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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1785633457|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car|author=Jonathan TriggClive Wilkinson|titlerating=5|genre=Travel|summary=Voices Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the Flemish Waffen-SS: The Final Testament idea of exploring the Oostfrontersedges 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?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B09BLBP3P8|title=Neville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager|rating=34.5

|summary=In Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the week I write this, Trump has come under fire for not condemning fascistic behaviour in America scrubbing from the popular imagination of the early days of World War II from some Neo1939-Nazis. It strikes me that 40, known as the ''Neo-Phoney War'' is a pointless dignification – yes, they cannot be deemed to follow . We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler precisely as he's long dead and burnt, so they're kind of newwar breaking out, but common sense obliges me and Churchill coming in to just call them Nazissave the day. Their excuse Very little time is they feel America has been invaded by the enemy – but what if you were indeed under occupation? Could you see yourself working for the forces that had indeed invaded you? The author begins by pointing out that several countries were invaded by the Nazisspent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, and they have different feelings about the people who worked against the commonly-held nationalistic aim. France hates her collaboratorsas Frederic Seager argues in this book, but just north it was of vital significance in how the border things are different – and the picture is a lot more muddy as a resultwar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445666367</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gerard Cheshire3756228711|title= A History of Victorian PostageCDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=Although we think ''The history of postage and the sending development of letters as a specifically Victorian innovation, its roots go far deeper than IT could fill books of several hundred pages.'' Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. This bookHe has chosen to tell us about the short, but explosive, history of the Control Data Company, which surveys CDC, for whom he worked. It's a much broader time frame than the title might suggestfascinating tale, presents us with an admirably concise picture told in a mixture of its development up to its full fruition in the mid-nineteenth centurytechnological summary and wry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664372</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=S Morris Jeremy Dronfield and N GrueningerDavid Ziggy Greene|title=In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The visitor's companion to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queensFritz and Kurt|rating= 54|genre= HistoryConfident Readers|summary= It was inevitable that each of We start with the six wives pair of Henry VIII would have left brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their mark muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in some way 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and at a vocational school. Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the places they lived Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and visitedinstead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. This book straddles several categories; history ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, gazetteer 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 guide bookthe US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and collection the stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of potted biographies. all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>144567114X</amazonuk>024156574X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Terry BrevertonJohn Henry Phillips|title= Owen Tudor: Founding Father of the Tudor DynastyThe Search|rating= 4.5|genre= BiographyHistory|summary= Owen Tudor was one 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 fair bit harder when you set out to find some specific thing. This book is a case of the latter, as our author promises to locate the topic of those shadowy yet very important characters in medieval historythe titular search. While we may know little about himAnd he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, or at least did the target might not until this biography appearedexist any more – oh, and it's underwater, his historical importance can hardly be overestimatedwhen he cannot dive. Without Latching on to a 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 Normandy, and that he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, there the vast majority of whom perished. Who else would have been no Tudor dynastymake such promises to someone in their nineties?|isbn=1472146182}}{{Frontpage|isbn= B09F4CTKJR|title= Flights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|amazonuksummary=<amazonuk>1445654180</amazonuk>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.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen Doe0578761718|title= The First Atlantic Liner: Brunel's Great Western SteamshipInspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Isambard Kingdom Brunel's enduring seafaring monuments were The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the Great Britain and Great EasternCity of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, Their forerunner the original church was destroyed in the Great Western, which paved Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the way fire and yet is now largely forgottenthen survived for centuries until World War II, at last merits when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that wasn't the end of its story: after a full account in this book. Ms Doe admits at phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the front that she is not an engineerchurch's walls were transported to Fulton, and as a maritime historian her interests are more social and economic than technicalMissouri. Her aim is to tell There, in the story grounds of the shipWestminster College, that of the people who travelled on her church was rebuilt and today serves as crew or passengers, and her influence on subsequent maritime history after an existence of barely two decadesa memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445667207</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (translators)1784385166|title=The Unwomanly Face Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of WarNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse

