TELEPHONE: 0207 474 2474 MODERN HISTORY


Whosoever, in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may happily strike out his teeth.


- Walter Raleigh


73817 FAMILY BRITAIN: 1951-1957


by David Kynaston This heavyweight doorstopper actually comprises two books, The Certainties of Place and A Thicker Cut, which are themselves part of David Kynaston’s magnificent four volume history of Britain from 1945 to 1979, entitled Tales of a New Jerusalem. In it he tells the social history of Britain through an


astonishing array of vivid, intimate and unselfconscious voices, mostly Joe Public but with a few noteworthies too. The period saw a return to near normality as post- war rationing gave way slowly to relative abundance. In this colourful tapestry events like the death of George VI and coronation of Elizabeth II, the Festival of Britain, the hanging of Ruth Ellis and the Suez Crisis are seamlessly interwoven with everything that gave 1950s Britain its distinctive flavour; Butlins, teddy boys, Hancock’s Half Hour, skiffle and some of the best war films ever made. Diarist Nella Last shops assiduously at Barrow market and bemoans the drunken and lewd behaviour of the “rough” families from the Yorkshire mill towns as they descend upon Scarborough. Judy Haines relishes family life in suburban Chingford and utterly self- absorbed civil servant Henry St. John perfects the art of grumbling, 40 years before Victor Meldrew. Here too are Doris Lessing, John Arlott and the David Beckham of his day, Roy “of the Rovers” Race making his goal-scoring debut for Melchester in Tiger comic. A magisterial account of British society as it moved on from the pain and hardships of the 1940s to the domestic ease and affluence that the 1950s was to offer. 808pp including 32 pages of period b/w photos. US edition. £20 NOW £7


74236 TALES OF LONDON’S DOCKLANDS


by Henry T. Bradford As we are sure you know, dear customers, Bibliophile has resided at various locations in on the Thames or associated waterways for over 25 years so we feel quite an affinity for the creeks, wharfs and piers of the old London docks, and the changes of the past 20 years have been


quite breathtaking to witness. Tales of London’s Docklands takes us back to the period after WWII, and is an engaging, endearing account of the day-to-day lives of the hardworking dockers in the Port of London. Henry Bradford was born into a dock-working family, and entered the industry himself in 1954. Health and Safety was not a phrase often bandied about in those days and the work was frequently harsh, brutal and poorly rewarded. Yet despite the backbreaking and perilous daily toil there was much humour and real camaraderie amongst the dockers and some larger than life characters whose shenanigans made the day more bearable and make for enjoyable reading today. Big Dave (25 stone) and his mate Little Fred (8½ stone), “Flash” Lightning, Soapy Jim and Old Percy were five such men with whom the author worked, and reading of their antics had us chuckling away. Bradford relates both the eventful episodes and daily grind with a wry turn of phrase and his pen portraits of co-workers, bosses, customs and police officers, sailors, tea ladies, divers and others are so sharply observed you could almost be there with them. Photos, 96pp softback. £10.99 NOW £4


73957 GREAT SILENCE Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age by Juliet Nicolson


Between two landmark occasions two years apart, a rich slice of British history unfolds. The first, Armistice Day 1918, brings cheering crowds into the streets. But the euphoria soon vaporises to reveal the carnage the war has left in its


wake: debilitated veterans, mental illness, countless dead. Slowly but surely, new life emerges. Revolutionary surgeon Harold Gillies brings hope with his miraculous skin-grafting procedure. Women win the vote, skirt hems leap from ankle to knee and aristocrats and servants alike forget their troubles at packed dance halls. November 11th 1920 brings closure. The Great Silence, the two minutes observed in memory of those lost, halts an entire nation as Big Ben strikes 11. A lively cast of characters from the Prince of Wales to T. E. Lawrence and from Nancy Astor to Vera Brittain bring these two years to life. 302 pages with b/w archive photos and dramatis personae. $25 NOW £6


72382 REAL MAD MEN by Andrew Cracknell


As so glamorously and stylishly portrayed in the TV series Mad Men, it was in 1950s and ’60s New York, specifically Madison Avenue, that advertising enjoyed its golden age. In a booming US marketplace a bold, brash new workforce of young, multi-ethnic writers and art directors made hay while the sun shone. Andrew Cracknell, longstanding adman himself, spent two years finding out how it happened. He interviewed the surviving protagonists of the Creative Revolution to produce this remarkable story of creativity, ingenuity and sheer brass neck. Colour and b/w photos. 224pp softback.


