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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amy Licence1785633457|title=Catherine of AragonCharging Around: An Intimate Life Exploring the Edges of Henry VIII's True WifeEngland by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson

|genre=BiographyTravel|summary= Catherine Clive Wilkinson has a history of Aragon, travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the first edges of Henry VIII's six wives and Queens, England in an electric car was arguably the most unhappy figure during the Tudor era who did not meet her end on the scaffold or at the staketotally outrageous. The cliché 'tragic love story' must In fact, it should be a fitting one in her case.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656701</amazonuk>pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jem DuducuB09BLBP3P8|title=The American Presidents in 100 Facts|rating=4|genre=History|summary=At a time when the US Presidential election is fielding at least one candidate you'd cross the road to avoid (and I'm not saying which one) itNeville Chamberlain's useful to look back over the forty four presidents who have gone before them. It's surprising how many of them have been lawyersWar: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, soldiers and career politicians, but there have also been school teachers, journalists, Hollywood actors, professors, postmasters and even a peanut farmer. Gone are the early days when you could almost fall into the presidency accidentally 1939- now you need a massive war chest if you're to get to election day.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656507</amazonuk>}}{{newreview1940|author=Elizabeth Norton|title= The Lives of Tudor WomenFrederic Seager

|summary= After a series of individual biographies on Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the major Tudor women, mostly royal, this book brings a new dimension in touching on scrubbing from the lives of individuals from all walks popular imagination of life. However it is much more than a collection of lives. While the Queens and princesses naturally dominate some early days of the chaptersWorld War II from 1939-40, it looks beyond known as the surface to devote attention to serving maids''Phoney War''. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, businesswomenwar breaking out, activists and martyrsChurchill coming in to save the day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, as well as focus on various aspects Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of life for women and girls vital significance in Tudor Englandhow the war played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081752</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Matthews3756228711|title=Robin HoodCDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer|rating=4.5

|summary= ''The Outlaw history of Sherwood Forest the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.'' Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has been part chosen to tell us about the short, but explosive, history of national mythology ever since the twelfth centuryControl Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. Did Mr Hood really existIt's a fascinating tale, or is he told in a figment mixture of popular imagination who refuses to go quietly? If historians technological summary and researchers over the ages are to be believed, the truth seems to lie somewhere in betweenwry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656019</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lydia GinzburgJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title=Notes from the BlockadeFritz and Kurt|rating=54|genre=Autobiography Confident Readers|summary=With We start with the scenes from war torn Syria brought pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to our screens every nightdo – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbours, 'Notes from being dutiful when it comes to the blockade' is synagogue choir and at a timely bookvocational school. It is Kurt has to make sure the remarkable story of Lydia Ginzburglamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours's survival during each Friday night – the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War 2. With beautiful prose full of Russian melancholy Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and pragmatism, it details daily life in the besieged cityworkmanlike as a light switch. I have to confess that I found But this to be one of is the time just before the most moving books that it has ever been my pleasure Austrian leader is going to read. Pleasure may be a strange choice of words cave to describe a book recounting horrifying eventsHitler's will, but it came from the lyrical quality and instead of having a national vote to keep the writingNazis out, invite them in with open arms. Ginzburg ''Kristallnacht's prose is simply beautiful' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. Her descriptions of These in their turn leave the minutiae younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of everyday life, as it descends into an evacuation to Britain or the abyssUS, while Fritz and his father are , unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and the most human I have encounteredstone quarry there. It is And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this that leaves its mark long after the final page is turned.could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099583380</amazonuk>024156574X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicholas StargardtJohn Henry Phillips|title=The German WarSearch

|summary=History Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you'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 be a dry subject fair bit harder when it focusses only on events and you set out to find some specific thing. This book is a case of the key people that shaped them. Howeverlatter, when it uses those events as the backdrop our author promises to locate the lives topic of ordinary people it truly comes to lifethe titular search. ‘The German WarAnd he really hasn' t made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, the story of the second world war through the eyes of a diverse group of Germans. It tells their storiestarget might not exist any more – oh, with great candour and humanityit's underwater, as it follows when he cannot dive. Latching on to a particular D-Day veteran through helping the build up heroic old man's visit back to the warFrance, our author has promised to find the war itself and its aftermath. Using detailed researchlanding craft that delivered him to Normandy, interviews and anecdotal evidence, Nicholas Stargardt has created a narrative that is both a historical record and compellinghe was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. Its scope is massive but it The secondary aim is to erect a tremendous achievement. Books from memorial to everyone else aboard, the allies' perspective are many and varied; as a result, this can lead to a distortion vast majority of the historical record. This work addresses this imbalancewhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009953987X</amazonuk>1472146182