|summary=''War'', says Svetlana Alexievich, ''What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of all murder, and then hard work. And then simply ordinary life: singing, falling in love, putting your hair in curlers…''. This extraordinary book is the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a collection concentration camp? None of first-hand accounts by Russian fighting women these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the Third Reich's fascist regime in the Second World War. A million women joined Russian military forces as soldiers of all ranks, medics, pilots, drivers, snipers, cryptographers. Most were very young, little more than girls of 18 or 19its iniquity. They were passionate about defending their homeland and often extremely keen to join up, returning again But some objects and again to recruitment offices until someone could images from that time may be persuaded less familiar to take themyou. Their ambition was to help their brothers, fathersIn this short volume, husbands Roger Moorhouse has attempted to fight illustrate the terrible invader. They were trained and sent to period of the front, where they were greeted at first with disappointment and disgust by fighting men, who had hoped for reinforcements Third Reich through one hundred of able-bodied men. The women had to prove themselvesits material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141983523</amazonuk> 

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Andrew LaceyLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title= The English Civil War in 100 FactsTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryGraphic Novels|summary= The I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the second half of their teens has other priorities, you know. I certainly didn't know of the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the students before the massacre and the birth of the Tank Man image, I didn'100 Factst know how the area had long been a venue for political protest, and I didn' series is now sufficiently well-established as t know more than a guarantee of useful introductory historiesspit about the people involved on either side. This latest addition, recounting book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the struggle between King and Parliament, is no exceptionwhole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445649950</amazonuk>1684056993

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lauren Elkin0648684806|title=FlaneuseClara Colby: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and LondonThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|genre=History Biography|summary=Lauren Elkin is down on suburbs: they're places where you can't or shouldn't be seen walking; places where, in fiction, women who transgress boundaries are punished (thinking The path of everything from ''Madame Bovary'Clara Dorothy Bewick' s life was probably determined when her family emigrated to ''Revolutionary Road'')the USA. When At the time she imagines to herself what the female version was just three-years-old but because of that well-known historical figuresome childhood ailment, the carefree ''flâneur'she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, might beshe remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she thinks about women who freely wandered received a good education, both in and out of school. She was the only child in the world's great cities without having household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the more insalubrious connotation mid-west of the word 'streetwalker' applied United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to themjoin the family. Clara would only know her mother for a few 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, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593378</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jeffrey James1783784350|title= IrelandThis Golden Fleece: The Struggle for Power: From the Dark Ages to the JacobitesA Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'd never met and preparing spreadsheets. The 'Irish troubles' go back over many centuriesjob frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. When I January was going to be a time for making changes and doubtless many others she decided that she would travel the length and breadth of my generation studied History at school, the Emerald Isle barely intruded on our consciousnessBritish Isles with occasional forays abroad, apart from brief references to discovering and telling the Battle story of the Boyne wool's history and how it had made and maybe changed the Easter Risinglandscape. This book therefore does us, and the country, She'd grown up on a service sheep farm in helping to fill Suffolk - '' a very large gap.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445662469</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Michael Hicks|title= The Family of Richard III|rating= 4|genre= History|summary= New titles about free-range child on the Yorkist dynastyfarm'' - and learned to spin, which ruled England for little more than two decades, continue to proliferateknit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. Michael Hicks, acknowledged as one of the great – although never sympathetic – experts on Richard III, has contributed an interesting chronicle to the shelves This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445660156</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clive Pearson1789017977|title=The Second Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War in 100 FactsII|author=Wendy Williams

