Deep Time, the 2.8 million years in which our earliest ancestors began to be toolmakers, is a period shrouded in mystery. It is still uncertain at what point hominins came on the scene, given that chimpanzees have also been shown to be capable to making tools. Controlled fire for cooking is a pointer, but how does an archaeologist distinguish between controlled and uncontrolled fires? Until the era of Darwin, it was believed that the world was created in 4004 BC, but late Victorian archaeologists started to push back the dates of the Neolithic by several millennia before settling down together, investing in agricultural plots, and collectively erecting massive ceremonial monuments to cement new communal identities. The author's personal experience of digging at early African sites illuminates a fascinating journey of understanding in which he takes the axe-head as the focus. His starting point is a green neolithic axe brought to him by a construction worker at the Devil's Quoits henge at Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire. 5000 years old, the stone originated in the Lake District and was thus testimony to the movement of people and implements. He discusses the evidence for migration at several significant archaeological sites such as Creswell Crags in Nottinghamshire, a complex of caves with close similarities to the cave systems in the Dordogne. In the 1930s Gordon Childe theorised that the Neolithic was a period in which humans changed from hunters to farmers, and this was supported by the work of Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho in the 1950s, who proposed that hunter-gatherers had settled by a spring in Jericho around 10,000 BC, creating a "man-made tell (settlement mound)" including a sanctuary in a significant transitional stage towards domestication. The author's section on Stonehenge is particularly fascinating, covering several theories about how the blue stones got to Stonehenge from the Preseli mountains. Shipment from Milford Haven is now considered unlikely, and various overland routes are discussed including fording the Severn north of Gloucester. A thread throughout the book is the author's discussion of war and peace, whether aggression was innate in early societies and how this impacts on the future of our world. 2.9 x 19.8cm, 432pp, maps, diagrams, colour photos.

England's second city has been a manufacturing powerhouse since Anglo-Saxon times, yet it is not a port and has no local mineral deposits of the kind that powered the Industrial Revolution. For its expansion into a major city, Birmingham relied on the talents and hard work of communities of migrants, first people from neighbouring villages and then in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the other side of the world. The borough rental, or list of tenants, from 1296 is an important document showing that two-thirds of the early workforce came from a ten-mile radius. The 19th century saw economic migration from Scotland and Ireland, and also the arrival of Russian Jews and Romanies escaping persecution. In the 20th century there were new communities of Yemenis, Chinese, Poles, Ukrainians, West Indians of the Windrush generation, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. This comprehensive history, published to mark the 850th anniversary of Henry II's grant of a market charter to the town in 1166, starts with recent developments in the archaeology of the medieval and Tudor periods. The "City of a Thousand Trades", to quote the 18th century politician Edmund Burke, emerged in the centuries after 1700 as it became a centre of industry and commerce. There were no guilds to create a closed shop, and the freedom allowed to Nonconformists in religion resulted in leaders such as John Bright and Joseph Chamberlain, radicals with a strong philanthropic drive. The first navigable canal was opened in 1766, giving the city access to overseas trade. There has been debate about the involvement of slaves in local industry, but their numbers were probably small. A high wage economy and opportunities for women and children attracted people to the town. Metalworking, from guns to jewellery to railway carriages, was a speciality, and the 20th century saw Birmingham's further development as Britain's motor city. 334pp, timeline, population figures, superb colour photos.
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Despite his surname, Andrew Baker is a dedicated and discerning consumer of cake and Publishing Editor of the Telegraph. He takes cakes very seriously. We hold strong opinions about how to bake a brownie with the perfect squidge, the correct proportions of icing to sponge, and whether it's jam or cream first on our scones. Now thanks to the success of a certain TV baking show, our flirtation with flour, fruit and frosting has become a full-blown love affair. Travelling the country from Dundee to the Isle of Wight, Andrew Baker serves up the story of our national obsession with cake, one slice at a time. On his greedy quest he seeks to discover the True Slice of each iconic cake and we join him eating sponge sandwiched with jam and cream at Queen Victoria's holiday home at Osborne House, discovering the illustrious yet scandal-filled history of the Battenberg's saccharine squares, and learn how a caterpillar enrobed in chocolate became a party-starting birthday centrepiece. From King Alfred's oat cakes to the River Café's revered Chocolate Nemesis, here are wedding cakes, ginger cakes, cupcakes, a honey cake and the Bake-Off Showstopper and moreish more. Includes recipes for example for a Red Velvet or Cheesecake Layer, buttercream and decoration for a 21st century wedding cake. 312pp, line art and crumbs of knowledge interspersed in features.

