12 Historical Biography


73109 CHARLOTTE AND LIONEL: A Rothschild Marriage


by Stanley Weintraub Heirs to the fabulous Rothschild banking empire, the cousins Charlotte and Lionel had an arranged betrothal. Their marriage ceremony was catastrophic. With the imminent death of the patriarch Nathan Mayer looming over them, and arriving in fog-bound London


the beautiful 17-year-old Charlotte missed the social whirl of Frankfurt and Naples. Lionel’s circle of friends such as Rossini and Disraeli made it easy for Charlotte to set about creating one of the greatest cultural and political salons of the Victorian era. As an M.P. Lionel made full use of his access to money. After the Franco- Prussian war, Bismarck demanded not only the return of Alsace but also six billion francs. A Rothschild loan enabled France to meet the demand, and Lionel was again central in brokering the deal whereby the British government acquired a controlling interest in the Suez Canal. By no means a doctrinaire Liberal, Rothschild opposed Gladstone’s proposal to abolish income tax. He predeceased Charlotte who lived in retirement until her death in 1884. 345pp, eight pages of b/w illus and family tree.


£7.99 NOW £5


73317 ROB ROY by W. H. Murray


Rob Roy Macgregor is Scotland’s most romantic and elusive hero, but with no recorded descriptions of him, tracking down the real Rob Roy has been painstaking archive research and much sifting through lore. W. H. Murray brings together new interpretations of Rob Roy’s life in order to produce a clearer understanding of the character, actions and motifs of a man who


became a myth and a symbol of Scotland. Murray shows that Rob Roy’s renown stems from his remarkable force of character rather than his politics or his place in the writings of Sir Walter Scott. Macgregor’s political mission outwardly failed, but his extraordinary revolution in adversity earned him a place in history, legend and film. ‘In writing the wrong done to Rob Roy’s name by Scott, and by the historians whom he and others followed, I have found Rob Roy to be of stronger character than the early writers had imagined.’ With map, a facsimile of Rob Roy’s actual signature, this edition was first published in 1982 and is here in paperback reprint, 301pp. £6.99 NOW £3.50


73335 AS GOOD AS GOD,


AS CLEVER AS THE DEVIL: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson by Rodney Bolt The quotation in the title is from Dame Ethel Smyth, English composer and leader of the women’s suffrage movement. William Gladstone, the Prime Minister, also admired Mary, calling her ‘the cleverest woman in Europe’. Who, then was this paragon? Her story must be one of


the most astonishing of all those that Bibliophile has come across in its long history. Drawing extensively on the diaries and novels of the Bensons themselves, as well as the writings of contemporaries ranging from George Eliot to Charles Dickens, the author has created a rich and intimate history of a Victorian/Edwardian English family and of the eccentric, gifted, determined, amusing woman who ruled them. She started as she meant to go on at the extraordinarily young age of 12, when she received a proposal of marriage from her 23- year-old cousin, Edward Benson - who later became Archbishop of Canterbury. When Mary, at the age of 18, finally married him - albeit without loving him or really knowing what love was - she then presided over Lambeth Palace, and a social world that ranged from the master poets Tennyson and Browning, through foreign royalty to Queen Victoria herself. In fact, when her husband died, Mary, who was known as Ben to her intimate women friends, turned down an offer from the Queen to live at Windsor and, instead, set up home in a Jacobean manor house with her friend Lucy Tait, but she remained at the very heart of her family - all of whom were as eccentric as she was. Her son Arthur suffered numerous breakdowns, but managed to write the words for Land of Hope and Glory. Fred became the hugely successful author of the Mapp and Lucia novels, which still have a cult following today. Maggie was a renowned Egyptologist but went mad, tried to kill her mother and was institutionalised. The youngest, Hugh, became a Catholic priest but was embroiled in scandal. This factual account reads like a rip-roaring thriller! 362 pages with b/w archive photos, notes, family tree and A Word on the Book. £22 NOW £6.50


73549 ELIZABETH: The


Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey


The international bestseller here in remaindered US paperback edition, here is the best account in English of the early years of Elizabeth I in a racy, first rate history. An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man’s world, passionately sexual though as she maintained a virgin,


Elizabeth I is famed as England’s most successful ruler. This brilliant biography concentrates on her formative years, from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558, and shows how the experiences of danger and adventure formed Elizabeth’s remarkable character and shaped her beliefs and opinions. From princess and heir apparent to bastardised and disinherited royal, accused traitor to head of the princely household, Elizabeth experienced every vicissitude of fortune and extreme of


condition in Tudor England. She rose above it all to reign during a watershed moment in history. Here is also a uniquely absorbing tale of one young woman’s turbulent, courageous and seemingly impossible journey towards the throne and the making of a queen. Starkey stirringly relies on Elizabeth’s eloquence and ability to use words to move people. The book is the very model of worthy popular history. Apologies for small remainder mark. 363pp in paperback with colour plates. $14.99 NOW £6


