📖 Book Review ~ Captive Queen by Jade Scott

 Michael O’Mara
24 October 2024

Thanks to the publisher and Alison Menzies for my copy of this book

A fascinating and revealing new biography of Mary Queen of Scots in captivity.

For almost two decades before her or execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was a prisoner. From her chambers, she wrote countless letters, many encrypted using complex ciphers to prevent her communications from being intercepted. In this way, she used language to exert her will and her influence, even while incarcerated.

More than 400 years after Mary’s death, the discovery of further encoded letters has led to renewed interest in the breadth of her encrypted correspondence in captivity. 

In Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots, historian and expert on Mary’s correspondence Dr Jade Scott draws on hundreds of Mary’s letters and those sent to her, to paint a vivid portrait of one of history’s most compelling figures. She interrogates Mary’s complex relationships with friends and enemies throughout her imprisonment, illuminating her strategic expertise and bringing Mary’s captivity to life as never before.

📖 My Review..

I’ve long held a fascination for the beleaguered Queen of Scots whose return to Scotland in 1561 heralded a new beginning only to have everything fall to pieces in just a few short years. Whilst the story of Mary Stuart’s fall from grace is widely documented this fresh look at the decrypted evidence from Mary’s letters, whilst imprisoned, certainly help to reshape her story. Covering the twenty years of Mary’s imprisonment, her constant struggle to gain support for her cause and her unjust incarceration, we begin to learn just how frantic were Mary’s efforts to gain her freedom. 

Mary scribed thousands of letters, most were cleverly encrypted, with devious codes, in order to make their contents inaccessible to prying eyes. Comprehensively researched and imaginatively written, this showcases the author’s skill in bringing Mary’s troubled captivity to life, as well as documenting the surreptitious duplicity of Elizabeth I’s spymasters, this fascinating read gives a realistic insight into Mary state of mind whilst incarcerated in various strongholds in England. I especially enjoyed the small vignettes at the start of each chapter which give an intimate account of Mary’s thoughts and feelings which read like historical fiction. The detailed Dramatis Personae at the start of the book gives a who’s who of all the key players who played a role in Mary’s imprisonment, be they friends or enemies, and the colour illustrations help to place the biography within it’s specific timeframe.

The legacy of this troubled Queen of Scotland will never grow old as we continue to be fascinated with her life story and her relationship not just with, Elizabeth, her ‘sister quene’ but also with her supporters who wanted her restored to her throne and equally, those who were just as determined to keep Mary, Queen of Scots strictly under the control of her English gaolers.

About the Author

Dr Jade Scott is a historian specialising in Mary, Queen of Scots and an expert on her letters. She is an affiliate in History at the University of Glasgow, an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society and secretary of the Scottish History Society, researching early modern Scottish women and their correspondence. She lives in Stirling with her husband and two St Bernard’s.

X@OMaraBooks 

#JadeScott #Captive Queen

📖 Book review ~ The Brothers York by Thomas Penn

Penguin
2019

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

 

It is 1461 and England is crippled by civil war. One freezing morning, a teenage boy wins a battle in the Welsh marches, and claims the crown. He is Edward IV, first king of the usurping house of York...

Thomas Penn's brilliant new telling of the wars of the roses takes us inside a conflict that fractured the nation for more than three decades. During this time, the house of York came to dominate England. At its heart were three charismatic brothers - Edward, George and Richard - who became the figureheads of a spectacular ruling dynasty. Together, they looked invincible..

But with Edward's ascendancy the brothers began to turn on one another, unleashing a catastrophic chain of rebellion, vendetta, fratricide, usurpation and regicide. The brutal end came at Bosworth Field in 1485, with the death of the youngest, then Richard III, at the hands of a new usurper, Henry Tudor.

The story of a warring family unable to sustain its influence and power, The Brothers York brings to life a dynasty that could have been as magnificent as the Tudors. Its tragedy was that, in the space of one generation, it destroyed itself.

📖 My thoughts..

It's that time of year when I try to look back at some of the books which have lingered for far too long on my kindle and this non-fiction history book has been around for so long, it's high time it had a mention.

The Brothers York follows the fortunes of the three men who each had their eye on the crown of England. A real life Game of Thrones for three very different brothers who are inextricably linked through time and whose ambition would be their undoing. Edward IV, Clarence, Duke of York and Richard, Duke of Gloucester are expertly explored in this comprehensive look at what influenced their life, and times.

Beautifully detailed and alive with all the scheming and skulduggery we have come to expect from the War of the Roses this comprehensive work makes history accessible and whilst it seeks to give a detailed description it is also very readable and is something I have enjoyed dipping into and out of at whim.

I'm a Lancastrian by birth and had I been around in the fifteenth century I am sure I would have followed the red rose of Lancaster but I have long had a fascination for the white rose side of the Plantagenet dynasty and the Yorkists who did so much to shape the history of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This book brings that history to life.

About the Author

Thomas Penn is publishing director at Penguin Books UK. He holds a PhD in medieval history from Clare College, Cambridge University, and writes for The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. He is the author of The Brothers York and Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England.

