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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Bakewell1785633457|title= At The Existentialist CaféCharging Around: Freedom, Being and Apricot CocktailsExploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating=45|genre= Politics and SocietyTravel|summary= You know that old saying about judging books by their cover? Ignore it! I have found that by judging Clive Wilkinson has a book history of travelling by its cover and getting it completely wrong is unconventional means with a great way to find yourself committed to reading a book that you'd never have picked 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 million years pleasant holiday for Clive and yethis wife, somehowJoan, being amazingly glad you did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554887</amazonuk>shouldn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen HollickB09BLBP3P8|title= PiratesNeville Chamberlain's War: Truth and TaleHow Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=The eighteenth century lived in terror Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the popular imagination of the tramps early days of World War II from 1939-40, known as the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since. It was a harsh life for those who went 'on the account', constantly overshadowed by the threat of death – through violence, illness, shipwreck, or the hangmanPhoney War''s noose. The lure of goldWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, the excitement of the chase and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some Churchill coming in to be worth save the riskday. Helen Hollick explores both the fiction Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and fact of the Golden Age of piracyyet, and there are some surprises as Frederic Seager argues in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morganthis book, but who recognises the name of the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he it was known as 'The Exterminator'. The fictional world of pirates, represented vital significance in novels and movies, is different from realityhow the war played out. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445652153</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Timothy Venning3756228711|title= KingmakersCDC: How Power in England Was Won and Lost on the Welsh Frontier|rating= 3.5|genre= History|summary= Between the Norman conquest and the Tudor period, Britain often seemed to be on the verge of civil war. The Anglo-Welsh borders were a perpetual source of trouble, kept at bay only by the Marcher lords appointed by the King of England to guard the Welsh Marches.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445659409</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Nigel Linge and Andy Sutton|title= The British Phonebox|rating= 4.5|genre= History |summary= The mobile phone must be one of the most used, must-have accessories of the modern age, the one device you cannot escape from in public. Some of us happy years with (relatively) long memories must look back on the age when the bright red phonebox reigned supreme as a long time ago.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445663082</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewspectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Martin Wall|title=Warriors and Kings: The 1500-Year Battle for Celtic BritainHans Bodmer|rating= 4.5

|summary= For several centuries, much ''The history of the ancient and medieval history development of IT could fill books of Britain was one forged in war as the Celtic peoples took a stand against invasion and oppressionseveral hundred pages.'' Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. First it was He has chosen to tell us about the Romansshort, but explosive, then history of the SaxonsControl Data Company, Vikings and NormansCDC, who threatened the unyielding and insular peoplefor whom he worked. This book examines how several tenacious It's a fascinating tale, told in a mixture of technological summary and heroic figures led the Britons and the Welsh against often overwhelming oddswry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445658437</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy Dronfield and David HewittZiggy Greene|title=Joseph, 1917Fritz and Kurt|rating=3.54|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=During We start with the autumn pair of 1915 Edward Stanleybrothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the Earl of Derby empty market place, helping the neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and Director General of military recruitment inaugurated the Derby Schemeat a vocational school. Men of fighting age would be encouraged by door-to-door canvassers Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours'attest' that they would sign up each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for military service at using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a recruitment office within 48 hourslight switch. They would then be categories according But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to marital status Hitler's will, and be called upinstead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with 14 daysopen arms. ''Kristallnacht' notice' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. These in an order in line with their household responsibilities. The idea was a sound one: married men turn leave the younger Kurt at home with children only being called 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 if absolutely necessarythe same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry there. Lancastrian Joseph Blackburn chose to attest but then And us wondering how the titular event for him and many others, unforeseen results ensued.the adult variant of all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785898973</amazonuk>024156574X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=William WrightJohn Henry Phillips|title=A British Lion in ZululandThe Search

|summary= During Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in the reign of Queen Victoriadirt looking to find what you can find, southern Africa was a land of opportunityoften knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Fame and fortune was to Archaeology must be found for any brave soul willing a fair bit harder when you set out to suffer the hardships and dangers the lands offeredfind some specific thing. For the government of Britain it was also the source of major headaches. The balance between abundant wealth and This book is a native population that would not accept colonial rule created constant conflict. 'A British Lion in Zululand' is the story case of the man, widely regardedlatter, as our author promises to locate the person who drew these conflicts with topic of the Zulu tribe to a conclusiontitular search. Field Marshall Garnet Joseph Wolseley was And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a heroic wide one, the target might not exist any more – oh, and larger than life figure in Victorian Britain; howeverit's underwater, even today his role in shaping the future of when he cannot dive. Latching on to a continent is controversial. With particular D-Day veteran through helping the aid of extensive research from a number of new sourcesheroic old man's visit back to France, William Wright our author has defined promised to find the man landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, and brought fresh insight that he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a neglected area memorial to everyone else aboard, the vast majority of British colonial historywhom perished. Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445665484</amazonuk>1472146182

