Great Britain History

For centuries the Celts held sway in Europe. Even after their conquest by the Romans, their culture remained vigorous, ensuring that much of it endured to feed an endless fascination with Celtic history and myths, artwork and treasures. A foremost authority on the Celtic peoples and their culture, Peter Berresford Ellis presents an invigoration overview of their world. With his gift for making the scholarly accessible, he discusses the Celts' mysterious origins and early history and investigates their rich and complex society.

In Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom, Peter Padfield presents a superb description and analysis of naval campaigns conducted between 1788 and 1851 that shaped the modern world. Winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Prize, this is the second of Padfield's masterful trilogy that traces the impact of naval power on modern history, and the means by which it has been enacted.

FNH Audio presents a complete and unabridged audio book of a book published in 1917 at the height of the First World War. The author, Jeffery Farnol, is better known for his works of romantic fiction, but in this departure, Jeffery recites the events observations and anecdotes of his tour of Great Britain's war effort.

London, 1772: a young artist called Thomas Rowlandson is making his way through the grimy backstreets of the capital, on his way to begin his studies at the Royal Academy Schools. Within a few years, James Gillray and Isaac Cruikshank would join him in Piccadilly, turning satire into an artform, taking on the British establishment, and forever changing the way we view power. Set against a backdrop of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, French revolution, American independence and the Napoleonic Wars, UPROAR! follows the satirists as they lampoon those in power.

King Edward VI, the only legitimate male heir of King Henry VIII, took his seat on the throne at the age of nine. His life would come to an end when he was only 15 years old, but the mark he would come to leave on England’s history has endured to this day. Edward VI led his country into a new age where the Church of England was no longer tied to the Catholic Church. Putting his efforts into spreading Protestantism throughout all of England, he continued his father’s work of freeing England from the Holy Roman Empire’s grasp.

On the evening of 21st November 1974, bombs planted by the IRA in two crowded Birmingham pubs exploded, killing 21 people and injuring at least 170. Within a day of the explosion, six men - Paddy Hill, Gerry Hunter, Richard McIlkenny, Billy Power, Johnny Walker and Hughie Callaghan - were arrested and charged. All were found guilty. Methodically, with total clarity and a tone that is both gripping and impassioned, then investigative journalist Mullin unpicked every detail of the case.

King Henry VIII is inconsolable over the loss of his beloved queen, Jane Seymour. He banishes himself to the lower-levels of Whitehall Palace and refuses to see or speak to anyone. A deeply concerned Cromwell has a desperate plan: To send down the old court jester, the unstable Will Sommers, into the darkness, to somehow help. Meanwhile, Cromwell's enemies at court are gathering. Henry's grief regresses into a strange kind of manic madness. But can a fool really save the King?

Murders, riots, strikes, and runaway horses. Midlothian in the 18th and 19th centuries was an interesting place to live. This book introduces the listener to the hard lives of the colliers, the birth of the rural police force, and the impact the army had on life in the county south of Scotland’s capital city. Highwaymen and grave robbers, footpads and murderers, illicit distillers and murderous poachers - all lived or worked in Midlothian at a time when Scotland was changing from a rural to an industrial nation.

From the best-selling author of The Lightouse Stevensons, a gripping history of the drama and danger of wrecking since the 18th century - and the often grisly ingenuity of British wreckers, scavengers of the sea. A fine wreck has always represented sport, pleasure, treasure and, in many cases, the difference between living well and just getting by. The Cornish were supposed to be so ferocious that notices of shipwrecks were given out during morning service by the minister....

This work presents a composite view of medieval English university life. The author offers detailed insights into the social and economic conditions of the lives of students, their teaching masters and fellows. The experiences of college benefactors, women and university servants are also examined, demonstrating the vibrancy they brought to university life.

For the first time, the complete, exciting story of the landmark trial that led to the abolition of slavery in the Western world. The 1772 London trial of James Somerset, rescued from a ship bound for the West Indies slave markets, was a decisive turning point in history. As in the Scopes trial, two encompassing world views clashed in an event of passionate drama.

Mock the Week and Outnumbered's Hugh Dennis with an hilarious and insightful exploration of the changing image of Britain and Britishness.

Hugh Dennis has secretly been worrying about what being "British" meant for nearly a decade, ever since his friend Ardal O'Hanlon had told him in passing that he was the most British person he had ever met. Hugh was unclear whether he was being praised, teased, vaguely insulted, or possibly all three - because it has always been very difficult to know how to feel about being British.

An account of his journey through England – from Southampton to the Black Country, to the North East and Newcastle, to Norwich and home – English Journey is funny and tender. But it is also a forensic reading of a changing England and a call to arms as passionate as anything in Orwell’s bleak masterpiece. Moreover, it both captured and catalysed the public mood of its time. In capturing and describing an English landscape and people hitherto unseen, Priestley influenced the thinking and attitudes of an entire generation.

This unlikely figure entered the rich man's world of polar exploration through an astonishing persistence and succeeded through the same quality. Shackleton's place in history is not the one he set out to make, but his extraordinary deeds have made his contributions to early exploration of Antarctica indelible. Despite the victor's wreath eventually going to another, Shackleton's name is essential to any discussion of Antarctic exploration, based on personal heroism more than logistical triumphs.

Wellington’s Scum: The History and Legacy of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars examines the history of the British Army during one of history’s most pivotal eras. You will learn about the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars like never before.

When Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, there were many who proclaimed that a new Elizabethan Age had begun. Few could have any inkling, however, of the stupendous changes that were going to take place, in Britain and around the world. The collapse of British power in the world and the near-evaporation of its wealth were established facts, but few people had even begun to understand them.

Beobrand is besieged in the action-packed instalment in the Bernicia Chronicles set in AD 647 Anglo-Saxon Britain. War hangs heavy in the hot summer air as Penda of Mercia and his allies march into the north. Caught unawares, the Bernician forces are besieged within the great fortress of Bebbanburg. It falls to Beobrand to mount the defence of the stronghold, but even while the battle rages, old and powerful enemies have mobilised against him, seeking vengeance for past events.

When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the 48 percent who wanted to stay and the 52 percent who wanted to go each accused the other of stupidity, fraud, and treason. In reality, the Brexit debate merely reran a script written ten thousand years earlier. Since 1900, however, thanks to rapid globalization, Britain has been overshadowed by American, European, and—increasingly—Chinese actors. Geography Is Destiny shows that the great question for the coming century is not what to do about Brussels; it's what to do about Beijing.

De la reine Victoria à la disparition du prince Philip en passant par la naissance de l'héritier George et la crise du "Megxit", le roman vrai d'une famille extraordinaire, aux prises avec le tragique de l'histoire comme avec les drames intimes. Dans leurs bonheurs comme dans leurs malheurs, ils continuent de nous fasciner par un unique mélange de traditions et d'audaces. Windsor ? Une passionnante saga britannique.

The Boer War was the defining conflict of South African history and one of the most important conflicts in the history of the British Empire. Naturally, complicated geopolitics underscored it, going back centuries. In fact, the European history of South Africa began with the 1652 arrival of a small Dutch flotilla in Table Bay, at the southern extremity of the African continent, which made landfall with a view to establishing a victualing station to service passing Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) ships.