Twitter @PenguinBooksUK #TheBrothersYork #ThomasPenn

Blog Tour ~ Stick A Flag In It by Arran Lomas

 

Thrilled to host today's blog tour stop

Unbound
2020

My thanks to the publishers and Random Things Tours for my copy of this book
and the invitation to the blog tour

The British people have always been eccentric, occasionally ingenious and, sure, sometimes unhinged – from mad monarchs to mass-murdering lepers. Here, Arran Lomas shows us how they harnessed those traits to forge the British nation, and indeed the world, we know today.

Follow history’s greatest adventurers from the swashbuckling waters of the Caribbean to the vast white wasteland of the Antarctic wilderness. Learn about the British spy who infiltrated a top-secret Indian brothel, and the priest who hid inside a wall but forgot to bring a packed lunch. You’ll discover Henry VIII’s favourite arse-wipe, whether the flying alchemist ever made it from Scotland to France, and the connection between Victorian coffee houses and dildos.

What did I think about it..

I love reading the quirky bits of history, which make up our heritage, and Stick A Flag In It takes us through a thousand years, from the moment of William's conquest in 1066, right the way through to Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic exploration aboard the Endurance in 1916.

All the relevant historical ages are covered, each with fascinating snippets of facts that you really didn't learn in school, and all of which are presented in an easy to read format. The author has a relaxed style of writing so that it feels like you are having a conversation with him, just taking in the bizarre bits of history which make our isles and islands such a fascinating conundrum. There's nothing boring or stuffy about Stick A Flag In It and I soon found that I was quite often smiling at some unusual piece of history. 

Stick A Flag In It can be read by starting at the beginning and working your way through, or you can, as I did, dip into and out of which ever period in history takes your fancy. Each section is clearly marked in the index so  you can very easily jump from the Crusades to Revolution in a matter of moments. My first port of call was in 1216 with John loses the Crown Jewels in the Wash, I've always been fascinated that a king could lose his entire baggage filled with vast wealth ...and in 900 years it's never resurfaced,

Stick A Flag In It is for those who don't take their history too seriously but that doesn't mean its weak on content, far from it, there's  been a tremendous amount of research undertaken to bring this book to life and all credit to the author for making a thousand years of history into such a fun and lively read!

About the Author

Arran Lomas is the man behind the hit YouTube channel Thoughty2. Since 2012 he has created videos on every topic from space, crime and medicine to conspiracy theories, food and social issues and, of course, history. He was raised in Lancashire – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution  and has always been captivated by the world around him, driving him to uncover its history and secret.

Twitter #ArranLomas #StickAFlagInIt

@unbounders

@RandomTTours

Blog Tour ~ First in the Fight by Helen Antrobus and Andrew Simcock

Delighted to be part of this Blog Tour

iNostalgia
November 2019

My thanks to the publishers and Love Books Group of my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of this blog tour.

Emmeline Pankhurst stands proudly in St Peter’s Square, but she stands for so many more…

First in the Fight tells the compelling stories of the twenty women featured on the Our Emmeline statue long-list. Author Helen Antrobus brings to life the achievements of these radical Manchester women alongside beautiful illustrations by the Women in Print collective.

Be part of the legacy of the 20 Manchester women who changed the world.

The women of Greater Manchester have long stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for equality and social change. The unveiling of the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter’s Square, strove to represent the contributions that Manchester women had made not only to the city, but also to the rest of the world.

Sitting alongside stunning illustrations from the ‘Women in Print’ collective, First in the Fight brings to life the stories of a range of inspiring women, from suffragettes, to botanists and mathematicians. The efforts of these pioneering women have shaped the world we live in and have helped pave the way for the voices of the next generation of women to be heard.

Ester Roper

What did I think about it...

This book stemmed from the quest to have a statue to commemorate a woman of significance to Manchester as there hadn't been a statue of a woman erected in the city since Queen Victoria in 1901.  First in the Fight looks at twenty inspirational women who have all left their mark on Manchester, some are instantly recognisable, whilst others have faded into the background, but collectively their stories must never be forgotten, and this remarkable book goes a long way in making sure that their exceptional contributions live on in public memory. 

Here are the twenty women who were in the running for a statue. They are not all native to the city and not all were advocates for women’s suffrage, but individually they each left a distinct mark on their native, or adoptive, city of Manchester. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories of these inspirational women.

Margaret Downes 

Margaret Ashton 

Mary Quayle

Ester Roper

Ellen Wilkinson

Lydia Becker

Christabel Pankhurst

Sylvia Pankhurst

Emmeline Pankhurst

Elizabeth Gaskell

Enriqueta Rylands

Anne Horniman

Olive Shapley

Marie Stopes

Shena Simon

Kathleen Ollerenshaw

Louise DaCocodia

Elizabeth Raffald

Emily Williamson

Sunny Lowry

After huge consideration and much fund raising the Emmeline Pankhurst statue was unveiled in St Peters Square in Manchester on the 14 December 2018 ...

“If we win it, this hardest fight of all fights, then, to be sure, in the future it is going to be easier for women all over the world to win their fight when their time comes.”

Emmeline Pankhurst.

