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[[Category:New Reviews|History]]==History==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Jonathan Clark|title=A World By Itself: A History of the British Isles|rating=4|genre=History|summary=As one who has always felt most at ease with the standard chronological approach to history, driven by events and major personalities, I found the close-on 700 pages of this volume fairly demanding reading in places. It is divided into six parts, each by a different contributor with the editor himself writing the fourth. Each part is divided into Material Cultures, followed by essays on topics (not for all sections) on Religious Cultures; Religion, Nationalism and Identity; and Political and National Cultures. What we have, therefore, is an overview of events from each period, more thorough in some instances than others, and a certain amount of theorizing on the general social, political and even artistic background. A straightforward history through the ages – it is not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712664963</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Hart|title=Gallipoli|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Early in 1915 the Allied Powers attempted to seize the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople and eliminate Turkey, who had joined the Central Powers, from the First World War. The campaign ended in failure and retreat, yet for many years it was portrayed as a brilliant strategy undermined by bad luck and incompetent commanders. This painstakingly!-researched account shows that this was not the case. It was more a matter of a wild scheme which was poorly planned and doomed from the start, compounding the Allies' problems by diverting large numbers of troops from attacking Germans on the Western Front, where they would arguably have been better employed. In his introduction he calls the eight-month exercise 'an epic tragedy with an incredible heroic resilience displayed by the soldiers', yet ultimately 'a futile and costly sideshow for all the combatants.' It was a huge drain on Allied military resources, involving nearly half a million troops, with the British Empire losing about 205,000 – 115,000 killed, wounded or missing and 90,000 evacuated sick – while the French lost 47,000, and the Turkish over 251,000.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681596</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patrick Dillon and P J Lynch|title=The Story of Britain|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Author Patrick Dillon has put together a clear, wellINSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-written and beautifully concise story of Britain, summing up the history of Britain and Ireland in a little over 320 pages. Significant events, ranging from the Norman Conquest to the South Sea Bubble, and groups of people ranging from highwaymen to the Romantic poets, are each dealt with in between 1 and 3 pages written in Dillon's chatty, easy to read style. There are also maps, including those of the D-Day landings and the Civil War battles, a timeline for each major period (Middle Ages, Tudors, Stuarts, Georgians, Victorians and Twentieth Century) and some gorgeous illustrations by former Kate Greenaway winner PJ Lynch.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406311928</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edward Pearce1785633457|title=Pitt the ElderCharging Around: Man of War|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=William Pitt Exploring the Elder, 1st Earl Edges of Chatham, and Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768, has come down to us through the ages as the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchill, one of the great men of the British Empire in its earlier days, and the man who led England triumphantly through the Seven Years War of 1756-63. During the 'year of victories' in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English and Prussian forces defeated the French at Minden, and the army won a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or was accorded by generations of historians – much of the credit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951433</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewElectric Car|author=Tony Judt|title=The Memory ChaletClive Wilkinson

|genre=AutobiographyTravel|summary=In 2008 the historian Tony Judt was diagnosed Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disorder that eventually results in complete paralysis preference for the suffererslow travel. Unable to jot down ideas as they came to him, Judt had to rely on As he neared his memory to hold them until he had eightieth birthday the chance to dictate his words to somebody else. His memory, which was already good, became exceptional. The progress idea of exploring the disorder left Judt unable to move, but no mental deterioration or lack edges of sensation occurred, which he describes as a mixed blessing. He had to endure whole nights lying England in the same position, unable to roll over or even to scratch an itch, a prisoner in his own bodyelectric car was not totally outrageous. To preserve his sanity during these tortuous nights he focussed on events from his own pastIn fact, linking then with other events and ideas it had never occurred to him were connected. It was during these reveries that the essays in The Memory Chalet were not only conceived, but also developed in their entirety.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020966</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Adrian Johns|title=Death of should be a Pirate: British Radio and the Making of the Information Age|rating=4|genre=History|summary=If you are inclined to take your cues from the weekly reviews, as the witty poet Gavin Ewart once expressed the matter, you will doubtless find currently articles as varied as; Russell Brand predicting the imminent decline of the BBC, various interpretations of liberalism and how these struggle pleasant holiday for expression in Coalition Government policy. There are concerns too about the legislation governing the internet Clive and references back to the Sixties battles betweenhis wife, on the one handJoan, the unbridled self-expression of the free market and, on the other, the virtues of self-restraint in such matters as the re-examination of the Lady Chatterley trial, now fifty years ago. An unusual and quite intriguing book, Death of a Pirate, about the development of intellectual property and piracy in radio touches on all these contemporary concerns in a dramatic way. It combines the history of modern broadcasting with a crime story and consequent trial.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393068609</amazonuk>shouldn't it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary BeardB09BLBP3P8|title=PompeiiNeville Chamberlain's War: The Life of a Roman TownHow Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager

