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73270 1493: How Europe’s Discovery of the Americas Revolutionised Trade, Ecology and


Life on Earth by Charles C. Mann Describes in detail how the world was changed forever by the movement of foods, metals, plants, people and diseases between the New World and both Europe and China. The ‘Columbian Exchange’ fostered the rise of Europe, devastated imperial China, convulsed Africa and, for two centuries, centred attention on Manila and Mexico City. It also led to the world’s first globalized economy, driven by the trade of silver, silk, porcelain, spices and slaves. Europeans carried tomatoes around the world and the plant had a cultural impact everywhere it moved. The Columbian Exchange took corn to Africa and sweet potatoes to East Asia, horses and apples to the Americas, rhubarb and eucalyptus to Europe and a host of organisms like insects, grasses, bacteria and viruses all over the globe. The examples are legion. 536 pages illus and many maps. £25 NOW £7


73404 FIFTY THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW


ABOUT WORLD HISTORY by Hugh Williams Williams has selected 50 key people, places, battles, objects and events, from which he distils world history into an entertaining and perceptive overview. The Treaty of Versailles is to be found under wealth. Darwin’s On the Origin of Species had a more profound effect upon religion than it did as a scientific discovery, unlike the 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA and Newton’s Principia of 1687. A further 46 history-making entries include the Black Death, Model T Ford and the Credit Crunch in wealth, the American, French and Russian Revolutions in freedom, the deaths of Jesus and Mohammed in religion, the Sack of Rome and the Indian Mutiny in conquest and Archimedes, Leonardo, Baird and Apollo XI in discovery. 414pp, colour plates. £20 NOW £6


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 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. 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. Above all, the Tudor period as described consummately by Ackroyd is the story of the English Reformation. Colour plates. 507pp. £20 NOW £8.50


73556 A HISTORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid by John Romer


This informative volume draws on a lifetime of research to tell how, over more than 1,000 years, a culture of semi-itinerant farmers created a weird world that had its first culmination in the Great Pyramid. The author focuses instead on what the long-buried and highly idiosyncratic objects unearthed by archaeologists have to tell us in their own right. The result, as this long- vanished civilisation gradually seems to re-appear from under the sand, is an engrossing detective story. How have we come to know as much as we do about the astounding achievements of the civilisation of the Nile? Where and why does the record remain silent? Whether he is writing about the smallest necklace bead or the most grandly elaborate royal tomb, the author conveys a remarkable sense of a people so like ourselves. 476 pages illustrated in b/w plus many colour plates, chronology and maps, £25 NOW £15


73750 AGE OF CHIVALRY: Culture and Power in Medieval Europe 950-1450


by Hywel Williams A distinguished historian sheds revelatory light on every aspect of an endlessly fascinating period of European history. The 500 years that separated the mid-10th


century from the mid-15th century constituted a critical and formative period in the history of Europe. This was the age of the system of legal and military obligation known as ‘feudalism’ and of the birth and consolidation of powerful kingdoms in England, France and Spain. It was an era of urbanisation and the expansion of trade, of the building of the great Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, of courtly romance and the art of the troubadour, and of the founding of celebrated seats of learning in Paris, Oxford and Bologna. But it was also a time characterised by brutal military adventure - viz the launching of armed pilgrimages to liberate


Jerusalem from Muslim control, the savage dynastic conflict of the


Hundred Years’ War and the devastating pandemic of the Black Death. 224 pages 28cm x 22.5cm lavishly illustrated in gorgeous colour, maps and timelines. £20 NOW £7.50


73542 THE BLACK DEATH by John Hatcher Subtitled ‘The Intimate Story of A Village in Crisis, 1345-1350’, this book was voted BBC Radio Four’s Book of the Week. In the Suffolk village of Walsham in 1348, rumours, fear and recrimination abounded as the Black Death swept closer. The middle of the 14th century was a terrifying time for the people of the village. The pressure on Master John, the parish priest was overwhelming as he struggled to minister to the dying and comfort parishioners left bewildered and bereft by the devastation. When the pestilence departed, scarcely half the villagers were left alive. John Hatcher vividly recreates the lives of ordinary people living through these momentous events. His characters are developed from the villagers named in surviving records. 356pp in paperback with 16 pages of medieval illus and maps. £9.99 NOW £7


