20 Historical Biography


HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY This age will serve to make a very pretty farce for the next.


- Samuel Butler


73213 CHARLES DICKENS AT HOME by Hilary Macaskill


In a meticulously researched account, the author reveals an unexpected side to one of the best-loved of English writers. Charles Dickens is already revered as a storyteller, social campaigner and chronicler of his times, but this interesting volume shows that he was also a ‘home-man’ in every respect. On reflection, this is hardly to be wondered at, considering the close attention to detail and the acute observation of his surroundings that distinguish his novels, both in their portrayal of home life and in their sense of place. His daughter, Mamie, wrote that ‘…no man was so inclined naturally to derive his happiness from home affairs’. This richly illustrated book places Dickens in his domestic context, giving a fascinating insight into the life and homes of the great writer and showing how deeply involved he was in domestic arrangements - despite the frantic pace of his work schedule. It tracks the many places in which he lived, from his Portsmouth birthplace and childhood home in Chatham, to his last house back in Kent, at Gad’s Hill Place near Rochester. It also vividly describes his various domiciles in London, where he lived for the majority of his life and which - as can be seen in Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities for instance, is closely identified with his fiction. In addition, the book covers his holiday homes and travels both in England and abroad, including locations that provided settings for his novels, like Nicholas Nickleby’s Yorkshire and the East Anglia of David Copperfield, which was Dickens’ most autobiographical novel. With special photography by Graham Salter and foreword by Dr Florian Schweizer, Director of the Charles Dickens Museum London. 144 pages 26cm x 25.5cm lavishly illustrated with archive material in colour and b/w with timeline and further information.


£25 NOW £10


73187 MADRESFIELD THE REAL BRIDESHEAD: One Home, One Family, One


Thousand Years by Jane Mulvagh


During the early 20th century, Evelyn Waugh - together with many other writers, composers, painters, royals and rebels - was a regular visitor to Madresfield Court, the country house which had been the home of the Lygon family for nearly


1,000 years. The people and their environment burned themselves into Waugh’s imagination and he made them the models for the doomed Marchmains in his famous novel Brideshead Revisited. Drawing on a unique archive that dates back to the Conquest in 1066, the author reveals a rich and dramatic history. Here is the Lygon who conspired to overthrow Queen Mary, the disputed legacy that inspired Dickens’ Bleak House, the secret behind Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and the tragedy of the disgraced Seventh Earl Beauchamp. Irresistible. With foreword by David Cannadine. 496 paperback pages with family tree. £9.99 NOW £4.50


73633 ANNE BOLEYN: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII’s


Most Notorious Wife by Norah Lofts


Most readers will know Norah Lofts as a much-loved historical novelist who, among her fifty books wrote a fictionalised account of Anne in The Concubine which was a huge bestseller both in the UK and the US. Here is one of Lofts’ rare - yet highly successful - forays into non-


fiction, which still displays her trademark application of authentic period detail to a gripping narrative. The girl who was to become Henry’s second queen has always been a mystery. Was she beautiful, as those who fell under her spell believed, or was she a rather plain girl blessed with striking eyes, a wealth of black hair and what we should call today sex appeal or charisma? Henry wrote her impassioned love letters, composed songs in her praise, honoured her as no woman was ever honoured before and finally defied the Pope in order to marry her. Her enemies believed she owed her success to witchcraft and she did bear two ‘devil’s marks’ but was she, in fact, only a hapless pawn, subject to the passions of a notoriously mercurial autocrat? Why was her fall from favour so sudden? Henry’s love changed to a hatred so vicious that he conspired with his chief minister to have her accused of adultery with five men - one her own brother. Drawing on contemporary accounts, Norah Lofts examines all the evidence. You may be surprised by some of the results. A page- turning 174 pages illustrated in colour and b/w. £18.99 NOW £7


73204 NAPOLEON by Alan Forrest


Exiled to St. Helena following his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon set about the task of ensuring that his place in history was as glorious as he could make it. The memoirs he wrote in his final exile were bestsellers and established a Napoleonic cult which in 1840 led to his body being ceremonially brought back to France for re- interment in Les Invalides.