|summary=The introduction does not spare Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the scrubbing from the reader popular imagination of the horror early days of a volcanic (Vesuvius) eruption in World War II from 1939-40, known as the year 79 CE. As the local residents literally ran for their lives clutching what they could easily carry ''Phoney War'' ... a deadlyWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, burning combination of gaseswar breaking out, volcanic debris and molten rock travelling at huge speed ...' leaves Churchill coming in to save the reader with an horrific mental imageday. All that last minute panicking was Very little time is spent on this period in vain. No one could survive such an onslaught. Nature at her very worst indeed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684714</amazonuk>}} [[Category:History]]{{newreview|author=Simon Garfield|title=Just My Type: A Book About Fonts|rating=4.5|genre=Humour|summary=A quality typeface is a bit like a good referee at a football match cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in that you only really notice them if something has gone wrong. A referee is there to facilitate the players on the pitchthis book, not to be the star of the show (though watching Match it was of vital significance in how the Day these past few weeks you'd often beg to differ). So it is with typefaces. A good type helps the reader, enhances the flow and makes the viewing experience easy and simple. Well sort ofwar played out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683017</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simone de Beauvoir3756228711|title=CDC: The Second Sexhappy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'|author=Hans Bodmer

|summary=This book was first published in France in the late 1940s and was an instant success. Much praise is heaped upon it as we see from the back cover; but the line which resonates with me, is simply ''The Second Sex is required reading for anyone who believes in equalityhistory of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.' I happily put my hand up for that one, speaking, as it happens - as a 'second sex' individual. It struck me that wouldn't it be interesting to also have a male reviewer give this book his thorough and undivided attention?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009949938X</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Natalie Haynes|title=The Ancient Guide to Modern Life|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Haynes starts with the positive statement Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that we shouldn't throw the subject of ancient history straight in the bin, so to speak. We should instead embrace it. It He has lots chosen to tell us if only we would listen. Chapter 1 entitled ''Old World Order'' certainly grabbed my attention with about the short, but explosive, history of the line ..Control Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. It'Can politicians really make s a positive difference to our lives ...' In 2010 when the role of politicians is at an all-time low in the eyes of the votersfascinating tale, this is an excellent question to kick off with. We zoom right back told in time and explore how the Athenians lived. Apparently they were rather forward-thinking and progressive people with ideas which could easily be put into use today. They also enjoyed true democracy. When Haynes was talking about politics generally I liked another sweeping statement a mixture of hers where she says ' ... that history teaches us we could offer our politicians a hefty pay cut technological summary and still get plenty of perfectly competent candidates.' My inner voice was shouting out - make an immediate start on that one please. I won't spoil all the delicious details which led up to this attention-grabbing statement but it really is food for thoughtwry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683238</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patricia Malcolmson Jeremy Dronfield and Robert Malcolmson (Editors)David Ziggy Greene|title=Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49Fritz and Kurt

