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[[Category:New Reviews|History]] __NOTOC__ <!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Paul Flynn1785633457|title= Good As YouCharging Around: From Prejudice to Pride - 30 Years Exploring the Edges of Gay BritainEngland by Electric Car|author=Clive Wilkinson|rating= 5|genre= History Travel|summary=The last 30 years have seen Clive Wilkinson has a tidal wave history of change sweep the country travelling by unconventional means with regards to how gay people are perceived and accepteda preference for slow travel. In 1984, As he neared his eightieth birthday the idea of exploring the pulsing electronic beats edges of ''Smalltown Boy'' became England in an anthem to unite Gay Menelectric car was not totally outrageous. In fact, but just a month later, a virus called HIV would it should be identified, spreading a climate of panic and fear across the nation, pleasant holiday for Clive and marginalising a community who were already ostracised. 30 years later though, the long road to gay equality would reach a climax with the legalistion of gay marriage. Journalist Paul Flynn charts this remarkable journey via the cultural milestones that affected this change - with interviews with such protagonists as Kylie, Russell T Davieshis wife, Will YoungJoan, Holly Johnson and Lord Chris Smith. This is the story of Britainshouldn's brothers, sons, cousins, fathers and husbands. Of public outrage and personal loss, the (not always legal) highs and desperate lows, and the final collective victory as Gay Men were finally recognised to be as Good As You. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032925</amazonuk>t it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Miles RussellB09BLBP3P8|title= Arthur and the Kings of Neville Chamberlain's War: How Great Britain: The Historical Truth Behind the MythsOpposed Hitler, 1939-1940|author=Frederic Seager|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= As Received wisdom and simplified narrative often lead to misconceptions about history. One such is the author of scrubbing from the Historia Regum Britanniae (History popular imagination of the Kings early days of Britain)World War II from 1939-40, written in 1136, Geoffrey of Monmouth is commonly recognized known as one of the first British historians''Phoney War''. His book told – or is supposed to have told - the story of the British monarchy during the Dark AgesWe remember Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler, from the arrival of the Trojan Brutuswar breaking out, grandson of Aeneas, up and Churchill coming in to save the seventh century AD when the Anglo-Saxons had taken control of Britainday. Being virtually the only work of its kind at the Very little timeis spent on this period in cultural reflections and yet, it proved very influential, and became well-known throughout western Europe as one of the great works of medieval literature as the first retelling of the story of King ArthurFrederic Seager argues in this book, Lear and Cymbeline. Shakespeare it was forever of vital significance in his debt with regard to how the two latterwar played out. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445662744</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mark Aylwin Thomas|title= Blades of Grass|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Any book that has me in tears at the end has been worth my time. Any book that has me hoping it will end differently to the way I know it must is worth the reading. Any book that convinces me that maybe there is still hope in the world – that for all the mistakes made thus far, still being made right now, there is a common humanity which ultimately, eventually, must do some good – that is worth the writing and the reading and the time. Blades of Grass is one such book. It's a forgotten story, an unknown story to most people. It is one that should be told – and reflected upon.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Andrew Cook3756228711|title= CDC: The Murder of the Romanovs|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= The fate of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Alexandra and children, fuelled no end of rumour, misinformation and conspiracy theories for many happy years, even though the truth was known not long after the event. In the last few years, the advance of forensic science, DNA testing and the precise location of the bodies have allowed for confirmation of the exact truth and with a dismissal of claims by a noted so-called surviving Grand Duchess. Even so, as Andrew Cook notes, straight after the deaths of the imperial family spectacular IT 'there would begin a ninety-year battle between science and superstition which is not over yetPhenomena'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445666278</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Sarah Bakewell|title= At The Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot CocktailsHans Bodmer

