England Great

London Labour and the London Poor is a rare and fascinating insight into the lives and struggles of the 19th-century poor. Written by journalist and reformer Henry Mayhew, a founder and editor of the satirical magazine Punch, it collects hundreds of testimonials from the lower strata of Victorian society. We encounter street entertainers, 'pure finders', cabinetmakers, gingerbread sellers, 'screeve-fakers', swindlers, and burglars. We hear accounts from toshers finding items in sewers, people attempting to train pigs to dance, and witness the sale of everything from gilt watches and chickweed to needles, dog collars, and eel soup.

When Ugandan President Idi Amin expelled the country's entire Asian population in 1972, more than 28,000 people from Britain's former colony arrived on airstrips around the country and began building new lives - but their incredible stories remained largely hidden. Fifty years later, first and second-generation testimony uncovers an under-explored period of history, touching on colonialism, immigration, identity and modern multiculturalism through the lens of individual experience.

The British have a relationship with their food that is unlike that of any other country. Once something that was never discussed in polite company, it is now something with which the nation is obsessed. But are we at last developing a food culture or are we just going through the motions? Eating for England is an entertaining, detailed, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation of the British and their food, their cooking, their eating, and how they behave in restaurants.

In May 1940, Nazi Germany was master of continental Europe. The only European power still standing was Great Britain - and the all-conquering German armed forces stood poised to cross the Channel. Following the destruction of the RAF fighter forces, the sweeping of the Channel of mines, and the wearing down of the Royal Naval defenders, two German army groups were set to storm the beaches of southern England.

Although rarely documented as the warmest of monarchs and often criticized for her surly attitude to motherhood, Queen Victoria did successfully heir nine children. By the late 19th century, she had over 30 surviving grandchildren. In this comprehensive delve into Victoria's offspring, Theo Aronson describes the intersection of cultures as princesses with British upbringings experienced the courts of Spain, Romania, Greece, Russia, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Gods, goddesses, fairies, and supernatural creatures are the lead characters in Celtic stories and tales from long ago. Often used to explain natural phenomena, life and death, and our existence, myths informed ancient people about their lives. Through listening to stories about heroic and fantastical escapades, our ancestors learned about their societal expectations. And the Celts were no different.

During the spring of 1536 in Tudor England, events conspire to bring down Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England. The coup against the Queen results in the brutal executions of six innocent people - Anne Boleyn herself, her brother, and four courtiers - and the rise of a new Queen. Drawing on 16th-century letters, eye witness accounts, and chronicles, Claire Ridgway leads the listener through the sequence of chilling events one day at a time, telling the true story of Anne Boleyn's fall.

The Boer War was the defining conflict of South African history and one of the most important conflicts in the history of the British Empire. Naturally, complicated geopolitics underscored it, going back centuries. In fact, the European history of South Africa began with the 1652 arrival of a small Dutch flotilla in Table Bay, at the southern extremity of the African continent, which made landfall with a view to establishing a victualing station to service passing Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) ships.

Simon Schama's sweeping history of Britain breathes life into our past centuries, vividly depicting exactly what life was like for our ancestors and how their experiences have shaped modern British culture and identity. An informative and entertaining mixture of anecdote and analysis, Schama's work offers a real insight into what it is to be British.

Award-winning historian Simon Schama completes his monumental three-volume history of Britain, which accompanies the acclaimed television epic. In The Fate of Empire, Schama illuminates the period of British history from 1770-2000 through a variety of historical themes, including the advance of technology and industry, women's increasing role in society and the burgeoning British Empire.

The historical Merlin was no rough magician: he was a learned figure from the cutting edge of medieval science and adept in astrology, cosmology, prophecy, and natural magic, as well as being a seer and a proto-alchemist. His powers were convincingly real—and useful, for they helped to add credibility to the "long-lost" history of Britain which first revealed them to a European public. Merlin's prophecies reassuringly foretold Britain's path, establishing an ancient ancestral line and linking biblical prophecy with more recent times. Merlin helped to put British history into world history.

Here is the whole of recorded British royal history, from the legendary King Alfred the Great onwards, including the monarchies of England, Scotland, Wales and the United Kingdom for over a thousand years. Fascinating portraits are expertly woven into a history of division and eventual union of the British Isles - even royals we think most familiar are revealed in a new and sometimes surprising light.This edition includes biographies of the royals of recorded British history, plus an overview of the semi-

Reine d'Écosse six jours après sa naissance en 1542, mariée à François II et reine de France à dix-sept ans, veuve un an après, remariée à lord Darnley, amante du comte de Bothwell qui tuera Darnley, réfugiée auprès d'Elisabeth Ire qui la gardera captive pendant vingt ans, décapitée en 1587 pour s'être laissé prendre au piège d'une conspiration : Marie Stuart est l'une des figures les plus romanesques, les plus tragiques de l'histoire.

Twitter hero James Felton brings you the painfully funny history of Britain you were never taught at school, chronicling 52 of the most ludicrous, weird and downright 'baddie' things we British* have done to the world since time immemorial - and then conveniently forgot all about, of course.

The suspenseful tale of two courageous kids and one inquisitive scientist who teamed up to stop an epidemic. Eel has troubles of his own: As an orphan and a “mudlark”, he spends his days in the filthy River Thames, searching for bits of things to sell. He’s being hunted by Fisheye Bill Tyler, and a nastier man never walked the streets of London. And he’s got a secret that costs him four precious shillings a week to keep safe. But even for Eel, things aren’t so bad until that fateful August day in 1854.

The phrase "an heir and a spare" refers to the imperative for members of the royal family to provide both an heir to take on their title and a spare. In this equation King George VI was the spare - the second son of King George V and Mary, and never expected to sit on the throne. King George VI, or Albert as he was known prior to his kingship, had a career in the Royal Navy and served during the First World War before King Edward VIII’s decision to abdicate his throne.

Anne Easter Smith has studied this king and his period for several decades and has given us a compelling and real portrait of a three-dimensional man of his time - neither saint nor Shakespeare’s monster. Richard was known as a loyal brother, compassionate king, faithful husband, and courageous warrior, all the while hiding his cruel scoliosis. This Son of York’s themes are about duty and loyalty, but they also incorporate love, passion, tragic loss and a king’s caring for the common man.

"Au bord du gouffre du 20e siècle, quatre icônes mondiales ont incarné de manière exemplaire et jusqu'à aujourd'hui ce que cela signifie de mener une vie véritablement libre". Les années 1933 à 1943 marquent le chapitre le plus noir de la modernité européenne. Face à la catastrophe, quatre femmes philosophes, à l'orée de leur 30 ans, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Ayn Rand et Hannah Arendt, développent leurs idées visionnaires : sur la relation entre l'individu et la société, l'homme et la femme, le sexe et le genre, la liberté et le totalitarisme, Dieu et l'homme.

During her 70 years on the throne, few got to know the Queen well, but there is one body of work that sheds new light on her thoughts, personality and the issues that really concerned her: the Queen's own speeches. Based on in-depth research and interviews with many of those who knew the Queen best, this audiobook sheds new light on the life and career of our much-missed monarch.

For more than three and a half years, from 1779 to 1783, the tiny territory of Gibraltar was besieged and blockaded, on land and at sea, by the overwhelming forces of Spain and France. It became the longest siege in British history, and the obsession with saving Gibraltar was blamed for the loss of the American colonies in the War of Independence.