18 Historical Biography


Street in Spitalfields. This great book of natural remedies describes and illustrates 400 herbs from Adder’s Tongue to Yucca, offering remedies for all ills known to 17th century society. Together with an alphabetical selection on herbs, their provenance and properties, there is a note on the gathering, drying and preserving of plants, herbs and flowers, roots, seeds, barks and juices. Original plates. 408 page modern paperback, 8" x 10" facsimile reprint of the 1653 original. £12.99 NOW £5


71695 BMA GUIDE TO SPORTS INJURIES edited by Gareth Jones et al Got any aches and pains? Produced in association with the BMA, the book profiles over 70 of the most common sports injuries, although all of these injuries could occur in everyday life. With clear information on symptoms, causes, treatment and rehabilitation, it explains exactly how injury affects the body with specially commissioned anatomical drawings, and guides you through your physical recovery with step-by-step exercise routines. There is a section which is dedicated to each kind of activity (collision team sports, contact team sports, net, club, bat and racket sports, running, weightlifting, skiing, equestrian, combat and extreme sports) there is a large box entitled “Staying Free of Injury”. Emergency procedures and fully illus. mobility and strengthening exercises for prevention and rehabilitation. 272pp softback, colour. £14.99 NOW £6


72357 THE BOOK OF IDLE PLEASURES by Dan Kieran


and Tom Hodgkinson Jumping for joy, lying in a field, or a hammock, build a house of cards, grooming yourself, feeding the birds, sit on a balcony, mess about in a boat, walk with a toddler, sleep in your clothes, arrange records, visit a cave are among the free pleasures encouraged here. Join the writers, take a nap, let the


weeds grow, catch a few leaves, wait for the tea to brew and enjoy this sensible book. 203 pages, gorgeous woodcut illus.


$12.99 NOW £3


72706 COMPLETE GUIDE TO STAYING HEALTHY: Proven Ways to Prevent


!


More Than 90 Common Health Conditions by Dr Vince Forte and Fiona Hunter More than half the doctors in this survey said that at least 60 per cent of these cases could be avoided. Diseases that could be virtually eliminated with simple lifestyle measures included: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung cancer, obesity, stroke and sexually transmitted infections. Did you know that getting half an hour of exercise on most days could dramatically turn your health around and strengthen your resistance to disease? Read this volume and discover the top six causes of disease and how to avoid them, tables of common symptoms you should never ignore, and complete prevention plans for more than 90 conditions, among them: allergies, arthritis, cataracts, colds, hepatitis, kidney disease, osteoporosis and dozens more. Prevention is better than cure any time! 352 softback pages 20cm x 25cm with colour photos and diagrams. £14.99 NOW £6


HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY


There is history in all men’s lives. - William Shakespeare


73107 ARTHUR: The King in


the West by R. W. Dunning The written evidence about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is sparse and difficult to interpret with certainty, and historians take diametrically opposed views. This intriguing volume explains the Arthurian legend in its true context, while appealing not only to the student of medieval history, archaeology or


literature but also to the general reader. It traces the growth of the legend of the King and his link with the West Country, bringing together archaeology, early and relatively recently written sources, tradition and myth. The book focuses in particular on the ancient Abbey of Glastonbury and the South Cadbury hill fort, one a possible link with the Dark Age Arthur, the other well known for its exploitation of the hero king and the Grail legend. 96 paperback pages, newly revised and updated with many photos, maps, plans and illustrations including colour plates. £14.99 NOW £6


73145 SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII by Antonia Fraser


Henry VIII changed the course of history with his exorbitant sexual appetite and his possibly genuine belief in the Protestant Reformation. The six wives often take a back throne, but they were all exceptional women in their own right. Katherine of Aragon knew him when he was young and maintained a genuine love for her long- term partner in spite of being thrust aside for Anne Boleyn. Anne’s fierce Protestantism was allied with an aura of sexuality she could not control had she wished to, although most accusations against her were probably false. Her courage at execution is deservedly legendary. Jane Seymour achieved a permanent place in Henry’s volatile heart by dying quickly in childbirth, though why she married him remains a mystery. Humiliated by Henry for her ugliness, Anne of Cleves remained as a valued member of the court after the divorce. Katherine Howard was an independent young girl, coached by her relatives to attract Henry who was extremely happy with her, a happiness that made his rage at her infidelity


all the greater. Catherine Parr was a woman of education, the author of several devotional works. She gave up Thomas Seymour to marry Henry and became Seymour’s wife in her widowhood, dying in childbirth at 35. Antonia Fraser is a widely praised biographer who unites scholarship with readability. 589pp, paperback. Reproductions, some in colour. £12.99 NOW £6