73749 KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND by Ian Crofton


This reliable and entertaining popular history is beautifully designed and illustrated, covering major historical events together with a spicing of gossip for each reign from Alfred the Great to Elizabeth II, and also including dynastic doubtfuls such as Oliver Cromwell and Edward VIII. It brings welcome clarity to such grey areas as the two Matildas in 12th century King Stephen’s life, one his loyal wife and the other his sworn enemy and rival claimant to the throne. The many mistresses of playboy kings such as Charles II and Edward VII make an appearance alongside the long-suffering consorts, with mention being made of Nell Gwyn’s famous protest to the anti-Catholic mob (“Good people, let me pass. I am the Protestant whore”). Religious questions are clearly dealt with, from the complexities of the Reformation to the Catholic emancipation. Many kings and queens had strong views on politics and Queen Victoria’s violent objections to women’s suffrage are entertainingly quoted. Each reign includes a timeline, a highlighted biography, a contemporary portrait where possible and special features on events of major significance. 256pp, colour, genealogies.


£14.99 NOW £7.50


71877 STONEHENGE: Biography of a Landscape


by Timothy Darvill


In this comprehensive history Professor Darvill focuses on the history of Stonehenge as a feature in the landscape of Salisbury Plain for over 4000 years. Sections on the Ice Age, mound-builders, sacred circles and magical rings take us up to 2000 B.C. and the conclusion that there is very little if any intentional solar or lunar orientation in the early phases of Stonehenge. With the creation of the Double Bluestone Circle and the Avenue, however, there is a clear interest in the summer and winter solstices. 319pp, softback, photos. £19.99 NOW £4


73752 CHRONICLES OF THE ANCIENT


WORLD: 3500 BC-AD476 by John Haywood


Here is a graphically written, indispensable, clear, chronological account of the events and ideas, great men and empires, that set the foundations of our own civilisation. Interweaving Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman history, this compelling volume follows these burgeoning empires over 4,000 years, examining the delicate balance of power as they vied for territory, conquest and glory. From Alexander the Great’s 22,000 mile march on Persia, to Attila the Hun’s plunder of the Roman empire, the author brings the most crucial battles and decisive campaigns to life, and examines the extraordinary cultural achievements of these civilisations. Here, in a fascinating account of how symbols were inscribed on wet clay tablets, are the first written words, the oldest royal inscription yet known, and the hieroglyphic script used by the Minoans. Here too are the spectacular works of architecture like the Sphinxes, the growth of democracy in Greece and the spread of diverse religions that changed our world forever. 336 pages 28cm x 24cm. Colour, timeline. £25 NOW £10


72146 HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES SINCE 1900 by Andrew Roberts


Inspired by Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples which ends in 1900, Andrew Roberts here specifically concentrates on the last 100 years or so. In that time there have been four major assaults upon the dominance of the Anglophone world - the Kaiser’s Germany, Axis aggression and Fascism, Soviet Communism and, more recently and ongoing, Islamic terrorism. Today it is the US which carries the flame and has the power in the movement we began some 400 years ago. Told with true Churchillian eloquence. 736pp paperback, colour photos. £20 NOW £4


72364 THE TIME TRAVELLER’S GUIDE TO MEDIEVAL ENGLAND A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer


Using 14th century daily chronicles, letters, household accounts, literature and court records we are taken back in time to learn exactly what life was like. How you greet people, how you use the toilet, visiting the doctor, the law and dispensing of justice, the risky business of childbirth, games and pastimes and much, much more are all described in every (usually gory and unpleasant) detail. Colour plates, 342pp paperback. $15 NOW £6


72120 GLADIATORS by Ben Hubbard


From Spartacus to Spitfires, Billy the Kid in the Wild West and Muhammed Ali in the boxing ring, our book traces the evolution of one to one combat through the ages. Around 180 CE in the lavish amphitheatres of the Roman Empire, trained gladiators entertained vast audiences by fighting to the death. London Prize Ring and Queensbury, chivalry, the Fight Club, Samurai and even Errol Flynn get a look in. Photos. £8.99 NOW £2


THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918 Centenary of the commencement of hostilities.


