A Person From England

Author: Fitzroy Maclean
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1448204801
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 455

Book Description
First published in 1958, A Person From England tells of how the legendary cities of Turkestan - Merv, Khiva, Bokhara and Samarkand - have long exerted a romantic fascination upon Western travellers. During the last century, men of many nationalities have played what they and their contemporaries have called "The Great Game" - travelling throughout Central Asia. The author revives memories of the agents and travellers - official and unofficial, military and civilian - who have visited the Khanates of Turkestan, relating their adventures and attempting to recreate the atmosphere and flavour of the region. Extremely well written, Fitzroy Maclean captures a way of life that is fast disappearing.

The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England

Author: Joseph Strutt
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Games
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description

England, England

Author: Julian Barnes
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030755595X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • From the internationally acclaimed bestselling author The Sense of an Ending comes a "wickedly funny” novel (The New York Times) about an idyllic land of make-believe in England that gets horribly and hilariously out of hand. Imagine an England where all the pubs are quaint, where the Windsors behave themselves (mostly), where the cliffs of Dover are actually white, and where Robin Hood and his merry men really are merry. This is precisely what visionary tycoon, Sir Jack Pitman, seeks to accomplish on the Isle of Wight, a "destination" where tourists can find replicas of Big Ben (half size), Princess Di's grave, and even Harrod's (conveniently located inside the tower of London). Martha Cochrane, hired as one of Sir Jack's resident "no-people," ably assists him in realizing his dream. But when things go awry, Martha develops her own vision of the perfect England. Julian Barnes delights us with a novel that is at once a philosophical inquiry, a burst of mischief, and a moving elegy about authenticity and nationality.

Alfred the Great

Author: Eleanor Shipley Duckett
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022622919X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
From the author of The Gateway to the Middle Ages, “a fascinating portrait of an enlightened monarch against a background of darkness and ignorance” (Kirkus Reviews). Filled with drama and action, here is the story of the ninth-century life and times of Alfred—warrior, conqueror, lawmaker, scholar, and the only king whom England has ever called “The Great.” Based on up-to-date information on ninth-century history, geography, philosophy, literature, and social life, it vividly presents exciting views of Alfred in every stage of his long career and leaves the reader with a sharply etched picture of the world of the Middle Ages.

Coming to England

Author: Floella Benjamin
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 1529049296
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 31

Book Description
A picture book story about the triumph of hope, love, and determination, Coming to England is the inspiring true story of Baroness Floella Benjamin: from Trinidad, to London as part of the Windrush generation, to the House of Lords. When she was ten years old, Floella Benjamin, along with her older sister and two younger brothers, set sail from Trinidad to London, to be reunited with the rest of their family. Alone on a huge ship for two weeks, then tumbled into a cold and unfriendly London, coming to England wasn't at all what Floella had expected. Coming to England is both deeply personal and universally relevant – Floella's experiences of moving home and making friends will resonate with young children, who will be inspired by her trademark optimism and joy. This is a true story with a powerful message: that courage and determination can always overcome adversity.

Introducing Epigenetics

Author: Cath Ennis
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
ISBN: 1848319037
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
Epigenetics is the most exciting field in biology today, developing our understanding of how and why we inherit certain traits, develop diseases and age, and evolve as a species. This non-fiction comic book introduces us to genetics, cell biology and the fascinating science of epigenetics, which is rapidly filling in the gaps in our knowledge, allowing us to make huge advances in medicine. We'll look at what identical twins can teach us about the epigenetic effects of our environment and experiences, why certain genes are 'switched on' or off at various stages of embryonic development, and how scientists have reversed the specialization of cells to clone frogs from a single gut cell. In Introducing Epigenetics, Cath Ennis and Oliver Pugh pull apart the double helix, examining how the epigenetic building blocks and messengers that interpret and edit our genes help to make us, well, us.

A Polite and Commercial People

Author: Paul Langford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198207337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 844

Book Description
The first volume of Sir George Clark's Oxford History of England was published in 1934. Over the following 50 years that series established itself as a standard work of reference, and a repertoire of scholarship. The New Oxford History of England, of which this is the first volume, is its successor. Each volume will set out an authoritative view of the present state of scholarship, presenting a distillation of the knowledge built up by a half-century's research and publication of new sources, and incorporating the perspectives and judgements of modern scholars.

Ceawlin

Author: Rupert Mathews
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1844689379
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
This provocative study of medieval Britain presents a groundbreaking theory on the collapse of the post-Roman order and the formation of England. In Ceawlin: The Man Who Created England, Rupert Matthews draws on newly available evidence, including written sources and newly uncovered artifacts, to present a radically new narrative of post-Roman Britain. In place of the anarchy and mayhem that comprise conventional accounts of the period, Rupert suggests that Romanized governmental structures managed to survive the fifth century economic collapse. These, he argues, reemerged in a new form in the later sixth century. The key figure in these pivotal events was Ceawlin, King of Wessex in the 570s. It was he who finally smashed the old order with his ambitious power grab. His success opened the way to the creation of the England that we know today with its distinctive culture, language and character.

How England Made the English

Author: Harry Mount
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 9780670919147
Category : England
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Harry Mount's How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours is packed with astonishing facts and wonderful stories. Q. Why are English train seats so narrow? A. It's all the Romans' fault. The first Victorian trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; and they were designed to fit the ruts left in the roads by Roman chariots. For readers of Paxman's The English, Bryson's Notes on a Small Island and Fox's Watching the English, this intriguing and witty book explains how our national characteristics - our sense of humour, our hobbies, our favourite foods and our behaviour with the opposite sex - are all defined by our nation's extraordinary geography, geology, climate and weather. You will learn how we would be as freezing cold as Siberia without the Gulf Stream; why we drive on the left-hand side of the road; why the Midlands became the home of the British curry. It identifies the materials that make England, too: the faint pink Aberdeen granite of kerbstones; that precise English mix of air temperature, smell and light that hits you the moment you touch down at Heathrow. Praise for Harry Mount: 'Highly readable, encyclopeadic, marvellous, illuminating. Mount portrays England via dextrous excavations of its geography, geology, history and weather' Independent 'Fascinating. Mount's an intelligent, funny and always interesting companion' Daily Mail 'Charming and nerdily fact-stuffed' Guardian Harry Mount is the author of Amo, Amas, Amat and All That, his best-selling book on Latin, and A Lust for Window Sills - A Guide to British Buildings. A journalist for many newspapers and magazines, he has been a New York correspondent and a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph. He studied classics and history at Oxford, and architectural history at the Courtauld Institute. He lives in north London

A Short History of England

Author: Simon Jenkins
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610391438
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Book Description
The heroes and villains, triumphs and disasters of English history are instantly familiar -- from the Norman Conquest to Henry VIII, Queen Victoria to the two World Wars. But to understand their full significance we need to know the whole story. A Short History of England sheds new light on all the key individuals and events in English history by bringing them together in an enlightening account of the country's birth, rise to global prominence, and then partial eclipse. Written with flair and authority by Guardian columnist and London Times former editor Simon Jenkins, this is the definitive narrative of how today's England came to be. Concise but comprehensive, with more than a hundred color illustrations, this beautiful single-volume history will be the standard work for years to come.