68717 MAN WHO OUTSHONE


THE SUN KING by Charles Drazin


The subtitle of this richly textured biography is ‘A Life of Gleaming Opulence and Wretched Reversals in the Reign of Louis XIV’. This is the biography of 17th century French royal minister Nicolas Foucquet whose cunning and charisma bought him vast wealth and wide-ranging fame, and ultimately his own


destruction. Late in 1664, the musketeer D’artagnan rode beside the carriage, as it left Paris, carrying his friend Nicolas Foucquet to life imprisonment in a cell next door to the Man in the Iron Mask. From Cardinal Mazarin’s protégé and eventual protector, as the builder of the stunningly opulent Chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte and as patron of the arts and lover of beautiful women, Foucquet had suffered a wretched decline. He started his career as an official overseer of tax collection in the provinces and rose through charm, skill and wit to become the King’s trusted administrator. His financial wizardry somehow kept France’s unstable finances from collapse. Yet charged with embezzlement and treason, Foucquet was convicted and eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. This beautifully written account brings to life the lavish world of the royal court in all its splendour, intrigue and danger. 338pp with photos. $26 NOW £6.50


71478 BRILLIANT WOMEN:


18th Century Bluestockings by Elizabeth Eger and Lucy Peltz


During the 18th century, a remarkable group of women formed the Bluestocking Salon where women and men met to debate contemporary ideas and promote the life of the mind. The book pays


tribute to the likes of artist Angelica Kauffman, historian Catharine Macaulay, early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and many more women who used writing and portraiture to advance their work and their reputations in a period framed by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. 159 pages 19.5cm by 25cm richly illustrated with portraits from the National Gallery, prints and personal artefacts, with 84 plates in colour and 64 b/w. $50 NOW £5.50


71492 JANE’S FAME: How Jane Austen


Conquered the World by Claire Harman Beginning with Jane Austen’s struggles to break into print, the author explores the growth of interest in ‘Devine Jane’, her adoption as a favourite subject for scholarly scrutiny in the 20th century and the eruption of her current global fame. How did a young woman who wrote of ‘three or four families in a Country Village’ come to influence statesmen, anarchists, romance writers, critics, readers in dozens of languages, and nowadays to enjoy almost continuous revival? This compendium of everything relating to Jane provides the answers. 277 pages with illus. $26 NOW £4.50


71531 THE SEARCH FOR CLEOPATRA by Michael Foss


Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy Auletes, was a pleasure- loving king given to cross-dressing and wild Dionysian orgies. Cleopatra, ruling in tandem with her younger brother Ptolemy XIII, inherited a volatile political situation. When the Roman General Pompey fled to Egypt after his defeat by Caesar, the 13-year old Ptolemy acquiesced in his murder. Cleopatra, then at war with her brother, needed to see Caesar without Ptolemy’s knowledge, and according to legend gained entrance to his apartment wrapped in a roll of bedding. Caesar brokered an armistice between the warring brother and sister and left Cleopatra with a son, Caesarion. She visited Rome with the pomp and ceremony of Caesar’s mistress, but following Caesar’s murder she returned to Egypt. 192pp, paperback, illus. $14.95 NOW £3.50


71844 AUGUSTUS: Godfather of Europe by Richard Holland


Relatively unknown until the death of his adopted father Julius Caesar, Octavian, who became the Emperor Augustus, was one of the world’s great rulers, presiding over a period of literary and architectural flowering and creating stability in much of the Roman Empire. When Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and Cassius, Octavian was hailed by his troops as imperator and in a series of skilful political manoeuvres, not without moments of high farce, he gained control of the senatorial army and marched into Rome. When Antony declared that Cleopatra’s son by Julius Caesar was Caesar’s rightful heir the rift was complete and after defeat at Actium, Antony was cornered into suicide. 368 page paperback, b/w photos. £9.99 NOW £4


71849 BRUNEL: A Pocket Biography by L. T. C. Rolt


Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the greatest civil engineers of all time. At the age of 19, his father put him in charge of his own great work, the Thames Tunnel. He later won the competition for designing the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Brunel was also the engineer and naval architect of some of the first great trans- Atlantic steamships including, eventually, the colossal Great Eastern. In March 1833 he was appointed Chief of GWR and his impressive viaducts at Hanwell, Chippenham, Maidenhead Bridge, Box Tunnel and Bristol Temple Mead Station still remind us of his remarkable artistic flair and scientific achievement. 118pp in paperback, line illus. £6.99 NOW £3