This coffee table sized book is beautifully presented with glossy pages and wonderful illustrations which bring the individual stories of these amazing women to life in a very special way. However, the beauty is also in the fine attention to detail, and the enthusiasm which the authors have demonstrated in making a permanent reminder of the contribution each of these women have made to a city which is renown, the world over, for its strong and determined women.

Twitter@inostalgiauk 

@HelenAntrobus @Andrew4Didsbury #FirstInTheFight

@LoveBooksGroup

Blog Tour ~ Anne Boleyn : 500 Years of Lies by Hayley Nolan

I'm delighted to host today's stop on this blog tour

Little A
1 December 2019

My thanks to the publisher and Midas PR for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

Beheaded by her husband. Silenced by history. Now Anne Boleyn has a voice at last.

Anne Boleyn has been sold to us as a dark figure, a scheming seductress who bewitched Henry VIII into divorcing his queen and his church in an unprecedented display of passion. Quite the tragic love story, right? Wrong.

This electrifying expose of Anne Boleyn’s life and relationship with Henry VIII is based for the first time on the full, uncensored evidence, revealing the shocking suppression of a powerful woman in history’s true story.

In removing Anne from the line up of the ‘Six Wives Gimmick’, Hayley Nolan shuts down modern accusations of sexual blackmail at the hands of an ‘ambitious temptress,’ and instead provides proof that Anne Boleyn was a politician, activist and humanitarian working in government on schemes to relieve the poverty epidemic; campaigning for the amnesty of refugees in Europe, and fighting for the freedom of religious expression. Yet Anne’s work has repeatedly been censored and ‘male-washed’ over the years, and more so recent decades. But if ever there was a time for this sexist misinterpretation to be called out and ‘herstory’ to be heard – that time is now.

This bold new analysis is the culmination of over three years of intensive research by Britain’s exciting new historian, fusing historical evidence with a gripping psychological analysis that diagnoses Henry VIII with the mental illness of sociopathy. A prognosis that will change the way we view Henry and Anne’s ‘love story’ forever.

So, leave all notions of outdated and romanticised folklore at the door and forget what you think you know about one of the Tudors’ most notorious queens. She may have been silenced for centuries, but this urgent book ensures Anne Boleyn’s voice is being heard now. #TheTruthWillOut

What did I think about it...

So much has been written about this most enigmatic of Tudor Queens that it is quite difficult to know what is fact and what is fabrication, after all, history was written by those who had, perhaps, more to gain from her downfall, rather than her successes.

In this comprehensive look at Anne Boleyn’s life, the author seeks to restore the balance by giving a detailed look at some of the supposed fabrications which surround Anne’s life, and seeks to offer her own views on the facts and falsifications which seem to surround Anne’s short, but eventful, life.

Everyone knows that Anne’s tragic life didn’t end well and her tempestuous relationship with Henry VIII has been the subject of hundreds of fictional novels and a staggering amount of non fiction books which each offer a myriad reasons as to why Anne and Henry’s relationship could have ended so tragically. In Anne Boleyn : 500 Years of Lies, the author offers an explanation  into Henry's volatile nature and the suggestion that he was a sociopath, with a borderline personality disorder, is a plausible, if, perhaps, controversial one. However, wherever his mercurial moods took him, it is always without doubt that he was a very dangerous person to be around.

The author offers a comprehensive look at Anne's life, from her early start at the court of Margaret of Austria, to her return to England in 1521, her ill fated courtship with Henry Percy and her ongoing feud with Cardinal Wolsey, and yet, the book is about so much more than Anne's romantic dalliances, it offers an insight into her moralistic views and her enthusiasm for religious reform. I have to be honest and say that I didn't really discover anything in this interpretation that I hadn't read before, but I think of you are new to Tudor history and wish to learn more about Anne Boleyn in  a book which has a distinctly modern feel in the way it is written, then this makes an interesting start.

The order of Anne's life has been expertly explored by so many eminent historians who are all keen to offer their own academic interpretation of Anne's rise to short lived glory and whether she was martyr or sinner remains to be seen, but what can be gleaned from all of these historical biographies is that the enigma of Anne Boleyn's short and tragic life remains, even after 500 years, a fascinating conundrum.

About the Author

Historian and Anne Boleyn expert, Hayley Nolan is the presenter and researcher of the hit digital vlog series The History Review and its spin off iTunes podcast. A graduate of London’s prestigious Royal Court Young Writer’s Programme, Hayley further trained in screenwriting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She has worked with Historic Royal Palaces, Anne Boleyn’s childhood homes of Hever Castle and the Chateau Royal de Blois, France, as well as the National Archives of the UK government. She lives in London.

Instagram @The HayleyNolan

Twitter @TheHayleyNolan

Facebook

Sunday WW1 Remembered

Over the last four years of adding WW1 information onto my blog I have found lots of books really interesting so I thought it was time to share them.

Ebury Press
2003

In 1972 The Imperial War Museum began the task of finding the ordinary veterans and survivors of the First World War. This book records the experiences of the ordinary men and women of the Great War who share their stories in this fine collection of reminisces and recollections of what it was like to live during this troubled time in world history. 

From the mundane to the complex each of the stories have a special poignancy, not just because these brave people are now forever lost to us but also because their wealth of knowledge and experience will stand the test of time, and will be part of our collective history forever .

