The archaeologist author together with Christiane Eluère takes us back beyond the borders of history. Achilles, Odysseus and other heroes of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey fought with shields and swords of bronze. What was the world like in those mythic days when the rival Greek cities of Troy and Mycenae battled for supremacy, and far to the West unknown engineers raised the megaliths of Stonehenge? We read about Achilles, armed for battle raging at the Trojans. 'First he placed along his legs the fair greaves linked with silver fastenings to hold the greaves at the ankles. Afterward he girt about his chest the corselet, and across his shoulders slung the sword with the nails of silver, a bronze sword, and caught up in the great shield, huge and heavy nets, and from it the light glimmered far, as far from the Moon... Next he pulled out from its standing place the spear of his father...' But what do we know of even earlier times when the settled peoples of Europe first replaced their crude stone tools with those made of refined metal, and crafted ornaments of beaten copper and gold? Chapters cover The Metallurgical Centres like the Gold of Varna in Bulgaria with 2,200 ornaments dating from as early as the 5th millennium, The Chalcolithic Period in the Iberian Peninsula which was the result of Eastern influences. Bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) appeared between 3000 and 1500BC in the Eastern Mediterranean and in Northern Europe. Pictured are remains and art in Crete, vessels, arms and armour, cultural centres, mother goddesses and horned figures, chariots, wheels and birds depicted in small Sardinian bronzes; the Mycenaean religion, funeral rites and an appendix on documents, with illustrations including the remarkable remains of Otzi, the ancient man, as preserved today. 160pp, paperback packed with colour illus. and glossy pages in this Thames & Hudson publication.

In 1799 at Rosetta, near Alexandria, an officer of the French Army found a black basalt stele bearing inscriptions in three different scripts. The Rosetta Stone was to provide the key to deciphering Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Excitement mounted among the oriental-language specialists. The Greek text which reproduced a decree of King Ptolemy V appeared to be a translation of the other two. Fully explained are the purely ideographic and phonetic scripts in the opening pages of this gloriously well illustrated history. Buried treasure, looting, intrigue and dedicated scholarship. 'Wonderful things' gleaming in the darkness, the cache of royal mummies and most wonderful of all, the tomb of Tutankhamun. Here is the complete story of the rediscovery of Ancient Egypt, a tale of extraordinary characters like Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon who braved the 'Pharoah's Curse', Belzoni, the 'Patagonian Samson', Champollion who unlocked the secrets of the hieroglyphics. It is a tale of spectacular rescue with modern technology used to save Egypt's monuments from floodwaters and the ravages of time. Documented is the first sight of Abu Simbel in 1813 by a Swiss traveller who while in Nubia was disguised as a Syrian merchant, and how the island of Philae became a victim of 20th century engineering works on the Nile; Petrie who returned to Abydos aged 69 in 1922 is pictured in a rare photograph and of course mummies, chests, collars of beads when the inner coffin was opened in 1925. Plus the Library of Alexandria, the first cross section of the Great Pyramid, the Great Temple at Karnak opened to all, the founding of the Cairo Museum and treasures aplenty. Very well illustrated 208 page softback, colour.

Written by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire's great-great granddaughter Iris, her great grandparents were the 1st Earl of Granville (1773-1846) and Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish. Iris died in 1944, and although her writing is a little flowery, it was her ability to open doors through her family connections which makes this biography so fascinating. Georgiana's story is surely one of the most compelling and dramatic in late Georgian society, the subject of many books and a successful film, The Duchess. Love affairs, tragedy, high society, gambling and a host of illegitimate children are shared between herself, her best friend, her lover and her husband. Married to an elderly reserved duke, she was a young and emotionally demonstrative girl, unprepared for her duties as duchess. She discovered that her husband already had a mistress with whom he had a daughter and all the duke requires of Georgiana is to provide him with an heir which she seems at first unable to do. Starved of affection, she throws herself into the fashionable world and becomes the darling of society where she leads others and sets the fashions, whether for three foot high ostrich feathers or tall towers of hair with elaborate decorations. In 1782, the Duke and Duchess meet the fascinating Lady Elizabeth Foster, recently separated from her husband and living in restricted circumstances. Elizabeth attaches herself to Georgiana and is invited to return home with them. She becomes not only a close friend to Georgiana, but a mistress to the Duke and bears him two illegitimate children. Surprisingly Georgiana supports this strange ménage à trois, but nevertheless continues her bedroom duties to the Duke, eventually bearing him two daughters and finally in 1790, the much sought-after son. The true love of Georgiana's life is the handsome young Whig politician Charles Grey with whom she embarked on an affair in 1791. She faced the worse crisis of her life when she discovered that she was carrying his child. The Duke gave an ultimatum - give up Grey and the child, or never see her three children again. She chooses her children. 224 pages, paperback, very well illustrated with both colour images and black and white archive material plus chronological chart.

'This light-hearted survey of the historiography of Henry VIII was originally penned in 2010 as the introductory section of a never completed biography of the second Tudor king.' Thankfully the wonderful publisher Alan Sutton picked it up, and this 96 page softback with 111 colour illustrations is the result. Henry VIII is remembered in particular as the formidable and arrogant regal figure portrayed by Hans Holbein the Younger, the early Tudor stud who clocked up np fewer than six wives, and the proto-nationalist/imperialist ruler who sent the Pope packing and inaugurated the English Reformation. Nor is it easy to avoid contrasting the handsome, athletic and affable teenage prince who ascended the throne in 1509 with the bloated, physically decrepit and irritable elderly king he had become by the time of his death in 1547. The humanist Erasmus first met Henry VIII in 1499 when as a nine year old child he detected in him 'A certain royal demeaner, a dignity of mind combined with a remarkable courtesy.' Of the 111 magnificent portraits they include Thomas Cromwell, John Fisher, Elizabeth Woodville and illustrations such as George Cavendish's manuscript of the biography of Wolsey and images of famous historians like A. P. Pollard and even television's Blackadder. 96pp, colour, paperback.