|summary=To begin at Ronnie Williams was the beginning, that is one dissembling titleson of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. 100 Facts? There are bounties galore here that that low figure belies. There are a lot more's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and I would attest that there will be some you aren't completely au fait withhe might well have shaved a few years off his age. If For a while the Phoney War and family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the Battle of the Plate are bread 1929 Depression and butter five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to you, how about Matapan? You could be well be used to reading essays about Goebbels or Speer, but Field-Marshal von Manstein? That's not to say turned-out and this is utterly exhaustive or complex, nor confined to the trivialwould stay with him throughout his life. Its unexpected format actually makes it one of He joined the better primers for the entire WWII, before, during and afterarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445653532</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Ashdown-Hill1980891117|title= The Wars G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of the RosesGeorge Engleheart|author=John Webley|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryArt|summary= During my schooldaysGeorge Engleheart was one of the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, I always found with a career lasting from the 1770s to the Wars Regency era. He was also one of the Roses the most fascinating period prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of English historythem being of King George III). In those days we were taught Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the battles began in 1455 and ended in 1485. Ashdown-Hill is one names of several modern historians whose study each of the subject extends these boundarieshis clients, and in this volume he starts with the reign of Richard II, ending late in the Elizabethan erasubsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445660350</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Charles Drazin1789016304|title= Mapping the PastWar and Love: A Search for Five Brothers at the Edge of Empire|rating= 4|genre= History|summary=''Mapping the Past'' is at once a personal quest into the authorfamily's family history, and an account of some of the interesting, perhaps even amazing things the Royal Engineers have achieved over the past couple of centuries. Drazin is descended from a generation of Engineers; five brothers who all served in the Army, mostly as surveyors mapping the far flung parts testament of the Empire. This was despite them being both Irish and Catholic. He uncovers their pastsanguish, the many things they undertook endurance and how it affected them devotion in the end. It's a story that's uplifting and extremely sad, as the First World War and the Easter Rising in 1916 seem to mark a true watershed for his family.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099468271</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewoccupied Amsterdam|author= Lyndal Roper|title= Melanie Martin Luther:Renegade and Prophet|rating= 5|genre= History|summary= Exactly five centuries ago in October 2017, Melanie Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses against the sale of indulgences read about what happened to the door of the All Saints' Church Dutch Jews in Wittenberg. The ensuing maelstrom ripped the Christian church asunder occupied Amsterdam during World War II and changed the course of history. But how was a provincial professor in a cassock able to set the Reformation in motionentranced by what she discovered, despite papal and imperial authority being ranged against him? In a biography which was ten years particularly in the making, Lyndal Roper strips away mythology to illuminate the facts underneath (for starters, it is highly unlikely that Luther actually nailed the ninety-five theses to the door). She provides a thoughtful analysis of the forces which drove the evangelical preacher and convincingly explains his contradictions – why, after decades of monastic observance did he marry a nun and develop a love of German beer and wine? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784703443</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= A T Williams|title= A Passing Fury: Searching for Justice at the End of World War II|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= In ''A Passing Fury,The Diary of Ann Frank'' we follow an Orwell Prize-winning law academicbut then realised that her own family's journey through Germany as he pursues stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the legal history of city during the trials waged by the Britishwar years, but 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 some extent other Allied forces, against the newly-fallen Nazi regimeGerman occupation. This is a deeply personal account, Most people believed that reads very much like a travelogue in places. Williams is affected at every turn by harrowingly familiar accounts of life in the concentration camp system, such as occupation could never happen: even those of the esteemed Italian writer and academic Primo Levi, who features throughout thought that the book. More striking to Germans might reach the readercity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, however, are that the often-forgotten atrocities Williams describes that failed Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to make a mark on our collective memory, such as escalate in the Cap Arcona tragedyway that it did, in which some 7,000 concentration camp internees were killed in a British air raid. Horrors such but initial protests melted away as these, which largely go unremembered, raise many questions, chief among them, was justice served? Williams pursues answers to this question throughout his investigation, which is just shy of 500 pages long.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593262</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= David Grann|title= Killers of the Flower Moon|rating= 5|genre= True Crime|summary=Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story of the Osage tribe, forced to settle in the rocky, uninhabitable wilds of Oklahoma in what would become Osage Countyorganisers became more circumspect. In It's an unexpected turn of fortune, prospectors struck oil, instantly catapulting the Osage into unimaginable wealth and fortune making them some of the richest people in the world. Then members of the tribe start to die, slowly at first of apparently natural causes then in increasingly violent ways. Investigation into the matter stalls and is beset by incompetence and atrocity on a general lack vast scale but made up of interest in the fate tens of the Osage until the FBI becomes involved and draws together a team thousands of battle scarred, unorthodox agents led by former Texas Ranger Tom Whiteindividual tragedies. As pressure on White increases, from both the FBI and the increasingly angry Osage, the race to find the truth becomes increasingly difficult, with more twists and double crosses than any murder mystery.