Napoleon’s success in controlling his posthumous reputation demonstrates the quality of strategic planning which was at the heart of his empire. Embracing the


ideals of Revolutionary France and translating them into a vast administrative machine, Napoleon established a civil service and legal system which were arguably as effective as his successes in battle. He codified the rights and obligations of citizenship, appointing four legal luminaries to draft comprehensive legislation abolishing the old feudal aristocracy and establishing principles of liberty. Napoleon also hoped for ideological unity, and recognising that the Catholic Church was a necessary ally he created a carefully selected group of élite bishops, preparing the ground for his move from the title of First Consul to Emperor. On the battlefield Napoleon continued to consolidate France’s European dominance, but the Peninsular War strained his resources and by the time of Waterloo, Britain had generals of equal calibre and Napoleon’s war machine, though superbly organised, was not equal to the combined might of Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia. 403pp, colour reproductions. £25 NOW £7


72518 BRINGING THEM UP ROYAL: How the Royals Raised their Children from


1066 to the Present Day by David Cohen


Under the heading “Oldest children rarely succeed” the author points out the astonishing fact that of the 48 rulers covered by this book, only nine were the eldest child of the previous monarch. Dynastic


marriages have been a major cause of upheaval, scandal and inheritance battles. The wife of George I loathed him; she took a lover, who was found in the river soon afterwards. Her punishment was being prevented from seeing her son, the future George II, then aged 11. Queen Victoria’s controlling streak had consequences for her children, particularly “Bertie” who would become Edward VII, and the author brings the story into the present with Prince Charles’s trauma at the murder of his uncle Lord Mountbatten and Diana’s dedication to her sons. 309pp, photos. £20 NOW £7


72469 RAGLAN: From the Peninsula to the Crimea by John Sweetman


On the strength of his association with the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade, many historians have dismissed FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, first Baron Raglan as, at best, an indifferent and, at worst, an incompetent commander. However, as this first full biography of Raglan reveals, his achievements over a career spanning 50 years should not be judged so simplistically. It is true that, as Commander of the Expeditionary Force to the Crimea, he must take his share of responsibility for the hardship suffered by the men under him, particularly during the winter of 1854- 55, but the fact remains that Raglan never lost a battle for which he was fully responsible. Commissioned in 1804, he served under Sir Arthur Paget and the Duke of Wellington throughout the Peninsular War, and lost an arm at Waterloo and served for an astonishing 25 years as Military Secretary and Master General of the Ordnance. He found himself an easy target for often personal attacks by critics of an outdated military system. These attacks, some from official quarters, wounded him deeply, and he died a mere seven months after being appointed, amid great public acclaim, as Field Marshall. 384 pages illus, maps and family tree. £25 NOW £8.50


72470 THE REAL FALSTAFF by Stephen Cooper


Here is the first full biography of one of the most famous English knights of the Hundred Years’ War which explores the connection between Fastolf and Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff. It brings insight into the French campaigns of Henry V and the Duke of Bedford and covers Fastolf’s later life - Caister Castle, the Paston family and his posthumous reputation. Sir John Fastolf was a famous military commander who spent almost 30 years fighting the French and lived long enough to witness both the triumphs of Henry V’s reign and the disasters of Henry VI. His role in holding on to Normandy and Maine, in the face of mounting French resistance, and bewildering royal diplomacy, and his rivalry with the more famous Talbot, are the central themes. 210pp, maps and illus. £19.99 NOW £6.50


72756 THE BARD: Robert Burns, a Biography by Robert Crawford


Even a quarter of a millennium after his birth, the life and work of Robert Burns, Scotland’s greatest poet, continues to attract more and more interest. In his lifetime he polarised opinion: to his international admirers he was a genius, hero and warm-hearted friend, yet to the mother of a lover he was a wastrel, to political enemies a traitor and to a fellow poet he was “sprung from the raking of dung”. Inspired by the French and American Revolutions and moulded by the Scottish Enlightenment, he was in many senses the first of the great Romantics. Crawford employs a poet’s insight and sense of human drama to show how the boy steeped in rural Scotland’s peasant song combined this with a supreme linguistic ability to become not only the world’s most popular love poet but also the controversial master poet of modern democracy. 466pp. £20 NOW £7


72328 YOUNG JESUS: Restoring the ‘Lost Years’ of a Social Activist and Religious


Dissident by Jean-Pierre Isbouts The authors reinvestigates Jesus’ entire milieu including other religious figures from Joseph to Mary Magdalene. The adolescent Jesus was a boy scarred by peasant rebellion, economic repression and the wholesale displacement of the Galilean peasantry. These, the author argues, galvanized Jesus’ mission as a social activist and religious rebel, emulating the career of another prominent Jewish dissident, the prophet Jeremiah, who had also staged a dramatic appeal to his fellow Jews in the forecourt of the Temple. Dr Isbouts exposes the true forces that ultimately condemned Jesus to the cross. 320 pages with colour photos and chronology.