|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=Nella Last wrote a regular diary for twenty-seven years. Two previous volumes, also edited by Patricia and Robert Malcolmson, deal We start with the Second World War pair of brothers Fritz and immediate [[Nella Last's Peace: The Post-war Diaries of Housewife 49 by Patricia Malcolmson (Editor)Kurt, Robert Malcolmson (Editor)|post-War years]]. Now this third book starts with selections from 1950 and covers four years of social change as Britain moves into their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the reign of Elizabeth II.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683505</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kwame Anthony Appiah|title=The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=In empty market place, helping the Prefaceneighbours, Appiah believes that morality is an extremely important area of our lives as we live them todaybeing dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and at a vocational school. He goes Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on by saying that it's all at their very well thinking about morality - our morals - our own code of living - but itOrthodox neighbours's each Friday night – the ultimate action which truly mattersSabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switch. WellBut this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to Hitler's will, and instead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, I would certainly agree invite them in with thatopen arms. And as Appiah digs deeper into his subject, he tells his readers that he was struck by similarities between, for example, ''the collapse of the duel, the abandonment of footbinding, the end of Atlantic slavery.Kristallnacht'' In happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the following chapters he debates the issues of those three major areas round-ups of moralityJews. They were, These in short, moral issues on a very large scale.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393071626</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Temple|title=Egyptian Dawn: Exposing their turn leave the Real Truth Behind Ancient Egypt|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=This is latest book from Robert Temple in which he documents new theories on younger Kurt at home with his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the Ancient Egyptians. There US, while Fritz and his father are some startling claims in the book, not least regarding unknown initially to each other, packed off on the Pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid same train to Buchenwald and the proposal that stone quarry there were in fact two Egyptian civilisations that existed alongside each other in different parts of Egypt. If And us wondering how the author is correct in all of his assertions then it would certainly point to titular event for the location adult variant of amazing new archaeological discoveries and shine a new perspective on how we view the Ancient Egyptians and the Pyramids.all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>071268414X</amazonuk>024156574X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roy VickeryJohn Henry Phillips|title=Garlands, Conkers and Mother-Die: British and Irish Plant-LoreThe Search

|summary=For many centuriesArchaeology cannot be child's play, plants have when you're scraping in the dirt looking to find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but not only had practical uses 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 foodour author promises to locate the topic of the titular search. And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, remediesthe target might not exist any more – oh, textiles and dyesit's underwater, but have also symbolic and folkloric meaning in many different cultureswhen he cannot dive. The term ''plantLatching on to a particular D-lore'Day veteran through helping the heroic old man' s visit back to France, our author has been coined promised to describe find the profusion of the customs landing craft that delivered him to Normandy, and beliefs associated with plantsthat he was lucky to survive when it sank from beneath him. The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to everyone else aboard, and this book gathers together many of the plant-lore traditions vast majority of Britain and Irelandwhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1441101950</amazonuk>1472146182

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul MathieuB09F4CTKJR|title=The Masters of Manton: From Alec Taylor to George ToddFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|genre=HistoryHistorical Fiction|summary=It'Manton' is one of those iconic names in horse racing: the yard on s the edge later stages of World War I and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire and currently United States has just entered the home of trainer Brian Meehanconflict. But Paul Mathieu isn't looking at what's happening today, or even in the recent past; he's looking back at the men Petrol Petronus is a young American who made Manton a household name from when has signed up and joined the yard 17 Aero Squadron. This company was built in 1870 through the first US Aero Squadron to George Todd's death be trained in 1974. The Canada, the first master was Alec Taylor – generally known as 'Old Alec Taylor', who came to Manton from Fyfield with a string of classic winners be attached to his name. He, his son, 'Young Alec', Joe Lawson the RAF and George Todd were the great names first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in just over a century at active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the yardnotoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955389402</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Geert Mak0578761718|title=An Island in Time: The Biography of a Village|rating=4|genre=Inspiring History|summary=In the mid 1990s journalist and author Geert Mak returned to his native Friesland and took up residence in the village of Jorwert. His aim was to investigate the quiet revolution going on in the agrarian communities not just of Holland but of the whole of Europe.  This wasn't going to be an outsider's view. Mak grew up in the northern Dutch province; he spoke the language; he knew the games and understood the people. In a very real sense Mak was going home… and finding that it scarcely existed any more.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546868</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSpecial Relationship|author=Ian Mortimer|title=Medieval Intrigue: Decoding Royal ConspiraciesNancy Carver|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Over the last few years Dr Mortimer has established himself as one of the foremost writers of British historical biography covering the 14th and early 15th centuries. However his previous books have been quite accessible to the general as well as the scholarly reader. This present volume is aimed more at the latter audience, assuming as it does a detailed knowledge of King Edward II and his successors. This is hinted at in his introduction, in which he points out that 'history is the most conservative of all professions, and a radical historian is generally branded a maverick by the mainstream.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065899</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Daniel Swift|title=Bomber County|rating=45

