Ban This Filth!: Letters From the Mary Whitehouse Archive


Ben Thompson - 2012
    Over the next 37 years, her name became a byword for censoriousness. All the hundreds of letters this redoubtable campaigner sent, and most of the many thousands she subsequently received, were preserved in the archives of her National Viewers and Listeners Association.Sifting through this unique compendium of outrage and affront, Ben Thompson uncovers a startling new perspective on Mary Whitehouse's stand against a tsunami of swearing and sexual license. Far from the last of a dying breed, might she actually have been the harbinger - if not quite the agent - of a change in the tide of cultural history?

Godchildren


Nicholas Coleridge - 2002
    But soon, secrets will be revealed that dramatically alter the tone of this holiday weekend, and all will have to confront a web of betrayals and lies spanning four decades…Each from a different background, the godchildren grew up enthralled by their godfather: Charlie, fascinated by Marcus's wealth; Mary, whose life is blighted by tragedy; Jamie, feckless but utterly charming; Saffron, stunningly beautiful but unaware of her power over men; Abigail, insecure and gauche; and Stuart, who is torn between admiration and hatred for his capitalist godfather.  Godchildren is an epic tale; powerful, engrossing, and impossible to put down. With his trademark blend of wicked satire and impeccable writing, Coleridge has created gloriously jaw dropping portrait of the British upper crust.

An American Guide to Britishness


Alana Muir - 2012
    An educational and humorous look at life, language and culture in Britain through the eyes of an American who lives in Scotland, sometimes against her will.

Breadline Britain: The Rise of Mass Poverty


Stewart Lansley - 2015
    Food bank queues are growing, levels of severe deprivation have been rising, and increasing numbers of children are left with their most basic needs unmet.Based on exclusive access to the largest ever survey of poverty in the UK, and its predecessor surveys in the 1980s and 1990s, Stewart Lansley and Joanna Mack track changes in deprivation and paint a devastating picture of the reality of poverty today and its causes. Shattering the myth that poverty is the fault of the poor and a generous benefit system, they show that the blame lies with the massive social and economic upheaval that has shifted power from the workforce to corporations and swelled the ranks of the working poor, a group increasingly at the mercy of low-pay, zero-hour contracts and downward social mobility.The high levels of poverty in the UK are not ordained but can be traced directly to the political choices taken by successive governments. Lansley and Mack outline an alternative economic and social strategy that is both perfectly feasible and urgently necessary if we are to reverse the course of the last three decades.

A Mother for His Family


Susanne Dietze - 2018
    An arranged union is the only solution. But once Helena weds formidable Scottish widower John Gordon, Lord Ardoch, and encounters his four mischievous children, she’s determined to help her new, ever-surprising family. Even if she’s sure love is too much to ask for.All John needs is someone to mother his admittedly unruly brood. He never imagined that beautiful Lady Helena would be a woman of irresistible spirit, caring and warmth. Or that facing down their pasts would give them so much in common. Now, as danger threatens, John will do whatever it takes to convince Helena their future together—and his love—are for always.

The Last Hillwalker: A sideways look at forty years in Britain's Mountains


John D. Burns - 2017
    John Burns takes you on a journey of over forty years from the hills of Britain to adventures in the Rocky Mountains of USA and Canada. His love for the Scottish Highlands and his intimate knowledge of its wild glens and distant peaks means that this book will resonate with anyone whose heart lies in Scotland. Join John Burns in his first faltering steps as a schoolboy in the English Lake District through to climbing adventures in the great ranges of the world and finally to his return to his beloved Highlands. This is a book about the people who love mountains and whose journeys amongst them enrich their lives. It is a story told with humour, humility and passion, a tale that displays a deeper understanding of what it is to have a relationship with nature. The Last Hillwalker has become a best seller amongst the outdoor community. With almost 100 FIVE STAR REVIEWS this is book will be enjoyed by everyone from the serious mountaineer to those who simply want to gain a greater insight into our relationship with wild places. Here’s what people say about the book… Chris Townsend Captures the essence of what it means to love mountains and love being in mountains. Trev C gripping like no other NS Eyre captures the essence of the appeal many of us feel for the mountains A Reader perfectly paced and with great humour Yorrell Entertaining, funny and well written. S McGinn Full of fascinating details, observations, characters and humour Paul a brilliant autobiography by a talented writer, full of humour with the occasional dark moment. The best mountaineering book I've read in a long time!