The book is divided into years from 1914-1918 and I've found it very useful in trying to experience just what was being seen, and of the myriad of emotions which, in so many cases, are heartbreaking and occasionally, strangely uplifting.

From an entry dated...July 18th 1918

Captain Reginald Thomas, Royal Artillery

"It was a magnificent sight as the French cavalry came out of the forest at Soissons. Their uniforms were all new, bright blue, every bit and spur-chain was burnished and polished; their lances were gleaming in the sun; and as the bugler blew the charge the horses went into the gallop in a fan attack-two regiments of French cavalry, They went along beautifully, magnificently, through the wheat field in the afternoon sun..."

The stories within Forgotten Voices of the Great War are taken from the sound archives of the Imperial War Museum and after hundreds of hours and unlimited access to the complete WW1 tapes, the author, Max Arthur and his researchers have created this unique insight into WW1 as related by those ordinary men and women who experienced it first hand.

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Blog Tour ~ Stranger in my Heart by Mary Monro

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of the blog tour for Stranger in my Heart 

Unbound
9 June

My thanks to the author, publishers and Random Things Tours for my copy of this book
 and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

Stranger In My Heart (with foreword by HRH The Princess Royal) is about the search for understanding oneself, answering the question “Who am I?” by seeking to understand the currents that sweep down the generations, eddy through one’s own persona and continue on – palpable but often unrecognised.

My Thoughts about it..

In order to know where we are going, we need to know where we have come from and in this interesting biography of Lieutenant Colonel John Monro, his daughter, the author, has given us a glimpse into the life of a courageous man who was caught up in the events leading up to, and during, WW2. Lieutenant Colonel Monro was heavily involved in the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941, but was captured by the Japanese and interred as a prisoner of war. In 1942, he made a successful escape, travelling over 1200 miles of hostile country to reach China’s wartime capital at Chongqing.

When the author was growing up her father was a Shropshire farmer and she had no reason to be curious about his wartime exploits. However, as is so often the case, we never really know someone until they are gone from our lives, and following his death, the need to discover more about her father's past life turned into this fascinating biography. Putting together the missing pieces of Monro's life meant that some considerable research was needed, and by following in his footsteps and travelling across China, the author has written an intricately detailed portrayal of what made Lieutenant Colonel Monro into the person who was awarded the Military Cross for courage.

I read this biography over the course of several days, reading a chapter here and a chapter there, as the narrative is complex and intricately written, so to do the book justice I found it best to take my time with it, and not rush through it at top speed. Throughout the book I was always impressed with the care and fine attention to detail which gives so much fascinating information about a period in world history of which I knew absolutely nothing. 

Researching the life of her father must have been an emotional journey for the author and, to her credit, she has succeeded in doing so in a meaningful and thoughtful way.

About the Author

Mary has written numerous technical and academic articles and is an experienced lecturer and presenter, but this is her first book. She lives in Bath with her husband, Julian Caldecott, and dog, Gobi. She practises as an osteopath in the picturesque Wiltshire town of Bradford on Avon. She treats people three days a week (see www.mmost.co.uk) and treats horses and dogs one day a week (www.hippokampos.co.uk and www.facebook.com/the2marys). She is a Trustee of the Sutherland Cranial College of Osteopathy (SCCO) and Member of the Royal Society of Medicine. She was formerly a marketing consultant, with five years experience at what is now Price Waterhouse Coopers, and three years with strategy consultancy, P.Four (now part of WPP). She began her marketing career with Cadbury’s confectionery and retains a lifelong love of chocolate.

Mary was born and raised at a farm on the edge of the south Shropshire hills, the youngest of four children. She attended Shrewsbury High School from age four to eighteen. She spent much of her childhood on horseback, which left her with permanent damage to her right eye, a broken nose, broken knee-cap and broken coccyx. She has been bitten, kicked, rolled on, dragged, and has fallen off too many times to recall, but she still rides racehorses for fun.

Twitter @monro_m276 #StrangerInMyHeart

#RandomThingsTours

Unbound @unbounders

Amazon UK

Review ~ Forgotten History by Jem Duducu

Amberley Publishing
15 November 2017

My thanks to the publishers for my review copy of this book

About the book...

Not all history is recorded in school textbooks or cast into towering monuments that shape city skylines. Quite often the most intriguing (and most bizarre) bits are forgotten and fall away into obscurity. In this fascinating book, Jem Duducu shines light on the almost forgotten, wonderfully strange, and often hilarious moments of history that would otherwise be lost forever. 

Forgotten History tells in delightful detail the stories of the hard-to-believe moments, people or inventions from history. Split into four main eras–ancient, medieval, early modern and twentieth century – this light-hearted and easy-to-read fact book is full to bursting with the bits from history that even history enthusiast may otherwise have never known. 

Covering a wide variety of topics, from the time a Pope put his dead predecessor on trial all the way up to the awkward moment when the US Air Force accidentally dropped nuclear bombs on Spain, take a journey through time and discover the weird and wonderful history that you didn’t learn about in school.

My thoughts...

If you are interested in snippets of 'forgotten history' then this little gem of a book will really appeal to you. 