£14.99 NOW £5


73088 THE FAIRY TALE OF MY LIFE: An Autobiography


by Hans Christian Andersen and Naomi Lewis The 19th century Danish poet and novelist is best known for his tragic and gruesome fairy tales. The Ugly Duckling, for instance, is a simple telling of Andersen’s history and The Little Mermaid teaches readers that every wish has its price. Autobiography was an obsession with him. In 1855, at age 50, he wrote his first official volume and, in 1863, he continued his life story. By turns vain and humble, bitter and celebratory, this highly readable and revealing self-portrait gives ample evidence of his extraordinary gifts as a storyteller as he depicts the poverty of his provincial childhood, his extensive journeys from Portugal to Turkey, his friendships and lively encounters with Kierkegaard, Dickens, Hugo, the Brothers Grimm, Balzac and Liszt. 569 paperback pages. £15.95 NOW £5


71381 CLEOPATRA THE GREAT: The Woman


Behind the Legend by Dr. Joann Fletcher Cleopatra was quite a contrast to Roman women whose jewellery was limited by law, and her status as one of the few surviving descendants of Alexander the Great undoubtedly added to her personal attractions in Caesar’s eyes. She would also have worn heavy make-up, including imported Indian rouge, heavy kohl and probably a signature fragrance. The result of their instant liaison was that Caesar took the political gamble of reinstating Cleopatra on the throne of Egypt with her brother. When Antonius later succeeded Caesar in Cleopatra’s bed, “the most potent weapon in Cleopatra’s political armoury remained her understanding of the male ego”. Their dramatic end is described in detail, but the asp is apparently a fiction. 454pp, colour illus. $27.99 NOW £6


71418 HEROES AND VILLAINS: Inside the


Minds of the Greatest Warriors in History by Frank McLynn


Here, in incomparable detail, are Spartacus, the gladiator who brought Rome to its knees, Attila the Hun, the Mafioso-warrior, Richard the Lionheart, England’s greatest warrior-king, Cortés, the renegade Conquistador, Napoleon, the master tactician and military genius and last, but by no means least, someone of whom readers may not have heard - Japan’s legendary Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Each of them is worth a book of his own, and together they are irresistible. 384 pages with maps and colour plates. £18.99 NOW £5


71876 STAFFORDSHIRE WOMEN: Nine Forgotten Histories


by Pam Inder and Marion Aldis The story goes that the world of the 19th century woman was extremely narrow. Quiet, uncomplaining and of delicate constitution, she spent her days at home with her family. The vagaries and demands of commerce were quite beyond her. It was quite true that the legal and financial status of women was circumscribed. However, history has not, until now, taken note of the nine women featured in this unusual account. They came from a variety of backgrounds, from an heiress to a housekeeper, a farmer to a philanthropist and a novelist to a matron, but the thing that links them is that they were all financially able. They survived abusive husbands, bankruptcy, impecunious relatives and heart-breaking personal tragedies, to achieve surprising levels of success - and every one of them was a Staffordshire woman. 126 paperback pages with b/w illustrations and map. £12.99 NOW £4


71891 VOLTAIRE: The Universal Man by Derek Parker


Voltaire towards the end of his life in the 1780s set down a prescription for liberty of the person, the abolition of slavery and freedom of speech and writing, liberty of conscience, security of property and the freedom to sell one’s labour to the highest bidder. He believed the Church should be subject to the State, taxation in proportion to wealth and used to provide proper water supplies, roads, canals, hospitals and orphanages. Voltaire was a great man. 240pp in paperback, photos. £8.99 NOW £3.25


72453 GALLEY SLAVE by Jean Marteilhe These true accounts were written by a French Protestant who, as a galley slave in the early 18th century, was subjected to harrowing conditions and murderous toil, all for the sake of his religious beliefs. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Jean Marteilhe, like so many French Huguenots, attempted to escape to the more sympathetic Protestant countries bordering France, but was captured, thrown into gaol and condemned to serve in the French Mediterranean galleys. Marteilhe’s astounding account represents the only authentic record of the suffering of those who experienced the appalling on-board conditions, the horrors of whips and chains and the dreaded ‘bastinado’ or foot- whipping. This courageous man survived for six years. Abridged, edited. 210 pages with map. £12.99 NOW £5.50


72465 PIRATE HUNTER by Graham A. Thomas


Subtitled The Life of Captain Woodes Rogers, the author follows his brilliant career using Woodes Rogers’ own vivid journal. From his first daring voyage as a privateer through his many sea fights and his hunt for pirates, this man confronted the most treacherous pirates of his time like Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. But Woodes Rogers was also an explorer of note and an administrator and it was he who rescued the real Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, the desert- island castaway who gave rise to one of the most famous books in English literature by Daniel Defoe. On August 2nd 1708 Captain Woodes Rogers had set sail from Bristol with two ships The Duke and The Dutchess on an epic voyage of circumnavigation that was to make him famous. His mission was to attack, plunder and pillage Spanish ships wherever he could. He was then appointed Governor of the Bahamas by George I with the task of suppressing pirates and lawlessness at sea. 176pp, photos. £19.99 NOW £7.50


HISTORY


We learn from history that we do not learn from history.


