A witty and concise look at the beginnings of English history, when the nation consolidated after clashes between the Saxons and invading Vikings.In 871, three of England's four kingdoms were overrun by Vikings, the ruthless, all-conquering Scandinavian raiders who terrorized early medieval Europe. With the Norsemen murdering one king with arrows and torturing another to death by ripping out his lungs, the prospects that faced the kingdom of Wessex were bleak. Wors...

A revealing glimpse into the tumultuous history of England’s medieval period, full of knights in shining armor and terrible peasant suffering.Covering the violent and disease-ridden period between 1272 to 1399, England in the Age of Chivalry. . . And Awful Diseases covers the events, personages and ideas most commonly known as "medieval". This includes Geoffrey Chaucer, the Peasants revolt, the Scottish wars of independence, the Great Famine of 1315, the Black Death...

From William Shakespeare's series of history dramas to Sir Walter Scott and George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, not to mention the smash-hit TV show Game of Thrones, the British civil war of 1455 to 1485 has inspired writers more than any other.Ed West's My Kingdom for a Horse illuminates the bloody war fought for thirty long years between the descendants of King Edward III in a battle for the throne. Named after the emblems used by the two leadi...

A riveting account of the most consequential year in English history, marked by bloody conflict with invaders on all sides.1066 is the most famous date in history, and with good reason, since no battle in medieval history had such a devastating effect on its losers as the Battle of Hastings, which altered the entire course of English history.The French-speaking Normans were the pre-eminent warriors of the 11th century and based their entire society around c...

1215 is one of the most famous dates in English history, and with good reason, since it marks the signing of the Magna Carta by King John and the English barons, which altered the entire course of English and world history.John Lackland was born to King Henry II and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitane in December, 1166; he was the youngest of five sons. However, he unexpectedly became the favored heir to his father after a failed rebellion by his older brothers in 1173. He became king in ...

The new ruling elite in the west – the ultra-wealthy tech magnates, financial wizards and corporate bosses that wield enormous power over us – embrace extremely progressive political ideas. What explains this apparent paradox?In this scintillating critique of these new radical plutocrats, conservative commentator Ed West argues that the 'luxury beliefs' of the new Brahmin caste are perfectly consistent with their accumulation of ever greater wealth. Ultra-liberalism, with its inher...

Have you read everything George R.R. Martin has every written? Do you know what in Game of Thrones is based in real history?A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Learning of his father’s death, the adolescent, dashing and charismatic and descended from the old kings of the North, vows to avenge him. He is supported in this war by his mother, who has spirited away her two younger sons to safety. Against them is the queen, passionate, proud, a...

2002 - ICM Research polling for the BBC: 47 per cent of white Britons believed immigration had damaged British society (a belief shared by 22 per cent of black and Asian Britons) and 28 per cent believed it had benefited it. 2012 - YouGov polling for the Sunday Times: 11 per cent of people believe that immigration in the past decade has been 'a good thing for Britain' - 67 per cent think it has had a negative effect. Not only does a clear majority of the British public now seem to want imm...

'An entertaining, wide-ranging defence and explanation of the conservative way of seeing the world . . . suffused with generosity and wit' Catholic HeraldBrought up by eccentric intellectuals, Ed West experienced what he believed was a fairly normal childhood of political pamphlets as bedtime reading, family holidays to East Germany and a father who was one political step away from advocating the return of serfdom. In his mid-twenties, West found himself e...

Cockney is the dialect of East London. It was back in the 14th century that the term 'cockney' was first coined, as an insult by country folk to describe working class Londoners and their speech - cockeneyes meaning rotten egg, or, more literally, the egg of a cock. The dialect developed as the capital grew in Tudor and Georgian times, but it didn't become an identifying feature of London life until Charles Dickens popularised it in the 19th century. By this stage anyone born within the so...

Have you ever wondered if it is possible to stay in touchwith your loved ones and share their journey in the afterlife?What happens after death is far too important for us to rely on hand-me-down teachings. We need the authority of first-hand experience. This is what Ann West provides in her moving narrative of her remarkable attempt to continue her friendship with three extraordinary women for many years after their deaths. As we join her on her excursions, we learn about l...

A riveting account of the most consequential year in English history, marked by bloody conflict with invaders on all sides1066 is the most famous date in history, and with good reason, since no battle in medieval history had such a devastating effect on its losers as the Battle of Hastings, which altered the entire course of English history.The French-speaking Normans were the pre-eminent warriors of the eleventh century and based their entire society aroun...