The most fully researched and fully revealing life of this particular Lord Chancellor that we are ever likely to get. (David Cannadine, London Review of Books). F.E. Smith was the most brilliant political personality of the Edwardian era: 'the cleverest man in the kingdom', said Beaverbrook. The youngest Lord Chancellor since Judge Jeffreys, he engaged in some of the most bitter political battles of the age: Ulster, trade union reform, the House of Lords. He emerges from this masterly biography as a massively compelling figure. A triumph of scholarship, judgement, lucidity and art...Like its subject John Campbell's book is leisurely, feline, and very, very clever. (Roy Foster, Guardian). A model biography. (A.J.P. Taylor, Observer). A joy...800 pages of trenchant and often vivid prose. (The Times).

Based on a true story, this moving account describes the four year period that Jan Plesman, a Dutch fighter pilot, was stationed in England during the Second World War. Here he meets an Australian WAAF with whom he becomes deeply involved, but tragic and dramatic events are to intervene.More than eighty percent of this story is taken from Jan's diary and serves as a lasting tribute to a true hero...

Denise Inge introduces a selection from Thomas Traherne's writing in this, the third volume in this series on seventeenth century spiritual writers. This volume will contain some biographical detail and historical context, the story of the discovery of his work as well as a discussion of its literary and spiritual power. The main body of the anthology will cover both well known works such as a selection from the Centuries and also excerpts from newer discoveries, including a recent find from Lambeth Palace Library. Thomas Traherne 1636?-1674 was schooled at Brasenose College, Oxford, was ordainded and served in the village of Credenhill, Herefordshire.

Thoroughly revised and expanded from the 2012 edition (twice the number of pages, almost double the number of illustrations) this book pays tribute to the man and his diverse works and achievements. James Hutton (1726-1797) was one of the first environmentalists, a man ahead of his time. He developed a grand theory of the Earth in which he tried to make sense of a lifetime of observation and deduction about the way in which our planet functions. For example, he connected temperature with latitude. His measurements, with rudimentary thermometers, of temperature changes between the base and summit of Arthur's Seat, were remarkably accurate and he studied climate data from other parts of the world. A leading figure in the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment, he was also an innovative farmer, successful entrepreneur and a man with endless intellectual curiosity. The year 2026 will be the tercentenary of his birth. There will be many special events leading up to and in that year organised by The James Hutton Institute, Scotland's premier environmental and agricultural research organisation.

Irene Matthews's autobiography is the story of a young Jewish girl who had the misfortune of growing up in Nazi Germany. Full of the greatest interest, as well as sadness and joy, this is a tale that readers of all ages and backgrounds would find not only entertaining, but also inspiring.A picture is created that is as clear and colourful as one of the vintage colour films that one sees of Germany at this time. We learn how she idolised the Hitler Youth as a child and how, as a schoolgirl, she actually saw Hitler and Mussolini at a parade. A tremendous sense of fear and tension develops as she documents the horrors of the Kristallnacht and her subsequent escape through Aachen and Brussels to a safer life in England. There she experiences great loneliness as a German refugee in wartime England. When she visits Berlin after the fall of the Wall in 1989, the essentially positive character of the book - a strong sense that humanity will always triumph in the end - shines through the epilogue.Affectionate, heart-warming and touching by turns, 'Out of Nazi Germany and Trying to Find my Way' is a frank and poignant collection of memories made even more vivid through a startling recall for detail that is undiminished by time or distance.

A fresh look at the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms.
Though often overlooked, Grover Cleveland was a significant figure in American presidential history. Having run for President three times and gaining the popular vote majority each time -- despite losing the electoral college in 1892 -- Cleveland was unique in the line of nineteenth-century Chief Executives. In this book, presidential historian Henry F. Graff revives Cleveland's fame, explaining how he fought to restore stature to the office in the wake of several weak administrations. Within these pages are the elements of a rags-to-riches story as well as an account of the political world that created American leaders before the advent of modern media.

Blanche Kelso Bruce was born a slave in 1841, yet, remarkably, amassed a real-estate fortune and became the first black man to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. He married Josephine Willson--the daughter of a wealthy black Philadelphia doctor--and together they broke down racial barriers in 1880s Washington, D.C., numbering President Ulysses S. Grant among their influential friends. The Bruce family achieved a level of wealth and power unheard of for people of color in nineteenth-century America. Yet later generations would stray from the proud Bruce legacy, stumbling into scandal and tragedy.

Drawing on Senate records, historical documents, and personal letters, author Lawrence Otis Graham weaves a riveting social history that offers a fascinating look at race, politics, and class in America.