Filter to

The 1605 Gunpowder Plot is one of the best-known events in British history, commemorated on 5 November each year. This book re-evaluates the evidence about the origins, depth and extent of the plot. It profiles the conspirators, including Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes, and examines their backgrounds, aims and objectives. It follows their trial and execution, and reveals for the first time how close they came to overthrowing the government. Slightly off-mint.

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Off-mint

Off-mint

Discovered in 1979, the Roman fort at Elginhaugh near Dalkeith is now the most completely excavated timber-built auxiliary fort in the Roman Empire. Here, Professor Hanson describes the discovery, excavation and interpretation of the site and sets the findings in the wider context of the fort’s builders and the lives of its inhabitants.

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

Slightly off-mint

The Empire Windrush has become a symbol of the generation that came to Britain from the Caribbean in the aftermath of the Second World War, but the story of the ship itself is less well known. Built in Hamburg in 1930, the Monte Rosa transported prisoners to Auschwitz before it was captured by the British and renamed; and after its famous voyage, the ship saw action in the Korean War.

A teacher and pupil are found dead at an exclusive girls’ school in Bath. Jack Swann must discover whether their deaths are a tragic accident, a suicide pact, or murder – but unseen forces are tracking his every move.

Slightly off-mint.

From the Sugar Warehouses at West India Docks to the Canary Wharf complex and One Canada Square rising over the old docklands in the 1980s and 1990s, this evocative collection of photographs and detailed captions shows the events, people and streets of London’s East End over the course of the 20th century.

A headless woman rising from the earth near Wellington Barracks; the naked man who runs out of the shadows by Cleopatra’s Needle and jumps into the Thames; a terrible premonition of the terrorist bomb at the Tower of London in 1974 ... James Clark tells the stories of London’s supernatural phenomena, travelling eastward from Kensington to end in Whitechapel with the ghosts of Jack the Ripper’s victims. Slightly off-mint.

Tracking John F Kennedy’s exploits in Britain between 1935 and 1963, from the era of the Great Depression in the USA to the Cold War arms race, Christopher Sandford looks in depth at how Britain shaped JFK throughout his adult life, and how he in turn charmed British society. Set against the Second World War and its aftermath, the story of this ‘special relationship’ suggests how certain experiences of Britain may have influenced Kennedy’s basic thinking as president.

Beginning with the mathematician Mary Somerville (1789–1872), who was the first woman to receive more than a cursory death notice in The Times, this volume draws on the newspaper’s archives to present 125 obituaries. Among the women are writers, artists, musicians and actors, scientists and scholars, politicians and royalty, arranged chronologically from 1872 to the death of Alice Herz-Sommer, the concert pianist and Holocaust survivor, in 2014. Foreword by Lucy Worsley.

Box Tunnel in Wiltshire is one of the great engineering feats of the railway age but tragically, up to 100 navvies lost their lives during its construction. This history of the building of Britain’s railway infrastructure investigates the many collapses, explosions, floodings, collisions and other accidents that occurred in the tunnels and how lessons about their dangers were gradually learned.

Ely’s impressive collection of monastic buildings has been the backdrop to a rich and varied past embracing gradual development and dramatic change. An Ely-born councillor highlights the contributions of powerful bishops and famous residents as he traces the city’s history from 673, when Etheldreda established her monastery on this large island in the Cambridgeshire Fens, to the award of city status in 1974 and flourishing contemporary innovations including the Eel Festival and Potato Race.

A historian with military experience explores the global network of spies during and after the Second World War, when agents of organizations such as MI5, the CIA, the NKVD and Tokko constantly risked exposure or death, often raising the stakes by acting as double or triple agents.

This study of the ordinary British soldier of the First World War focuses on his everyday routines and the equipment, uniform and personal kit that would have been his familiar companions. Covering recruitment, training, life in the trenches and recuperation away from the front, first-hand accounts are complemented by examples of items including mess tins, Mills bombs and the YMCA stationery issued in rest camps, many assembled in historical tableaux that recreate period scenes.

