrapnel and listening to Children’s Hour? Carrying gas masks or sharing your school with evacuees from the city? The 1940s was a decade of great challenge for everyone who lived through it. The hardships and fear created by a world war were immense. Britain’s towns and cities were being bombed on an almost nightly basis, and many children faced the trauma of being parted from their parents and sent away to the country to live with complete strangers. For just over half of this decade the war continued, meaning food and clothing shortages became a way of life. But through it all, and afterwards, the simplicity of kids shone. From collecting bits of shot-down German aircraft to playing in bomb-strewn streets, kids made their own fun. Then there was the joy of the second half of the 1940s, when fathers came home and the magic of ‘normal life’ returned.This trip down memory lane will take you through the most memorable and evocative experiences of growing up in the 1940s.

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The city of Glasgow, formerly one of the largest industrial centres in the world, was once responsible for building about one-quarter of the world's railway locomotives. This was complemented by a massive urban railway network: the second largest in the UK. However, the Beeching Report of 1963 inevitably took its toll on Glasgow. This book examines the changing face of Glasgow's railways ever since that infamous report, starting with the period of rationalisation and industrial decline that followed. It also explores the revival enjoyed in the last few decades, with lines reopened and modern rolling stock introduced. Furthermore, with Glasgow hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games, it looks at the emphasis being placed on the railway as further development work takes place.

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From his cage in a putrid, overcrowded Indian gaol, Paul Jordan reflects on a life lived on the edge and curses the miscalculation that robbed him of his freedom. His childhood, marred by the loss of his father and brother, produces a young man hell bent on being the best of the best – an ambition he achieves by being selected to join the elite SAS. He survives the gut-wrenching training regime, deployment to the jungles of Asia and the horrors of genocide in Rwanda before leaving the army to embark on a career as a security adviser. His new life sees him pursuing criminals and gun-toting bandits in Papua New Guinea and the Solomons, protecting CNN newsmen as the US 7th Cavalry storms into Baghdad with the outbreak of the Iraq War, and facing death on a massive scale as he accompanies reporters into the devastated Indonesian town of Banda Ache, flattened by the Boxing Day tsunami. During his 24 days in an Indian gaol, Paul Jordan discovers that friendship and human dignity somehow survive the filth and deprivation. The Easy Day was Yesterday is fast paced, brutally honest, raw and laced with dark humour. The core of Paul Jordan's eventful life it is the ability of the human spirit to survive even in the direst adversity.

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The Palestine campaign of 1917 saw Britain’s armed forces rise from defeat to achieve stunning victory. After two failed attempts in the spring, at the end of the year they broke through the Ottoman line with an innovative mixture of old and new technology and tactics, and managed to advance over 50 miles, from Gaza to Jerusalem, in only two months. As well as discussions of military strategy, Stuart Hadaway’s gripping narrative of the campaign gives a broad account of the men on both sides who lived and fought in the harsh desert conditions of Palestine, facing not only brave and determined enemies, but also the environment itself: heat, disease and an ever-present thirst.Involving Ottoman, ANZAC, British and Arab forces, the campaign saw great empires manoeuvring for the coveted Holy Land. It was Britain’s victory in 1917, however, that redrew the maps of the Middle East and shaped the political climate for the century to come.

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From the hell of Gallipoli to the deserts of the Holy Land, torpedoed in the Mediterranean before finally posted to the mud and trenches of the Western Front, the experiences of the Royal Bucks Hussars were as fascinating and bloody as any during the First World War. Condemned by Lord Kitchener as mere play boys, they were able to prove him unequivocally wrong by the end of the war. Sons of privileged backgrounds they may have been, but the war was indiscriminate in its killing, and war memorials and gravestones from Gallipoli to Ypres proves that the Buckinghamshire gentry were just as ready to die for their country as the average man on the street in any British town. They went to war on horseback, relics of a gentler age, but finished up as machine-gunners in a mechanised war during the final push on the Western front which broke the back of the German Army. This is their story.

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Emily Wilding Davison’s image has been frozen in time since 1913. On the 4 June of that year, Emily was struck by the king’s horse, Anmer, during the Epsom Derby. She died four days later. She, unlike her fellow Militant Suffragettes, did not live to write her memoirs in a more enlightened and tolerant era. In the aftermath of the Epsom protest, her family and her northern associates were caught between two very powerful factions: the Government’s spin doctors and the very efficient publicity machine of Mrs Pankhurst’s W.S.P.U. In response, Emily’s family and associates closed ranks around her mother, Margaret Davison, and her young cousins. For almost a century, their silence has guarded Emily’s story. Now, at the centenary of Emily’s death, her family have come together to share Emily’s side of the story for the first time. Drawing on the Davison family archives, and filled with more than 100 rare photographs, this volume explores the true cost of women’s suffrage, revolutionizing in the process our understanding of one of the defining events of the twentieth century.

