Spring 2019 Highlights
The Grit in the Pearl
The Scandalous Life of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll Lyndsy Spence Adored. Accused. Abandoned. The Duchess of Argyll’s fall from grace revealed
February 2019 £20 9780750986991 Hardback 234x156mm, 256 pages 20 b&w Illustrations World rights Lyndsy Spence is an author and reviewer, and the founder of The Mitford Society, an online community dedicated to researching the Mitford sisters. Her previous books include The Mistress of Mayfair: Men, Money and the Marriage of Doris Delevingne (THP, 2018) and Mrs Guinness: The Rise and Fall of Diana Mitford, the Thirties Socialite (THP, 2017).
Margaret, Duchess of Argyll’s life was one of complexity and controversy. Born Ethel Margaret Whigham, the only child of a Scottish self-made millionaire and a beautiful highsociety woman, her childhood was rich and splendid, but empty. As she grew up, her name was a byword for class and beauty; she was the debutante of her coming-out year, and her marriage to Charles Sweeny literally stopped traffic. But it was not to last: Margaret needed more. What followed was a story of tragedy, scandal and heartbreak as Margaret swung from lover to lover, society to society. This culminated in her notorious divorce case of 1963, where her soon-to-be-ex-husband produced his pièce de résistance: a Polaroid of her in a compromising position with two other men. Using previously unpublished sources and personal transcripts, this is the story of a fragile woman who came up against the very highest echelons of English high society and lost.
Katherine Howard Henry VIII’s Slandered Queen Conor Byrne
Divorced. Beheaded. Besmirched. A fresh and insightful biography of the tarnished Tudor queen
April 2019 £18.99 9780750990608 Hardback 234x156mm, 224 pages 16 colour illustrations World rights Conor Byrne studied History at the University of Exeter and studied for an MA at the University of York. He is a former editor of Tudor Life Magazine.
Over the years, Katherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife, has been slandered as a ‘juvenile delinquent’, ‘empty-headed wanton’ and ‘natural-born tart’ who engaged in promiscuous liaisons prior to her marriage and committed adultery after her marriage to Henry VIII. This biography challenges these assumptions by drawing on seven years of research, demonstrating that Katherine’s reputation is unfairly deserved. It offers new insights into her activities as queen as well as the nature of her relationships with Manox, Dereham and Culpeper. Katherine was bright, charming and beautiful, but it was her tragedy that her premarital liaisons – in a climate of distrust and fear of female sexuality – led to her ruin in 1542. Conor Byrne challenges Katherine’s negative reputation and redeems her as Henry VIII’s slandered queen.
In the Wake of Mercedes Gleitze Open Water Swimming Pioneer Doloranda Pember
The untold story of Britain’s forgotten swimming heroine, told by her daughter
February 2019 £16.99 9780750989770 Paperback 234x156mm, 288 pages 82 b&w illustrations World rights Doloranda Pember is the daughter of Mercedes Gleitze. A consultant on the 2013 BBC documentary Mercedes: A New Age, she has also been interviewed about her mother’s career on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and appeared in a feature on The One Show on the history of open water swimming.
In 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became the first British woman to swim the English Channel, transforming her from a humble working-class typist into one of the most iconic sportswomen of her age. Fiercely independent and with no financial backing, Mercedes was at the forefront in the struggle to break through the existing prejudices against women taking part in sport. Over a ten-year period and on the back of a large number of pioneering, record-setting swims around the world, she achieved celebrity status, helped make Rolex famous, and was regularly in the spotlight of the worldwide press. Here, Mercedes’ daughter documents the remarkable story of her early life and subsequent swimming career, using Mercedes’ personal records and pictures, recollections from acquaintances and newspaper articles of the time.
Informally Royal
Studio Lisa and the Royal Family Rodney Laredo In an era of change, this couple’s relaxed portraits helped the public warm to the Royal family
March 2019 £25 9780750987936 Hardback 263x194mm, 160 pages 100 b&w illustrations World rights Rodney Laredo is a published author, photographer and public speaker. He lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.
