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Since 1066, there have been more than forty kings and queens of Britain (give or take a Cromwell, Scotland not included). They are a dazzling cast of characters, and we routinely debate over who deserves the title of greatest ruler in our long history. From William the Conqueror to Henry V, Elizabeth I, Victoria and latterly Elizabeth II – their lives tell the story of our nation.But how exactly do you measure a monarch?Measuring Monarchy provides a completely original outlook as to how to analyse British kings and queens and throws a revisionist Molotov cocktail into our historical thinking. It puts forward and explains the case for five comparative metrics for all UK monarchs: their professional standing, their popular standing with the public, their impact on public finances, how they conducted foreign policy and their preparations for succession.Tim Hames casts a forensic eye over fifteen key kings and queens, determining whether their status has been overrated or underrated. What is revealed may surprise you, and some overlooked monarchs are returned to their rightful standing.

By the summer of 1940, as France fell and war raged across Europe, the invasion of Britain – once unthinkable – seemed all but inevitable. It would take fresh thinking and bold moves to turn the tide of the war: a challenge that Churchill and his Cabinet would be set to conquer in no small part due to their formation of a ‘fifth column’. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was soon born, its purpose to hamstring the enemy from the shadows. Agents drawn from diverse professions and countries were trained in subversion and espionage before being dropped behind enemy lines to mobilise resistance and disrupt the occupying forces. From local operations in France and wider Europe, SOE’s missions would spread worldwide to pave the way for D-Day and help halt the Axis war machine in its tracks. SOE in 100 Objects picks up the clues they left behind – a button compass in Greece, a silk map in Burma – and follows their trail across land and sea, from moonlight flights to high-risk missions and, ultimately, hard-won liberation.

The steam locomotive is a machine that has inspired imagination, innovation and invention from the time of its origination and continues to evoke passion in enthusiasts today. Here Michael R. Bailey, expertly and in fascinating detail, describes the development of the steam locomotive during its pioneering first half-century until 1850 by exploring the surviving locomotives that may be seen in Britain, Europe, and North and South America. In addition to surviving relics, he also takes a look at operable replicas, which fill many gaps in international collections, to provide continuity in this evolutionary story.Exploring in depth each example’s operational and preservation history, along with design characteristics, component materials and modifications made, no detail is left unmentioned. With unparalleled detail, incredibly stunning images and a list of museums housing all of the world’s oldest locomotives, this truly is a volume that no student of railway history should be without.

‘Delightfully offbeat and always engaging, this collection of folk tales offers new perspectives on both familiar and forgotten stories. Perfect for folklore fans and anyone who wants to add a bit of magic to their day.’ - Heather Fawcett, Sunday Times best-selling author of Emily Wilde''s Encyclopaedia of FaeriesDo you know the legends of the giants who ruled England before the first human kings? What about the demon dog Black Shuck who terrorized sixteenth-century Norfolk? Or the many times the Devil has tried to get his way before being outwitted by everyday people?England’s historic counties are overflowing with folklore, and this collection of 39 stories from the hit podcast Three Ravens reimagines dozens of classic tales in surprising, spooky, and often hilarious ways. Filled with tales of ghosts, mermaids, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends and more, The Three Ravens Folk Tales spans centuries, styles, tones and narrators, making it perfect for bedtimes, reading by torchlight, or curling up on the sofa to enjoy with a mug of something hot.

The Highlands of Scotland are rich in traditional stories. Even today, in the modern world of the internet and supermarkets, old legends dating as far back as the times of the Gaels, Picts and Vikings are still told at night around the fireside.They are tales of the daoine sith – the fairy people – and their homes in the green hills; of great and gory battles; of encounters with the last wolves in Britain; of solitary ghosts; and of supernatural creatures like the selkie, the mermaid, and the Fuath, Scotland’s own Bigfoot.In a vivid journey through the Highland landscape, from the towns and villages to the remotest places, by mountains, cliffs, peatland and glen, storyteller and folklorist Bob Pegg takes the reader along old and new roads to places where legend and landscape are inseparably linked.

