John Smith was born in 1580 in Lincolnshire, where he attended Louth grammar school, and as a boy he would hear about the defeat of the Spanish Armada and expeditions to the New World by Sir Francis Drake. At the age of 16 Smith enlisted as a soldier, learnt the arts of horsemanship at Tattershall Castle, and after a variety of adventures including more than one shipwreck, he eventually took up with some Jesuits and ended up in Italy, where he enlisted with the imperial army in a holy war against the Turks. As a result he found himself in a Protestant Hungarian regiment, was captured by the Turks and was sold into slavery. Bound for the Crimea with a nefarious group of other captives, he managed to make a run for it and sailed for Spain. Eventually finding his way home, Smith had not lost his appetite for adventure and joined an expedition to the New World, where he became one of the founders of Jamestown, Virginia. The intrepid colonisers found a suitable site for a settlement by following instructions supplied by the London Council. Having sworn in their governing body they prepared to build by cutting wood and setting up a palisade. The local Native American chief, Wowinchopunck, sent 100 men with two fat deer, inviting the colonists to lay down their weapons, which they declined to do. The paramount chief, Powhatan, was less friendly, and when Smith was captured he only escaped with his life by showing them the workings of a compass. At this point he first made the acquaintance of Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas, who later married one of the settlers and was taken to England, where she caused a sensation but could not survive the climate. The story of the Jamestown settlement is largely based on Smith's own account, and makes fascinating reading. 202pp, black and white reproductions.

James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, may have been the eldest and illegitimate son of a monarch, but when he entered the world his father, Charles II, was a monarch without a kingdom, and with little prospect of getting it back from Parliamentary rule. His mother meanwhile was a commoner with a wanton reputation. His paternal grandfather, Charles I, had recently lost his head upon a scaffold on Whitehall. Due to his illegitimate status, James had no surname of his own. He was no normal royal child - he was born on the cusp of modernity and would become a true child of the 17th century, encapsulating it socially, politically and religiously. From this near hopeless start, little James would go exile in Europe, where he lived in near poverty, to triumphantly rejoicing his father's restoration to the thrones of England and Scotland. Monmouth would become part of one of the most libertine royal courts within Europe. His status as a royal bastard ensured that he was able to rise within the family firm, first by being made a duke, and then by marrying into the most eligible aristocratic family in Scotland. He would become his father's son when it came to matters of the opposite sex; he made a poor husband but a willing and lusty lover. He was also a skilled military man, with experience in the field and at sea, and his ability to communicate with those of all social statuses added to his effectiveness as a military leader, as well as making him popular with the general public. Monmouth deserves to be remembered for more than the failed act of treason against his uncle, James II, and the consequent blundered and bloody forfeit of his life on Tower Hill. The story is also fascinating in that Monmouth was witness to some of Britain's biggest historical events of the 17th century as well as central to political crises, plots and eventually the rebellion that now bears his name. Among these events were the Plague of 1665, the Great Fire of London 1666, the discovery of the so-called Popish Plot 1678, the emergence of political parties, the start of the Exclusion Crisis, the discovery of the Rye House Plot 1683 and the Monmouth Rebellion 1685. And the country was still dealing with the memory of the bloody and divisive Civil War which had its own complexities of state and religion. 145pp, eight pages of plates.

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.

In the early 19th century, Richard Trevithick discovered that to power a small engine you required high pressure steam, and the end-result was a railway network. Railway engineer Joseph Locke first worked for his father's colliery in West Yorkshire, and when he moved to the Newcastle area he joined the Stephenson family business, acting as an assistant to Robert Stephenson over the surveys and plans for the Liverpool and Manchester railway. The scheme was initially rejected by parliament, and there was also a faction arguing for cable haulage. Joseph and Robert prepared a report that George Stephenson put out in his name, and finally their prototype Rocket won the contest. Meanwhile Joseph was engaged with engineering problems traversing Chat Moss. The directors of the line had a disagreement with George Stephenson, who left the company, and Locke felt his only option was to stay with his mentor, but when trustees of the Liverpool and Manchester Line called him back to correct George's calculations, the embarrassment caused a temporary rift. The ceremonial opening of the line is famous for the death of William Huskisson MP who moved forward to shake hands with his old antagonist the Duke of Wellington and was hit by the locomotive. George Stephenson moved to the Grand Junction Railway in the Midlands with Locke as his assistant, but when the two-mile Woodhead tunnel under the Peak District ran into problems, partly because shareholders with no engineering experience kept arriving at the site and giving orders, and partly because the men were housed in inadequate shelters, Locke was called in to sort out the disaster in spite of his aversion to tunnels, asking for a budget that was twice the original estimate. Locke later worked on a range of railways including the route north over Shap Fell, and deserves to be mentioned alongside the Stephensons as one of railway's great pioneers. 16.5 x 24cm, 180pp, colour photos.

