This is the story of Salcombe through the eyes of the Murch family. Born and bred in the town for generations, and destined to change its face forever: James who was to become the town's largest employer constructing most of the buildings around the Estuary, and Frank - Lt. Cmdr. Francis Murch - who assumed responsibility for the safety of Salcombe in the dark days of the American build-up to D Day in 1944.

Who was St Columba? Why was Mary, Queen of Scots executed? When were the Jacobite risings? Where was the new Scottish Parliament built? Scotland's vibrant and bloody past captures the imagination. But there is far more to Scottish history than murder and mayhem, tragedy and betrayal. In Scotland's History, historian Fiona Watson looks back across thousands of years into the lives of the people of Scotland. She captures the critical moments and memorable personalities known throughout the world - from the Picts to Bonnie Prince Charlie, and from Macbeth to the Battle of Bannockburn - revealing the truth behind the myths.

In an absorbing mixture of poignant biography and wonderfully entertaining social history, Daughters of Britannia offers the story of diplomatic life as it has never been told before.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Vita Sackville-West, and Lady Diana Cooper are among the well-known wives of diplomats who represented Britain in the far-flung corners of the globe. Yet, despite serving such crucial roles, the vast majority of these women are entirely unknown to history.

Drawing on letters, private journals, and memoirs, as well as contemporary oral history, Katie Hickman explores not only the public pomp and glamour of diplomatic life but also the most intimate, private face of this most fascinating and mysterious world.

Touching on the lives of nearly 100 diplomatic wives (as well as sisters and daughters), Daughters of Britannia is a brilliant and compelling account of more than three centuries of British diplomacy as seen through the eyes of some of its most intrepid but least heralded participants.

Prime Ministers delves into the premiership's 300 year history and unearths a host of fascinating, intriguing and little-known facts about some of the best-known characters in British history, lifting the lid on the top job. Find out about the Prime Minister who only lasted 100 days, another who served for 21 years, or how Downing Street came to be the Premier's residence. Brief, accessible and entertaining pieces on a wide variety of subjects makes it the perfect book to dip in to. "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.

THE SUNDAY TIMES NON FICTION BESTSELLER WHSmith NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 'The best book you will ever read about Britain's greatest warplane' Patrick Bishop, bestselling author of Fighter Boys 'A rich and heartfelt tribute to this most iconic British machine' Rowland White, bestselling author of Vulcan 607 'As the RAF marks its centenary, Nichol has created a thrilling and often moving tribute to some of its greatest heroes' Mail on Sunday magazine The iconic Spitfire found fame during the darkest early days of World War II. But what happened to the redoubtable fighter and its crews beyond the Battle of Britain, and why is it still so loved today? In late spring 1940, Nazi Germany's domination of Europe had looked unstoppable. With the British Isles in easy reach since the fall of France, Adolf Hitler was convinced that Great Britain would be defeated in the skies over her southern coast, confident his Messerschmitts and Heinkels would outclass anything the Royal Air Force threw at them. What Hitler hadn't planned for was the agility and resilience of a marvel of British engineering that would quickly pass into legend - the Spitfire. Bestselling author John Nichol's passionate portrait of this magnificent fighter aircraft, its many innovations and updates, and the people who flew and loved them, carries the reader beyond the dogfights over Kent and Sussex. Spanning the full global reach of the Spitfire's deployment during WWII, from Malta to North Africa and the Far East, then over the D-Day beaches, it is always accessible, effortlessly entertaining and full of extraordinary spirit. Here are edge-of-the-seat stories and heart-stopping first-hand accounts of battling pilots forced to bail out over occupied territory; of sacrifice and wartime love; of aristocratic female flyers, and of the mechanics who braved the Nazi onslaught to keep the aircraft in battle-ready condition. Nichol takes the reader on a hair-raising, nail-biting and moving wartime history of the iconic Spitfire populated by a cast of redoubtable, heroic characters that make you want to stand up and cheer.

This best-selling title is a handy-format, fully comprehensive guide to the rulers of the British nations and their chequered histories, from pre-Roman times to the present day. From King Kenneth I and Henry VIII through to Princess Diana, the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II, Kings and Queens: The Concise Guide reveals the lives and personalities of each monarch - the good, bad, lazy, greedy, downright wicked, sometimes mad and occasionally brilliant - and examines the ways in which they have shaped history. Including family trees, key facts and further details, as well as timelines to help place each monarch in their historical context, the book covers the major social, political and commercial events of each monarch's reign. The author also provides additional information on the spirit, traditions and innovations of the nation at the time, including politics, arts, architecture and fashions. It is a magnificent visual feast in an appealing format, which guarantees to bring history alive for readers of all ages, through exciting narrative, famous paintings and rare archive photographs.

