THE NO 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A personal account of the life and character of Britain's longest-reigning monarch, from the writer who knew her family best 'Compelling . . . Fascinating' DAILY MAIL 'The writer who got closest to the human truth about our long-serving senior royals' THE TIMES 'The book overflows with nuggets of insider knowledge' TELEGRAPH Paints a unique picture of the remarkable woman who reigned for seven decades. Fascinating insights' HELLO! __________ Gyles Brandreth first met the Queen in 1968, when he was twenty. Over the next fifty years he met her many times, both at public and at private events. Through his friendship with the Duke of Edinburgh, he was given privileged access to Elizabeth II. He kept a record of all those encounters, and his conversations with the Queen over the years, his meetings with her family and friends, and his observations of her at close quarters are what make this very personal account of her extraordinary life uniquely fascinating. From her childhood in the 1920s to the era of Harry and Meghan in the 2020s, from her war years at Windsor Castle to her death at Balmoral, this is both a record of a tumultuous century of royal history and a truly intimate portrait of a remarkable woman. __________ Praise for Gyles Brandreth's bestselling royal writing: 'Beautifully written book. I have read many other books about Philip but this is the best' DAILY EXPRESS 'Brilliant, totally inspiring . . . It's a joy to read a book that comes from a perspective of fondness' KIRSTIE ALLSOPP, THE TIMES 'As a sparkling celebration of Prince Philip, the book will be hard to beat' TELEGRAPH 'So readable and refreshing even after the millions of words that have been written about Prince Philip in the past couple of weeks' THE TIMES 'Brilliant . . . There is so much in this book you won't find anywhere else' LORRAINE

Victor Ambrus has selected some of the key 'Time Team' excavations over the last three years to show how it has been possible to reconstruct snapshots of the past. His evocative drawings cover everyday life in the country and the towns, trade and industry, warfare, crime and punishment, disease and death.

Traditionally history is cerebral: what did they believe, what did they think, what did they know? Woodsmoke and Sage is not a traditional book. Using the five senses, historian Amy Licence presents a new perspective on the material culture of the past, exploring the Tudors' relationship with the fabric of their existence, from the clothes on their backs, the roofs over their heads and the food on their tables, to the wider questions of how they interpreted and presented themselves, and what they believed about life, death and beyond. Take a journey back 500 years and experience the sixteenth century the way it was lived, through sight, sound, smell, taste and touch.

From the bestselling historian and acclaimed broadcaster 'A rich social history ... Paxman's book could hardly be more colourful, and I enjoyed each page enormously' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES 'Vividly told ... Paxman's fine narrative powers are at their best' THE TIMES Coal is the commodity that made Britain. Dirty and polluting though it is, this black rock has acted as a midwife to genius. It drove industry, religion, politics, empire and trade. It powered the industrial revolution, turned Britain into the first urban nation and is the industry that made almost all others possible. In this brilliant social history, Jeremy Paxman tells the story of coal mining in England, Scotland and Wales from Roman times, through the birth of steam power to war, nationalisation, pea-souper smogs, industrial strife and the picket lines of the Miner's Strike. Written in the captivating style of his bestselling book The English, Paxman ranges widely across Britain to explore stories of engineers and inventors, entrepreneurs and industrialists - but whilst coal inevitably helped the rich become richer, the story told by Black Gold is first and foremost a history of the working miners - the men, women and often children who toiled in appalling conditions down in the mines; the villages that were thrown up around the pit-head. Almost all traces of coal-mining have vanished from Britain but with this brilliant history, Black Gold demonstrates just how much we owe to the black stuff.

Founded in 1961, Studia Hibernica is devoted to the study of the Irish language and its literature, Irish history and archaeology, Irish folklore and place names, and related subjects. Its aim is to present the research of scholars in these fields of Irish studies and so to bring them within easy reach of each other and the wider public. It endeavours to provide in each issue a proportion of articles, such as surveys of periods or theme in history or literature, which will be of general interest. A long review section is a special feature of the journal and all new publications within its scope are there reviewed by competent authorities.

