Showing titles in Great Britain

Who are the English? Today, the dominant story told about our national history solely serves the interests of the right. The only people who dare speak of 'Englishness' are cheerleaders for isolationism and imperial nostalgia. But there is another story, equally compelling, about who we are: about the English people's radical inclusivity, their ancient commitment to the natural world, their long struggle to win rights for all.

When Scotland Yard’s first detective branch was set up in 1842, crime was very different from today. The favoured murder weapon was the cut-throat razor; carrying a pocket watch was dangerous; the most significant clue at a murder scene could be the whereabouts of a candlestick or hat; large households (family, servants and lodgers) complicated many a case; and servants sometimes murdered their masters.

From drawing board to preservation, this publication examines how the Spitfire evolved during WWII, developing with each mark to meet the ever increasing demands that were placed on it. This legendary British aircraft is compared with its contemporaries, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Hawker Hurricane, along with in-depth analysis of how Spitfires fared in various theatres of battle. This is the perfect tribute to a true British icon.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a remarkable examination of 12 illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the listener into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history - and sometimes about the modern world too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read, pirate queens of the Caribbean. Tipu Sultan, the Indian ruler who kept the British at bay. Olaudah Equiano, the former slave whose story shocked the world. Mary Wollstonecraft, the feminist who fought for women’s rights. Ladies of Llangollen, the lovers who built paradise in a Welsh valley. With 12 epic tales from Britain’s wildest century, this is a rapid journey through those who made history between 1714 and the 1830s.

In 1346, at the age of sixteen, he won his spurs at Crécy; nine years later he conducted a brutal raid across Languedoc; in 1356 he captured the king of France at Poitiers; as lord of Aquitaine he ruled a vast swathe of southwestern France. He was Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III, but better known to posterity as 'the Black Prince'. Michael Jones tells the remarkable story of a great warrior-prince – and paints an unforgettable portrait of warfare and chivalry in the late Middle Ages.

The Three Edwards, third in Thomas B. Costain's survey of Britain under the Plantagenets, covers the years between 1272 and 1377 when three Edwards ruled England. Edward I brought England out of the Middle Ages. Edward II had a tragic reign but gave his country Edward III, who ruled gloriously, if violently.

Like its popular and acclaimed predecessors, Restoration London and Dr Johnson's London, this fascinating evocation of Elizabethan London is the result of the author's passionate interest in the practical details of everyday life and the conditions in which most people lived, which most history books ignore: the streets, houses and gardens; cooking, housework and shopping; clothes, jewellery and make-up; medicine and sex; education, etiquette and hobbies; religion, law and crime.

Peaky Blinders is a popular BBC television series about an organized crime family in post-World War I Birmingham, England, but does this series depict the factual history of Birmingham? As it turns out, there were Peaky Blinders in Birmingham, and they terrorized those streets long before World War I. The Peaky Blinders rose to prominence in the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions of late Victorian Birmingham in the 1870s. Their ranks were composed of the working poor.

Wales has a long and storied history, filled with heroic deeds, legendary figures, and pivotal moments. In this concise history book, you will discover the fascinating story of Wales, from its ancient Celtic origins to the modern-day nation. From the reign of King Arthur and the battles of the Welsh princes to the industrial revolution and the rise of Welsh nationalism, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the key moments and figures that have shaped Wales over the centuries.

In December 1774, Benjamin Franklin met Caroline Howe, the sister of British General Sir William Howe and Richard Admiral Lord Howe, in a London drawing room for “half a dozen Games of Chess”. But as historian Julie Flavell reveals, these meetings were about much more than board games: They were cover for a last-ditch attempt to forestall the outbreak of the American War of Independence.

In this eye-opening companion to seasons 2 and 3 of Netflix’s acclaimed series The Crown, renowned biographer - and the show’s historical consultant - Robert Lacey takes us through the real history that inspired the drama. Covering two tumultuous decades in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, Lacey looks at the key social, political, and personal moments and their effects - not only on the royal family but also on the world around them.

An incredible, rare glimpse into the inner world of Nazi espionage. World War II seems to provide an endless supply of amazing true stories of heroism in the face of mortal danger. This true account of an MI6 agent's kidnapping and survival is a real-life spy thriller, and one worth knowing. On November 9, 1939, Captain Sigismund Payne Best and other members of Britain's ultra-secret Z service sat near a cafe in Venlo, The Netherlands, waiting to meet with whom supposedly-sound intelligence told them would be German resistance leaders.

Maya Jasanoff won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her groundbreaking work Liberty's Exiles. After the American Revolution, 60,000 British loyalists fled the U.S. for Canada, the Caribbean, India, and other points abroad. Jasanoff traces their harrowing journeys across the globe, shedding light on their ambitions, the post-revolutionary world they encountered, and their legacies.

Surprisingly neglected in accounts of Allied wartime triumphs, in 1941 British and Commonwealth forces completed a stunning and important victory in East Africa against an overwhelmingly superior Italian opponent. A hastily formed British-led force, never larger than 70,000 strong, advanced along two fronts to defeat nearly 300,000 Italian and colonial troops.

Culture and Anarchy is a series of periodical essays by Matthew Arnold, first published in Cornhill Magazine 1867-68 and collected as a book in 1869. Arnold's famous piece of writing on culture established his High Victorian cultural agenda which remained dominant in debate from the 1860s until the 1950s. According to his view advanced in the book, ‘Culture [...] is a study of perfection’.

Affectionately known as the Queen Mother, she was born a commoner and never expected to be Queen. Yet, her life was forever changed with the abdication of her brother-in-law, Edward VIII, and she rose to become one of the most popular royal figures. Helen Cathcart's fascinating account charts the life of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, from her birth to her life as Queen Mother. Drawing information from family letters, royal journals, and the personal recollections, The Queen Mother is an exceptionally detailed picture of one of the most influential women of the twentieth century.

Great Britain? is a much-needed antidote to the pervading sense that Britain is going backwards rather than forwards. It is both a clear-eyed and rigorous diagnosis of the problems facing our country – a unique toxicity of huge inequality and stagnant economic growth – and a hopeful case for reclaiming a different future: by building an investment nation of good work, resilient communities and secure homes, a society in which both burdens and prosperity are shared.

Each November, about a hundred people with paper poppies pinned to their coats gather around a memorial in Edinburgh. They're there to commemorate the more than a dozen members of the local football team, Heart of Midlothian - almost every member of its starting lineup and many of its backup players - who went to war. A Bigger Field Awaits Us tells the little-known but poignant story of a group of Scottish athletes and their fans who went to war together - and the stories of the few who made it home.

This explosive exposé, Royals at War, takes listeners inside a riven Buckingham Palace to provide the definitive account of the unfolding abdication crisis of 2020 - dubbed Megxit - during which the duke and duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, became royal outcasts.