‘Heartbreaking … Fascinating … Unbearably poignant.’ - Daily Mail''Dramatic … Sensational ... Closely researched and compulsively readable.’ - The Lady‘Meticulously researched, erudite and utterly engaging … Magnificent.’ - Karen Powell, author of Fifteen Wild DecembersNovelist, sister, celebrity, wife, daughter: Charlotte Brontë played many roles. As the beloved author of Jane Eyre, she is one of the most radical talents of the nineteenth century. And one of the most mysterious.Based entirely on rarely seen private letters, this radical and moving biography sheds new light on the dramatic events of Brontë’s turbulent last years of grief, fulfilment and tragedy – and exposes the astonishing media scandal that followed her early death, when her friends and family battled to control how history would remember her.

Cornwall''s storytelling tradition stretches back a thousand years. Before TV and radio, stories were told among the flickering shadows at the fireside. They whiled away the travellers’ miles, long hours in the fields, and days at sea. They gladdened brief moments of relaxation for miners and bal-maidens. Travelling storytellers wandered from village to village swapping words for supper, and a rich local dialect brought the tales to life. Classic Cornish tales such as the Mermaid of Zennor and Jan Tregeagle are wonderfully entertaining, and collectively tell us much about Cornwall, its people, and its history.Join accomplished storyteller, scholar and writer Mike O''Connor as he explores the ‘when, where, and why’ of Cornish folk tales and celebrates the rich traditions and cultural legacy of hwedhlow.

Our story begins in 1920s London, at a time when women’s rights were surging after the long battle for suffrage and nightclubs emerged as spaces where single women could socialise unchaperoned. This was the age of the dance craze and the gender-bending ‘Flapper’, who inspired the creation of the Gargoyle club, a nocturnal hunting ground for Femmes Fatales.Meanwhile, London’s Bohemia was ruled by the ‘Queen of Clubs’, Kate Meyrick; the taboo-breaking ‘Tiger Woman’, Betty May; the original ‘Chelsea Girl’, Viva King; the artist, Nina Hamnett; the ‘Euston Road Venus’, Sonia Orwell; and Isabel Rawsthorne, artist, spy, pornographer, model and muse … to name but a few.Using previously unpublished memoirs and interviews, Queens of Bohemia creates a soundscape of voices that gives the reader a taste of their world, so exotic and yet often wracked with despair. It offers a unique insight into a generation of women for whom ideals of duty and self-sacrifice had been debunked by the horrors of war and whose morality resided in being true to one’s self, as they took their struggle for freedom into the wider world and learned to value their individuality along the way.

‘This book confirms the splendid eccentricity of the British, which often involves oddly dressed men opting to walk long distances for no apparent reason.’ – BBC Countryfile Magazine‘Laws’ sprightly, often arch, account of Britain’s hiking heroes is a pleasure to read.’ – Walk Magazine''The great affair is to move: to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot,'' wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. This book celebrates the history of walking for leisure and pleasure.There’s no shortage of the famous, and the not-so-famous, exponents of a good, long walk: Dr Jonson and his faithful Boswell on their Hebridean jaunt; John Taylor, whose Penniless Pilgrimage – a record of his 1618 journey from London to Edinburgh – provided the first account of a walking tour; and Samuel Coleridge who conceived his epic tale of the Ancient Mariner on a ramble through Devon. Celebrating the history of walking for leisure and pleasure, Bill Laws tells the stories behind key walking inventions such as the rucksack, bloomers, youth hostels and the long-distance route.Fully illustrated throughout, A Ramble Through the History of Walking is sure to delight anyone interested in the engaging history of one of man’s favourite pastimes.

August 1942, British forces launched Operation Pedestal in an attempt to deliver supplies to the stricken island of Malta, an Allied base that had been under Axis blockade for months. From 9 to 15 August, a convoy of some fifty ships ran the gauntlet of Axis bombers, submarines, E-boats and minefields. Of the original fourteen merchant vessels, only five reached Malta Grand Harbour.In ‘I Wish I Had Your Wings’, Angus Mansfield relates the experiences of two men involved in Pedestal, Captain David Macfarlane of MV Melbourne Star and his nephew John Mejor, one of the Spitfire pilots who fought to protect the convoy. Told using their log books, letters and papers, and illustrated with images from the family archive, this is the story of one family’s contribution to a relief operation that cost over 400 Allied lives, but has gone down in history as one of the most important British strategic victories of the Second World War.

