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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roger MoorhouseJacqueline Rose|title=The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941Women in Dark Times|rating=3.54|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Before WWII started, you didn't really have peace. Tensions had hardly settled down since 'The world of the Great War, and there had been conflicts several times since, particularly in what would become unconscious is not the Theatre antagonist of War in eastern Europe. Nazi Germany and the Soviet regime were already at loggerheadspolitical life, but its steadfast companion, with the former supporting Japanese aggression hidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…'' Women in eastern Asia. They were bedfellows in evil, but very much on opposing sides. But with things stirring like never before under HitlerDark Times is Jacqueline Rose's expansionist activitieshomage to courageous women throughout history, and despite numerous instances particularly women of this side talking to that potential enemy about the other21st, Nazi 20th and Communist seemed to be firm foes19th centuries. Both had publicly been denouncing the other – the Soviets deeming Nazis one side of the same corruptHer historical and political backdrop is, thus, capitalist coin as us Britsexpansive, the Hitlerites already equating Communism yet she navigates it with Jewry. But from under intelligence and an acknowledgment that period when feminism's lengthy mission is a testament to its successes, and not its failures: ''the sides were ongoing force of feminism''pouring buckets .|isbn=1804271713}} {{Frontpage|author=Mary McCarthy|title=Memories of shit on each othera Catholic Girlhood|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Mary McCarthy describes herself as an 's heads'amateur architect'' (sorry for , obsessively digging into the past to piece together the language, but it’s me quoting Stalin, believe it or not) came an extraordinary Pact – one broken mosaic of a handful her life. She attributes her ''burning interest in factthe past'' to her orphanhood, that deemed Germany and Russia nonas she lacked any second-aggressors and collaboratorshand memories from her parents, - just who died in time for them to share Poland between themselvesthe 1918 flu epidemic. The initial document was shortThis memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, but had an impact to affect 50 million people thenMinnesota, where she lived under the harsh guardianship of her late father's Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and many millions now – Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and yet it's hardly been her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of upbringing.|isbn=1804271659}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Charging Around: Exploring the subject Edges of a full look before now.England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=5|amazonukgenre=<amazonuk>0099571897</amazonuk>Travel|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hugh BichenoB09BLBP3P8|title=Battle RoyalNeville Chamberlain's War: The Wars of Lancaster and YorkHow Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 14501939-1464 (Wars of the Roses Book 1)1940|author=Frederic Seager

|summary=Lancastrian Henry VI Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is an ailing kingthe scrubbing from the popular imagination of the early days of World War II from 1939-40, known as the ''Phoney War''. Politically his popularity waivers as he spends English money We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in to save the day. Very little time is spent on apparently fruitless wars this period in France cultural reflections and physically his poor mental health translates yet, as unreliability and physical weakness. His queenFrederic Seager argues in this book, Marguerite d'Anjou is determined to shore up any shortfall for the sake it was of vital significance in how the country and her children but the House of York has other ideaswar played out. And so begins bloody (and rather fascinating) civil war…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781859655</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author= Benedict Rogers|title= Burma: A Nation at Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has chosen to tell us about the Crossroads|rating= 3.5|genre= History|summary= Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and journalist with an expert insight into Burmashort, but explosive, gathered first-hand on journeys to regions off history of the beaten trackControl Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. Burma is a country under the iron rule of It's a succession of military regimesfascinating tale, struggling with over half told in a century mixture of suffering, much unknown to the wider international audiencetechnological summary and wry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044464</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Allan MetcalfJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words of the GenerationFritz and Kurt|rating=3.54|genre=TriviaConfident Readers|summary=I have to go a roundabout way to introducing this book, so bear We start with me. It stems partly from dictionaries and the etymology pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the language we useempty market place, but more so if anything from a different couple of bookshelping the neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and their ideas of generationsat a vocational school. The authors of those posited Kurt has to make sure the idea that all those archetypical generations lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Baby Boomers, Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. But this is the Millennials, and those time just before, in between and since – have their own cyclical