Life in a castle isn't always a fairytale, as the Duchess of Rutland vividly illustrates in her fascinating, revealing and funny autobiography. When Emma Watkins, the pony-mad daughter of a Welsh farmer, imagined her future, she imagined following in her mother's footsteps to marry a farmer of her own. But then she fell in love with David Manners, having no idea that he was heir to one of the most senior hereditary titles in the land. When David succeeded his father, Emma found herself becoming the chatelaine of Belvoir Castle, ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland. She had to cope with five boisterous children while faced with a vast estate in desperate need of modernisation and staff who wanted nothing to change - it was a daunting responsibility. Yet with sound advice from the doyenne of duchesses, Duchess 'Debo' of Devonshire, she met each challenge with optimism and gusto, including scaling the castle roof in a storm to unclog a flooding gutter; being caught in her nightdress by mesmerised Texan tourists and disguising herself as a cleaner to watch filming of The Crown. She even took on the castle ghosts . . . At times the problems she faced seemed insoluble yet, with her unstoppable energy and talent for thinking on the hoof, she won through, inspired by the vision and passion of those Rutland duchesses in whose footsteps she trod, and indeed the redoubtable and resourceful women who forged her way, whose homes were not castles but remote farmhouses in the Radnorshire Hills. Vividly written and bursting with insights, The Accidental Duchess will appeal to everyone who has visited a stately home and wondered what it would be like to one day find yourself not only living there, but in charge of its future.

This is the inspiring true story of Sylvia Catheryn Folger Archer, a descendant of the famous Clark brothers William and George Rogers, pioneer explorers and Revolutionary War heroes, and Betty Zane, heroine of the Fort Henry siege of 1782. A widowed mother of nine in rural West Virginia in the early 1900s, redheaded Sylvia was the very embodiment of womanly strength, perseverance, and courage.

Born one of ten children in 1906 on Pursley Hollow, a narrow mud road four miles south of Sistersville, West Virginia, Sylvia's loving family provided her with a happy childhood. But after her marriage at the age of nineteen to Arthur Daniel Archer, Sylvia experienced countless trials, including her own near-death experience, the loss of her husband to a brain tumor, the stroke of a daughter, the tragic death of a daughter and grandson and her own battle with cancer. A true survivor, Sylvia lived to see each of her children graduate from high school and happily marry.

Drawing upon meticulous research into family records, Sylvia's son Elliott Archer pays tribute to his mother in this triumphant portrait of one American woman's unwavering morals, exemplary work ethic, absolute pride in motherhood, and selfless sacrifice for her beloved family.

The newest series from Globe features regional history with a true crime twist! Written by true crime author-experts, each book focuses on the most significant (and prolific) violent female criminals from that state or region. Female killers are often portrayed as caricatures: Black Widows, Angels of Death, or Femme Fatales. But the real stories of these women are much more complex. The author provides a look at the lives of at each killer through primary source materials, including diaries and trial records. Readers will be glued to their seats as they follow the killers through broken childhoods, first brushes with death, and overwhelming urges that propelled these women to commit these heinous crimes. The kidnappings, murders, investigations, trials, and ultimate verdicts will stun and surprise readers as they live vicariously through the killers and the dogged investigators who caught them.

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this "golden age" can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's
history. This fascinating new history of New Orleans showcases more than two hundred of the best vintage postcards available.

During the late twentieth century, the number of museums in the UK dramatically increased. Typically small and independent, the new museums concentrated on local history, war and transport. This book asks who founded them, how and why. In order to find out more, Fiona Candlin, a professor in museology, and Toby Butler, an expert oral historian, travelled around the UK to meet the individuals, families, community groups and special interest societies who established the museums. The rich oral histories they collected provide a new account of recent museum history - one that weaves together personal experience and social change while putting ordinary people at the heart of cultural production. Combining academic rigour with a lively writing style, Stories from small museums is essential reading for students and museum enthusiasts alike. -- .

Piccadilly, London's milelong western artery, was originally known for its busy coaching inns and magnificent aristocratic palaces, and, more recently, for its internationally renowned department stores, theatres, restaurants and hotels. At the junction of five major roads, Piccadilly Circus became known as the 'Hub of Empire'. Balancing enterprise, profit and pleasure, it marks the divide between polite society and a bustling nightlife. In this book, London historian Stephen Hoare explores how and why 'Dilly' has always been a haunt for pleasure seekers. It traces the development of London's West End from its aristocratic origins right through to its hedonistic heyday, when the Bright Young Things rubbed shoulders with royalty, film stars, gangsters, pimps and prostitutes. Today, Piccadilly's traditional institutions, such as Hatchards, Fortnum and Mason, the Royal Academy and the Ritz, sit alongside sushi bars, Viennese coffee shops and fashionable jewellers and boutiques as the neon lights of the Circus continue to attract visitors from across the globe.

