16 Historical Biography


69300 HOME SWEET HOME CROSS STITCH by Helen Philipps


Home Sweet Home, the classic sampler message, is shown in pastel colours with the traditional alphabet and a picture of a house with the family name at the side. Full instructions and a double spread template make the process easy. A Heart of the Home hanger for the kitchen features 12 decorative panels showing pots, egg cups, kitchen utensils and a central vase of flowers. Gift tags, jam jar covers and cushion covers are among the other projects. The final chapter covers materials, techniques and stitches. 112pp, softback, colour photos. £14.99 NOW £3


69553 CHARMED BRACELETS by Tracey Zabar and Jennifer Cegielski An engaging history cum survey cum autobiography cum instruction book. This type of jewellery can be found in almost every era of history, probably from the time when the first woman picked up some shiny object and tucked it into her matted hair. Ancient peoples relied upon amulets to ward off the Evil Eye and religious symbols promised fertility and love. Today there is nothing nicer to buy someone, or even yourself, than this everlasting emblem of affection and, with the info here, it has never been easier or more rewarding. 96 large pages 20 x 21cm with 90 attractive close-up colour photos.


£11.95 NOW £4.50 70140 DESIGNING AND


MAKING ROCKING HORSES by Margaret Spencer Absolutely anyone can follow the step-by-step instructions, clear plans, diagrams and patterns, gaining immense satisfaction and admiration, while saving a great deal of money in the process. From planning the design through choosing the correct tools and woods to


learning how to make saddles and bridles and, then, giving your toy a professional finish is as easy as can be. You could even make a Push-Me-Pull-Me rocking horse that will carry two children working in collaboration. 159 paperback pages with detailed colour photos and templates with notes on conversions and safety measures.


£16.99 NOW £4 HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY


There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.


- Robert Staughton Lynd 71403 MYSTERY OF LEWIS


CARROLL by Jenny Woolf Subtitled Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created Alice in Wonderland. Using rarely seen and recently discovered sources like Carroll’s private bank accounts, hitherto unpublished correspondence with his own relatives and letters from the family of the ‘real’ Alice Liddell, the author tackles questions


that have persisted throughout the years. How true is the gossip both about paedophilia and about certain adult women who became attached to Lewis Carroll? What could be the ‘romantic secret’ that many think ruined his life? Was it Alice or her older sister who caused a coolness between him and the Liddell family? Who caused him major financial trouble, and why have this person’s identity and actions remained unknown until now? In this revelatory book, the myths and inaccuracies are discarded to present the man in all the infuriating complexity of his tangled mind - a brilliant product of the Victorian Age and a genius whose famous stories continue to fascinate readers almost a century and a half after their initial publication. 326 pages illustrated in b/w.


$27.99 NOW £6


71400 LUCIA IN THE AGE OF NAPOLEON


by Andrea Di Robilant At the end of the 18th century, a beautiful Venetian 16-year-old was married off to a member of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families of the once glorious maritime republic. Her husband, Alvise Mocenigo, was ten years older than she, and had already been married and divorced, but her


tender letters to him show that she loved him dearly. Unfortunately, after his affair with Dinda Orsini, they eventually drifted apart and she had a child by Baron Maximilian Plunkett. Her husband, however, recognised the boy as his heir and he was renamed Alvisetto. Her life was transformed when the dynamic young Napoleon Bonaparte led his army into northern Italy, and the Venetian Republic fell apart. During her chequered life, Lucia was by turns a dazzling young hostess, a lady-in- waiting at the court of Prince Eugene in Milan, a single mother in Paris during the fall of Napoleon’s Empire, a friend of Josephine’s, and Lord Byron’s hard-nosed landlady when he leased part of the Palazzo Mocenigo. Apparently, her relationship with the great poet very quickly soured. She became a remarkable witness to an age of great turmoil. 336 pages with maps and plates in colour and b/w. £20 NOW £5


71047 HOREMHEB: The


Forgotten Pharaoh by Charlotte Booth


The last king of the 18th Dynasty, Horemheb (1362-1306BC) has been shamefully overlooked by many Egyptologists. The 18th Dynasty is seen as the beginning of the New Kingdom era, and the early rulers Ahmose, Amenhotep I-III, Thutmosis I-IV and Hatshephut


HEALTH


A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.