In an easy to read format, the book covers:

Ancient History - where I discovered more about Aliens v Smart Humans:the Nazca Lines..

The Medieval Era - where I discovered more about the strange history of chocolate..

The Early Modern to the Victorians - where I discovered more about the most expensive dress disaster in history..

The Twentieth Century - where I discovered that in 1943, IBM didn't think there was much a future for computers..

It is often said that the truth is stranger than any fiction and whilst some of these forgotten moments seem to be shrouded in myth and legend, there is no doubt that we share a rich and varied history, and  that no matter how much you think you know, there is always something new to learn.

The author has done a great job in bringing these forgotten moments of history to life in one slim volume. And reading never becomes a chore as there is always a fascinating fact or two to capture the imagination. So, if you like to learn about history in bite size chunks, from the bizarre to the the genuinely obscure, then this little book would be an interesting addition to any history book shelf.

And you never know, when that pub quiz question asks who was Jonathan Wilde..well.. you'll be able to answer ...in 1718, he was the first self proclaimed Thief Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland ...who knew !!

About the Author

Jem Duducu has been in love with history for as long as he can remember. He went to UWCC to read Archaeology and Medieval History. He is also the author of several history books from the ‘100 Facts’ series for Amberley.

Follow the author on Twitter @HistoryGems.

Amazon UK

~****~

Blog Tour ~ Hitler's Forgotten Children by Ingrid Von Oelhafen with Tim Tate

Jaffareadstoo is honoured to host today's stop on Hitler's Forgotten Children Blog Tour

Published by Elliot & Thompson in paperback 4 May 2017

What's it about...

A powerful first-person account from a child of the Lebensborn: the Nazis’ programme to create an Aryan master race. 

Forcibly adopted into a Nazi family as part of the Lebensborn programme, Ingrid’s heart breaking story is a quest for her own identity and an important historical document, touching on the untold stories of thousands like her. 

By the 1940s, Himmler’s diabolical breeding programme had failed to provide adequate numbers of ‘racially pure and healthy’ children, so Lebensborn sought to boost the flagging German population by sinister means. Children in the occupied territories were examined and any exhibiting ‘Aryan’ qualities were taken from their parents by force to be raised by the regime. 

In 1942 Erika, a baby girl from Yugoslavia, was examined by the Nazi occupiers, declared an ‘Aryan’ and removed from her mother. Her true identity erased, she became Ingrid von Oelhafen. 

Later, as Ingrid began to uncover her true identity, the full scale of the Lebensborn scheme became clear – including the kidnapping of up to half a million babies like her, and the deliberate murder of children born into the programme who were deemed ‘substandard’.

What did I think about it...

I have to say that I knew nothing about the Lebensborn programme before I started to read Ingrid's fascinating and at times, difficult account of how, in 1942 aged just 9 months, she was taken from her parents in Yugoslavia and  'adopted' into the Von Oelhafen family.

When the war ends, Ingrid is three and half years old and is living with her mother, grandmother and younger brother, Dietmar in Bandekow in the Mecklenburg region of Germany. However, in the aftermath of the Second World War many German lives were fractured beyond repair, and Ingrid grew up in a state of fear and disruption. Her childhood was a lonely and frightening time and, as both of her parents had their own worries, Ingrid often faced an uncertain future. When she was eleven Ingrid discovered that she wasn't who she thought she was, and as she entered young adulthood she began a painstaking and difficult search for her true identity, which, over time, was to prove challenging and not without complications.

Reading through Ingrid's account of her life and of her search to find out more about her origins is a sobering experience and I learned much about the history of post-war Germany along with the complicated process of missing identity. The story flows well and Ingrid is a fascinating raconteur; her resolute determination to find out the truth is a credit to both her strength of purpose and utter resilience.

There is so much to share within the story which would be spoiled if I gave anything else away, so I will end with this quote from the book  which states "we are not defined by the facts of our birth but rather by the choices we make throughout life.." Ingrid is an inspirational lady and I am glad to have had the opportunity to read her story.

About the Authors:

INGRID VON OELHAFEN is a former physical therapist living in Osnabruck, Germany. For more than 20 years she has been investigating her own extraordinary story and that of Lebensborn. She is in contact with other Lebensborn survivors and has been invited to give talks in schools about the programme and its effects on those who were part of it. 

TIM TATE is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker and author. In 2013 he produced and directed a film about the Lebensborn programme, Channel 5’s Children of the Master Race, which is when he met Ingrid and convinced her to write this book. He is the author of twelve books, including the best-selling Slave Girl (2009)

My thanks to Alison at Elliot & Thompson for the opportunity to be part of this blog tour and for providing a copy of the book to rev

~***~

Review ~ The Anglo-Saxon Age: The Birth of England by Martin Wall

Amberley Publishing
2017

What's it all about..

The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard in 2009 has captured the imagination and stimulated renewed interest in the history and culture of the Anglo-Saxons. The discovery poses some interesting questions. Who owned the treasure and how did they acquire it? Was it made locally or did it originate elsewhere? Why was it buried in an obscure field in the Staffordshire countryside? To answer these questions, Martin Wall takes us on a journey into a period that still remains mysterious, into regions and countries long forgotten, such as Mercia and Northumbria. This is a story of the ‘Dark Ages’ and the people who lived in them, but darkness is in the eye of the beholder. This book challenges our notions of these times as barbaric and backward to reveal a civilization as complex, sophisticated and diverse as our own.

