Kings & Queens: Alfred the Great to King Charles III and Everyone In-Between by Marcia Williams - #BookReview

 

Dear wingless creatures, may I present "The Royal Timeline"! Just let your finger do the walking from me, Caw, to our earliest king and onwards all the way to the present day. Yes, I'm brilliant, I know. The idea just flew into my brain by way of my crown!

But... Let's start with the king who had the bright idea of a king of all England - and then meet every one of the 59 kings and queens that followed after him!

***

Meet every king and queen in the history of Britain in this lively comic-strip guide from award-winning author-illustrator Marcia Williams.

From medieval monarchs to the newly crowned King Charles III, join award-winning author-illustrator Marcia Williams on an entertaining guide to every king and queen of Britain. Discover the kings who fought off the Vikings, the queen who spent the longest time on the throne, the king who died from eating too much fish, and many more. Featuring famous faces like Henry VIII and Elizabeth II, plus the lesser-known stories of the daring, the caring and the cruel who have worn the crown, this is an accessible and engaging introduction to the kings and queens of Britain, sure to inspire even reluctant readers.

***

In my humble opinion, every school library should have a copy of this book as it has so much to offer. 

Written throughout in comic strip form, the book covers the period from 871 with the reign of Alfred the Great and finishes with our present monarch, King Charles III. As well as text below each picture, the illustrations themselves have speech bubbles from the mouths of the monarchs themselves.

Add to that the book is narrated by a royal raven called Caw, and you have a fantastic book that will appeal to junior school/middle grade aged children. Caw provides many little facts and witticisms as he flies from page to page and is a fantastic creation by the author.

The book looks to the future and concludes with a diagram of the current royal line of succession, starting with Prince William and ending with Princess Lilibet, although the author indicates that there are many more following.

This is a fantastic book which I highly recommend. Any child interested in history will enjoy this book and because of its witty and engaging style, I think many other children will enjoy it too.

ISBN: 978 1529512755

Publisher:  Walker Books

Formats:  Hardcover

No. of Pages:  32

Purchase Link - Bookshop.org*

About the Author:

As a child:

Marcia Williams’ mother was a writer and her father was a playwright and theatre director. She spent the early part of her life in Canton, Hong Kong, Nigeria and the Middle East with her mother and diplomat stepfather. She loved books from an early age and remembers being read to almost every night. “I would often be scared, especially by fairy tales, but I never wanted the stories to end.” She went to boarding school in Sussex, from where she sent weekly illustrated letters to her parents overseas.

As an adult:

Marcia didn’t receive any formal art training. She calls herself "an obsessive illustrator" and says, "I’ve just always done it. I never consciously thought: that’s what I want to do.” She had a number of jobs, including nursery teacher, which is when she developed her taste for story-telling to young children; “I learnt what they found accessible and what they enjoyed.” Giving up teaching to paint, she studied watercolour at Richmond College and held some successful local exhibitions before a friend suggested that she took her work to show Walker Books. Marcia also has an MA in Children’s Literature. She lives in London and has two grown-up children and three grandchildren, one extra-large dog and a cat.

As an artist:

Marcia has written and illustrated numerous books since The First Christmas was published in 1987. Many of these have been retellings of classic stories, illustrated in her distinctive cartoon-strip style. She has also applied her characteristic storytelling to history, with award-winning books about the World Wars (Archie’s War and My Secret War Diary by Flossie Albright), Greek Myths and The Stone Age. She works in watercolours, which, she says, “are just unreliable enough to be interesting”. She has retold many of Shakespeare’s plays and taken to the boards herself to play the Bard in a production based on her books, Mr William Shakespeare’s Plays, and Bravo, Mr William Shakespeare! – culminating in a performance in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Purchase Link - Bookshop.org* 

(Book and all author info. courtesy of Walker Books)

(all opinions are my own)

*Disclosure: I only recommend books I would buy myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains an affiliate link from which I may earn a small commission.

James I, The King Who United Scotland and England by Keith Coleman - #BookReview @penswordbooks

 

The king's first child, and his great hope as the rightful ruler of the two island kingdoms, Prince Henry, was born in Stirling Castle in February 1594. The great hopes of the father were set down in the Basilikon Doron, the 'royal gift,' an extended missive to Henry which the king published when his son was five. As he grew, it seemed to some that Prince Henry was everything that his father was not: comely in appearance, attractive in personality, upright in morality. In later years, after the shady favouritism of his father's court and the weakness of his brother, Charles, as king, there was a retrospective urge to idealise the lost prince who died before maturity...

