‘Powerful’ The Economist

‘Fascinating, panoramic . . . Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy’ Helen Castor, bestselling author of She Wolves

‘Narrated with pace, clarity, authority and style, Roach’s book is a bracing tour of the world that the Normans made their own’ Thomas Williams, bestselling author of Viking Britain

‘A fresh retelling . . . written with enthusiasm and brio’ Marc Morris, bestselling author of The Anglo-Saxons

How did descendants of Viking marauders come to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East?

It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten – until now.

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Discover an original, entertaining and illuminating guide to a completely different world: England in the Middle Ages.

Imagine you could travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see, and hear, and smell? Where would you stay? What are you going to eat? And how are you going to test to see if you are going down with the plague?

In The Time Traveller’s Guide Ian Mortimer’s radical new approach turns our entire understanding of history upside down. History is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived, whether that’s the life of a peasant or a lord. The result is perhaps the most astonishing history book you are ever likely to read; as revolutionary as it is informative, as entertaining as it is startling.

‘Ian Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time’ The Times

‘After The Canterbury Tales this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the middle ages’ Guardian

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This was a crucial period in the history of Britain – rapid industrialization had radically changed life in the cites but rural communities used a mixture of centuries-old and pioneering modern practices. Packed with informative text and photographs from the farm year, this book reveals exactly what the Victorians, ate, wore, how they managed their animals, farmed the land and organised their lives. In-depth features describe revolutionary advances in more detail, including new inventions, new breeding methods and advances in agricultural science. Practical projects allow you to join the historians in rediscovering Victorian crafts, cookery and homecare.

Providing a real insight into life on a Victorian farm, this series is also a fascinating reminder of how history comes full circle. The organic diet of 1885, use of natural products for cleaning and healthcare and interests in crafts and gardening are of increasing relevance today as we look for a more responsible way of living over 120 years later.

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Britain is a nation of good sports – literally, it turns out, given our country’s wonderful array of eccentric and bizarrely inventive pastimes. Yes, we know New Zealand are good at rugby, Brazil at football, while Australia and South Africa were countries specifically created for people who take sport far too seriously, but have those sporty nations ever produced a World Champion Pie Eater (OK, Shane Warne notwithstanding)? Has Brazil provided a F1 Pram Racing world champ? Has an Aussie won the World Nettle Eating Championship? A New Zealander tossed his way to Haggis Hurling domination? I can’t hear you Johnny Foreigner, and I’m choosing to interpret your silence as a ‘no’. Because the truth is, ladies and gentlemen of this great, mighty and resilient sporting land we call both Britain and home, we have provided year after year, true world champions in cheese rolling, competitive ploughing, medieval football re-enactment and pram racing. We may not have produced a Wimbledon Champion since the… er… the Wars of the Roses, but put down your Jules Rimet trophy Brazil, hand back your Rugby World Cup South Africa, and pick up your flonking stick – it’s time to learn about the sports that really matter.

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`So wonderful and glorious a collection, that the like will never again be met with.’ This is how one awed and wistful observer described King Charles’ artworks. As an acquirer of paintings by Europe’s great masters and patron of Rubens and Van Dyck, Charles’s extravagance in amassing his collection only exacerbated the parliamentary disapproval that led to civil war and the King’s own execution. After his death, one of the Commonwealth’s first decrees was to sell off his treasures to raise money for the new regime. After the Restoration, one of Charles II’s first resolutions was to get the collection back.

Jerry Brotton tells the remarkable story of the king and his pictures: their acquisition, dispersal and eventual recovery. He reveals a world in which diplomats doubled as art dealers, and in which the king’s plumber could be temporary owner of Bassano’s The Flood. This is a vivid portrait of a tragic king and his decadent court, set against the backdrop of political conflict and civil war, which also offers a new and compelling perspective on art and the evolution of collecting in England.

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This history of early medieval Britain sheds light on the real King Arthur and settles longstanding historical misconceptions about the period.

The Long War for Britannia examines some two centuries of ‘lost’ British history, while providing decisive proof that the early records of the time are far more reliable than many scholars believe. Historian Edwin Pace also demonstrates that King Arthur and Uther Pendragon are the very opposite of medieval fantasy—even if different British regions had very different memories of these post-Roman British rulers.

Some remembered Arthur as the ‘Proud Tyrant’, a monarch who plunged the island into civil war. Others recalled him as the British general who saved Britain when all seemed lost. The deeds of Uther Pendragon replicate the victories of the dread Mercian king Penda. Pace demonstrates how these authentic—yet radically different—narratives have distorted the historical record in way that persist today.

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“Superb” NICK COHEN, author of What’s Left?

“Tremendously entertaining” DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Sunday Times

“Like his previous histories of the Seventies and Eighties, A Classless Society is an extraordinarily comprehensive work. Turner writes brilliantly, creating a compelling narrative of the decade, weaving contrasting elements together with a natural storyteller’s aplomb… engaging and unique” IRVINE WELSH, Daily Telegraph

“Ravenously inquisitive, darkly comical and coolly undeceived… Turner is a master of the telling detail” CRAIG BROWN, Mail on Sunday

When Margaret Thatcher was ousted from Downing Street in November 1990 after eleven years of bitter social and economic conflict, many hoped that the decade to come would be more ‘caring’; others hoped that the more radical policies of her revolution might even be overturned. Across politics and culture there was an apparent yearning for something the Iron Lady had famously dismissed: society.

