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Books > Humanities > History > British & Irish history
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Shakespeare
(Hardcover)
Joseph Piercy
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Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Shakespeare is a fascinating
collection of surprising revelations, quirky characters and other
fascinating pieces of trivia from the world of the great English
bard. From the stories behind his well-known plays and poems,
through the actors and theatres that have entertained his works, to
his legacy in popular culture and beyond, an intriguing and unusual
history of his life and times is revealed. Drawing back the
curtains on this iconic English character, there is something here
for every enthusiast to relish. This authoritative and absorbing
book is published to coincide with the 400th Anniversary of
Shakespeare's death on 23rd April 2016.
Building on the success of previous editions, Politics in the
Republic of Ireland continues to provide an authoritative
introduction to all aspects of government and politics in this
seventh edition. Written by some of the foremost experts on Irish
politics, it explains, analyses and interprets the background to
Irish government and contemporary political processes. It devotes
chapters to every aspect of contemporary Irish government and
politics, including the political parties and elections, the
constitution, deliberative democracy, referendums, the Taoiseach
and the governmental system, women and politics, the position of
the Dáil, and Ireland’s place within the European Union.
Bringing readers up to date with the very latest developments,
especially with the upheaval in the Irish party system and the
implications of recent liberalising referendums, PRI7 combines
substance with a highly readable style, providing an accessible
book that meets the needs of all those who are interested in
knowing how politics and government operate in Ireland.
Much writing on men in the field of gender studies tends to focus
unduly, almost exclusively, on portraying men as villains and women
as victims in a moral bi-polar paradigm. Re-Thinking Men reverses
the proclivity which ignores not only the positive contributions of
men to society, but also the male victims of life including the
homeless, the incarcerated, the victims of homicide, suicide,
accidents, war and the draft, and sexism, as well as those affected
by the failures of the health, education, political and justice
systems. Proceeding from a radically different perspective in
seeking a more positive, balanced and inclusive view of men (and
women), this book presents three contrasting paradigms of men as
Heroes, Villains and Victims. With the development of a comparative
and revised gender perspective drawing on US, Canadian and UK
sources, this book will be of interest to scholars across a range
of social sciences.
It was famously the scene of Charles and Diana's nightmare marriage
and Charles's serial adulteries. But then Kensington Palace has a
long history of royal philandering. George II installed his wife
and mistress in the palace, for example, and made his mistress
sleep in a room so damp there were said to be mushrooms growing on
the walls. And then there were the eccentrics. George III's sixth
son, Augustus, Duke of Sussex, became a virtual recluse at the
palace. He collected hundreds of clocks and mechanical toys,
thousands of early Bibles and dozens of songbirds that were allowed
to fly freely through the royal apartments. Today, the palace is
home to the future King William and his wife Catherine, and until
recently home to the newly married Duke and Duchess of Sussex,
Harry and Meghan. Tom Quinn takes the reader behind the official
version of palace history to discover intriguing, sometimes wild,
often scandalous, but frequently heart-warming stories.
AS SEEN IN THE TIMES AND UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL The Sunday Times
and New York Times bestseller 'THE ROYAL BOOK OF THE YEAR' Daily
Mail THIS CRISIS IS AS BIG AS THE ABDICATION - SAYS LACEY,
HISTORICAL ADVISOR TO THE CROWN. The world has watched Prince
William and Prince Harry since they were born. Raised by Princess
Diana to be the closest of brothers, how have the boy princes grown
into very different, now distanced men? From royal expert and
bestselling author Robert Lacey, this book is an unparalleled
insider account of tumult and secrecy revealing the untold details
of William and Harry's early closeness then estrangement. It asks
what happens when two sons are raised for vastly different futures
- one burdened with the responsibility of one day becoming king,
the other with the knowledge that he will always remain spare. How
have William and Harry each formed their idea of a modern royal's
duty and how they should behave? Were the seeds of damage sowed as
Prince Charles and Diana's marriage painfully unraveled for all the
world to see? In the previous generation, how have Prince Charles
and Prince Andrew's lives unfolded in the shadow of the Crown? What
choices has Queen Elizabeth II made in marshalling her feuding
heirs? What parts have Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle played in
helping their husbands to choose their differing paths? And what is
the real, unvarnished story behind Harry and Meghan's dramatic
departure? In the most intimate vision yet of life behind closed
doors, with the family's highs, lows and hardest decisions all laid
out, this is a journey into royal life as never offered before.
