Showing 73–84 of 325 resultsSorted by latest
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£25.00
London, 1772: a young artist called Thomas Rowlandson is making his way through the grimy backstreets of the capital, on his way to begin his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Within a few years, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank would join him in Piccadilly, turning satire into an artform, taking on the British establishment, and forever changing the way we view power. Set against a backdrop of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, French revolution, American independence and the Napoleonic Wars, ‘Uproar!’ follows the satirists as they lampoon those in power, from the Prince Regent to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Their prints and illustrations deconstruct the political and social landscape with surreal and razor-sharp wit, as the three men vie with each other to create the most iconic images of the day.
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£9.99
The London Silver Vaults – for well over a century, the largest collection of silver for sale in the world. It has more locks than the Bank of England and more cameras than a celebrity punch-up. Not somewhere you can murder someone and vanish without a trace – only that’s what happened. The disappearing act, the reports of a blinding flash of light and memory loss amongst the witnesses all make this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit. Alongside their boss DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands and, most terrifying of all, the North! And Peter must solve this case soon because back home his partner Beverley is expecting twins any day now. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something – and somebody – that nobody ever expects.
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£22.00
We tend to think about the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. By contrast we believe progress is the consequence of science and technological innovation, and that it was the inventions of recent centuries which created the modern world. We couldn’t be more wrong. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating introduction to the Middle Ages, people’s horizons – their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world – expanded dramatically. All aspects of life were utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare.
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£12.99
The fascinating story of the evolution of the country house in Britain, from its Roman precursors to the present
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£10.99
‘Never again’, became Queen Elizabeth II’s mantra shortly after Diana’s death. More specifically, there could never be ‘another Diana’ – a member of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone, and posed an existential threat to the British monarchy. Picking up where ‘The Diana Chronicles’ left off, ‘The Palace Papers’ reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the traumatic years when Diana’s blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet. Tina Brown takes readers on a tour de force journey that shows the Queen’s stoic resolve as she coped with the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and her partner for seven decades, Prince Philip, and triumphed in her Jubilee years even as the family dramas raged around her.
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£30.00
At the beginning of the 17th century, English politics centred on the king & the royal court. 90% of the population lived in the countryside, the vast majority was illiterate & famine & plague were regular scourges. However, by the turn of the 18th century, a new world had arisen. A world more familiar to our own: parliamentary politics, thriving arts & culture & even an embryonic welfare state. How did this happen? The story of this turbulent period is less well-known than it should be. Myths have grown around key figures; turning points like the Civil War are opaque for many. Yet the 17th century has never been more relevant. The British constitution is once again being bent & contorted, & there is a clash of ideologies reminiscent of when the Roundheads fought the Cavaliers. From raw politics to religious divisions, civil wars to witch trials, ‘The Blazing World’ is the story of a strange but fascinating century.
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£14.99
‘Scotland’s Forgotten Past’ takes a charming, lively and often amusing tour of 36 forgotten episodes and overlooked people and places of Scottish history.
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£20.00
‘On nearly every page a random passage takes one’s breath away’ The Times
‘Magnificent . . . an absolute joy to read’ The Sunday Telegraph
Have you ever heard the march of legions on a lonely country road?
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£12.99
More than just a single-minded warrior-king, Henry V comes to life in this fresh account as a gifted ruler acutely conscious of spiritual matters and his subjects’ welfare
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£25.00
Queen Elizabeth II was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. This intimate, personal biography tells the story of her life, reign and times, from a perspective unlike any other. Gyles Brandreth writes the Queen’s tale candidly with grace and sensitivity from the view of someone who met her, talked with her and kept a record of those conversations. Brandreth knew the Queen’s husband well and knows the new King and Queen Consort. Told with authority, humour and moving honesty from a totally unique viewpoint, this is the biography of a woman who represented not only her people but stood as an emblem of fortitude and resilience.
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£12.99
The medieval humoral system of medicine suggested that it was possible to die from having too much – or too little – sex, while the Roman Catholic Church taught that virginity was the ideal state. Holy men and women committed themselves to lifelong abstinence in the name of religion. Everyone was forced to conform to restrictive rules about who they could have sex with, in what way, how often, and even when, and could be harshly punished for getting it wrong. Like us, medieval people faced challenges in finding a suitable partner or trying to get pregnant (or trying not to). They also struggled with many of the same social issues, such as whether prostitution should be legalized. Above all, they shared our fondness for dirty jokes and erotic images. By exploring their sex lives, this book brings ordinary medieval people to life, revealing details of their most personal thoughts and experiences.
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£50.00
This innovative study reappraises the Edwardian Baroque movement in British architecture, placing it in its wider cultural, political, and imperial contexts
