Publication date: 2003-06-05
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.98
Review Elizabeth's London (Tape): Everyday Life in Elizabethan London / Orion:Liza Picard's Elizabeth's London completes a trilogy of books on London throughout history, starting with Restoration London and followed by Dr Johnson's London. From the outset, Picard admits that Elizabethan London proved an even greater challenge to reconstruct, as "few buildings survive", and "artefacts and clothes from the time are rare". Nevertheless, through painstaking detail, Picard wonderfully recreates the crowded chaotic sights and smells of everyday life in late 16th-century London. Her journey starts, like so many admirers of the city from Chaucer to Ackroyd, on the river Thames, "a uniform opaque grey" in Elizabeth's time, but "fairly unpolluted, judging from all the fish in it," and "a superb processional route between the royal palaces. " From here Picard surveys London life, from its main streets, its water supply and its civic buildings of timber and stone, to the houses, people, clothes, food, drink and entertainment that defined one of the most prosperous cities in 16th-century Europe. Everything is told in all its raw, sensual detail, from the ways in which "the butcher's professional skills" were used to disembowel those unfortunate enough to be convicted of capital offences, to the cost of pins for dressmaking-one shilling and eight pence per thousand. At times, the sheer detail of Picard's book can be overwhelming, and there is no specific argument that unites her observations, but the sheer scale of information is extremely impressive. -Jerry Brotton.
Creator: Joss Ackland
Publication date: 1998-10
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.43
Review The Chronicle: v. 1 (Chronicle) / Mr Punch Audio Books:
Creator: Michael Kitchen
Publication date: 1995-01-03
Price: £17.99
Review The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A Radio 4 Classic Serial (BBC Classic Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Tim Pigott-Smith
Publication date: 2004-11-01
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £13.99
Price: £6.99
Review The Monarchy of England: Complete & Unabridged: The Beginnings: Complete & Unabridged / HarperCollins Audio:
Creator: Patricia Hodge
Publication date: 2002-10-10
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.12
Review Mary Queen Of Scots (Tape) / Orion:
Creator: Kerry Shale
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2002-11
Dewey code: 946
RRP: £11.99
Price: £5.86
Review The Conquest of Mexico / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Anna Massey
Publication date: 2005-02-03
Dewey code: 940
RRP: £12.99
Price: £9.98
Review Catherine de Medici (Tape) / Orion:
Creator: Patricia Hodge
Edition: TV Tie in Ed
Publication date: 2001-02-19
Dewey code: 920
RRP: £10.99
Price: £5.00
Review Elizabeth / HarperCollins Audio:The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess; Elizabeth I holds a unique place in the English imagination as one of the nation's most powerful, charismatic and successful monarchs. Elizabeth is usually imagined as the icy, untouchable figure memorably recreated on screen by Bette Davis and Judi Dench, but that vision of Elizabeth ignores the turbulent years of her early life, from her birth as the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in 1533, until her accession to the throne in 1558 following the death of her sister Mary. It is these early years which are the subject of David Starkey's fascinating Elizabeth I, written to accompany his television series about the life of Elizabeth. Starkey argues that in her first 25 years Elizabeth "had experienced every vicissitude of fortune and ever extreme of condition. She had been Princess and inheritrix of England, and bastard and disinherited; the nominated successor to the throne and an accused traitor on the verge of execution; showered with lands and houses and a prisoner in the Tower". He draws on his skills as a respected Tudor historian to produce a deft account of the religious, political and dynastic maelstrom of mid-16th century England that reads "like a historical thriller". The book carefully picks its way through the finer points of contemporary religious conflict and the peculiarities of Tudor court ceremony, whilst also exploring the formation of Elizabeth's character in relation to a murdered mother, a charismatic father, a tortured sister, and a predatory guardian. Highly readable and written with verve and pace, this is a fascinating account of the young Elizabeth. -Jerry Brotton.