Our ancestors developed a uniquely nature-focused society, centred
on esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers and wise women who were
deeply connected to the land. They used this connection to the
cycles of the natural world - from which we are increasingly
dissociated - as an animating force in their lives. In this
illuminating new book, Manchan Magan sets out on a journey, through
bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor's
footsteps. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our
national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have
endured through millennia - from ice ages through to famines and
floods. Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their
life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new
light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom
of what lies beneath us. 'We could do with a lot more characters
like [Manchan] dotted about this world.' Irish Independent 'Manchan
creates a gorgeous tapestry that lingers in the mind's eye.' Kerri
Ni Dochartaigh 'Manchan['s] ... got some theories about the roots
of the Irish language that are going to blow your head off ... an
incredible storyteller.' Blindboy Boatclub Manchan's passion for
Ireland's ecological and poetic heritage is more urgently relevant
than ever.' Darach O Seaghdha
In the age of empire, Victorians and Romantics over the long 19th
century faced issues of governance that no other society had faced
on such a massive level, causing socio-political questions that had
to be addressed based on sheer necessity but little governmental
experience. In an age in which there was a decade referred to as
"the Hungry Forties," and in which the Great Famine in Ireland
occurs as well, there are high rates of poverty across the whole
century in Britain and its colonies. At the same time that hunger
and famine were intractable issues, irresolvable across
nineteenth-century Britain, socio-political entities had little
stomach for solving the problem and few technocrats had economic
answers based on real world experience. This four-volume collection
of primary sources examine hunger and famine in Britain and its
empire across the long nineteenth century.
Since 1994, when the first Time Team programme was broadcast,
archaeology has been brought to life for millions of people. This
book combines the talents of two of the programme's key players in
an exciting series of reconstructions. Victor Ambrus has produced
hundreds of sketches and drawings of archaeological sites and the
lives of those who would have inhabited them. For the first time
his drawings of individual excavations have been brought together
to provide a dramatic chronological survey of British History. Add
to this Mick Aston's lively explanations and photographs and you
have an archaeological collaboration which is guaranteed to
delight. Mick Aston has contributed a passion and enthusiasm for
archaeology which is infectious, so let Victor and Mick take you on
a visual journey through history...
This collection gathers together 31 previously out-of-print titles
focusing on revolution - the political, economic, military and
social aspects of the overthrow of state power. Ranging from
nineteenth-century France to late-twentieth-century Caribbean,
these books analyse the forms of revolt and the aftermaths of
revolution, examining the types of government that result and the
reactions of international opinion.
London, 1716. Revenge is a dish best served ice-cold...The city is
caught in the vice-like grip of a savage winter. Even the Thames
has frozen over. But for Jonas Flynt - thief, gambler, killer - the
chilling elements are the least of his worries... Justice Geoffrey
Dumont has been found dead at the base of St Paul's cathedral, and
a young male sex-worker, Sam Yates, has been taken into custody for
the murder. Yates denies all charges, claiming he had received a
message to meet the judge at the exact time of death. The young man
is a friend of courtesan Belle St Clair, and she asks Flynt to
investigate. As Sam endures the horrors of Newgate prison, they
must do everything in their power to uncover the truth and save an
innocent life, before the bodies begin to pile up. But time is
running out. And the gallows are beckoning... A totally enrapturing
portrayal of eighteenth-century London, and a rapier-like crime
thriller, perfect for fans of Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Antonia
Hodgson and Ambrose Parry.
An engaging, richly illustrated account of parish churches and
churchgoers in England, from the Anglo-Saxons to the mid-sixteenth
century Parish churches were at the heart of English religious and
social life in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. In this
comprehensive study, Nicholas Orme shows how they came into
existence, who staffed them, and how their buildings were used. He
explains who went to church, who did not attend, how people behaved
there, and how they-not merely the clergy-affected how worship was
staged. The book provides an accessible account of what happened in
the daily and weekly services, and how churches marked the seasons
of Christmas, Lent, Easter, and summer. It describes how they
celebrated the great events of life: birth, coming of age, and
marriage, and gave comfort in sickness and death. A final chapter
covers the English Reformation in the sixteenth century and shows
how, alongside its changes, much that went on in parish churches
remained as before.
