United Kingdom Books

Morris, the 'renaisance man' composer, historian, writer, singer, family man and dog lover, has excelled himself with this biography of Chesire. If Guy Gibson was the Liverpool AFC of WWII war bomber pilot biography then this is the Arsenal. Expertly written, his scholarship shines forth on every page, it appears their isn't a source he hasn't exhausted!!!!!! He must have locked himself away for at least 8 and a half years to produce this biographical gem. Let us hope that their is more to come and that lack of time doesn't triumph over his next book.

This will warm the hearts of all with ties to England

My father is the best author ever but his books are really dull and un-interesting. If you look at the first couple of pages there is a dedication to me and my sister JO.

All research indicates that the recent Bush/Gore presidential race has resulted in an increased awareness of politics among children in America. This meticulously researched and well-argued book explores the issues which face the nation's children. It is perhaps especially pertinent in the light of events in Seattle where world leaders failed to agree on whether Kyle's dad is, like, a real dork, or President Bush's recent pledge not to allow you to watch tv or go online until you tidy up that bedroom, and that means the closet too, young man.

In this volume Robert Westall compiles a wartime diary of the reminiscences of those who were children in Britain during World War II, during the German blitz of Britain.
Letters and diary entries of boys and girls aged 5 to 17 add information about a variety of aspects of life for the young in Britain during this time from children who witnessed and lived through the bombings in London and other cities, the food rationing, the separation of children from their families and homes sent from the cities into the country.
Other accounts reflect young boys collecting ammunition from downed German planes and bombshells, the mischief of children billeted together in country homes, hotels and schools and the fear of the dark experienced by a little girl after having been told by her mother that the Germans would get her if she did not behave.

This is NOT a childrens' activities book -- the deceptive title explains the continued availability of this SLEEPER of a coffee table book/collector's reference/DYNAMITE picture trove.

Produced by the Victoria and Albert Museum, it has over 350 finely printed pix, mostly in delicious color on heavy matte stock, selected from the world's largest display of toys and a mojumbo kiddie library.

This is a must-have for collectors, or for those who teach and/or love children or are interested in the history of these delightful objects, or just of childhood. Seven topically organized sections plus back matter; every page is a delight. Grab one used and cheap, before too many people read this review!

This superb book studies the connection between slavery in West Africa and the British, and Quaker, firm of Cadbury, particularly in the first decade of the twentieth century.

From the 15th century, the slave trade was the foundation of the Portuguese empire. Even in the early 1900s, Angola was still a slave state, with half its people enslaved. The British Empire was an ally of Portugal, so it was complicit in the slavery. Portugal's islands of Sao Tome and Principe, 150 miles off Africa's west coast, had 40,000 slaves producing cocoa beans which Cadbury had been buying since 1886. From 1901 to 1908, Cadbury got half its beans from the islands.

A Foreign Office official noted, "The fact of the matter is that the system is neither more nor less than slavery but that we do not dare to say much as we might thus offend the Portuguese with whom we desire to stand well." In the 1900s, the British Empire was trying to recruit African labour from Portuguese Africa for its gold mines in South Africa. The Foreign Office warned against the "danger of learning inconvenient facts which might oblige us to make representations to the Portuguese Govt. which we don't want to do." So Britain, like Portugal, ignored the treaties obliging them to act to halt the slave trade. Prime Minister Lord Salisbury ordered, "Leave it alone."

In 1901, William Cadbury first heard rumours of slave labour on the islands. All the evidence that he later received confirmed that there was a brutal slave trade in Angola, that the labourers on the islands were forced, that the death rate was huge (often 20% a year), and that none was free ever to leave. Yet Cadbury did not boycott the products of slave labour until 1909.

The company claimed that discreet diplomacy, and continued purchase of Sao Tome's cocoa, would improve the workers' position. Their position, however, did not improve: 6,000 slaves died every year, though profits certainly increased, as did the number of slaves and the amount of cocoa exported.

Humanitarian pressure groups tried to get the British government to act in the labourers' interests. It responded with endless promises to press the Portuguese state to reform, and repeated investigations and commissions. This all proves the folly of relying on companies, pressure groups, treaties or governments to effect improvement. Angola and the islands used forced labour until they won independence from Portugal in 1975.

How we have progressed since then! Such outrages are long gone. Yet in 2001, the Financial Times reported, "Nestle and Cadbury were accused of turning a blind eye to child slavery in the cocoa industry." A 2002 study estimated that 284,000 children worked in West Africa's cocoa farms. Another study concluded that there were 15,000 child slaves in the Ivory Coast alone. Cadbury responded, "We were completely unaware of the allegations concerning cocoa growing in the Cote d'Ivoire." Plus ca change.

The USA spends $8.5 billion a year on chocolate products, Britain spends £4 billion, while the children who produce the chocolate toil in poverty and slavery.

This is an excellent piece of scholarship and a very readable translation. No collection of primary sources of the period is complete without it.

This is the final book in a series profiling the Plantagenet and Tudor Kings of England. David Loades, the editor, is a professor of History at the University College of North Wales and a leading authority on the Tudor Kings. Loades assembled a team of leading authorities to write 80 short essays on the Tudor Kings and the people, politics, manners, mores and customs of Tudor England. Contemporary chroniclers describe the key events in each monarch's reign in vivid detail.

This book is beautifully illustrated with 150 color and black and white illustrations and is accompanied by a detailed genealogical table covering the Tudor succession. The book also features four maps, a guide to the peers, a glossary and a bibliography of late 20th century books on the period.

I highly recommend this book and the others in the series to anyone interested in medieval history. The other books in the series (all edited by Elizabeth Hallam are: The Plantagenet Chronciles; Chronicles of the Age of Chivalry (also published under the title Four Gothic Kings) and The Wars of the Roses. Chronciles of the Crusades follows the same same superb format.

An exceptional look at how Chronicles were written in late medieval England and what uses they served. The scholarship is evident, if not omnipresent, throughout the work, which makes the prose very readable and interesting, but still leaving the extensive notes in the back of the book handy should the reader grow interested. That being said, this book is for those who are interested in history, the middle ages, or some combination of the two. Can also be read as a history of history of sorts, in late medieval England, a subject interesting in and of itself. To be fair, there is the chance of casual readers growing bored with the material.