18 History


74419 THE TOMB IN ANCIENT EGYPT: Royal and Private Sepulchres from the Early


Dynastic Period to the Romans by Aidan Dodson and Salima Ikram This stunning volume traces burial practices in Egypt over three millennia. From the pyramids along the Nile and the royal burial ground in the Valley of the Kings to the tombs of queens such as Ramesses II’s consort Nefertari and the far larger number of private tombs of nobles like Rekhmire and Ramose, this volume is an unparalleled guide. We read of Harkhuf’s African explorations, when he returned with the gift of a dancing dwarf to his boy-king Pepy II, and learn about how the General Amenemheb saved his king’s life when the latter was charged by an enraged elephant. 368 pages 27cm x 21cm with 402 illustrations, 28 in colour, maps, plans, cutaways, diagrams and 3-D reconstructions. £29.95 NOW £8


74753 COMPACT TIMELINE HISTORY OF


ANCIENT EGYPT by Shereen Ratnagar Explores the lives of the pharaohs and other historical figures, but also looks in detail at scribes, priests and villagers. It explains the intricacies of the culture’s religious beliefs, examines ancient Egypt’s art, relics, temples, monuments and language, takes a close look at her view of the afterlife, and follows the rhythms of what was in fact an agricultural society. Here are fascinating details of the trading patterns and military expeditions that left Egypt’s mark on Africa, the Mediterranean, western Asia and even farther afield. 256 pages, colour. £12.99 NOW £4


74685 MOCTEZUMA AND THE AZTECS by Elisenda Vila Llonch


The Spanish caught their first sight of Moctezuma’s island city Tenochtitlan in 1519. With their horses, steel armoury, lust for gold and no respect for the Aztec (or, more precisely, Mexica) world order, within months of the conquistadores’ arrival this awesome metropolis was a ruin, its king was dead and a mighty empire had been destroyed. Moctezuma II (c.1466 -1520) was the last ruler of the Mexica, coming to power in 1502. With finest examples of the British Museum’s pre-Columbian art and archaeology collection we learn all about palaces, court, warfare, gods, sacrifice, patronage and public image. 96pp, 61 colour illus. £9.99 NOW £3.50


74755 TIMELINE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE


AGES: From 400 CE to 1500 CE by Meredith Macardle


From the Crusades to the glorious cathedrals and from the mighty castles to the humble lives of serfs, this book explores every aspect of medieval Europe. The Middle Ages bridged the years from the decline of classical Roman civilisation to the renewal of knowledge in the European Renaissance but, far from being a ‘Dark Age’, the medieval period was a time of creativity and invention. Organised around major subjects such as politics, dynasties, wars, religion, the arts and everyday life, and names like Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc and Richard the Lionheart. 140 pages 32cm x 25cm, colour with maps, timeline and list of major museums. £14.99 NOW £5.50


74995 ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANCIENT EGYPT


by Giorgio Agnese and Maurizio Re The first Neolithic agricultural communities settled on the upper Nile valley and its oases around 7,000-8,000 years ago. These cultures enjoyed a rapid organisational, social and technological development before the start of the dynastic epoch inaugurated by the first historical pharaoh, Menes. This culture was not actually extinguished until around AD 400, when the knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost and the pagan cults were banished. Here are the gods to the Cult of the Dead, the travellers and explorers to the necropolises, the Monastery of St Catherine to Giza’s Plateau, taking in Aswan and Luxor and much more en route. 256 pages, dazzling colour photos and paintings, uncluttered maps, plans and chronology. $39.95 NOW £6


75447 THE GREAT DIVIDE: Nature and


Human Nature in the Old World and the New by Peter Watson


There is a human gene grouping, M242, which is found in both the Chukchi people of east Siberia and all Native Americans from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, showing that 17,000 years ago humans had migrated from northeast Asia across the Bering land bridge to the Americas. In this utterly engrossing book Peter Watson compares the development of the Old and New Worlds between 15,000BC and AD1500. There are, he puts forward, three prime causes of the differences between the two worlds. Man has been domesticating mammals in the Old World for millennia, but this did not happen in the New, as either suitable mammals did not exist, or the skills never developed - either way, ploughing, driving, milking and riding did not happen. Finally, the New World was discovered to contain a great many hallucinogenic plants and other psychotropic substances which were incorporated into religious ceremonies and social occasions which unsurprisingly led to huge differences in social behaviour - compare and contrast a Sunday morning Church service and the sacrifice of 1,000 stoned young men and girls on a 17,000 feet high Andean peak in order to appease the weather god! These three combined to create two very different trajectories of civilisation. Combines archaeology, anthropology, geology, meteorology, cosmology and mythology. 610pp, b/w illus. $31.99 NOW £7