- George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel


73440 THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND: Volume II The Tudors by Peter Ackroyd Although the Tudor period began with Henry VII’s victory over Richard III at Bosworth, this volume begins with Henry’s death and the accession of the 16-year-old Henry VIII in 1509. Henry’s cataclysmic break with Rome, his warring with France and his relentless pursuit of the perfect bride and the perfect heir dominated the first half of the period. The reigns of his son and two daughters completed the period. Edward VI’s brief teenage reign (1547-1553) was blighted by his physical frailty and the self-serving of the men that Henry appointed to help him, and it was one of these, the Duke of Northumberland, who attempted to get his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey crowned upon his death. The first in line, Mary, a staunch Catholic had been kept out of the way, and there was no stomach among the court for a change back to the old ways. However Mary had her supporters and swept to power, Grey and Northumberland being the first victims of her bloody reimposition of Catholicism. Her sister Elizabeth, a Protestant, lived in constant fear of a death warrant from her increasingly deranged sister until Mary’s death in 1558, whereupon she was crowned and, until her death in 1603, England enjoyed a largely stable, golden age of prosperity, discovery and enlightenment. Above all, the Tudor period as described consummately by Ackroyd is the story of the English Reformation, the founding of the Anglican Church and the transformation of England from a feudal state that looked to Rome for direction to Protestant superpower, where good governance was the duty of the state, not the Church. 16 pages of mostly colour plates. 507pp. £20 NOW £8.50


73275 CAVALIER: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great


Houses by Lucy Worsley The Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces has been researching the story of William Cavendish - who embodied the popular image of the typical cavalier - for more than ten years, and is the author of the English Heritage guide to Bolsover Castle, his principal home. Her fabulous book, described by


none other than Sir Roy Strong as ‘a tour de force of the historical imagination aligned to impeccable scholarship’, recreates the cacophony, stink, ceremony and splendour of the stately home, its inhabitants, the private life of a courageous, cultured man whose passions were architecture, horses and women and that of the people he met. William Cavendish was the general of the king’s army in the north during the English Civil War. Famously defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor, he was forced into a long continental exile before returning to England in triumph upon the restoration of King Charles II to the throne. But it is the cavalier’s private life that is the real subject of this gripping volume. His houses were designed to protect him from the public gaze. The author breaks through the successive barriers of gatehouse, hall, stairway and state apartments to the bedchambers, closets, garden rooms and riding houses that were the scenes of more intimate events. We see behind the scenes: the cleaning of the kitchens, the packing up of the tapestries as the household moved from house to house, and the mechanics of a 17th century building site. Focusing on eight individual days selected across 50 years, the book paints a picture of elaborate parties, real estate obsession, gossip, conspiracy and sexual intrigue. All classes come under the microscope of Lucy Worsley’s probing gaze, from the famous Ben Jonson and Anthony Van Dyck to the long- forgotten servants. 332 pages illustrated in b/w with colour plates, family trees, map, timeline. $29.95 NOW £7


73494 HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN BITE-SIZED


CHUNKS by Emma Marriott What a good idea! We have always thought that the whole of history was so vast that we should never be able to separate our Sumerians from our Babylonians, our Incas from our Aztecs and our Roaring Twenties from our Great Depression. Here is a concise, readable yet authoritative guide, pithy and comprehensive, that


provides everything we need to know about the world’s major historical events, from ancient civilisations to the end of WWII. Whether they are interested in the empire of Alexander the Great, or the flowering of the Carthaginian Republic and its destruction by Rome, the rise of the Arab caliphates, or China’s Tang dynasty, the American Civil War or the emancipation of women, or simply the rise and fall of Fascism and Communism, readers will find the essential facts in this equally essential book. 192 pages with maps. £9.99 NOW £5


72572 THE HAREM: Inside the Grand Seraglio


of the Turkish Sultans by N. M. Penzer First published in 1936, this classic account of the Turkish Harem of Topkapi in Constantinople was ground- breaking in its time, dispelling numerous myths and replacing them with even more astonishing information about the operation of the Sultan’s vast household. The palace in question was built by Muhammad II in the mid-15th century. The word “harem” refers to the women’s quarters and “seraglio” was applied to the whole palace complex by the Italians who were the first Europeans to deal with the Turks. Behind two


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