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[[Category:History|*]]
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Zoe Bramley
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|isbn=1785633457
|title= The Shakespeare Trail
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|title=Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car
|rating= 4
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|author=Clive Wilkinson
|genre= Trivia
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|rating=5
|summary= It has been 400 years since William Shakespeare, the man heralded as the greatest writer in the English language, and England's national poet, died. Shakespeare has made a profound mark on our culture and heritage, yet many aspects of his life remain in the shadows, and many places throughout England have forgotten their association with him. Here, Zoe Bramley takes the reader on a journey through hundreds of places associated with Shakespeare – many whose connections will come as a surprise to most. Filled with intriguing titbits of information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, and the places that she talks about, this is no mere travel guide.
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|genre=Travel
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445646846</amazonuk>
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|summary=Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it?
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Stephen Halliday
+
|isbn=B09BLBP3P8
|title=London (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
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|title=Neville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940
 +
|author=Frederic Seager
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Trivia
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|genre=History
|summary= What makes a city?  Is it the materials, such as the very London Stone itself, of mythological repute, that has moved around several times, and now forms part of a WH Smith's branch?  (This has nothing, of course, on Temple Bar, which has also been known to walk.)  Is it the people – the butchers [[Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel by John Bennett and Paul Begg|(Jack the Ripper)]], the bakers (or whoever set fire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) and the candlestick makers?  Is it the infrastructure, from the Underground, whose one-time boss got a medal from Stalin for his success, to the London Bridge itself, that in its own wanderlust means it's highly unlikely the Thames will freeze again?  However you define a city, London certainly has a lot going for it as regards weird and wonderful, and the trivial yet fascinating.  And, luckily for us, so has this book.
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|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 ''Phoney War''. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in to save the day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of vital significance in how the war played out.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821020</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Stephen Halliday
+
|isbn=3756228711
|title=London Underground (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
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|title=CDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena'
 +
|author=Hans Bodmer
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=History
|summary= From initial worries about smutty, enclosed air with a pungent smell to decades of human hair and engine grease causing escalator fires; from just a few lines connecting London termini to major jaunts out into Metro-land for the suburbia-bound commuters; and from a few religious-minded if financially dodgy pioneer investment managers to Crossrail; the history of the world's most extensive underground system (even when a majority is actually above ground) is fascinating to many.  This book is a repository of much that is entirely trivial, but is also pretty much thoroughly interesting.
+
|summary=''The history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821039</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has chosen to tell us about the short, but explosive, history of the Control Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. It's a fascinating tale, told in a mixture of technological summary and wry anecdote.  
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Julian Holland
+
|author=Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene
|title=Railways (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)
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|title=Fritz and Kurt
|rating=3
+
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
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|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=How and when did Laurel and Hardy replace the Duke of York (George VI)?  They reopened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, at whose launch the latter had officiated before the WarWhat's the worst that can happen when you travel internationally and arrive on a London goods train with no further destination documents? Well, if you're an unidentifiable Peruvian mummy you can get buried as an unknown corpse before the invoice turns up to prove you were wanted in BelgiumAfter so many miles and so much drama, it's no surprise odd facts and fun trivia derive from our country's trainsThis book is designed to be an ideal source of quick articles and fun mini-essays for use in the smallest room.
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|summary=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 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 Sabbath preventing them for using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a light switchBut 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, invite them in with open arms. ''Kristallnacht'' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of JewsThese 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, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry thereAnd us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821004</amazonuk>
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|isbn=024156574X
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Paddy Hayes
+
|author=John Henry Phillips
|title= Queen of Spies
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|title=The Search
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre= History
 
|summary= Paddy Hayes has created an extensive account of the life and career of an extraordinary female spy. Daphne Park has faced sexism, brutality and betrayal. She has bravely stood against terror, charmed diplomats and navigated her way through the then alien Soviet Russia. Hers is an incredible life, one that brings the nail-biting and seat teetering that we expect from a spy story.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715650432</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joanne Parker
 
|title=Britannia Obscura: Mapping Britain's Hidden Landscapes
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=History
 