This is the extraordinary story of how salt fish from Shetland
became one of the staple foods of Europe, powered an economic boom
and inspired artists, writers and musicians. It ranges from the
wild waters of the North Atlantic, the ice-filled fjords of
Greenland and the remote islands of Faroe to the dining tables of
London's middle classes, the bacalao restaurants of Spain and the
Jewish shtetls of Eastern Europe. As well as following the
historical thread and exploring how very different cultures were
drawn together by the salt fish trade, John Goodlad meets those
whose lives revolve around the industry in the twenty-first century
and addresses today's pressing themes of sustainability, climate
change and food choices.
This book tells a true detective story set mainly in Elizabethan
London during the years of cold war just before the Armada of 1588.
The mystery is the identity of a spy working in a foreign embassy
to frustrate Catholic conspiracy and propaganda aimed at the
overthrow of Queen Elizabeth and her government. The suspects in
the case are the inmates of the house, an old building in the
warren of streets and gardens between Fleet Street and the Thames.
These include the ambassador, a civilized Frenchman, his wife, his
daughter, his secretary, his clerk and his priest, the tutor, the
chef, the butler, and the concierge. They also include a runaway
friar, the Neapolitan philosopher, poet, and comedian Giordano
Bruno, who wrote masterpieces of Italian literature, who was later
burned in Rome for his anti-papal opinions, and who has been
revered in Italy for his honorable and heroic resistance to papal
authority. Others in the cast are Queen Elizabeth, her formidable
secretary of state Sir Francis Walsingham, and King Henry III of
France; poets, courtiers, and scholars; statesmen, conspirators,
go-betweens, and stool-pigeons. When not in London, the action
takes place in Paris and Oxford; a good deal of it happens on the
river Thames. The hero or villain, who calls himself Fagot, does
his work most effectively, is not found out, and disappears. In the
first part of the book these events are narrated. In the second the
spy is identified and his story put together. John Bossy's
brilliant research, backed by his forensic and literary skills,
solves a centuries-old mystery. His book makes a major contribution
to the political and intellectual history of the wars of religion
in Europe and to the domestic history of Elizabethan England. Not
least, it is compelling reading.
THE SUNDAY TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE
BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2022 Eleven years when Britain had no king.
In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution. On a raw January
afternoon, the Stuart king, Charles I, was executed for treason.
Within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the
'useless and dangerous' House of Lords discarded. The people, it
was announced, were now the sovereign force in the land. What this
meant, and where it would lead, no one knew. The Restless Republic
is the story of the extraordinary decade that followed. It takes as
its guides the people who lived through those years. Among them is
Anna Trapnel, the daughter of a Deptford shipwright whose visions
transfixed the nation. John Bradshaw, the Cheshire lawyer who found
himself trying the King. Marchamont Nedham, the irrepressible
newspaper man and puppet master of propaganda. Gerrard Winstanley,
who strove for a Utopia of common ownership where no one went
hungry. William Petty, the precocious scientist whose mapping of
Ireland prefaced the dispossession of tens of thousands. And the
indomitable Countess of Derby who defended to the last the final
Royalist stronghold on the Isle of Man. The Restless Republic
ranges from London to Leith, Cornwall to Connacht, from the
corridors of power to the common fields and hillsides. Gathering
her cast of trembling visionaries and banished royalists, dextrous
mandarins and bewildered bystanders, Anna Keay brings to vivid life
the most extraordinary and experimental decade in Britain's
history. It is the story of how these tempestuous years set the
British Isles on a new course, and of what happened when a
conservative people tried revolution.