Joan


Anne R. Bailey - 2015
    This is the story of Joan de Geneville, wife to one of England's most infamous traitors: Roger Mortimer. After the death of her father in 1292, Joan becomes one of the greatest English Heiress of her generation. In a time when women are subservient, she is raised by her mother to command. Educated by her tutors, she becomes a formidable woman in her own right. When Joan is married her husband's lust for power knows no bounds. She is forced to choose between her duty to her King and her loyalty to her husband. Book One of the Forgotten Women of History Series

To War With Wellington: From The Peninsula To Waterloo


Peter Snow - 2010
    What made Arthur Duke of Wellington the military genius who was never defeated in battle? Peter Snow recalls how Wellington evolved from a backward, sensitive schoolboy into the aloof but brilliant commander.

Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled


Tim Heald - 2007
    Tim Heald's vivid and elegant biography portrays a woman who was beautiful and sexually alluring—even more so than Princess Diana years later—and whose reputation for naughtiness co-existed with the glamour. The mythology is that Margaret's life was "ruined" by her not being allowed to marry the one true love of her life—Group Captain Peter Townsend. Therefore her marriage to Lord Snowdon and her well-attested relationships with Roddy Llewellyn and others were mere consolation prizes. Margaret's often exotic personal life in places like Mustique is a key part of her story. The author received extraordinary help from those closest to Princess Margaret, including her family (Lord Snowdon and her son, Lord Linley), three of her private secretaries, and many of her ladies in waiting; as well as gaining the Queen's permission to use the royal archives. Heald asks why one of the most famous and loved little girls in the world, who became a juvenile wartime sweetheart, ended her life a sad wheelchairbound figure, publicly reviled and ignored. This is a story of a life in which the private and the public seemed permanently in conflict.

The Innocent and the Dead


Robert McNeill - 2019
    A local distiller’s daughter has gone missing, and when he receives a ransom note, his fears that it is a kidnapping are confirmed. Knox decides to take a serious risk to capture the abductors, but the stakes could not be higher. The father is wealthy and well-connected. If Knox’s gamble goes wrong, he’ll have hell to pay. DI Jack Knox is a likeable detective. He likes the odd dram, hankers after his family who are based in Australia, and has a relationship with a colleague he tries to keep under wraps.

Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England


Michael Livingston - 2021
    On one side stood the shield-wall of the expanding kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons. On the other side stood a remarkable alliance of rival kings – at least two from across the sea – who'd come together to destroy them once and for all. The stakes were no less than the survival of the dream that would become England. The armies were massive. The violence, when it began, was enough to shock a violent age. Brunanburh may not today have the fame of Hastings, Crécy or Agincourt, but those later battles, fought for England, would not exist were it not for the blood spilled this day. Generations later it was still called, quite simply, the 'great battle'. But for centuries, its location has been lost. Today, an extraordinary effort, uniting enthusiasts, historians, archaeologists, linguists, and other researchers – amateurs and professionals, experienced and inexperienced alike – may well have found the site of the long-lost battle of Brunanburh, over a thousand years after its bloodied fields witnessed history. This groundbreaking new book tells the story of this remarkable discovery and delves into why and how the battle happened. Most importantly, though, it is about the men who fought and died at Brunanburh, and how much this forgotten struggle can tell us about who we are and how we relate to our past.

The Custard Corpses: A delicious 1940s mystery (The Erdington Mysteries, #1).


M.J. Porter - 2021
    But, his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason, and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years, the chance to finally solve the case, while all around them is uncertainty, impossible to ignore.

The Storm Without


Tony Black - 2012
    This is a new novel by the acclaimed Scottish writer Tony Black who Irving Welsh described as his "favorite British crime writer."

The Bookshop on the Corner


Jenny Colgan - 2016
    Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile—a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.

Reforming the Gambler


Mindy Burbidge Strunk - 2019
    She has everything to lose. Lord Ian Pinkerton enjoyed a carefree life, until his brother cut him off without a penny. After he wins an estate, he thinks his luck may be changing. Until he sees it. With no funds to fix his rundown estate, Ian considers leaving Scotland until he meets his beautiful neighbor. But to his surprise, she seems to detest him. Catriona Melton, Baroness of Crannach, has been in hiding with her son on a remote Scottish isle. When she meets the handsome Lord Ian, she quickly decides she wants nothing to do with him. But every encounter they have seems to contradict her earlier assumptions. When an old foe threatens to take everything from Cat, Ian steps in to help and Cat must decide if her old assumptions or her heart will prevail.