In the darkest days of the Second World War, as Europe fell under Nazi domination and Britain faced invasion, Louis de Wohl, a 36-year-old refugee from Germany, made a curious offer to British Intelligence. Based on the widely held belief that Hitler’s every action was guided by his horoscope, de Wohl claimed he could reveal precisely what advice the Führer’s astrologers were giving him.Rather than dismissing de Wohl out of hand as a crank, senior intelligence officers and chiefs of staff of the three armed services took him at his word. De Wohl was made an army captain and quartered in the Grosvenor House Hotel, from where his one-man ‘Psychological Research Bureau’ passed astrological readings and assessments to the War Office, before his deployment to the United States by the highly secret Special Operations Executive on a propaganda mission.Was it possible that Military and Naval intelligence officers could take the ancient and arcane practice of astrology seriously? Was de Wohl genuine or merely a charlatan? Did his astrological readings contribute to the downfall of Hitler and Nazi Germany?In How British Intelligence Plotted to Read Hitler’s Mind, the first fulllength study of Louis de Wohl, James Parris examines the evidence – including material from MI5, Military and Naval Intelligence files at the National Archives – and reaches remarkable conclusions about this bizarre aspect of the Second World War.

Wales is a Celtic country and the Celts have always treasured oral learning and recitation, with a passion for committing facts to memory rather than the written word. It is no surprise then, that Welsh folklore and story-telling is so rich and varied.The landscape is studded with the remains of ancient monuments, which were seen as the creation of gods and heroes. Every lake had its legend, whether inhabited by a grim, monstrous afanc, or by a beautiful, enchanted maiden. Giants stalked the land, while fairies could be dangerous, demanding propitiation. Omens of potential marriage partners were avidly sought by girls, while ghostly death-lights – corpse candles – could be seen moving relentlessly towards those doomed to die. A whole world of the past can beIndividual chapters examine the role of the medieval church in oral tradition; legends associated with place-names; calendar customs; giants and monsters; omens and second sight; witches, ghosts and fairies; supernatural birds and animals; folk healing and herbal remedies.

The folklore of the Scottish Highlands is unique and very much alive. Dr Anne Ross was a Gaelic-speaking scholar and archaeologist who lived and worked in crofting communities. This enabled her to collect information first hand and to assess the veracity of material already published.In this revised new edition of a modern classic work, Ross portrays the beliefs and customs of Scottish Gaelic society, including seasonal customs deriving from Celtic festivals; the famous waulking songs; the Highland tradition of seers and second sight; omens and taboos, both good and bad; chilling experiences of witchcraft and the Evil Eye; and rituals associated with birth and death.

It has never been easier to research what your parents and grandparents and family members did in the Second World War – whether they were in the armed forces, the Home Guard or worked in factories on the home front. For anyone looking to learn more about their family’s past, this book provides all the tools and information to get started, explains what is available online (as well as what is not) and outlines the pitfalls to avoid. A wide range of background information on the war itself will also help place your ancestors’ experiences within the wider context of the Second World War.This book provides a comprehensive review of all the available resources, where they are to be found and how to make the best use of them; not just for the United Kingdom, but also for the Commonwealth, Europe and the United States.An essential guide, it makes an increasingly important aspect of family history both interesting and accessible to anyone looking to learn more about their past.

Did you know? In the eleventh century, Edward the Confessor banished nightingales from the royal palace at Havering-atte-Bower because their singing disturbed his devotions. In 1913, Benny Hucks of Stansted Mountfitchet was the first person to perform a loop-the-loop in an aircraft. On Boxing Day 1946, Hatfield Heath villagers challenged local German and Italian POWs to a football match – and lost 11–0. Brentwood was the first town in Britain to install CCTV. A compendium of frivolity, a reference book of little-known facts and a wacky guide to one of England’s most colourful counties, The Little Book of Essex is packed full of entertaining, bite-sized pieces of historic and contemporary trivia that come together to make essential reading for visitors and locals alike.Dip in randomly, or read consecutively – there are no rules. Be amused and amazed at the stories and history of Essex’s landscape, heritage, buildings and, above all, its people.

In this book of folk tales, Liz Berg shares Jewish memories: tales, songs and jokes of Jews told by Jews in Britain and Ireland. Some stories moved from place to place, changing and adapting to new landscapes and taking on different texture, but the essence of the tales stay the same, preserved through oral storytelling, captured and recorded on these pages.Here are tales from the time of Diocletian’s Jewish slaves working in the tin mines of Cornwall, through to the modern tales being told in communities today, all incorporating the wit and magic of a rich and varied culture successfully integrated into Britain and Ireland.