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857209027</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom Feiling1908745819|title=The Island that DisappearedSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|summary= Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it'The Island that Disappeared' tells the history of the. Mostly we take them at their word, largely now forgottenor not, island of Providence in but rarely do we ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the Caribbeanbook. It is That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a fascinating and compelling account of what might have been but ultimately is the story of greedbook calling your name, ambition and human naturerarely get it wrong. In 1630 on board the Seaflowerthis case, a sister ship to I was told why. The blurb speaks of the Mayflowerauthor considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a small group bad description of English puritans sailed to the island where I am. Add to establish a new colony. They were convinced in their belief that my love of the British Empire would rise in natural world, of those aspects of the Central America poetic and lyrical that are about style not in New England. The hopes that they carried was soon destroyed by failing cropsform, quarrels and rebellions and many turned to piracy and the plundering substance most of Spanish treasure shipsall, about connection. Within ten yearsOf course, the Spanish retaliated and invaded the island, wiping the colony outthis book had my name on it. Providence became a footnote of history until it It was resettled over a hundred years laterwritten for me. The book tells the island's story from It would have found its early puritan beginnings way to the present and through its telling me eventually. I am pleased to have it provides a fascinating microcosm of the world we live in todayfall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911184040</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Twigs Way0857058320|title=Allotments Lord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (Britain's Heritage Seriestranslator)

|genre=LifestyleHistory|summary=Allotments came about originally from ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the enclosure of land, primarily author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for sheep pasturethe meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Fearing that the enclosures would leave peasants unable to feed themselvesManuel Mena, Elizabeth I issued an act requiring all new cottages to have four acres of groundCercas' great uncle, something which has been honoured more by history than by Elizabethis the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's contemporariesforces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. It was The question at the first in a long line centre of legislation with that aim in mind - which largely failed this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to achieve their aimsbe a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445665700</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Peter Rex0008294011|title= HaroldHow to Lose a Country: The King Who Fell at Hastings7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran|rating= 4.5

|summary= Harold is A little while ago a 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 unenviable position for being remembered as question ''Discuss the monarch who factors which led to...'' I agreed that she was defeated right and killed in the Norman conquest, and almost nothing else. He does not even merit wasn't certain whether it was a passing mention in the renowned 1930s spoof English history, good or bad thing that we didn'1066 and t know what all That', which no doubt has him this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. We are in their category danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'Unmemorable Kingsbenevolent dictator'. This book is thus inevitably a history rather than a biography of someone about whom undisputed facts are rather lackingas rare as hen's teeth. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>144565721X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Zuehlke and Claude St Aubin1788037812|title=The Loxleys and ConfederationFraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic NovelsHistory|summary=There is Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a huge hole crime remained in my history knowledge where North America is concernedplace for 82 years. SlowlyBut during this time, from an opening of sheer ignorancerestrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, having never studied it whatsoever at school, I've got a small grip three books on things like the Civil War, the foundations nature of the USA homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and a few other things. But that means nothing John Addington Symonds, as far well as this book is concerned, for that huge hole is Canadathe heterosexual Havelock Ellis. NoExploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, I didn't have an inkling but barely talked about how it was trying to unify, just as the American Civil War was in full pelt just across the border. I didn't know what was there before CanadaUK, if you see what I mean. The story does have some things in common with that so the publications of their southern neighbours these men were hugely significant – European occupancy being slowly turned into a list contributing to the scientific understanding of states as we know them nowhomosexuality, slowly spreading into and beginning the heart of the continent with struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the help milestone legalisation of the railways etc; native 'Indians' being 'same-sex relationships in the way'; past trading agreements to either maintain or try to improve on; and so on – but of course it also had the British vs French issue1967. But did you know how an American President getting shot at the theatre had a bearing on the story? Or the Irish? Like I said, a huge hole…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0992150892</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lynn Knight1910593508|title= The Button BoxApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating= 45|genre= History|summary= Buttons are This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the underdogs of passion for the clothing world: dismissed as functional elements subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of clothingthis, falling into the same dustbin category with zips and shoe laces, they tend to be seen as necessary for keeping clothes on, rather than contributors to styleauthors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. But Lynn Knight is set These shortcuts are the only downside to prove that the opposite is truebook. We think nothing If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of lacing discussions about clothing and feminism a film you will be familiar with headscarves, bikinis, the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and underweight models – that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and buttons deserve a place on the pedestal of gender discussion, still felt tooshort.