£14.99 NOW £2.50


73005 MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence


Service 1909-49 by Keith Jeffery


Here, for the first time, based on unprecedented full and unrestricted access to the closed archives of the Service, is the history of the SIS, with its triumphs and failures all laid bare. MI6 is the best-known intelligence organisation in the world. From the early days


countering German challenges in Europe, to the global menace of Soviet Communism after 1917, and Axis threats in Europe, the Middle East and Asia before and during the Second World War, it explores liaison between the British foreign intelligence service and other foreign intelligence agencies which have influenced SIS’s work in both peace and war. Among a host of vivid accounts are TR/16 gathering vital and timely German naval intelligence during 1914-18, Paul Dukes and the ‘Ace of Spies’ Sidney Reilly working undercover in post- revolutionary Russia, and brave ship-watchers working along the Norwegian coast during the Second World War. 810 pages, b/w photos, maps, list of abbreviations. £30 NOW £10


73301 AN ANARCHIST’S STORY: The Life of


Ethel MacDonald by Chris Dolan Ethel was a working-class girl from Motherwell who, during 1936 to 1937, became one of the world’s most famous voices. As a life-long anarchist, she never made any pretence of impartiality, but reported from Spain on the civil war that was tearing the country apart - always expressing her deep commitment to the Spanish anarchist camp. The author is able to unravel the story of the girl who was known as ‘the Scots Scarlet Pimpernel’ and to explore the beliefs that inspired her to play her part in one of the 20th century’s most significant political struggles. It is also a story of unwavering conviction to the cause - which she maintained even when it meant betrayal by those she fought beside. 246 paperback pages, archive photos. £9.99 NOW £4


73129 A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH: A History


of the Women’s Institute by Jane Robinson


The Women’s Institute was founded in 1915, not by worthy ladies in tweeds, but by some of the feistiest women in the country, including suffragettes, academics and social crusaders. They discovered the heady power of ‘sisterhood’ and, in the process changed women’s lives


and their world. Over 200,000 women in the UK belong to the WI and its membership is growing. It crosses class and religion and includes all ages with passions that have ranged from the support of the 1920s Bastardy Bill to the current SOS for the Honey Bees Campaign. 294 pages. Archive photos. £20 NOW £4


73380 SMOKE IN THE LANES by Dominic Reeve


In the 1950s the Romani people lived on the brink of great change. In their bright wooden wagons they journeyed between horse-fairs and traditional stopping places - stoic, humorous and wild, often poverty-stricken but protective of their freedom - on the fringes of a society that was soon to close around them. The author describes his life among the Gypsies - the feuds and fairs, the joyful muddy squalor of an outdoor existence and evokes an unforgettable cast of fireside characters - bold children, fierce matriarchs and dandyish villains in snap-brimmed hats, and tells of sharp deals done and rings run round country policeman, of love affairs, dances and open-air feasting. 343pp in paperback reprint of the 1958 original. £5.99 NOW £4.50


73662 PEOPLEQUAKE: Mass Migration, Ageing Nations and the Coming Population Crash by Fred Pearce


China’s billions undermine all the West’s efforts to halt climate change, terrorists hide easily in refugee camps in the Middle East, AIDS is seeping from African townships and economic migrants are swamping Europe and her public services, but ironically it is their labour which keeps these same services going. These are the facts - aren’t they? No, says Pearce. The “population bomb” is being defused he opines, as half the world’s women are having two children or fewer, so within a generation we should expect the world’s population to start to fall - and get much older. Ground-breaking stuff. 324pp paperback. £12.99 NOW £5


71212 STATE SECRETS by Chris Pomery The National Archive reveals state secrets behind the scenes which show the Britain that is warmly familiar yet intriguingly bizarre. In the event of a Third World War, officials contemplated unleashing a strike force of homing pigeons armed with ampoules of anthrax against enemy targets, including the Kremlin. Did you hear about the prison camp at Ascot, rationing at the Olympics, the spies guide to London and the ‘Yes Minister’ diaries? Find 50 strange stories that expose our national eccentricities. 128pp. £7.99 NOW £1.25


72781 READER’S DIGEST AND THE ROYALS foreword by Jennie Bond


Published by the Reader’s Digest Association here is a Jubilee celebration of the British Royal family from the magazine’s archives. There are thoughtful portraits of Prince Charles as he approached his 21st birthday (‘A decent, ordinary sort of chap’) and of the Queen Mother at 75 (‘Full of mischief and warmth’). There is a super article called Dressed for Diplomacy by Norman Hartnell, 1957, Who Goes to the Queen’s Garden Party by Philip Blake 1985, Windsor’s Royal Pleasure Park by Peter Brown 1986 and Elizabeth II Forty Years On by Tim Heald 1992 among them. Reproduced in facsimile over two columns and with original colour artwork. 160pp. £9.99 NOW £3


www.bibliophilebooks.com 71391 GHOSTS OF EUROPE: Central Europe’s


Past and Uncertain Future by Anna Porter Some 20 years after the collapse of Communism in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, a refugee and award-winning writer, now living in Canada, returned to try to discover whether and how democracy had taken root in these former Iron Curtain countries. She found disturbing signs that old attitudes had returned, bringing into question Central Europe’s ability to reform its elites and effectively control public demonstrations of hatred, the rise of racial tensions, and the emergence of fascist parties. She met with revolutionary leaders such as Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik, as well as custodians of the new regimes, among them Radek Sikorski, Michael Kocab and Ferenc Gyuresany. 310 pages, map. $25.99 NOW £3.50