73782 IN MEMORIAM:


Remembering the Great War by Robin Cross


Produced to accompany a major exhibition at the Imperial war Museum and with a Foreword by Ian Hislop, this book of the Great War is outstandingly well researched and illustrated, using diaries and records from serving soldiers many of whom were


decorated for bravery. At the start of it all, an archive photo shows the soon-to-be-assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand stepping into his limousine on the fatal day. A grainy and moving snap shows the fraternisation on that first Christmas Day when soldiers crossed No-man’s Land to discover that the enemy were ordinary lads like themselves. There are numerous photos of trenches, including a party getting scaling ladders in place at Arras, an Anzac officer wading through glutinous mud, and a smugly smiling young man enjoying the warmth of a goatskin coat. Medical services, tunnelling, shell shock, early attempts at camouflage are all pictured, and there are sections on women at war, the war at sea and the war in the air including the development of bombing strategies. The controversial Lawrence of Arabia has a section to himself, and the account of Gallipoli, which includes an extraordinary photo of Turkish pipers at the head of a column, admits that the Turkish forces won grudging respect from the British troops. A silhouetted file of men on top of a bank at Passchendaele sums it all up. 272pp, hundreds of archive photos. £20 NOW £9


74119 BECAUSE YOU DIED by Vera Brittain


‘Because you died, I shall not rest again.’ Vera Brittain was one of the best-loved writers of her time with the publication in 1933 of her passionate record of a lost generation ‘Testament of Youth’. This collection of her poetry and prose, some of it never before published, commemorates the men she loved - her fiancé, her brother and two close friends - who served


and died in the First World War. It draws on her experiences as a VAD nurse in London, Malta and France, and illustrates her growing conviction of the wickedness of all war. Photos, 234pp, paperback. £8.99 NOW £4


74343 ONE BOY’S WAR by Lynn Huggins-Cooper


and Ian Benfold Haywood It is 1914, and 16 year old Sydney is bursting to get a crack at the Kaiser. Fired up by the military recruitment campaigns and the brave men going off to fight in the Great War, Sydney runs away to enlist. He soon finds himself in a Front Line trench where reality, and


the rats, begin to bite. Told through his optimistic letters home and his own journal, Sydney was a real young man born in County Durham but who died in a muddy field in Belgium. Here is the disillusionment, degradation, scaremongering, bully-beef for tea with raw onions, the thunderstorm of Bosch bullets overhead, spies, illness, marching, all told in letters to his dear Ma. Graphic colour artwork in this moving Frances Lincoln large format volume for all collectors of fine children’s book illustration. £11.99 NOW £5


74205 SILENT NIGHT: The Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914


by Stanley Weintraub The Christmas football match between England and German soldiers on the frontline in 1914 is the stuff of legend. The desire for peace and reconciliation spread along the Western Front and for a few short days, men on both sides laid down their guns and emerged


from the trenches, coming together to share food, gifts, games, tobacco, a small Christmas tree and carols with one soldier pictured reading an enemy newspaper in no man’s land. They understood that they shared a common heritage and many Christmas traditions. Read about this extraordinary outbreak of peace and how it ended, calmly and with handshakes. With woodcuts and illus including some by Bruce Barnsfather and Paul Nash. 238pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £3.50


71454 FAMILY AT WAR: The Foljambe Family and the Great War by Jolyon Jackson


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Francis Foljambe, whose personal correspondence forms the main thread of this story, was with the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium during the early days of the war. His artillery battery had the unique distinction of firing the first 18-pounder rounds of the First World


74061 TERRACOTTA ARMY by John Mann Subtitled ‘China’s First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation’ the book weaves together history and first-hand experience from the author’s travels in China telling the story of how and why these astonishing artefacts were created. The Terracotta Army was a total surprise - some 8,000 life-size clay warriors and horses buried in 210BC as a ‘Spirit Army’ to guard the tomb of the First Emperor. He was the brilliant and ruthless ruler who


History 3


War. They endured the horrors of Mons - where Francis’ battery commander was shot through the throat and died - Le Cateau, the Aisne and Ypres. Francis was commanding a battery as an acting major, had been mentioned in dispatches and won a Military Cross when he was posted home to work in the Ministry of Munitions. 264 pages 21.5cm by 28 cm, archive photos. £25 NOW £4.50