75023 TREASURES OF THE PYRAMIDS by Zahi Hawass and H. E. Suzanne Mubarak


Here for the first time in this beautiful edition are all the most important Old Kingdom pyramids and the great necropolises of Memphis brought together, examined and reinterpreted. Their descriptions are accompanied by maps, plans and reconstructions taking us along the banks of the Nile during the 4th and 3rd Millennia BC. The texts are written by the world’s leading Egyptologists. They reveal the secrets of the pyramids,


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the vicissitudes of the most famous dynasties and with specially commissioned photographs the most famous tombs in the world and the treasures they contained. With spectacular items of jewellery, wall paintings, statues, a gilded wooden chariot, stela, unsolved problems about the step pyramids, recent discoveries of the pyramids of the Middle Kingdom, how they were built, secret doors and ‘unfinished’ pyramids. 400 glossy pages, 36.2 x 26.6 x 3.4cm. $69.95 NOW £18


75031 TUTANKHAMUN


by T. G. H. James A spectacular volume


with amazing colour photography. Howard Carter’s wonderful discovery in the Valley of the Kings, an intact royal burial place of Tutankhamun, ranks among the greatest archaeological triumphs of all time. The boy King’s golden funerary mask is perhaps the most


celebrated single masterpiece, but the tomb, largely undisturbed when Carter cut through the priestly door- seals in 1922, was filled with a wealth of less well known objects mostly designed for the King’s enjoyment in the after life. Amulets and jewellery, figures of gods and servants, weapons and games, food, clothing and unguents, statues, furniture and model boats which are now stored in Cairo where only a portion are on display. 400 marvellous colour photos that form the basis of this remarkable volume. A flexible Horus collar, a mirror case in the form of Ankh, a gilded heart with heron, a blue glass figure of the King among the servant figures, plus figures of anthropomorphic deities, amulets, vessels and other objects of calcite. Gatefold pages, 318 pages, 26cm x 36cm.


$69.95 NOW £18 75235 SPARTACUS ROAD: A Journey


Through Ancient Italy by Peter Stothard The lot of the slave in the final century of the first Roman Republic was not a happy one. While insurrection was extremely rare, it eventually came to pass between 73 and 71BC. The leaders were slaves, but not just any slaves. They were gladiators, led by the Thracian Spartacus, who escaped from his training school in Capua. Some 70,000 flocked to his banner, and this rebel army outfought the greatest army of the ancient world until it was finally put down. The Spartacus Road is the route along which the rebels fought, stretching across 2,000 miles of Italian countryside and 2,000 years of world history. The story of subsequent travels along the route taken by Spartacus and his men are brilliantly intertwined here with Peter’s very personal story of survival. 353pp, illus. $26.95 NOW £4.50


75223 MAYA, AZTECS AND INCAS by Oldrich Ruzicka


On opening the ‘lid’ a pyramid appears before your eyes. Learn that the Ancient Maya’s idea of beauty were crossed eyes, and that the Maya calendar consists of three circles. There is a complete recipe for making Maya Hot Chocolate with one chilli pepper, architecture and art before we go on to study the fearless Aztecs, their gods and human sacrifices, warriors and calendar. We end with the mythical El Dorado located somewhere deep in the jungle of South America. Clothing, diet, daily life, the book is shaped like an Aztec pyramid revealing the mysteries of these great Mesoamerican civilisations and what caused their demise. Colour. Suit ages 7 to adult. £10 NOW £4


75441 BANK OF ENGLAND BEDSIDE BOOK: Volume I Adventurous Escapades and


Memories compiled by Paul Tempest, In a wobbly world, the Bank of England remains unshaken, riding the storms, the ‘lender of last resort’, bastion of probity and history. To the outsider, the Bank of England’s massive portals convey aloofness, if not virtual impenetrability. All the casual visitor sees, venturing within the Main Entrance Hall, is a Graeco- Roman façade with lofty marble and basalt pillars. It is a repository of all human life. How many readers know that, a century or so ago, Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows, was Secretary of the Bank for 10 years? Who can guess which of his colleagues inspired the infuriating Mr Toad? And are borrowers aware of the dangers involved in working for the Old Lady of Theadneedle Street? 241 unexpected pages. Drawings and cartoons. £16.95 NOW £5.50


75660 ARENA OF AMBITION: A History of


the Cambridge Union by Stephen Parkinson Founded in 1815, the Cambridge Union immediately became the subject of controversy when an attempt was made to shut it down on the grounds that it was interfering with students’ studies. The real fear was that revolutionary ideas were being disseminated. A century later John Maynard Keynes honed his economic theories in the debating chamber and became President, while in 1920 Lord Mountbatten, supported by Churchill, opposed the motion that the time was now ripe for a Labour government. During the sixties there was also a wealth of dramatic talent in the Footlights theatre club: David Frost, Peter Cook, several Monty Pythons, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen, to name a few. With recollections of activists including Michael Howard, Lord Lamont, Arianna Huffington and Peter Bazalgette. 418pp. £25 NOW £3.50