A chance meeting in 1936 gave Lisa and Jimmy Sheridan the opportunity of a lifetime. Keen amateur photographers, their company, Studio Lisa, was engaged by the then Duke and Duchess of York to take informal, casual photographs of them and their young daughters, the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, at their home in Piccadilly. At a time of traditional formality, when it was unheard of for mere commoners to be given such an opportunity, the hiring of Studio Lisa proved to be a revolutionary and popular move on the part of the royals as it humanized them in the eyes of their subjects. They soon struck up an unlikely friendship with Lisa and Jimmy – a friendship that would span over 30 years and yield 13 separate photographic sessions, the latter including Queen Elizabeth’s young children. Informally Royal charts the story of Studio Lisa, showcasing for the first time in one volume its remarkable collection.
An Audience with Queen Victoria The Royal Opinion on 30 Famous Victorians Ian Lloyd
A unique insight into the most famous figures from the Victorian era through the eyes of the queen who ruled the empire
March 2019 £16.99 9780750989039 Paperback 234x156mm, 256 pages 30 b&w Illustrations World rights Ian Lloyd is a full-time writer and photographer, specialising in the British Royal Family. He’s had two Sunday Times bestsellers and writes regular features for the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Hello and Majesty. Ian is a regular royal pundit on Sky News, BBC News and BBC Radio 5 Live.
One of Britain’s best known and longest serving rulers, Queen Victoria witnessed widespread change across the globe. During her sixty-three year reign, in which she became one of the most powerful and influential people in the world, Victoria met everyone from Charlotte Brontë to Buffalo Bill; she had opinions on all those who graced her parlour – and some who didn’t. An Audience With Queen Victoria examines the meetings and letters exchanged between the queen and a veritable who’s who of her time. Exploring those she met officially and personally, Ian Lloyd unlocks a fascinating aspect of Victoria’s character and outlook. Through brand-new archival research, newspapers and interviews with descendants, sit alongside Victoria and experience queenship as she did for the first time.
The Times 50 Greatest Football Matches Richard Whitehead
Dive into The Times’ sporting archives and discover the greatest matches in football history
March 2019 £20 9780750990585 Hardback 234x156mm, 256 pages 21 b&w illustrations World rights Richard Whitehead was the deputy obituaries editor of The Times and had worked on the paper for nineteen years in a number of departments. He is also the obituaries editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack and a regular book reviewer for The Cricketer magazine. He edited The Times on the Ashes (THP, 2015).
From the earliest FA Cup finals in the 1870s between teams of former public schoolboys to the glittering world of twenty-first-century Champions League matches contested by squads of millionaires, The Times has been at pitchside to write the history of football as it has happened. It is a story of great matches: Hungary’s historic victory over England at Wembley in 1953, Manchester United’s triumph over Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final, Brazil’s thrashing of Italy in the 1970 World Cup final. It is a story of dazzling individual performances: Stanley Matthews finally winning an FA Cup winners’ medal at Wembley in 1953, Cristiano Ronaldo’s virtuoso performance as Real Madrid won the 2017 Champions League. It is a story of national highs and lows, from Wembley in 1966 when England ruled the world to the humiliation of losing to Iceland in the 2016 European Championship. Above all it is a story of great players, great managers and great personalities in a sport that grips the attention of the world like no other.
24 Hours at Balaclava 25 October 1854 Robert Kershaw
The shocking story of ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and beyond from eyewitness accounts, diaries and letters
April 2019 £20 9780750988889 Paperback 234x156mm, 288 pages 40 b&w illustrations World rights Robert Kershaw is a graduate of Reading University and joined the Parachute Regiment in 1973. After over thirty years in the army, serving in Northern Ireland, the First Gulf War and Bosnia, he retired to become a full-time military history author as well as a consultant military analyst in 2006.
The Battle of Balaclava, 1854, is one of the Crimean War’s standout battles. The Russians took advantage of an ill-manned area near Balaclava, forcing the British back to the Thin Red Line. A heroic and unlikely victory from the heavy brigade’s charge halted the Russian advance, putting them on the defensive. However, that was before a misinterpreted order from Raglan led to a final Allied cavalry charge, and one of the most famous and ill-fated events in British military history. Here, acclaimed military historian Robert Kershaw creates an intimate hour-by-hour account of the battle, using human stories from eyewitness accounts, diaries and letters to place the reader shoulder to shoulder with the cavalry as it charged.