Discover all the foul facts about the history of royalty with history's most horrible headlines: Top 50 Kings and Queens edition. The master of making history fun, Terry Deary, turns his attention to 50 foul royals across history. From who kept a zoo in the Tower of London and which monarch died from eating too many eels to who pretended to be a corpse to make an escape. It's all in Horrible Histories: Top 50 Kings and Queens: fully illustrated throughout and packed with hair-raising stories - with all the horribly hilarious bits included with a fresh take on the classic Horrible Histories style, perfect for fans old and new the perfect series for anyone looking for a fun and informative read Horrible Histories has been entertaining children and families for generations with books, TV, stage show, magazines, games and 2019's brilliantly funny Horrible Histories: the Movie - Rotten Romans. Get your history right here and collect the whole horrible lot. Read all about it!

Of the approximately 200,000 Huguenots whose consciences compelled them to leave France during the 17th and 18th centuries, some 10,000 chose to settle in the most unlikely refuge of Ireland. The story of why and how these most ardent of Protestant believers found themselves in this most fervently Catholic of islands is explored in this book. It also attempts to reveal precisely who these Huguenots were, what they contributed to and received from their adopted land, and why Huguenot ancestry is so respected and prized even among devout Irish Catholics. The true chronicle of Ireland's Huguenots is, in opposition to the narrow misrepresentations of the past, one of extraordinary richness and variety, as befits an ethnic group whose influence permeated into every nook of Irish life and society.

Considering how political identity intertwines with craft, ethnicity, gender, and class, this study explores the development and decline of Chartism between 1830 and 1860 through the perspective of plebeian intellectuals and activists in Ashton-under-Lyne and other militant localities of Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Challenging the approach of Patrick Joyce, Gareth Stedman-Jones, and James Vernon, this account questions myths and memories and provides a cultural and sociological view of the period.

Winner of the Fortnum and Mason Best Debut Drink Book Award 2017 From renowned booze correspondent Henry Jeffreys comes this rich and full-bodied history of Britain and the Empire, told through the improbable but true stories of how the world's favourite alcoholic drinks came to be. Read about how we owe the champagne we drink today to seventeenth-century methods for making sparkling cider; how madeira and India Pale Ale became legendary for their ability to withstand the long, hot journeys to Britain's burgeoning overseas territories; and why whisky became the familiar choice for weary empire builders who longed for home. Jeffreys traces the impact of alcohol on British culture and society: literature, science, philosophy and even religion have reflections in the bottom of a glass. Filled to the brim with fascinating trivia and recommendations for how to enjoy these drinks today, you could even drink along as you read... So, raise your glass to the Empire of Booze!

This is study of six Chartist Leaders. It portrays movements for democracy and social progress, and explores the role of the uneasy middle classes, in movements for working class rights. The comparative analysis provides insights in to the development of dissent, the nature of class and of radicalism in the nineteenth century. An introduction sketches the historical context. - Dr. Peter M McDouall, fiery orator and Scottish surgeon, who built his practise and his political reputation at Ramsbottom, near Bury in Lancashire. - the Rev. Henry Solly, Chartist pamphleteer and Unitarian Minister who lived and worked in Yeovil and Cheltenham Spa and became a nationally-known campaigner for co-operatives, anti-slavery, the vote, and rational recreation, - Rev. James Scholefield, a chaplain from Manchester who campaigned for the ten hour week: a teacher, apothecary, surgeon and vegetarian, - Richard Bagnall Reed, a blacksmith, who became the manager of the Newcastle Chronicle, he also ran guns to Garibaldi for Italian unification, - William Villiers Sankey, an aristocrat, son of an Irish Volunteer and Member of Parliament, who resided among the political elite of London, he represented Edinburgh at the Chartist Convention, - The Rev. Benjamin Parsons. a radical and political preacher who used the Bible to justify campaigns for social justice, from the Gloucestershire.

The midwife: medical professional, friend in a woman's hour of greatest need, potent social and cultural symbol. Though the role of midwife has existed since time immemorial, it is only since the Victorian era that it has been a recognised and regulated profession. This book, from social history expert Susan Cohen, looks at midwifery in Britain from ancient times up to the present, paying particular attention to its incredible medical and social advances of the last 150 years. It is a fully illustrated tour that takes in fictional midwives such as Dickens' Sarey Gamp, the founding of the Royal College of Midwives in 1881, the Second World War, the forming of the NHS and the Central Midwives Board, and looks at the increasing medicalisation of childbirth and the countervailing trend for giving birth at home.