- Dudley White 71284 YOU CAN WALK TO


FITNESS by Rachel Armstrong The author may be called Armstrong, but her nom de plume perhaps should have been Legstrong! Human beings have been walking for around four million years and we walk because it is good for: heart, lungs, blood, metabolism, muscles and joints, mind and wallet. Whether you call


it power walking, fitness walking or just plain dawdling walking indoors or out, it is a rewarding and popular form of exercise. Here is practical advice on the right footwear and clothing, the physical and mental benefits, warm up and cool down routines, how to walk correctly, strength training, using a pedometer and walking programmes, diary and motivational tips. Covers preventing dehydration and letting food be your medicine to keep you fit and walking through a longer life. 128pp in paperback with line art. £5.99 NOW £2.50


70301 RESTLESS LEGS SYNDROME by Robert Yoakum


Within these pages is the promise of a long-awaited good night’s rest, relief and hope for sleepless victims of a hidden epidemic. For decades, millions of people have experienced the irresistible urge to move their legs without understanding why. These disagreeable leg sensations get worse with inactivity, making sitting still and sleep painful and sometimes impossible. The author has suffered from it all his adult life and here has compiled a comprehensive resource giving those afflicted with it a voice and creating a community. Looks at possible causes, criteria for diagnosis, medical advice and treatment options, the relationship of stress, dopamine and iron, and finding and creating a Restless Leg Syndrome group. Also covers sleep walking and our genes. 239 page softback.


£12.99 NOW £5.50


reigned over a prosperous nation. When Amenhotep IV became Akhenaten, declaring himself divine in the process, Egypt began to decline, and his successors, including the boy-king Tutankhamun, ruled over an increasingly divided kingdom. The accession of the giant Horemheb, “a great warrior, of thickset body, square stolid face and the eyes of a ferocious panther” was fundamental to bringing Egypt back to the power of the early New Kingdom and, drawing a line under things, upon his death he ensured his trusted General and vizier Pramesses became ruler, taking the name Rameses I, the first ruler of the 19th Dynasty. Not only that, but one of Rameses I’s most important tasks was to ensure that Horemheb’s grandson would be groomed as the future king. Rameses I did so, and the boy was to become Rameses II, possibly the greatest king in Egyptian history. So, as well as clearing up the mess left by the 18th Dynasty, Horemheb laid the foundations for the kings who were to come and for Egypt to rise again. 25 colour plates and a wealth of b/w photos, drawings, maps, plans and hieroglyphs, 160pp softback. £18.99 NOW £5


71083 THE GREAT OUTSIDER: David Lloyd


George by Roy Hattersley David Lloyd George was one of the most remarkable figures in British political history and his biography is here written by no less impressive a politician. Roy Hattersley, who was deputy leader of the Labour Party, is a prolific biographer and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Lloyd George was despised as a


radical and a firebrand, an outsider because he was a Welshman from an obscure rural background among sophisticated Englishmen, a non-conformist among Anglicans, and a self-made man - which did not go down well with the members of the Establishment who regarded themselves as an élite. It was well known that, for more than 30 years, he kept a mistress and was nicknamed ‘The Goat’. Countess Lloyd George herself told him ‘You are lecherous!’ Yet despite all, he achieved great things for Britain, being the founding father of the Welfare State, and introducing the first old age pension, sick pay and unemployment benefit. His biographer reveals not only his chequered private life but also his role as a tireless champion of the poor. He was both a shrewd pragmatist and a tactical operator who could hold together a coalition government in wartime, and was a great peacetime leader too. Hattersley sheds light on his multiple achievements and unravels the sheer complexity of the man. 710 pages with b/w archive photos. £25 NOW £8


70812 LIZZIE SIDDAL by Lucinda Hawksley Immortalised as the face of Millais’ “Ophelia” and Rossetti’s “Beata Beatrix”, Lizzie Siddal, or “The Sid” as she was known in Pre-Raphaelite circles, is a fascinating character who had her own talent in painting and poetry, impressing Ruskin so much that he paid her an annuity to support her creativity. Although she was introduced to the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood by one of its


fringe members, Walter Deverell, who famously spotted her serving in a milliner’s shop, Lizzie quickly became attached to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and entered into a nine-year engagement before they finally married in 1860. Lizzie took laudanum and her poor health is likely to have contributed to the fact that their child in 1861 was stillborn. 230pp, colour. £14.99 NOW £3.50


69758 THE PIRATE GOW by Daniel Defoe Defoe (1660-1731) is affectionately known as the father of the English novel and wrote nearly 500 books including Robinson Crusoe. Reputedly written by him and first published in 1725, Nigel Rigby (Head of


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68810 EASEFUL DEATH: Is There a Case for Assisted Dying?


by Mary Warnock and Elisabeth McDonald A serious treatment of the subject of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. In the British parliament there have been three recent attempts in 2003, 2004 and 2005 to legalise assisted death for those who requested it and who were terminally ill. The book looks into the practice in other countries too. 155pp in paperback. £7.99 NOW £1.75


69154 SHAPE UP SIZE DOWN: Drop a Dress Size in 4 Weeks by Sally Lewis


Sally Lewis explains fitness, a sensible diet and regular exercise and their physical and psychological benefits - increased energy, a leaner, more toned body shape and the “feelgood factor” created by the body’s release of endorphins. She then shows us how to tailor our exercise regime to our requirements - body size, age, fitness level etc, warming up, posture, balance and cooling down, before moving on to the exercises, 50 in all. Colour photos. 128pp.