She Who Dares
Ten Trailblazing Society Women Lyndsy Spence An exciting group biography of ten extraordinary women during the interwar years The extraordinary lives and powerful connections of ten trailblazing women offer a new perspective on key historical events such as the abdication, the rise of fascism and the Suffragette Movement. From the Churchills to the Mitfords, British and European Royals, to international playboys and film stars, they knew everyone. And everyone new them, for better or worse. The women include:
May 2019 £16.99 9780750988971 Paperback 234x156mm, 240 pages 25 b&w illustrations World rights Lyndsy Spence is the author of The Mitford Girls’ Guide to Life (THP, 2013), Mrs Guinness: The Rise & Fall of a Thirties Socialite (THP, 2015) and The Mistress of Mayfair (THP, 2016). She is the founder of The Mitford Society, a popular online community dedicated to the Mitford sisters.
Venetia Montagu: A debutante whose wartime relationship with H.H. Asquith gave her unreserved power Hazel Lavery: The muse of Sir John Lavery, confidante of Irish Republicans, and love interest of Michael Collins Irene Curzon: The Viceroy’s daughter and Baroness in her own right, who fought for the rights of East End prostitutes Sylvia of Sarawak: Queen of a Borneo jungle kingdom, she attempted to overthrow the line of succession to put her daughter on the throne Jean Massereene: A peeress, spiritualist, and style icon, who allied herself with Sir Edward Carson to reject Irish Home Rule
Impostress
The Dishonest Adventures of Sarah Wilson R.J. Clarke Royal or rogue? The fascinating story of the real-life Moll Flanders who recreated herself as Queen Charlotte’s sister
May 2019 £12.99 9780750989923 Paperback 198x129mm, 272 pages 30 b&w illustrations World rights R.J. Clarke is a volunteer researcher for the Victoria County History Hampshire project, and an established author. He gives regular talks on historical subjects and has appeared on television numerous times, including on The One Show.
Beginning in her late teens, Sarah Wilson travelled England on wits alone, often reinventing herself as an aristocrat’s daughter and twisting her tale to match her mark. She fooled the rich, the poor and the powerful into providing her with food, shelter, money and expensive clothes. Eventually caught and transported to America, she escaped her new master and resumed her dishonest scheming. This time it was the ruse of a lifetime: she became the honoured guest of the rich plantation owners of the deep south by posing as Queen Charlotte’s sister. So successful was her deception that she remained the queen’s sister: she was in Boston during the Tea Party, and gained the support of various New England puritans and of active supporters of the American Revolution. Based on evidence in contemporary documents, R.J. Clarke captures the atmosphere of the era and takes the reader along to experience Sarah’s dishonest but remarkable adventures.
Project Apollo
The Moon Odyssey Explained Norman Ferguson Launch into the world’s most famous spaceflights with facts and figures about the astronauts, the spacecraft and their historic missions
May 2019 £9.99 9780750989787 Hardback 198x129mm, 192 pages 20 b&w illustrations World rights Norman Ferguson has had a lifelong interest in spaceflight and aviation. His books include From Airbus to Zeppelin and The Little Book of Aviation (both THP), and he has also written comedy for BBC radio and BBC and Channel 4 television.
The Apollo missions to the Moon are some of the most successful and well-remembered manned spaceflights that NASA has ever accomplished, taking place in the heyday of space travel. Indeed, the programme was the only one to achieve the ultimate goal of placing humankind on the Moon, which it did no less than six times between 1969 and 1972. Here aviation author Norman Ferguson reveals fascinating facts and figures, and recounts amazing stories about the astronauts, their spacecraft and their missions whose achievements have never been surpassed.
A History of the Tudors in 100 Objects John Matusiak
The vivid panorama of Tudor life laid bare in a fascinating new way
June 2019 £14.99 9780750991254 Paperback 234x156mm, 352 Pages 100 colour illustrations World rights John Matusiak studied at the universities of London and Sussex before embarking upon a teaching career that eventually spanned more than thirty years. He is the acclaimed author of Henry VIII (THP, 2012), Wolsey (THP, 2013) and the forthcoming Martyrs of Henry VIII (THP, 2019).
This seminal period of British history is a far-off world in which poverty, violence and superstition went handin-hand with opulence, religious virtue and a thriving cultural landscape, at once familiar and alien to the modern reader. John Matusiak sets out to shed new light on the lives and times of the Tudors by exploring the objects they left behind. Among them, a silver-gilt board badge discarded at Bosworth Field when Henry VII won the English crown; the infamous Halifax gibbet, on which some 100 people were executed; scientific advancements such as the prosthetic arm and the first flushing toilet; and curiosities including a ladies’ sun mask, ‘Prince Arthur’s hutch’ and the Danny jewel, which was believed to be made from the horn of a unicorn.