A TIMES BESTSELLER, January 2022 A TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF
THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR A BBC HISTORY
MAG BOOK OF THE YEAR A DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Expressive,
bold and quite beautiful' The Lady '[a] delight of a book' Antonia
Senior, The Times 'ravishingly lovely' The Times Ireland '[a]
lively retelling of British myths' Apollo Magazine Soaked in mist
and old magic, Storyland is a new illustrated mythology of Britain,
set in its wildest landscapes. It begins between the Creation and
Noah's Flood, follows the footsteps of the earliest generation of
giants from an age when the children of Cain and the progeny of
fallen angels walked the earth, to the founding of Britain,
England, Wales and Scotland, the birth of Christ, the wars between
Britons, Saxons and Vikings, and closes with the arrival of the
Normans. These are retellings of medieval tales of legend,
landscape and the yearning to belong, inhabited with characters now
half-remembered: Brutus, Albina, Scota, Arthur and Bladud among
them. Told with narrative flair, embellished in stunning artworks
and glossed with a rich and erudite commentary. We visit beautiful,
sacred places that include prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge
and Wayland's Smithy, spanning the length of Britain from the
archipelago of Orkney to as far south as Cornwall; mountains and
lakes such as Snowdon and Loch Etive and rivers including the Ness,
the Soar and the story-silted Thames in a vivid, beautiful tale of
our land steeped in myth. It Illuminates a collective memory that
still informs the identity and political ambition of these places.
In Storyland, Jeffs reimagines these myths of homeland, exile and
migration, kinship, loyalty, betrayal, love and loss in a landscape
brimming with wonder.
Shortlisted for the The Great Outdoors Awards - Outdoor Book of the
Year 2020 Shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain
Literature 2020 There are strange relics hidden across Scotland's
landscape: forgotten places that are touchstones to incredible
stories and past lives which still resonate today. Yet why are so
many of these 'wild histories' unnoticed and overlooked? And what
can they tell us about our own modern identity? From the high
mountain passes of an ancient droving route to a desolate moorland
graveyard, from uninhabited post-industrial islands and Clearance
villages to caves explored by early climbers and the mysterious
strongholds of Christian missionaries, Patrick Baker makes a series
of journeys on foot and by paddle. Along the way, he encounters
Neolithic settlements, bizarre World War Two structures, evidence
of illicit whisky production, sacred wells and Viking burial
grounds. Combining a rich fusion of travelogue and historical
narrative, he threads themes of geology, natural and social
history, literature, and industry from the places he visits,
discovering connections between people and place more powerful than
can be imagined.
In 2017, the Government's attempt to trigger Article 50 and so
leave the European Union resulted in a judgement by the Supreme
Court, which stated that the Government was unentitled to do so
without the consent of Parliament, directly citing the Bill of
Rights in its judgement. Ironically, the Bill of Rights, enacted in
1689 to address abuses by the Crown, was successfully invoked in
the twenty-first century to curb a perceived abuse by Government,
acting in the name of the Crown. Passed shortly after the Glorious
Revolution, the Bill sets out the balance of power between
Parliament and the Crown, prohibiting the sovereign from levying
taxes, recruiting troops or suspending laws without Parliamentary
consent. Establishing Parliament as the ultimate source of power in
the land and enshrining basic civil rights first set out in Magna
Carta but subsequently abridged, the Bill document can justly claim
to serve as the origin of Britain's democracy. Published here with
an introduction by Jonathan Sumption providing the historical
context of the document and its influence over the centuries -
particularly on the United States Bill of Rights - this edition
shows how a number of the original clauses find renewed relevance
in contemporary events.
This remarkable book provides an account of the history of Ireland
like we've never seen before. Told through the prism of the lives
of twenty-one extraordinary women, it offers an alternative vision
of Irish history, one that puts the spotlight on women whose
contributions have been forgotten or overlooked. From the oldest
woman in Ireland, whose bones were found beneath the Poulnabrone
dolmen, to the modern-day founder of a 3D printing company, this
book introduces us to amazing women whose stories were shaped by
the centuries in which they lived. "An engrossing selection of
capsule biographies of some of those whose work is well worth
remembering," Five stars, Mary Carr, The Irish Mail on Sunday. "A
brilliant way of bringing to life the lives of women who would
otherwise be forgotten or who might not have been known at all.
