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The thrilling and definitive account of the Abdication Crisis of 1936 On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII brought a great international drama to a close when he abdicated, renouncing the throne of the United Kingdom for himself and his heirs. The reason he gave when addressing his subjects was that he could not fulfill his duties without the woman he loved—the notorious American divorcee Wallis Simpson—by his side. His actions scandalized the establishment, who were desperate to avoid an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. That the King was rumored to have Nazi sympathies only strengthened their determination that he should be forced off the throne, by any ...
He was 'THE WICKEDEST MAN ALIVE'. He went to Oxford University at the age of 12 He slept with his first prostitute at 13 He was an alcoholic by 14 He was imprisoned in the Tower at 18 He was acclaimed a war hero at 19 He died of syphilis at the age of 33 He was English history's first celebrity. He was John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester: Poet, dandy and libertine. BLAZING STAR is a compelling portrait of a remarkable and complex man, and of a cultural golden age that often spilled over into depravity.
One was the mother who bore him; three were women who adored him; one was the sister he slept with; one was his abused and sodomized wife; one was his legitimate daughter; one was the fruit of his incest; another was his friend Shelley's wife, who avoided his bed and invented science fiction instead. Nine women; one poet named George Gordon, Lord Byron – mad, bad and very very dangerous to know. The most flamboyant of the Romantics, he wrote literary bestsellers, he was a satirist of genius, he embodied the Romantic love of liberty (the Greeks revere him as a national hero), he was the prototype of the modern celebrity – and he treated women (and these women in particular) abominably. In BYRON'S WOMEN, Alex Larman tells their extraordinary, moving and often shocking stories. In so doing, he creates a scurrilous 'anti-biography' of one of England's greatest poets, whose life he views – to deeply unflattering effect – through the prism of the nine damaged woman's lives.
Power and Glory brings us to the dramatic conclusion of Larman's 'Windsors trilogy'. It begins with the fallout from the revelation of the Duke of Windsor's wartime treachery, and ends with the Coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. In between, it depicts a monarchy - and a country - struggling to cope with the aftermath of World War Two, in an era where old certainties have been replaced by the rise of a new, uncertain world, and where love, tragedy and modernity battle for supremacy. The book draws on extensive unpublished correspondence between major members of the Royal Family including George VI, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Windsor, the Prime Ministers Clement Attlee and Wins...
The greatest Victorian dishes, as reinvented by Heston Blumenthal, chef and proprietor of the three-Michelin-starred The Fat Duck - presented in a gloriously lavish package.
'Shocking, scathing, entertaining.' Guardian 'Incredibly compelling.' The Times 'Heart-breaking.' Sunday Times Where can a tin of tuna buy you clean clothes? Where is it easier to get 'spice' than paracetamol? Where does self-harm barely raise an eyebrow? Welcome to Her Majesty's Prison Service. Like most people, documentary-maker Chris Atkins didn't spend much time thinking about prisons. But after becoming embroiled in a dodgy scheme to fund his latest film, he was sent down for five years. His new home would be HMP Wandsworth, one of the largest and most dysfunctional prisons in Europe. With a cast of characters ranging from wily drug dealers to senior officials bent on endless reform, this powerful memoir uncovers the horrifying reality behind the locked gates. Filled with dark humour and shocking stories, A Bit of a Stretch reveals why our creaking prison system is sorely costing us all - and why you should care.
A sweeping history of the world through its oceans and seas and their interconnections.
THE RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Gobsmacking' The Times 'Luscious' Mail on Sunday 'Delectable . . . ravishing' Sunday Times 'A chocolate box full of delicious gothic delights - jump in' Lucy Worsley 'Stranger than fiction, as dark as any gothic drama . . . utterly gripping' Amanda Foreman 'Brings to life the colourful characters of the Georgian era's most notorious families with all the verve and skill of the era's finest novelists . . . A powdered and pomaded, sordid and silk-swathed adventure' Hallie Rubenhold Many know Lord Byron as leading poet of the Romantic movement. But few know the dynasty from which he emerged; infamous for its scandal and impropriety, with tales of elopement, murder, kidnaping, profligacy, doomed romance and adultery. A sumptuous story that begins in rural Nottinghamshire and plays out in the gentleman's clubs of Georgian London, amid tempests on far-flung seas, and in the glamour of pre-revolutionary France, The Fall of the House of Byron is the acclaimed account of intense family drama over three turbulent generations.
British Summer Time Begins is about summer holidays of the mid-twentieth century and how they were spent, as recounted to Ysenda Maxtone-Graham in vividly remembered detail by people who were there. Through this prism, it paints a revealing portrait of twentieth-century Britain in summertime: how we were, how families functioned, what houses and gardens and streets were like, what journeys were like, and what people did all day in their free time. It explores their expectations, hopes, fears and habits, the rules or lack of rules under which they lived, their happiness and sadness, their sense of being treasured or neglected - all within living memory, from pre-war summers to the late 1970s....
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