In the early 19th century, gambling was a grave social ill?largely uncontrolled and corrupt. The 1830s saw the institution of the Poor Law, the abolition of slavery, the regulation of child labor, the
Providing asocial history of household life in Mrs. Beeton's time, this guide offers advice to the mistress of the house who needed to be a combination of Dr. Spock, Delia Smith, Martha Stewart
~Drink water is a rare writer who tackles other people brilliantly Vibrant, intoxictng and heart-warming' Sunday express.`A storyteller of great economy and deftness' Daily Telegraph`Charming and well
Sylvia Brooke was one of the most exotic figures of the twentieth century. Otherwise known as Her Highness the Ranee of Sarawak, she was the consort and, by custom, slave of Sir Vyner Brooke, the las
Celebrated diarist, famous womaniser, Tory MP and controversial minister - a castle-owning toff and lecherous cad to some, to others a colourful and life-enhancing figure - Alan Clark was politically
Siegfried Sassoon praised Isaac Rosenberg's 'genius' and T.S. Eliot called him the 'most extraordinary' of the Great War poets. Yet it is over thirty years since there has been a full-length biography
Beautiful heiress, accomplished flirt, aristocratic hostess, tragic mother, and Edwardian icon, Ettie Desborough is a fascinating but forgotten figure. She has been celebrated in countless memoirs but
On his first trip to Mexico in the 1970s, Hugh Thomson is told by a stranger he could make money buying a car over the Texan border and taking it thousands of miles through the country to sell on the
The world of bridge has winners and also-rans. What would you rather be? Winning might not be everything, but it is much better than finishing second or third, and way ahead of being out of place. Thi
Damian Horner is scared that fifteen years in advertising have turned him into a bastard. As he approaches his fortieth birthday, he wants to see if he can be a good husband and a good father before i
Lady Annabel Goldsmith is a daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry. The family fortunes were based on coal-mining. In her enthralling memoirs she told of her aristocratic upbringing with an incre
The second volume of Alfred Bader's remarkable autobiography begins where Adventures of a Chemist Collector ended - with the boardroom coup in which Alfred was dismissed from the chemical company he
A comprehensive account of the final year of the bomber war, filled with personal accounts of what it was like to fly over Arnhem, Dresden, and dozens of other missionsIn February 1945, British and Am
Getting Our Way recounts nine stories from Britain's diplomatic annals over the last five hundred years, in which the diplomats themselves are at the centre of the narrative. It is an inside account o
The now familiar poem posters first appeared in London's tube and underground trains in 1986. The idea was simple enough: why not convert the empty advertising space above the passenger's heads into a
The ability to understand and execute squeezes is widely recognized as the hallmark of an expert bridge player. Here for the first time in one volume are Hugh Kelsey's four outstanding books on the sq
To his fellow Royalists, fighting for King Charles I, Prince Rupert of the Rhine was the archetypal cavalier. Young, handsome, an expert horseman and crack pistol shot, his swaggering style irritated
Harold Macmillan was the British Conservative Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963. A man of civilized, humane conceptions of the purposes of government, he was also a figure of paradox. Beneath the studi
George Orwell was asked to write a biography of George Gissing, having hailed him as "perhaps the best novelist England has produced." He had to refuse, and instead of a book like this one, Orwell wr
London: 1840. The economy is sliding into recession; gangs of unemployed workers roam the streets; the city is on the verge of anarchy and a murderer is prowling the backstreets and taverns of the cap
