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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jo Woolf1785633457|title= The Great HorizonCharging Around: 50 Tales Exploring the Edges of ExplorationEngland by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating= 3.5|genre= HistoryTravel|summary= Jo Woolf Clive Wilkinson has compiled a brilliant set history of fifty short insights into the lives and achievements of some amazingly brave peopletravelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. Their fearless journeys have helped us unlock many of As he neared his eightieth birthday the mysteries idea of exploring the wildest parts edges of our worldEngland in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, and also given us an understanding of what it is like to be faced with the most terrible conditions and still have the determination and grit to carry on. This book could should be viewed as a taster which encourages us to seek out pleasant holiday for Clive and read more about some of the most iconic explorers. Their stories are pretty incredible and Woolf does them justice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985880</amazonuk>his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Allan HailstoneB09BLBP3P8|title=Berlin in the Cold Neville Chamberlain's War: 1959 to 1966How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager|rating=4.5

|summary=Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the popular imagination of the early days of World War II from 1939-40, known as the ''Berlin in the Cold Phoney War: 1959-1966'' contains almost 200 photographs taken by author / photographer Allan Hailstone . We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in his visits to save the city during day. Very little time is spent on this period. The images provide an insight into the changing nature in cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of the divide between East and West Berlin and a glimpse into life vital significance in how the city during the Cold Warwar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445672901</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alan Moorehead3756228711|title= CDC: The Russian Revolution|rating= 4|genre= History|summary= First published in 1958, Moorheadhappy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena's account is regarded as one of the most succinct accounts of its subject, and now reprinted to mark the centenary of the revolution.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445667320</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Adrian Mourby|title=Rooms with a View: The Secret Life of Great HotelsHans Bodmer

|summary= I've never been 'The history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.'' Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that interested in Ancient Rome. Blame my teachersHe has chosen to tell us about the short, or our oh-so-dry visits to Roman villas with their earnest interpretation panelsbut explosive, or perhaps I just daydreamed through all history of the interesting bits… Somehow I entered adulthood with the impression that all Romans were bloodthirsty and hedonistic heathens with little to recommend them. ''Mea culpa''Control Data Company, CDC, you might sayfor whom he worked. So when my eye fell upon Philip MatyszakIt's ''24 Hours a fascinating tale, told in Ancient Rome'', a mixture of technological summary and its claim to introduce readers to the real Ancient Rome by examining the lives of ordinary people, I decided it was high time to update my educationwry anecdote. And the lovely artwork on the front cover made this book all the more appealing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782438564</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sharon Bennett ConnollyJeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene|title= Heroines of the Medieval World|rating= 5|genre= History|summary= Many women in medieval times left their mark on history, but as a rule they have been neglected by biographers Fritz and historians as there is too little surviving information for them to have even brief biographies to themselves. Ms Connolly has adopted an enterprising solution to the problem by writing a general account on a broadly thematic basis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445662647</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kurt Andersen|title= Fantasyland|rating= 4|genre= History |summary= Fantasyland covers the history of America from 1517 to 2017 in awesome detail. Covering five centuries of tempestuous history, Andersen paints the conjuring of America in vivid relief. Discussing everything from pilgrims to politicians, the exhilarating gold rush to alternative facts, seminal episodes are explored in forensic detail with razor sharp wit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785038656</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Twigs Way|title=Tea Gardens (Britain's Heritage Series)

|genre=LifestyleConfident Readers|summary=Tea Gardens really began in London We start with the pair of brothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the empty market place, helping the late 18th century: a trip neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to Kings Cross or St Pancras was effectively the synagogue choir and at a trip vocational school. Kurt has to make sure the country in those days. Men had lamps are turned on at their coffee houses, but they were not places where women could or would be seenvery Orthodox neighbours' each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. Tea was introduced to England in But this is the 17th century but it was not until 1784 that time just before the high duty was reduced from 119% Austrian leader is going to 12½% cave to Hitler's will, and tea became the drink instead of choice for having a national vote to keep the nationNazis out, invite them in with open arms. Until then ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the working classes had been fuelled largely by cheap ginround-ups of Jews. OnlyThese in their turn leave the younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, where would this beverage be drunk? One answer was the pleasure gardens where packed off on the fashionable went same train to see Buchenwald and be seen: by the mid 1600s tea was also being served in places such as Ranelagh Gardensstone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445670011</amazonuk>024156574X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Nathen AminJohn Henry Phillips|title=The House of Beaufort: The Bastard Line that Captured the Crown|rating= 4|genre= History|summary= The family name of Beaufort played a major part in British history during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It therefore seems remarkable that little has been written about them until the appearance of this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445647648</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Rory Stewart|title= The Marches|rating= 5|genre= Travel|summary= The Observer quote on the front of the paperback edition of Stewart's latest book observes ''This is travel writing at its finest.'' Perhaps, but to call it travel writing is to totally under-sell it. This is erudition at its finest. Stewart has the background to do this: he had an international upbringing and followed his father in both the Army and the Foreign Office, and then (to his father's, bemusement, shall we say) became an MP. Oh, and he walked 6,000 miles across Afghanistan in 2002. A walk along the Scottish borders should be a doddle by comparison.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581892</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Josh Dean|title=The Taking of K-129: The Most Daring Covert Operation in HistorySearch