What did I think about it..

I like to read novels which are set in the so called 'dark ages' of our history and whilst historical fiction authors do a really good job of interpreting time and place, sometimes I get lost, not just in the mists of time, but also without enough background knowledge of my own to draw upon when something puzzles me. So, to have a very readable account of the Anglo-Saxon world is going be a great asset to me. 

The author writes well and puts forward his interpretation of the Anglo Saxon world, including his own theories about who did what, to whom and why with competent assurance. Of course, this is an area of which I have no expert knowledge, I'm merely an enthusiastic histfic reader however, I have read and absorbed this author's work with real interest and have found much to enjoy in reading his various interpretations and conclusions. I was particularly interested in the chapter headed Lady of the Mercians in which the author introduced me to Aethelflaed, eldest child of Alfred, and much more importantly told me that she became a powerful female leader in an all too often male dominated world. 

The book spans fifteen chapters, which take the reader from early history in a chapter entitled Into the Mists of Oblivion and completes the book, some fourteen chapters later, in a conclusion detailing just how The Anglo-Saxon Legacy continues to live on in all of us, in the patterns of our speech and customs, in our place names and also, in our shared heritage.

Best Read with... A cup of sweet honey mead brimful and plentiful..

About the Author

Martin Wall inherited his passionate interest in local history and folklore from his father and has been writing abou these subjects for ten years. He lectures historical groups on a variety of subjects and acts as a gallery interpreter in his spare time.

My thanks to Phillip at Amberley Publishing for introducing me to this author and also for kindly supplying the review copy of The Anglo-Saxon Age; The Birth of England 

~***~

Review ~ Pirates : Truth and Tales by Helen Hollick

Amberley Publishing
15 February 2017

What's it all about..

The historian R. H. Tawney famously wrote, ‘The sixteenth century lives in terror of the tramp.’ The eighteenth century lived in terror of the tramps of the seas – pirates. Pirates have fascinated people ever since.

It was a harsh life for those who went ‘on the account’, constantly overshadowed by the threat of death – through violence, illness, shipwreck, or the hangman’s noose. The lure of gold, the excitement of the chase and the freedom that life aboard a pirate ship offered were judged by some to be worth the risk. 

Helen Hollick explores both the fiction and fact of the Golden Age of piracy, and there are some surprises in store for those who think they know their Barbary Corsair from their boucanier. Everyone has heard of Captain Morgan, but who recognises the name of the aristocratic Frenchman Daniel Montbars? He killed so many Spaniards he was known as ‘The Exterminator’. The fictional world of pirates, represented in novels and movies, is different from reality. What draws readers and viewers to these notorious hyenas of the high seas? What are the facts behind the fantasy? 

What did I think about it..

I must admit that when I think about pirates, what usually springs to mind is the classic, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, a story I read as a child curled in a chair immersed in the excitement of buccaneers and pirates, of buried treasure and golden doubloons, of marauding seamen and dastardly sea captains. And then, of course, much later, came the rather delectable image of the dangerously addictive, Jack Sparrow, the swashbuckling hero of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. However, the reality of piracy is a whole world away from the glitz and glamour of the movie screen and even the adventures of young Jim Hawkins, aboard the Hispaniola, pales into insignificance alongside the reality of what the real life pirates got up to as they sailed the Seven Seas.

In this informative and comprehensive book, the author takes the idea of pirates and piracy, a subject close to her heart, and shows how the literary and movie images of pirates, often bears little, or no, resemblance to the actual physical reality of the real life sea terrorists of the 17th and 18th centuries. The 'golden age' of piracy whilst steeped in mystique and legend, was, all too often, a time of great danger and uncontrolled violence. Interspersed throughout the book is the author's impressive knowledge of historical detail and it is obvious that a great deal of research has gone into bringing this piratical guide to life. Skillfully blending historical facts with literary fiction, sometimes, the book reads as lightly as a novel, but then, at other times, we come sharply back to reality with daring tales of mischance and menace, of lives ruined by too much grog and too many loose women, and which ended, all too often, dangled at the end of a hangman's rope.

Throughout the book, the author's real life buccaneers nestle comfortably alongside their more colourful literary counterparts. I especially enjoyed seeing the author's own pirate creation, Jesemiah Acorne, from The Sea Witch Voyages, come to vibrant life in his own much deserved chapter. The book has a rich and lively vocabulary, with snippets of interesting facts about pirates and piracy that you never knew you needed to know, but which are all recounted with the authors sparkling wit and fine attention to detail. For the songsters among you there are words to popular sea shanties, some familiar like, Spanish Ladies and What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor and others such as, The Top Man and the Afterguard, which are rather more obscure but no less fascinating to read of their origin and usage.

However you like your pirates, be they real or imaginary, there is no doubt that Pirates:Truth and Tales, is a great dip in and out of kind of book and whichever page the book falls open at, you are guaranteed to find a fascinating snippet into the life and times of these colourful, and it must be said, decidedly, dangerous characters.