***

The life of King James VI who united England and Scotland under one crown and became James I in 1603 is marked by contradictions. Generally praised as a good king of Scotland and a poor English one, James was a deep theological thinker, but he also inspired a superstitious frenzy which resulted in the North Berwick witch hunt and trials in the 1590s. Scholar and pedant, he was in his own view God’s appointed ruler, yet also a foul mouthed sloven and forever tarnished with the title of the Wisest Fool in Christendom.

The most glaring contrast in his personal life was between his image as a married family man and as a ruler who lavished indiscreet affection on a series of men whom he invested with considerable power. This book approaches James through the lens of his relationships with his major favourites. First was Anglo-French lord Esme D’Aubigny, then Scottish squire Robert Carr (later Earl of Somerset), and finally the consummate nobleman George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. ‘A king will have need to use secrecy in many things,’ the king wrote in one of his books. Although his private life was sometimes astonishingly visible, there are still many mysteries about James I as a man rather than a ruler.

This work tracks the king’s life from a barren childhood through a succession of plots, intrigues and conspiracies in Scotland which largely forged, or deformed, his character. Beyond his complex and disputed connection with these men the book looks at his relationship with his wife, sponsorship of the arts, and contains a reappraisal of the first and most neglected historical mystery of his first reign, the Gowrie Conspiracy.

***

If I wandered into a bookshop, any bookshop, and browsed the history shelves I suspect that I would find the section on British royalty dominated by the Tudors. That is not a criticism as it was an extremely interesting period of history. Comparitively, I wonder how many books on the Stuarts I would find? This is certainly one such book that should feature on those shelves. 

It is rich in scope and whilst it discusses those events pertinent to King James VI/I's reign in England (1603 - 1625), the author offers something a little different in his book. The witch hunts, the Gowrie conspiracy and his unification of Scotland and England into a United Kingdom are all expectedly there. 

However, we learn much about King James the man. Mr. Coleman portrays the contradictory lifestyle led by James VI/I. On one hand, he portrayed himself as a husband and father. On the other, he openly displayed and elevated a series of 'favourites,' all men who were believed to be his bedfellows. As an historically apparent homosexual, (although the author explains that the concept of homosexuality was not the same as we understand it today)  he would still have been expected to fill the royal nursery and provide the country with an heir.

Mr. Coleman's book has been extensively researched and is presented in an accesible manner. I have read many books on this period in history and this is an excellent addition to the canon. It is suitable for those who are already familiar with Stuart history or to those who are new to the period. It explains much about King James himself and would entice a reader to find out more about the historical events of the period. It is an excellent book which I highly recommend.

ISBN: 978 1399093590

Publisher:  Pen & Sword History

Formats:  e-book, hardback

No. of Pages:  240 (hardback)

About the Author:

Keith Coleman has a MA degree in Celto-Roman Studies from the University of Wales, Newport. His book Aedán of the Gaels: King of Scots (Pen & Sword Books, 2022) was his latest long-term study of the legends and history of the Scottish kings. He is also the author of The Afterlife of Kings James IV, Otherworld Legends of A Scottish King (Chronos Books, 2019) and maintain several blogs about the legends and history of Scotland and its kings. He is currently working on a book on latter day Jacobites to be published by Pen & Sword.

(author photo courtesy of Amazon)

(ARC courtesy of NetGalley)

(author bio courtesy of Pen & Sword)

The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay by Julie Brooks - #BookReview #BlogTour

 

Rose scrambled down the bank in a storm of sand, arms flailing and legs protesting. Funny how her legs didn't work as well as they had once. Inside she still felt like the girl who had landed on these shores forty years ago, yet her body resembled an old woman's more each year. Sometimes, catching a flicker reflected in a window, she didn't recognise herself.

Reaching level ground, she shook the sand from her shoes, before settling the canvas hold-all on her shoulder and looking up to see the bay spread before her like a half-moon of glittering blue, Cape Bridgewater jutting into the ocean to the west with rugged Cape Nelson and its lighthouse rising to the east. 

***

England, 1919: Rose and Ivy board a ship bound for Australia.

One is travelling there to marry a man she has never met.

One is destined never to arrive.