|summary= For several centuries, much ''The history of the ancient and medieval history development of IT could fill books of Britain was one forged in war as the Celtic peoples took a stand against invasion and oppressionseveral hundred pages.'' Author Hans Bodmer is quite right about that. First it was He has chosen to tell us about the Romansshort, but explosive, then history of the SaxonsControl Data Company, Vikings and NormansCDC, who threatened the unyielding and insular peoplefor whom he worked. This book examines how several tenacious It's a fascinating tale, told in a mixture of technological summary and heroic figures led the Britons and the Welsh against often overwhelming oddswry anecdote.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445658437</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy Dronfield and David HewittZiggy Greene|title=Joseph, 1917Fritz and Kurt|rating=3.54|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=During We start with the autumn pair of 1915 Edward Stanleybrothers Fritz and Kurt, and their muckers, doing things any Jewish lad in 1930s Vienna would want to do – kicking things around the Earl of Derby empty market place, helping the neighbours, being dutiful when it comes to the synagogue choir and Director General of military recruitment inaugurated the Derby Schemeat a vocational school. Men of fighting age would be encouraged by door-to-door canvassers Kurt has to make sure the lamps are turned on at their very Orthodox neighbours'attest' that they would sign up each Friday night – the Sabbath preventing them for military service at using anything nearly as mechanical and workmanlike as a recruitment office within 48 hourslight switch. They would then be categories according But this is the time just before the Austrian leader is going to cave to marital status Hitler's will, and be called upinstead of having a national vote to keep the Nazis out, invite them in with 14 daysopen arms. ''Kristallnacht' notice' happened in Vienna just as much as in Germany, as did all the round-ups of Jews. These in an order in line with their household responsibilities. The idea was a sound one: married men turn leave the younger Kurt at home with children only being called his mother and sisters anxious to hear word of an evacuation to Britain or the US, while Fritz and his father are, unknown initially to each other, packed off on if absolutely necessarythe same train to Buchenwald and the stone quarry there. Lancastrian Joseph Blackburn chose to attest but then And us wondering how the titular event for him and many others, unforeseen results ensued.the adult variant of all this could come about…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785898973</amazonuk>024156574X

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=William WrightJohn Henry Phillips|title=A British Lion in ZululandThe Search

|summary= During Archaeology cannot be child's play, when you're scraping in the reign of Queen Victoriadirt looking to find what you can find, southern Africa was a land of opportunityoften knowing there should be something there but not always confident what. Fame and fortune was to Archaeology must be found for any brave soul willing a fair bit harder when you set out to suffer the hardships and dangers the lands offeredfind some specific thing. For the government of Britain it was also the source of major headaches. The balance between abundant wealth and This book is a native population that would not accept colonial rule created constant conflict. 'A British Lion in Zululand' is the story case of the man, widely regardedlatter, as our author promises to locate the person who drew these conflicts with topic of the Zulu tribe to a conclusiontitular search. Field Marshall Garnet Joseph Wolseley was And he really hasn't made it easy for himself – the search area is a heroic wide one, the target might not exist any more – oh, and larger than life figure in Victorian Britain; howeverit's underwater, even today his role in shaping the future of a continent is controversialwhen he cannot dive. With the aid of extensive research from Latching on to a number of new sources, William Wright has defined particular D-Day veteran through helping the heroic old man and brought fresh insight 's visit back to a neglected area of British colonial history. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445665484</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|France, our author= Xu Hongci and Erling Hoh (Translator)|title= No Wall Too High|rating= 4|genre= History|summary= It was one of has promised to find the greatest prison breaks of all timelanding craft that delivered him to Normandy, during one of the worst totalitarian tragedies of the 20th Century. Xu Hongci was an ordinary medical student when and that he was incarcerated under Mao's regime and forced lucky to spend years of his youth in some of China's most brutal labour campssurvive when it sank from beneath him. Three times he tried The secondary aim is to erect a memorial to escape. And three times he failed. But, determinedeveryone else aboard, he eventually broke free, travelling the length vast majority of China, across the Gobi desert, and into Mongoliawhom perished.Who else would make such promises to someone in their nineties?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846044960</amazonuk>1472146182