General Sir Gordon MacMillan's five children decided to write this life of their father to learn more about what he had done, and so allow their children and grandchildren to draw inspiration from the great man from whom they are descended. Fascinating details came to light about his bravery in the First World War, his successes in command in the Second World War, his good fortune in surviving three assassination attempts during the last years of the British Mandate in Palestine, and his disagreement with Churchill over the handling of delicate issues in Gibraltar. But this is not just a tale of a soldier and his military exploits, and of his subsequent engagement in civilian and Clan activities in Scotland. It is a story that is placed in the broader family setting within which his children feel fortunate to have been brought up.

After my last book, "Grandad Boats", I have been asked by a lot of fishermen to write another. But you only have one life, so you only have one story. But I have noticed that of all the books on the subject of fishing that I have read, the type of fishing that was done with the ropes was almost never mentioned. So with the help of the men that have been there and done that, I hope that I have now laid that to rest.

It was about six years ago that I started to put this book together. Initially, it was the pubs and inns in Crowland - there were about 32 - so I started to find the landlords from about 1829 to 1913. I found a few pictures of them but not many as most of them have now disappeared. Then I came across a picture of the Abbey Hotel and went to see the landlord, who found a picture of the floods in Crowland. This then set me off on a trail to find out more about the 1947 floods in and around Crowland. I spent hours in Peterborough library finding details about the floods. Then I found some pictures of the floods on e-Bay and was talking to the person who I purchased them from. He told me he had about 20-30 pictures of Crowland during the floods. He said he would send them to me on a disc. Some weeks later it arrived and to my amazement there were over 80, not only of the flood but of people, parties, carnivals, events and lots more. So then I started the long trail to put it all together into a book. Finally, six years later it was finished; I do hope that it will bring back memories of 1947 to many people and hopefully that they can remember some of the places and people in the book.

By bringing evidence from heraldry, DNA and place names to bear and by insisting on feasible time lines this two volume work (with accompanying CD) exposes many of the myths which still mask the origin stories of so many Scottish Clans - and offers far more interesting, exciting and accurate replacements. The specific political situations which made the creation of these myths necessary or desirable are explained. In order to achieve all this a fresh understanding of the "clan" has been required - and is provided - and radical theories have been developed regarding Pictish place names and the origins of heraldry, while the Norse Sagas have been placed in a new and viable timeframe, with many contradictions and errors resolved. Shakespeare's "MacDuff" is identified, as is the Orkneyinga Saga's "Karl Hundisson". To aid understanding the accompanying CD includes a family tree showing the inter-relationships of the participants and a library of Google Earth placemarks allowing the reader to find all the key locations - many of them quite obscure - effortlessly. Full colour illustrations of Heraldic arms add to the richness of the experience while the Bibliography benefits from being "searchable". The work focuses on the period of the "House of Canmore" dynasty (and does not extend beyond 1316), but ancestral lines are traced back, in some cases nearly 1000 years further. The ancestors of the Siol Alpin clans are discussed in detail back to the year 810. Names considered in this Volume: Abernethy Bisset Calder Campbell Chattan Davidson Farquharson Fraser of Lovat Lamont MacArthur MacBain MacDonald MacDougall MacDowall MacDuff MacGillivray Macintyre Mackay Mackenzie Mackintosh MacLaren Maclean of Dochgarroc MacPhail MacQueen Macpherson MacMillan MacSween McThomas Munro Oliphant Shaw Stewart Wemyss Also examined and explained in a very new way: Pictish Placenames The Origins of the Clan System The Origins of Heraldry The early life of St Patrick The History of Norway, Orkney and Normandy (700-1030) Scottish Politics (800-1057) Manuscript 1467

By bringing evidence from heraldry, DNA and place names to bear and by insisting on feasible time lines this two volume work (with accompanying CD) exposes many of the myths which still mask the origin stories of so many Scottish Clans - and offers far more interesting, exciting and accurate replacements. The specific political situations which made the creation of these myths necessary or desirable are explained. In order to achieve all this a fresh understanding of the "clan" has been required - and is provided - and radical theories have been developed regarding Pictish place names and the origins of heraldry, while the Norse Sagas have been placed in a new and viable timeframe, with many contradictions and errors resolved. Shakespeare's "MacDuff" is identified, as is the Orkneyinga Saga's "Karl Hundisson". To aid understanding the accompanying CD includes a family tree showing the inter-relationships of the participants and a library of Google Earth placemarks allowing the reader to find all the key locations - many of them quite obscure - effortlessly. Full colour illustrations of Heraldic arms add to the richness of the experience while the Bibliography benefits from being "searchable". The work focuses on the period of the "House of Canmore" dynasty (and does not extend beyond 1316), but ancestral lines are traced back, in some cases nearly 1000 years further. The ancestors of the Siol Alpin clans are discussed in detail back to the year 810. Names considered in this Volume: Colquhoun Comyn Crawford Dunbar Grant Johnston Kirkpatrick Livingston(e) MacGregor MacNab MacAulay Mack Mackinnon MacFie MacQuarrie Maguire, Duffy (in Ireland) MacAlpine Maxton Maxwell Mitchell (in Scotland) Moffat Montalt/Mohaut (in England) Mowat Ruthven