Publication date: 2000-11-30
Price: £15.99
Review Conquistadors (Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:"Staggering brutality, heroism and endurance, and immeasurable greed", is the stuff of this 16th-century saga of the cultured Aztecs and Incas in their tribulation with the barbarous Spanish, as told by Michael Wood. He affirms these adventures were "Less of a journey more of a miracle", and certainly the Conquistadors battling through unexplored forests, paddling uncharted rivers, succumbing to altitude and starvation, and perpetrating torture and murder in the search for El Dorado is supernormal if not supernatural. Not satisfied by early finds of gold, these acquisitive prototype guerrillas drove ever on in their determination and desire for more, always at the cost of lives, even including their own relatives. Complementary to the recent television series in which Michael Wood travelled the routes taken through South and Central America by Cortes, Francisco and Gonzalo Pizzaro, and Amazon journey of Orellana, his concise visualisation and description of the destructive schemes, actions and violence of the Conquistadors, the suffering of their bearers, the impact of smallpox and the breathtakingly beautiful terrain of the Peruvian landscape, make this audio informative and satisfying in its own right. (4 cassettes. Running time 6 hours. ) -Lyn Took.
Creator: Timothy West
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2001-10-04
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £21.00
Price: £6.66
Review History of Britain Vol 2 1604 - 1776: British Wars 1603-1776 Vol 2 / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:The Fate of Empire brings Simon Schama's stylish and absorbing History of Britain to a stirring close. Of the volumes in the trilogy, The Fate of Empire is the most subjective, as Schama offers his own account of how the British shaped much of the modern world, and in turn were reshaped as a nation and a people by the experience of revolution, empire and war. Unlike the previous volumes, Schama only pays lip-service to the familiar narrative of British history. The great, the good and the unsung are all there-the Lake poets, Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli, Mary Seacole, Winston Churchill and George Orwell-but Schama uses them as voices through which a different history of Britain can be heard. Ireland, India, the urban poor, suffragettes and striking miners are all restored to the national story. The emphasis on empire (along with India and Ireland the largest subject-entry in the index) is particularly welcome, although the finest hour of empire-the First World War-is dealt with all too briefly. Along the way Schama reveals himself once more as one of the world's finest cultural historians, with brilliant vignettes on Rousseau in England, the 1851 exhibition, Orwell's complex patriotism and much else, together with original insights on photography, the effect of empire on English vocabulary, and the post-war "colouring" of Britain. For beginners this is an excellent 21st century perspective on modern British history. For connoisseurs it is a refreshing reminder of how little British history the English really know. -Miles Taylor.
Authors
- G.E. Aylmer
- William Lamont
RRP: £12.93
Price: £12.92
Review Charles I and Puritanism / Sussex Publications:
Creator: Patricia Hodge
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2004-03-15
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £13.99
Price: £4.37
Review Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII / HarperCollins Audio:
Publication date: 2001-05-17
RRP: £9.99
Price: £9.99
Review Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History / Hodder & Stoughton Ltd:Consider the humble jar of nutmeg pushed to the back of your kitchen cupboard, among all the other spices that you hardly ever use. Would you believe that nutmeg formed the basis for one of the most bitter international conflicts of the 17th century, and was also intimately connected to the rise to global pre-eminence of New York City? Strange but true; nutmeg was one of the most prized commodities in Renaissance Europe, and its fascinating story is told in Giles Milton's delightful book Nathaniel's Nutmeg. The book deals with the competition between England and Holland for possession of the spice- producing islands of South-East Asia throughout the 17th century. Packed with stories of heroism, ambition, ruthlessness, treachery, murder, torture and madness, Nathaniel's Nutmeg offers a compelling story of European rivalry in the Tropics, thousands of miles from home, and the mutual incomprehensibility which often comically characterised relations between the Europeans and the local inhabitants of the prized islands. At the centre of the story lies Nathaniel Courthope, a trusty lieutenant of the East India Company, who took and held the tiny nutmeg-producing island of Run in the face of overwhelming Dutch opposition for more than five years, before being treacherously murdered in 1620. Courthope's heroism led to the English taking the Dutch colony of Manhattan in revenge for the death of Courthope and the loss of Run. The subsequent peace deal between the two nations gave Holland Run and the British Manhattan; New York was born. As Milton wittily remarks, although Courthope's death "robbed England of her nutmeg, it gave her the biggest of apples". Inevitably inviting comparisons with Dava Sobel's Longitude, Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a charming story, which throws light on a spicy, neglected slice of early Europe's fascination with the East. -Jerry Brotton.