patternthe Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and the history instead of humanity has been and will be formed by having a national vote to keep the interplay of just four different kindsNazis out, running (invite them in with only one exception) in regular orderopen arms. I don't really hold 'Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much store by thatas in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. These in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and I certainly didn't know we'd started one since the Millennials – who stone quarry there. And us wondering how the heck decides such things, titular event for one? the adult variant of all this could come about…|isbn=024156574X}}{{Frontpage|author=John Henry Phillips|title=The Search|rating=5|genre=History|summary=Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you'Somebody re scraping in the dirt looking to find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Archaeology must have put be a fair bit harder when you set out an order''to find some specific thing. This book is a case of the latter, as someone here says our author promises to locate the topic of something elsethe titular search. But in And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the same way as generations get defined by collective persons unknownsearch area is a wide one, so do words the target might not exist any more – oh, and those words are certainly it's underwater, when he cannot dive. Latching on to a clue particular D-Day veteran through helping the heroic old man's visit back to France, our author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to what Normandy, and that he was importantlucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, predominant and the vast majority of course spoken whom perished. Who else would make such promises to someone in each decade.their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>019992712X</amazonuk>1472146182

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= B09F4CTKJR|title= Flights for Freedom|author=Stephen HallidaySteven Burgauer|rating=4.5|titlegenre=Historical Fiction|summary=Cathedrals It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and Abbeys (Amazing joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and Extraordinary Facts)the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0578761718|title=The Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver

|summary=What makes a cathedral? It's not automatically the principal The church of anywhere that is made a city – St Davids is a village Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the City of 2London from at least 1181,000 people, and wasn't always a city, but always had a cathedralwhen it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, as did Chelmsford. It's not the seat original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of a bishop – Glasgow has the building but not the person, and hasn't had a bishop since 1690London in 1666. It's not was rebuilt in Portland stone from a minster – that's something completely different, design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the fire and if you can understand the sign in the delightful Beverley Minster describing the differencethen survived for centuries until World War II, that I saw only when it was again ruined by bombs during the other month, you're a better man I, Gunga DinBlitz. Luckily this book doesnBut that wasn't touch on minsters much, and we can understand abbeysthe end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, so it's only the vast majority of this book that is saddled with stones from the definition problem. Itchurch's clearly not a real problemwalls were transported to Fulton, and those it does have are by-passableMissouri. There, for this successfully defines a cathedral as somewhere in the grounds of major importanceWestminster College, fine trivia the church was rebuilt and greatly worthy of our attentiontoday serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821047</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dominic Pearce1784385166|title= Henrietta MariaThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=The phrase 'tragic Queen' What is an often overused one, but the French princess who became first image that comes to mind when you think of the second Stuart Queen Consort Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of Britain surely has as strong a claim as any to the titleThird Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. In British history she was unique in But some objects and images from that she not only lived time may be less familiar to see her husband defeated in civil waryou. In this short volume, but also sentenced Roger Moorhouse has attempted to death and in effect judicially murderedillustrate the period of the Third Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445645475</amazonuk> 

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Zoe Bramley|title= The Shakespeare Trail|rating= 4|genre= Trivia|summary= It has been 400 years since William ShakespeareLun Zhang, the man heralded as the greatest writer in the English languageAdrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and England's national poet, died. Shakespeare has made a profound mark on our culture and heritage, yet many aspects of his life remain in the shadows, and many places throughout England have forgotten their association with him. Here, Zoe Bramley takes the reader on a journey through hundreds of places associated with Shakespeare – many whose connections will come as a surprise to most. Filled with intriguing titbits of information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, and the places that she talks about, this is no mere travel guide. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445646846</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Stephen HallidayEdward Gauvin (translator)|title=London (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes

|genre=TriviaGraphic Novels|summary= What makes a city? Is I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the materials, such as the very London Stone itself, second half of mythological repute, that their teens has moved around several timesother priorities, and now forms part of a WH Smithyou know. I certainly didn's branch? (This has nothing, t know of course, on Temple Bar, which has also been known to walk.) Is it the people – the butchers [[Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel by John Bennett weeks of protests and Paul Begg|(Jack hunger strikes from the Ripper)]], students before the bakers (or whoever set fire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) massacre and the candlestick makers? Is it birth of the infrastructureTank Man image, from I didn't know how the Underground, whose one-time boss got area had long been a medal from Stalin venue for his successpolitical protest, to and I didn't know more than a spit about the London Bridge itself, that people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in its own wanderlust means itgiving a general browser's highly unlikely the Thames will freeze again? However you define a city, London certainly has a lot going context for it as regards weird and wonderful, and the trivial yet fascinating. And, luckily for us, so has this bookwhole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910821020</amazonuk>1684056993

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stephen Halliday0648684806|title=London Underground (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)Clara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|genre=TravelBiography|summary= From initial worries about smuttyThe path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, enclosed air she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a pungent smell to decades of human hair good education, both in and engine grease causing escalator fires; from just a few lines connecting London termini to major jaunts out into Metro-land for of school. She was the only child in the suburbia-bound commuters; household and from a few religious-minded if financially dodgy her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer investment managers to Crossrail; farmers in the history mid-west of the world's most extensive underground system (even United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when a majority is actually above ground) is fascinating she and her grandparents eventually went to manyjoin the family. This book is Clara would only know her mother for a repository of much that is entirely trivialfew months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, but is also pretty much thoroughly interestinga heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821039</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Holland1783784350|title=Railways (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=35|genre=TravelHistory|summary=How It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and when preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and even her knitting did Laurel not soothe her mind. January was going to be a time for making changes and Hardy replace she decided that she would travel the Duke length and breadth of York (George VI)? They reopened the RomneyBritish Isles with occasional forays abroad, Hythe discovering and Dymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, at whose launch telling the latter story of wool's history and how it had officiated before made and changed the Warlandscape. WhatShe's the worst that can happen when you travel internationally and arrive d grown up on a London goods train with no further destination documents? Well, if yousheep farm in Suffolk - ''re an unidentifiable Peruvian mummy you can get buried as an unknown corpse before a free-range child on the invoice turns up farm'' - and learned to prove you were wanted in Belgium. After so many miles and so much dramaspin, it's no surprise odd facts knit and fun trivia derive weave from our countryher mother and her mother's trainsfriend. This book is designed to be an ideal source of quick articles and fun mini-essays for use was in the smallest room.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821004</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Paddy Hayes|title= Queen of Spies|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Paddy Hayes has created an extensive account of the life and career of an extraordinary female spy. Daphne Park has faced sexism, brutality and betrayal. She has bravely stood against terror, charmed diplomats and navigated her way through the then alien Soviet Russiablood. Hers is an incredible life, one that brings the nail-biting and seat teetering that we expect from a spy story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715650432</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joanne Parker1789017977|title=Britannia Obscura: Mapping BritainRonnie and Hilda's Hidden LandscapesRomance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|summary=What shape do you assume Britain to be? Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. If you merely go by the current map, youThere're holding yourself ransom by the secessionists wanting devolution, and changes s some doubt as to the boundaries within Britain, but doesnwhether or not they were ever married or even Harry't the place go beyond that outline on the page? Remember, it used s birthdate: he claimed to be connected to mainland Europehave been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and once we'd sorthe might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while the family was quite well-ofto-settled into one kingdom on our shores [[Divorced, Beheaded, Died...: The History of Britain's Kings do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and Queens in Bitefive-year-Sized Chunks by Kevin Flude|the people in charge]] were also ruling over parts of Franceold Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. And of course – the twoOne thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-dimensional plan of the British Isles is nowhere near the real story, for we have many coastal waters, we have airspace, out and we have a large subterranean territorythis would stay with him throughout his life. You can definitely throw away He joined the imagined space of Britain, for the reality is far granderarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784700002</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Suzannah Lipscomb1980891117|title= The King is Dead|rating= 5|genre= History|summary= Shortly before his death G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in January 1547, King Henry VIII's last will and testament was read, stamped and sealed. It has remained one of the most intriguing and contested documents in British history. This book examines it from every angle, and analyses the background against the last days life of the King's life and the events which followed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081922</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewGeorge Engleheart|author= Ian Mortimer|title= Human Race: 10 Centuries of Change on EarthJohn Webley|rating=4.5|genre= HistoryArt|summary= We are an astonishing species. Over the past millennium of plagues and exploration, revolution and scientific discovery, women's rights and technological advances, human society has changed beyond recognition. Best known for his ''Time Traveller's Guide'' history books, Ian Mortimer here gives the reader a whistle-stop tour through ten centuries. ''Human Race'' contains the lunar leaps and lightbulb moments that, for better or worse, have sent humanity swerving down a path that no-George Engleheart was one could have predicted. The question here is which of the last ten centuries saw the greatest change in human history?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593386</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Catherine Hewitt|title= The Mistress leading portrait miniaturists of Paris|rating= 4|genre= Biography|summary= Born into povertyGeorgian London, no-one could have guessed that the girl who would one day be known as Valtesse de la Bigne would have achieved greatness. This is with a career lasting from the tale of her rise 1770s to wealth and power – starting in a dress shop as a thirteen year old, but fast becoming a courtesan who would be fought over by some of the greatest men of her timeRegency era. A woman who kept an air of mystery about many details He was also one of her life, Catherine Hewitt nevertheless paints an incredible story around the gapsmost prolific, and this proves to be both a full and intriguing biographypainting nearly 5, and a fascinating portrait 000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of the time period. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848319266</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mary Beard|title= SPQR A History them being of Ancient Rome|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=How do we know what really happened at any moment in history? At best we make educated guesses based on (often conflictingKing George III) evidence. The Throughout most striking aspect of Mary Beard's new examination that time he carefully recorded the names of Roman history is how far she goes to see all sides and all possible explanations each of events. For examplehis clients, were the emperors Nero and Caligula mad or simply the victims of their successors' smear campaign? What's behind all that nonsense about the city of Rome being founded by twin boys suckled by wolves? This subsequently transcribed them into what is a book that explodes some of the myths and presents alternative answers. Mary Beard analyses the evidence referred to shed new light on how a small community grew to become an empire. Military force was important, but other threads in the weave (such as social mobility and the effect of extending citizenship to many of the conquered) made the Roman experience uniquehis fee book. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683807</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Despina Stratigakos1789016304|title=Hitler at HomeWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin

|summary=Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''Please do not make Hitler look good.The Diary of Ann Frank'' Words to live by but then realised that the author of this volume received from her mother, a Kefalonian who knew Nazi abuse when she saw itown family's stories were equally fascinating. Rest assured that A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the book does not do thatwar years, but it certainly provides a much fresher, more eloquent only five thousand survived and interesting look at certain aspects of his life, and introduces us Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to someone else from the Nazi times – Gerdy Troost, happen in a country with liberal values who might as well be summarised as Hitler's interior designerwere resistant to German occupation. In picking apart Most people believed that the entire life of Troost, occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the nature of her work and how Germans might reach the buildings and décor she surrounded Hitler in became a part of his propaganda, we get a refreshingly new yet authoritative bookcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that for those with an interest the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in this side of our recent history will easily be considered one of, if not theway that it did, best book of but initial protests melted away as the yearorganisers became more circumspect. The person who does come out with the laurels worn highest is our author.