23101 FIRST WORLD WAR POETRY


edited by Marcus Clapham The First World War was one of seemingly endless and unremitting waste and sacrifice. ‘Who will remember passing through this Gate, The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?’ was Siegfreid Sassoon’s anguished cry for those whose sacrifice seemed futile. Yet 80 years later it is because of Sassoon and his fellow


poets - Owen, Rosenberg, Sorley and many others - that we do remember. This anthology will serve as an introduction to the poetry of that great conflict, and the inclusion of a number of rarely anthologised poets, many from the ranks, as well as anonymous poems and songs. Paperback, 140pp. ONLY £4


70255 BRINGING UNCLE ALBERT HOME: A Soldier’s


Tale by David P. Whithorn This is the story of one man’s search for his distant relative, describing Private Turley’s active service with the 3rd Battalion at the Worcestershire Regiment. Whithorn’s painstaking reconstruction of Albert’s story from surviving records and histories led to a pilgrimage following his footsteps to the


Somme hillside where he fell in August 1916. What sets this book apart is its dual function as a tightly focussed history of the 3rd Worcestershires and a detective story. 234pp in paperback, photos and maps.


£8.99 NOW £3 72456 GUNTHER PLUSCHOW: Airman,


Escaper, Explorer by Anton Rippon Gunther Plüschow holds a unique place in military history, in that during WWI he was the only German POW ever to escape from the British mainland and make it all the way back to Germany in 1915. He was also a fearless aviator who single-handedly flew against British and Japanese forces on Germany’s besieged Far East colony of Tsingtao at the start of the war. Miraculously surviving the war, afterwards he became the first man to see Tierra del Fuego from the air, but tragically met an untimely death when his parachute failed to open in 1931. Here is the mandarin who escorted the captured airman to Shanghai, the safe house where he pretended to be mad in order to fool his neighbour, his journey across America where he was celebrated as a hero, recapture at Gibraltar, escape from Donington Hall POW camp in Leicestershire and stowing away on a Holland-bound ferry at Tilbury docks, as well as his post-war escapades in South America. 26 b/w photos, 194pp. £19.99 NOW £7.50


72459 THE MAN WHO RAN LONDON


DURING THE GREAT WAR by Richard Morris


Subtitled ‘The Diaries and Letters of General Sir Francis Lloyd GCVO, KCB, DSO 1853-1926’. General Sir Francis Lloyd was arguably the best known military figure in the capital during The Great War. In 1913 he was appointed to the supreme position reserved for Guardsmen, the command of London District. On the outbreak of war, his duties were greatly increased and, for the next five years, he exercised sweeping powers in the metropolis. These covered the running of hospitals and main railway termini. He also masterminded the construction of the defensive circle of trenches around London. He had served in the Sudan and in South Africa during the Boer War, where he was severely wounded, and had commanded the Welsh Division of the newly formed Territorials. 196 pages, archive photos, maps. £19.99 NOW £5


72491 YPRES DIARY 1914-1915 edited by Gavin Roynon


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The book has a foreword by Sir Martin Gilbert and was written by a serving officer from the 13th/18th Royal Hussars during the Cold War. Sir Morgan Crofton fought in the Boer War and joined the 2nd Life Guards at the age of 23. His diary charts his experiences on the front line at Ypres from late October 1914 to the centenary of Waterloo in June 1915. He describes the bewildering pace of technological change as new weapons such as gas and hand grenades entered the fray. He offers a glimpse into the mindset of the regular officer class and his outspoken scepticism informs our understanding of a lost generation of professional soldiers. He was twice mentioned in dispatches and awarded both the Belgian Order of Leopold and the Croix de Guerre. 287pp, 30 pages of photos and maps. £12.99 NOW £4


united China and built the first Great Wall, was beset by paranoia and a desire to dominate in the afterlife, as he had in this one. Around his giant tomb-mound, as yet unopened, other pits concealed a whole spirit world of officials, entertainers, armour and bronze chariots. 1,000 of the warriors now stand with many other finds in a site that attracts some two million visitors a year. More warriors are yet to be discovered. 380pp in paperback, colour photos and diagrams. £9.99 NOW £4


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