73510 SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE: Global


Infographics by Claire Cock-Starkey This is a visual encyclopedia that covers a range of over 70 topics from the whole of human life and society, including Billionaires, Homicide, Overseas Aid, Population, Online Dating, Women in Power, Happiness, Road Fatalities, Coca Cola, Unemployment, Obesity and Prisons. There are fascinating number-crunching stats: for instance, can you guess how many babies are born worldwide per second? (Four.) Alcohol causes a higher percentage of deaths per year than Aids or violence, but which country has the highest total consumption? Would you be surprised to know that the answer is Moldova? How do we rate for carbon dioxide emissions, percentages of women in parliament, average age at marriage and average hours of internet use? A beautifully produced encyclopedia. 192pp, colour. £14.99 NOW £6


73570 ON NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR: Orwell


and Our Future edited by Abbott Gleason et al Among the most widely read books in the world, George Orwell’s 1984 has for more than 50 years been regarded as a morality tale for the possible future of modern society, a future involving nothing less than extinction of humanity itself. Does it remain relevant today? The editors of this book assembled a distinguished group of philosophers, literary specialists, political commentators, historians and lawyers, and asked them to take a wide- ranging and an inhibited look at that question. Censorship, scientific surveillance, power worship, the autonomy of art, the meaning of democracy, relations between men and women and many other questions are brought to bear. 312pp in large softback. £21.95 NOW £6.50


73610 CONSPIRATOR: Lenin in Exile by Helen Rappaport


Conspirator is the compelling and meticulously researched story of Lenin’s 17 years of exile from Russia, working toward the event which transformed the face of Europe: the Russian Revolution of 1917. Constantly under observation by the secret police, Lenin and his closest allies took huge risks in smuggling back into Russia the samizdat literature which spread the revolutionary message. Lenin was always on the move between London, Paris, Geneva, Brussels and Munich, and the rural backwaters of Poland and Finland. Rappaport examines the toll that this life - his long- suffering wife Nadezhda, his mother-in-law and his mistress Inessa Armand. Here too are wonderful pieces of detail, such as his holiday to Capri with Maxim Gorky, his visits to the working men’s music halls of Montmartre and the London detective who kept Lenin and company under surveillance from inside a cupboard in a room above an Islington pub as the fledgling party congress fomented revolution. 373pp with many b/w photos. £20 NOW £6


71919 SUPER FREAKONOMICS: Illustrated


Edition by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Levitt and Dubner’s Freakonomics was one of the most eye-opening, humorous and downright enjoyable studies of global economics. Its unifying theme was that the old capitalist saying “people respond to incentives” is true. It went on to show how this applies equally to estate agents, bankers, crack dealers, prostitutes, a sumo wrestler and the grand high wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and marvellous stuff it was. We have here the bigger, better, more controversial, less politically correct, super- deluxe, super-illustrated second edition. How many more organs were donated by states without a helmet law for motorcyclists? Which diseases respond most economically to treatment and what effect does a doctors’ strike have on patient mortality? 282pp, 8½” × 10¼”. Slightly damaged pages hence price. £20 NOW £6


72038 COLD MEAT AND HOW TO DISGUISE IT by Hunter Davies


Sub-titled A History of Advice on How to Survive Hard Times: A Hundred Years of Belt Tightening. Everyone is being urged to economise, make do and mend and avoid waste, although probably we are not laughing as we do at the tips in this volume. You might want to turn some cold scraps of meat into a succulent new dish, or knit some odd bits of string together to make a jolly useful dishcloth. 160 pages illustrated with reproductions of contemporary books, newspapers, magazines, leaflets, posters, postcards. £9.99 NOW £2


72761 ELEVENTH DAY: The Ultimate Account of 9/11


by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan The 11th of September 2001 is a day that will be recalled for centuries. This book is the most detailed and painstaking account of 9/11 yet published. With access to thousands of recently released documents, new interviews with survivors and government officials and a decade of research and sober reflection it asks and answers the most intractable questions, such as: Why did the US military not intercept or bring down the hijacked airliners? How many of the “9/11 Truth” movement’s contentions are credible? How did US intelligence fail to pick up the build-up to the attack when - as it is now clear - there were plenty of warnings? Were the terrorists backed by powerful figures from other nations? Colour photos, 604pp. £20 NOW £6