|genre=History
|summary=What shape do you assume Britain to be?  If you merely go by the current map, you're holding yourself ransom by the secessionists wanting devolution, and changes to the boundaries within Britain, but doesn't the place go beyond that outline on the page?  Remember, it used to be connected to mainland Europe, and once we'd sort-of-settled into one kingdom on our shores [[Divorced, Beheaded, Died...: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks by Kevin Flude|the people in charge]] were also ruling over parts of France.  And of course – the two-dimensional plan of the British Isles is nowhere near the real story, for we have many coastal waters, we have airspace, and we have a large subterranean territory.  You can definitely throw away the imagined space of Britain, for the reality is far grander.
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|summary=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 the titular search. And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, the target might not exist any more – oh, and it's underwater, when he cannot dive. 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, the vast majority of whom perished. Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784700002</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1472146182
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Suzannah Lipscomb
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|isbn= B09F4CTKJR
|title= The King is Dead
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|title= Flights for Freedom
|rating= 5
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|author= Steven Burgauer
|genre= History
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|rating=4.5
|summary= Shortly before his death in January 1547, King Henry VIII's last will and testament was read, stamped and sealed. It has remained one of the most intriguing and contested documents in British history. This book examines it from every angle, and analyses the background against the last days of the King's life and the events which followed.
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|genre=Historical Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081922</amazonuk>
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|summary=It's the later stages of World War I and the United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a young American who has signed up and joined the 17 Aero Squadron. This company was the first US Aero Squadron to be trained in Canada, the first to be attached to the RAF and the first to be sent into the skies to fight the Germans in active combat. But before that can happen, Petrol has to master flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Ian Mortimer
+
|isbn=0578761718
|title= Human Race: 10 Centuries of Change on Earth
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|title=The Inspiring History of a Special Relationship
|rating=4
+
|author=Nancy Carver
|genre= History
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|rating=4.5
|summary= We are an astonishing species. Over the past millennium of plagues and exploration, revolution and scientific discovery, women's rights and technological advances, human society has changed beyond recognition. Best known for his ''Time Traveller's Guide'' history books, Ian Mortimer here gives the reader a whistle-stop tour through ten centuries. ''Human Race'' contains the lunar leaps and lightbulb moments that, for better or worse, have sent humanity swerving down a path that no-one could have predicted. The question here is which of the last ten centuries saw the greatest change in human history?
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|genre=History
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593386</amazonuk>
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|summary=The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, the original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a 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 Blitz. But that wasn't the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the church's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. There, in the grounds of Westminster College, the church was rebuilt and today serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Catherine Hewitt
 
|title= The Mistress of Paris
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Biography
 
|summary= Born into poverty, no-one could have guessed that the girl who would one day be known as Valtesse de la Bigne would have achieved greatness. This is the tale of her rise to wealth and power – starting in a dress shop as a thirteen year old, but fast becoming a courtesan who would be fought over by some of the greatest men of her time. A woman who kept an air of mystery about many details of her life, Catherine Hewitt nevertheless paints an incredible story around the gaps, and this proves to be both a full and intriguing biography, and a fascinating portrait of the time period.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848319266</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Mary Beard
 
|title= SPQR A History of Ancient Rome
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= History
 
|summary=How do we know what really happened at any moment in history?  At best we make educated guesses based on (often conflicting) evidence.  The most striking aspect of Mary Beard's new examination of Roman history is how far she goes to see all sides and all possible explanations of events.   For example, were the emperors Nero and Caligula mad or simply the victims of their successors' smear campaign?  What's behind all that nonsense about the city of Rome being founded by twin boys suckled by wolves? This is a book that explodes some of the myths and presents alternative answers.  Mary Beard analyses the evidence to shed new light on how a small community grew to become an empire. Military force was important, but other threads in the weave (such as social mobility and the effect of extending citizenship to many of the conquered) made the Roman experience unique.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683807</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Despina Stratigakos
+
|isbn=1784385166
|title=Hitler at Home
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|title=The Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany
 +
|author=Roger Moorhouse
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=History
 