When it was published in 1919, this story of a woman's career as a prostitute in late 19th century America containing descriptions of sexual transactions between prostitutes and their customers did not alarm censors. Instead it was the author's failure to be humbled by her experiences, and her critical attitude toward Christian reformers, that offended. Since then Madeleine has largely gone unnoticed, but this prostitute's autobiography is literate and has a polished text. Some 'fallen women' were educated in their early years and a career in prostitution did not prevent women from developing intellectual interests and abilities. The book stands as a consciously crafted record of the material and emotional perils faced by prostitutes of the period and as a cultural document of the Progressive Era, showing one woman's attempt to achieve independence. In three parts, the first encompasses Madeleine's earliest years and her break from her family to enter 'the oldest profession'. She describes the circumstances which brought about her 'social bankruptcy' and those which made possible her spiritual renewal. Book II covers her career as a prostitute in St. Louis, Kanas City and Chicago, and her erratic involvement with Paul, her lover. She realises that she and Paul cannot break down the wall of mistrust between them and build a life together. Book III treats her years as a madame in a frontier city in Canada, her alcoholism, and her final rejection of prostitution. The epilogue is a bitter attack on Progressive reformers who worry about 'white slavery', the abduction of young women into a life of prostitution, a phenomenon Madeleine insists did not exist. Finding herself unmarried and pregnant at the age of 17 in around 1887, Madeleine had turned to the self-sufficiency prostitution offered. Includes the introductions to the 1919 and 1986 editions. Facsimile reprint, 329pp, paperback.

The controversial life of legendary beauty, writer and rich girl Nancy Cunard during her 13 years in Jazz-Age Paris. Paris in the 1920s was bursting with talent in the worlds of art, design and literature and at its centre was the gorgeous, seductive English socialite Nancy Cunard, scion of the famous shipping line. Her lovers were legion, but this book focuses on five of the most significant, and a lifelong friendship. Her affairs with acclaimed writers Ezra Pound, Aldous Huxley, Michael Arlen and Louis Aragon were passionate and tempestuous, as was her romance with black jazz pianist Henry Crowder. Her friendship with the famous Irish novelist George Moore, her mother's lover and a man falsely rumoured to be Nancy's father, was the longest-lasting of her life. Nancy's early years were ones of great wealth but also emotional deprivation. Her mother, Lady Cunard, the American heiress Maud Alice Burke, who later changed her name to Emerald, became a reigning London hostess. From an early age Nancy was given to promiscuity and heavy drinking, and preferred a life in the arts to one in the social sphere into which she had been born. A gifted poet and widely read, Nancy founded a small press that published Samuel Beckett among others. A muse to many, Nancy was also a courageous crusader against racism and fascism. She left Paris in 1933 at the end of its most glittering years and remained unafraid to live life on the edge until her death in 1965. Osbert Sitwell talked of Nancy's 'ineffable charm and distinction of mind'. Alannah Harper thought that 'whatever she did - however violent - Nancy always looked more distinguished than other people.' Harold Acton believed she had inspired half the poets and novelists of the Twenties. The City of Light provided Nancy with the richest and most stimulating artistic life in the Western world, untrammelled sex, and plenty of alcohol. Mina Loy wrote poems to her; Constantin Brancusi sculpted her; Man Ray photographed her; she played tennis with Ernest Hemingway and set up the Hours Press. It was the Armenian writer Michael Arlen's 'The Green Hat', a global bestseller which pictured Nancy as heroine, for which she is often remembered. Her major work was Negro, an anthology of writings by and about black people. An inspirational biography, 330pp, eight pages of fascinating archive photos, one or two in colour.