What was the Scottish Enlightenment? Long since ignored or sidelined, it is now a controversial topic - damned by some as a conservative movement objectively allied to the enemies of enlightenment, placed centre stage by others as the archetype of what is meant by 'Enlightenment'. In this book leading experts reassess the issue by exploring both the eighteenth-century intellectual developments taking place within Scotland and the Scottish contribution to the Enlightenment as a whole. The Scottish experience during this period forms the underlying theme of early chapters, with contributors examining the central philosophy of the 'science of man', the reality of 'applied enlightenment' in Scotland, and the Presbyterian hostility to the spread of 'heretical' ideas. Moving beyond Scotland's borders, contributors in later chapters examine the wider recognition of Scotland's intellectual activity, both within Europe and across the Atlantic. Through a series of case studies authors assess the engagement of European intellectuals with Scottish thinkers, looking at the French interpretation of Adam Smith's notion of sympathy, divergent approaches to the writing of history in Scotland and Germany, and the variety of Neapolitan responses to Scottish thought; the final chapter analyses the links between the 'moderate Enlightenment' in Scotland and America. Through these innovative studies this book provides a rich and nuanced understanding of Enlightenment thought in Scotland and its impact in Europe and North America, highlighting the importance of placing the national context in a transnational perspective.

Routledge Library Editions: Slavery is a collection of previously out-of-print titles that examine various aspects of international slavery. Books analyse the Atlantic slave trade, and its effects on Africa; modern slavery around the world; slave rebellions and resistance; the Abolitionist movements; the suppression of the slave trade; slavery in the ancient world; and more besides. These writings form part of the vital research into slavery through the ages, and together form a succinct overview.

This three volume collection presents a documentary-based history of British politics and commercial policy in the long nineteenth century. Starting from the theoretical breakthroughs of the late eighteenth century and their application to policy, the volumes encompass the rise and fall of free trade, and detail how the different dimensions of commercial policy influenced political ideas and the configuration of party politics. The disruptive tendencies and divisive nature of commercial policy was often aligned with broader divisions in philosophy and party politics, relating to individuals, classes and the nation, in terms of individual liberty and freedom, the responsibility of government to protect national sovereignty, and in maintaining economic balance and harmony within the nation. The three volumes begin with the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and end with the fractious party politics which were brought to a temporary truce with the beginning of the First World War. This title will be of great interest to students and scholars of history and politics.

The past is a foreign country. This is your guidebook. A time machine has just transported you back into the fourteenth century. What do you see? How do you dress? How do you earn a living and how much are you paid? What sort of food will you be offered by a peasant or a monk or a lord? And more important, where will you stay?
"The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England "is not your typical look at a historical period. This radical new approach shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived.
Through the use of daily chronicles, letters, household accounts, and poems of the day, Mortimer transports you back in time, providing answers to questions typically ignored by traditional historians. You will learn how to greet people on the street, what to use as toilet paper, why a physician might want to taste your blood, and how to know whether you are coming down with leprosy.
The result is the most astonishing social history book you're ever likely to read: revolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail, and startling for its portrayal of humanity in an age of violence, exuberance, and fear.

This collection brings together primary sources on the British textile industry across the long nineteenth-century, a subject that is both global and multidisciplinary. This set provides an extensive range of resources on the calico printing industry, textile warehousing and shipping, and textile waste and recycling.

Compelling, moving and unexpected portraits of London's poor from a rising star British historian - the Dickensian city brought to real and vivid life. Until now, our view of bustling late Georgian and Victorian London has been filtered through its great chroniclers, who did not themselves come from poverty - Dickens, Mayhew, Gustave Dore. Their visions were dazzling in their way, censorious, often theatrical. Now, for the first time, this innovative social history brilliantly - and radically - shows us the city's most compelling period (1780-1870) at street level. From beggars and thieves to musicians and missionaries, porters and hawkers to sex workers and street criers, Jensen unites a breadth of original research and first-hand accounts and testimonies to tell their stories in their own words. What emerges is a buzzing, cosmopolitan world of the working classes, diverse in gender, ethnicity, origin, ability and occupation - a world that challenges and fascinates us still.

Using a rich body of primary sources including autobiographies, diaries, and letters, this survey reveals how upper middle-class men in early 20th-century Britain were socialized into class and gender roles in ways that fostered powerful affiliations with social institutions and ideologies. A closer look at case studies of key figures such as Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, and W. H. R. Rivers, as well as lesser-known individuals such as the Liverpool businessman, Gypsiologist and volunteer soldier Scott Macfie, and the Communist literary critic Alick West, helps to answer the following questions: "How do individuals come to form political affiliations?" and "What are the origins of the bonds of attachment and loyalty that develop between individuals, political parties, social movements, and the nation state?" Drawing on theories of nationalism, masculinity, and psychoanalysis, this study investigates the profound impact of World War I, which for some offered an escape from or reconciliation of existing conflicts with family and nation, but for others subverted their existing loyalties, leading them to challenge the values within which they had been educated.