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven BurgauerB09F4CTKJR|title=The Night of The Eleventh SunFlights for Freedom|author= Steven Burgauer

|summary=The word It'Neanderthal' has become equated with people deemed to have a backward attitude and outlook. But what do we know of s the original Neanderthals from over 200,000 years ago? Here American author [[:Category:Steven Burgauer|Steven Burgauer]] melds the knowledge later stages of anthropologists, archaeologists World War I and historians with the story of Strong Arms, his family and their struggle to survive in United States has just entered the conflict. Petrol Petronus is a very effective, young American who has signed up and informative way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1419671545</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Anne Glyn-Jones|title= Morse Code Wrens of Station X|rating= 4.5|genre= History|summary= Bletchley Park is probably now joined the least secret of all the secret ops that went on during World War II17 Aero Squadron. I for one am pleased about that: technology has moved on so far that there can't be anything that happened back then on This company was the communications front that is worth continuing first US Aero Squadron to shroud be trained in mystery. With most of the participants either departed or at least in the departure loungeCanada, the more recollections we can still gather first to be attached to the better. What remained secret far longer however, is RAF and the work of first to be sent into the telegraphers that served Station X: those posted skies to fight the Y-stationsGermans in active combat. There are few of them left to tell their talesBut before that can happen, so I applaud those who finally saw fit (a) Petrol has to release them from their life-long bonds of secrecy and (b) encourage them to write it down, tell us what it was really likemaster flying the notoriously difficult but majestic Sopwith Camel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845409086</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=G A Jones|title=The Cruise of Naromis: August in the Baltic 1939|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=There's brave, and there is brave. I may well have been born in a coastal county but certainly would baulk at the idea of setting out to sea with four colleagues in a 37'-long boat. Boats to me are like planes – the bigger the better, and the safer I feel as a result. But luckily for the purpose of this book, George Jones was born with a much different pair of sea-legs to mine, and took to the waters of the English Channel, the North Sea and beyond in ''Naromis'' with brio. But – and this is where the further definition of bravery comes in – he did it in August 1939, knowing full well that he would be sailing full tilt into the teeth of war.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1899262334</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|authorisbn= John Ashdown-Hill0578761718|title= The Private Life of Edward IV|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Edward IV is currently a popular subject for biographers. All credit is therefore due to Dr Ashdown-Hill, one of the foremost of current Yorkist-era historians, for looking at the King from a fresh angle – that of his romantic involvements.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445652455</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author= Pamela Sambrook|title= The Servants' Story: Managing a Great Country House|rating= 4.5|genre= Inspiring History|summary= With so many recent books on aristocratic families and their homes, one which looks at the lives of their servants is to be welcomed. Written with the help of a vast archive, this presents a vivid picture of those in service at Trentham, the Staffordshire home of the Leveson-Gower family, the Dukes of Sutherland, at one stage said to be the richest non-royal family in Britain. Its insights into the ups and downs of life below stairs, and the mini-family histories involved, make for an excellent read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445654202</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewSpecial Relationship|author=Stephen Porter|title=Everyday Life in Tudor London: Life in the City of Thomas Cromwell, William Shakespeare & Anne BoleynNancy Carver

|summary=The Tudor period church of St Mary Aldermanbuy had existed in England marked a transition the City of London from at least 1181, when it was first mentioned in records. Sadly, the original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt in so many ways Portland stone from a design by Sir Christopher Wren soon after the medieval period to a new erafire and then survived for centuries until World War II, and so when it is only right that somebody should at last have examined what effect was again ruined by bombs during the Blitz. But that should have had on our capital city. After wasn't the instability end of its story: after a phenomenal fundraising effort, the Wars of stones from the Roseschurch's walls were transported to Fulton, Missouri. There, a period of consolidation set in and London was at last established as the seat grounds of royalty and governmentWestminster College, as well as the centre of cultural life church was rebuilt and commercial activitytoday serves as a memorial to Winston Churchill.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445645866</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Wills1784385166|title= The Wreck Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History of the SS LondonNazi Germany|author=Roger Moorhouse

|summary= What is the first image that comes to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastika? The sinking Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic of the Titanic Third Reich's fascist regime in 1912 was the ocean disaster against which all subsequent shipwrecks have come to be comparedits iniquity. Yet But some forty years earlier, the people of mid-Victorian Britain objects and overseas were horrified by another loss at sea which at the images from that time had a similar impactmay be less familiar to you. In January 1866 SS Londonthis short volume, a large new luxury liner en route Roger Moorhouse has attempted to Australia, went down shortly after leaving England, with around 250 people dead, maybe more (illustrate the period of the exact figure will never be known), and only three survivorsThird Reich through one hundred of its material artefacts.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144565654X</amazonuk> 

