An authoritative life of Harold II, the king who died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066Harold Godwinson is renowned as the king who lost England to the invading William the Conqueror in 1066. Infamous legends, invented by the Victorians, surround his life, corrupting our idea of him. But who was the real Harold II?In this major new biography, Tom Licence reveals the truth behind the nineteenth-century myths. Moving from Harold’s childhood and his adventures...

The people who lived in England before the First World War now inhabit a realm of yellow photographs. Theirs is a world fast fading from ours, yet they do not appear overly distant. Many of us can remember them as being much like ourselves. Nor is it too late for us to encounter them so intimately that we might catch ourselves worrying that we have invaded their privacy. Digging up their refuse is like peeping through the keyhole. How far off are our grandparents in reality when we can sni...

An authoritative life of Edward the Confessor, the monarch whose death sparked the invasion of 1066"In putting flesh back on Edward’s bones Licence has brought a new succession story to popular attention."—Leanda de Lisle, The Times“This fine biography of Edward the Confessor is both entertaining and elegiac.”—Nicholas Vincent, The TabletOne of the last kings of An...

Aelred (1110–1167) served Rievaulx Abbey, the second Cistercian monastery in England, for twenty years as abbot. During his abbacy he wrote thirteen treatises, some offering spiritual guidance and others seeking to advise King Henry II. He also wrote thirty-one sermons as a commentary on Isaiah 13–16 and 182 surviving liturgical sermons, mostly addressed to his monks.This volume contains the second half of Aelred's ninety-eight liturgical sermons from the Reading-Cluny collection, ...

What were early kitchens like? How have they evolved over time? What factors have influenced their design? David Eveleigh takes you into the heart of the home and shows us why modern kitchens are the way they are. Everything you could wish to know about kitchens and their unusual history will be found with these pages.

'TRULY INSPIRING' Mail on SundayNow familiar to millions of Gardeners' World fans as Longmeadow (the home of Nigel & Nellie), this is the story of Monty & Sarah Don's early days there. The Jewel Garden is the story of the garden that bloomed from the muddy fields around the Dons' Tudor farmhouse, a perfect metaphor for the Monty and Sarah's own rise from the ashes of a sp...

Britain's favourite gardener Alan Titchmarsh has also been the most popular contributor to Gardeners' World magazine for the last twenty years.This collection of his very best columns, demonstrates just why he is regularly voted the readers' favourite. His brilliant writings are, in turn, practical - just how far back should we prune our roses? - opinionated - I always rail at people who go out on a Sunday afternoon to tidy their gardens. I mean, a garden is no...

Monty Don, the face of British gardening, has written a weekly Observer column on his garden for the past ten years. Over time the columns have been a practical guide, a poetic record of the garden’s changing seasons, and also a personal account of how the garden has kept his feet firmly planted on the ground through bad times and good. This is a collection of fifty of Monty’s best columns, that will delight his readers and gardeners everywhere. 'Growing vegetables, herbs and frui...

With her inimitable wit and outspoken views, Clarissa Dickson Wright opens her diary and takes us on a journey around Britain with this unrivalled collection of stories and anecdotes from her ever-eventful life. As celebrated cook and champion of the countryside, Clarissa's year includes being propositioned by a burly greyhound courser, meeting the Chairman of the Sandringham branch of the WI, a fishing terrier called Kipper and taking on the Health & Safety officials at a rain-drenched Co...

When Alan left school at fifteen little was expected of him. An ‘O’ level in art is not the most obvious passport to success, but in the ancient greenhouses of the local nursery Mrs T’s little lad found his spiritual home, learning his trade and the strange ways of human nature.But the comfort and familiarity of his home in the Yorkshire Dales would soon be left behind as he journeyed south to college and then to Kew Gardens where he encountered rare plants collected by Captain Cook...

After leaving the editorship of the Daily Express, Rosie Boycott wasn't sure what to do next. A terrible car accident forced her to rethink her life, turning her in a direction she would never have previously imagined. Working a small farm in Somerset proves a daunting task, but Rosie and her new husband Charlie are determined, and their immersion in rural living, hilarious and profoundly moving, reaps rewards they never expected. Pigs, ducks and geese are fattened for the butcher...

When war broke out in 1939, few knew that they would soon be fighting to survive, let alone how or when it would end. 'Rations: A Very Peculiar History' looks at the measures the British government took to ensure the wellbeing of its people during wartime, and how the British public dealt with it. With some stealing, some hoarding, but most just trying to get by, it was one of the bleakest periods in British history. But there's a reason they called it 'the Blitz spirit' - this title featu...