|summary=Bomber County is, The church of course, Lincolnshire where squadrons St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the City of BeaufightersLondon from at least 1181, Wellingtons, Halifaxes and Lancasters were huddled when it was first mentioned in hangars for combined raids against enemy targets in German occupied Europerecords. As the war progressed the targets escalatedSadly, from attacks against the German Fleet, original church was destroyed in the industrial complex Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the Ruhr fire and laterthen survived for centuries until World War II, with when it was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that wasn't the aim end of breaking enemy moraleits story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the targets included stones from the cities - including Hamburgchurch's walls were transported to Fulton, Berlin, Dresden and CologneMissouri. Night after nightThere, crews already warmly dressed in jerseys and thick woollen socks zipped themselves into flying suits and made their way towards the enemy coast. Conditions were cramped grounds of Westminster College, the church was rebuilt and the temperatures plummeted today serves as they gained altitude flying by the light of the moon a memorial to their appointed destinationsWinston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144175</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Tarnas1784385166|title=The Passion Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World ViewNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse

|summary=With plaudits such as 'Ten years in the making' and a 'US Bestseller', this book has serious pedigree. It is a serious book in content also. At its very heart What is the link between the disciplines first image that comes to mind when you think of philosophy, religion and science. Small sentence, huge implications, I'm thinking right at the outset. Where to beginThird Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? Well, all the chapters are usefully sub-divided into bite-sized pieces. So, although this book may look daunting The gate to some at first glance, the subject matter can be broken down very easily. Therefore, it starts with a section headed 'The Greek World View' and as many might expect, covers Socrates, Plato and Homer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595162X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jonathan Phillips|title=Holy Warriors: A Modern History concentration camp? None of the Crusades|rating=4|genre=History|summary=In this book, drawing on a wealth these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of contemporary sources including chronicles, songs, sermons, travel diaries and peace treaties, as well as the existing literature from earlier generations, Phillips explores Third Reich's fascist regime in depth the contradictions and the diversity of holy war, of friendships and alliances between Christians and Muslims, the launches of crusades against Christians, and calls for jihads against Muslimsall its iniquity. In doing so he has written what is not so much a general history, but had vividly brought to life a rich tapestry of figures But some objects and events, while devoting equal attention in his narrative images from that time may be less familiar to the Christian and Islamic point of viewyou. This traces the crusading impulse from the conquest of Jerusalem in the First CrusadeIn this short volume, launched by Pope Urban II in France in 1095, to today, and in the process helps us Roger Moorhouse has attempted to understand illustrate the origins of some period of the sensitivities which have led to many Third Reich through one hundred of the conflicts still raging in the world todayits material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595078X</amazonuk> 

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Martin DavidsonLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=The Perfect NaziTiananmen 1989: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past and How Hitler Seduced a GenerationOur Shattered Hopes

|genre=HistoryGraphic Novels|summary=Meet Martin Davidson. Now, I never really followed the events of Tiananmen Square with much attention when I start my reviews like that, normally it means he's was playing out – someone in the main charactersecond half of their teens has other priorities, but he's not hereyou know. HeI certainly didn's big in t know of the world weeks of BBC History documentaries, protests and grew up in hunger strikes from the students before the UK, half Scottish massacre and half German, knowing that many of his older relatives lived through the Second World War. Foremost among them was his German grandfather, Bruno Langbehn, who would have been birth of fighting age - in his 30s - during the Third Reich. Nothing much was ever said about Bruno's own history during the warTank Man image, except for many inflammatory, rising comments by Bruno himself. It took the old man to die for the truth to be admitted by MartinI didn's mother - their forefather was in t know how the SS.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670916161</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Darnton|title=The Case area had long been a venue for Books: Past, Presentpolitical protest, and Future|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Reading I didn't know more than a book, whether for study or relaxation, in spit about the sitting room, in bed, people involved on public transport, or almost anywhere else, has been one of everybody's favourite activities for many a long year, and not just by visitors and contributors to this siteeither side. (Therein lies This book is practically flawless in giving a paradox, I hear you say). As Darnton points out in his introduction, the good old-fashioned book was not destroyed by newspapers (or magazines, general browser's context for that matter), any more than television destroyed radio, or the internet made people abandon TVwhole season of protests back in 1989.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>158648902X</amazonuk>1684056993