|genre=History
|summary=''Please do not make Hitler look good.'' Words to live by that the author of this volume received from her mother, a Kefalonian who knew Nazi abuse when she saw it.  Rest assured that the book does not do that, but it certainly provides a much fresher, more eloquent and interesting look at certain aspects of his life, and introduces us to someone else from the Nazi times – Gerdy Troost, who might as well be summarised as Hitler's interior designer. In picking apart the entire life of Troost, the nature of her work and how the buildings and décor she surrounded Hitler in became a part of his propaganda, we get a refreshingly new yet authoritative book, that for those with an interest in this side of our recent history will easily be considered one of, if not the, best book of the year.  The person who does come out with the laurels worn highest is our author.
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|summary=What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the Third Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and images from that time may be less familiar to you. In this short volume, Roger Moorhouse has attempted to illustrate the period of the Third Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts. 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>030018381X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Elizabeth Norton
+
|author=Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)
|title= The Temptation Of Elizabeth Tudor
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|title=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes
|rating= 4.5
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|rating=4.5
|genre= Biography
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|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary= Life, or rather survival, in Tudor England was a precarious businessBeing close to the crown was anything but a guarantee of safety, as the fate of two of King Henry VIII's Queen's amply demonstratedHis second daughter Elizabeth led a charmed life and went on to reign as Queen for over forty years, but she too had some narrow escapes when her liberty if not her very existence was under threat.
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|summary=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 knowI 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'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 sideThis book is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081728</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1684056993
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alison Maloney
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|isbn=0648684806
|title=Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian Servants
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|title=Clara Colby: The International Suffragist
 +
|author=John Holliday
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Biography
 +
|summary=The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA.  At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers.  Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of school.  She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious.  By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join 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.
 +
}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1783784350
 +
|title=This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History
 +
|author=Esther Rutter
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=History
 
|genre=History
|summary=Life in Edwardian times is currently a popular subject, thanks in no small part to ''that'' period drama currently showing its final series on ITV. ''Life Below Stairs'' examines the subject in greater detail, looking at documents and memoirs from the time to discover what life was really like for those in service. We learn about the strict hierarchy in the household and the duties expected of each individual. We see how much each member of staff was paid and how workers were hired (and in many cases, fired) from their positions. Welcome to a slice of Edwardian life, served up with a delicious mix of period illustrations and newspaper clippings
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|summary=It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'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 length and breadth of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the story of wool's history and how it had made and changed the landscape.  She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - '' a free-range child on the farm'' - and learned to spin, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434356</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Lucy Adlington
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|isbn=1789017977
|title= Stitches in Time: The Story of the Clothes We Wear
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|title=Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II
 +
|author=Wendy Williams
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre= History
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|genre=History
|summary=''Stitches in Time'' is a lively history of clothing. Riffling through the wardrobes of years gone by, costume historian Lucy Adlington reveals the stories underneath the clothes we wear in this tour of the history of fashion, ranging from ancient times to the present day. With beautiful illustrations and full colour photographs, ''Stitches in Time'' is a reminder of how the way we dress is inextricably bound up with considerations of aesthetics, sex, gender, class and lifestyle – and offers the reader the chance to appreciate the extraordinary qualities of the clothing we wear, and the rich history it has led.  
+
|summary=Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall.  There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle.  One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life.  He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847947263</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Jeffrey James
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|isbn=1980891117
|title= Edward IV: Glorious Son of York
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|title=G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of George Engleheart
|rating= 4.5
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|author=John Webley
|genre= History
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|rating=4.5
|summary= Medieval England's own game of thrones, The Wars of the Roses, was at the centre of a turbulent age.  In retrospect much of the history of medieval England, between the Norman conquest and the advent of the Tudors, seems to have been a chronicle of instability often verging on and sometimes erupting into rebellion or civil war. The fifteenth-century conflicts between the houses of Lancaster and York, lasting intermittently for thirty years, were more protracted and even more brutal than the rest, with several fierce battles and sudden changes of fortune for the two rival families, both descended from King Edward III.  The rise, fall and rise again of King Edward IV was a constant theme of the wars.
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|genre=Art
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445646218</amazonuk>
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|summary=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 he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Dan Jones
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|isbn=1789016304
|title= Realm Divided: A Year in the Life of Plantagenet England
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|title=War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam
|rating= 4.5
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|author=Melanie Martin
|genre= History
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|rating=5
|summary= 1215 has gone down in history as the year of Magna Carta, the result of King John's increasingly discontented barons attempts to exert control over their wayward and stubborn monarch.  John had succeeded to the throne of England in 1199, at the end of an often turbulent centuryHis father, Henry II, had succeeded in restoring the authority of the crown after almost twenty years of civil war between the supporters of two rival claimants to the kingdomHe had inherited a challenging set on both sides of the Channel, and within four years had been driven out of most of the French ones, notably the duchy of Normandy.  Posterity would bestow on him the unflattering nicknames 'John Softsword' and later 'John Lackland'.
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|genre=History
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781858829</amazonuk>
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|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 Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, 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 German occupationMost people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspectIt's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Keith Jeffery
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|isbn=1908745819
|title=1916: A Global History
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|title=Surfacing
|rating= 4.5
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|author=Kathleen Jamie
|genre= History
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|rating=5
|summary=1916 was a pivotal year in modern historyIt witnessed the Easter Rising in Dublin, the battles of Verdun and the Somme, and the election of Woodrow Wilson as American President. These, and several other events described in this book in detail, were later seen as crucial staging points in the course of the First World War.
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|genre=History
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408834308</amazonuk>
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|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 this case, I was told why.  The blurb speaks of the author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.''  Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I amAdd to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it.  It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually.  I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Gary Cox
+
|isbn=0857058320
|title= Deep Thought: 42 Fantastic Quotes that Define Philosophy
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|title=Lord Of All the Dead
|rating= 4.5
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|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)
|genre= History
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|rating=4
|summary= Who really knows what ''Cogito ergo sum'' means? Yes, you may know that Descartes said it, and that it translates as 'I think, therefore I am', but what was it the French philosopher was trying to say about human existence when he said this most quotable and definitive phrase? And, for that matter, ''where'' did he say it? Was it in the seventeenth century or the eighteenth? If these are the sort of question that keep you awake at night, then Gary Cox's ''Deep Thought: 42 Fantastic Quotes that Define Philosophy'' will be a welcome addition to your library. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472567269</amazonuk>
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|genre=History
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|summary=''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, 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 uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.  
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Kevin Flude
+
|isbn=0008294011
|title=Divorced, Beheaded, Died...: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized Chunks
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|title=How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship
 +
|author=Ece Temelkuran
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=History
 