When she was in her mid 30s, Marian Evans transformed herself into George Eliot, an author celebrated for her genius as soon as she published her debut novel. During those years she also found her life partner, George Lewes, writer, philosopher and married father of three. After 'eloping' to Berlin in 1854, they lived together for 24 years. Eliot asked people to call her 'Mrs Lewes' and dedicated each subsequent novel to her 'Husband'. Although they could not marry legally, 'this double life, which helps me to feel and think with double strength' was a relationship which scandalised her contemporaries yet she grew immeasurably within it. Academic philosopher Clare Carlisle explores the novelist's interrogation of Eliot's own 25 years of unsanctioned coupledom with Lewes and also the difficult love relationship she unleashed on her heroines. Beautifully balancing literary interpretation with biographical and philosophical reflection, Carlisle explores the gamble of yoking your happiness to the 'open-endedness of another human being'. The book traces in particular Eliot's influences from Goethe to Hegel, Comte and Darwin in a richly considered study that brings us close to the heart and mind of a great writer and a wise soul. Carlisle moves from novel to novel, and her chapter on Middlemarch, the masterpiece of Eliot's midlife, is an intense and empathetic study. 369pp, many photos and reproductions of letters and chapters covering vocation, motherhood, disillusion and success among them. 2023 US first edition.

Martin Luther's purpose was to console and encourage people and to help them overcome anxiety. He calls Christians to a free reliance upon Christ through faith made possible by his mercy, grace and favour. An informative anthology of Martin Luther's writings, emphasising his work as a theologian, exegete and pastor, the book in itself is an eloquent witness on how far Lutherans and Catholics have advanced in their quest for mutual understanding as fellow Christians. Luther, a towering figure who stood at the vortex of the 16th century storms that left Catholics and Protestants divided, is one who belongs to us all. His spirit has kept the message alive and most Catholics have heard the legendary account of his nailing 'Ninety Five Theses' calling for reforms to the door of a church in 1517. Renegade or reformer, his writings and creativity were in part due to a defensiveness and aversion created by the bitterness of past divisions. The entire collection of his works fills over 100 volumes and Eric Gritsch is one of the most experienced and expert guides and the urgency, directness and simplicity which aims right at the reader in this century. His was an age of 'anguished conscience' that could not find peace. Ours is an age troubled by a different form of 'works righteousness', an achievement orientated society that strives for accomplishments but with an emptiness about the deeper meaning of our lives. In this collection the figure of Luther emerges as a pastor, teacher and preacher and he is always invigorating and one of the greatest Christian spiritual writers. One of his favourite quotations from Paul: 'Test everything; hold fast to what is good.' 'Eric Gritsch in this collection puts his finger on the pulse of the Reformer so that we can sense the heartbeat of this religious genius.' 192pp, paperback.

Between 1100 and 1400 the number of women saints rose substantially as women began to explore new roles within church and society. Beguines, who were prominent in Northern Europe, dedicated themselves to prayer, some combining prayer with works of charity and nursing and promising chastity. Mechtild of Magdeburg, the only beguine mentioned in this collection, went to Magdeburg to live at the age of 12 and remained there until she retired to the monastery of Helsta in old age. Angela of Foligno was the Southern European equivalent, joining the Franciscan Third Order and choosing a lifestyle she felt suited to her particular calling. During the crusades, women could take charge of their own lives in a variety of ways, opening up horizons of activity and thought unfamiliar to women of earlier times. Obbard introduces the spiritual experiences and theological insights of four medieval women - the above mentioned plus Gertrude the Great, Birgitta of Sweden and Julian of Norwich. Here are their own words, teachings recorded by companions, their own hymns of thanksgiving, about poverty and penance, Angela as mother and teacher, Birgitta the inspired one and pilgrim, the background to Julian's Revelations, and visions of Our Lady. Gertrude was influenced by the new spirit of romanticism introduced by Bernard of Clarvaux; Birgitta, noblewoman and foundress of a new mixed community of men and women; and Julian, the recluse who produced a remarkable work of theology. Highly recommended. 158 page paperback.

William Adams was an English seafarer who became the first Englishman to reach Japan. After living there or many years, Adams had taken a Japanese name, risen to the highest level in the ruling Shogun's court, an advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu as portrayed in Richard Clavell's Shogun, and his life was just as exciting. In 1611, he wrote a letter to the merchants of London's East India Company offering his services as an adviser and interpreter. Seven adventurers were sent to Japan with orders to find and befriend Adams in the belief that he would help them gain access to a country that had sealed itself off from the rest of the world under the Edo Shogunate. Their arrival was to prove a momentous event in the history of Japan, and the Shogun suddenly found himself facing a stark choice - expel the foreigners and continue with his policy of isolation, or open his country to the world. Two thirds of the book concentrates on this English trade mission to Japan and what followed over the next decade as Adams helped the English attempt trade with the Shogun, but was confounded by cultural misunderstanding, scheming Jesuit priests, and fearsome Dutch rivals. Beautifully written and easy to read, this is a fascinating tale of an encounter between two civilisations, centred on an individual as extraordinary as the world in which he lived. Superbly researched and told with great gusto. 352pp in well illustrated softback.