The Last Cambridge Spy
John Cairncross, Bletchley Codebreaker and Soviet Double Agent Chris Smith The life and secrets of the fifth member of the Cambridge spy ring – the most enigmatic of them all – are finally revealed John Cairncross was among the most damaging spies of the twentieth century. A member of the infamous Cambridge spy ring, he leaked highly sensitive documents from Bletchley Park, MI6 and the Treasury to the Soviet Union – including the first atomic secrets and raw decrypts from Enigma and Tunny that influenced the outcome of the Battle of Kursk. Based on newly released archival materials, this biography will be the first to cover the life and espionage of this singularly important spy.
May 2019 £20 9780750981477 Hardback 234x156mm, 256 pages 20 b&w illustrations World rights Chris Smith is a lecturer in Modern British and European History at the University of Kent. He has published a monograph on the history of Bletchley Park. He has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Making History.
Windrush
A Ship Through Time Paul Arnott The wider story of the vessel that forever changed our ethnic makeup and created modern Britain
June 2019 £20 9780750989862 Hardback 234x156mm, 304 pages 30 b&w illustrations World English Language rights Paul Arnott’s career in media began at the Independent and Time Out as an arts correspondent before becoming a television producer. He also owns Edenwood Productions, and is the author of A Good Likeness: A Personal Story of Adoption (Little, Brown), Let Me Eat Cake (Hodder) and Is Anybody Up There? (Hodder).
For three decades the Windrush was the maritime Zelig of the twentieth century, playing different roles in the most turbulent years in modern times. Designed in 1930 in the Hamburg boatyard of a Jewish shipbuilder to ferry Germans to a new life in South America, it wasn’t long before Goebbels requisitioned her as one of his ‘Strength Through Joy’ vessels. Her duties soon darkened: she became a Nazi troop carrier, a support vessel for the pocket battleship Tirpitz and a prison ship transporting Jews to Auschwitz. Captured by the British in Kiel in 1945 and renamed the SS Empire Windrush, she then spent years evacuating displaced service people and, in her famous single voyage from the Caribbean, she brought the first wave of black migrants to Britain, thus changing the country’s ethnic makeup for all time. Windrush: A Ship Through Time is Paul Arnott’s vivid biography of a unique vessel, combining the memories of people who were there with a gripping account of an extraordinary merchant ship at the end of empires.
A History of Gardening in 50 Objects George Drower
A stunning treasure trove of images exploring the history of gardening
June 2019 ÂŁ20 9780750991308 Hardback 234x156mm, 256 pages 75 colour illustrations World rights George Drower is a writer and historian, specialising in garden history and overseas territories. He has written a number of political biographies and articles on garden history for publications including The Times, The Sunday Times, Traditional Homes and House & Garden.
The earliest record of an enclosed space around a homestead comes from 10,000 BCE and since then gardens of varying types and ambition have been popular throughout the ages. Whether ornamental, wild cottage gardens, container gardens blooming over unforgiving concrete or one turned over for growing produce, gardens exist in all shapes and sizes, in all manner of ways. Today we benefit from centuries of development, be it in cultivation of desirable blossom or larger fruits, in the technology to keep weeds and lawn at bay or even from garden visionaries who tore up rulebooks and cultivated pure creativity in their green spaces.   Here George Drower takes fifty objects that have helped create the gardening scene we know today, exploring the history of beautiful, fruitful outside spaces in a truly unique way. With stunning botanical and archive images, and colourful photographs, this lavish volume is one no garden lover should be without.
Unfamiliar Underground
Finding the Calm in the Chaos of London’s Tube Stations Victoria Louise Howard The true story of how the London Underground helped one photographer face her fear
August 2019 £20 9780750990561 Hardback 235x192mm, 176 pages 278 colour illustrations World rights Victoria Louise Howard is a passionate photographer, holding a HNC in photography from the University of West London and currently studying to gain her BA with the Open College of Arts.
We are all so familiar with bustling tube stations and overcrowded carriages, but have you ever wondered what the London Underground looks like empty? Victoria Howard’s haunting, peaceful photographs showcase just that: beautiful architecture, engineering and design as you have never seen it before. Inspired by her own fear of confined underground spaces, she set herself the goal of capturing every tube station, empty – a personal journey that has taken 5 years to complete. This is a book about looking at the tube in an unfamiliar way, capturing the history, beauty and tranquillity of a London Underground that is rarely seen by those who use it the most.