By the author of around 100 books including historical and royal biography comes an account of Queen Victoria's personal and political relationships with the empires, kings and queens, emperors, empresses and their families of France, Germany, Austria and Russia. Victoria had close familial ties with the royal houses of Germany long before the King of Prussia became German Emperor in 1871, as well as strong personal bonds with the exiled French Emperor and Empress and their son the Prince Imperial, after the fall of the French Empire in 1870. In addition, the volume explores Victoria's often strained relations with her grandson William II, and her tumultuous interactions with the Russian emperors. We are transported back to a glamorous and powerful time when there were four Imperial Heads of State in Europe, Queen (and Empress) Victoria, the German Emperor William, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, and Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Beautifully written by John Van der Kiste who weaves together the many strands to provide a fascinating picture of European royalty from the 1830s to the early 1900s. Many contemporary portraits, 176pp, paperback.

Set contains Bronze Age In Europe, Search For Ancient Egypt, Facts, Pyramids Of Giza: Facts, Legends & Mysteries and Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages. Buy all four Thames & Hudson quality publications and save even more. Paperbacks.

How much do we really know about Ancient Egypt? What about the farmers, the soldiers, the labourers and the families that made up the vast majority of this much mythologized civilisation? Chapters include A Gift of the Nile, The Art of Writing, Artisan Ship, Egyptian Art, Free Women In Pharaoh's Land?, The Pleasures of the Heart, Survival Techniques - Mummies, A Guide Through the Underworld, Gods, Goddesses and Magic, Temples, Tomb Robbers and Curses and Egypt and the Western World. With explanations of hieroglyphs alongside hundreds and hundreds of stunning colour photographs, diagrams and plans, we peep at underground passages, up close to marvellous relics, at amazing artworks and lithographs, reliefs and carvings, even fashions and hairstyles, a dancer doing a back bend to more contemporary photographs of Howard Carter and colleagues handling a statue of Tutankhamun, garments and other items of discovery. Will full list of Egyptian collections and museums, 296 very large pages. 9.4" x 12.4", 296 pages.
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'This is the day on which many eminent authors will probably publish their last words' - said Joseph Addison, one of the originators of The Spectator, following the 1712 Stamp Act which introduced a tax on paper used for newspapers and journals. Love it or loathe it, in these days of fake news, the British press is still a remarkable institution. Accused of wielding power without responsibility, it has often been a channel for the dissemination of information that those at the top of the pyramid of power would rather stay hidden. The press has also delighted in scraping the bottom of the barrel of public interest, deliberately manipulating facts and revelling in gossip and scandal to sell more newspapers. Ruth Herman takes readers back to the early days and unsuccessful attempts of the government to strangle it at birth and looks at how an army of journalists found their feet and honed their craft. It considers the personalities who wrote fearlessly, and the role played by some of English literature's most famous names like Jonathan Swift and Dr Johnson. There are wayward printers and booksellers who played a big part in the development of the press, and they are given their own share of the limelight. The book looks at the variety of content in early periodicals, writing targeted at women, downright astonishing advertising, wayward text and wayward printers. Along with stories of sedition and insider trading, the book looks at two sides of the press - one that serves the greater good with noble intent, and the other preoccupied with profit, scandal, and circulation. A hugely entertaining read, 16 pages of photos.

Derek J. Taylor embarks on a mission to uncover the 'golden thread of truth' travelling to palaces and villages of medieval England, through the castles and towns of France and the Middle East, to the United States of the 21st century. We go to the Fens, Clarendon Palace in Wiltshire, Lionheart's legacy, Chateau Gaillard in Normandy, Temple Ewell in Kent, Bouvines in Northern France, and of course Runnymede in Surrey plus the British Library, the Wash, Worcester Cathedral and the Palace of Westminster, Jamestown Virginia and Washington DC and back to Runnymede. In some senses, Magna Carta itself back in 1215 was a business deal. When hostilities had broken out between King John and the rebel barons earlier that year, the City of London, already a thriving trade centre, saw a commercial opportunity and pitched their support behind the barons. It was a game-changer, which tipped the balance away from John and a neat little clause was inserted into Magna Carta saying that the City of London should 'enjoy all its ancient liberties and free customs, both by land and by water'. For 800 years, Magna Carta has inspired those prepared to face torture and even death in the fight against tyranny. But the belief that the Great Charter gave us such freedoms as democracy, trial by jury and equality beneath the law has its roots in myth. When King John was forced to issue it, Magna Carta was regarded as little more than a stalling tactic in the bloody conflict between monarch and barons. With maps and illus., and eight pages of colour photos. 403pp, paperback.

Apart from Phoenician traders, Egyptian pharaohs and Roman emperors, Mark Antony gave the island to Cleopatra, St Paul preached there, and Richard the Lionheart sold it to the Templars in 1192. Cyprus stands at a unique geographical relationship to Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean and, since 1869, to the Suez short route to the East. It was its strategic importance to a post Second World War Britain engaged in the painful process of essential global military readjustments that precipitated one of the fiercest and most painful of colonial freedom struggles in the mid and late 1950s. Disraeli had acquired the island for Britain in 1878 as a potentially invaluable military and naval base and although still a valuable strategic site, Cyprus is an increasingly desirable and popular holiday destination whether to the north or more commonly to the south. There are wonderful Roman mosaics at Paphos and the fine Byzantine interior of Asinou Church. Includes historical gazetteer, chronology of major events, historical and contemporary maps and covers prehistory through the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian, Ottoman and British periods. 231pp, pen and ink drawings. Paperback.