|genre=History
|summary=History lives.  Proof of that sweeping statement can be had in this book, and in the fact that while it only reached the grand old age of six, it has had the dust brushed off it and has been reprinted – and while the present royal incumbent it ends its main narrative with has not changed, other things haveThis has quietly been updated to include the reburial of Richard III in Leicester, and seems to have been rereleased at a perfectly apposite time, as only the week before I write these words the Queen has surpassed all those who came before her as our longest serving rulerSuch details may be trivia to some – especially those of us of a more royalist bent – and important facts to othersThe perfect balance of that coupling – trivia and detail – is what makes this book so worthwhile.
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|summary=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 question ''Discuss the factors which led to...'' I agreed that she was right and wasn't certain whether it was a good or bad thing that we didn't know what all 'this' was leading toI think now that I do knowWe are in danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434631</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Emma Marriott
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|isbn=1788037812
|title= I Used to Know That: History
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|title=The Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908
|rating= 4
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|author=Brian Anderson
|genre= Politics and Society
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|rating=5
|summary= I've picked up a few things over the years, most notably from English language text books while TEFLing abroad (there's nothing like an exciting lesson on Guy Fawkes to have a classroom of Mexicans wondering why we so love to celebrate a terrorist attack that didn't happen). But I have gaps, of this I am sure, and I thought to get a basic understanding of, well, the basics that we all should know, a quick read of this book wouldn't hurt.
+
|genre=History
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434488</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of 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.
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author= Bruce Hugman
+
|isbn=1910593508
|title= Out of Bounds
+
|title=Apollo
|rating= 4
+
|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins
|genre= Autobiography
+
|rating=5
|summary= Author Bruce Hugman has been a school teacher, probation officer, smallholder, university lecturer, PR Professional, is an international communications consultant and teacher in healthcare and patient safety. Having nursed two partners through the final stages of AIDS, and survived the 2004 Asian Tsunami. A varied and interesting life then – and it is the first thirty years of it that Hugman chooses to concentrate on here.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1508423709</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Christopher Dell
 
|title=Mythology: An Illustrated Journey Into Our Imagined Worlds
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
 
|summary=What does a rainbow mean to you?  How would you explain the creation of the world if you had no science as such, or the changing of the seasons?  What other kinds of natures – chaotic trickery, evil personae or even the characteristics of goats – people your world?  And why is it that the answers man and woman have collectively formed to such questions have been so similar across the oceans and across the centuries?  This highly pictorial volume looks at the mythologies that formed those answers, and locks on to a multitude of subjects – blood, music, godly activity – to show us what has followed.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0500291519</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Caroline Moorehead
 
