This intriguing analysis shows how the British secret services grew from the real threat of Queen Victoria's assassination, and intensified during the Abdication crisis.
An account of the many Scots involved in Arctic exploration, including the search for the North-West Passage: in particular John Ross, James Clark Ross, John Richardson, John Rae and their h... read more
The pioneering struggle of early C20th women gardeners, who were excluded from the profession on account of their sex by such august bodies as the RHS. Fiona Davidson's previous book was The... read more
Neutral for fifty years in his work for the BBC, now he tells us what he thinks and thought about all those prime ministers, presidents, elections and scandals.
Explores the tension between opposing views of the 1960s - as a period of joyful, necessary liberation and experiment or a time when authority was undermined and gave way to a pernicious, pe... read more
The story of one of the most tumultuous moments in British history, which analyses how James I's rule was haunted by Elizabethan political norms and values.
A society's way of dealing with death can be very revealing. Here, the distinguished historian of Victorian Britain and the domestic sphere shows how their behaviour around death offers deep... read more
Prominent in both Thatcher and Major's cabinets, the author is a shrewd observer of the corridors of power, with their surprising chicanes and U-turns.
The clandestine manoeuvres of one branch of military intelligence, responsible for saving thousands of lives. Airey Neave, Jimmy Langley, Sam Derry and Mary Lindell emerge as central figures... read more
A new edition of this pioneering account of England's large black community in the C18th - from freed slaves to prosperous citizens. (First published 1995.)
A characteristically particular and original look at social change from the author of the hugely successful Terms & Conditions: Life in Girls' Boarding Schools, 1939-1979 and others.
Captures the spirit of the late C18th by looking at JJ’s dinner parties. He was a publisher, bookseller, and a friend of Blake, Wordsworth, Fuseli, Coleridge, Wollstonecraft etc...