Celebrity is either a reward for personal excellence, an unhealthy mania of fans, or the vehicle for third-party enrichment and each has the capacity to surprise and frustrate the others. But when in collaboration, everyone wins - the individual attains prominence and wealth, the audience enjoys private and social pleasures of fandom, and the industry provides jobs and income to those it employs. Bowman shows how, following the outrageous fame of Lord Byron, an interest in the foibles rather than the achievements of prominent individuals was kindled and sustained by newspapers, satirical prints and society gossip. Here are five pen portraits of colourful men and women whose reputations have subsequently faded, but whose personalities represent their age and their peculiar spheres of activity - the stage, politics, diplomacy, art, literature and fashion. Harriot Mellon, the illegitimate daughter of a wardrobe-keeper in a company of strolling players, married the elderly banker Thomas Coutts. Seven years later she was the richest widow in the land and a target of ferocious abuse. Dorothea Lieven, the Russian ambassador's wife, used her intellect, dignity and a talent for flattery to entrance numerous statesmen and become a force in British politics. Richard Grenville, Duke of Buckingham, was a corrupt parliamentarian who squandered a vast income and caused the decline of the mighty Grenville dynasty. Lady Charlotte Bury was mocked by Thackeray as 'Lady Flummery' because of her execrable novels, but she was a great beauty who married for love not once but twice. Sir Thomas Lawrence deserved his eminence as an artist, but had to use all his charm and courtliness to conceal the potentially explosive secrets of his private life. Here is a cast of characters to savour that reveal the realities of the period as no Jane Austen novel could. 320pp, 16 pages of colour and other plates and other illus.

Hubert De Burgh, Earl of Kent (1170-1243) was a fighting man, used to wiping the blood and entrails of his enemies from his armour. He was a man who saved the throne of his nine-year-old king during a successful French invasion of England, a man who sent that same French army packing permanently, sinking their fleet, a man who countersigned Magna Carta and then supervised its update to the betterment of the English nation. A man who protected and modernised the English economy, even to counting the pennies. A man who fought the English cause across the continent, often hand-to-hand. A man who frightened the Vatican. A man who perfected the art of castle warfare. A man who held Dover Castle against all the odds and saved the nation. A man who laid the foundations for an English national government. Hubert de Burgh rose from obscure beginnings and loyally served first King John and then the young Henry III, playing a crucial role in saving the Plantagenet dynasty when it was at its most vulnerable. During King John's disastrous wars in France, Hubert held Chinon Castle against the besieging French for a whole year. He remained loyal when the Barons rebelled against John and, when they invited French invaders to intervene, Hubert successfully held Dover Castle against a siege led by the French Prince Louis. He struck the final blow against French invasion when he defeated a powerful fleet carrying French reinforcements at the naval Battle of Sandwich. Hubert made important reforms as Justiciar of England and led military campaigns against the Welsh Prince Lewellyn. He eventually lost favour due to the machinations of his rivals, and narrowly avoided execution, but was eventually reconciled with his king and able to die a peaceful death. Incredibly this is the first full length biography of this remarkable man. 158pp, 16 pages of photos.

A hundred years after Tutankhamun's tomb was rediscovered, leading Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley shares 10 unique perspectives on his enduring legacy. In the Valley of the Kings a near-complete royal burial, an ancient mummy, and golden riches beyond imagination were discovered by archaeologists. The lost tomb of Tutankhamun ignited a media frenzy, and propelled into overdrive rumours of a deadly ancient curse. The book takes a familiar tale and turns on its head. Tyldesley rediscovers the teenage pharaoh and his family, ancient embalmers and tomb robbers, famous Western explorers and forgotten Egyptian archaeologists. It's a journey that spans from ancient Thebes in 1336BCE, when a young king on a mission to restore his land met an unexpected and violent end, to modern Luxor in 1922CE, as the tomb's discovery led to a fight over ownership that continues to this day. Tutankhamun knew that death did not have to be the end, but in order to achieve an afterlife, he had to be remembered. Throughout his reign he worked to impose his presence on his land so that his story might be remembered by generations to come. Each section is a straightforward chronological narrative split into chapters with titles like The King's Tale: Tutankhamun the Restorer, and The Queen's Tale: Tutankhamun's Sister-Wife Ankhesenpaaten, The Waterboy's Tale: Seeing Tutankhamun Through Different Eyes and The Bishop's Tale: Investigating the Dead. Tyldesley revisits the 1968 and 2005 surveys, pointing our discrepancies between these findings and the results of later DNA investigation. Nicholas Reeve's theory that Nefertiti is buried in a hidden room in KV62 'seems a step too far' and declares that the King was 'the most influential man in the Bronze Age Mediterranean world'. 293pp, eight pages of colour and archive photos.