75661 AUTUMN IN THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM by Stephen R. Platt


The global significance of the mid-19th century Taiping Rebellion in China is often overlooked by historians. It influenced the course of the Crimean War and also the American War of Independence. With its origins in a religious uprising, the Taiping rebellion was led by the westernising Hong Rengan who converted to Christianity and espoused the people’s cause in a challenge to the highly conservative Manchu rulers. Equally charismatic was the man charged with raising an army to oppose him, the Confucian Zeng Guofan, an ascetic whom the pressures of power repeatedly threatened to overwhelm. When Hong Rengan was


finally captured in the mountains following the taking of Nanking in 1864, Britain had already dissolved the East India Company and instituted direct rule in India, alarmed by the events in the east. The author argues that had things gone the other way, China would have become westernised. 470pp, photos. $30 NOW £5.50


75668 HISTORY OF PEDLARS IN EUROPE by Laurence Fontaine


What was a pedlar? Shakespeare’s Autolycus is a complete rogue, but in medieval France a pedlar was initially a tradesman who would travel round selling pictures and books. The ritual exchanges surrounding the act of selling were also cultural encounters, bringing new products such as tobacco or books and disseminating new fashions. Mobility did not necessarily mean rootlessness and the author demonstrates a complex pattern of community membership. Some interesting conclusions emerge, for instance the greater readiness of the merchant classes to embrace new products compared with the conservative gentry, evidenced by their ownership of porcelain, crockery, paintings and spectacles. 280pp, paperback. £18.99 NOW £4.50


75994 BRIEF GUIDE TO CLASSICAL CIVILIZATION by Stephen Kershaw


The interesting double page maps at the beginning cover the Roman world in the late 2nd century CE and the world of the Greeks including the Persian Empire. From Grecian urns to Julius Caesar, Roman orgies, the Olympic Games, the Elgin Marbles to literature, Classical civilisation has left an


enormous footprint on our cultural lives. Greece has given us democracy, philosophy, tragedy, comedy, oligarchs, oratory and ostracism. The Roman legacy includes unsurpassed engineering skills, the foundations of our legal system, it was the Pax Romana which allowed Roman civilisation to spread across Western Europe and to shape medieval, Renaissance and modern culture. Here are the real stories behind the myths and the personal lives of the Caesars, introducing key ideas, figures and places. 402pp, paperback. $13.95 NOW £4.50


75977 THE ELIZABETHANS by A. N. Wilson The Elizabethan Age was the age when the history of modern England and Wales really began. Shakespeare himself was a product of the new grammar school education. Add to this the music of John Dowland, William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, and glory is added to glory. Think of the architecture! Apart from the splendour of the great houses like Kirby Hall, Longleat, Hardwick, there were innumerable manor houses of incomparable beauty, and many survived plus Elizabethan tombs in small country churches, gatehouses, lodges, schools, guildhalls, and corn exchanges, towers, staircases, colleges, often quirky, but never ugly. But England under Elizabeth I was a time of war and plague, politics and rebellion. It was also and age of global exploration. A panoramic depiction of the exhilarating 16th century period. 432pp in paperback, colour and b/w photos. £9.99 NOW £4.75


HOBBIES


I would not exchange my leisure hours for all the wealth in the world.


- Comte de Mirabeau


76272 GO PACK by Matthew Macfadyen Go was invented in the Far East many thousands of years ago and has long been popular in Japan and China, but now it is a truly global game. Confucius spoke of the game and legend has it that Samurai warriors played it in


preparation for battle, while Shinto monks learned it as part of their training. It is easy to learn - two players take it in turn to place their ‘stones’ on the board, one player playing white and the other black. The object of the game is to claim more territory on the board than your opponent by surrounding it more efficiently or by attacking your opponent’s stones to greater effect. In the pack you will find everything you need to get started including a fully illustrated step-by-step guide, a full size playing board and 180 black and 180 white Go stones. In smart presentation box and written by one of Europe’s leading Go professionals. £16.99 NOW £6


76278 WRINKLIES’ GUIDE TO DRAWING: New Portraits for Old Hands


by Richard Pomfret It is never too late to learn. If you can hold a pencil, then you can draw. And now, when you not only have a true appreciation of the good things in life, but also have a bit of time on your hands, is a really good time to start doing something creative. The good news is that


there are no rules. It is all about you and your own self- expression. However, you may need a few tips and guidelines to help you to get started, and this book is the perfect introduction to a delightful hobby. It will steer you through the essential info that will make this pastime all the more rewarding. Inside it you will find details of the basic materials such as pencils, charcoal, paper and sketchbooks. You will learn about the basic skills of composition, how to shade, draw perspective and render textures and movement. Later, you will learn to achieve landscapes, animals, people and cartoons. One of the big bonuses is that you can draw


on visual memories which are all there waiting to be recaptured. So, why not revisit the halcyon days of your youth and dredge up some characters and experiences of your past. Or, if your memory is too patchy, why not draw from old photos, or make portraits of your present friends and relatives. Soon you will be making personalised cards and gifts. 192 pages with line drawings and glossary. £9.99 NOW £4


