Creator: et al
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 2000-06
Dewey code: 792.09
RRP: £11.99
Price: £3.67
Review The History of Western Theatre (Non Fiction) / Naxos AudioBooks:
Authors
- Antonia Fraser
- Gordon Donaldson
RRP: £11.00
Price: £11.00
Review 16th Century Scotland / Sussex Publications:
Creator: Anna Massey
Edition: New Ed
Publication date: 1999-09-16
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £10.99
Price: £5.89
Review This Sceptred Isle: The Making of the Nation 1087-1327 Vol 2 (BBC Radio Collection) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Creator: Sue Rodwell
Publication date: 2002-06
RRP: £11.74
Price: £13.73
Review Great British Trials: Mary Queen of Scots and Charles I / Mr Punch Audio Books:
Edition: Unabridged
Publication date: 1999-05-31
Dewey code: 917.30492
Price: £49.95
Review Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance / Renaissance Audio:
Creator: Stephen Thorne
Publication date: 2001-03
Price: £18.74
Review True War Stories: Complete & Unabridged / Chivers Children's Audio Books:
Authors
- Sawyer Peter
- Frank Barlow
- Peter Sawyer
RRP: £12.93
Price: £11.89
Review Norman Conquest / Sussex Publications:
Creator: Richard Heffer
Publication date: 2001-04-01
RRP: £37.95
Price: £39.91
Review Big Chief Elizabeth: How England's Adventurers Gambled and Won the New World / ISIS Audio Books:The follow up to his bestselling Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Giles Milton's Big Chief Elizabeth is a sprawling, ambitious tale of how the aristocrats and privateers of Elizabethan England reached and colonised the "wild and barbarous shores" of the New World. Milton's story ranges from John Cabot's voyage to America in 1497, to the painful but ultimately successful foundation of the English colony at Jamestown by 1611. However, the main focus of the book is Sir Walter Ralegh's elaborate and tortuous attempts to establish an English settlement in Roanoke, in present-day Carolina, following the first English voyage there in 1584. Scouring contemporary travel accounts of the period, Milton creates a colourful and entertaining account of the greed, confusion and misunderstanding that characterised English relations with the native Americans, and the often violent and tragic conflict that often ensued. Milton has a good eye for a surreal or comical story, such as the colony's first encounter with Big Chief-or Weroanza Wingina, whose exotic title "quickly captured the imagination of the English colonists, and they began referring to their own queen as Weroanza Elizabeth". The Elizabethan cast is also dazzling-the flamboyant and ambitious Walter Ralegh, who provided the money behind the Roanoke ventures, the "sober" ascetic scholar Thomas Hariot, who provided the brains, and hardened adventurers such as Arthur Barlowe and Ralph Lane, who provided the muscle. The myths and stories also come thick and fast, from John Smith and Pocahontas, to the importation of the fashion of "drinking tobacco", but the problem with Big Chief Elizabeth is that it lacks a central driving story. In the end it reads like an entertaining, but rather laboured jog through early Anglo-American history, something that has been done with greater skill and originality by writers such as Charles Nicholl in his fascinating book The Creature in the Map. Those who read Nathaniel's Nutmeg will probably enjoy Big Chief Elizabeth, but with some reservations. -Jerry Brotton.
Creator: Stephen Thorne
Publication date: 2003-08-30
RRP: £57.52
Price: £59.51
Review A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? / Chivers Audio Books:
Authors
- David Bunnell
- Richard Luecke
Publication date: 2001-05-01
Dewey code: 381.1702854678
RRP: £13.50
Price: £15.39
Review Ebay Phenomenon: Business Secrets behind the World's Hottest Internet Company: Business Secrets Behind the World's Hottest Internet Company (Wiley Audio) / Penton Overseas Inc:
Publication date: 1982-12
RRP: £12.93
Price: £14.92
Review European Socialism in the Nineteenth Century / Sussex Publications:
Creator: Robert Powell
Publication date: 1995-05
Price: £7.99
Review Century of Warfare: Hitler Turns East - Eastern Front, 1941-43 AND Long Road Back - Eastern Front, 1943-45 v. 7 / Argo:
Publication date: 1991-03-14
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.79
Review London: The Complete Walking Tour: Historical London (Walking Tours) / Penton Overseas Inc.,U.S.:
![Review / Thanksgiving Day in Canada [CASSETTE]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51XTGH9PDSL._SL160_.jpg)
Dewey code: 394
RRP: £4.99
Price: £5.62
Review Thanksgiving Day in Canada [CASSETTE]:
Creator: Joss Ackland
Publication date: 1998-10
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.97
Review The Chronicle: Vol 3 (Chronicle) / Mr Punch Audio Books:
Publication date: 1982-12
RRP: £12.93
Price: £14.92
Review Living in Peking / Sussex Publications:
Authors
- Tom Zoellner
- Paul Rusesabagina