Coconut
How the Shy Fruit Shaped Our World Robin Laurance A romp through history that reveals how the coconut has shaped and continues to shape our world
July 2019 ÂŁ15.99 9780750990615 Hardback 216x138mm, 224 pages 20 b&w and 32 colour illustrations World rights Robin Laurance has been writing as a freelance journalist for 35 years, contributing articles to The Times, The Guardian and The Sunday Times among other magazines. He has previously written Portrait of Islam.
Such disparate characters as an English earl, an American president, Imelda Marcos, a celebrated German nudist, Captain Bligh of the Bounty, and a billion Hindus feature in this fascinating global history. The coconut has long been the unseen player in the endeavours of industrialists and bomb makers, physicians and silversmiths, smugglers and snake charmers. The millions of gas masks produced in readiness for World War II had filters packed with coconut charcoal; sixteenth-century European craftsmen gilded coconuts with silver and gold; early seafarers were sustained by its fresh water and nutritious flesh, using the husk to make the rope for the ships’ rigging and more of it to arrest the inevitable leaks in the ships’ hulls. Today, the world and his visitors wipe their feet on coir matting and coconutbased products line the shelves of supermarkets and health food shops. This is the remarkable history of the most widely used plant nature has conceived.
A Rum Tale
Spirit of the New World Joseph Piercy Set sail to discover the global history and enduring legacy of ‘Nelson’s Blood’
July 2019 £12.99 9780750990806 Hardback 198x129mm, 224 pages 12 b&w illustrations World rights Joseph Piercy studied English and Philosophy at the University of Wolverhampton and holds a Master’s degree in Creative Writing. He is the author of eleven books of non-fiction including Slippery Tipples: A Guide to Weird and Wonderful Spirits and Liqueurs (THP, 2018).
Steeped in a long, diverse history, rum is a spirit that has meaning in cultures across the globe. Here Joseph Piercy delves into the rich history of rum, from the invasion of the Caribbean to the real pirates of the Caribbean who gave us some of our best known brands of rum today, such as Henry ‘Captain’ Morgan. He explores the legend of Nelson’s blood (whose body was said to be stored in a rum barrel for transport) and the rum-running of Prohibitionera United States, which stoked the Bacardi family’s rise to fame and fortune. As it experiences a long-overdue resurgence in popularity, alongside a fascinating history, Piercy shares his experience of this versatile spirit, listing rums not to miss and delicious rum-based cocktails you can try at home. This is a fun little book that no drinks connoisseur should be without.
As Far as the Eye can See A History of Seeing S.M. Denham
The evolution of sight from first illumination to selfie flashes, and what we can see from here
September 2019 £20 9780750987035 Hardback 234x156mm, 256 pages 32 b&w illustrations World rights
S. M. Denham spent many years as head of the BBC’s strategy unit, studying the relationship between television viewers, content, and technology. She has a first class degree in Economics and Law from Sydney University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
From the mastery of fire a million years ago, humans repeatedly invented new ways to see their surroundings, each other and themselves. Artificial light, early art, mirrors, writing, lenses, printing, photography, film, television, smartphones. These tools didn’t just add to our visual repertoire, they shaped Western culture and made us who we are. As Far As the Eye Can See traces the history of seeing using eleven inventions, from the first evolutionary stirrings of sight to the present. It reveals that with each new invention that changed how or what we see, we changed ourselves, and the world around us. Visual technologies propelled the human journey from walking apes to masters of nature to self-obsessed screen junkies. And with each revolution in seeing, sight slowly eclipsed our other senses. Having come this far, are we now at peak seeing? Can our eyes keep up with technology’s relentless march? Have we gone as far as the eye can see?
A History of the World with the Women Put Back In Kerstin Lücker & Ute Daenschel
A feminist global history reinstating women to their rightful place
September 2019 £20 9780750989091 Paperback 234x156mm, 416 pages World English Language rights
Kerstin Lücker studied musicology, philosophy and Slavic studies and graduated in music theory. She works as a translator, author and editor and lives in Berlin. Ute Daenschel studied German literature and history and works as a freelance editor. She lives with her family in Berlin.
