The tiny island of Iona has been a vibrant centre of Christian worship since Columba arrived in AD 563. His monastery thrived for centuries, despite repeated Viking raids beginning in 795. Around 1200, the abbey and nunnery were founded, introducing new forms of worship and new buildings, while still welcoming pilgrims to St Columba's shrine. Even after the Protestant Reformation of 1560 brought an end to Scotland's monasteries, Iona served briefly as a Cathedral of the Isles. Restoration of the buildings began in 1899, and in 1938 the Iona Community was formed, revitalising the abbey's spiritual role. This unique site bears witness to a long history of religious practice that still flourishes today.

The first comprehensive history of seventeenth-century London, told through the lives of those who experienced it "Lively and arresting. . . . [Lincoln] is as confident in handling the royal ceremonials of political transition . . . as she is with London's thriving coffee-house culture, and its turbulent maritime community."-Ian W. Archer, Times Literary Supplement "Lincoln has a curator's gift for selecting all the right details for a thoroughly absorbing account."-Tony Barber, Financial Times, "Best Books of 2021: History" The Gunpowder Plot, the Civil Wars, Charles I's execution, the Plague, the Great Fire, the Restoration, and then the Glorious Revolution: the seventeenth century was one of the most momentous times in the history of Britain, and Londoners took center stage. In this fascinating account, Margarette Lincoln charts the impact of national events on an ever-growing citizenry with its love of pageantry, spectacle, and enterprise. Lincoln looks at how religious, political, and financial tensions were fomented by commercial ambition, expansion, and hardship. In addition to events at court and parliament, she evokes the remarkable figures of the period, including Shakespeare, Bacon, Pepys, and Newton, and draws on diaries, letters, and wills to trace the untold stories of ordinary Londoners. Through their eyes, we see how the nation emerged from a turbulent century poised to become a great maritime power with London at its heart-the greatest city of its time.

Situated in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man is like a stepping-stone between the lands that surround it. In medieval times, it played an important role in the histories of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. This book explores the first part of that turbulent era, tracing the story of the Isle of Man from the fifth to the thirteenth centuries. It looks at the ways in which various peoples - Britons, Scots, Irish, English and Scandinavians - influenced events in Man over a period of more than 800 years. A large portion of the book is concerned with the Vikings, a group whose legacy - in place names, old burial mounds and finely carved stones - is such a vivid element in the Manx landscape today.

In the summer of 1411, the ageing Donald of Isla, Lord of the Isles, invaded mainland Scotland with a huge, battle-hardened army, only to be fought to a bloody standstill on the plateau of Harlaw, fifteen miles from Aberdeen, a town he had threatened to sack. One of the greatest battles in Scottish history, described by hardened mediaeval chroniclers as 'atrocious', 'Reid Harlaw' left some 3,000 dead and wounded. Dismissed by Scott as a 'Celt v. Saxon' power struggle, it has faded from historical memory, other than in the north-east of Scotland. Written records in Latin, Scots, Gaelic and English are presented in their original form, and with transcriptions and translations. Two major ballads are analysed, one contemporary, and one fabricated over 350 years later - which is still sung. Lowland views dominate, because of the loss and destruction of Highland records, notably those of the Lords of the Isles themselves. The histories themselves fall into two groups - those written at or around the time, and those composed some 300 years later.These later accounts form the basis of most modern descriptions of the battle, but they tend to be romantic and highly imaginative, creating noble order where chaos once existed.

Discover 366 fun and surprising stories about Wales - each linked to a specific day of the year. Did you know that the recipe of Tennessee's famous Jack Daniel's whiskey is rumoured to have originated in Llanelli, or that the world's first radio play was set in a Welsh coal mine? Why was a showing of the Jurassic Park film in Carmarthen so special, and how is Rupert Bear connected to Snowdonia? Delve in to discover the stories that most history books leave out.