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= B09F4CTKJR|title= Flights for Freedom|author=Teresa ColeSteven Burgauer|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=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 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 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 Norman Conquest: William the Conqueror's Subjugation Inspiring History of Englanda Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver

|summary=Long regarded as The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the most pivotal date City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in English historyrecords. Sadly, not least to generations the original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of us familiar with London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the 1930s Sellar fire and Yeatman spoof history then survived for centuries until World War II, when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that wasn'1066 And All Thatt the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the church's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. There, in the year grounds of Westminster College, the Norman Conquest has long been seen church was rebuilt and today serves as a relatively isolated event as well as the start of a new era for our island story. The full picture was inevitably more complexmemorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445649225</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= James Sharpe1784385166|title= A Fiery and Furious PeopleThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Violence in EnglandNazi Germany|rating= 4|genre= History |summary= From the tragic tale of Mary Clifford, whose death at the hands of her employer scandalised Georgian London, to Victorian Manchester's scuttling gangs, to a duel obsessed cavalier, author James Sharpe explores the brutal underside of our national life. As it considers the litany of assaults, murders and riots that pepper our history, it also traces the shifts that have taken place in the nature of violence and in people's attitudes to it. Why was it, for example, that wife-beating could at once be simultaneously legal and so frowned upon that persistent offenders might well end up ducking in the village pond? How could foot ball be regarded at one moment as a raucous pastime that should be banned, and next as a respectable sport that should be encouraged? Professor James Sharpe draws on an astonishingly wide range of material to paint vivid pictures of the nation's criminals and criminal system from medieval times to the present day. He gives a strong sense of what it was like to be caught up in a street brawl in medieval Oxford one minute, and a battle during the English Civil War the next. Looking at a country that has experienced not only constant aggression on an individual scale, but also the Peasants' Revolt, the Gordon Riots, the Poll Tax protests and the urban unrest of summer 2011, this book asks – are we becoming a gentler nation? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847945139</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Jan Bondeson|title= Strange Victoriana: Tales of the Curious, the Weird and the Uncanny from Our Victorian AncestorsRoger Moorhouse|rating=45

|summary= What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Victorians, not surprisingly, had their own tabloid press. Nazi salute? The most successful title gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of this nature was the Third Reich'Illustrated Police News', a weekly journal first published s fascist regime in 1864 all its iniquity. But some objects and lasting seventy-four yearsimages from that time may be less familiar to you. Not In this short volume, Roger Moorhouse has attempted to be confused with illustrate the more upmarket 'Illustrated London News', its main stock-in-trade was weird, far-fetched and not always entirely genuine stories from Victorian life, generally in Britain but sometimes in Europe as well. This book is based on a recently-discovered archive period of the paper. Prepare to be amazed, enthralled, sometimes horrified – and occasionally disbelievingThird Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445658852</amazonuk> 

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Anna BikontLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title= The Crime and the SilenceTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryGraphic Novels|summary= Where was your father? Where was your brother, your mother, your uncle? These are I never really followed the questions Anna Bikont struggles to ask during her investigation into a shocking act events of violence committed against the Jewish community Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in Jedwabne during the summer second half of 1941their teens has other priorities, you know. The Crime and I certainly didn't know of the Silence weaves together journals, interviews and pictures to share the story weeks of a community torn apart by hatred protests and intolerance. It is also a moving testament to hunger strikes from the dedication of Bikont, who documents her struggle to find students before the truth with grace massacre and dignity in the face birth of silencethe Tank Man image, rationalisationI didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and even anger, from members of I didn't know more than a spit about the Polish community who would rather not stir up people involved on either side. This book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the crimes whole season of the pastprotests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099592525</amazonuk>1684056993

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Susan Higginbotham0648684806|title= Margaret PoleClara Colby: The Countess in the TowerInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|summary= The fate path of Margaret PoleClara 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, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who as the cover says has doted on her and saw that she received a good claim to education, both in and out of school. She was the title of 'only child in the last Plantagenet', household and her childhood was a sorry oneglorious. As a close relation By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the Yorkists United States and the Tudors at a time of upheavallife was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her life was overshadowed by grandparents eventually went to join the executions of several of her family – and ultimately leading to . Clara would only know her ownmother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, largely it seemshad ten pregnancies, for seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the 'crime' of being who she eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin wasa rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445635941</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Doggett1783784350|title= Electric ShockThis Golden Fleece: From the Gramophone to the iPhone - 125 Years of PopA Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter

|genre=EntertainmentHistory|summary= For many of usIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, it must be difficult writing to imagine a life without recorded musicpeople she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. Millions of us must have grown up with, The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to, be a very varied soundtrack consisting time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of one genre after another. In this bookthe British Isles with occasional forays abroad, Peter Doggett takes a marvellous broad sweep through discovering and telling the story of wool's history of popular music from and how it had made and changed the end of landscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a free-range child on the nineteenth century farm'' - and learned to the present dayspin, knit and weave from wax cylinders to streaming services. A rather maudlin ditty 'After The Ballher mother and her mother', by Charles Ks friend. Harris, is regarded as the first modern popular song (well, it This was modern in 1891) – the first of millionsher blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184792218X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Rappaport1789017977|title=Caught in the RevolutionRonnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=54

|summary= Few cities Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have experienced been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a year more dramatic than Petrograd in 1917few years off his age. The city, now known as St Petersburg, went through two revolutions: the first For a popular uprising that brought down while the Romanov dynasty, family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the second 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a Bolshevik coup that led to the formation of the Soviet Unionvery different lifestyle. At the time, Petrograd One thing he did inherit from his father was home his need to a large expatriate community, including diplomats, journalists, be well-turned-out and businessmenthis would stay with him throughout his life. Many kept diaries or wrote letters home, vividly describing He joined the chaos unfolding army at their doorstep. In Caught eighteen in the Revolution, Helen Rappaport draws on this material to give a gripping first-hand account of the Russian Revolution, as told by those who lived through it1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091958954</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Melissa Mohr1980891117|title= Holy Sh*tG Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A brief history of swearing |rating= 3.5|genre= History|summary= Holy Sh*t as the name suggests looks at both swearing, year in Biblical terms, to swearing, also usually in Biblical terms but with rather more emphasis on the act, rather than the deity. This book takes the reader on a journey from the Old Testament, when swearing your allegiance to the one true God was a prerequisite for staying alive, to the Middle Ages where swearing on the same God was punishable by rather grisly death. That takes care life of the Holy, now onto the part you are really interested in, the Sh*t. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>019049168X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewGeorge Engleheart|author=Jenifer Roberts|title=The Beauty of Her Age: A Tale of Sex, Scandal and Money in Victorian EnglandJohn Webley

|genre=BiographyArt|summary= The name George Engleheart was one of Yolande Stephens (nee Duvernay) is not that well-known in the annals leading portrait miniaturists of Victorian EnglandGeorgian London, but behind it lies an enthralling rags-with a career lasting from the 1770s to-riches sagathe Regency era. How did a young girl born into poverty in Paris become He was also one of the most celebrated ballerinas prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of her that time in Englandhe carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and after that one of the richest women in the country, with a fortune on her death which rivalled that of Queen Victoria?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445653206</amazonuk>subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gordon Stevens1789016304|title=The OriginalsWar and Love: The Secret History A family's testament of the Birth of the SASanguish, 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 ''The SAS is a regiment shrouded in secrecyDiary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. Since its spectacular rise to fame A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the Iranian Embassy siege in 1978war years, it has become a part of myth but only five thousand survived and folklore. The paradox is that more words have probably been written about Martin could not understand how this organisation than any other military unit could be allowed to happen in the world. Some are well researched, and have a genuine historical perspective on the regiments operations and activitiescountry with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Others are pure fantasy, which add little, other than further Most people believed that the mystique of a regiment occupation could never happen: even those who thought that lives in the shadows. ''The Originals'' provides a fresh perspective. It tells Germans might reach the story of city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the birth of Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the SASway that it did, by but initial protests melted away as the people who were thereorganisers became more circumspect. In It's an atrocity on a series vast scale but made up of tens of long forgotten interviews, the regiment is brought to life with fresh insight and wonderful anecdotesthousands of individual tragedies. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091901820</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Steven Gunn1908745819|title= Charles Brandon: Henry VIII's Closest FriendSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie|rating= 3.5|genre= History|summary=Charles BrandonSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, Duke of Suffolkthey tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, was almost unique in Tudor history in but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that he we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was a close friend and companion – in fact told why. The blurb speaks of the closest – author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of King Henry VIII throughout the latterherself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's reignnot a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, never really fell out of favourthose aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had the good fortune my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to die peacefully in his bed, just eighteen months before his notoriously capricious royal patronhave it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656345</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hugh Sebag-Montefiore0857058320|title=Somme: Into Lord Of All the BreachDead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=One-hundred years ago this month, on ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the 1st of July 1916, author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the most notorious battle meaning behind his great uncle's death in the history of the British army began at 07:20 with the detonation of a huge mine under the Hawthorn RedoubtSpanish Civil War. The Battle of the Somme had begunManuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, and by is the end of figure who looms large over the first day the British had suffered nearly 60,000 casualties, 20,000 of whom were killedbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. Published to mark The question at the centenary centre of the battle, Somme: Into the Breach by historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a comprehensive account of hero whilst having fought for the conflict told primarily by the soldiers who fought in itwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918385</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Rex0008294011|title=William the ConquerorHow to Lose a Country: The Bastard of Normandy7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran

|genre=History |summary= The basic facts of William A little while ago a friend asked me if Ithought that we were living through what in years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question ''s life are inevitably as clouded as those surrounding the Norman conquest, Discuss the events and politics factors which led up to ...'' I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it, and the aftermathwas a good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. As Peter Rex makes clear We are in his introduction, any surviving sources are inevitably very incomplete. Moreover, danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can'the writing t think of a better one, particularly as the history of the eleventh century requires the historian to attempt to provide motives and explanations for events that are only sketchily described at best'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445660172</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catherine Hickley1788037812|title=The Munich Art HoardFraternity of the Estranged: Hitler's Dealer and His Secret LegacyThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5

|summary=One of Originally passed in 1885, the most newsworthy events law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in modern art history happened seemingly place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by chancetwo homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. When tax police raided Exploring the house margins of an aged man in Munich it was because they assumed he had been moving too much money about society and paying no tax – this six months after he studying homosexuality was seen common on the train between Bavaria and Switzerland with 'nearly too much' cash. The investigators had no caseEuropean Continent, but he had something much more complex and rich barely talked about in the UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – a massive legacy of 20th Century German and European art. But that collection had contributing to have an origin – one the scientific understanding of dubious and at times nefarious beginningshomosexuality, and one that could have quite a rich beginning the struggle for recognition and convoluted background. Hickleyequality, in these pages, gives us much in leading to the way milestone legalisation of context as well as ironing out those convolutions, so this story is both of interest to Nazi historians and art scholars – as well as to those larger numbers who just like a good story told wellsame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0500292574</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Scott1910593508|title=Ancient WorldsApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

|summary= History can be perceived as This incredible graphic novel is a dusty academic backwaterlove letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. Often viewed as an irrelevance in our modern worldThis is a story we know well and because of this, as we race through the daily events of our lives. It is authors take a subject few narrative shortcuts knowing that has suffered greatly we can fill in our education system, where there has always been a tendency to teach the subject in isolation, blanks. These shortcuts are the only focussing on downside to the events that have shaped our own national identitybook. Michael ScottIf you's new ve ever read a comic book offers adaptation of a refreshing changefilm you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. ''Ancient Worlds'' This is thought provoking history for the general reader. Well researched and with a persuasive argument, he explores the interactions across graphic novel that could easily have been three differing cultures. Interactions that provide a new perspective on our modern worldtimes as long and still felt too short. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091958814</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alexandra Harris1786331047|title= WeatherlandThe Race to Save the Romanovs: Writers and artists under English skiesThe Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport|rating= 4.5|genre= ReferenceHistory|summary=The story of English culture over a thousand years can be told as basic facts about the story deaths of changing ideas about the weather. A sweeping panorama, ''Weatherland'' explores how writers Nicholas and artistsAlexandra, looking up some of which were deliberately obscured at the same skies and walking in the brisk airtime for various reasons, have felt very different thingslong since been established. A journey through centuries For the last few months of their lives in Russia the former Tsar and culturesTsarina, Harris walks the reader through misty moor their children and foggy fenfew remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, lays with humiliating captivity. To prevent them on bright sunlit beachesfrom being rescued, treks with in July 1918 the revolutionary regime had them to stormy summits, all shot and introduces them bayoneted to a fascinating cast of writersdeath in circumstances which, artists and cultural figures along once the waynews was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0500292655</amazonuk>

So goes the description of the men, the ''ghosts,'' at the end of the first day of the Somme. July 1 2016 will mark 100 years since this most bloody of battles took place. It was supposed to be the optimistic 'Big Push' that would end the Great War, but by sunset of the first day the British casualties numbered 57,470. The battle would rage until November that year, with the total number of casualties Move on all sides exceeding one million.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753555476</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Christopher McGrath|title=Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses|rating=5|genre=Sport|summary=All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen [[Newest Home and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848549830</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Wade Graham|title=Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape the World|rating=4.5|genre= History|summary=Between 1950 and 2014 the world's urban population increased from 746 million to 3.9 billion. The urbanising trend is set to continue with the United Nations predicting that by the middle of the century 66% of us will be city dwellers, a massive six billion people. How have city planners and architects tried to cope with the recent surge? How can they avoid repeating mistakes from the past? Both of those questions are considered in Dream Cities – Seven Urban Ideas That Shape The World, Wade Graham's excellent field guide to the modern world. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445659735</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kathleen Chater|title= The Reformation in 100 Facts|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=The Reformation was one of the major events, if not themes of European history, that has decisively shaped the modern world, and has inevitably provided material for many a detailed account in print. This handy little volume, one of a new series from Amberley, reduces a very complex subject to a series of short chapters which make an ideal introduction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445651343</amazonuk>}}Family Reviews]]