73563 MAGNIFICENT MRS


TENNANT by David Wallace Sub-titled ‘The Adventurous Life of Gertrude Tennant, Victorian Grande Dame’, this is a Yale University Press first edition. Gertrude Tennant’s life was remarkable for its length (1819-1918) but even more so for the influence she achieved as an unsurpassed London hostess. The salon she established when


widowed in her early 50s attracted legions of celebrities, among them Gladstone, Joseph Chamberlain, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Thomas Huxley, John Everett Millais, Henry James and Robert Browning. In her youth she had had a flirtation with Gustav Flaubert, and in her later years she became the redoubtable Mother-in- law to the explorer Henry Morton Stanley. But as a woman in a male-dominated world, Mrs Tennant had been remembered mainly as a footnote in the lives of eminent men. This magnificent biography recovers her lost life, drawing on family papers and thousands of letters including two dozen original letters from Flaubert to Gertrude, dozens of diaries and documents relating to Stanley and other famous figures. Gertrude is placed not only at the heart of a multi-generational matriarchal family epic, but also at the centre of European social, literary and intellectual life for the best part of a century. 304pp with 39 illustrations including a wonderful engraving of Southwark urchins plus two family trees. $35 NOW £7


73113 HELEN OF TROY: Goddess, Princess, Whore by Bettany Hughes


Immortalised by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey, Helen of Troy is the mythical perfection of beauty, the woman who left her Greek husband Menelaus for the Trojan Paris, thus causing a major war. She has been portrayed as princess, high priestess, goddess, mother and whore, an agent of both life and death. Hughes examines literary and artistic portrayals from classical lyrics to flamboyant Romantic canvases. The seventh century historian Isidore identified the rape of Helen (some versions make it a real rape) as one of the 132 defining moments that shaped history. A favourite subject for painters is the myth of Zeuxis, the painter who tried to create a vision of Helen from the combined beauties of five models. Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Berlioz and Tippett are among the numerous creative geniuses who have fallen under her spell. Hughes looks at Bronze Age texts and material remains to build up a picture of what she might have been like - the Hittites and Mycenaeans. 458pp, maps, timeline, b/w and colour photos. Apologies for sticker. £20 NOW £10


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. Catherine Parr was a woman of education, the author of several devotional works. 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. 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. Through charm, skill and wit he became 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. 338pp with photos. $26 NOW £5


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 £4


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, 84 plates in colour and 64 in b/w. $50 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


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 £4.50


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. 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 £5.50 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. 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. Maps and cast list. 491pp, b/w photos. $32.95 NOW £6


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 and here are his pictures for a parachute, early helicopter designs, tanks, giant crossbow, pendulum clock, the Moon’s orbit 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. 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. 300pp with b/w plates and map of Revolutionary Paris. £20 NOW £7


72379 CHARLES DICKENS AND THE GREAT THEATRE


OF THE WORLD by Simon Callow Charles Dickens was a child entertainer in Portsmouth, which led to an obsession with theatre 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


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 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 colour photos. £14.99 NOW £5


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 £3.50


! HISTORY


73065 BRITANNIA: 100 Documents that Shaped a


Nation by Graham Stewart Belonging on the bookshelf of anyone who is curious to learn more about the historical roots of our culture, society, language, religious traditions and political institutions, this entertaining and informative book traces 2,000 years of our island’s story - from


Roman province to 21st century European nation-state - through 100 historic documents. These are documents that not only defined their own eras but which continue to resonate today. For instance, Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights became vital legal curtailments of arbitrary royal power, medieval election writs and 19th century reform acts shaped the creation of parliamentary democracy. The great translations of the Bible, the plays of Shakespeare and Dr Johnson’s dictionary have left indelible marks on the English language, and Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations continues to guide our understanding of economic policy. The documents selected embrace a wide range of spheres: politics and religion, warfare and diplomacy, economics and the law, science and invention, literature and journalism and sport and popular music. The first edition of The Times rubs shoulders with the laws of Marylebone Cricket Club. The designs for Stephenson’s Rocket share space with the Catholic Emancipation Act. Lord Kitchener’s iconic First World War recruitment poster confronts Clause IV of the Labour Party’s constitution, and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper competes for interest with Britain’s accession treaty to the European Economic Community. There are numerous reproductions of the documents themselves and the whole is written in a reader-friendly style. 434 pages illustrated in colour and b/w with Where To Find The Documents. £25 NOW £8


73553 FRIAR OF CARCASSONNE: Revolt Against the Inquisition in the


Last Days of the Cathars by Stephen O’Shea


Here is the tragic but inspiring story of the Franciscan Friar Bernard Délicieux, who fought against the combined forces of the ruthless Pope Boniface VIII, the


Machiavellian French King Philip IV and the grand inquisitor of Toulouse, Bernard Gui - whom


readers may remember as the villain of The Name of


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