76300 BRITISH CASTLES: Colouring Book by A. G. Smith


Richmond and Conisborough castles in Yorkshire, Kenilworth and Warwick, Ludlow, Bodiam, the Tower of London, Leeds Castle and Hever in Kent, St. Mawes and Tintagel in Cornwall, Raglan and Pembroke in Wales are among the 30 fine illustrations by artist A. G.


Smith of castles of England, Scotland and Wales. Included are magnificently detailed illustrations of Conwy Castle in Wales with its towers and battlements, Scotland’s majestic Edinburgh Castle and other historic sites, all in their settings, some on hillsides with greenery, sheep, cows and people, all to colour-in in your own time. There are colour examples on the inside covers of this outsize Dover softback, 32pp, 8" x 11". Bears 2003 original cover price! £3.95 NOW £2.75


76327 WIZARDS & DRAGONS: Stained Glass


Colouring Book by Eric Gottesman A wondrous colouring book of startling stained glass-like illustrations inviting fantasy enthusiasts, dragon hunters and wizards of all ages to boldly bring to life 16 images. They depict bearded sorcerers wearing long


robes and pointy hats, reading mysterious books about magical feats, astride fearsome beasts accompanied by wide-eyed owls or fighting off dragons, a castle in the background, the wizard clutching a crystal ball and staff with his young conjuror or pet dragon. Here are 13 enchanting scenes rendered with bold outlines and details to colour. You can use crayon, felt tip pen, acrylic, watercolour, tempera or oil paint or mix the methods for a more interesting effect. If you colour only one side, face the coloured side outdoors to produce a crisper black outline. A4 sized large softback. £7.99 NOW £3


75538 TRADITIONAL


DOODLES TRANSPORT by W. F. Graham


A VW camper van, a Beetle, hot air balloons, sailing ship, pick-up truck, train, sail boat, tractor, vintage car, airplanes, are among


the 24 black and white outline designs on each right hand page of this very large softback, ready for colouring. Use watercolours, crayons, pencils, felt tip pens to create your own masterworks. With the outline and perspective all ready in this ingenious series. 24 ready-to-colour artworks. Softback, 8" x 11½”. ONLY £1.75


75890 CHESS ENDINGS MADE SIMPLE by Ian Snape


Sub-titled ‘How to Approach the Endgame with Confidence’, most chess players are all too painfully aware of how many half-points and even full-points we squander due to poor endgame play. Based on learning patterns, concepts and plans rather than memorising or calculating, the first half of the book discovers the areas of endgame theory that are most relevant to practical success. The second half features 100 exercises to solve together with full solutions taken from real games. 144pp in illus paperback. £12.99 NOW £5


76049 HEADWATERS: Walking to British River


Sources by Phil Clayton Few walking projects can encompass such variety of landscape as Clayton’s journey to the headwaters of 50 British rivers, lovingly described and photographed for this book. River sources are notoriously a matter for


bitter dispute, and no fewer than five possible sources for the Mersey have been identified. Clayton visits them all, including the confluence of the Tame and the Goyt in the middle of Stockport. High on the nearby Pennines are the sources of the Tame, close to the sources of the Calder which runs in the opposite direction and ends up in the North Sea. The River Goyt flows under the superb architecture of the Marple Aqueduct, and another major feat of engineering featured here is the Ribblehead Viaduct, under the looming shadow of the Three Peaks, Ingleborough, Penyghent and Whernside. Scotland includes several Munros and Wales has not only Snowdonia but the Wye with its source on Pumlumon. Shropshire has the legendary quietness of the Clun Valley, and in the west country Clayton visits the source of the Tamar, painted by Turner. 224pp, maps, colour photos. £18.99 NOW £6


76078 DIGITAL FILM MAKING HANDBOOK by Mark Brindle


It is now possible to shoot a beautiful looking film completely on DSLR with minimal or no crew. The book will show you how - and how easy it is to progress from a little smartphone video to a well-shot short or even feature film. Includes composition, sound, lighting, storyboarding, scriptwriting, casting and the shoot, importing footage, editing, sound mixing and making a DVD, plus how to get it out there with social media, promotion and distribution and film festivals. Plus all the best equipment for your budget. Action! Softback, 224pp, colour photos. £9.99 NOW £4.75


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