Australia, 2016: Amongst her late-grandmother's possessions, Molly uncovers a photograph of two girls dressed in First World War nurses' uniforms, labelled 'Rose and Ivy 1917', and a letter from her grandmother, asking her to find out what happened to her own mother, Rose, who disappeared in the 1960s.

Compelled to carry out her grandmother's last wish, Molly embarks on a journey to England to unravel the mystery of the two girls whose photograph promised they'd be 'together forever' . . .

***

I love a dual time line novel. Partly, because I am fascinated by the connection that the present has with the past, and also because I think it is exceptionally difficult to pull off successfully. Julie Brooks has achieved this incredibly well, and I enjoyed reading every word of this book very much.

Furthermore, it is a book of secrets and is full of twists and turns, many of which I had not anticipated. It made for an interesting and intriguing reading experience as little by little the secrets of the past are revealed.

The characters were all well portrayed, and as an amateur genealogist myself, I could identify with Molly who was attempting to join the dots between herself and her ancestors. Ivy, whose story was set in the earlier time frame was a wonderful character and I thoroughly enjoyed reading how the author developed her character.

This is Ms. Brooks debut historical fiction novel for adults and I am looking forward to reading more of her work. Her next novel, The Keepsake, is due for release in the UK in January 2023.

I wholeheartedly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. I would love to hear your thoughts if you read it.

ISBN: 978 1472279163

Publisher: Headline Review

Formats: e-book, audio, paperback and hardback

No. of Pages: 400 (paperback)

About the Author:

Julie Brooks was born in Brisbane, Australia, but has lived most of her life in Melbourne. She taught English and Drama in secondary schools before working as an editor of children’s magazines. She has been a full-time author since 1999 and is the author of several young adult novels as well as children’s fiction and non-fiction. The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay is her first novel writing as Julie Brooks.  

Purchase Link

(author photo and bio. info. courtesy of the publisher

ARC courtesy NetGalley)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

A History of Death in 17th Century England by Ben Norman - #BookReview

 

Death was a constant presence in the lives of the rich and poor alike in seventeenth-century England, being much more visible in everyday existence than it is today. It is a highly important and surprisingly captivating part of the epic story of England during the turbulent years of the 1600's. 

This book guides readers through the subject using a chronological approach, as would have been experienced by those living in the country at the time, beginning with the myriad causes of death, including disease, war and capital punishment and finishing with an exploration of posthumous commemoration. Although contemporaries of the seventeenth century did not fully realise it, when it came to the confrontation of mortality they were living in wildly changing times.

***

I know that we dwell a lot on the subject of death at the moment and 2020/1 is truly a time that will never be forgotten. With the UK daily death toll from covid exceeding a thousand deaths per day at the moment, the last thing that I want to do is to further depress us all by reviewing a book whose subject matter is death. 

However, this is an excellent history book and I did not find it's subject matter to be bleak and depressing in any way.   

As expected, the book considers reasons why people died during the 17th century, along with the funerary methods prevalent during this period in England and which we can recognise as the beginning of present day funereal rites. However, it is interestingly and engagingly written and well worth reading.

It is worth setting out the chapter headings here:

Chapter 1: The Natural Death

Chapter 2: The Soldierly Death

Chapter 3: The Criminal Death

Chapter 4: The Deathbed

Chapter 5: Of Corpses, Coffins and Carriages

Chapter 6: The Common and the Noble Funeral

Chapter 7: Royal Funerals

Chapter 8: The Unorthodox Burial

Chapter 9: Remembrance

Conclusion: The Seventeenth Century and Beyond

At the end of each of these chapters the author provides an extensive bibliography and I would really enjoy the opportunity to read some of them; all of which appear to be of great historical interest.

This book has been published at just the right time for me as I am researching the 17th century for a project that I am currently working on and has been instrumental in filling in some of the information gaps that I  had.

Anyone who is interested in the history of the 17th century would gain much from reading this book and I highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978 1526755261

Publisher: Pen & Sword History

The Revolt by Clara Dupont-Monod - #SocialBlast #BlogTour

 

I am very excited to be taking part in the blog tour for The Revolt by Clara Dupont-Monod.

Please drop by the blog tomorrow for my Tuesday Teaser of this book.

Isn't the cover just gorgeous.

A History of English Place Names and Where They Came From by John Moss - #BookReview

The origin of the names of many English towns, hamlets and villages date as far back as Saxon times, when kings like Alfred the Great established fortified borough towns to defend against the Danes. 

A number of settlements were established and named by French Normans following the Conquest. Many are even older and are derived from Roman placenames. Some hark back to the Vikings who invaded our shores and established settlements in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Most began as simple descriptions of the location; some identified its founder, marked territorial limits, or gave tribal people a sense of their place in the grand scheme of things. Whatever their derivation, place names are inextricably bound up in our history and they tell us a great deal about the place where we live.

* * *

This book has been extensively researched. It contains the origin and meaning of virtually every village, town or city in England. Having said that, I was a little disappointed that my own town was not included.

However, I think that this would be a go to book for anyone wanting to garner information about the origin of place names. It was highly interesting to read the section regarding the origin of the general prefixes and suffixes that many place names have.

The majority of the book concerns the meaning of the individual place names which are dealt with on a regional basis. It is probably not a book that a reader would read from beginning to end. Rather it is a dip into book that would sit quite happily within the book collections of most readers who are interested in English history.

ISBN: 978-1526722843

Publisher: Pen and Sword

About the Author:

John Moss studied Fine Arts and English in Wolverhampton and Manchester Art Schools, before taking early retirement after teaching and lecturing in Art & Design. He founded a Graphic Design company in 1997. Retired at last, he began writing: a science fiction trilogy in 2013. Following Great British Family Names and Their History, this is his second book for Pen and Sword.

Brilliant Careers - The Virago Book of 20th Century Fiction

I picked up this little beauty in a second hand bookshop for the princely cost of £1.00.

My husband and I (apologies if I sound like the Queen) were having a few days away in beautiful Herefordshire which is in the southwest of the England. Short of a tornado we experienced every kind of weather. We had snow, rain, wind, sunshine and the flooding in that part of the country was very bad. The roads were clear but there were flooded fields for as far as the eye can see.

Anyway, during one of our days there I came across this book. It is edited by Ali Smith, Kasia Boddy and Sarah Wood. It highlights one Virago publication for each year of the twentieth century; starting in 1901 with My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin and finishes in the year 2000 with From Midrash on Happiness by Grace Paley. Each featured book tells us about the author alongside an extract which was chosen to represent chronologically an extract from each year of the twentieth century.

I would dearly love to read every novel that is detailed in this book - a huge undertaking amongst all the other books that I would like to read. To that end I have purchased a copy of the 1901 book My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin - what better place to start then at the beginning. Realistically, I shall probably only read some of them and of those books I will be posting a review.

Unfortunately, it seems this book is currently out of print but there are second hand copies available. Or if you would like to see a list of the titles of the novels that are featured in this book then please let me know.

Keep well, keep safe and happy reading.

An Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan

Sophie's husband, James, is a loving father and a successful public figure. Yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to engulf him. She's kept his darkest secret ever since they were first lovers, at Oxford. And if she stood by him then, she can do it now.

Kate is the barrister prosecuting his case. She is certain that James is guilty and determined he should pay. No stranger to suffering herself, she doesn't flinch from posing the questions few want to hear. About what happens between a man and a woman when they're alone: alone in bed, alone in an embrace, alone in a lift....

Is James the victim of an unfortunate misunderstanding or the perpetrator of something sinister? This scandal - which forces Sophie to appraise her marriage and Kate her demons - will have far-reaching consequences for them all.

Part courtroom drama; part a portrait of a marriage; part an exploration of the extent to which our memories still haunt us, Anatomy of a Scandal is a disarming and provocative psychological thriller.

This was a gripping read which I read very quickly as I was keen to see the way in which the plot would develop. It has a very current feel to it and I think it portrayed very well a view of parliament and the upper classes that ordinary people like myself have of these institutions.

It is a character driven book and told from the perspectives of the three main characters, Kate, Sophie and James. This made it very easy to engage with them even whilst not necessarily liking them. In addition to these three perspectives the book also moves between past and present which allows the reader to understand the background of these three characters and, therefore, how they have evolved into the people they are in the present day narrative.

A thoughtful, sensitive and engrossing read that kept me up way past my bedtime. This is the first book I have read by Sarah Vaughan and I really enjoyed it. It has been a while since I read a courtroom drama and it has made me want to read more. Do you have any suggestions?

ISBN: 978 1471164996

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

About the Author:

Anatomy of a Scandal combines Sarah Vaughan's experiences as a news reporter and a political correspondent with her time as a student reading English at a historic Oxford college in the mid Nineties. She is married with two children and lives just outside Cambridge.