Creator: Jill Balcon
Edition: Abridged edition
Publication date: 2002-10-03
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £13.00
Price: £3.25
Review Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self / Penguin Audiobooks:Claire Tomalin was born to write a biography of Samuel Pepys. Her previously acclaimed biographies of Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft have defined her as a scrupulous biographer who establishes a unique empathy with her subjects. In Pepys Tomalin has found her perfect subject, a man who is "both the most ordinary and the most extraordinary writer you will ever meet". Pepys wrote his diary throughout the 1660s, "a period as intellectually thrilling as it was dangerous and bloody", and Tomalin's book vividly brings to life the tumultuous world of 17-century London, where Pepys grew up. Pepys' life spanned the execution of one king and the restoration of another, and Tomalin elegantly recreates both Pepys' public and private lives. From his early days in London and then Cambridge, Tomalin pieces together the crucial years when "the private Samuel Pepys began to develop and yearn". She chronicles his rise through the bureaucracy of the restored king, Charles II, to his position as energetic reformer of the navy and successful husband to his vivacious, mercurial wife Elizabeth. But the book also deals with Pepy's personal tragedies, his struggle to secure patronage as a commoner, his frank and hilarious extra-marital exploits, and the cataclysmic Fire of London in 1666. This is a fine biography of an extraordinary man who "found the energy and commitment to create a new literary form" while also coming across as a generous, likeable, flawed human being. Tomalin's admiration for her subject is infectious, and will ensure that her biography becomes the standard reference for anyone interested in both Pepys's life and his art. [+]-Jerry Brotton.
Creator: Kenneth Branagh
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2003-04-14
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £9.99
Price: £9.50
Review The Diary of Samuel Pepys / Hodder & Stoughton Audio Books:
Authors
- Pearson Phillips
- Elizabeth Jenkins
Edition: Abridged
Publication date: 2002-01
Dewey code: 941.0099
RRP: £18.99
Price: £0.49
Review The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I: AND The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth II (Naxos Audio) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Creator: Jeff Harding
Publication date: 2007-03-01
RRP: £41.95
Price: £43.94
Review "Mayflower": A Voyage to War / ISIS Publishing:
Creator: Joss Ackland
Publication date: 1998-10
Price: £29.99
Review The Chronicle: vs. 1-4 (Chronicle) / Mr Punch Audio Books:
Publication date: 2003-03-02
RRP: £9.95
Price: £9.95
Review Agincourt (Campaign Trails) / John Urquhart:
Creator: Sean Barrett
Publication date: 2004-06-03
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £12.99
Price: £8.41
Review Restoration London (Tape): Everyday Life in the 1660s / Orion:
| Models & Brands:
Elizabeth's London (Tape): Everyday Life in Elizabethan London, The Chronicle: v. 1 (Chronicle), The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A Radio 4 Classic Serial (BBC Classic Collection), The Monarchy of England: Complete & Unabridged: The Beginnings: Complete & Unabridged, Mary Queen Of Scots (Tape), The Conquest of Mexico, Catherine de Medici (Tape), Elizabeth, Conquistadors (Radio Collection), History of Britain Vol 2 1604 - 1776: British Wars 1603-1776 Vol 2, Charles I and Puritanism, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I: AND The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth II (Naxos Audio), "Mayflower": A Voyage to War, The Chronicle: vs. 1-4 (Chronicle), Agincourt (Campaign Trails), Restoration London (Tape): Everyday Life in the 1660s |