Just who did the British think they were? For much of the last 1,500 years, when the British looked back to their origins they saw the looming mythological figure of Brutus of Troy. A great-great-grandson of the love goddess Aphrodite through her Trojan son Aeneas (the hero of Virgil's Aeneid), Brutus accidentally killed his father and was exiled to Greece. He liberated the descendants of the Trojans who lived there in slavery and led them on an epic voyage to Britain. Landing at Totnes in Devon, Brutus overthrew the giants who lived in Britain, laid the foundations of Oxford University and London and sired a long line of kings, including King Arthur and the ancestors of the present Royal Family.Invented to give Britain a place in the overarching mythologies of the Classical world and the Bible, Brutus's story long underpinned the British identity and played a crucial role in royal propaganda and foreign policy. His story inspired generations of poets and playwrights, including Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Dickens and Blake, whose hymn 'Jerusalem' was a direct response to the story of Brutus founding London as the New Troy in the west.Leading genealogist Anthony Adolph traces Brutus's story from Roman times onwards, charting his immense popularity and subsequent fall from grace, along with his lasting legacy in fiction, pseudo-history and the arcane mythology surrounding some of London's best-known landmarks, in this groundbreaking biography of the mythological founder of Britain.

This is the first book on the genesis, impact and reception of the most-widely read History of England of the early 18th century: Paul Rapin Thoyras' Histoire d'Angleterre (1724-27). The Histoire and complementary works (Extraits des Actes de Rymer, 1710-1724; Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys, 1717) gave practical expression to theorizations of history against Pyrrhonian postulations by foregrounding an empirical form of history-writing. Rapin's unprecedented standards of historiographical accuracy triggered both politically-informed reinterpretations of the Histoire in partisan newspapers and a multitude of adaptations that catered to an ever-growing number of readers. Despite a long-standing assessment as a "standard Whig historian", Rapin fashioned the impartial persona of a judge-historian, in compliance with the expectations of the Republic of Letters. His personal trajectory illuminates how scholars pursued trustworthy knowledge and how they reconsidered the boundaries of their community in the face of the booming printing industry and the interconnected growth of general readership. Rapin's oeuvre provided significant raw material for Voltaire's and Hume's Enlightenment historiographical narratives. A comparative foray into their respective different approaches to history and authorship cautions us against assuming a direct transition from the Republic of Letters into an Enlightenment Republic of Letters. To study the diffusion and the impact of Rapin's works is to understand that empirical history-writing, defined by its commitment to erudition in the service of impartiality, coexisted with the histoire philosophique.

This is the life story of Mark Middleton, born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1841, died in 1883. He was a mail cart driver for the Royal Mail but had an accident on Peterborough Town Bridge and after a long illness died in Lincoln Asylum, aged 42. This all started by reading an article in the local paper by Percy Hall which was shown to me by Mick Masters from records kept by his late wife. I contacted Mrs M. Cary. Percy Hall was her father. She showed me all the documents her father kept on Mark Middleton. After seeing these I suggested that it should be turned into a book. Having been given permission in writing and with the consent of living relatives, I have started to write this book. So this is the life of Mark Middleton.

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1st Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment. A personal memoir of the highs and the lows following Roy Rees during World War Two, his pre-war training and activities through to eventual retirement from the Army in 1946.

Please note this title is suitable for any student studying: Exam Board: AQA Level: A Level Subject: History First teaching: September 2015 First exams: June 2017 Retaining all the well-loved features from the previous editions, The Tudors has been approved by AQA and matched to the 2015 specifications. With a strong focus on skills building and exam practice, this book covers in breadth issues of change, continuity, and cause and consequence in this period of English history through key questions such as how effectively did the Tudors develop the powers of the monarchy, and how did English society and economy change. Its aim is to enable students to understand and make connections between the six key themes covered in the specification. Students can further develop vital skills such as historical interpretations and source analyses via specially selected sources and extracts. Practice questions and study tips provide additional support to help familiarize students with the new exam style questions, and help them achieve their best in the exam.

This highly praised study traces the province's history from partition in 1921 to today's peace process. Widely acknowledged as the best informed academic observers of Northern Irish politics, the authors look behind the handshakes on the White House lawn and provide a fascinating insight into history as it unfolds in the headlines and on news bulletins.

Suffolk has been home to monastic communities since St Felix and St Fursey founded the first monasteries in the seventh century, and today the county is home to both awe-inspiring monastic ruins and living communities of men and women devoted to prayer. This first complete survey of the monastic history of Suffolk traces the development of monasticism in the kingdom of East Anglia, its recovery after Viking destruction, and the flourishing of an extraordinary variety of communities in medieval Suffolk, ranging from the immensely powerful Abbey of Bury St Edmunds to tiny friaries and nunneries. The book examines the impact of the dissolution of the monasteries and the survival of the monastic dream, against all odds, in post-Reformation Suffolk. Finally, the book surveys the revival of religious communities in modern Suffolk to the present day, and provides a comprehensive gazeteer of all past and present monasteries in the county.