Not just another collection of short biographies, this book adds women’s stories to the wider context of global history. Our perception of history is formed by those who record it, and traditionally it has been told by men, for men, about the achievements of men. Women were often deemed less important, their letters destroyed, their stories ignored. This book attempts to discover some of the missing pieces of the big puzzle of world history, by examining the sources and telling women’s stories alongside men’s. It’s a history of sexism and of the ideas and assumptions that allowed misogyny to become so entrenched worldwide. Looking at the rise and fall of religions and ideas about society and how to live, it asks ‘have we always been patriarchal?’, and if not where and when did it all start? Includes Empress Theodora, La Malinche, Cristine de Pizan, Olga of Kiev, Harriet Tubman and many, many more…
Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp is a literary translator specialising in historic texts from German, Russian and Arabic; she is the translator of Ulrich Raulff’s Farewell to the Horse. Jessica West is a translator of non-fiction books from German and Russian; she co-translated of Peter Wohlleben’s The Weather Detective.
prettycitynewyork
Discovering New York’s Beautiful Places Siobhan Ferguson The prettiest guide to the Big Apple’s hidden streets
September 2019 £25 9780750990707 Hardback 245x190mm, 224 pages 250 colour illustrations World rights Siobhan Ferguson is the curator and founder of the hugely popular Instagram accounts, @prettycitylondon, @theprettycities, and @siobhaise. A photographer and social media consultant, she is the author of prettycitylondon: Discovering London’s Beautiful Places.
New York City is known for many things: its urban, high-rise landscape, the bustling atmosphere and busy business and tourist spots. Pretty tree-lined avenues, cute shops and serene getaways do not immediately come to mind for this cosmopolitan city, but they are there. Acclaimed Instagrammer Siobhan Ferguson, author of prettycitylondon (THP, 2o18), now turns her discerning eye to the Big Apple itself. Travel along with her as she uncovers the hidden gems – the sweet, secluded alleys, the fantastic markets, the artisan boutiques – that New York has to offer, and reveals the beautiful, the quaint and the downright pretty scattered among the urban landscape of the world’s most famous city. Stunning photographs alongside fantastic tips to take your own pictures and create a prettycitynewyork experience for yourself make this the perfect book for visitors and armchair travellers alike.
Making Movie Magic
A Lifetime Creating Special Effects for James Bond, Harry Potter, Superman & More John Richardson Go behind the scenes with Oscarwinning special effects master John Richardson
October 2019 £25 9780750991230 Hardback 245x190mm, 256 pages 100 b&w and 100 colour illustrations World rights John Richardson has enjoyed a 50-year career in the film business as an acclaimed special effects technician and supervisor. He has been Oscar-nominated five times and won for Aliens in 1986. He has worked on over sixty films including all seven Harry Potter films and nine James Bond films.
John Richardson has been involved in over 60 movies, including nine James Bond adventures, all seven Harry Potter films, Aliens, Superman, A Bridge Too Far, Straw Dogs, The Omen, Cliffhanger, Far and Away, Willow ... and many, many others. In creating the magic that flows through these films, be it by means of creating huge explosions, beheading a man, producing futuristic gadgets, making a man fly or breathing life into creatures that both amaze and haunt us, Richardson holds a unique place in cinema history. The son of pioneering F/X technician Cliff Richardson, he learned his trade at the feet of a master of the craft, and by building on his father’s early work and pushing boundaries further.
Royal Witches
From Joan of Navarre to Elizabeth Woodville Gemma Hollman Double, double, royal trouble
October 2019 £16.99 9780750989404 Paperback 234x156mm, 288 10 b&w illustrations World rights Gemma Hollman has a Master’s degree in Medieval History from the University of York.
Until the mass hysteria of the seventeenth century, accusations of witchcraft in England were rare. However, four royal women, related in family and in court ties – Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Woodville – were accused of practising witchcraft in order to kill or influence the king. Some of these women may have turned to the dark arts, but the purpose of the accusations was purely political. Despite their status, these women were vulnerable because of their gender as the men around them moved them like pawns for political gains. In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches. In a time when the line between science and magic was blurred, these trials offer a tantalising insight of how accusations of malicious magic would be used against ‘troublesome’ people and cause such mass hysteria in centuries to come.