£9.99 NOW £3.75


69831 DR ATKINS VITA-NUTRIENT SOLUTION: Your Complete Guide to Natural Health


by Dr Robert Atkins


Often, there is no need to resort to conventional drugs and invasive body procedures because, with the aid of essential vita-nutrients, we have the physical capability of healing ourselves. By using special combinations of nutritional supplements, you can prevent and treat many common medical conditions including migraines, cancer, diabetes, infections, obesity, pre-menstrual syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, skin problems and heart disease. This book will show you how. 478 paperback pages with supplement guidelines. £7.99 NOW £3.50


70382 NEVER SHOWER IN A THUNDERSTORM by Anahad O’Connor


Is the back of an aeroplane the safest place to sit? How safe is your mobile phone or Blackberry? Does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis? Is Echinacea really helpful in beating a cold? Do our eyes change colour as we age? Do identical twins have identical fingerprints? The New York Times has a column entitled ‘Really?’ and the author has tracked down facts, fictions and occasional fuzziness of old wives’ tales and other medical mysteries from his case files to dispel myths. 237pp in paperback. $15 NOW £4.50


Research at the National Maritime Museum) recounts how the true story of John Gow unfolded against the backdrop of the closing years of the Golden Age of piracy. After seizing his ship and murdering the captain and three officers, Gow embarked on a short but notorious piratical cruise off the coasts of Spain and Portugal in 1724. 118pp with the spelling from the 1725 original.


£8.99 NOW £2.50


70724 WRITTEN LIVES by Javier Marias


A playful multiple biography packed with little nuggets of information like a well-written obituary. Here is William Faulkner on horseback, Joseph Conrad on land, Isak Dinesen in old age, James Joyce in his poses, Henry James on a visit, Arthur Conan Doyle and women, Robert Louis Stevenson among criminals, Ivan Turgenev in his


sadness, Thomas Mann in his suffering, Nabokov in raptures, Rudyard Kipling without jokes, Oscar Wilde after prison and half a dozen fugitive women including Lady Hester Stanhope and Emily Bronte. Literary scholars may frown, but these essays are told with a mixture of affection and humour and bring these authors into a very human light. 200pp in illustrated paperback. £7.99 NOW £2.50


67698 THOMAS PAINE’S RIGHTS OF MAN: A


Biography by Christopher Hitchens Polemicist Hitchens marvels at Thomas Paine’s 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was inspired by Edmund Burke’s attack on the French Revolution and is probably the first written defence of man’s inalienable rights. Here Hitchens, in the opinion of many a direct political descendant of Paine, marvels at its forethought and revels in its conscientiousness. He demonstrates exactly how it forms the philosophical cornerstone of the US constitution and how “in a time when both rights and reason and under attack, the life and writing of Thomas Paine will always be part of the arsenal on which we shall need to depend.” 158pp. $19.95 NOW £5


69079 MUSSOLINI’S BARBER: And Other Stories of the Unknown Players Who Made


History Happen by Graeme Donald This unusual book reveals the stories of 45 of military history’s bit players. They include the actor, Norman Shelley, who was said to have voiced some of Churchill’s most famous speeches during World War II. Here, too is Luigi Galbani, Mussolini’s Barber, who knew his client’s worst secrets - but did he keep them to himself? There is also Tsutomu Yamaguchi who, incredibly, survived the atomic bombs on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as Boston Corbett, the man who shot the man who shot President Lincoln! 288 pages illus in b/w. £9.99 NOW £2.75


70388 READ MY HEART: A Love Story in


England’s Age of Revolution by Jane Dunn Sir William Temple (1628-99), the handsome, scientifically-minded son of staunch Parliamentarians, became a celebrated essayist and diplomat in the reign of Charles II. Dorothy Osborne (1627-1695) was an intellectual romantic from a family of committed Royalists. They lived through England’s age of revolution: civil war, regicide, republicanism and restoration. Not surprisingly, their love was bitterly opposed by both families, but they finally married in 1654. Both were gifted and strikingly modern writers, and 77 letters from Dorothy to William, written during their clandestine courtship, still survive. William’s extant essays and correspondence reveal his interests and preoccupations in everything from love to gardening. Both were confidants of William and Mary - in fact, they can be said to have enabled the Glorious Revolution by inspiring their marriage. Colour plates, 414pp. Roughcut pages, small remainder mark. $30 NOW £4.50


