Search results for ""Author David Baldwin""

Elizabeth Woodville is a historical character whose life no novelist would ever have dared invent. She has been portrayed as an enchantress, as an unprincipled advancer of her family's fortunes and a plucky but pitiful queen in Shakespeare's histories. She has been alternatively championed and vilified by her contemporaries and five centuries of historians, dramatists and novelists, but what was she really like? In this revealing account of Elizabeth's life David Baldwin sets out to tell the story of this complex and intriguing woman. Was she the malign influence many of her critics held her to be? Was she a sorceress who bewitched Edward IV? What was the fate of her two sons, the 'Princes in the Tower'? What did she, of all people, think had become of them, and why did Richard III mount a campaign of vilification against her? David Baldwin traces Elizabeth's career and her influence on the major events of her husband Edward IV's reign, and in doing so he brings to life the personal and domestic politics of Yorkist England and the elaborate ritual of court life.

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Not many people would claim to be saints, or alternatively, consider themselves entirely without redeeming qualities. Some are unquestionably worse than others, but few have been held in greater infamy than Richard Plantagenet, afterwards Duke of Gloucester and, later still, King Richard III. Richard’s character has been besmirched as often as it has been defended, and the arguments between his detractors and supporters still rage after several centuries. Was he a ruthless hunchback who butchered his way to the throne, a paragon of virtue who became a victim of Tudor propaganda, or (as seems more likely) something in between? Some would argue that a true biography is impossible because the letters and other personal documents required for this purpose are simply not available; but David Baldwin has overcome this through an in-depth study of Richard’s dealings with his contemporaries and of information gleaned from the recent discovery of his skeleton. Tracking Richard’s journey from birth to death, this new edition is brought right up to date with an exploration of the latest scientific discoveries and an account of the king’s reburial in Leicester Cathedral. The fundamental question David Baldwin has answered is ‘what was Richard III really like’.

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The highly unpopular Principal of Storbury College, is murdered early in the morning in her office. Ariadne Hopwood, the highly unpopular Principal of Storbury College, is murdered early in the morning in her office. The police quickly conclude that the murder has to be an ‘inside job’ committed by one of the senior managers, but they are baffled by the extraordinary circumstances of her death. Their prime suspect is Mort Todd, the Head of Humanities, largely because he was senior to Ariadne twenty years ago when she was a young, aspiring lecturer at the College – and the not insignificant matter of an incriminating entry in her diary for first thing on the day she was murdered. Running alongside the police investigation is mild-mannered, insecure Mort’s chequered backstory, and the oddball characters who work at the College, many of whom might also be suspected of the crime. As the police finally make an arrest, another disconcerting murder is taking place…

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The identity of Robin Hood is one of the great historical mysteries of English history - until now. Everyone has heard of Robin Hood, the brilliant archer who 'robbed the rich to give to the poor' and who always triumphed over the forces of evil, but the man behind the legend is as mysterious as King Arthur. There were outlaws who lived in the royal forests preying on unwary travelers, and Robin Hoods whose names are recorded in historical documents: but no one has been able to prove that one of these real Robins was the individual whose exploits were commemorated in ballad and song. David Baldwin sets out to find the real Robin Hood, looking for clues in the earliest ballads and in official and legal documents of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. His search takes him to the troubled reign of King Henry III, his conclusions turn history on its head and David Baldwin reveals the name of the man who inspired the tales of Robin Hood.

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Richard Williams and Robert Jones are in the twilight of their lives and they are both obsessed with dying. They are both also starkly aware, despite never meeting each other, that they haven’t done anything to be remembered by. Very different men, they have however something in common: they have been in contact with the enigmatic Thaddeus who leaves a trail of death behind him wherever he goes. Somehow they have survived. Their paths cross coincidentally and, having shared their mutual suspicions and misgivings about Thaddeus, they agree to help each other discover the secrets of this mysterious being. “A rather profound philosophical disquisition on death, ageing, memory and transience”.

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Nationally renowned journalist Peter Owen is understandably bewildered when he receives two letters from his recently deceased wife Gwen a few weeks after her funeral. In the second letter she asks him to expose Matthias Kronau, an eminent German university lecturer and her lover from twenty years earlier, as a clandestine pornographic film maker and academic charlatan. When a cautiously optimistic Peter travels to Germany to meet the suave, charismatic, self-styled occultist and womaniser Matthias, why do his attempts to carry out her mysterious request lead to lifechanging outcomes for everyone involved? A Burning Matter of Completion is a novel about obsession and its destructive effects on each of the five principal characters. In essence it is a complex illustration of how individuals project themselves and deceive and manipulate one another.

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Did Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the Princes on the Tower, survive his imprisonment? In this revealing new book medieval historian David Baldwin presents an original and intriguing scenario. On 27 December 1550 an old man named Richard Plantagenet was buried at Eastwell in Kent. He had spent much of his life working as a bricklayer at St John's Abbey, Colchester, but, unusually for a bricklayer, he could read Latin. Reluctant to give any account of his background, he eventually told his employer that he was a natural son of Richard III. Yet, if this was true, why was he not publicly acknowledged by the king? Richard III made provision for his other bastards, John of Gloucester and Katherine. The fact that he was called Richard Plantagenet is also revealing. Had he simply been Richard III's bastard, he would have been styled 'of Gloucester' or given the name of his birthplace. And, most tellingly of all, where is the evidence that Prince Richard actually died? David Baldwin opens up an entirely new line of investigation and offers a startling solution to one of the most enduring mysteries in English history and a final exoneration for Richard III.

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In light of the recent demise of the Soviet Union and the subsequent withdrawal of Soviet forces from Central Europe, the debate between neoliberal institutionalism and neorealism has taken on a new relevance. Neorealism and Neoliberalism concentrates on issues of conflict and cooperation with their implications for post-Cold War international relations. Essays by some of today's most prominent political theorists debate the importance of anarchy versus the importance of interdependence in determining state behavior; the feasibility of international cooperation; the impotance of absolute gains versus relative gains as incentive for cooperation; the trade-offs between economic welfare and military security; the importance of state intentions versus state power; and the significance of the emergence of numerous international regimes and institutions. The collection features: -An introduction by David A. Baldwin; -Robert O. Keohane on the realist challenge after the Cold War; -Joseph M. Grieco on relative gains and the limits of cooperation; -Helen Milner on anarchy in international relations theory; -Stephen Krasner on national power and international cooperation; -Charles Lipson on international cooperation in economic and security affairs. Cutting to the heart of the debate over the possibility of a "new world order," Baldwin's collection is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the post-Cold War world.

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