A stunningly beautiful visual timeline which begins with Alfred the Great in the 9th century, journeying through to the 21st century with objects which best represent the kings and queens who have ruled. Crowns, statues and coins immediately spring to mind but so too do golden coaches, castles, paintings, flags, letters, jewellery and much more besides: even the occasional photograph becomes the object itself in the desire to tell the intriguing royal tale. One of the most precious and popular exhibits in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum is King Alfred's Jewelled Aestel, one of the most significant ancient royal relics ever discovered, a tear drop-shaped piece of jewellery found in 1693 in a ploughed up field in Somerset not far from where Alfred the Great in 878 took refuge from the Vikings. Made of rock crystal embellished with enamel and gold, the goldsmithing is so intricate that it is believed to have been the work of a master craftsman. At the base of the piece is a dragon-like head and the cloisonné enamelled character was originally thought to depict Christ, but it may depict sight as it shows a man holding plants. There are illuminated manuscripts, the Edgar Window in Bath Abbey depicting a coronation in glass, the Abingdon Chronicle, a mortuary chest in Winchester Cathedral, Edward the Confessor's Shrine at Westminster Abbey, the Round Tower at Windsor Castle created for William the Conqueror's 11th century fortress, the Rufus Stone in the New Forest marking the spot where William II was fatally wounded by an arrow, the Royal Seal of Approval, ornate gates and castles, crosses and tombs, a monument to the popular Scottish King James IV, and exquisite miniatures of Elizabeth I by Nicholas Hilliard set in an enamelled golden lockets embellished with diamonds and rubies. 216 magnificent pages from Pitkin publishers, 19 x 24cm. Over 100 colour images.
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Was the Méthode Champenoise really invented by a Gloucestershire country doctor whose main interest was in making glass bottles strong enough to contain sparkling wine? Was the kilt really invented by an English Quaker for the convenience of his Scottish charcoal burners? Why did Oliver Williams, Lord Protector, call himself Oliver Cromwell? Why was Winston Churchill with all his other responsibilities in World War Two really concerned with Britain's last witchcraft trial? What was Adolf Hitler's brother doing in Liverpool before World War One? Why was it once fatal to impersonate a Chelsea Pensioner? Discover how taxation on windows coined the expression 'daylight robbery', extraordinary places like an underground church, royalty, murder, Shakespeare, food and drink, cleaning your teeth with sugar, our love affair with teeth, government, politics, money and the law, diseases and prisons and extraordinary Britons like Arthur Ransome the children's author or 'dangerous Bolshevik'. Read on. New full price, 144pp. First published by David & Charles in 2011 and reprinted many times. Well illus. with line art and photos.

Archaeology, architecture, culture and customs, national costume, national parks, movers and shakers, art, literature and language, celebrities, Tom Jones's telephone box, black gold and industry, fun and games and weird sports like snorkelling which saved a Victorian spa town and the great Orme Tramway where day trippers share their journey with a coffin, to the Welsh lad Arthur Linton (1868-1896) who got on his bike and became the Champion Cyclist of the World. Wales is a small country but one with a rich and varied history despite its size with contributions and a passion for song, poetry, sport, food, fun and humour, an ancient land of myths and legend and curious traditions. Discover how Welsh pioneers changed the world, powered flight, and all about the world's first industrialised nation with its prehistoric copper mines to the black gold that fuelled the Industrial Revolution. Facts to amuse and intrigue. New full price. 144pp, well illus.