69563 FAUSTUS: The Life and Times of A Renaissance


Magician by Leo Ruickbie During the Renaissance and the Reformation, in a period of major historical changes, a delicate and complicated line separated the historical Faustus from the legendary one. Our author is an expert on the occult, with a doctorate in magic and witchcraft, and he succeeds in reconstructing


the events that reflect the birth, and embellishment, of the Faustian myth and the man behind it. It is the story of a 16th century scandal, of a man who claimed mastery of the forbidden magical arts and dared to rival the miracles attributed to Jesus. He was accused of selling his soul to the devil in return for power, wealth and women. So what exactly was he? Ruickbie takes the reader on a roller coaster ride to war-torn Italy, Reformation Wittenberg and the court of Charles V in his passion to find out. 256 pages, illus. £20 NOW £7


69435 HADRIAN AND THE TRIUMPH OF ROME by Anthony Everitt


Here is the first major account of the emperor Hadrian in nearly a century. Born in AD76, Hadrian lived through and ruled during a tempestuous era, a time when the Colosseum was opened to the public and Pompeii was buried under a mountain of lava and ash. Hadrian was brave and astute despite his sometimes prickly demeanour, as well as an accomplished huntsman, poet and student of philosophy. He ended Rome’s territorial expansion which had become strategically and economically untenable by fortifying her boundary, the many famed Walls of Hadrian, and he effectively ‘Hellenised’ Rome by anointing Athens the empire’s cultural centre, thereby making Greek learning an art vastly more prominent in Roman life. Everitt also looks at Hadrian’s marriage to Sabina, a loveless frequently unhappy bond that bore no heirs, and his enduring yet doomed relationship with the true love of his life, Antinous, a beautiful young Bithynian man. Everitt also covers Hadrian’s war against the Jews, which planted the seeds of present-day discord in the Middle East. 392pp with some illus and maps. Roughcut pages. $30 NOW £8.50


69460 ARTHUR CONAN


DOYLE: A Life in Letters edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley


A physician, sportsman, crusader for social justice, war correspondent, even whale-hunter, his life was every bit as gripping as his adventure tales. Throughout, his mother Mary Foley was his principal confidante, the recipient of a stream


of startlingly frank letters from her devoted son. Over 1000 letters survive from the time he went to boarding school in 1867 until Mary’s death in 1920. 706pp, paperback, photos. ONLY £2


69775 ADVENTURES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: A


Biography by Russell Miller In an unprecedented full portrait, told with panache, our author documents both the genius and the endearing quirks of the man who almost single-handedly invented the scientific methods of analysing a crime and identifying its perpetrator, while at the same time arranging gnomes in a circle in his garden and


playing music on a portable gramophone to attract fairies! During his lifetime, Conan Doyle wrote more than 1,500 letters to members of his family, revealing his innermost thoughts, fears and hopes. The doctor/writer/intelligence officer had a fascinating life. 516 pages with b/w archive photos.


£17.50 NOW £4 69837 HEROES, RASCALS AND ROGUES


by Rupert Matthews and John Birdsall Shameless libertines, infamous architects, controversial artists, dastardly train robbers, marauding pirates cheek by jowl with intrepid explorers, inspirational war heroes and military martyrs. If you know little about Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Attila the Hun, Billy the Kid, Cassius Clay, Geronimo, Edwin Hubble or Amelia Earhart now is the time to learn, in the easiest and most enjoyable way ever. 256 pages 23 x 17.5mm illus in colour and b/w. £17.99 NOW £3


70591 MRS FRASER ON THE FATAL SHORE by Michael Alexander


The true background story to a enduring Australian legend. In 1836, the Stirling Castle was shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef and the crew, including the captain’s wife, found themselves on the coast of the area that is now called Queensland. Mrs. Fraser had been raised to be a genteel woman and was ill prepared for her fate, for cannibalistic Aborigines captured them. She and her husband, the ship’s Captain, were forced to strip naked and taken into the bush where he was murdered and she was tortured. Mrs. Fraser then became an unwilling slave to the tribe, a position of total degradation and humiliation, and subsequently gave birth in an open boat. Her baby was immediately drowned and this lady was made to nurse an aboriginal child - ‘one of the most deformed and ugly looking brats my eyes ever beheld.’ Remarkably, an Irish convict, pretending to be the ghost of a dead warrior, eventually rescued Mrs. Fraser and she travelled to England where further misadventures awaited her. B/w plates, maps and facsimile pages from contemporary books. Paperback. 192 pages. £9.99 NOW £4


69110 HEART AND STOMACH OF A KING: Elizabeth I, The Wiles of a Virgin Queen by English Heritage


The celebrated Virgin Queen was the last of the Tudor monarchs and the blood of her father, Henry VIII, flowed vigorously through her veins. Whether she was heroically exhorting her troops at Tilbury to repulse the Spanish Armada or dealing with a high-handed courtier, her manner and expression seldom failed to leave their mark. 92 pocket-sized pages illus in b/w. £7.99 NOW £1.75


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