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72958 100 HEADLINES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD by James Maloney


Penny Postage Pictures, The War Begun, Audible Speech by Telegraph, Edison Electric Light, Jesse James the Bandit Killed, The Whitechapel Horrors, The Woman’s Suffrage Bill Assented To, Oscar Wilde in Jail, The Conquest of the South Pole, Titanic Sunk, Ghandi Seized by British, Edward VIII Abdicates, First Atomic Bomb Dropped on Japan, Birth Control Pill Approved by Commission, King Elvis is Dead, Pope Shot, up until Steve Jobs Is Dead are some of the 100 headlines chosen. Stretching back over the last 170 years. 309 page paperback. £7.99 NOW £3


MUSIC AND DANCE


Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable. - Samuel Johnson


73099 LOVE ME TENDER: The Stories Behind the World’s Best-Loved Songs by Max Cryer


An English composer’s ditty about a blackbird singing in a tree was sold to an American minstrel show and 95 years later the song became one of Elvis Presley’s biggest hits and the title of this book. Here is the remarkable story of many other


songs, some of which came from musical theatre, some from folk songs and others hit the mark because a particular recording appeared at just the right time. With a cast of characters from Art Garfunkel, Robert Burns and Paul McCartney, Judy Garland and Cole Porter. 192 pages, photos. £9.99 NOW £3.50


73323 LAST OF THE TINSMITHS


by Sheila Douglas Sub-titled ‘The Life of Willie MacPhee’, here is a fascinating look into traditional traveller culture, song and piping in Scotland. Friends with the travelling people for over 40 years, Sheila Douglas presents a wide range of Willie’s songs and stories, personal recollections from friends and family, vital in preserving the ever-


vanishing culture of the Luchd Siubhail. If you keep your eyes and ears open in the Scottish countryside even today, you can still catch a glimpse of this ancient Aboriginal people known in the 18th century Highlands by this term. 195pp in paperback with a musical score and photos.


£7.99 NOW £3.50


71684 SUSAN BOYLE: Dreams Can Come True by Alice Montgomery


When the tubby Scottish 48 year old spinster Susan Magdalane Boyle stepped out onto the stage of Britain’s Got Talent on 11th April 2009 there were jeers and sniggers. She had the voice of an angel and her story was to become a modern day fairytale. In this, the first book to explore her amazing rags to riches story, we follow her from her humble beginnings in a small Scottish town to topping the charts and performing for millions worldwide. We fall silent again as we hear her voice, this time in words. Colour photos, 246pp. $21.95 NOW £2.75


72387 SIR ADRIAN BOULT CONDUCTS ELGAR: Five CDs by Regis Records


Adrian Boult was born in Chester in 1889 and became part of the music staff at Covent Garden in 1914 and in 1919 conducted the première of Holst’s The Planets at the


composer’s invitation. He was at the forefront of British musical life in the 1930s and 40s and with the BBC Philharmonic made a large number of important recordings in a variety of repertoires. He was at the helm for over 1500 broadcasts. The majority of the recordings on this box set date from the 1950s and the recording of Elgar’s First Symphony (1907-8) dates from the very start of his directorship of the LPO and was recorded for HMV in 1950. The set also includes many of Elgar’s important shorter orchestral works from the famous Pomp and Circumstance Marches to the charming Nursery Suite plus violin concerto (Campoli), cello concerto (Casals), Enigma Variations, Falstaff and Cockaigne. Elegantly packaged five CD box set. ONLY £11


72805 JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE, RINGO AND ME:


The Real Beatles Story by Tony Barrow Tony Barrow was The Beatles’ Press Officer between 1962 when they released ‘Love Me Do’ and 1968, when they set up their own management company, Apple Corps, in the wake of manager Brian Epstein’s death. Barrow coined The Beatles’ nickname of the Fab Four. He wrote the sleeve notes for a number of their album covers, set up their huge international press conferences, selected their media interviews and fixed up their photo shoots. He is one of a tiny handful of surviving eyewitnesses able to write a first-hand account of life within The Beatles’ close-knit entourage, and the only remaining professional writer from that circle. 256pp, photos, mostly in colour. £16.99 NOW £5


72850 THE BALLAD OF BOB DYLAN: A


Portrait by Daniel Mark Epstein The musician author combines the skills of an experienced historian with the flair of a novelist and quotes extensively from Bob Dylan’s songs and gives a


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