|title=Village of Secrets
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=History
 
|genre=History
|summary=''Village of Secrets'' is an account of resistance (with a small 'r') and rescue in a series of small villages scattered across the Vivarais-Lignon plateau in Vichy France. Residents of these villages harboured a number of people, many of them children, many of them Jews, seeking to avoid deportation to concentration camps, at great personal risk. There have been other accounts of this chapter in French history and, of course, a great many books about Vichy France in general. However, ''Village of Secrets'' is, perhaps, the most detailed, much of it based on primary sources (interviews with both rescuers and the rescued, or their families), backed up by extensive documentary research.
+
|summary=This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955464X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Peter Finn and Petra Couvee
+
|isbn=1786331047
|title=The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book
+
|title=The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family
 +
|author=Helen Rappaport
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
+
|genre=History
|summary=One of the many things to come out of this incredibly clear and readable book is that we Brits, for all our literary heritage, have got nothing like an equivalent to Boris Pasternak.  He or she would have to sell like Rowling, regularly capture the enjoyment and spirit of the nation a la Danny Boyle's Olympics ceremonies, and at the same time have the cultural heft of Larkin, Rushdie, Graham Greene and more combined.  Someone connected with choosing recipients of the Nobel Prize declare him here to be the Soviet TS Eliot, but that's nothing like.  So the reader probably has to stretch herself to see someone so well-respected and well-loved for his verse, who spent twelve years and more on a huge, society-defining novel, only for the country to nix every plan to get it published.
+
|summary=The basic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, some of which were deliberately obscured at the time for various reasons, have long since been established. For the last few months of their lives in Russia the former Tsar and Tsarina, their children and few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the revolutionary regime had them all shot and bayoneted to death in circumstances which, once the news was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581345</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ingrid von Oelhafen and Tim Tate
 
|title=Hitler's Forgotten Children: My Life Inside the Lebensborn
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=You see that name that credits the author of this book?  Forget it, it's not accurate.  (I don't mean Tim Tate's workmanlike, journalistic ghost writing, more of which later.)  The narrator of this book did change her name by deed poll to something like Ingrid von Oelhafen some time ago, but not exactly how she wanted.  She grew up as Ingrid von Oelhafen, although that was the name of her father, who was so desperately absent, in being over a generation older than his wife, with whom he was separated.  She might well have had her mother's maiden name if her parents had divorced – and indeed her mother did move on to have a second family, and was terribly distant herself – young Ingrid would plead and plead for her company while in a remote children's home, and a lot of family secrets were not passed down at opportune times.  Oh, and legally, due to what little documentation was to be seen, such as immunisation record cards, Ingrid was not Ingrid at all, but Erika Matko. Through this book, we find she was not blood-kin with her brother, her step-brother was to die, she was not blood-kin with her sister, but was her brother's, –  oh, and even in this day and age you can still find a changeling foundling.  Such incredibly convoluted family trees are the fault of the Lebensborn.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783961201</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Francis O'Gorman
 
|title= Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= History
 
|summary= ‘’Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History’’ begins with a familiar scene for anyone who experiences that persistent feeling of fretful panic: lying awake in the early hours, unable to switch off, thoughts turning over in your head.  If this common situation hits home, ‘This book’, its author Francis O’Gorman writes, ‘is for you.’
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144115129X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=David Loades
 
|title=The Seymours of Wolf Hall: A Tudor Family Story
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= History
 
|summary= In medieval times Wolf Hall or Wolfhall (or even Wulfhall), the long-since-demolished family seat in Wiltshire, was the home of the Seymour family.  Their greatest triumph, followed by a speedy decline and fall, was part of Tudor history, and is thus the focus of this book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445634953</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Philip Parker
 
|title= The Northmen’s Fury: A History of the Viking World
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= History
 
|summary= In AD793, the Vikings arrived on our shores. Bringing death and destruction, they sacked the island monastery of Lindisfarne. Bloodthirsty warriors, they soon descended on northern Europe. However, for all their reputation as terrible and brutal thugs, the Vikings possessed a culture that was far more sophisticated than they are often given credit for, producing art, literature and long lasting kingdoms. Philip Parker describes how these people came to rule over much of Europe for nearly three centuries, in this fascinating and intriguing read.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551845</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
 +
Move on to [[Newest Home and Family Reviews]]