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteLun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)|title=Queen Victoria and the European EmpiresTiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes

|summary=It was December and Esther Rutter was stuck in her office job, writing to people she''Queen Victoria d never met and preparing spreadsheets. The job frustrated her and even her knitting did not soothe her mind. January was going to be a time for making changes and she decided that she would travel the European Empires'' is a very readable history length and breadth of Queen Victoria's relationshipsthe British Isles with occasional forays abroad, both personal discovering and political with telling the royalty story of France, Germany, Austria wool's history and how it had made and Russiachanged the landscape. Many of these associations were based She'd grown up on family ties, but - as a sheep farm in all families Suffolk - not all connections brought joy in their wake. John Van der Kiste '' a free- an expert in all things Victorian range child on the farm'' - produces an elegant picture of the changing relationships between the eighteen thirties and the early nineteen hundreds in a book which is deceptively slimlearned to spin, but packed with fascinating information knit and weave from her mother and insightsher mother's friend. This was in her blood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781555508</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Bard1789017977|title= Capital Punishment: LondonRonnie and Hilda's Places of ExecutionRomance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|summary= The majority Ronnie Williams was the son of books on true crime Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and murder focus first Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and foremost on specific incidentshe might well have shaved a few years off his age. This concise volume takes For a while the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different approach, in dealing lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with them according to where him throughout his life. He joined the executioner completed his taskarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445667363</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1980891117|title=G Engleheart Pinxit 1805: A year in the life of George Engleheart|author=Colin BrownJohn Webley|rating=4.5|genre=Art|summary=George Engleheart was one of the leading portrait miniaturists of Georgian London, with a career lasting from the 1770s to the Regency era. He was also one of the most prolific, painting nearly 5,000 miniatures altogether (over twenty of them being of King George III). Throughout most of that time he carefully recorded the names of each of his clients, and subsequently transcribed them into what is referred to as his fee book.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1789016304|title=Operation BigWar and Love: The Race to Stop HitlerA family's A-Bombtestament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=3.5

|summary=WhatMelanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, do you think, was more feared particularly in 1941 ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and 1942 than seven thousand Jews were deported from the Nazi Party? Well, a Nazi Party with nuclear arms would be pretty high on city during the list. It seems the stuff of pure fantasywar years, but I'm only five thousand survived and Martin could not so sureunderstand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. A lot of the Most people to be at believed that the forefront of occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the nuclear physics of Germans might reach the age city were Germanconvinced that they would soon be pushed back, and that the first nuclear fission was on their soil. Two things seemed Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to be needed for nuclear arms – uranium, which they procured by capturing Czechoslovakia, escalate in the location of one its greatest source mines; and heavy water. That so nearly fell into Nazi hands when they invaded Norwayway that it did, but what seems to have been initial protests melted away as the great majority of the world's supply had only just been smuggled outorganisers became more circumspect. [[Fatherland by Robert Harris|Some fiction]] takes great strides to suggest in a fantasy way that if Hitler hadnIt't concentrated s an atrocity on exterminating Jews, he would have had the energy to win the war – and it must only be a short step to see his imperial expansionism as having an ulterior motive in nuclear materiel. But make no mistake, this is not fiction – these are the pure facts behind the issuevast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445664674</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Bunker1908745819|title=An Empire on the EdgeSurfacing|author=Kathleen Jamie