The ‘New Britain’ to emerge would be a contradiction: economically unequal but culturally classless. Whilst Westminster agonised over sleaze and the ERM, the country outside became the playground of the Ladette. It was also a period that would see old moral certainties swept aside, and once venerable institutions descend into farce – followed, in the case of the Royal Family, by tragedy.

Opening with a war in the Gulf and ending with the attacks of 11 September 2001, A Classless Society goes in search of the decade when modern Britain came of age. What it finds is a nation anxiously grappling with new technologies, tentatively embracing new lifestyles, and, above all, forging a new sense of what it means to be British.

“Deserves to become a classic” EDWINA CURRIE

“Rich and encyclopaedic” ROGER LEWIS, Daily Mail

“Excellent” D.J. TAYLOR, Independent

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Charlie Haylock, Voice Dialect Coach on “The Dig

“Pearson’s account of the lives of Mildenhall Workhouse residents has a well-structured narrative and conversational tone. Not just a chronicle of people and events, Pearson also injects a modern perspective and sense of humour into these stories. As a result, A Victorian Workhouse indirectly asks readers to consider how we can care for people today by laying bare the humanity of those who suffered through poverty in the Victoria era. This is an excellent and well-researched book for both casual readers and lovers of Victorian history.”

Devon Driver

100 Years on since the demolition of the grand Victorian mansion that was the Mildenhall Union Workhouse, this book tells the story of the “Paupers” unfortunate enough to have found themselves confined within it’s walls. The book takes you on a time travelling experience to meet former residents of this market town in rural Suffolk. Discovering grave robbery, disease, suicide, violence and misunderstood mental illness along the way. Discover their story.

Many individuals heartbreakingly fell into the poverty trap, created by the new poor law of 1834, desperate individuals who would never live outside the workhouse again. Any “Paupers” unfortunate enough to die within the workhouse, could find themselves sold to Cambridge University, their bodies used to train Medical students. Even in death the Paupers were owned by the workhouse. Read their story.

However there were inmates who walked proudly away from the institution and these stories can also be found in this book too. Such as the young Mildenhall lad, who had just a few years earlier walked the streets with his mum and sisters, dressed in rags without any food, toes poking out of his worn down shoes. This family tramped the streets looking for shelter on a freezing cold November evening. The same young man a decade later created a new life for himself, literally chasing away the Workhouse shadows in Sunny California, a real life Suffolk cowboy! Read his story.

Who ran the workhouse? Who were the Master and Matron of the Mildenhall Union? Who and what were the Board of Guardians? As well as the stories of the poor, this book reveals the lives of those tasked with caring for the poor. You will discover that the Master has some skeletons in his closet! Discover his story.

If you were to take a short stroll through Mildenhall you would soon discover many of the street names and buildings named after former wealthy residents. Names such as Hanmer, Bunbury, North, Aldrich, famous names not just in Mildenhall but throughout Britain. The poor walked the very same streets as theses famous families, leaving behind little evidence that they were ever here. These lives now carefully pieced back together through years of research using historical records and newspaper archives.

The poor were here too, read their story

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In the summer of 1666, London was one of the largest cities in Europe, with close to half a million people living in its narrow, congested streets. Many of these people lived in houses packed closely together, lacking even basic facilities such as clean water and sewage disposal. The previous year, these unsanitary conditions had contributed to the worst outbreak of plague since the Black Death in 1348. Around 15% of the city’s population died as the deadly disease spread unchecked for almost twelve months. Finally, by the summer of 1666, the threat of plague seemed to be receding, and London slowly began to return to normal. But then, the city was threatened by another deadly hazard: fire.

London was a tinderbox waiting to ignite. Many of the city’s wooden buildings were sealed with flammable pitch, their upper stories jutting out and nearly meeting across the streets. An unusually hot and dry summer had drained the city’s water supplies, and without an organized firefighting force, its citizens were left to fend for themselves. The stage was set for catastrophe, and in the early hours of Sunday, September 2, 1666, the spark was struck. A seemingly inconsequential fire ignited in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane. Unchecked and underestimated, it would grow to become one of the most devastating disasters London had ever faced.

Discover a plethora of topics such as

• London: A City at Risk
• September 2: Pudding Lane
• September 3: The Fire Spreads
• September 4: A Change of Wind
• September 5 & 6: The Fire Dies Down
• Rebuilding
• And much more!

So if you want a concise and informative book on the Great Fire of London, simply scroll up and click the “Buy now” button for instant access!

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‘The classic book on Black people in Georgian London’ DAVID OLUSOGA

‘Deeply researched, lucidly written and utterly fascinating . . . If you ever thought Black British history started with Windrush, read this book’ GREG JENNER

Georgian England had a large and distinctive Black community. There were special churches, Black-only balls, many became famous and respected. But all, whether prosperous citizens or newly freed slaves, lived under the constant threat of kidnap and sale to plantations. Black England tells their stories, bringing their triumphs and tortures to vivid life, revealing a dramatic forgotten chapter of our shared past.

‘Black England taught me more history than I ever learned at school. Gretchen Gerzina tells it as it was, so we know how it is . . . a book that will be relevant for ever’ BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH

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