72305 ROYAL PAINS: A


Rogues’ Gallery of Brats Brutes and Bad Seeds by Leslie Carroll


The bad seeds on the family trees of the most powerful Royal houses of Europe often became the most rotten apples. In an effort to stave off wrinkles, 16th century Hungarian countess Erzsébet Báthory bathed in the blood of virgins. Lettice Knollys strove to mimic the appearance of her cousin


Elizabeth I and even stole her man. The Duke of Cumberland’s sexcapades and subsequent clandestine marriage led to a law that still binds England’s royal family. The gothically gruesome pact that Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria made with his teenage lover Mary Vetsera very likely evolved into a murder-suicide that became the focus of an international cover up. Sexy and flamboyant, Princess Margaret became a royal cause célèbre and her star-crossed romance with a divorced courtier put the crown itself in the hot seat. Here are jealousies, lusts and betrayals played out on the world stage by the insatiable blue bloods of Europe. 391pp in paperback. Remainder mark. £10.99 NOW £6


71868 ONLY A WOMAN: Henrietta Barnett by Alison Creedon


In this first full-length account of her life and work, the author shows how a brief experience of education inspired a pretty, petulant and pampered child to develop into a shrewd, irreverent and energetic woman, whose determination to confront social injustice persisted well into old age. She traces Henrietta Barnett’s earliest work with the street urchins of Dover through to the many years spent in the labyrinthine courts of a Whitechapel. But the pinnacle of a lifetime spent campaigning for housing, educational and social reform was her role as the founder of Hampstead Garden Suburb. 194 pages, illus, map. £20 NOW £5


72379 CHARLES DICKENS AND THE GREAT THEATRE


OF THE WORLD by Simon Callow Charles Dickens is known throughout the world as one of the greatest novelists to have ever drawn breath, but what is much less well known is how central the theatre was to his life. We discover that he was a child entertainer in Portsmouth, which led to an obsession with the stage until his


reluctant retirement just before his death in 1870. He was a dazzling mimic who wrote, acted in and stage- managed plays with fanatical perfectionism, and in his writing he was an irresistible performer, whose imagination in plotting and characterisation was overtly theatrical. He was the original celebrity author who attracted thousands of fans to his readings in Britain and the US. 370pp, pen and ink drawings. £16.99 NOW £5.50


71874 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON: Envoy


Extraordinary by Brian Fothergill Sir William Hamilton was fêted across cosmopolitan Europe as both art collector and dilettante. As well as being at the same time diplomat and antiquarian, Hamilton was, at the time of the rise of Napoleon, British Ambassador to the court of Naples. Here is the scandal of William Beckford, the close friend of Hamilton’s first wife and himself, whose relationship with the young son of Viscount Courtenay became too intimate to be considered wholesome and whose peerage was cancelled as a result. Here too are details of the curious final chapter of his life when he was overshadowed by his second wife Emma and her famous lover Lord Nelson. 351 pages with b/w illustrations, chapter notes and catalogue of pictures, marbles, bronzes. £18 NOW £6


71881 THE MISTRESSES OF


HENRY VIII by Kelly Hart In France, to be the King’s mistress was not a secret affair. But for Henry VIII, these relationships were private. His wives have appeared in many books as six very different women portrayed as feminist icons of the Tudor age. Bessie Blount, Mary Boleyn, Mary Shelton, Anne Stafford, Jane Popincourt and Elizabeth Amadas as well as his other mistresses,


deserve to have their amazing life stories told just as much as his wives have. Here they are rescued from obscurity and we see how some of Henry’s lovers were involved in influencing profound changes in religion and society. 229pp in paperback. Photos. £8.99 NOW £4


72656 KING’S SMUGGLER: Jane Whorwood Secret Agent to Charles I by John Fox


The first detailed biography of a forgotten key player in the English Civil War. It provides new evidence, revealing her to be one of Charles I’s closest confidantes. Her name was Jane Whorwood. She was the daughter of Scots courtiers at Whitehall and the wife of an Oxfordshire squire. When the court moved to Oxford in 1642, at the start of the Civil War, she helped the Royalist cause by spying for the king, and smuggling at least three-quarters of a ton of gold to help to pay for his army. When Charles was held captive by the Parliamentarians, she organised money, correspondence, several escape attempts, astrological advice and a ship to carry him to Holland. The king and she also had a wartime Brief Encounter. After the king’s execution in 1649, Jane’s marriage collapsed in one of the most public and acrimonious separation cases of the 17th century. Her power-wielding was at an end, but she lived on to the age of 72. 224 pages with b/w photos. £20 NOW £8


