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£10.99
Who are the English? Today, the dominant story told about our national history solely serves the interests of the right. The only people who dare speak of ‘Englishness’ are cheerleaders for isolationism and imperial nostalgia. But there is another story, equally compelling, about who we are: about the English people’s radical inclusivity, their ancient commitment to the natural world, their long struggle to win rights for all. It puts the Chartists and the Levellers in their rightful places alongside Nelson and Churchill. It draws on the medieval writers and Romantic poets who emphasised the sanctity of the environment. And at its heart is England’s ancient multicultural heritage, embodied by the Black and Asian writers the curriculum neglects. Here, Caroline Lucas uses this alternative story to offer a progressive vision of what Englishness is and what it might be.
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£12.99
What happened when Jane Austen’s heroines and heroes were finally wed? Marriage is at the centre of Jane Austen’s novels. The pursuit of husbands and wives, advantageous matches, and, of course, love itself, motivate her characters and continue to fascinate readers today. But what were love and marriage like in reality for ladies and gentlemen in Regency England? Rory Muir uncovers the excitements and disappointments of courtship and the pains and pleasures of marriage, drawing on fascinating first-hand accounts, as well as novels of the period.
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£25.00
Could we ever see Vladimir Putin in the dock for his crimes? What about a Western ally like Benjamin Netanyahu? Putting a country’s leader on trial once seemed unimaginable. But as Steve Crawshaw describes in ‘Prosecuting the Powerful’ – a blend of powerful eyewitness reporting and gripping history – the possibilities of justice have been transformed. Crawshaw includes recent stories from the front lines of justice in Ukraine, Israel/Palestine and at The Hague, as well as his earlier encounters with war criminals like Slobodan Milosevic.
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£22.00
Guilty – the conclusion of many trials. But this verdict was unusual, delivered by a jury of the greatest minds of the twentieth century, among them Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, James Baldwin and Stokely Carmichael; and in the chair, legendary philosopher-mathematician Bertrand Russell. The defendant was unusual, too – the United States government. Award-winning historian Clive Webb lays bare the extraordinary true story of the 1967 Russell Tribunal and its attempt to hold the US government to account for atrocities in the Vietnam War. The revelations that came out of the tribunal shocked the world. Vietdamned is an eye-opening account of the anti-war movement, of cover-ups and abuses of government, and of the power (and limits) of celebrity.
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£25.00
The first flight of the DH60 Moth marked the beginning of a craze for flying that gripped a war-weary world for more than a decade. The most successful aircraft of its era, it was the one in which people had the greatest adventures. And it was the Moth which showed that flying was safe, practical and, potentially, open to all. True, many early Mothists were uber-privileged. The Prince of Wales had one, as did his brother, the Duke of Gloucester. Beryl Markham, who had affairs with both, learned to fly in a Moth. Other enthusiasts included Philip Sassoon, one of the richest commoners in the land. In this story, as entertaining as it is extraordinary, the reader is introduced to an astonishing cast of characters whose courage, determination and eccentricity is shown in the light of what it is actually like to fly these remarkable aeroplanes.
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£25.00
The Dead Sea is a place of many contradictions. Hot springs around the lake are famed for their healing properties, though its own waters are deadly to most lifeforms – even so, civilizations have built ancient cities and hilltop fortresses around its shores for centuries. The protagonists in its story are not only Jews and Arabs, but also Greeks, Nabataeans, Romans, Crusaders and Mamluks. Today it has become a tourist hotspot, but its drying basin is increasingly under threat. In this panoramic account, Nir Arielli explores the history of the Dead Sea.
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£10.99
The world of 1907 is poised between the old and the new: communist regimes will replace imperial ones in China and Russia; the telegraph is transforming modern communication and the car will soon displace the horse. Kassia St Clair traces the fascinating stories of two interlocking races – setting the derring-do (and sometimes cheating) of one of the world’s first car races against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological rush to the future, as the rivalry grows between countries and empires, building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything – the First World War. ‘The Race to the Future’ is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that shaped the world we live in today.
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£9.99
The timeless wit and wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt, captured in this annotated collection of the monthly magazine advice columns that she wrote for more than twenty years.
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£40.00
The Great Mughals presents, for the first time the opulent, internationalist culture of Mughal Hindustan in the age of its greatest emperors: Akbar (r.1556-1605), Jahangir (r.1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658).
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£10.99
Every dog must have his day. There’s nothing the British love quite as much as their dogs. From hunting to our hearths, and from herding sheep to guiding humans, our dogs have accompanied us through centuries of change, and that special relationship is still evolving today. So, just what is it that makes our bond so special? In this adventure across Britain, Clare Balding explores our unique heritage of canine tradition and meets just some of the many people who live, work, and innovate with their dogs. From the mysteries of extinct breeds to the ancient dogs still thriving today, and adventuring from Battersea Dogs Home to Shetland via Buckingham Palace, we journey through the beloved canine story of our nation.
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£25.00
The celebration of Queen Victoria’s 60 years on the throne was carefully positioned to highlight the country’s strength. Extraordinary pageantry, parades and royal receptions served to dramatise the unparalleled significance of the event. The most important occasion, however, was the Devonshire House Ball, given at huge expense by the Hanover-born German ‘Double Duchess’ of Devonshire. The Duchess took to the task with alacrity, hosting the most famous party of the century: a fancy-dress ball with a guest list of the 700 social, cultural, political, and prominent ‘celebrities’ of the day. A specially commissioned tent – equipped with hand-painted backdrops, the most technically advanced cameras and lighting, along with realistic props – was set up in the magnificent gardens to capture the glamorous guests. Many of the exquisite costumes were preserved by photograph and are shown here, colourised for the first time.
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£16.99
It was the summer of 1983. Barbara Kingsolver had a day job as a scientific writer spending weekends cutting her teeth as a freelance journalist when she landed an assignment at a constellation of small, strike-gripped mining towns strung out across southern Arizona. Her mission was to cover the Phelps Dodge mine strike. Over the year that followed Kingsolver stood with those miners and their families, increasingly engaged and heartbroken, as they cried out to a wide world that either refused to believe what was happening to them, or didn’t care, or simply could not know. Kingsolver recorded stories of striking miners and their stunningly courageous wives, sisters, daughters. Sometimes visiting them in jail, witnessing the outrageous injustices they suffered. She saw rights she’d taken for granted denied to people she had learned to care about.