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>030018381X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Elizabeth Norton|title= The Temptation Of Elizabeth Tudor|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Life, or rather survival, in Tudor England was It's an atrocity on a precarious business. Being close to the crown was anything vast scale but a guarantee made up of safety, as the fate tens of two thousands of King Henry VIII's Queen's amply demonstrated. His second daughter Elizabeth led a charmed life and went on to reign as Queen for over forty years, but she too had some narrow escapes when her liberty if not her very existence was under threatindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081728</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Maloney1908745819|title=Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian ServantsSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|summary=Life in Edwardian times is currently Sometimes when people suggest that you read a popular subjectcertain book, thanks in no small part to they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out thatwe didn't like the book. That' period drama currently showing its final series on ITVs a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering ''Life Below Stairsan older, less tethered sense of herself.'' examines Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the subject in greater detailnatural world, looking at documents of those aspects of the poetic and memoirs from the time to discover what life was really like for those in service. We learn lyrical that are about the strict hierarchy in the household style not form, and the duties expected substance most of each individualall, about connection. We see how much each member of staff Of course, this book had my name on it. It was paid and how workers were hired (and in many cases, fired) from their positionswritten for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. Welcome I am pleased to a slice of Edwardian life, served up with a delicious mix of period illustrations and newspaper clippings|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434356</amazonuk>have it fall onto my path so quickly.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lucy Adlington0857058320|title= Stitches in Time: The Story of Lord Of All the Clothes We Wear Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|genre= History|summary=''Stitches in TimeLord Of All the Dead'' is a lively history of clothingjourney to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Riffling through Cercas is searching for the wardrobes of years gone by, costume historian Lucy Adlington reveals the stories underneath the clothes we wear meaning behind his great uncle's death in this tour of the history of fashion, ranging from ancient times to the present daySpanish Civil War. With beautiful illustrations and full colour photographsManuel Mena, Cercas''Stitches in Time'' great uncle, is a reminder of how the way we dress is inextricably bound up with considerations of aesthetics, sex, gender, class and lifestyle – and offers figure who looms large over the reader book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the chance centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to appreciate be a hero whilst having fought for the extraordinary qualities of the clothing we wear, and the rich history it has ledwrong side. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847947263</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jeffrey James0008294011|title= Edward IV: Glorious Son of York|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Medieval England's own game of thrones, The Wars of the Roses, was at the centre of a turbulent age. In retrospect much of the history of medieval England, between the Norman conquest and the advent of the Tudors, seems How to have been Lose a chronicle of instability often verging on and sometimes erupting into rebellion or civil war. Country: The fifteenth-century conflicts between the houses of Lancaster and York, lasting intermittently for thirty years, were more protracted and even more brutal than the rest, with several fierce battles and sudden changes of fortune for the two rival families, both descended 7 Steps from King Edward III. The rise, fall and rise again of King Edward IV was a constant theme of the wars.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445646218</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Dan Jones|title= Realm Divided: A Year in the Life of Plantagenet England|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= 1215 has gone down in history as the year of Magna Carta, the result of King John's increasingly discontented barons attempts to exert control over their wayward and stubborn monarch. John had succeeded to the throne of England in 1199, at the end of an often turbulent century. His father, Henry II, had succeeded in restoring the authority of the crown after almost twenty years of civil war between the supporters of two rival claimants Democracy to the kingdom. He had inherited a challenging set on both sides of the Channel, and within four years had been driven out of most of the French ones, notably the duchy of Normandy. Posterity would bestow on him the unflattering nicknames 'John Softsword' and later 'John Lackland'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781858829</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewDictatorship|author=Keith Jeffery|title=1916: A Global History|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=1916 was a pivotal year in modern history. It witnessed the Easter Rising in Dublin, the battles of Verdun and the Somme, and the election of Woodrow Wilson as American President. These, and several other events described in this book in detail, were later seen as crucial staging points in the course of the First World War.