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593092</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Fraser1786331047|title= The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography |summary= Henry Stuart, eldest child of King James VI and I, was not the only eldest son of a monarch who did not live long enough to succeed Race to Save the throne. The list also included Arthur (son of Henry VII) and Albert Victor (Edward VII). Of the three, Henry undoubtedly showed the most promise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007548087</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Paul Flynn|title= Good As YouRomanovs: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years of Gay Britain|rating= 5|genre= History |summary=The last 30 years have seen a tidal wave of change sweep Truth Behind the country with regards Secret Plans to how gay people are perceived and accepted. In 1984, the pulsing electronic beats of ''Smalltown Boy'' became an anthem to unite Gay Men, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would be identified, spreading a climate of panic and fear across the nation, and marginalising a community who were already ostracised. 30 years later though, the long road to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists as Kylie, Russell T Davies, Will Young, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smith. This is the story of BritainRescue Russia's brothers, sons, cousins, fathers and husbands. Of public outrage and personal loss, the (not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As You. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032925</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewImperial Family|author= Miles Russell|title= Arthur and the Kings of Britain: The Historical Truth Behind the MythsHelen Rappaport|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= As The basic facts about the author deaths of the Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), written in 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth is commonly recognized as one of the first British historians. His book told – or is supposed to have told - the story of the British monarchy during the Dark Ages, from the arrival of the Trojan Brutus, grandson of Aeneas, up to the seventh century AD when the Anglo-Saxons had taken control of Britain. Being virtually the only work of its kind at the time, it proved very influential, Nicholas and became well-known throughout western Europe as one of the great works of medieval literature as the first retelling of the story of King ArthurAlexandra, Lear and Cymbeline. Shakespeare was forever in his debt with regard to the two latter. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445662744</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mark Aylwin Thomas|title= Blades some of Grass|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Any book that has me in tears which were deliberately obscured at the end has been worth my time. Any book that has me hoping it will end differently to the way I know it must is worth the reading. Any book that convinces me that maybe there is still hope in the world – that for all the mistakes made thus farvarious reasons, still being made right now, there is a common humanity which ultimately, eventually, must do some good – that is worth the writing and the reading and the time. Blades of Grass is one such book. It's a forgotten story, an unknown story to most people. It is one that should be told – and reflected upon.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Andrew Cook|title= The Murder of the Romanovs|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= The fate of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Alexandra and children, fuelled no end of rumour, misinformation and conspiracy theories for many years, even though the truth was known not have long after the eventsince been established. In For the last few years, the advance months of forensic science, DNA testing and their lives in Russia the precise location of the bodies have allowed for confirmation of the exact truth and a dismissal of claims by a noted so-called surviving Grand Duchess. Even so, as Andrew Cook notes, straight after the deaths of the imperial family 'there would begin a ninety-year battle between science former Tsar and superstition which is not over yet'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445666278</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Sarah Bakewell|title= At The Existentialist Café: FreedomTsarina, Being and Apricot Cocktails|rating=4|genre= Politics and Society|summary= You know that old saying about judging books by their cover? Ignore it! I have found that by judging a book by its cover children and getting it completely wrong is a great way to find yourself committed to reading a book that you'd never have picked few remaining servants were held in a million years and yetincreasingly squalid, somehowhumiliating captivity. To prevent them from being rescued, being amazingly glad you did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554887</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Helen Hollick|title= Pirates: Truth and Tale|rating= 4|genre= History|summary=The eighteenth century lived in terror of July 1918 the tramps of 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 hangman's noose. The lure of gold, the excitement of the chase revolutionary regime had them all shot and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some bayoneted to be worth the risk. Helen Hollick explores both the fiction and fact of the Golden Age of piracy, and there are some surprises death in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morgancircumstances which, but who recognises the name of once the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he news was known as 'The Exterminator'. The fictional world of piratesconfirmed beyond all doubt, represented horrified their relatives in novels and movies, is different from reality. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445652153</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Timothy Venning|title= Kingmakers: 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 warEurope. 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>