The killing of City banker Thomas Briggs in 1864 was the first murder committed on a British train. The main suspect subsequently absconded across the Atlantic before being arrested, as did the perpetrator of North London’s most famous murders, Dr Crippen.

This richly illustrated A–Z guide to Gloucestershire's towns and villages explores enigmatic locations from crumbling manor houses, castles and ruins to ancient woods and trackways with long-forgotten standing stones and tombstones. Added to this are descriptions of hauntings, UFO sightings, crop circles and unsolved murders.

This collection includes murders of greed, passion and cruelty – the shooting of a woman for an inheritance in 1836, a blow to the head with a flat iron in 1862, and the wilful neglect of an infant who starved to death in 1874. Slightly off-mint.

Based on a pursuit of the finer things in life, the marriage of the socialite Doris Delevingne and the gossip columnist Valentine Brown was tempestuous from the start, rocked by affairs with famous figures including Winston Churchill and Diana Mitford. This volume, illustrated with contemporary photographs, charts their relationship during the 1920s and 1930s, offering new insights into the decadent, brittle world of the 'Bright Young Things'.

Medieval belief in the Arthurian legends was bolstered by the existence of many alleged artefacts, including the Round Table, Gawain’s skull, Isolde’s robe and even Excalibur itself. The authors investigate the origins of these elaborate fakes and the cultural and political motivations behind their creation. Slightly off-mint.

The enduring legend of King Richard I, as a noble warrior who selflessly left his kingdom and fought bravely to win back the Holy Land, has its origins in the public image promulgated by his formidable mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. As this biography reveals, the scandalous reality is very different: Richard ‘the Lionheart’ detested England (which he twice bankrupted), slaughtered defenceless peasants and repeatedly abandoned his supporters to save himself.

As the great-niece of Henry VIII, Jane Grey was a pawn in the power game of Tudor politics. The dying Edward VI made Jane his heir and, on 6 July 1553, aged 16, she became queen. Her reign lasted nine days: when Mary Tudor claimed the throne, Jane was sent to the Tower and beheaded in 1554. In this compassionate biography, Plowden tells the story of a gifted, scholarly girl, doomed by her royal blood.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Paul Nixon is among the most eccentric cricketers to play for England, Leicestershire or Kent. With forewords from Steve Waugh and Viv Richards, this frank, humorous account of his career addresses issues such as family tragedy, sledging, match-fixing and his battle with mental demons.

This classic survey by two expert military historians looks at every battle fought on British soil since the Norman Conquest. Each campaign is described in detail, with battle plans and sketch maps, and placed in historical context; while details of arms and tactics illustrate the changing nature of warfare between 1066 and 1746.

The 1605 Gunpowder Plot is one of the best-known events in British history, commemorated on 5 November each year. This book re-evaluates the evidence about the origins, depth and extent of the plot. It profiles the conspirators, including Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes, and examines their backgrounds, aims and objectives. It follows their trial and execution, and reveals for the first time how close they came to overthrowing the government.

This volume tells the story of the Newcastle men who were sent to the front, with first-hand accounts and other archive material, and how life changed at home as Tyneside’s factories, shipyards and hospitals responded to the war effort.

Swindon’s principal employer – the Great Western Railway – expanded its output of rolling stock during the First World War, as well as extending operations to the production of munitions. This review of the conflict’s impact on the town includes archive photographs and ephemera.

Reports of how five Shropshire men were awarded the Victoria Cross are recorded in this local history, which also includes contemporary accounts and photographs of how the county adapted to the changes brought by the war.

Sheffield factories turned to armament production during the First World War with women taking on the heavy work. This local history explores social changes on the home front as well as the experiences of the men sent away to fight.

Air raids were added to Londoners' troubles after the first Zeppelin raid of May 1915. Drawing on first-hand accounts of people from across London, this local history looks at how the First World War changed life in the city.

This local history explores the experiences of the people of Liverpool during the First World War as thousands enlisted in the Army, and especially Navy, and those left behind carried on the important work of one of Britain’s principal ports.