Pugilists, smugglers, highwaymen, rakes and hellhounds are stereotypes associated with Regency England. To balance that, there are the elegant Nash terraces of west London, or the brilliance of Faraday's invention of the electric motor. In this fascinating book the author takes the lid off the mythology in a whistle stop tour of the nation, allowing us to come near to experiencing life in the early 19th century. The Regency was the last age before the beginning of standardisation, demonstrated by idiosyncratic entries in parish burial registers in which the clerk might speculate about the cause of death in spidery handwriting. By the end of the period the industrial revolution was drawing people to the towns in large numbers, and artists were already celebrating a lost world of nature, for instance in Constable's immensely popular Hay Wain of 1821. Following the census of 1801, 22 towns doubled in size over the next 30 years. Cities like Liverpool became a byword for poverty and squalor at the same time as their grand civic buildings were being endowed by rich merchants. During the same period the river Thames changed beyond recognition, crowded with vessels carrying coals from Newcastle and oriental goods from the far east, while new bridges with iron girders facilitated overland transport. Meanwhile George IV was a profligate rake who cared little for social conditions, and a quarter of his population was dependent on the poor relief system. Women were thrown out of employment if they became pregnant, with resulting destitution, though high-class courtesans such as the notorious Kitty Fisher made enough money to live in style. Changes in the employment market brought out political radicalism, which together with the anti-slavery movement was gaining ground at the end of the period. 416pp, colour reproductions.

When Thomas Becket was murdered by King Henry II in 1170, the journey to his shrine quickly became a popular pilgrimage route, and the 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer built his Canterbury Tales round the personalities of a group making the journey. Pilgrimages continue to fascinate us in the 21st century and the author, who had already made pilgrimages in celebration of his Cherokee heritage, entertains his readers with the people he meets and the wisdom he encounters on his own pilgrimage trail, interspersed with fascinating insights into the challenges of the route in the 14th century, when the country was still struggling with the aftermath of the Black Death. Harry Bailey and his 29 pilgrims would stop at inns along the way, sometimes four to a bed. A pilgrimage brings freedoms, and one of the modern characters Jerry encounters is Jack, who does straight-line walking, wherever the line takes him. Entering woodland Jerry feels something drawing him on, as if he is entering a sacred space. He casually asks a boy on a bike if he believes in miracles and gets the answer "You and me are miracles, aren't we?". In the 14th century 90% of the population was rural, and they could be ordered by the lord of the manor to help with the harvest. Medieval women had few options, with marriage being the main one, and the Wife of Bath had five husbands in the betrothal ceremony at the church door. Jerry has high jinks with the teenagers Red Head and Big Top, but never loses sight of the spiritual quest he is on, exchanging tobacco with a stranger to link the Christian pilgrimage with his Cherokee roots. 310pp, paperback, illustrations.

Founded by the Romans in the middle of the 1st century AD, named by them Londinium, the city was abandoned by the Romans at the beginning of what some still think of as the 'Dark Ages' of the seaborne Saxons and Vikings. In the Middle Ages it was called by some Londinopolis, a city of bustling waterfronts and imposing walls, of praying fires and nodding masts and which the poet William Dunbar in 1501 described as 'the flower of Cities all'. The history of London up to 1666 is a story of Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts. Obliterated by the Great Fire, the city's busy, beautiful, dangerous life is described through skilful analysis of the archaeological, pictorial and written records. It features famous figures in British history like Queen Boudicca, King Alfred, Thomas Becket, Wat Tyler, Dick Whittington, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell and Guy Fawkes. And Chaucer, Bacon, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Donne, Inigo Jones, Thomas Middleton, Milton, Wren, Aphra Behn and Samuel Pepys. Chapters cover Lancastrian and Yorkist history and the Wars of the Roses, social history, building works and archaeological finds and four appendices cover Saxon, Medieval and Tudor Roman walks. The first of many images is a picture of Bronze Age Boudicca's grave at Parliament Hill and an Iron Age hillfort Caesar's Camp at Wimbledon Common. 288pp with dozens of photographs throughout the text plus 16 pages of colour plates.

Covering Elizabethan, 18th century, Victorian and 20th London and looking at witches, witchcraft, Nicholas Hawksmoor, secret societies and more, the book describes practitioners of the occult and their unorthodox beliefs. London more than any other city has a secret history concealed from view, a city of esoteric traditions, obscure institutions and forgotten locations. The book rediscovers this history, from the Elizabethan magic of Dr Dee and Simon Forman to the occult designs of Wren and Hawksmoor, from the Victorian London of Spring-Heeled Jack to the fin de siècle heyday of Madame Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley. A gazetteer maps the sites of the most resonant occult locations. 224pp, paperback.