Best Read with....A tot of Damson rum and a generous slice of rum laden fruitcake...



About the author

Helen Hollick is a British author of historical fiction.She is the author of the Arthurian Trilogy, Pendragon's Banner and two Saxon novels, Harold the King and The Hollow Crown. Helen was selected by US publisher Sourcebooks and became a USA bestseller. Her Sea Witch Voyages are nautical adventures with a touch of fantasy and are inspired by the Golden Age of Piracy. Helen lives in Devon.

You can find out more about the author by going to her website by clicking here


Or follow on Twitter @HelenHollick

Amazon UK

My thanks to Phillip at Amberley Publishing for sending me a review copy of Pirates : Truth and Tales

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Guest Author ~ David Charnick

Today I'm thrilled to welcome to the blog guest author

David Charnick

  

 David is introducing us to his book

The Dark Side of  East London

Pen and Sword
2016

The Dark Side of East London is intended to work on more than one level. At the most straightforward level it’s a collection of stories which are mainly criminal, and which are all concerned with darker deeds carried out in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I’ve attempted to recreate the narratives from records such as the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, which can sometimes require a little judicious filling in! The important thing though has been to create readable stories, and accordingly at times I have used the present tense rather than the past to give a sense of immediacy.

This desire to bring the reader into the action has had its difficulties, particularly with regard to the chapter dealing with underage rape. This required treading a very fine line between responsible reconstruction and salacious detail. Nevertheless, I hope that the overall style of the book draws in the reader in a way that more straightforward narratives might not have done.

The reason for choosing stories of criminal acts and misdeeds is not in order to revel in sordid detail though. Like ghost stories, narratives of wrongdoing are anecdotal and so they provide evocative details of day-to-day life during times of crisis. As a consequence the stories I have chosen are intended to give the reader a feeling of what life was like, during my chosen period, in the Tower Hamlets, the settlements to the east of the City, in the shadow of the Tower of London.

On another level, this work is intended to bring into focus the importance of place. London is changing and developing over time, and the choice of time period for this book was made so that I might capture the change of character and feel as once individual settlements were absorbed by the nineteenth century sprawl of the metropolis of London. This change affected more than the demography; urbanisation and commercial advances brought new dangers to the people of London and other cities.

These stories are intended then to evoke the development of the East End before it became the East End, a term which did not come into use until the 1880s. But this is not a period to be seen in isolation, as if the past has no relationship with the present day. As a tour guide I am keenly aware that in places like London the past and present are really just chapters in the overall narrative. Similarly the future holds chapters which we have not yet reached. Time in London contends always with the imperatives of place, and often it is overridden.

The photographs which illustrate the book underline this idea. They have been taken especially by my friend and guiding colleague Alan Tucker and anchor many of these stories from the past firmly in today’s Tower Hamlets. The visible heritage of the East End and its story of continuity are important to me personally. I was born in Bethnal Green in 1964 and am still here, and my feeling for London’s ongoing story is embodied in my collection of short stories Death and the City, which takes the inspiration for its twelve stories from London lore and history that I have learned growing up here.

Old Gravel Lane Bridge
Now Wapping Lane

Although I am a City of London guide and a member of the London-wide guiding cooperative Footprints of London, I am also a member of the Tower Hamlets Walkshop, a guiding workshop group which has been developing on the back of an adult education course I teach locally. We are seeking to develop a coordinated guiding structure for the East End, and this book is a part of the overall initiative to maintain an awareness of the area’s continuity.

So much of our heritage – locally and nationally – is still under threat. In many ways it seems that the lessons of the 1960s and 1970s have not been learned, so the more we can appreciate the closeness and relevance of our past to our present, the less inclined we will be to let it go, and the readier we will be to embrace our part in this ongoing narrative. I hope this book will contribute in some way to encouraging this engagement.

You can find more about David by clicking here

Follow on Twitter @charnowalks

Find his books on Wordery.com

Huge thanks to David for being our guest on the blog today and for sharing his love of 

The Dark Side of East London so eloquently.

My Thoughts about The Dark Side of East London..

Living, as I do, in the North of England, I'm not hugely familiar with London and even less so with the east of the city, so it's been remarkably refreshing to read The Dark Side of East London and to learn things about the east end which I never knew existed. True, I'd heard the old Victorian myths and legends which sort of define the area, the most notorious being Jack the Ripper's association with its mean and murky streets, but what I didn't realise was that, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, this area was blamed for so much social injustice, and thus was, ultimately accountable for pioneering social change within its boundaries.

The book is divided into nine absorbing chapters which highlight the darker days of crime and punishment, and as detail emerges, what becomes apparent is that this area of London was nearly always at the sharp end of the action. I think my favourite chapter has to be “Poison for the Asking”, as in the days before the 1868 Pharmacy Act it was all too easy for people to get their hands on noxious substances which they used, either in ignorance, or malice, with devastating and often, catastrophic effect.

The author writes with knowledgeable insight into this area, it is, after all, a place he knows like the back of his hand. However, what’s so important is that his zeal and passion comes across in the stories he shares and in the amount of meticulous research which has gone into bringing the book to life. There is much to take in, and because of that, this is not a book to whiz through at high speed, rather it is more to be savoured slowly, allowing the facts to unfold in fascinating detail. The book also shares some specially commissioned photographs which help to put old and new into context and which show those areas which have been highlighted in the stories.

