Richard III: The Maligned King


Annette Carson - 2008
    In response to the recent upsurge of interest, her 2009 paperback has been updated with details of the discovery plus new illustrations, and a larger typeface for easier readability. Carson's premise is that for centuries the vision of Richard III has been dominated by the fictional creations of Thomas More and Shakespeare. Many voices, some of them eminent and scholarly, have urged a more reasoned view to replace the traditional black portrait. This book seeks to redress the balance by examining the events of his reign as they actually happened, based on reports in the original sources. Eschewing the overlay of assumptions so beloved by historians, she instead traces actions and activities of the principal characters, using facts and time-lines revealed in documentary evidence. In the process Carson dares to investigate areas where historians fear to tread, and raises many controversial questions.

Life in Medieval Europe: Fact and Fiction


Danièle Cybulskie - 2019
    Find out whether people bathed, what they did when they got sick, and what actually happened to people accused of crimes. Learn about medieval table manners, tournaments, and toothpaste, and find out if people really did poop in the moat.

The Falklands War There and Back Again: The Story of Naval Party 8901


Mike Norman - 2018
    But events turned out differently, for the next day the Argentines invaded and he and his forty-three Royal Marines found themselves fighting for their lives.They took up defensive positions around Government House and on the approach to Stanley from Cape Pembroke to protect the Governor Rex Hunt and delay the advance to Stanley. They were prepared to die executing his orders. After a desperate battle in the gardens and even inside the house against superior numbers Rex Hunt ordered them to lay down their arms. As the surrender took place, an Argentine told a marine: ‘The islands are ours now’. The response was simple: ‘We will be back’. They were, and this is their story.The Royal Marines of Naval Party 8901 as well as some members of the previous detachment volunteered to join the Task Force and, some seventy-five days later, the men who witnessed the raising of the Argentine flag over the islands on 2 April saw the triumphant return of the Union Jack.Mike Norman’s dramatic account draws on his own vivid recollections, the log recording the defense of Government House, the testimony of the marines under his command and newly released files from government archives. It is a powerful and moving tribute to the marines who confronted the Argentines when they invaded and then fought to force them out.

Winter King: Murder in Henry's Court


Anne Stevens - 2015
    He is without a male heir, and the future of the English throne hangs in the balance. Powerful men, such as Cromwell, Lord Percy and the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk vie for power. Into this world rides Captain Will Draper, a soldier fresh from the wars, and with an important message. Cardinal Wolsey is dead. Intrigue follows intrigue, and Will finds himself in a race to uncover a murderer. The politics and chicanery of court life threaten to ruin his investigation, and leave the way clear for the most heinous crime of all. This is the debut novel of Anne Stevens, and captures Tudor England in all its moods: Palaces, fine houses, Bawds, rich nobles and the poorest, all mingle to create an atmospheric book that entwines historical fact with fast paced fiction. Winter King is a whodunnit not to be missed.

The Pegasus and Orne Bridges: Their Capture, Defences and Relief on D-Day


Neil Barber - 2009
    

The Winter Kill


J.R. Tomlin - 2016
    When the sheriff of Perth demands that Sir Law show that the death was not an inconvenient murder, Law thinks this looks like an easy job. But circumstances seem to conspire against him, and another murder follows. Soon the King's chancellor becomes involved, making the mystery even more dangerous. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls, his friend Cormac plunges into danger; and Law again encounters the thief who has already been a thorn in his side. When answers start to emerge, Sir Law gets more than he bargained for…

Kings & Queens of England


Brenda Ralph Lewis - 2003
    Hundreds of fascinating tales of murder, mayhem, and scandal are brought to life with contemporary accounts, archival paintings, photographs and vivid illustrations--together with detailed family trees showing the tangled lineage of each royal dynasty.

Leviathan: The Rise of Britain as a World Power


David Scott - 2013
    

Elfrida: The First Crowned Queen of England


Elizabeth Norton - 2013
    She was the first woman to be crowned queen of England, sharing her husband King Edgar's imperial coronation at Bath in 973. The couple made a love match, with claims that they plotted the death of her first husband to ensure that she was free. Edgar divorced his second wife, a former nun, after conducting an adulterous affair with Elfrida, leading to an enmity between the two women that lasted until their deaths.During her marriage, Elfrida claimed to be the king's only legitimate wife, but she failed to secure the succession for her son, Ethelred. Elfrida plotted against her stepson, King Edward the Martyr, before arranging his murder at Corfe Castle, where she lived with her son. She then ruled England on behalf of her young son for six years before he expelled her from court. Elfrida was eventually able to return to court but, since he proved himself unable to counter the Viking attacks, she may have come to regret winning the crown for Ethelred the Unready.Wife, mother, murderer, ruler, crowned queen. The life of Queen Elfrida was filled with drama as she rose to become the most powerful woman in Anglo-Saxon England.

Richard the Third


Paul Murray Kendall - 1955
    Paul Murray Kendall's masterful account of the life of England's King Richard III has remained the standard biography of this controversial figure.

Jet Man: The Making and Breaking of Frank Whittle, Genius of the Jet Revolution


Duncan Campbell-Smith - 2020
    In 1985 Hans von Ohain, the scientist who pioneered Nazi Germany's efforts to build a jet plane, posed the question: 'Would World War II have occured if the Luftwaffe knew it faced operational British jets instead of Spitfires?' He immediately answered, 'I, for one, think not.'Frank Whittle, working-class outsider and self-taught enthusiast, had worked out the blueprint of a completely new type of engine in 1929, only for his ideas to be blocked by bureaucratic opposition until the outbreak of war in 1939. The importance of his work was recognized too late by the government for his revolutionary engine to play a major part in World War II. After the war Whittle's dream of civilian jet-powered aircraft became a reality and Britain enjoyed a golden age of 1950's jet-powered flight.Drawing on Whittle's extensive private papers, Campbell-Smith tells the story of a stoic and overlooked British hero, a tantalizing tale of 'what might have been'.

Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail: Mexico to Canada


Bruce Buck Nelson - 2018
    For five months I hiked through the California desert, the snows of the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington. My goal was to succeed in an epic challenge: to hike 2,650 miles and reach Canada before the October snows. It was an unforgettable summer of sunrises, river crossings, and high mountain passes; of physical and mental challenges and peaceful wilderness camps under the stars. In the fall colors of September I reached the border of Canada.This is the story of my thru-hike.

Elizabeth Wydeville: The Slandered Queen


Arlene Naylor Okerlund - 2005
    But was she a cunning vixen or a tragic wife and mother? As this extraordinary biography shows, the first queen to bear the name Elizabeth lived a life of tragedy, love, and loss that no other queen has since endured. This shocking revelation about the survival of one woman through vilification and adversity shows Elizabeth as a beautiful and adored wife, distraught mother of the two lost Princes in the Tower, an and innocent queen slandered by politicians.

Flood


Ann Swinfen - 2014
    Granddaughter of a local hero, Mercy Bennington moves out of the shadow of her elder brother to become a leader of the protestors, finding the strength to confront the enemies who endanger the survival of her village and her own life. Yet the violence wreaked upon the fragile fenlands unleashes a force no one can control – flood.

The Stolen Crown: The Secret Marriage that Forever Changed the Fate of England


Susan Higginbotham - 2010
    A happy girl of modest means, Kate hardly expected to become a maker of kings. But when her sister impulsively marries King Edward IV in secret, Katherine's life is no longer hers to control...