Latest revision as of 12:03, 20 March 2023

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Review of

Charging Around: Exploring the Edges of England by Electric Car by Clive Wilkinson

5star.jpg Travel

Clive Wilkinson has a history of travelling by unconventional means with a preference for slow travel. As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the edges of England in an electric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, it should be a pleasant holiday for Clive and his wife, Joan, shouldn't it? Full Review

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Review of

Neville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain Opposed Hitler, 1939-1940 by Frederic Seager

4.5star.jpg History

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 Phoney War. We remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, war breaking out, and Churchill coming in to save the day. Very little time is spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, as Frederic Seager argues in this book, it was of vital significance in how the war played out. Full Review

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Review of

CDC: The happy years with a spectacular IT 'Phenomena' by Hans Bodmer

4star.jpg History

The history of the development of IT could fill books of several hundred pages.

Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. He has chosen to tell us about the short, but explosive, history of the Control Data Company, CDC, for whom he worked. It's a fascinating tale, told in a mixture of technological summary and wry anecdote. Full Review

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Review of

Fritz and Kurt by Jeremy Dronfield and David Ziggy Greene

4star.jpg Confident Readers

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 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 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 instead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with open arms. Kristallnacht happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, 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 the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on the same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry there. And us wondering how the titular event for the adult variant of all this could come about… Full Review

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Review of

The Search by John Henry Phillips

5star.jpg History

Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in the dirt looking to find what you can find, often knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Archaeology must be a 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 the titular search. And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a wide one, the target might not exist any more – oh, and it's underwater, when he cannot dive. 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, the vast majority of whom perished. Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties? Full Review

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Review of

Flights for Freedom by Steven Burgauer

4.5star.jpg Historical Fiction

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. Full Review

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Review of

The Inspiring History of a Special Relationship by Nancy Carver

4.5star.jpg History

The church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in the City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, the original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in Portland stone from a 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 Blitz. But that wasn't the end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the stones from the church's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. There, in the grounds of Westminster College, the church was rebuilt and today serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill. Full Review

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Review of

The Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of Nazi Germany by Roger Moorhouse

5star.jpg History

What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the Third Reich's fascist regime in all its iniquity. But some objects and images from that time may be less familiar to you. In this short volume, Roger Moorhouse has attempted to illustrate the period of the Third Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.  Full Review

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Review of

Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)

4.5star.jpg Graphic Novels

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'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 whole season of protests back in 1989. Full Review

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Review of

Clara Colby: The International Suffragist by John Holliday

4star.jpg Biography

The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of school. She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join 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. Full Review

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Review of

This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History by Esther Rutter

5star.jpg History

It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she'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 length and breadth of the British Isles with occasional forays abroad, discovering and telling the story of wool's history and how it had made and changed the landscape. She'd grown up on a sheep farm in Suffolk - a free-range child on the farm - and learned to spin, knit and weave from her mother and her mother's friend. This was in her blood. Full Review

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Review of

Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II by Wendy Williams

4star.jpg History

Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942. Full Review

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Review of

G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of George Engleheart by John Webley

4.5star.jpg Art

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 he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book. Full Review

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Review of

War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin

5star.jpg History

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 Ann Frank but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, 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 German occupation. 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 soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. Full Review

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Review of

Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie

5star.jpg History

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 this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering an older, less tethered sense of herself. Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly. Full Review

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Review of

Lord Of All the Dead by Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

4star.jpg History

Lord Of All the Dead is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, 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 uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side. Full Review

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Review of

How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran

4.5star.jpg History

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 question Discuss the factors which led to... I agreed that she was right and wasn'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. We are in danger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth. Full Review

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Review of

The Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908 by Brian Anderson

5star.jpg History

Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of 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. Full Review

1910593508.jpg

Review of

Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

5star.jpg History

This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short. Full Review

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Review of

The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family by Helen Rappaport

5star.jpg History

The basic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, some of which were deliberately obscured at the time for various reasons, have long since been established. For the last few months of their lives in Russia the former Tsar and Tsarina, their children and few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. To prevent them from being rescued, in July 1918 the revolutionary regime had them all shot and bayoneted to death in circumstances which, once the news was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in Europe. Full Review

Move on to Newest Home and Family Reviews