Those who are acquainted with this area will no doubt be familiar with some of its dark and convoluted history. I think that the author has done a commendable job of highlighting, perhaps, some of the more forgotten, but no less remarkable, history of The Dark Side of East London.

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Review ~ Winter is Coming by Carolyne Larrington

I B Tauris

2016

The Blurb...

Discover the medieval myths and legends which inspired hit book and TV series, Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is a phenomenon. It is the subject of intense debate in the national media; by cultural commentators contesting the series’ startling portrayals of power, sex and gender, and among its millions of fans across the world who devise all sorts of theories as to the story’s progression. However no book has yet divulged how George R.R. Martin constructed his remarkable universe.

Discussing the novels and TV series alike, Larrington explores the medieval world of rivalry and warfare, love and betrayal, greed and power, epitomised in the Wars of the Roses. She also delves into sigils, giants, dragons and direwolves in medieval texts; ravens, old gods and the Weirwood in Norse myth; and a gothic, exotic orient in the eastern continent, Essos. From the White Walkers to the Red Woman, from Casterley Rock to the Shivering Sea, this is an indispensable guide to the twenty-first century’s most important fantasy creation.

My thoughts...

I'm a huge fan of Game of Thrones because it fulfils my passion for medieval adventure in a truly visual context and whilst I know that dragons and white walkers don't exist in the here and now, its great fun imagining just what would happen if it were all true. In this informative guide to the world behind Game of Thrones, the author, with impeccable research brings to life the medieval and ancient world.

Of course, George RR Martin’s Ice and Fire series is a fictional adventure which has caught the public’s imagination, but it must also be remembered that much of historical fiction has a foothold in fact, and many of the ideas and scenarios being played out on television may well, at some point in time, have a basis in history.

I think what this author does is put time and place into context and whilst the book is predominately targeted around events in the TV show, there is no doubt that even if you have no great enthusiasm for the conflict between the characters on television; you may well enjoy seeing where some of the ideas may have originated. It's fascinating to wander through Westeros and Essos and to see the parallels between the books, the TV series and the recognised history of medieval Europe and beyond.

A note of caution is that this book works better if you are up to date with the Game of Thrones series as the action is discussed in detail and there are spoilers if you haven't seen the show.

Best read with …a surfeit of mutton and flagons of mead.

About the Author

Carolyne Larrington is Fellow and Tutor in Medieval English Literature at St John's College, Oxford. Her previous books include The Women's Companion to Mythology; The Poetic Edda; King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition (I.B.Tauris 2006, paperback 2014); Magical Tales: Myth, Legend and Enchantment in Children's books (edited with Diane Purkiss); and The Land of the Green Man: A Journey through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles (I.B.Tauris, 2015)

Amazon UK

My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review Winter is Coming.

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Review ~ Men of Letters by Duncan Barrett

A A Publishing
1 August 2014

"I thought" said the Divisional General, on parade after an aforementioned attack, "you were a lot of stamp lickers, but the way you fought…, you went over like a lot of bloody savages".

 In Men of Letters, the author has with considerable skill, given the men of the Post Office Rifles their own very special voice and in a series of personal stories, poignant letters and diary entries, their life at the front becomes a heart rending chronicle of war. Their social observations forcibly remind us of just what life was like at the front, the interminable boredom of long periods of time closeted in the murk and mud of the French countryside, balanced against the shock of the sniper’s bullet and the agonising terror of waiting for the call to go over the top. It is especially heart breaking to realise that over 1500 of them didn’t make it to the end of the war.

In this evocative retelling of the history of the men of the Post Office Rifles, I was forcibly reminded of just how the Great War impacted on the lives of men and women, and of how the ordinary man in the street rose to the challenge of the call to arms. With over 10,000 registered letters per month reaching the Western front, I had never visualised the effort that it took to get the morale boosting mail packets to the men, and yet, whilst the Post Office Rifles were made of up from the ranks of postal workers, they were very much part of the fighting force and acted honourably and with great courage under enemy bombardment.

The book is easy to read and well divided into understandable chapters, which cover the involvement of the Post Office Rifles, from the Battle of Festubert during the spring offensive in May 1915, through to their involvement in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. The sensitive use of personal documentation highlights the very human face of war and as names begin to crop up in the narrative, I found that I formed an emotional attachment to many of them, and seeing their photographs and reading their memories emphasised to me in a very poignant way, that these are real stories and not just dusty records from the annals of history.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to, not just the men of the Post Office Rifles, but also to the many thousands of young men and women, who gave their lives unquestionably and who with pride and patriotism served their country in a war they really didn’t fully understand.

In this centenary year of the start of WW1, there will be many books published extolling both the virtues, and also the indecision of this war to end all wars. I highly recommend That Men of Letters is a very good place to start if you want to know more about the very human face of WW1.

Highly Recommended Read.

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Men of Letters is available from all good bookshops and also from Amazon

My thanks to Fiona Livesey at Midas PR and to the author Duncan Barrett for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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