|summary=In February 1968 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 Soviet nuclear missile submarine K-129 left latter, as our author promises to locate the port topic of Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka peninsula with a crew of 98 submarinerstitular search. The captain and executive officers were experienced: And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the only factor giving cause for concern was that search area is a wide one, the crew had only recently returned target might not exist any more – oh, and it's underwater, when he cannot dive. Latching on to base and were expecting a longer break and were only particular D-Day veteran through helping the heroic old man's visit back at sea because two sister ships had experienced mechanical problems to France, our author has promised to find the landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, and were unfit for combat controls. The Division Commander complained that the decision he was cruel and potentially recklesslucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. He would be proved right - but not publicly - as K-129 went down with all hands in March 1968. It was The secondary aim is to erect a while before memorial to everyone else aboard, the sSoviet navy realised that it had lost one vast majority of its submarines and despite an extensive search they couldn't find itwhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445674742</amazonuk>1472146182

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip ParkerB09F4CTKJR|title=50 Things You Should Know About the VikingsFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|genre=Children's Non-Historical Fiction |summary=The Vikings have got It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a lot to own young American who has signed up toand joined the 17 Aero Squadron. A huge DNA study in 2014 This company was the first thing that proved US Aero Squadron to the Orkney residents that they had Viking blood be trained in their veins – they had been insisting it was that of Canada, the Irish. The Vikings it was that forced our English king's army first to march from London be attached to Yorkshire the RAF and the first to kill off one invasion, only be sent into the skies to spend fight the next fortnight schlepping back to Hastings Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to try and fend off another – and master flying the Normans notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0578761718|title=The Inspiring History of a Special Relationship|author=Nancy Carver|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the same Norse origin as the City of London from at least 1181, when it was first lotmentioned in records. Sadly, hence the nameoriginal church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. There is It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a Thames Valley village just outside Henley – ie pretty damned far from design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the fire and then survived for centuries until World War II, when it was again ruined by bombs during the coast – Blitz. But that has a Viking longship on wasn't the end of its signpost. Yes, they got to story: after a lot of placesphenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from Greenland the church's walls were transported to KievFulton, from Murmansk to Turkey and Missouri. There, in the Medgrounds of Westminster College, the church was rebuilt and their misaligned history is well worth visiting – particularly on these pagestoday serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784937908</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emma Kay1784385166|title=Vintage KitchenaliaThe Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse|rating=3.5

|summary=Over What is the half century and more first image that I've been preparing meals on a regular basis I've seen food preparation move from being just something comes to mind when you did, to an obsession akin think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a religion. My first kitchen had nothing in the way concentration camp? None of luxury - it was there to make meals as nutritiously and economically as possible: my current kitchen is not ''quite'' state these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the art, but itThird Reich's equipped to a high standard fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and is a pleasure images from that time may be less familiar to work inyou. But what In this short volume, Roger Moorhouse has attempted to illustrate the period of all the equipment which went before, which paved the way to what we have now? Emma Kay is going to give you a quick trip Third Reich through the historyone hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445657511</amazonuk> 

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Martyn BeardsleyLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title= Waterloo Voices 1815Tiananmen 1989: The Battle at First HandOur Shattered Hopes|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryGraphic Novels|summary= The battle I never really followed the events of Waterloo, fought on a midsummer day on a muddy field Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in Belgiumthe second half of their teens has other priorities, brought an end to two decades you know. I certainly didn't know of war in Europe. As one the weeks of protests and hunger strikes from the pivotal events students before the massacre and the birth of the nineteenth centuryTank Man image, it has inevitably 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 is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the focus whole season of many accounts over the last two hundred yearsprotests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445660164</amazonuk>1684056993