Wie is die beste Springbok van die moderne era?

Hoe kies jy tussen Bakkies Botha en Eben Etzebeth? Was Jaque Fourie of Lukhanyo Am die beste buitesenter? Moet Os du Randt of Beast Mtawarira jou skrum anker? Sou Juan Smith vir Pieter-Steph du Toit disnis duik? Soek jy Joost van der Westhuizen se skeppende spel, of Fourie du Preez se berekende skopvoet?

Hierdie vrae, en soveel meer word deur ’n gesaghebbende paneel van voormalige Bok-afrigters soos Carel du Plessis, Nick Mallett, Jake White en Peter de Villiers, asook van die land se top rugbyskrywers, in die Rapport 30 beste Bokke beantwoord. Die tydperk het ingesluit drie Wêreldbekers en Drienasies-titels, een Rugbykampioenskap-titel, ’n destydse wêreldrekord van 17 agtereenvolgende wedstryde sonder ’n nederlaag, en twee reeksseges oor die Britse en Ierse Leeus.

Dié boek stel ons voor aan die 30 beste Bokke. Dit bevat ook onderhoude, statistiek, foto’s en staaltjies uit die kleedkamer. Onmisbaar vir elke rugby-liefhebber.

Rocky Mountain National Park owes its existence to the tenacity and vision of Enos Mills. The straightforward stories Mills told of his wilderness adventures with snowslides, wild beasts, and even wilder weather are exciting and fun. James Pickering, a foremost expert on the life and writing on Enos Mills, has collected the stories that truly express Mills' experiences in Colorado. The reader is transported to the turn of the 19th century as Enos Mills guides them through the Rocky Mountain wilderness.

'A gripping, heart-breaking account of the famine winter of 1847' - Rosemary Goring, The Herald Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize When Scotland's 1846 potato crop was wiped out by blight, the country was plunged into crisis. In the Hebrides and the West Highlands a huge relief effort came too late to prevent starvation and death. Further east, meanwhile, towns and villages from Aberdeen to Wick and Thurso, rose up in protest at the cost of the oatmeal that replaced potatoes as people's basic foodstuff. Oatmeal's soaring price was blamed on the export of grain by farmers and landlords cashing in on even higher prices elsewhere. As a bitter winter gripped and families feared a repeat of the calamitous famine then ravaging Ireland, grain carts were seized, ships boarded, harbours blockaded, a jail forced open, the military confronted. The army fired on one set of rioters. Savage sentences were imposed on others. But thousands-strong crowds also gained key concessions. Above all they won cheaper food. Those dramatic events have long been ignored or forgotten. Now, in James Hunter, they have their historian. The story he tells is, by turns, moving, anger-making and inspiring. In an era of food banks and growing poverty, it is also very timely.

Chronicles the sweeping history of the storied Henry Street Settlement and its enduring vision of a more just society On a cold March day in 1893, 26-year-old nurse Lillian Wald rushed through the poverty-stricken streets of New York's Lower East Side to a squalid bedroom where a young mother lay dying-abandoned by her doctor because she could not pay his fee. The misery in the room and the walk to reach it inspired Wald to establish Henry Street Settlement, which would become one of the most influential social welfare organizations in American history. Through personal narratives, vivid images, and previously untold stories, Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier chronicles Henry Street's sweeping history from 1893 to today. From the fights for public health and immigrants' rights that fueled its founding, to advocating for relief during the Great Depression, all the way to tackling homelessness and AIDS in the 1980s, and into today-Henry Street has been a champion for social justice. Its powerful narrative illuminates larger stories about poverty, and who is "worthy" of help; immigration and migration, and who is welcomed; human rights, and whose voice is heard. For over 125 years, Henry Street Settlement has survived in a changing city and nation because of its ability to change with the times; because of the ingenuity of its guiding principle-that by bridging divides of class, culture, and race we could create a more equitable world; and because of the persistence of poverty, racism, and income disparity that it has pledged to confront. This makes the story of Henry Street as relevant today as it was more than a century ago. The House on Henry Street is not just about the challenges of overcoming hardship, but about the best possibilities of urban life and the hope and ambition it takes to achieve them.

Golden Mummies of Egypt presents new insights and a rich perspective on beliefs about the afterlife during an era when Egypt was part of the Greek and Roman worlds (c. 300 BCE-200 CE). This beautifully illustrated book, featuring photography by Julia Thorne, accompanies Manchester Museum's first-ever international touring exhibition. Golden Mummies of Egypt is a visually spectacular exhibition that offers visitors unparalleled access to the museum's outstanding collection of Egyptian and Sudanese objects - one of the largest in the UK. -- .

With the days of the great buffalo herds as his focal point, the author looks at the Northern Plains through the lenses of geology, paleontology, biology, and especially history. He describes how the land was formed, chronicles the fantastic prehistoric animals that came and went, and tells the stories of the humans--natives and settlers alike--who have lived on this land.