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In the nineteenth century, Jules Verne imagined a journey round the world. At the start of the twentieth century, an American millionaire, Charles J. Glidden, did it for real – though it took many more than eighty days. Assisted by Charles Thomas, a Sussex engineer, the millionaire took his Napier car twice around the world, to places that had never seen a powered vehicle. The journeys took them across thirty-nine countries on four continents. In Switzerland they were arrested for driving on a forbidden road. Later they fitted the car with railroad wheels and drove to Vancouver on the tracks of the Canadian Pacific. During their travels they met people of all kinds, from impoverished pilgrims to maharajahs. In Fiji there was an encounter with the last cannibal; in militarist Japan they experienced anti-Western attitudes. Andrew Jepson tells the fascinating story of these ground-breaking journeys with the aid of images taken from Charles Thomas’ own photograph albums. This is a must-read for all motoring enthusiasts.

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In our collective memory, the First World War is dominated by men. The sailors, soldiers, airmen and politicians about whom histories are written were male, and the first half of the twentieth century was still a time when a woman's place was thought to be in the home. It was not until the Second World War that women would start to play a major role both in the armed forces and in the factories and the fields. Yet there were some women who were able to contribute to the war effort between 1914 and 1918, mostly as doctors and nurses. In Women in the War Zone, Anne Powell has selected extracts from first-hand accounts of the experiences of those female medical personnel who served abroad during the First World War. Covering both the Western and the Eastern Fronts, from Petrograd to Basra and from Antwerp to the Dardanelles, they include nursing casualties from the Battle of Ypres, a young doctor put in charge of a remote hospital in Serbia and a nurse who survived a torpedo attack, albeit with serious injuries. Filled with stories of bravery and kindliness, it is a book that honours the often unsung contribution made by the female doctors and nurses who helped to alleviate some of the suffering of the First World War.

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Throughout history, Britain's merchant seafarers have formed a mighty force, explanding throughout the nineteenth century and reaching its peak in the 1960s. Though seemingly one body, it comprised many individual companies, each with its own traditions and identity. However, the rapid diminution of the British-flagged fleet in recent years has all but extinguished this structure, and those who had intimate experience of it are now ageing and their memories fading. Heraldry of the Oceans is a celebration of the British and Commonwealth merchant seafarer and chronicles the characteristics that give the industry both corporate identity and an element of individuality. Featuring original colour artwork depicting uniforms, medals and badges, and enhanced by a detailed history and compendium of shipping companies, Alastair Arnott seeks to redress the balance of this largely unrecorded aspect of maritime history.

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Places and books like Rosslyn Chapel and The Da Vinci Code have focused attention on Scotland’s Knights Templar. Who they were and what they did has been touched upon, but never properly explored until now. They were close advisors to Scotland’s early kings; they were major property owners and respected landlords in a harsh and unforgiving time; and they were secretive and arrogant. But did they really flee from France to Scotland just prior to their arrest in 1307? Did they fight with Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314? And how did the Templars continue on after Bannockburn? In The Knights Templar and Scotland Robert Ferguson intertwines Templar and Scottish history, from the foundation of the order in the early twelfth century right up to the present day. Including a comparison of the arrest of the Templars in France with the Templar Inquisition at Holyrood, and an examination of the part they played at Bannockburn, this is an essential book for anyone with an interest in the history of the Knights Templar.

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Down in the fiery belly of the luxury liners of the Titanic era, a world away from the first-class dining rooms and sedate tours of the deck, toiled the ‘black gang’. Their work was gruelling and hot, and here deKerbrech introduces the reader to the dimly lit world and workplace of Titanic’s stokers. Beginning with a journey around some of the major elements of machinery that one might encounter in the giant ships’ engine and boiler rooms, the sheer skill and strength that a man in this employ must have had is brought to the fore. The human side of working for Titanic and her contemporaries is also explored through an investigation of stokers’ duties, their environment and conditions: what it was like to be one of them. An oft-ignored part of Titanic’s story, the importance of the black gang and the job they performed is brought to life, making poignant their fate on the maiden crossing of Titanic. This certainly is a book that no Titanic-era shipping historian or researcher should be without.

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How much can you really find out about the Weapons of the First World War in five minutes? This handy little history book will surpass all your expectations and leave you well versed on all you wish to know, and maybe even a little bit more… What was the deadliest weapon? Why did officers refuse to carry pistols? How was gas fired at the enemy? And how successful was it? How did tanks get their name? Jam-packed with facts and first-hand accounts of the action, all woven together in an accessible way by an expert in the field, this 5 Minute History is a valuable addition to anyone’s bookshelf, ready to be delved into at a moment’s notice.

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There’s something about Jane… Jane Austen lived only just into her forties, never married, never had children, lived all her life in the south of England and rarely strayed far from the genteel and orthodox social circle into which she was born. She completed only six novels, and achieved little fame in her lifetime. Yet 200 years after her death, she remains one of our most revered writers, and one of the most regularly adapted for television and film. Her novels are beloved by readers all over the world who continue to be inspired, beguiled and delighted by her often comic, and always shrewd insights into the calculations, and complexities of human hearts and minds. This short biography aims to get to the heart of the enigmatic woman who was Jane Austen, and to the enduring qualities in her work which make it so universally loved and admired.

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