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Xu Hongci and Erling Hoh (Translator)B09F4CTKJR|title= No Wall Too High|rating= 4|genre= History|summary= It was one of the greatest prison breaks of all time, during one of the worst totalitarian tragedies of the 20th Century. Xu Hongci was an ordinary medical student when he was incarcerated under Mao's regime and forced to spend years of his youth in some of China's most brutal labour camps. Three times he tried to escape. And three times he failed. But, determined, he eventually broke free, travelling the length of China, across the Gobi desert, and into Mongolia.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044960</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFlights for Freedom|author=Steven Burgauer|title=The Night of The Eleventh Sun

|summary=The word It'Neanderthal' has become equated with people deemed to have a backward attitude and outlook. But what do we know of s the original Neanderthals from over 200,000 years ago? Here American author [[:Category:Steven Burgauer|Steven Burgauer]] melds the knowledge later stages of anthropologists, archaeologists and historians with the story of Strong Arms, his family and their struggle to survive in a very effective, and informative way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419671545</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Anne Glyn-Jones|title= Morse Code Wrens of Station X|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Bletchley Park is probably now the least secret of all the secret ops that went on during World War II. I for one am pleased about that: technology and the United States has moved on so far that there can't be anything that happened back then on just entered the communications front that conflict. Petrol Petronus is worth continuing to shroud in mystery. With most of the participants either departed or at least in a young American who has signed up and joined the departure lounge, the more recollections we can still gather the better17 Aero Squadron. What remained secret far longer however, is This company was the work of the telegraphers that served Station X: those posted first US Aero Squadron to the Y-stations. There are few of them left to tell their tales, so I applaud those who finally saw fit (a) to release them from their life-long bonds of secrecy and (b) encourage them to write it down, tell us what it was really like.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845409086</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=G A Jones|title=The Cruise of Naromis: August be trained in the Baltic 1939|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=There's braveCanada, and there is brave. I may well have been born in a coastal county but certainly would baulk at the idea of setting out first to sea with four colleagues in a 37'-long boat. Boats be attached to me are like planes – the bigger the better, RAF and the safer I feel as a result. But luckily for first to be sent into the purpose of this book, George Jones was born with a much different pair of sea-legs skies to mine, and took to the waters of the English Channel, fight the North Sea and beyond Germans in ''Naromis'' with brioactive combat. But – and this is where the further definition of bravery comes in – he did it in August 1939before that can happen, knowing full well that he would be sailing full tilt into Petrol has to master flying the teeth of warnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1899262334</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Ashdown-Hill0578761718|title= The Private Life of Edward IV|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Edward IV is currently a popular subject for biographers. All credit is therefore due to Dr Ashdown-Hill, one of the foremost of current Yorkist-era historians, for looking at the King from a fresh angle – that of his romantic involvements.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445652455</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author= Pamela Sambrook|title= The Servants' Story: Managing a Great Country House|rating= 4.5|genre= Inspiring History|summary= With so many recent books on aristocratic families and their homes, one which looks at the lives of their servants is to be welcomed. Written with the help of a vast archive, this presents a vivid picture of those in service at Trentham, the Staffordshire home of the Leveson-Gower family, the Dukes of Sutherland, at one stage said to be the richest non-royal family in Britain. Its insights into the ups and downs of life below stairs, and the mini-family histories involved, make for an excellent read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445654202</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewSpecial Relationship|author=Stephen Porter|title=Everyday Life in Tudor London: Life in the City of Thomas Cromwell, William Shakespeare & Anne BoleynNancy Carver

|summary=The Tudor period church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in England marked a transition the City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, the original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in so many ways Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the medieval period to a new erafire and then survived for centuries until World War II, and so when it is only right that somebody should at last have examined what effect was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that should have had on our capital city. After wasn't the instability end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the Wars of stones from the Roseschurch's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. There, a period of consolidation set in and London was at last established as the seat grounds of royalty and governmentWestminster College, as well as the centre of cultural life church was rebuilt and commercial activitytoday serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445645866</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Wills1784385166|title= The Wreck Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of the SS LondonNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse

|summary= What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The sinking Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the Titanic Third Reich's fascist regime in 1912 was the ocean disaster against which all subsequent shipwrecks have come to be comparedits iniquity. Yet But some forty years earlier, the people of mid-Victorian Britain objects and overseas were horrified by another loss at sea which at the images from that time had a similar impactmay be less familiar to you. In January 1866 SS Londonthis short volume, a large new luxury liner en route Roger Moorhouse has attempted to Australia, went down shortly after leaving England, with around 250 people dead, maybe more (illustrate the period of the exact figure will never be known), and only three survivorsThird Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144565654X</amazonuk> 