Under the Covers
A Very Intimate History of Sex Jessica Cale and J.V Polsom-Jenkins The bare, naked truth of the surprising history of sex and sexuality
November 2019 £16.99 9780750990097 Paperback 234x156mm, 256 pages 20 b&w illustrations World rights Jessica Cale is the editor and primary writer of the popular history blog Dirty, Sexy History. She is has written for BBC History Magazine, and is a member of the Royal Historical Society. J.V. Polsom-Jenkins has a PhD in History and is co-editor and contributor to Dirty, Sexy History.
The chastity belt, pious abstinence and Victorian prudishness: there is an accepted assumption that people of the past were more sexually conservative than those today, and in turn that their reservation made them morally superior. However, while times change, people don’t: outside of the high-profile shows of chasteness, the common person has had the same desires through history – what is accepted about sexual history is largely an invention of historians, politicians and religious leaders, each with the ability to censor all that went against their agenda. At a time when sexual and personal freedom are at their height in the western world, this nostalgia for ‘more innocent’ times sows seeds of bigotry and prejudice, especially against women, sex workers and the LGBTQ community. Cale and Polsom-Jenkins sunder the myth of chastity that pervades western history, using brand-new research to set the record straight.
Deception
How the Nazis Tricked the Last Jews of Europe Christopher Hale Goods for blood, blood for goods. The complete story of how Adolf Eichmann deceived the last Jews of Europe
September 2019 £20 9780750988179 Hardback 234x156mm, 320 pages 20 b&w illustrations World rights Christopher Hale is a non-fiction writer and documentary producer. He is the author of Himmler’s Crusade, which won the prestigious Italian Premio Gambrinus ‘Giuseppe Mazzotti’ prize. Hitler’s Foreign Executioners was longlisted for the History Today/Longman’s History Book of the Year in 2011. He lives in Berlin.
In the spring of 1944, Heinrich Himmler’s SS had murdered millions of Jews in Europe. Only the Jewish community in Hungary remained intact. But in a period of a few months in the summer of 1944, Adolf Eichmann and his Hungarian collaborators organised the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz. By the time this terrible tragedy began to unfold, the leaders of the Allied powers knew much about the slaughter in occupied Europe. In Hungary, a group of Zionists fought to rescue Jews from the jaws of death. And yet the Allies did nothing – and the rescue missions failed. Did the rescuers unwittingly play into the hands of Himmler’s strategy of deception that led to the tragedy of the Hungarian Holocaust?
SS Nomadic
Titanic’s Little Sister Philippe Delaunoy
QE2
The Cunard Line Flagship, Queen Elizabeth 2 Ronald W. Warwick
SS Nomadic was commissioned by White Star Line to serve Olympic class liners RMS Olympic, Titanic and Britannic when calling in Cherbourg. Built in Belfast alongside Titanic’s construction site, she was made with the same steel, built by the same workers and decorated by the same craftsmen. The little tender has a tremendous story, surviving both world wars, escaping destruction many times, and now restored to her former glory as a tourist attraction in Belfast.
When the Queen Elizabeth 2 entered service in 1969 she was the last of the great transatlantic liners and the sole survivor of a bygone era. The QE2 made an instant impact worldwide and went on to have an illustrious career spanning four decades. This long-awaited new edition presents the colourful history of the Cunard Line and an engrossing narrative of the ship’s eventful history.
April 2019 £20 9780750988070 Paperback 224x245mm, 168 pages 240 colour illustrations World rights
April 2019 £30 9780750989398 Hardback 224x245mm, 216 pages 63 b&w and 156 colour illustrations World rights
D-Day
D-Day 1944
Before and After
The Making of Victory Anthony Tucker-Jones
D-Day: 6 June 1944, Operation Overlord saw Allied forces land on the beaches of northern France; within a few short weeks, more than one million men had come ashore, along with vehicles, ammunition and equipment, though the advances came at a terrible price. This collection of photographs from the Mirrorpix archives remembers the lead up to, the landings and the aftermath as Allied forces moved into occupied Europe.
An invasion of this scale and magnitude of D-Day had never been carried out before. This dramatic new study investigates the great feats of unique problem solving that enabled each side to maintain success dealing with such an important invasion. Military historian Anthony TuckerJones assesses the D-Day landings and subsequent Normandy campaign, re-assessing the technical ingenuity required through the eyes of those who fought there.