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Rutherford0648684806|title=Landscape GardensClara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|genre=ArtBiography|summary=My first experience The path of a Clara Dorothy Bewick''big'' garden s life was Versailles as a teenager and whilst I probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was impressedjust three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, I didnshe wasn't really like itallowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. I felt stifled Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and strangely underwhelmed by the flatness of it all. As luck would have it I then saw Hampton Court that she received a good education, both in and it was official: I was off big gardens. It would be many years before I revised my opinionout of school. On a trip to Harewood House it She was too hot a day to be corralled into the house, so I wandered only child in the gardens household and found they were delightfulher childhood was glorious. I felt uplifted. Then a cricket match at Stowe gave me By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the opportunity United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to walk join the grounds for over an hourfamily. I Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was completely won over married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and a devotee of Lancelot 'Capability' Browndied in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. Sarah Rutherford's ''Landscape Gardens'' As the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was an opportunity to put him in contexta rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445669935</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stuart Maconie1783784350|title= Long Road From JarrowThis Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter|rating= 5|genre= Travel History|summary= I cancelled my It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she''Country Walking'' magazine subscription about a year ago d never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and the only thing I miss is Stuart Maconie's columneven her knitting did not soothe her mind. His down-January was going to-earth approach be a time for making changes and sharp wit belie an equally sharp intellect she decided that she would travel the length and a soul more sensitive than he might be willing to admit. Let's be honestbreadth of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, though, I picked this one up because discovering and telling the story of someone elsewool's review, in which I spotted names like Ferryhill history and how it had made and Newton Aycliffechanged the landscape. Places I grew She'd grown up on a sheep farm in. Like Maconie I have no connection (that I know of) to Suffolk - '' a free-range child on the Jarrow Crusade but when he talks about it being farm''a whole matrix of events reducible - and learned to one word like Aberfanspin, Hillsborough, or Orgreaveknit and weave from her mother and her mother'' then somehow it does become part of my history toos friend. Tangentially, at leastThis was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785030531</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vicky Hayward1789017977|title=Juan AltamirasRonnie and Hilda' s Romance: Towards a New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar's Kitchen NotebookLife after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|genre=CookeryHistory|summary=In 1745 a Spanish friary cook, Juan Altamiras, published Ronnie Williams was the first edition son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. his There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry'New Art of Cookerys birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, Drawn From the School of Economic Experience''. It contained more but he was already many years older than two hundred recipes for meat, poultry, game, salted Ethel and fresh fish, vegetables and dessertshe might well have shaved a few years off his age. The style For a while the family was informal, chatty quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and humorous on occasions and it was aimed, not at those who could afford five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to cook on a grand scale, but at those with more modest budgets, who sometimes needed to cook for large numbersvery different lifestyle. Whilst the ingredients were One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well- for the most part turned- modestly priced there is a stress on the careful combination of flavours out and aromasthis would stay with him throughout his life. Spices are used conservatively and He joined the bluntness of some Moorish cooking is eschewed army at eighteen in favour of something much more subtle and we see influences from Altamiras' own region, Aragon, the Iberian court and the New World1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1442279419</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Susan Duxbury-Neumann1980891117|title= What Have the Germans Ever Done for Us?G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A History of year in the German Population life of Great BritainGeorge Engleheart|author=John Webley|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryArt|summary= The adapted Monty Pythonesque rhetorical question takes some George Engleheart was one of the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, with a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. He was also one of the most prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of that time to provide a full answerhe carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and this slim but useful volume does so very wellsubsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664860</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gillian Tindall1789016304|title= The Tunnel Through TimeWar and Love: A New Route for an Old London Journeyfamily's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=This book traces the course 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 historical journeys across 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 in time during the war years, but only five thousand survived and space, examining Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the areas above Germans might reach the new Crossrail routecity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the largest building project currently under construction Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in Europe offering high speed links across London, have changed over the centuriesway that it did, with destruction and renewal being a constantly recurring process in but initial protests melted away as the cityorganisers became more circumspect. It's history. It is an atrocity on a fascinating, compellingly readable exploration through the historical highways and byways vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of the metropolisindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587793</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Trigg1908745819|title=Voices of the Flemish Waffen-SS: The Final Testament of the OostfrontersSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=3.5