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=Queen Victoria and the European EmpiresTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes

|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=''Queen Victoria and I never really followed the European Empires'' is a very readable history events of Queen Victoria's relationships, both personal and political Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the royalty second half of France, Germanytheir teens has other priorities, Austria and Russiayou know. Many I certainly didn't know of these associations were based on family ties, but - as in all families - not all connections brought joy in their wake. John Van der Kiste - an expert in all things Victorian - produces an elegant picture the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the changing relationships between students before the eighteen thirties massacre and the early nineteen hundreds in birth of the Tank Man image, I didn't know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more than a spit about the people involved on either side. This book which is deceptively slim, but packed with fascinating information and insightspractically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781555508</amazonuk>1684056993

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Bard0648684806|title= Capital PunishmentClara Colby: London's Places of ExecutionThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|genre=HistoryBiography|summary= The majority path of books 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, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on true crime her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of school. She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and murder focus first life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and foremost on specific incidentsher grandparents eventually went to join the family. This concise volume takes Clara would only know her mother for a different approachfew months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in dealing with them according to where childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the executioner completed his taskeldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445667363</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Brown1783784350|title=Operation BigThis Golden Fleece: The Race to Stop HitlerA Journey Through Britain's A-BombKnitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating=3.5

|summary=What, do you think, It was December and Esther Rutter was more feared stuck in 1941 her office job, writing to people she'd never met and 1942 than the Nazi Party? Well, a Nazi Party with nuclear arms would be pretty high on the listpreparing spreadsheets. It seems the stuff of pure fantasy, but I'm The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not so suresoothe her mind. A lot of the people January was going to be at a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the forefront length and breadth of the nuclear physics of the age were GermanBritish Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the first nuclear fission was on their soil. Two things seemed to be needed for nuclear arms – uranium, which they procured by capturing Czechoslovakia, the location story of one its greatest source mines; and heavy water. That so nearly fell into Nazi hands when they invaded Norway, but what seems to have been the great majority of the worldwool's supply history and how it had only just been smuggled outmade and changed the landscape. [[Fatherland by Robert Harris|Some fiction]] takes great strides to suggest She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a fantasy way that if Hitler hadn't concentrated free-range child on exterminating Jews, he would have had the energy farm'' - and learned to win the war – spin, knit and weave from her mother and it must only be a short step to see his imperial expansionism as having an ulterior motive in nuclear materielher mother's friend. But make no mistake, this is not fiction – these are the pure facts behind the issueThis was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664674</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Bunker1789017977|title=An Empire on the EdgeRonnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=54

|summary=The history that we are taught is centred on events. Often we know Ronnie Williams was the dates, the central characters and the outcome. We seldom identify son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and study the causesEthel Wall. There'An Empire on the Edges some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry' is history writ large and looks at the chain of events leading s birthdate: he claimed to the Boston Tea Partyhave been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and subsequent American War of Independencehe might well have shaved a few years off his age. What emerges is For a catalogue of human failings and frailties that shaped while the destiny of America and Britain family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the eighteenth century. Many of the failings were avoidable but the accumulation 1929 Depression and chain reaction they caused five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a catastrophic effect on thousands of lives very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and has shaped this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the character of two nations ever sincearmy at eighteen in 1942. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552736</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1980891117|title=Tales G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of Loving and LeavingGeorge Engleheart|author=Gaby WeinerJohn Webley

|genre=BiographyArt|summary=In ''Tales George Engleheart was one of Loving and Leaving''the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, author Gaby Weiner tells with a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. He was also one of the story most prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of three them being of her family members: her grandmotherKing George III). Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, Amalia Moszkowicz Dinger; her mother, Steffi Dinger; and her father, Uszer Frochtsubsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524635081</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Lewis1789016304|title=Henry IIIWar and Love: The Son A family's testament of Magna Cartaanguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyHistory|summary= For a monarch whose reign over England 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 Diary of fifty-six Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years was unequalled until the nineteenth century, Henry III remains curiously little-knownbut only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Nobody Most people believed that the occupation could claim never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that he was a particularly outstanding or successful rulerthe Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the fact that he held his throne for so long in organisers became more circumspect. It's an unstable age was no mean achievement in itselfatrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445653575</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amy Licence1908745819|title=Catherine of Aragon: An Intimate Life of Henry VIII's True WifeSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary= Catherine of AragonSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, 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 that we didn't like the first of Henry VIIIbook. That's six wives and Queensa rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was arguably told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the most unhappy figure during natural world, of those aspects of the Tudor era who did poetic and lyrical that are about style not meet her end form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on the scaffold or at the stakeit. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. The cliché 'tragic love story' must be a fitting one in her case I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656701</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jem Duducu0857058320|title=The American Presidents in 100 FactsLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=At a time when ''Lord Of All the US Presidential election Dead'' is fielding at least one candidate you'd cross a journey to uncover the road to avoid (and Iauthor'm not saying which one) its lost ancestor's useful to look back over life and death. Cercas is searching for the forty four presidents who have gone before them. Itmeaning behind his great uncle's surprising how many of them have been lawyersdeath in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, soldiers and career politiciansCercas' great uncle, but there have also been school teachers, journalists, Hollywood actors, professors, postmasters and even a peanut farmer. Gone are is the early days when you could almost fall into figure who looms large over the presidency accidentally - now you need a massive war chest if youbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco're s forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to get to election daybe a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656507</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Norton0008294011|title= How to Lose a Country: The Lives of Tudor Women7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran

|summary= After A little while ago a series of individual biographies on friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what in years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the major Tudor women, mostly royal, this book brings a new dimension in touching on question ''Discuss the lives of individuals from all walks of lifefactors which led to... However '' I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it is much more than was a collection good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. We are in danger of lives. While the Queens losing democracy and princesses naturally dominate some whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of the chaptersa better one, it looks beyond particularly as the surface to devote attention to serving maids, businesswomen, activists and martyrs, 'benevolent dictator' is as well rare as focus on various aspects of life for women and girls in Tudor Englandhen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081752</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Matthews1788037812|title=Robin HoodThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5

|summary= The Outlaw Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in 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 Sherwood Forest has been part homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of national mythology ever since society and studying homosexuality was common on the twelfth century. Did Mr Hood really existEuropean Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, or is he a figment so the publications of popular imagination who refuses these men were hugely significant – contributing to go quietly? If historians the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and researchers over beginning the ages are struggle for recognition and equality, leading to be believed, the truth seems to lie somewhere milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in between1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656019</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lydia Ginzburg1910593508|title=Notes from the BlockadeApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

|genre=Autobiography History|summary=With This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the scenes from war torn Syria brought to our screens passion for the subject drips off every nightApollo by Matt Fitch, 'Notes from the blockade' Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a timely book. It is the remarkable story we know well and because of Lydia Ginzburg's survival during this, the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War 2. With beautiful prose full of Russian melancholy and pragmatism, it details daily life authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the besieged cityblanks. I have These shortcuts are the only downside to confess that I found this to be one of the most moving books that it has book. If you've ever been my pleasure to read. Pleasure may be a strange choice comic book adaptation of words to describe a book recounting horrifying events, but it came from film you will be familiar with the lyrical quality of the writing. Ginzburg's prose is simply beautiful. Her descriptions of the minutiae of everyday life, as it descends into the abyss, slight feeling that there are the most human I have encounteredscenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. It This is this a graphic novel that leaves its mark could easily have been three times as long after the final page is turnedand still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099583380</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Stargardt1786331047|title=The German WarRace to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport

|summary=History can be a dry subject when it focusses only on events and The basic facts about the key people that shaped them. However, when it uses those events as the backdrop to the lives deaths of ordinary people it truly comes to life. ‘The German War' is the story of the second world war through the eyes of a diverse group of Germans. It tells their stories, with great candour and humanity, as it follows the build up to the war, the war itself and its aftermath. Using detailed research, interviews and anecdotal evidence, Nicholas Stargardt has created a narrative that is both a historical record and compelling. Its scope is massive but it is a tremendous achievement. Books from the allies' perspective are many and varied; as a resultAlexandra, this can lead to a distortion some of which were deliberately obscured at the historical record. This work addresses this imbalancetime for various reasons, have long since been established.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009953987X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Teresa Cole|title= The Norman Conquest: William For the Conqueror's Subjugation last few months of England|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Long regarded as the most pivotal date their lives in English history, not least to generations of us familiar with Russia the 1930s Sellar former Tsar and Yeatman spoof history '1066 And All That'Tsarina, the year of the Norman Conquest has long been seen as a relatively isolated event as well as the start of a new era for our island story. The full picture was inevitably more complex.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445649225</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= James Sharpe|title= A Fiery their children and Furious People: A History of Violence few remaining servants were held in England|rating= 4|genre= History |summary= From the tragic tale of Mary Cliffordincreasingly squalid, 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 lifehumiliating captivity. As it considers the litany of assaults, murders and riots that pepper our historyTo prevent them from being rescued, it also traces the shifts that have taken place in July 1918 the nature of violence revolutionary regime had them all shot and bayoneted to death in people's attitudes to it. Why was it, for examplecircumstances which, 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 bannednews was confirmed beyond all doubt, 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 horrified their relatives in a street brawl in medieval Oxford one minute, and a battle during the English Civil War the nextEurope. 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>