Suggested Reading List
London
Author: Edward Rutherfurd
Description: Available in audio-cassette form: ISBN 0679443819 - fiction but gives a real feel for the period. London has perhaps the most remarkable history of any city in the world. Now, its story has a unique voice. In this epic novel, Edward Rutherfurd takes the reader on a magnificent journey across sixteen centuries from the days of the Romans to the Victorian engineers of Tower Bridge and the era of Dockland development today. Through the lives and adventures of his colourful cast of characters, he brings all the richness of London's past unforgettably to life.
London - The Biography
Author: Peter Ackroyd
Description: Probably there is no one better placed than Ackroyd--the author of mammoth lives of Dickens and Blake, and novels such as Hawksmoor and Dan Leno and the Lime House Golem which set singular characters against the backdrop of a city constantly shifting in time--to write such a rich, sinewy account of "Infinite London".
Ackroyd's London is no mere chronology. Its chapters take on such varied themes as drinking, sex, childhood, poverty, crime and punishment, sewage, food, pestilence and fire, immigration, maps, theatre and war. We learn that gin was "the demon of London for half a century", and that "it has been estimated that in the 1740s and 1750s there were 17,000 'gin-houses'." Fleet Street was an area known for its "violent delights" where "a 14-year-old boy, only 18 inches high, was to be seen in 1702 at a grocer's shop called the Eagle and Child by Shoe Lane." By the mid 19th century "London had become known as the greatest city on earth." By 1939 "one in five of the British population had become a Londoner."
London A Social History
Author: Roy Porter
Description: 'Roy Porter, a historian of formidable range, turns to urban history in this marvellously lucid, informative and passionate book... Porter's facts are always at the service of the narrative, which has a finely maintained momentum, balancing statistics with the words of historians, diarists and novelists, poets and churchmen: Pepys, Boswell, Fielding, Walpole, Blake, Mayhew, Wells, Woolf, Spark, ... a timely and brilliant book.' CLAIRE TOMALIN, EVENING STANDARD 'A vivid celebration of the city, but also an elegy for its decline, bubbling with statistics and anecdote, from Boadicea to Betjeman.' RICHARD HOLMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Oxford Book of Oxford
Author: Jan Morris
Description: 'Few cities,' Jan Morris observes, 'have been much more loved, loathed, and celebrated.' This book has become a classic account of the character, history, mores, buildings, climate, and people of one of Britain's most fascinating cities. 'A book of outstanding excellence, with a sweep of knowledge and a distinction of style such as I have never before encountered in a work of this sort ... Brilliant alike in observation and imagination ... brings the very stones of Oxford to life' Sunday Telegraph
Oxford – An Architectural Guide
Author: Geoffrey Tyack
Description: Few cities have a greater concentration of significant architecture than Oxford. Within a city of only 130,000 inhabitants there are important buildings, many of them of great beauty, from every period from the 11th century down to the present. Geoffrey Tyack chronicles the architectural development of Oxford - both University and City - from its origins to the late-20th century, explaining the idiosyncracies of Oxford's architectural history, and placing the buildings within their historical context. His approach is chronological, and his emphasis on what can actually be seen
Scotland: A Concise History
Author: Sir Fitzroy Maclean and Magnus Linklater
Description: Continuously in print for over thirty years and renowned to this day for the authority and wit with which it disentangles the complex threads of Scotland's rich history, this classic work has been brought up to date with a new chapter examining the Scots identity in the wake of the first Scottish Parliament in nearly 300 years.
Scotland: A New History
Author: Michael Lynch
Description: This full length history of Scotland is made up of 25 chapters spanning 18 centuries, from the Picts to the 1980s and is designed for the general reader. A particular feature of the book is the attention it gives to social and cultural history, including life in towns, the changing role of the nobles, and the shifting images of Scottish identity through the ages. The landmarks of Scottish history - the Wars of Independence, the Reformation, the Union of Crowns and the Union of Parliaments, the Jacobite rebellions, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, are all covered. The author is the editor of "The Innes Review", literary editor of the Scottish History Society and has written books on Edinburgh and the Reformation, Mary, Queen of Scots and the Scottish Burghs.
Snowdonia, Official National Park Guide
Author: Ian Mercer, Merfyn Williams, Jeremy Moore
Description: In the NATIONAL PARK GUIDE series, this volume introduces Snowdonia. It details the geology and scenery, climate, vegetation and wildlife, man's influence: prehistory and history, myths and customs and explores the Park giving useful information on recreational opportunities and places of interest. The colour photographs are by Jeremy Moore.
Stratford upon Avon and the Cotswolds: A Souvenir Colour Guide
Author: Michael Hall
Description: A guide to Shakespeare's birthplace, its wealth of Tudor buildings and their gardens, and the surrounding Cotswold countryside. The book provides an account of the Bard's association with Stratford, and also describes Kenilworth Castle, Coventry Cathedral and other places of interest nearby.
The Isles-A History
Author: Norman Davies
Description: The bestselling and controversial new history of the 'British Isles', including Ireland from the author of Europe: "A History". Emphasizing our long-standing European connections and positing a possible break-up of the United Kingdom, this is agenda-setting work is destined to become a classic. 'If ever a history book were a tract for the times, it is "The Isles: A History" ...a masterwork.' Roy Porter, - "The Times" 'Davies is among the few living professional historians who write English with vitality, sparkle, economy and humour. The pages fly by, not only because the pace is well judged, but also because the surprises keep coming.' Felipe Fern'ndez-Armesto, - "Sunday Times". 'A book which really will change the way we think about our past. marvellously rich and stimulating' Noel Malcolm, "Evening Standard". 'A historio-graphical milestone.' Niall Ferguson, - "Sunday Times" 'The full shocking force of this book can only be appreciated by reading it.' - Andrew Marr, "Observer". 'It is too soon to tell if [Norman Davies] will become the Macaulay or Trevelyan of our day: that depends on the reading public. He has certainly made a good try. This is narrative history on the grand scale - compulsively readable, intellectually challenging and emotionally exhilirating.' David Marquand, "Literary Review".
Yorkshire Coast and North York Moors Landscapes
Author: John Potter
Description: Offers a portrait of two of Yorkshire's gems - the North York Moors and its dramatic coastline. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the major attractions that include the Heritage Coast and the National Park. Based in York, John Potter is a leading landscape photographer.
|