From the Wars of the Roses and the Earl of Essex losing his head, London turning against Charles I, Wellington and Nelson crossing paths, Russell's despatches from the Crimean War, spies in World War One, women wearing the trousers in industry and services, World War Two and queueing becoming a pastime, weekly allowances, nylons, whiskey, knicker elastic, digging for victory, eating out, bombing casualties, Ian Fleming taking his naval role with zeal, hospitals, the BBC, over five million books destroyed in the Paternoster Row hit, Penguin revolutionising paperbacks, tensions developing between US troops and Londoners, the ATS and the Home Guards, here are stories of mighty battles, heroic deeds and staunch determination in the face of adversity. A rich history of our remarkable capital city in times of war, an absorbing collection of stories and trivia. New full price, 142pp, well illus. with line art and photos.

You cannot move far in London without being reminded of the personalities who made its history - Dick Whittington who helped make London the centre of the trade in wool, Thomas Gresham who ensured that London would become the financial centre, Prince Albert who left behind the Kensington museums. Then there is Big Ben which caused its creator so much trouble that he died prematurely, and the Underground Railway. Whatever is that strange London Stone almost hidden behind a grill attached to a bank in Cannon Street, not to mention the metal tube which passes above the trains within Sloane Square underground station? Why that's the River Westbourne of course. Here are amphitheatres and temples, bars, taxes and taxis, Bazalgette and the Great Stink, rhyming slang, smog, parks, how the posh streets got their names, retail therapy and the story of Leicester Square along with royal rowing and dodgy dealing, fountains, lost rivers, hidden tube stations, famous prisons, police forces and power stations, Art Deco, philanthropy and the poor, tea shops and corner houses, theatreland and life beyond the fringe, London's drinking culture and its cemeteries, all the colourful characters and history, surprising events and iconic buildings of our capital city. New full price, 144pp, woodcut illus.

A superb selection of walks which introduces themes and characters that define the beautiful landscape of England. Walk along the coast at Robin Hood's Bay, a medieval walk from Fountains Abbey, out on the tiles at Boltby and Thirlby Bank, along Ullswater's shore to Silver Point, lilies and lakes seen from Loughrigg, Dovedale and ivory spires, scaling the Heights of Abraham, Blakeney Eye's magical marshes, Castle Combe, walking with Rosie in the Slad Valley, Lulworth to Durdle Door, the Dartmouth National Park and Bovey Travey, Wanstead and its royal connections, the New Forest trails and Devil's Dyke and the world's grandest view. These are just some of the highlights including the glorious scenery of the Lake District and majestic views across the South Downs. 20 walks carefully written and compiled by expert local authors, each includes a clear, easy-to-follow route description, map and a gradient and difficulty rating. Very appealing full page colour photographs of some of the most quintessentially English villages, country cottages, churches and coastlines. 112pp, landscape format 27 x 22cm.

A magnificent Thames & Hudson heavyweight quality 496 page softback packed with 273 colour illustrations, a personal selection of paintings admired from public collections during the course of Christopher Lloyd's career in art, here are highlights and unexpected treasures. If you find yourself in Hull, Cork or Dundee, what paintings should you go and look at? Many masterpieces are waiting for you, sometimes neglected, in our galleries and museums and here the distinguished broadcaster and critic Lloyd identifies over 265 masterpieces from the National Gallery to The Burrell Collection in Glasgow around England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Admire The Dice Players from 1650 at Preston Hall Museum Stockton-on-Tees, children using pebbles to play Knucklebones on the beach in Philip Wilson Steer's canvas found in Ipswich, masterpieces by Sir Alfred Munnings depicting his wife and horse and himself from 1935 in Dedham, Vuillard, Augustus John, Alma-Tadema, Titian all found at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the strikingly graphic The Butcher's Shop of 1583 by Carracci and a Virgin and Child and Three Angels from 1475, a Lady with Book and a Pissarro landscape, Holman Hunt all found at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Mother and Child by the Sea is a particularly atmospheric, dark and brooding image of a calm and peaceful night with the moon half hidden by clouds over the sea, the child pointing expectantly suggesting his father is onboard the sailing ship in the near distance. This is on page 267 and immediately before the colourful Jockeys Before the Race by Degas, both of which together with Gainsborough and the Travelling Companions by Egg, the Music Lesson and The Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Orazio Gentileschi all to be seen at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Page after page of well and lesser known masterpieces, beautifully curated with an unobtrusively erudite detailed text, a model of art-historical writing and a sustained pleasure to read. 496pp, 273 colour illus. 21 x 16cm, softback.

World expert on the history and archaeology of King Arthur and British myths and legends, Geoffrey Ashe explores compelling and ancient stories from King Lear and King Arthur, to Fingal, Beowulf, Gwendolen and Guinevere, the Giants King Albion, the 'Scots' from Ireland which made frequent raids on Britain, from the misty centuries of British and Irish prehistory to the height of the Dark Ages come tales of giants and fairy-folk, druids and saints, but who were these characters who shaped the nation? Ashe shows how these ancient stories have taken on fresh significance as historical and archaeological research has uncovered the truth behind each legend. 356pp, paperback.

