King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra had six children. Of the five who reached maturity, only one, the future King George V, has received much attention from biographers. The eldest son, Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, a backward youth and a subject of scandal, died before he was thirty. The three princesses, Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, the lifelong spinster Victoria, and Maud, Queen of Norway, were never well-known to the British public during their lifetime. In this detai...

The six children of King George V and Queen Mary all lived to maturity except the youngest, Prince John. The eldest, who was Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, reigned as King Edward VIII for less than a year. His infamous romance with Mrs Simpson plunged the country into the abdication crisis and led both of them into a long period of exile. King George VI, who reluctantly and unexpectedly ascended to the throne, was a shy man, handicapped by a speech impediment and ...

There is little available on the dramatic and colourful history of the Spanish monarchy. Experienced author and historian John Van der Kiste provides a readable and anecdotal look at one of the key European dynasties from the nineteenth century to the present. He begins with the wayward, ill-educated Isabella II, who was forced to marry her nephew. During much of her reign power was in the hands of her generals and her exile and abdication saw the crown of Spain hawked rou...

Surrey Murders is an examination of some of the county's most notorious and shocking cases. They include the 'Wigwam Girl', Joan Wolfe, who lived in a tent built by a Cree Indian Soldier before being brutally slaughtered; the infamous stabbing of Frederick Gold by 'the Serpent', Percy Lefroy Mapleton; the poisoning of the entire Beck family with a bottle of oatmeal stout, laced with cyanide; and the sailor butchered at the Devil's Punch Bowl, later immortalised in Charles Dickens' Nicholas...

Berkshire Murders is an examination of some of the county's most notorious and shocking cases. They include Hannah Carey, beaten to death by her husband at Warfield in 1851; young Hannah Gould, whose throat was cut by her father in a frenzied attack at Windsor in 1861; Nell Woodridge, murdered by her husband in 1896 and later immortalised in Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol; Annie Davis, killed by her lover in 1912; and Minnie Freeman Lee, whose body was discovered in a trunk in 19...

Drawing on a wide range of contemporary sources, this biography examines the complex personality of Germany's last emperor. Born in 1859, the eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria, Prince Wilhelm was torn between two cultures - that of the Prussian Junker and that of the English liberal gentleman.

A chronological account of the princesses and consort Queens of the Georgian era. From Sophia who died shortly before she would have become Queen as heir to Queen Anne, to Adelaide, consort to William IV whose failure to provide an heir ensured the succession passed to his niece Queen Victoria. During this period, an array of colourful personalities came and went - George I's ill-fated wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle who was imprisoned for adultery for over 30 years until her death; the equa...

The works of Poe were dark and often disturbing. From dismembered corpses, rivals bricked behind cellar walls, murders in back alleys, laments for lost loves, obsessions that drive men - and women! - to madness, his stories have had a profound impact on both the horror and mystery genres to this day.In Quoth the Raven, we invite you to answer the call of the raven and revisit Poe's work, re-imagined for the twenty-first century. Here, the lover of mystery and Gothic horror will fin...

Mary (1662-94), daughter of James, Duke of York, heir to the English Throne, then 15, is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told she was to marry her cousin, William (1650-1702), son of William II of Orange (1626-50), Stadtholder of the Dutch republic, and Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I of England, who was eleven years older than her. In November 1677, on William's 27th birthday, they married in a private ceremony at St James's Palace. William was solemn, James gloomy,...

This work tells the love story of the royal couple against the changing background of 19th-century Germany. It looks at the differing political sympathies of the couple, revealed through letters, and re-examines the prevailing view that the domineering Vicky never bothered to conceal her distaste for everything Prussian and flaunting her sense of British superiority. In many ways ahead of her time, she was something of a pioneer feminist, refusing to accept the oft-accepted maxim that wome...

This biography of the last king to lead British troups into baffle and his able wife provides intriquing insight into 18th century war and politics. Often derided as the buffoon who "hated all boets and bainters", George II was fortunate to be served by Prime Ministers Sir Robert Walpole and William Pitt, and was wise enough to leave the business of government to them. His wife, generally regarded as the ablest of British queens between Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria, used her influence in...

A compendium of fascinating information about Cornwall past and present, this book contains a plethora of entertaining facts about the county's famous and occasionally infamous men and women, its towns and countryside, history, natural history, literary, artistic and sporting achievements, agriculture, transport, industry and royal visits. A reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritag...