Juxtaposing the literature of jest against court records, sermons, and conduct books, Brown employs a witty, entertaining style to propose that non-elite women used jests to test the limits of their subjection. She also shows how women's mocking laughter could function as a means of social control in closely watched neighbourhoods. While official culture beatified the sheep-like wife and disciplined the scold, jesting culture often applauded the satiric shrew, whether her target was priest, cuckold, or rapist. Brown argues that listening for women's laughter can shed light on both the dramas of the street and those of the stage: plays from The Massacre of the Innocents to The Merry Wives of Windsor to The Woman's Prize taught audiences the importance of gossips' alliances as protection against slanderers, lechers, tyrants, and wife-beaters. Other jests, on the ale-house, cuckold jokes, female gossip, cony-catching pamphlets, ballads, jigs, and plays show women revelling in tales of female roguery or scoffing at the perverse patience of Griselda. As Brown points out, some women found Griselda types annoying and even foolish: better be a shrew than a sheep. Medieval line art illus, Cornell University Press 280 page paperback.

The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule. Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet - in 6th century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport - these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war-against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths - one gentle, the other horrific - their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend. Shelley Puhak resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture's stubbornest myths about female power. Chapters include A Missive to Byzantium, the Loss of Sanctuary, the Regency, the Vexations of King Guntram, and The Defiant Nuns. Incorporated are primary sources and accounts of men like the Bishop Gregory of Tours, the poet Fortunatus, the Pope Gregory the Great and assorted emperors and kings. Remainder mark, illus including colour, 384 pages.

A brightly coloured scene from the tomb of Ipuy at Thebes dating to about 1280 to 1215 BC shows the preparation of items of burial equipment such as furniture, ritual objects and a funerary mask and it's a glimpse into the world of the people who worked in the industry. Here are coffins and the cartonnage mummy case of Nakhtermuf, and even fingerprints left behind by people moving a coffin lid before the varnish had dried. Close up we see the fascinating world of ancient Egyptian burial customs and practises with four essays by leading academics. Choices of materials and methods used to create coffins add to the human story and the colour catalogue examines and displays over 50 objects and there's an illustrated glossary and index. Old Kingdom to early Middle Kingdom, the dead become serious business with decorated anthropoid coffins, objects buried with the bodies and later nested coffins right up to the Roman period. Building on the growing trend in Egyptology to use scientific analysis and imaging to examine artefacts, this glamorous heavy volume focusses on 100 objects from the Fitzwilliam Museum's renowned Egyptian collection. In addition to shedding new light on the workshops of ancient Egypt, it traces the religious beliefs, economic concerns and political allegiance of the people for whom the coffins were created. Behind these remarkable objects is a human story of daily concerns, aspirations and practical realities. 256 pages, 23 x 29cm, hundreds of colour photos and illus.
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AD 130. Rome is the dazzling heart of a vast empire and Hadrian its most complex and compelling ruler. Faraway Britannia is one of the Romans' most troublesome provinces: here the sun is seldom seen and "the atmosphere in the country is always gloomy." What awaits the traveller to Britannia? Chapters include setting sail from Ostia, through Gaul to Ocean, westwards to Silchester, to touristy Bath, the Amphitheatre and fortress at Caerleon, a new foreman at Wroxeter capital of cattle country. How will you get there? What do you need to pack and what language will you speak? How does London compare to Rome? Are there any tourist attractions and what dangers lurk behind Hadrian's new wall? Combining an extensive range of Greek and Latin sources with a sound understanding of archaeology, Bronwen Riley describes an epic journey from Rome to Hadrian's Wall at the empire's northwestern frontier. In this strikingly original history of Roman Britain, she evokes the smells, sounds, colours, and sensations of life, people and politics in the second century. With checklist of Latin and English place names. 336 page paperback, maps.

The 19th century in Europe was the first age of cultural globalisation creating a truly pan European Canon of artistic musical and literary works. By 1900 people across the continent were reading the same books, looking at the same art, and attending the same opera performances. The Europeans is a richly enthralling, panoramic cultural history of 19th century Europe, told through the intertwined intimate love lives of three remarkable people: a Spanish prima donna Pauline Viardot, the great Russian writer, Ivan Turgenev, and a great connoisseur and political activist, Pauline's husband Louis. Orlando Figes describes huge changes through intimate details, little-known stories and through the lens of Turgenev and the Viardots' touching, strange love triangle. He moves from Parisian salons to German spa towns to Russian country houses exploring the interplay of money and art that made this unification possible. His subjects' ambitious and passionate lives caught up an astonishing array of artists and princes, poets, composers and impresarios - Delacroix, Chopin, the Schumanns, Hugo, Flaubert, Dickens and Dostoevsky among them. Events which we now see as central to European high culture are made completely fresh, allowing the reader to revel in the sheer precariousness with which the great salons, premieres and bestsellers came into existence. Remainder mark, 576 deckle edge pages.

Written in the tradition of historians like Stacy Schiff and Amanda Foreman who find modern lessons in ancient history and very opinionated, this provocative narrative explores the lives of five remarkable pharaohs who ruled Egypt with absolute power, shining a new light on the country's 3,000-year empire and its meaning today. Cooney turns to five ancient Egyptian pharaohs - Khufu, Senwosret III, Akenhaten, Ramses II, and Taharqa, masters of political entry, diplomacy, charisma and intimidation, whose autocratic regimes controlled a massive territory of untold wealth - to understand why many so often give up power to the few, and what it can mean for our future. As the first centralized political power on earth, the pharaohs and their process of divine kingship can tell us a lot about the world's politics, past and present. Every animal-headed god, every monumental temple, every pyramid, every treasure-filled tomb, and deified mummy offers extraordinary insight into a culture that combined deeply held religious beliefs with uniquely human schemes to justify a system in which one ruled over many. Examining clues from vivid hieroglyph engravings, courtly records and the footprints of great monuments, Cooney pieces together a new vision of ancient Egypt with clear rules to separate the elites from the underclass, oppressed from the oppressors, and the collaborators from those who dared to resist. From Khufu, the man who built the Great Pyramid at Giza as testament to his authoritarian reign, and Taharqa, the last true pharaoh who worked to make Egypt great again, we discover a clear lens into understanding how power was earned, controlled, and manipulated in ancient times. And in mining the past, Cooney uncovers the reason why societies have so willingly chosen a dictator over democracy, time and time again. Many colour photos, map and chronology, a National Geographic publication, 400 pages.

This richly illustrated book steers a course through some of history's most epic engagements on the high seas, written by the renowned naval historian Dr Helen Doe. From the medieval to modern times, this fascinating guide recalls over 50 naval battles which have changed the course of history as ships evolved from simple battering tams to sophisticated war machines. Arranged chronologically, two double pages spreads are dedicated to a different battle - including why they took place, who was in command, the technologies available to them and the battle tactics they used. Includes among many more: Battle of Sandwich (1217), the Battles of Winchelsea, Lepanto, Cadiz, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Cape Passaro, Flamborough Head, Chesapeake Bay, the Nile, Tripoli and the First Barbary War, Navarino, The Battle of Trafalgar (1805), The Battle of Jutland (1916), Pearl Harbor (1941) the Battle of the Java Sea, the Battle of Midway, the battles for Guadalcanal right up to the Falklands War (1982). Featuring dramatic paintings, detailed battle plans, incredible full-colour photography and fascinating objects and artifacts like medals and charts, this intriguing book charts the key role of naval warfare through this and explores how technology, leadership, luck, and even the weather, have played their part in defining the world we live in today. Lampooning cartoons, glorious colour artworks of sailing ships by Garneray, and the Battle of Finisterre by Samuel Scoot are among page after page images. Glamorous large 30.2 x 2.7 x 25.3cm 256 pages.
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Trade is the lifeblood of nations. It has provided vital goods and wealth to countries and merchants from the ancient Egyptians who went in search of gold and ivory to their 21st century equivalents trading high-tech electronic equipment from the Far East. In this beautiful book, more than 70 maps give a visual representation of the history of World Commerce, accompanied by text which tells the extraordinary story of the merchants, adventurers, middle-men and monarchs who bought, sold, explored and fought in search of profit and power. The maps are all works of art, and include Çatalhöyük and Neolithic trade Plan, c. 6200BC, Petra and the Frankincense route, Babylonian Map of the World, c. 600BC, the Amber road, Charlamagne and Carolingian trade, the trans Saharan gold trade, the Silk Road, Marco Polo, the rise of the maritime republics, Venetian trading empire, Bruges and the cloth trade, plagues and pandemics, and the voyages of Zheng He, Stone Map of China, 1136, Hereford Mappa Mundi, c. 1300, Buondelmonti Map of Constantinople, c. 1420, the Portuguese trading empire in Africa, circumnavigating the globe, Ottoman trade in the 16th century, Aztec trade, pirates and privateers, Newfoundland and the cod trade, the Dutch and Manhattan, the Hudson's Bay Company and the fur trade, trade in the birth of the United States, South America and the Spanish, the Dutch East India Company, Portugal's China trade, Sweden, Russia and the north European trade in the 16th century, the British in India, the slave trade, the sugar, cotton and coffee trade, the China tea trade and the Clippers, the age of steam, world cities, imperialism, the Suez and Panama canals, the Trans-Siberian railway, the Cape to Cairo railway, the wool, coal, coffee and oil trades, electronics and the internet, banking and finance to trade blocs, tourism, and threats to world trade. Plus The Waldseemüller Map, 1507, James Rennell Map of Hindoostan, 1782, Air Age Map, 1945 and Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Dashboard, 2020. Endlessly fascinating browsing. Colour full page maps, 21 x 27.5cm, 224 pages.

Thousands left their homelands in the Middle Ages to fight wars abroad. But how did the Crusades actually happen? From recruitment propaganda to raising money, ships to siege engines, medicine to the power of prayer, this vivid, surprising history shows holy war - and medieval society - in a lively and compelling account of how the crusades really worked, and a revolutionary attempt to rethink how we understand the Middle Ages. The story of the wars and conquests move quickly from describing the Pope's calls to arms to the battlefield. Tyerman focuses on the all-encompassing and hugely costly business of actually preparing a crusade. The efforts of many thousands of men and women, who left their lands and families in Western Europe, and marched off to a highly uncertain future in the Holy Land and elsewhere have never been sufficiently understood. Fascinating on diplomacy, communications, propaganda, the use of mass media, medical care, equipment, voyages, money, weapons, credit, wills, ransoms, animals, and the power of prayer. Superbly detailed with names, dates, battles etc. Colour plates and other illus and maps. 400 page paperback.

A swashbuckling book! Before he was secretly dispatched by Queen Elizabeth to circumnavigate the globe or was called upon to save England from the Spanish Armada, Francis Drake was perhaps the most wanted - and successful - pirate ever to sail. Nicknamed "El Draque" by the Spaniards who placed a bounty on his head, the notorious red-haired, hot-tempered Drake pillaged galleons laden with New World gold and silver, stealing a vast fortune for his queen - and himself. For Elizabeth, Drake made the impossible real, serving as a crucial and brilliantly adaptable instrument of her ambitions to transform England from a third-rate island kingdom into a global imperial power. In 1580, sailing on Elizabeth's covert orders, Drake became the first captain to circumnavigate the earth successfully (Ferdinand Magellan had died in his attempt). Part exploring expedition, part raiding mission, Drake's audacious around-the-world journey in the Golden Hind reached Patagonia, the Pacific Coast of present-day California and Oregon, the Spice Islands, Java, and Africa. Almost a decade later, Elizabeth called upon Drake again. As the devil-may-care vice admiral of the English fleet, Drake dramatically defeated the once-invincible Spanish Armada, spurring the British Empire's ascent and permanently wounding its greatest rival. The relationship between Drake and Elizabeth is the missing link in our understanding of the rise of the British Empire, and its importance has not been fully described or appreciated. Framed around Drake's key voyages as a window into this crucial moment in British history, In Search of a Kingdom is a rousing adventure narrative entwining epic historical themes with intimate passions. Plates, illus and maps. 440 deckle edge pages.