This book engages with ageing masculinities in Irish literature and visual culture, including fiction, drama, poetry, painting, and documentary. Exploring the shifting representations of older men from the early twentieth century to the present, the contributors analyse how a broad range of literary and visual texts construct, reinscribe, or challenge perceptions of older age. In doing so, they trace a shift from depictions of authority figures - often symbolising patriarchal dominance and oppression - to more nuanced, complex, and heterogeneous explorations of older men's embodied subjectivities and vulnerabilities. Exploring artists and writers such as Sean Keating, J.M. Synge, Teresa Deevy, Marina Carr, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Derek Mahon, Kate O'Brien, John Banville, Colm Toibin, Bernard MacLaverty, Mike McCormack, Anne Griffin, and Claire Keegan, the chapters in this book attend to the symbolic as well as social significance of older men in Irish cultural expression.

First biography of a major anarchist thinker Draws on untapped archival primary sources and family records More interest in anarchist ideas as mutual aid has become more prevalent

Did Jesus really visit the Holy Isle of Avalon as a young man? And did Joseph of Arimathea really found the first church here too? Is King Arthur really buried with Guinevere in the Abbey grounds? In this small guide book, local historian George Wingfield unravels some of the mysteries of this ancient English spiritual centre, telling its story from prehistory up to the present day. With rare old engravings and good walks around the town and its holy hills. WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

The first major biography of Oscar Wilde in thirty years, and the most complete telling of his life and times to date. NOMINATED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2019 'The Book of the Year, perhaps of the decade' TLS 'Simply the best modern biography of Wilde... A terrific achievement' Evening Standard 'Page-turning... Vivid and desperately moving. However much you think you know Wilde, this book will absorb and entertain you' The Sunday TimesBooks of the Year Oscar Wilde's life - like his wit - was alive with paradox. He was both an early exponent and a victim of 'celebrity culture': famous for being famous, he was lauded and ridiculed in equal measure. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies. He was an unabashed snob who nevertheless delighted in exposing the faults of society. He affected a dandified disdain but was prone to great acts of kindness. Although happily married, he became a passionate lover of men and - at the very peak of his success - brought disaster upon himself. He disparaged authority, yet went to the law to defend his love for Lord Alfred Douglas. Having delighted in fashionable throngs, Wilde died almost alone. Above all, his flamboyant refusal to conform to the social and sexual orthodoxies of his day make him a hero and an inspiration to all who seek to challenge convention. Matthew Sturgis draws on a wealth of new material and fresh research, bringing alive the distinctive mood and characters of the fin de siecle in the richest and most compelling portrait of Wilde to date.

This is the history of England's turbulent times, told through the stories of the country's nobility. The book begins with the Norman Conquest in 1066 and ends with the union of England and Scotland in 1707. The nobility fought wars against Scotland in the north and against France on the Continent. They conquered Ireland and Wales and then had to deal with the rebellions that followed. This is the story of their abduction plots and assassination attempts and the brutal retribution when the treachery failed. It recalls the barons' rebellions and the peasant uprisings against the king. It also explains the reasons behind the family factions who fought for the crown, the most famous example being the War of the Roses. Also covered are the noble marriages arranged by the king to reward loyalty and maintain the balance of power. It tells of the children betrothed to marry, the failed marriages of convenience and the secret marriages for love. Learn how Henry VIII introduced new problems when he appointed himself head of the Church of England. Successive monarchs switched between the new church and the Catholic Church. Then there was the challenge to Charles I's rule in the Civil Wars.The story ends with the union of England and Scotland and the creation of Great Britain in 1707. It was also the end of the period of treachery and retribution which had plagued the English crown for nearly 650 years.

The British Labour Party has at times been a force for radical change in the UK, but one critical aspect of its makeup has been consistently misunderstood and underplayed: its Britishness. Throughout the party's history, its Britishness has been an integral part of how it has done politics, acted in government and opposition, and understood the UK and its nations and regions. The People's Flag and the Union Jack is the first comprehensive account of how Labour has tried to understand Britain and Britishness and to compete in a political landscape defined by conservative notions of nation, patriotism and tradition. At a time when many of the party faithful regard national identity as a toxic subject, academics Gerry Hassan and Eric Shaw argue that Labour's Britishness and its ambiguous relationship with issues of nationalism matter more today than ever before, and will continue to matter for the foreseeable future, when the UK is in fundamental crisis. As debate rages about Brexit, and the prospect of Scottish independence remains live, this timely intervention, featuring contributions from a wealth of pioneering thinkers, offers an illuminating and perceptive insight into Labour's past, present and future.

