Chasing Mallory’s Dream
£25.00A gripping story of Himalayan climbing between the wars, one of the richest and most dramatic periods of mountaineering history.
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Queens and Kings
£25.00No one has lived and breathed the monarchy quite like Lucy Worsley. For over twenty years, she worked as Chief Curator in some of Britain’s most splendid palaces – and now she is ready to throw open the doors and welcome us in. In this book, Lucy takes us on a journey through some of our most turbulent and significant moments in history. From the Council Chamber in which Henry VIII decided to break from the Pope to lunch with the late Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, from encounters with the Tower of London’s Ravenmaster to the depths of Queen Victoria’s wardrobe, Lucy shares how she grew to know the queens and kings, courtiers and servants who lived in these buildings before her. She traces their footsteps through the corridors and cloisters, the courtyards and kitchens and breathes new life into moments of great joy and consequence – as well as tales of intrigue which lurked in the shadows of regal splendour.
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The Future Starts With Us
£25.00At a moment when the world feels increasingly unstable, Gordon Brown offers a powerful argument that the future will not be decided by global leaders alone, but by what we as citizens choose to do together.
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Sunak at 10
£25.00From taking office amidst the cost of living and energy supply crises and the panic caused by Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, through the agenda-dominating Ukraine and Gaza wars and the Rwanda Asylum Plan, to the stunning 2023 local election results, this book is the definitive and jaw-dropping window into Rishi Sunak’s premiership.
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Fractured France
£10.99The French have always loved to protest, to strike, to take to the streets in rebellion against the state or the status quo. But in the last few years, the level of anger and violence has taken many by surprise and the atmosphere has changed. The voices of hostility are not only from the extreme far-right, but from the ordinary French who feel excluded from the closed circle of wealth and privilege within the prospering cities. In this work, Andrew Hussey uncovers the past and present of the culture of the working class in France, a culture invisible to most tourists and ignored by the metropolitan classes.
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Generation GDR
£12.99A gripping account of East Germany in the late ’70s and early ’80s, and of one man’s fated struggle for freedom.
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Harold
£25.00An authoritative life of Harold II, the king who died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066Harold Godwinson is renowned as the king who lost England to the invading William the Conqueror in 1066. Infamous legends, invented by the Victorians, surround his life, corrupting our idea of him. But who was the real Harold II?In this major new biography, Tom Licence reveals the truth behind the nineteenth-century myths. Moving from Harold’s childhood and his adventures as an earl in Edward the Confessor’s court, to his nine-month reign and the bloody battles at its end, Licence rewrites the story of his life at every turn. We see Harold’s rupture with his family, his cultivation of alliances, and his political interventions at home and overseas. He seized the throne as a skilled political leader who was the prime candidate to unite a realm divided by rebellion. And, when war came to English shores, Harold managed the conflict as well as any command
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The Fifth Crusade
£25.00In 1217, the crusader states were in a highly fragile condition. The Fourth Crusade had failed, and Jerusalem had not been recovered. The crusaders now set their sights on Egypt. If the breadbasket of the Mediterranean could be conquered, long-term Christian control of the Holy Land could be ensured. Led by the rulers of Hungary and Austria, and backed by the Knights Templar and Hospitaller, the Fifth Crusade was launched. Thomas Smith tells the gripping story of the crusade for Egypt. Looking at a wide range of Christian and Muslim sources, Smith sheds new light on the brutal reality of medieval combat on land and water.
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Story of a Murder
£10.99On 1st February, 1910, vivacious music-hall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild who demanded an immediate investigation. They could not have known what they would provoke: the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime suspect: Belle’s husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen. Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen’s typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve – was she really just ‘an innocent young girl’ in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported? In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard – the women.
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Down Old Roads
£22.00For a million years people have been travelling throughout Europe, from the mysterious homo antecessor who left his footprints on the coast of England to travellers on the motorways of today. Under every footstep lies an older one, under every paved road a donkey trail or wagon rut, under every footpath the prints of a hunter or his prey. And yet the long, nation-spanning roads of Europe don’t hold a special place in the imaginations and identities of its residents. No classic songs have been written about the E8, the way Americans have written about Route 66. Are Europeans too attached to their own home patch? Or have they too often seen armies marching towards them along those roads? Eager to answer that question, Mathijs Deen goes in search of the warriors, refugees, bandits, pilgrims, fortune-seekers, conquerors and racers who advanced into history along the roads of Europe.
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Crucible of Light
£14.99An ambitious, revisionist and wide-ranging account of the centuries-old relationship between Islam and Europe, from the Moorish invasion of Spain to the present, for readers of Peter Frankopan, Mary Beard and William Dalrymple.
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The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry
£12.99Political intrigue and treachery, heroism and brutal violence victory and defeat – all this is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, an epic account of one of the pivotal episodes in English history embroidered on a strip of linen. Famously, it shows the stricken Anglo-Saxon king Harold dying on the battlefield of Hastings in 1066 amid a shower of arrows, as axes clash, spears fly and fallen warriors are trampled beneath charging hooves. However, there is much more to this remarkable historical and artistic treasure, which tells its tale with an intensity and immediacy that speak to our modern world, almost 1,000 years after its creation. David Musgrove and Michael Lewis skilfully lead us through the full story of the Tapestry and the history it relates, providing illuminating insight into a world of fascinating details that might otherwise be overlooked or their significance missed.
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The Darkrooms of Edith Tudor Hart
£20.00Writer and journalist Peter Stephan Jungk tells the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, his great-aunt, informed by lived experience and years of research into her mysterious and enigmatic life and career. With The Darkrooms of Edith Tudor-Hart he paints a vivid portrait of one of the most important Austrian-British photographers of the twentieth century.
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The Countess
£25.00Emily, Countess Cowper – born Hon. Emily Lamb – was a dazzling, ambitious force in Regency society. Raised amid the glamour and scandal of high society, with Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as her godmother and Lord Byron among her admirers, she thrived in a world of duels and intrigue. After her marriage to Earl Cowper faltered, she embarked on notable affairs, eventually marrying the charismatic Lord Palmerston. More than a society beauty, Emily wielded formidable political influence, helping engineer the premierships of her brother, Lord Melbourne, and Palmerston. In Downing Street she acted as adviser, speechwriter and strategist for the Whig cause, championing reform from women’s rights to abolition. A real-life inspiration for Bridgerton’s Cressida Cowper, Emily became one of the most powerful women in England – shaping history from behind the scenes.
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Downfall of a King
£30.00A riveting and deeply researched account of King Juan Carlos’s epic fall from grace.
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Fantastic Kingdom
£25.00A respected historian of the British Empire closes the chasm between how the British see themselves and how they are actually seen abroad. The United Kingdom is a country that evokes strong opinions but frequently escapes rigorous definition. Seen from the outside, it is a wildly contradictory place. One of the world’s strongest economies, where inequality is rampant. Famous for its pageantry and traditions, but selective about remembering its imperial past. By diving into its many paradoxes, Helene von Bismarck reveals why the political debate in – and, internationally, about – the United Kingdom has for years been driven by people who talk past, rather than with, each other. This title explores and challenges the way the British see themselves, their political and constitutional system and their role in the world – encouraging readers to leave our echo chambers and look through new eyes at this complex and sometimes bewildering countr