Author:Adrian Sykes
From the end of the last Ice Age (10,000 years ago) to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965, Adrian Sykes narrates the history and achievements of these islands,their inhabitants and their origins,through the stories of some 3000+ men & women who have shaped not just our history but the modern world. The story is interspersed with countless inventions, deeds of daring do and wickednesses, as well as the origins of innumerable words and phrases,often surprisingly early.
From Nosey Parker - Elizabeth I of her Archbishop of Canterbury,to mayonnaise - the battle of Mahon,which the victorious French admiral celebrated by inventing mayonnaise and after which we hanged Admiral Byng who lost it "to encourage the others",as Voltaire put it. Sykes astonishes on every page, whether with the origin of everyday phrases or nursery rhymes or the countless inventions of the British, from the lead pencil (1568), the tin can, the bicycle, screw propeller and jet engine to DNA, LCD crystals, cement, the electric kettle, the vacuum cleaner and Marmite.
Beautifully illustrated and with maps of exceptional clarity,this is a book hard to put down in which you learn something very surprising on every page.
A splendidly informative & entertaining guide to a dazzling cast of great Britons whom everybody in this island should recognise & celebrate, yet in these days often does not
—— Max HastingsThis is an unforgettable book, with a new idea on every page
—— Paul JohnsonA real treasure trove - an erudite, essential, original & thoroughly entertaining collection of stories, facts & characters that everyone should know about British history
—— Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: the biographyThis book is a treasury with treats galore. Lucid, comprehensive, it is a work of reference which deserves to become a classic.
—— Historical Novel SocietyPerfectly timed for the forthcoming British Museum exhibition.
—— Sunday TimesPhilip Parker has encapsulated the Viking story in this book.
—— CGA Magazine[An] energetic and intelligent guide to the Viking world.
—— A.N. Wilson , Sunday TelegraphA detailed study that succeeds in conveying the impact of the Viking age... A fascinating read.
—— Martin Arnold , Literary ReviewEngrossing
—— Mail on SundayThe book is an elegant structure, its joins hidden.
—— Michael Murray-Fennel , Country LifeA fun, light-hearted read.
—— James Innes Williams , Compass MagazineA splendid pontine read.
—— LondonistA delightful and informative romp.
—— Richard Boon , N16As a chronicle of social and architectural history, this is an informative and fun read
—— BookbagAbsorbing… Chang has a novelist’s eye for small detail… Chang weaves a suspenseful, anecdote-laden tale.
—— Nadine O’Regan and Anna Carey , Sunday Business PostOne of those rare non-fiction books that reads like a novel without compromising the quality of research – we couldn’t put it down
—— Topping & Co. Bookshop , Bath ChronicleOne of the most important authors of our age, in that she has shown China to the world.
—— Catholic HeraldThis is an electrifying description of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of an extraordinary woman
—— Olivier Philip Ziegler , Good Book GuideChinese political history can be a tough nut to crack, but Chang weaves in and out of Cixi’s biography with an ease that is almost as astounding as the events themselves
—— Rosemary Maccabe , Irish TimesRecords [Higgins’] own travels around the island in search of Roman traces. She includes plenty of anecdotes about the continuing fascination with the Roman past and its penetration of the present.
—— OldieHiggins produced another remarkable British travelogue… that was at once thoughtful, learned, witty and superbly written.
—— William Dalrymple , ObserverFilled with passion and personal interest… Higgins walks us around the landscape of this country as it would have been 2,000 years ago, and in doing so she ably captures the spirit of Britain now, Britain then and Britain in between.
—— Dan Jones , TelegraphWhether at Hadrian’s Wall or in a car park in the City, she [Higgins] shows how Roman traces are woven through British life.
—— Financial TimesA fascinating look at how we have viewed Rome's presence in these islands and what a debt we still owe to Roman achievements.
—— Good Book GuidePart history, part travelogue, [Higgins] also brings to life the eccentric archaeologists who have tried to recapture that lost civilisation.
—— Robbie Millen , The TimesA fresh and readable account
—— Fachtna Kelly , Sunday Business PostUnder Another Sky is not only a work of personal history, it is more personal than that... It is conversational, anecdotal, in a way that makes it easy for [Higgins] to slip in quite a lot of information
—— Nicholas Lezard , GuardianA delightful, effortlessly engaging handbook to the half-lost, half-glimpsed world of Roman Britain... The result is an utterly original history, lyrically alive to the haunting presence of the past and our strange and familiar ancestors
—— Christopher Hart , Sunday TimesThe beauty of this book is not just in the elegant prose and in the precision with which [Higgins] skewers her myths. It is in the sympathy she shows for the myth-makers.
—— Peter Stothard , The TimesEvocative...a keen-eyed tour of Britain.
—— Christopher Hirst , IndependentPacked with fascinating and thought-provoking insights.
—— HeraldA captivating travelogue.
—— Helena Gumley-Mason , LadyA delightfully heady and beautifully written potpourri of a book.
—— BBC History MagazineA fascinating look at the debt we owe to Roman achievements
—— Good Book GuideA fascination exploration
—— Mail on SundayHighly readable but profoundly researched, The Trigger represents a bold exception to the deluge of First World War books devoted to mud, blood and poetry
—— Ben Macintyre , The Timesa fascinating original portrait of a man and his country
—— Country and Town House