Publication date: 2007-02-01
RRP: £31.95
Price: £31.95
Review An Ordinary Man / ISIS Audio Books:
Creator: Simon Winchester
Publication date: 2004-06
Price: £40.95
Review Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (Audiobook) / BBC Audiobooks Ltd:
Edition: Abridged Ed
Publication date: 2000-02-11
RRP: £13.00
Price: £12.98
Review The Ashdown Diaries: 1988-1997 v. 1 / Penguin Audiobooks:"I am plagued by the nightmare that the party that started with Gladstone will end with Ashdown". Paddy Ashdown wrote this following his election as Leader of the future Liberal Democrats in 1988. Faced with party infighting, the conflict with David Own and the SDP, and the brink of financial insolvency, Ashdown's future seemed doomed. However, by the time he ends The Ashdown Diaries following the 1997 election, he writes "I am leading a party that is larger than Lloyd George's!" The Ashdown Diaries record this remarkable turnaround amid the turbulent final years of Mrs Thatcher and the uncertainty of the Major Government, and his fateful attempt to negotiate a coalition government with Tony Blair. Remarkably frank and written in an engagingly brusque (and often rather naive) style, Ashdown's diaries are a fascinating account of political life at one remove from governmental power. This makes many of his amusing and often brutal accounts of the great and the good highly entertaining. Political historians will be particularly interested in the majority of the book, dealing with Ashdown's surprisingly close links with Blair, and his claim to have come with an inch of joining the Cabinet in 1997. Lively, entertaining and often very witty, this is a frank and convincing portrait of Ashdown. -Jerry Brotton Alec Guinness, David Attenborough, Quentin Crisp, John Simpson-many fascinating autobiographies have been read by their authors, but the ex-leader of the Lib Dems has produced a dog. Yet the facts of his story are interesting. [+]He inherited a divided and bankrupt party which agreed-after marathon debates-to assume a new and forgettable name; he attempted to end the confusion about what they stood for, without success; he laid secret plans with Tony Blair to form a coalition designed to send the Tories to perdition; he repeatedly visited the Balkans to try to repair the damage left by meddling and fainthearted Western governments. His tale ends in 1997 with Blair pulling out of the secret compact, and with himself standing down as party leader. Part Two is promised soon. The trouble with these diaries-and with his reading, which, alas, suits them perfectly-is that they are trudgingly, achingly dull. The blurb describes him as "charismatic", but of that quality these cassettes give no sign. Very occasionally he produces a nice turn of phrase-as when he speaks of the Tories "murdering Caesar" in ditching Mrs T-but for the most part his account has as much colour as a police report. He may have invaded Blair's inner circle, but we get no sense of what that must have been like, no whiff of personalities. He is either hopelessly unobservant, or else too mealy-mouthed to reveal what he sees; he seems devoid of the humanity which could illuminate the more tragic figures (John Major for one) with whom he consorts. OK, he's worked like a Trojan in the Balkans; OK, he can speak Chinese; OK, he only sleeps three hours a night-but, being no Thatcher, he clearly longs for his rightful eight. No mention, by the way, of his notorious affair. Several times he speaks of going to bed "dog-tired". Perhaps he should now curl up in his basket. -Betty Tadman.
Creator: Anna Massey
Publication date: 1999-09-16
Dewey code: 941
RRP: £10.99
Price: £5.50
Review This Sceptred Isle: The First British Empire, 1702-1760 Vol 6 (Radio Collection) / BBC Books:
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Models & Brands:
The History of Western Theatre (Non Fiction), 16th Century Scotland, This Sceptred Isle: The Making of the Nation 1087-1327 Vol 2 (BBC Radio Collection), Great British Trials: Mary Queen of Scots and Charles I, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, True War Stories: Complete & Unabridged, Norman Conquest, Big Chief Elizabeth: How England's Adventurers Gambled and Won the New World, A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World?, Ebay Phenomenon: Business Secrets behind the World's Hottest Internet Company: Business Secrets Behind the World's Hottest Internet Company (Wiley Audio), European Socialism in the Nineteenth Century, Century of Warfare: Hitler Turns East - Eastern Front, 1941-43 AND Long Road Back - Eastern Front, 1943-45 v. 7, London: The Complete Walking Tour: Historical London (Walking Tours), Thanksgiving Day in Canada [CASSETTE], The Chronicle: Vol 3 (Chronicle), Living in Peking, An Ordinary Man, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (Audiobook), The Ashdown Diaries: 1988-1997 v. 1, This Sceptred Isle: The First British Empire, 1702-1760 Vol 6 (Radio Collection) |