72702 AMAZING AND EXTRAORDINARY FACTS: Leonardo Da Vinci


by Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer


Born before his time, Leonardo Da Vinci had more ideas than he could possibly bring to fruition in his lifetime. From the Mona Lisa to The Last Supper, his legacy has


been some of the most intense, well-known and beautiful works of art from any historical period. Not only did he lay the foundation work for artists after him, he was also a talented scientist, musician and inventor, designing the first bicycle, helicopter and scuba-diving apparatus. He developed ideas in 1480 to allow humans to walk on water and here are his pictures for that device, a parachute, early helicopter designs, tanks, giant crossbow, pendulum clock, the Moon’s orbit, drawings of a dead man and other astonishing ideas. 144pp, well illus with line art. £9.99 NOW £3.75


71941 DANTON: The Gentle Giant of Terror by David Lawday


Lawday turns his focus upon the life of Georges-Jacques Danton, tragic hero of the French Revolution. A monstrous six-foot bull of a man with a face like the proverbial bag of spanners, he was at the head of the Revolution which brought down a 1,000-year monarchy. His weapon of revolt was his voice, a perpetual roll of thunder which spurred men into action - to hear Danton was to hear the heartbeat of the Revolution. Together with the puritanical Robespierre, his rival unto death and in almost every way his opposite, Danton brought about something very rare in history - a change in human social order. As the maniacal Robespierre demanded more and more heads on the block, Danton’s more moderate stance was seized upon as evidence of collusion with the hated aristocracy and he himself went to the guillotine, defiant to the end, aged just 34. Examines the personalities which inspired and fuelled the Revolution, shows us where Danton fitted in and why he was central to events, and how his disenchantment with the Terror as the weapon of Revolution lead to his death. 300pp with b/w plates and map of Revolutionary Paris.


£20 NOW £7


72600 DANCING TO THE PRECIPICE: The Life of Lucie De La Tour Du Pin,


Eyewitness to an Era by Caroline Moorehead Lucie Dillon, a daughter of French and British nobility known in France by her married name, was the chronicler of her age. La Rochfoucauld called her a ‘cultural jewel’. Napoleon requested she attend Josephine. Her friends


included Talleyrand, Madame de Staël, Chateaubriand, Lafayette and the Duke of Wellington. She witnessed the demise of the French monarchy, the wave of Revolution, the Reign of Terror and the precipitous rise and fall of Napoleon. She spent two years as an émigré in the newly independent United States and was also a familiar of Regency London. A shrewd, determined woman in an age of men, Lucie watched, listened, reflected, and wrote it all down, blending politics and court intrigue, social observation and the realities of everyday existence, to offer a fascinating chronicle of her era. 480 pages with timeline. $27.99 NOW £6


72618 LIVES LIKE LOADED GUNS: Emily


Dickinson And Her Family’s Feuds by Lyndall Gordon


Unanswered questions resonate in the wake of lives, and no one more elusive than the famous poet Emily Dickinson. The first step was to map her social landscape - New England in the 1880s. Gordon takes the lid off the violent emotional life of the Dickinson family and its far-reaching effects on the poet’s work. What she exposes is a seething Peyton Place of adultery, betrayal and lifelong feuding. It opens the way to an entirely new reading of Dickinson’s life and poetry. This is the book that cracked one of poetry’s most enduring enigmas and rescues Dickinson from the image of the passive, heart-broken recluse. A compelling biography and a damn good dramatic tale. Family tree, maps and cast list. 491pp with 16 pages of b/w photos.


$32.95 NOW £6.75


70891 BRUNEL: Life and Times by Annabel Gillings


Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59) was the outstanding example of an entrepreneurial Victorian engineer. He assisted his father in the design and construction of the Thames Tunnel. This was followed by the Great Western Railway and its Terminus, Paddington Station. But the boldest of his many endeavours were his three great ships - the Great Western, the Great Britain and finally the Great Eastern. He had a stroke on board that ship and died shortly after her disastrous maiden voyage. 182 page well illus paperback. £10.99 NOW £3.50


71476 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN by Edmund S. Morgan


Born in 1706, Benjamin Franklin was that rare type of man who consistently placed the public interest before his own desires. He was not only the greatest statesman of his age, who played a pivotal role in the formation of the American republic, but was also a pioneering scientist, a bestselling author, the country’s first postmaster general, a bon vivant, a diplomat, a ladies’ man and a moralist. A reluctant revolutionary, he had desperately wished to preserve the British Empire, and mourned America’s break with Great Britain, even as he led the fight for American independence. He helped to draft both the Declaration of Independence and the American constitution. 339 roughcut pages, illus. £19.95 NOW £5


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