One Hundred Summers by Vanessa Branson

$16.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: near fine

Taking the reader on a journey from the dying embers of Edwardian England, through the trauma of two world wars, the hedonism of London in the 1980s and 'Cool Britannia' in the 1990s right up to the present day, One Hundred Summers is a portrait of a century as it was experienced by one extraordinary fa mily. Along the way, Vanessa Branson recalls the rough and tumble of her chaotic but happy post-war childhood; growing up alongside her older brother Richard, who was entrepreneurial even as a teenager, she would have a front-row seat at the birth of Virgin, one of the most remarkable success stories in British business. She goes on to share her many adventures in a fascinating life, from opening an art gallery on London's Portobello Road and founding an arts festival in Morocco, to turning an ancient palace into a world-famous hotel and finding a real-life Neverland in the Scottish island of Eilean Shona, where J. M. Barrie once wrote a screenplay for Peter Pan. Touching, humane and at times heartbreakingly honest, Branson's family memoir is a vivid and charming tapestry of English eccentricity, fortune, fate and passion. ...Show more

The History of England by Thomas Babington Macaulay

$10.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Series: English Library | Reading Level: good

One of the greatest figures of his age, Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59) was widely admired throughout his life for his prose, poetry, political acumen and oratorical skills. Among the most successful and enthralling histories ever written, his History of England won instantaneous success following t he publication of its first volumes in 1849, and was rapidly translated into most European languages. Beginning with the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and concluding at the end of the reign of William III in 1702, it illuminates a time of deep struggle throughout Britain and Ireland in vivid and compelling prose. But while Macaulay offers a gripping narrative, and draws on a wide range of sources including historical accounts and creative literature, his enduring success also owes a great deal to his astonishing ability to grasp, and explain, the political reality that has always underpinned social change. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. ...Show more

A History of Britain Volume 2: The British Wars 1603-1776 by Simon Schama

$30.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: very good

Change, sometimes gentle and subtle, more often shocking and violent-shattering ideals and shifting perspectives-is again the dynamic of this, the second volume of Schama's refreshing and compelling history of Britain. 'The British wars began on the morning of July 23 1637, and the first missiles l aunched were stools. They flew down the nave of St. Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh and their targets were the Dean and Bishop of Edinburgh...' The first round of the British wars had been fired, and fired on grounds of faith. over the next 200 years, other battles on other battlegrounds would be waged and would rage-both at home and abroad, on sea and on land, up and down the length of burgeoning Britain, and across three continents-Europe,America and India. Most of the British wars would be wars of faith - waged on wide-ranging grounds of political or religious conviction-between Republicans and Royalists, Catholics and Protestants, Tories and Whigs, colonialists and natives. Many of the British battles would be fought on battlefields far from Britain, as far afield as Quebec and Calcutta. Yet the wars of the British remain essentially British wars-fought by the British, for the British and between the British. But who exactly were the British and what were they fighting for ? The answers unravel as the the story of 'The Wars of the British' unfolds. It is a story of revolution and reaction, of inspiration and disillusion, of progress and catastrophe, of huge gains and massive losses, of battles fought against the odds, as when Robert Clive stood at Plassey, of James Wolfe fell at Quebec. At the heart of Schama's history lie questions of compelling importance for Britain's future as well as it's past.What makes or breaks a nation?To whom do we give our allegiance and why? And where do the boundaries of our community lie?All these questions unravel through the stories that Schama loves to tell, in a form at once traditional and excitingly fresh. The great and the unforgettable are here-Oliver Cromwell and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Christopher Wren and Guy Fawkes, but so, too, are countless more ordinary lives such as Olaudah Equiano, an African enslaved from boyhood.All are caught on Schama's rich and teeming tapestry of British life and history. Hardback ...Show more

A History of Britain Volume 3: The Fate of the Empire 1776-2000 by Simon Schama

$30.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: very good

'While Britain was losing an empire, it was finding itself...' The compelling opening words to this volume, The Fate of the Empire, set the tone and agenda for the final stage of Simon Schama's epic voyage around Britain, her people and her past. Spanning two centuries, crossing the breadth of the empir e and covering a vast expanse of topics - from the birth of feminism to the fate of freedom - he explores the forces that shaped British culture and character from 1776 to 2000.   The story opens on the eve of a bloody revolution, but not a British one. The French Revolution's spirit of fiery defiance and Romantic idealism sparked off a round of radical revolts and reforms that gathered momentum over the coming century - from the Irish Rebellion to the Chartist Petition. How could the world's first industrial society come through its growing pains without falling apart in social and political conflict? Would the machine age destroy or strengthen the institutions that held Britain together? And if the British Empire helped to make Britain stable and rich, did it live up to its promise to help the ruled as well as the rulers? Amidst the military and economic shocks and traumas of the 20th century, and through the voices of Churchill, Orwell and H. G. Wells, The Fate of the Empire asks the question that is still with us - is the immense weight of our history a blessing or a curse, a gift or a millstone around the neck of our future?   It is a vast, compelling epic, made more so by the lively storytelling and big, bold characters at the heart of the action. Schama also exposes the grand illusions that cost untold lives when India's viceroys let millions of starving Indians die. Why? What went wrong with the liberal dream? The answers emerge in The Fate of Empire, which reveals the living ideals of Britain's long history, 'a history that tied together social justice with bloody-minded liberty'. ...Show more

Betjeman Country. An elegant, nostalgic journey through the towns, cities and countryside immortalised by the most popular poet of the century by Frank Delaney

$12.00 NZD

Category: Travel | Reading Level: good

The Labour Government, 1964-1970 - A Personal Record by Harold Wilson

$18.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: good-very good

Our Times: The Age of Elizabeth II by A.N. Wilson

$20.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: very good

When Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953, many proclaimed the start of a new Elizabethan Age. Few had any inkling, however, of the stupendous changes that would take place over the next 50 years, in Britain and around the world. In "Our Times", A.N. Wilson takes the reader on an exhilarating journey from that day to this. With his acute eye not just for the broad social and cultural sweep but also for the telling detail, he brilliantly distils half a century of unprecedented social and political change. Here are the defining events and characters of the modern age, from the Suez crisis to Vietnam, The Beatles to Princess Diana, the miners' strike to the Cold War.Here are the Angry Young Men, the satirists of Beyond the Fringe, Ruth Ellis and the abolition of hanging, the rise of pop culture and celebrity, industrial unrest and the Winter of Discontent, the Thatcher era and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. This book will propel you from post-war austerity - an age of deference in which men wore hats and women wore gloves - through the alterations in our social landscape to the multi-cultural Britain of today. ...Show more

Anthony Eden by Robert Rhodes James

$20.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good

Churchill's Grand Alliance - The Anglo-American Special Relationship, 1940-57 by John Charmley

$20.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: very good

The Anglo-American alliance was the cornerstone of Churchill's policy after 1940, and from then on, the special relationship has always been a feature of Anglo-American relations. This study, based upon extensive work in American and British archives, strips away the myth surrounding this subject to rev eal the unsentimental relaity. ...Show more

The Web of Empire: A Diary of the Imperial Tour of their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall & York in 1901 by Donald MacKenzie

$40.00 NZD

Category: United Kingdom | Reading Level: very good

Richard the Third as Duke of Gloucester and King of England Volume I and Volume II by Caroline Halstead

$30.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: good-very good

The Point of Departure by Robin Cook

$12.00 NZD

Category: Biography | Reading Level: very good