With the flair for narrative and the meticulous research that readers have come to expect, in The Diamond Queen Andrew Marr turns his attention to the monarch - and to the monarchy, chronicling the Queen's pivotal role at the centre of the state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and making a strong case for the institution itself. Arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, Marr dissects the Queen's political relationships, crucially those with her Prime Ministers; he examines her role as Head of the Commonwealth, and her deep commitment to that Commonwealth of nations; he looks at the drastic changes in the media since her accession in 1952 and how the monarchy - and the monarch - have had to change and adapt as a result. Indeed he argues that under her watchful eye, the monarchy has been thoroughly modernized and made as fit for purpose in the twenty-first century as it was when she came to the throne and a 'new Elizabethan age' was ushered in.

Some years ago a revolution took place in Early Medieval history in Scotland. The Pictish heartland of Fortriu, previously thought to be centred on Perthshire and the Tay found itself relocated through the forensic work of Alex Woolf to the shores of the Moray Firth. The implications for our understanding of this period and for the formation of Scotland are unprecedented and still being worked through. This is the first account of this northern heartland of Pictavia for a more general audience to take in the full implications of this and of the substantial recent archaeological work that has been undertaken in recent years. Part of the The Northern Picts project at Aberdeen University, this book represents an exciting cross disciplinary approach to the study of this still too little understood yet formative period in Scotland's history.

This book is an examination of the concept of 'character' as a moral marker in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its main purpose is to investigate how the 'character talk' that helped to shape elite Britons' sense of themselves was used at this time to convince audiences, both in Britain and in the places they had conquered, that empire could be morally as well as materially justified and was a great force for good in the world. A small group of radical thinkers questioned many of the arguments of the imperialists but found it difficult to escape entirely from the sense of moral superiority that marked the latter's language.

'Fascinating' The Times 'Tantalising . . . Low's conclusion is a valuable one.' The Telegraph The gripping account of how the Royal family really operates from the man who has spent years studying them in his role as Royal correspondent for The Times. Valentine Low asks the important questions: who really runs the show and, as Charles III begins his reign, what will happen next? Throughout history, the British monarchy has relied on its courtiers - the trusted advisers in the King or Queen's inner circle - to ensure its survival as a family, an ancient institution, and a pillar of the constitution. Today, as ever, a vast team of people hidden from view steers the royal family's path between public duty and private life. Queen Elizabeth II, after a remarkable 70 years of service, saw the final seasons of her reign without her husband Philip to guide her. Meanwhile, newly ascended Charles seeks to define what his future as King, and that of his court, will be. The question of who is entrusted to guide the royals has never been more vital, and yet the task those courtiers face has never been more challenging. With a cloud hanging over Prince Andrew as well as Harry and Meghan's departure from royal life, the complex relationship between modern courtiers and royal principals has been exposed to global scrutiny. As the new Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate - equipped with a very 21st century approach to press and public relations - now hold the responsibility of making an ancient institution relevant for the decades to come. Courtiers reveals an ever-changing system of complex characters, shifting values and ideas over what the future of the institution should be. This is the story of how the monarchy really works, at a pivotal moment in its history.

Association Football did no less than reshape British and indeed global society in its fast development as an organised sport over the course of the second half of the nineteenth century and leading up to the First World War. In this newly released edition of Tony Mason's essential account of the game's rise, issues such as the amateur professional divide, social class and mass spectatorship are seen as fundamental to the development of what is now a multi-trillion dollar industry. Dilwyn Porter supplements this classic text with a brand-new introduction.

A country bitterly divided between two political parties. Populist mobs rising in support of a reactionary rabble-rouser. Foreign interference in the political process. Strained relations between Britain and Europe. These are not recent headlines they are from the year 1710, when Queen Anne ruled Britain. In her engagingly written Backlash, Rachel Carnell tells the fascinating and entertaining account of the reign of Queen Anne and the true story behind the fall of the Whig government imaginatively depicted in the 2018 film The Favourite. As Carnell shows, the truth was significantly different and in many ways more interesting than what the film depicted. The backlash began in 1709 when the Whigs arrested a popular female Tory political satirist and then impeached a provocative High Church clergyman for preaching a sermon repudiating the ideals of parliamentary monarchy and religious tolerance. The impeachment trial backfired, and mobs surged in the streets supporting the Tory preacher and threatening religious minorities. With charges dropped against the satirist, by 1710 she had written a best-selling sequel. Queen Anne was careful and diligent in her monarchical duties. She tried to run a government balanced between the parties, but finally torn between the Whigs (including her longtime friends the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough) and the proto-Brexiteer Tories, she dissolved Parliament and called for elections. This brought in a majority for the Tories, who swiftly began passing reactionary legislation. While the Whigs would return to power after Anne's death in 1714 and reverse the Tory policies, this little-known era offers an important historical perspective on the populist backlashes in the United States and United Kingdom today.