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Keegan0648684806|title=Clara Colby: The American Civil WarInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|summary=Consider taking a five day sail in a small fishing boat the height The path of the North Sea from Shetland, Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to try and establish, train and supply some potentially vital anti-German resistance in the far, far north of occupied Norway, your homelandUSA. Imagine At the sight time she was just three-years-old but because of heavy naval parades where you intended some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to landsail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, as galling proof she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that your intel is ages she received a good education, both in and out of dateschool. Ponder too She was the fact that you get reported to only child in the Nazis due to household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the most ridiculous slight mid-west of fortune. All your colleagues are dead or capturedthe United States and life was hard, your equipment blown up with your trawler as Clara was to keep it safe from Jerry hands, half your big toe has been shot off, find out when she and you're forced her grandparents eventually went to go on join the run in one of Europe's lastfamily. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and coldest, wildernessesdied in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. And you have no idea whatsoever quite how bad this scenario is going to getAs the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847678459</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Norman Rose1783784350|title=This Golden Fleece: A Senseless Squalid War: Voices From Palestine 1890s - 1948Journey Through Britain's Knitted History|author=Esther Rutter

|summary=The reappearance of ''A SenselessIt was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, Squalid Warwriting to people she'' in paperback will afford wider access d never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the balanced length and detailed scholarship of Prof Norman Stone. This is a sad story breadth of the Palestinian Mandate retold through British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the viewpoints story of politicians wool's history and proponents; Arab, Jewish, British, French, German how it had made and Americanchanged the landscape. It energetically conveys an understanding of She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a free-range child on the character of figures as disparate as David Ben Gurionfarm'' - and learned to spin, Richard Crossman, Haj Amin knit and David Lloyd George. Organisations, conferences weave from her mother and sticking points are deftly expoundedher mother's friend. It does not lose sight the overarching motives and machinations of International Politics This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950798</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Addison1789017977|title=No Turning BackRonnie and Hilda's Romance: The Peacetime Revolutions of Post-Towards a New Life after World War BritainII|author=Wendy Williams|rating=4.5

|summary=In Ronnie Williams was the opening chapter Addison, a child son of the 1940s, starts by comparing the leaders of the peacetime administrations that did most to change the face of Britain after 1945Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. The first, Clement AttleeThere'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 a modest, unassuming, even uncharismatic personality, yet already many years older than Ethel and he still led might well have shaved a genuinely radical and reforming governmentfew years off his age. As For a while the second, his admirer Margaret Thatcher, would point out family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in her memoirs, not only did he achieve the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a great deal, but very different lifestyle. One thing he did so because of, or perhaps despite, being all substance inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and no showthis would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192192671</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Green1980891117|title=Murder G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the High Himalayalife of George Engleheart|author=John Webley

|genre=Politics and SocietyArt|summary=The Himalayan mountains mean many things to different people. To George Engleheart was one of the people leading portrait miniaturists of TibetGeorgian London, trapped under with a career lasting from the atheist occupiers from China, who ran 1770s to the Dalai Lama out in Regency era. He was also one of the 1950s in their consuming urge for lebensraum and mineral miningmost prolific, they are a near-impenetrable barrierpainting nearly 5, protecting their country from history's prior ravages, but keeping people who want out, very much in000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). To rich Westerners, they are a sparkling challenge - a task Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the highest ordernames of each of his clients, a box to tick on the way to self-fulfilment - something and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to be climbed, because they're thereas his fee book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586487140</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian W Pugh, Paul R Spiring and Sadru Bhanji1789016304|title=Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes War and DevonLove: A Complete Tour Guide family's testament of anguish, endurance and Companiondevotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=45

|summary=Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Hound Diary of the BaskervillesAnn Frank''but then realised that her own family' is one of s stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the most famous mystery novels of allwar years, but only five thousand survived and also one of the most famous English novels set Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in Devona country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. This alone Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would probably give more or less enough material for an entire book on connections between soon be pushed back, that the story and Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the location which inspired way that it. Yet did, but initial protests melted away as the authors have found several organisers became more links between the county, and Conan Doyle alongside those associated with himcircumspect. The result has revealed much information It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of which even I, who have lived in the county nearly all my life, was previously unawareindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312861</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenny Diski1908745819|title=The Sixties|rating=4|genre=History|summary=In the last few years, there have been many books of varying length about the 60s. Most of them are relatively self-contained histories of the decade, often fairly liberal in adopting their signposts as to when the era began and ended. (Blame Philip Larkin's famous poem for the confusion, I hear you say).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680042</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSurfacing|author=Charlotte Moore|title=HancoxKathleen Jamie|rating=4.5