No country on earth has a higher concentration of churches and castles than Wales. The most famous date from the late 1200s and are rightly associated with Edward I of England who commissioned the construction of what is now often known as the 'Iron Ring' to act as a sign of dominance over the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Assisting Edward was his master mason, James of St George, probably of Crusader pedigree judging by the castles' appearance. It was in 1277 that Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Gwynedd, met with Edward I in Aberconwy to finalise a treaty that would change the fate of both nations. His hand forced by Edward's invasion earlier that year, the acceptance of the terms confirmed not only short-term peace, but also that the rule of Wales would pass to Edward on Llywelyn's death. Both before and simultaneous to William the Conqueror's establishment of timber and stone fortresses in the south and borderlands, a process continued by many of his descendants, native structures also existed. Though often more palatial than protective, such constructions proved decisive to the ongoing wars, and were often chosen as sites for future castles. Many had begun as Roman forts whereas others date from more modern times and many now are romantic ruins, and others cherished family homes, hotels or museums. From blood-soaked heroes to long-lost legends, violent pirates to despotic Marcher lords, the book offers a fresh investigation into 69 castles and an extra Best of the Rest chapter covering another 30 with a paragraph or two each and a further 16 where gatehouses and ruins remain. 246pp, 16 pages of archive photos.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.

A remarkable collection of interpretations by outstanding writers on the literature and history of modern Britain: Prince Albert, John Spurling on one man's Raj, editing the English Historical Review, Andrew Roberts on Michael Roberts and the BBC, Jeremy Lewis on David Astor and the Observer, Ferdinand Mount on John Keats, Anthony Trollope, readers, writers and reputations, Robert Graves's war poems, Paul Levy on Bloomsbury Reassessed, Edmund Gosse and R. J. Ackerley, Ivy Compton-Burnett, the world of Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Harry Potter, the Black Hole of Calcutta, the breakup of Britain, A. J. P. Taylor and Hugh Trevor-Roper, Margaret Thatcher's impact on historical writing, Tony Benn, and Geoffrey Wheatcroft on Lady Thatcher and Max Hastings on Elizabeth II, the book concludes with British studies at the University of Texas 1975-2013. We are taken on an excursion through British life and intellectual biography covering personalities, politics and culture in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but also the interaction of British and other societies throughout the world. 400 pages, illus.

Written with great literary flair, inquisitiveness, soul-searching and humanity, this is a haunting work of resurrection and an odd fictional encyclopaedia of disappeared cities, lost towns and ghost villages. Matthew Green reimagines the lives of those who walked their streets as he peers through the cracks of history to find Dunwich, a medieval city plunged off a cliff by sea storms, the abandoned village of Wharram Percy, wiped out by the Black Death, the lost city of Trellech, unearthed by moles in 2002, and a Norfolk village zombified by the military and turned into a Nazi, Soviet, and Afghan village for training. British historian and broadcaster Matthew Green tells the astonishing tales of the rise and demise of these places, animating the people who lived, worked, dreamed and died there as he travels across Britain exploring their haunting and often-beautiful remains. Mourned by evictees and reimagined by artists, writers and mavericks, he gives us the taste of medieval wine or the sights of puffin hunting on the tallest cliffs in the country. His first discovery lay in one of the remotest corners in Scotland, Skara Brae, to find houses beneath the sand before we travel to the obliterated port of Winchelsea and the abandoned island of St Kilda. Tiny remainder mark, 358pp, illus.

Pitkin guides are fabulous and this large format softback is from its Film Locations series. Novelist Rosamunde Pilcher was born in Cornwall and spent her childhood there. England's most south-westerly county was to feature many times in her novels and here we explore the landscapes and seascapes that inspired her around Looe, Bodmin, Fowey, St Austell, Truro, Falmouth, the Lizard Peninsula and its villages and coves, Mount's Bay, Penzance, Mousehole, Land's End, Cape Cornwall, St Ives, Godrevy Point, St Agnes Head, Newquay, Padstow and Bude among them. Packed with glamorous colour photos and map, a slim paperback, 32pp.

The updated edition, this is an excellent field guide to the mammals of Great Britain and Ireland beginning with an overview and history, biology and life cycle. Organised by Terrestrial Mammals like squirrels and dormice, beavers, hedgehogs and bats, wild cats and foxes, deer, pigs and wild boar, even reindeer and introduced ephemerals like the Siberian chipmunk, striped skunk and Asian short-clawed otter. In Marine Mammals there are seals, whales, dolphins, beluga and narwhal, the tusked males of which are unmistakable but there have been no confirmed sightings in Britain since 1949. For each entry there are details of length, height, blow, dive sequence, behaviour, weight, breathing behaviour, habitat, population and status, food and signs including tracks, droppings and nests and coloured distribution map. 126 mammal species recorded, 500 superb colour photos. Stunning colour photography in this heavyweight large softback, 328pp.