|summary=The history Sometimes when people suggest that we are taught is centred you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on eventsit''. Often Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we know ask them why they thought so unless it turns out that we didn't like the datesbook. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, the central characters and the outcomerarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. We seldom identify and study The blurb speaks of the causesauthor considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself. 'An Empire on the Edge' is history writ large and looks at the chain Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of events leading where I am. Add to that my love of the Boston Tea Partynatural world, and subsequent American War of Independence. What emerges is a catalogue those aspects of human failings the poetic and frailties lyrical that shaped the destiny are about style not form, and substance most of America and Britain in the eighteenth centuryall, about connection. Many of the failings were avoidable but the accumulation and chain reaction they caused Of course, this book had a catastrophic effect my name on thousands of lives and has shaped the character of two nations ever sinceit. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552736</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=Tales of Loving and LeavingLord Of All the Dead|author=Gaby WeinerJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=In ''Tales of Loving Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and Leavingdeath. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas'great uncle, author Gaby Weiner tells is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the story centre of three of her family members: her grandmother, Amalia Moszkowicz Dinger; her mother, Steffi Dinger; and her father, Uszer Frochtthis book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524635081</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matthew Lewis0008294011|title=Henry IIIHow to Lose a Country: The Son of Magna Carta7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship|author=Ece Temelkuran

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary= For A little while ago a monarch whose reign over England of fifty-six friend asked me if I thought that we were living through what in years was unequalled until to come would be discussed by A level history students when faced with the question ''Discuss the nineteenth century, Henry III remains curiously little-knownfactors which led to... Nobody could claim '' I agreed that he she was right and wasn't certain whether it was a particularly outstanding good or successful ruler, but the fact bad thing that he held his throne for so long in an unstable age we didn't know what all 'this' was no mean achievement leading to. I think now that I do know. We are in itselfdanger of losing democracy and whilst it's a flawed system I can't think of a better one, particularly as the 'benevolent dictator' is as rare as hen's teeth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445653575</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amy Licence1788037812|title=Catherine The Fraternity of Aragonthe Estranged: An Intimate Life of Henry VIII's True WifeThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson

|summary=At Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time when , restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the US Presidential election is fielding at least one candidate you'd cross the road to avoid (nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and I'm not saying which one) it's useful to look back over John Addington Symonds, as well as the forty four presidents who have gone before themheterosexual Havelock Ellis. It's surprising how many Exploring the margins of them have been lawyers, soldiers society and career politiciansstudying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but there have also been school teachersbarely talked about in the UK, journalists, Hollywood actors, professorsso the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, postmasters and even a peanut farmer. Gone are beginning the early days when you could almost fall into struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the presidency accidentally milestone legalisation of same- now you need a massive war chest if you're to get to election daysex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656507</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Norton1910593508|title= The Lives of Tudor WomenApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating=4.5

|summary= After This incredible graphic novel is a series of individual biographies on love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the major Tudor womensubject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, mostly royalChris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of this, this book brings the authors take a new dimension few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in touching on the lives of individuals from all walks of lifeblanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the book. However it is much more than If you've ever read a collection comic book adaptation of lives. While a film you will be familiar with the Queens slight feeling that there are scenes missing and princesses naturally dominate some of the chapters, it looks beyond the surface to devote attention to serving maids, businesswomen, activists and martyrs, that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as well as focus on various aspects of life for women long and girls in Tudor Englandstill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784081752</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Matthews1786331047|title=Robin HoodThe Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family|author=Helen Rappaport|rating=4.5

|summary= The Outlaw basic facts about the deaths of Nicholas and Alexandra, some of Sherwood Forest has which were deliberately obscured at the time for various reasons, have long since been part established. For the last few months of national mythology ever since their lives in Russia the twelfth centuryformer Tsar and Tsarina, their children and few remaining servants were held in increasingly squalid, humiliating captivity. Did Mr Hood really existTo prevent them from being rescued, or is he a figment of popular imagination who refuses to go quietly? If historians in July 1918 the revolutionary regime had them all shot and researchers over the ages are bayoneted to be believeddeath in circumstances which, once the truth seems to lie somewhere news was confirmed beyond all doubt, horrified their relatives in betweenEurope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445656019</amazonuk>