An autobiography of Big Issue seller, Graham Walker.

Taking a chronological approach, this book challenges established economistic and ideologistic narratives of neoliberalism in Britain by charting the gradual diffusion of an increasingly interventionist neoliberal governmental rationality in British politics since the late 1970s, and the various means by which the project has furnished itself with a hegemonic basis for its popular support. Spanning five decades of British political history and drawing on rich empirical evidence to bring conceptual clarity to, and chart the effects of, a style of government bound up with a host of epochal changes, it concludes by considering Brexit and the rise of Corbynism as the final act in the neoliberal saga. It then poses the question, Is British politics on the verge of a major reconstruction representing a decisive rejection of neoliberalism? This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of British politics and neoliberalism, liberalism and, more broadly to political theory, political economy and public policy.

1. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the Falkland/Malvinas War. 2. It is written by both Argentinian and Australian (one British born Australian) Scholars and rich in archival resources. 3. With the 40th Anniversary of the Falkland/Malvinas War in 2022 this book will be of interest to departments of Military history and British and Latin American History across UK.

'The region' has been used to understand and propose solutions to phenomena and problems outside the dominant spatial scale of the twentieth century - the nation state. Its influence can be seen in multiple social science disciplines and in public policy across the globe. But how was this knowledge organised and how were its concepts transmuted into public policy? This book charts the development of the academic field of Regional Studies and the application of its concepts in public policy through its learned society, the Regional Studies Association. In their modern form, learned societies often play a complementary role to universities, offering networks that operate in the spaces between and beyond universities, connecting specialised academics and knowledge and making it possible for them to have impact outside the academy. In contrast to the geographically tangible and popularly understood role of the university, contemporary learned societies are nebulous networks that transcend barriers and whose contribution is difficult to discern. However, the production and dissemination of knowledge would be stunted were it not for the learned society connecting scholars through a network of publications and events. This book traces the intellectual history of regional studies and regional science from the 1960s into the 2000s and the impact of the regional concept in public policy through the changing priorities of government in the UK and Europe. By approaching the history through the Regional Studies Association, it interrogates the role and function of the 'learned society' model of organisation in contemporary academia and importance as a knowledge exchange vehicle for public policy influence.

Sing As We Go is an astonishingly ambitious overview of the political, social and cultural history of the country from 1919 to 1939. It explores and explains the politics of the period, and puts such moments of national turmoil as the General Strike of 1926 and the Abdication Crisis of 1936 under the microscope. It offers pen portraits of the era's most significant figures. It traces the changing face of Britain as cars made their first mass appearance, the suburbs sprawled, and radio and cinema became the means of mass entertainment. And it probes the deep divisions that split the nation: between the haves and have-nots, between warring ideological factions, and between those who promoted accommodation with fascism in Europe and those who bitterly opposed it. __________________________________________ Praise for the series: 'Scholarly, objective and extremely well written. A masterclass . . . Heffer's eye for the telling detail is evident on almost every page.' Andrew Roberts, 5*, Telegraph 'Gloriously rich and spirited . . . colourful, character driven history.' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'Enlightening . . . Robust opinion, an eye for telling detail and a gift for bringing historical figures alive.' History Books of the Year, Daily Mail

First published in 1962, Mr Swift and his Contemporaries, is the first of three volumes providing a detailed exploration of the events of Swift's life. This volume is a thorough insight into the historical and social setting of Swift's life, the evolution of his character, and the composition and interpretation of his works. It includes a wealth of material concerning Swift's family and career, his emotional and sexual life, his relationship with Sir William Temple, and the design and meaning of both A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books. Mr Swift and his Contemporaries is ideal for anyone with an interest in Swift's life, work, and the period in which he lived.