The Clyde is arguably the most evocative of Scottish rivers. Its mention conjures up a variety of images of power, productivity and pleasure from its 'bonnie banks' through the orchards of south Lanarkshire to its association with shipbuilding and trade and the holiday memories of thousands who fondly remember going 'doon the watter'. Its story reflects much of the history of the lands it flows through and the people who live on its banks. This book looks at the maps which display the river itself from its source to the wide estuary which is as much a part of the whole image. It discusses how the river was mapped from its earliest depictions and includes such topics as navigation, river crossings, war and defence, tourism, sport and recreation, industry and power and urban development.

This compelling book from Mark Stoyle sets out to uncover the true history of Boy, the canine companion of Charles I's famous nephew, Prince Rupert. Like his master, Boy was held to possess dark powers and was elevated to celebrity status as a 'dog-witch' during the English Civil War of 1642-46. Many scholars have remarked upon the fantastical rumours which circulated about Prince Rupert and his dog, but no-one has investigated the source of these rumours, or explored how the supernatural element of the prince's public image developed over time. In this book, Mark Stoyle recounts the occult stories which centred upon Prince Rupert and his dog. He shows how those stories grew out of, and contributed to, the changing pattern of witch-belief in England during the Civil War. Shortlisted for the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Award 2012.

Few doubt the dedication and sense of duty of the current British monarch Queen Elizabeth II and 2012 was rightfully a celebration of this. However there are some interesting issues ahead which will address this country's Monarchy and its role in the fabric of the United Kingdom. The Queen is 87, but long before the end of her reign the future of the British monarchy will be examined. Any of these events will prompt questions about the future of Britain and its monarchy: the recent birth of Prince George to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge; the debate surrounding the succession of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Should it skip a generation?; the Queen has a remarkable work ethic. How long can she maintain such a work load, and what effect would the death of the Duke of Edinburgh have on her?; the issues relating to the constitution of the UK - the future of the House of Lords, Scottish independence, and the future of the Established Church. The key question lies, however, in the institution's staying power beyond the current succession. Is it likely that Prince William's child will ever inherit the Crown? Will William be "the last"?

The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1919-1926 tells of the administrative changes of the post-war period and of the senior permanent officials, their personalities and cast of mind, who advised the foreign secretary and carried out his policies. The book goes beyond existing accounts of changes taking place after the Great War, and provides examples of the FO machine in action as seen from King Charles Street, and the uneasy relationship between 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office.

'Ackroyd makes history accessible to the layman' - Ian Thomson, Independent Innovation brings Peter Ackroyd's History of England to a triumphant close. In it, Ackroyd takes readers from the end of the Boer War and the accession of Edward VII to the end of the twentieth century, when his great-granddaughter Elizabeth II had been on the throne for almost five decades. A century of enormous change, encompassing two world wars, four monarchs (Edward VII, George V, George VI and the Queen), the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the Labour Party, women's suffrage, the birth of the NHS, the march of suburbia and the clearance of the slums. It was a period that saw the work of the Bloomsbury Group and T. S. Eliot, of Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin, of the end of the post-war slump to the technicolour explosion of the 1960s, to free love and punk rock and from Thatcher to Blair. A vividly readable, richly peopled tour de force, it is Peter Ackroyd writing at his considerable best.

When John McPhee returned to the island of his ancestors—Colonsay, twenty-five miles west of the Scottish mainland—a hundred and thirty-eight people were living there. About eighty of these, crofters and farmers, had familial histories of unbroken residence on the island for two or three hundred years; the rest, including the English laird who owned Colonsay, were “incomers.” Donald McNeill, the crofter of the title, was working out his existence in this last domain of the feudal system; the laird, the fourth Baron Strathcona, lived in Bath, appeared on Colonsay mainly in the summer, and accepted with nonchalance the fact that he was the least popular man on the island he owned. While comparing crofter and laird, McPhee gives readers a deep and rich portrait of the terrain, the history, the legends, and the people of this fragment of the Hebrides.