|summary=Hancox is the large imposing house in rural Sussex where Charlotte Moore was brought upSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, and where she still livesthey tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Although its origins are Mostly we take them at their word, or not fully documented, according 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 local records hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it certainly existed by wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the mid-15th centuryauthor considering ''an older, its name probably derived from that less tethered sense of John Handcocks, one herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of the early ownerswhere I am. In what is basically part family history and part biography Add to that my love of the house itselfnatural world, of those aspects of the author traces its story back to lawyer John Dountonpoetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, the first owner about whom nothing substantial is knownconnection. Of course, who made extensive alterations to this book had my name on it in 1569. It then passed through the hands of several families until her ancestors acquired it in 1888was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. In 1900 one of them let I am pleased to have it to the Church of England Temperance Society as a drying-out house for 'inebriates', but the arrangement was terminated in 1907 and the family moved back infall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670915866</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Woodsford0857058320|title=Dear Mr Bigelow: A Transatlantic Friendship|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Meet Mister Bigelow. He's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family and friends to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and more. Meet, too, Frances Woodsford. She's reaching middle-age, living with her brother and mum in Bournemouth, and working for the local baths as organiser of events, office lackey and more. I suggest you do meet them, although neither ever met the other. Despite this they kept up a brisk and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from Lord Of All the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60s. And as a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style comment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDead|author=Peter Ackroyd|title=Venice: Pure CityJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=Among Peter Ackroyd''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's recent works are lost ancestor'biographiess life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle' of London and of s death in the river ThamesSpanish Civil War. Now he gives similar treatment to VeniceManuel Mena, basically a history but enlivened with his elegantCercas' great uncle, literary style, and what a previous reviewer has called is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his love uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of 'psychogeographical investigation'this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.x|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099422565</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Benedict Gummer0008294011|title=The Scourging AngelHow to Lose a Country: The Black Death in the British Isles7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran

|summary=The mid-fourteenth century was an unsettled time for England. It was an age which saw 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 first phases of question ''Discuss the protracted Hundred Years’ War with France, and the Scottish war of independence, factors which came led to an end with the capture of King David II. ..'' As if these events were not enough, in 1346 there I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it was the first case of a man 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 Europe contracting an unknown disease that rapidly swept across the continent, claiming the lives danger of millions, losing democracy and one medieval chronicler noted that whilst it'the bodies looked like s a macabre lasagne: corpses piled row upon row separated only by layers flawed system I can't think of dirta better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548836</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1788037812|title=The ParthenonFraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5

|summary=Despite Originally passed in 1885, the proliferation of populist historians law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in print place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on television, Professor Mary Beard continues to be a voice apart. Her conversational style the nature of writing belies the academic research at its hearthomosexuality appeared. This is serious history They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as engagingly well as a detective storythe heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, so 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>1846683491</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Beaumont1910593508|title=The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict Apollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

|genre=Politics and SocietyHistory|summary=Peter Beaumont This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the Foreign Affairs editor at The Observersubject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. He joined This is a story we know well and because of this, the paper authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in 1989 and has spent much of the intervening time dealing with blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the kind of 'foreign affairs' that is better described as 'war reporting'book. If you'The Secret Life ve ever read a comic book adaptation of War' is a distillation of his years in film you will be familiar with the fieldslight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. It This is a book ill-served by both its title graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and its cover, except maybe insofar as both might serve to sneak it onto the bookshelves of those who really need to read it, but probably wouldn't choose to do so were it more accurately wrappedstill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520982</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Barratt1786331047|title=Lost Voices from The Race to Save the TitanicRomanovs: The Definitive Oral HistoryTruth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport|rating=4.5

|summary=As Barratt points out in the opening pages, there are literally thousands of titles available The basic facts about the sinking deaths of the TitanicNicholas and Alexandra, some of which were deliberately obscured at the time the largestfor various reasons, most expensive and most luxurious ship ever builthave long since been established. His aim For the last few months of their lives in this volume is to bridge Russia the gap between another forensic examination of how it sankformer Tsar and Tsarina, their children and yet another re-run of what he calls the familiar stories of heroism and tragedy few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. To prevent them from literature being rescued, in July 1918 the public domain revolutionary regime had them all shot and bayoneted to provide death in circumstances which, once the human story behind the disasternews was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091516</amazonuk>