May 2019 ÂŁ12.99 9780750990660 Hardback 190x168mm, 144 pages 120 b&w illustrations World English language rights
May 2019 ÂŁ25 9780750988032 Hardback 234x156mm, 304 pages 30 b&w illustrations World rights
Codeword Overlord
Gunners in Normandy
The Allied invasion of Europe during summer 1944 was widely expected and it fell to the Axis intelligence services to provide High Command with advance warning of the precise date and place of the landings. For the first time, acclaimed author Nigel West provides the full story of Axis intelligence and how they affected the events of the D-Day landings.
The official account of the Royal Artillery’s activities in the Normandy campaign, this is a key book for any serving members of the Regiment: the book includes mention of every Regiment that served, a Roll of Honour, a list of the dead by unit showing where their relatives are buried along with details of how to visit the gunners’ graves and memorials. Interviews with veterans, papers and documents from the Firepower Archives, terrain studies, personal memoirs, war diaries and other official documents, make this the definitive account.
May 2019 £25 9780750989930 Hardback 234x156mm, 352 pages 24 b&w illustrations
May 2019 £50 9780750990448 Hardback 234x156mm, 672 pages 69 b&w and 35 colour illustrations World rights
Axis Espionage and the D-Day Landings Nigel West
The History of the Royal Artillery in North-West Europe Will Townend, Major Frank Baldwin
London Folk Tales for Children
Animals, Beasties and Monsters of Scotland
London Folk Tales for Children gathers stories from the words and memories of Londoners past and present. They tell of the mighty river, the streets, and the hills of London. You’ll find stories of babies that turn into flowers, of tower ravens and a two-headed bird, and a child who has to travel across the world all alone. You’ll also meet the people of this welcoming city: ever since the Romans, people have come here from all over the world to become Londoners. They’ve brought delicious foods, new music and hundreds of languages, but, most of all, great stories – London stories.
These stories are wild. These stories are magic. Maybe it’s wrong to try and trap them in a book. Maybe you should set them free and tell them. Some of these stories are strange and sad, some are a bit scary and some are a bit mad. The ancestors liked them, which is why they passed them down to us. Read them, tell them and pass them on! These stories – specially chosen to be enjoyed by 7-11 year old readers – sparkle with magic and explode with adventure. As old as the mountains and the sea, they are freshly remade for today’s readers by Scottish storyteller Lea Taylor.
January 2019 £9.99 9780750986892 Paperback 198x129mm, 192 pages 30 b&w illustrations World rights
March 2019 £9.99 9780750986861 Paperback 198x129mm, 192 pages 30 b&w illustrations World rights
Anne Johnson and Sef Townsend
Lea Taylor
Forest Folk Tales for Children Tom Phillips
The Magpie’s Nest Taffy Thomas
Nestled within our green and pleasant land lies pockets of emerald trees. Their roots search deep into the ground and the branches reach high towards the sun. For centuries some of these have stood, watching and listening to the human creatures living among them, hearing their stories and remembering. What stories could these woodlands tell if the trees could speak? Stories of brave deeds, foolish men and starcrossed lovers, of monsters, giants and witches. Discover some of the tales of our forests in this engaging collection of folk tales selected for readers aged 7-11.
From crowded train stations to quiet woods, and from city centres to our own back gardens, birds remind us that nature is everywhere. As children we are fascinated by these magical flying creatures that live amongst us, and as adults we have a fondness for our feathered friends. For the first time one of Britain’s finest storytellers has gathered together the best folk tales about birds. Suitable for all ages and charmingly illustrated by Lakeland artist Becca Hall, this is an essential collection of stories for all who love the natural world.
June 2019 £12 9780750991414 Hardback 198x129mm, 192 pages 30 b&w illustrations World rights
June 2019 £9.99 9780750990059 Hardback 198x129mm, 128 pages 25 b&w and 10 colour illustrations World rights
B ACK L IST RIG H TS H IG H L IG H TS
9780750967143 Serbian, Korean and Bengali rights sold; musical rights optioned
780750989800 German and Audio rights sold
9780750948357 US rights sold
9780750989190 Estonian rights sold; opera rights optioned
B ACK L IST RIG H TS H IG H L IG H TS
9780750987820 Polish, Greek and French rights sold
9780752425597 Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian rights sold
9780752487182 Polish, Swedish, Russian, Spanish and Finnish rights sold
9780752459677 Brazilian, Danish, and Romanian rights sold
K E Y PA PE RBACKS
January 2019 9780750989213
£14.99
July 2019 9780750990417
£25
August 2019 9780750990820
£12.99
September 2019 £14.99 9780750990813
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