[Through Her Eyes] covers such an incredible spectrum of women;
there are 21 extraordinary stories - and brilliantly told. Patrick
Geoghegan, Talking History, Newstalk "This well-researched book
looks at Irish history from the Neolithic to the digital era
through the lives of 21 women. Standout figures include Lady Sligo,
Hester Catherine Browne, who did much to help her tenants during
the Great Famine, Letitia and Naomi Overend, who left their
Airfield farm to the State, and Jemma Redmond, a biotechnologist
who 3D-printed human tissues." Brian Maye, The Irish Times "I was
delighted and learned so much from Through Her Eyes: a history of
Ireland in 21 women. It will inform my next trip to Ireland when I
will seek out those places associated with many of these remarkable
women." Dr Dymphna Lonergan, Tintean, Australia "Anyone with an
interest in Irish history will be excited to have a new piece added
to the puzzle. Through Her Eyes tells the tale of 21 women who
helped shape modern Ireland, but whose names and whose
accomplishments have been forgotten by most. Sunday Business Post
"Clodagh Finn delivers a celebration of womanhood... rare,
inspiring women whose message is clear for everyone out there - if
you have a dream, seize it, and let the naysayers go hang." David
Lawlor, Irish Daily
The fascinating history of poetry anthologies and their influence
on British society and culture over the last four centuries. For
hundreds of years, anthologies have shaped the way we encounter
literature. Eighteenth-century children and young women were
introduced to the 'safe' bits of Shakespeare or Milton through
censored collections; Victorian working-class men and women
enrolled at adult learning institutions to be taught from The
Golden Treasury; First World War soldiers nursed copies of The
Oxford Book of English Verse in the trenches; pop-loving teenagers
growing up in the 1960s got their first taste of the counterculture
from the bestselling The Mersey Sound. But anthologies aren't just
part of literary history. Over the centuries, they have influenced
the course of British social change, redrawing the map of 'high'
and 'low' culture, generating conversations around politics,
morality, class, gender and belief. The Treasuries, by the literary
scholar and journalist Clare Bucknell, reveals the extraordinary
amount we can learn about our history from the anthologies that
brought readers together and changed the way they thought.
Elizabeth Woodville, The White Queen(2009), Margaret Beaufort, The
Red Queen(2010), and Jacquetta, Lady Rivers, The Lady of the Rivers
(2011) are the subjects of the first three novels in Philippa
Gregory's Cousins' War series, and of the three biographical essays
in this book. Philippa Gregory and two historians, leading experts
in their field who helped Philippa to research the novels, tell the
extraordinary 'true' stories of the life of these women who until
now have been largely forgotten by history, their background and
times, highlighting questions which are raised in the fiction and
illuminating the novels. With a foreword by Philippa Gregory - in
which Philippa writes revealingly about the differences between
history and fiction and examines the gaps in the historical record
- and beautifully illustrated with rare portraits, The Women of the
Cousins' Waris an exciting addition to the Philippa Gregory oeuvre.
For fans of "The Tulip" and "Orchid Fever," a captivating account
of big business, adventure and family intrigue in the horticultural
world.
For over a century and across five generations, one Scottish family
pioneered the introduction of hundreds of new plants into gardens,
conservatories and houses and became the foremost European
cultivators and hybridizers of their day. The story begins in 1768
when a Scotsman named John Veitch went to England to find his
fortune, starting out as a gardener for the aristocracy. Realizing
that horticultural mania had begun to spread throughout the
population, Veitch and his wife opened a nursery and began to send
the first commercial plant collectors to North and South America,
Australia, India, Japan, China and the South Seas. These plant
collectors were among the first people allowed into the countries
of the Far East and the tales of their travels, many of them
perilous and some fatal, are wonderful adventure stories. Combining
an historian's eye for detail with a flair for storytelling, the
author charts the fortunes of one family and through them tells the
fascinating story of the modern garden.
"Amazing & Extraordinary Facts about Kings and Queens" unearths
a wealth of fascinating truths about British monarchs from
pre-Roman times to the present day. Discover revealing stories
about the lives and personalities of each monarch and how they have
shaped history. Tales of wickedness, greed, adultery and madness
make this guide to Britain's kings and queens utterly compelling.
"The Amazing and Extraordinary Facts series" presents interesting,
surprising and little-known facts and stories about a wide range of
topics which are guaranteed to inform, absorb and entertain in
equal measure. Brief, accessible and entertaining pieces on a wide
variety of subjects make them the perfect books to dip in to.
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