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408834308</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Gary Cox|title= Deep Thought: 42 Fantastic Quotes that Define Philosophy |rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Who really knows what ''Cogito ergo sum'' means? Yes, you may know that Descartes said it, and that it translates as 'I think, therefore I am', but what was it the French philosopher was trying to say about human existence when he said this most quotable and definitive phrase? And, for that matter, ''where'' did he say it? Was it in the seventeenth century or the eighteenth? If these are the sort of question that keep you awake at night, then Gary Cox's ''Deep Thought: 42 Fantastic Quotes that Define Philosophy'' will be a welcome addition to your library. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472567269</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kevin Flude|title=Divorced, Beheaded, Died...: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized ChunksEce Temelkuran

|summary=History lives. Proof of A little while ago a friend asked me if I thought that sweeping statement can we were living through what in years to come would be had in this book, and in discussed by A level history students when faced with the fact that while it only reached question ''Discuss the grand old age of six, it has had the dust brushed off it and has been reprinted – and while the present royal incumbent it ends its main narrative with has not changed, other things havefactors which led to... '' This has quietly been updated to include the reburial of Richard III in Leicester, I agreed that she was right and seems to have been rereleased at wasn't certain whether it was a perfectly apposite time, as only the week before I write these words the Queen has surpassed good or bad thing that we didn't know what all those who came before her as our longest serving ruler'this' was leading to. Such details may be trivia to some – especially those of us of a more royalist bent – and important facts to othersI think now that I do know. The perfect balance We are in danger of that coupling – trivia losing democracy and detail – whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is what makes this book so worthwhileas rare as hen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434631</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Emma Marriott1788037812|title= I Used to Know ThatThe Fraternity of the Estranged: HistoryThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating= 45|genre= Politics and SocietyHistory|summary= I've picked up Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a few things over the crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, most notably from English language text three books while TEFLing abroad (there's nothing like an exciting lesson on Guy Fawkes to have a classroom the nature of Mexicans wondering why we so love to celebrate a terrorist attack that didn't happen)homosexuality appeared. But I have gapsThey were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of this I am suresociety and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, and I thought so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to get a basic the scientific understanding ofhomosexuality, welland beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the basics that we all should know, a quick read milestone legalisation of this book wouldn't hurtsame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434488</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Bruce Hugman1910593508|title= Out of BoundsApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating= 45|genre= AutobiographyHistory|summary= Author Bruce Hugman has been This incredible graphic novel is a school teacher, probation officer, smallholder, university lecturer, PR Professionallove letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is an international communications consultant a story we know well and teacher because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in healthcare and patient safetythe blanks. Having nursed two partners through These shortcuts are the final stages only downside to the book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of AIDS, a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and survived the 2004 Asian Tsunamithat dialogue has been trimmed. A varied and interesting life then – and it This is the first thirty years of it a graphic novel that Hugman chooses to concentrate on herecould easily have been three times as long and still felt too short. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1508423709</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Dell1786331047|title=MythologyThe Race to Save the Romanovs: An Illustrated Journey Into Our Imagined WorldsThe Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport|rating=4.5|genre=Spirituality and ReligionHistory|summary=What does a rainbow mean to you? How would you explain The basic facts about the creation deaths of the world if you had no science as suchNicholas and Alexandra, or the changing some of which were deliberately obscured at the seasons? What other kinds of natures – chaotic trickerytime for various reasons, evil personae or even have long since been established. For the characteristics last few months of goats – people your world? And why is it that their lives in Russia the answers man former Tsar and woman have collectively formed to such questions have been so similar across the oceans Tsarina, their children and across few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the centuries? This highly pictorial volume looks at the mythologies that formed those answers, revolutionary regime had them all shot and locks on bayoneted to a multitude of subjects – blooddeath in circumstances which, musiconce the news was confirmed beyond all doubt, godly activity – to show us what has followedhorrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0500291519</amazonuk>