|summary=Sometimes 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 book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In the week I write thiscase, Trump has come under fire for not condemning fascistic behaviour in America from some Neo-NazisI was told why. It strikes me that The blurb speaks of the author considering ''Neo-an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' is a pointless dignification – yes, they cannot be deemed to follow Hitler precisely as he Older. Less tethered. That's long dead and burnt, so they're kind not a bad description of new, but common sense obliges me to just call them Naziswhere I am. Their excuse is they feel America has been invaded by Add to that my love of the enemy – but what if you were indeed under occupation? Could you see yourself working for natural world, of those aspects of the forces poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had indeed invaded you? my name on it. The author begins by pointing out that several countries were invaded by the Nazis, and they It was written for me. It would have different feelings about the people who worked against the commonly-held nationalistic aimfound its way to me eventually. France hates her collaborators, but just north of the border things are different – and the picture is a lot more muddy as a resultI am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445666367</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gerard Cheshire0857058320|title= A History of Victorian PostageLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary=Although we think of postage ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the sending of letters as a specifically Victorian innovationmeaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, its roots go far deeper than thatis the figure who looms large over the book. This book, which surveys a much broader time frame than He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the title might suggest, presents us with an admirably concise picture centre of its development up this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to its full fruition in be a hero whilst having fought for the mid-nineteenth centurywrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664372</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S Morris and N Grueninger0008294011|title=In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIIIHow to Lose a Country: The visitor's companion 7 Steps from Democracy to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queensDictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= It was inevitable A little while ago a friend asked me if I thought that each of we were living through what in years to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the six wives of Henry VIII would have left their mark in some way on question ''Discuss the places they lived factors which led to...'' I agreed that she was right and visitedwasn't certain whether it was a good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading to. I think now that I do know. This book straddles several categories; history, gazetteer or guide book, We are in danger of losing democracy and collection whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of potted biographiesa better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>144567114X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Terry Breverton1788037812|title= Owen Tudor: Founding Father The Fraternity of the Tudor DynastyEstranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating= 4.5|genre= BiographyHistory|summary= Owen Tudor was one of those shadowy yet very important characters Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in medieval historyplace for 82 years. While we may know little about himBut during this time, or at least restrictions on same-sex relationships did not until this biography go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, his historical importance can hardly be overestimatedas well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Without himExploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, there would have been no Tudor dynastyso the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445654180</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Helen Doe1910593508|title= The First Atlantic Liner: Brunel's Great Western SteamshipApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Isambard Kingdom Brunel's enduring seafaring monuments were This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Great Britain Moon landings and Great Eastern. Their forerunner the Great Westernpassion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, which paved the way Chris Baker and yet Mike Collins. This is now largely forgottena story we know well and because of this, at last merits the authors take a full account few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in this the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the book. Ms Doe admits at If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the front slight feeling that she is not an engineer, and as a maritime historian her interests there are more social scenes missing and economic than technicalthat dialogue has been trimmed. Her aim This is to tell the story of the ship, a graphic novel that of the people who travelled on her could easily have been three times as crew or passengers, long and her influence on subsequent maritime history after an existence of barely two decadesstill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445667207</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (translators)1786331047|title=The Unwomanly Face of WarRace to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport

|summary=''War'', says Svetlana Alexievich, ''is first The basic facts about the deaths of all murder, Nicholas and then hard work. And then simply ordinary life: singing, falling in loveAlexandra, putting your hair in curlers…''. This extraordinary book is a collection some of first-hand accounts by Russian fighting women in which were deliberately obscured at the Second World War. A million women joined Russian military forces as soldiers of all rankstime for various reasons, medics, pilots, drivers, snipers, cryptographershave long since been established. Most were very young, little more than girls For the last few months of 18 or 19. They were passionate about defending their homeland lives in Russia the former Tsar and often extremely keen to join upTsarina, returning again and again to recruitment offices until someone could be persuaded to take them. Their ambition was to help their brothers, fathers, husbands to fight the terrible invader. They were trained children and sent to the front, where they few remaining servants were greeted at first with disappointment and disgust by fighting men, who had hoped for reinforcements of able-bodied men. The women had to prove themselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141983523</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Andrew Lacey|title= The English Civil War held in 100 Facts|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= The '100 Facts' series is now sufficiently well-established as a guarantee of useful introductory histories. This latest addition, recounting the struggle between King and Parliamentincreasingly squalid, is no exceptionhumiliating captivity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445649950</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lauren Elkin|title=Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London|rating=4|genre=History |summary=Lauren Elkin is down on suburbs: they're places where you can't or shouldn't be seen walking; places whereTo prevent them from being rescued, in fiction, women who transgress boundaries are punished (thinking of everything from ''Madame Bovary'' to ''Revolutionary Road''). When she imagines to herself what July 1918 the female version of that well-known historical figure, the carefree ''flâneur'', might be, she thinks about women who freely wandered the world's great cities without having the more insalubrious connotation of the word 'streetwalker' applied to revolutionary regime had them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593378</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Jeffrey James|title= Ireland: The Struggle for Power: From the Dark Ages to the Jacobites|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= The 'Irish troubles' go back over many centuries. When I all shot and doubtless many others of my generation studied History at school, the Emerald Isle barely intruded on our consciousness, apart from brief references bayoneted to the Battle of the Boyne and maybe the Easter Rising. This book therefore does us, and the country, a service death in helping to fill 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 the Yorkist dynasty, circumstances which ruled England for little more than two decades, continue to proliferate. Michael Hicks, acknowledged as one of once the great – although never sympathetic – experts on Richard IIInews was confirmed beyond all doubt, has contributed an interesting chronicle to the shelveshorrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445660156</amazonuk>