The border country between Wales and England is a fertile place in many senses. Settled for millennia, one of the few links we have with early man here are their surviving pagan, pre-Christian wells. Sacred wells have played an important part in the culture and landscape of the region, and continue to do so. Following his books on wells in Wales and Cornwall, Phil Cope journeys up and down the borderlands, and through history from pre-Christian times through Roman and early Christian times, the medieval Age of the Princes in Wales and on to Victorian and the contemporary period. His discoveries are recorded in striking and atmospheric photographs which are accompanied by the remarkable histories of the wells, and the legends attached to them. Wronged suitors, magic horses, Dark Age battles, the reign of King Arthur, and innumerable decapitations feature among the vividly magical tales. Alongside them rests a different kind of magic in the healing wells of the Christian saints, some of which are also sources of prophecy. As the centuries past healing mutated into health and the development of the spa, until, in the twentieth century a full circle was turned and wells once again acquired a pagan significance. Richly illustrated in colour throughout the wells from Cheshire to Monmouthshire, from the Dee to the Severn are here displayed in all their glory, be they in remote countryside or city centre.

What do the traditional plain-living Amish have to teach twenty-first-century Americans in our hyper-everything world? As it turns out, quite a lot! It sounds audacious, but it's true: the Amish have much to teach us. It may seem surreal to turn to one of America's most traditional groups for lessons about living in a hyper-tech world-especially a horse-driving people who resist "progress" by snubbing cars, public grid power, and high school education. Still, their wisdom confirms that even when they seem so far behind, they're out ahead of the rest of us. Having spent four decades researching Amish communities, Donald B. Kraybill is in a unique position to share important lessons from these fascinating Plain people. In this inspiring book, we learn intriguing truths about community, family, education, faith, forgiveness, aging, and death from real Amish men and women. The Amish are ahead of us, for example, in relying on apprenticeship education. They have also out-Ubered Uber for nearly a century, hiring cars owned and operated by their neighbors. Kraybill also explains how the Amish function in modern society by rejecting new developments that harm their community, accepting those that enhance it, and adapting others to fit their values. Pairing storytelling with informative and reflective passages, these twenty-two essays offer a critique of modern culture that is provocative yet practical. In a time when civil discourse is raw and coarse and our social fabric seems torn asunder, What the Amish Teach Us uproots our assumptions about progress and prods us to question why we do what we do. Essays include: 1. Riddles: Negotiating with Modernity 2. Villages: Webs of Well-Being 3. Community: Taming the Big "I" 4. Smallness: Bigness Ruins Everything 5. Tolerance: A Light on a Hill 6. Spirituality: A Back Road to Heaven 7. Family: A Deep and Durable Bond 8. Children: At Worship, Work, and Play 9. Parenting: Raising Sturdy Children 10. Education: The Way It Should Be 11. Apprenticeship: An Old New Idea 12. Technology: Taming the Beast 13. Hacking: Creative Bypasses 14. Entrepreneurs: Starting Stuff 15. Patience: Slow Down and Listen 16. Limits: Less Choice, More Joy 17. Rituals: A Natural Detox 18. Retirement: Aging in Place 19. Forgiveness: Pathway to Healing 20. Suffering: A Higher Plan 21. Nonresistance: No Pushback 22. Death: A Good Farewell

An oral history of the West Virginia Mine Wars published to coincide with the centennial of the Battle of Blair Mountain. In 1972 Anne Lawrence came to West Virginia at the invitation of the Miners for Democracy movement to conduct interviews with participants in, and observers of, the Battle of Blair Mountain and other Appalachian mine wars of the 1920s and '30s. The set of oral histories she collected-the only document of its kind-circulated for many years as an informal typescript volume, acquiring an almost legendary status among those intrigued by the subject. Key selections from it appear here for the first time as a published book, supplemented with introductory material, maps, and photographs. The volume's vivid, conversational mode invites readers into miners' lived experiences and helps us understand why they took up arms to fight anti-union forces in some of the nation's largest labor uprisings. Published to coincide with the celebration of the Blair Mountain centennial in 2021, On Dark and Bloody Ground includes a preface by public historian Catherine Venable Moore and an afterword by Cecil E. Roberts of the United Mine Workers of America.

If you love history and want to amaze your family and colleagues with your prodigious knowledge of Lone Star lore, this book is just what you need.
"A Browser's Book of History" is a day-by-day collection of more than 500 incidents some famous, some obscure that have made Texas the most remarkable state in the Union. Even if you're a dedicated historian or an old-time Texan, you're likely to find something surprising, amusing, thought provoking, or just plain odd.
With this book you can start every day of the year with a concise entry from the chronicles of this unique state, which just seems to naturally breed colorful people and bigger-than-life events.