Children's fantasy drama series in which a boy with secret powers finds himself forced to confront an alien invasion of Earth. To the outside world Tom Clarke (Scott Haran) appears to be an ordinary boy. He loves football and lives with his father (Michael Higgs) and grandmother (Annette Badland). However, Tom and his family are actually wizards and are gravely threatened by the arrival on Earth of the alien race Nekross, who, under the command of the Nekross King (voice of Brian Blessed), seek to acquire the planet's magic for themselves. Can Tom and his friends fight them off and protect their magical abilities?

Life in a workhouse during the Victorian and Edwardian eras has been popularly characterised as a brutal existence. Charles Dickens famously portrayed workhouse inmates as being dirty, neglected, overworked adn at the mercy of exploitative masters. While there were undoubtedly establishments that conformed to this stereotype, there is also evidence of a more enlightened approach that has not yet come to public attention. This book establishes a true picture of what life was like in a workhouse, of why inmates entered them and of what they had to endure in their day-to-day routine. A comprehensive overview of the workshouse system gives a real and compelling insight into social and moral reasons behind their growth in the Victorian era, while the kind of distinctions that were drawn between inmates are looked into, which, along with the social stigma of having been a workhouse inmate, tell us much about class attitudes of the time. The book also looks at living conditions and duties of the staff who, in many ways, were prisoners of the workhouse. Michelle Higgs combines thorough research with a fresh outlook on a crucial period in British history, and in doing so paints a vivid portrait of an era and its social standards that continues to fascinate, and tells us much about the society we live in today.

A colorful introduction to the realities of life in the 19th century. Readers will learn hidden details of history, from how to fend off pickpockets to the correct way to fasten a corset. This title will appeal to seasoned social history fans, costume drama lovers, history students and anyone with an interest in the Victorian era.REVIEWS a brilliant guided tour of Charles Dicken's and other eminent Victorian Englishmen's England, with insights into where and where not to go, what type of people you're likely to meet, and what sights and sounds to watch out for... Utterly brilliant Books Monthly UK

How can you trace forebears who were patients in lunatic asylums and find out about their lives? What sources can you consult to discover their personal histories and gain an insight into their experiences? In this concise, accessible handbook, Michelle Higgs answers these questions. She provides a fascinating introduction to the subject and gives readers the means to explore the records for themselves. She concentrates on the period from the eighteenth century through to 1948 when the National Health Service was founded and looks in particular at the Victorian era which is the most popular period for research. Using original records, contemporary accounts, photographs, illustrations and case studies of real individuals, she brings the story of the asylums and their patients to life. Different types of institution are described such as private madhouses, county lunatic asylums, facilities for idiots and imbeciles, and military mental hospitals. Chapters look at the admission procedures and daily routine of patients, plus different kinds of mental illness and how they were treated - for instance, those with depression or mania, criminal lunatics, mothers with puerperal insanity, epileptics and soldiers suffering from shell shock. There are sections on the systems in Scotland and Ireland, as well as England and Wales. Information is provided on all the relevant sources, from wills and the census to casebooks and admission and discharge registers.

Throughout the Victorian period, life-threatening diseases were no respecter of class, affecting rich and poor alike. However, the medical treatment for such diseases differed significantly, depending on the class of patient. The wealthy received private medical treatment at home or, later, in a practitioner's consulting room. The middle classes might also pay for their treatment but, in addition, they could attend one of an increasing number of specialist hospitals. The working classes could get free treatment from charitable voluntary hospitals or dispensaries. For the abject poor who were receiving poor relief, their only option was to seek treatment at the workhouse infirmary. The experience of a patient going into hospital at this time was vastly different from that at the end. This was not just in terms of being attended by trained nurses or in the medical and surgical advances which had taken place. Different methods for treating diseases and the use of antiseptic and aseptic techniques to combat killer hospital infections led to a much higher standard of care than was previously available.

It is a commonly held assumption that all Victorian prisons were grim, abhorrent places, loathed by their inmates. This is undoubtedly an accurate description of many English prisons in the nineteenth century However, because of the way in which prisons were run, there were two distinct types: convict prisons and local prisons. While convict prisons attempted to reform their inmates, local prisons acted as a deterrent. This meant that standards of accommodation and sanitation were lower than in convict prisons and treatment, particularly in terms of the hard labour prisoners were expected to undertake, was often more severe. Whichever type of prison they were sent to, for many prisoners and convicts from the poorest classes, prison life compared favourably with their own miserable existence at home.