United Kingdom Books

This atlas is great if you are planning to drive around Great Britain. It includes helpful blow-ups of each city for orientation and excellent detail. We traveled around Great Britain for 2 weeks and never got lost!

I recently did a 12 day driving tour of southern Ireland with this atlas as a companion and I never got lost. Very clear, and well laid out. I'm going to use it again for a trip to England and Scotland in the fall. If you going to Great Britain or Ireland, you can't go wrong with this guide. So enjoy, stay left, and. . ."mind the pedestrians."

As an undergraduate student taking a Milton class, I found this biography extremely valuable - it provided good background, religious, political and psychological, in what motivated Milton - his core beliefs that drove his most powerful works. Unfortunately, the price is prohibitive - try a library, because this biography is a pleasant read for a new student, and thorough enough for a scholar or more in-dept investigation. The second volume is the notes and annotations for the main biography. Parker and Campbell bring Milton into the 21st century - making him accessible and understandable. It whetted my appetite for more Milton. I wish it was cheaper though!

Parker carefully balances his focus on Milton's life and the poet's immortal works. Parker begins his study by letting the reader know that he is both a lover of Milton's art and an admirer of Milton the individual. One who devotes time to this considerable study will certainly obtain similar sentiments.

Another great book covering the art form of miniature painting. A valuable contribution to any artist or collector's library to help appreciate the development of miniature art.

This book MUST be the definitive guide for any one interested the the art of Miniaturists. The presentation is excellent, content outstanding. There are more than 1,000 illustrations and the author has detailed the methods for dating minatures from clothing and style. It has been thoroughly researched and can be regarded as THE standard reference work.

i would have no reservations buying from this supplier again!

Those who are curious about the historical workings of modern Spanish labour and political history from 1875-1980, will serve their minds quite well in reading this title. The author, Mr. Carr, brings to the reader - an illuminating work distinctly expressing a balance of sufficient historical detail counteracted most positively, by an obligatory laconic approach.

Preceding 1875, Spain's "anaemic" history of the industrialist/labourer relationship had long been existant from the 1830's. Throughout the book, the author serves to describe more or less emphatically, natural obstacles hindering the early Spanish industrial revolution. For over a thousand years, psychological and environmental differences amongst the varying regional mentalities and topograghies of the country were acutely (and still are) recognized and preserved by Castilians, Catalonians, Valencians, Asturians, Galicians, Andalusians, Aragonese, Leonese, Basques etc.

Hence, nineteenth-century economic needs and demands from both labour and industrialists were always at odds from region-to-region. Augmenting this basic complexity was the growing frequency of intra-party factions, electoral manipulation, church-burning, innumerous strikes and assassinations by both civilians and, an increasingly intervening military. The core issue throughout this time period: An effective, congruous establishment of a "national economic" vision entailing long-term growth. The entry into what was considered by some to be a "Godless" era of mass-modernity, were the traditionally-minded peasants, industrialists, conservatives and churchmen - for they feared the gradual, societal disintegration of Classical, Catholic Spain.

Yet astonishingly, there were those political, military, religious and civilian figures wanting to see a Spain fully industrialized via the exemplary French/English model. It is this overall social/political dichotomy (also recognized by Spaniards), that Mr. Carr gently explicates, the understanding of how such perennial intransigence (both an excellent and horrible human quality) on the part of all parties, generated the unfortunate broth for a "violent soup" that became the Spanish Civil War.

Post-civil war recovery, Opus Dei, growing consumerism, transition to democracy and the restoration of monarchy are covered in more general detail.

I bought this book about 5 years ago when I first got a job in the UK Financial Industry. It covers all the basics and you can start with little or no previous knowledge (I did!). To illustrate his point he includes examples of Indices, Exchange Rates, Unit Trust prices etc. from the Financial Times newspaper. It is easy to understand too. Can't recommend it highly enough.

This is an excellent guide to the basics of money and financing.

The book focuses on London as a financial center and the British finanacial system in general, making frequent comparisons to New York and global practices. However, as it describes financial basics I think the that it would be useful to people almost anywhere interested in understanding such basics as: interest rates, banking, shares, insurance, foreign exchange, etc.

I was most impressed by Coggan's clear explanations helped by historical descriptions, e.g. goldsmiths and silversmiths became the earliest bankers when they stored gold and silver in their safes for nervous citizens. Then, when they noticed that of all the gold and silver stored in their vaults only a small amount was required for withdrawal, and this amount was roughly matched by new deposits, the idea of lending the idle gold and silver was born. The earliest smiths were from Italy and did their business from wooden benches in the market places. The Italian for bench is "banco" and was corrupted into the English word "bank".... Suddenly at the hands of Coggan banking seems like a very human enterprise and becomes easy to understand.

Coggan's knowledge is obviously thorough and his explanations are excellent. I highly recommend this book. Comments to LearningResearch@Cox.net

regarding the PALLAS ARMATA series of reprints, I am the publisher and can be EMAILED AT Gareth_Simon@londonelec.co.uk

Bibliography of English Military Books says Robert Munro, a cousin o Robert Lord Foulis had in his youth served in the Scots guards of the King of France. In 1626 the ninth year of the Thirty Years' War he took service with the Scots Regiment under Christian IV of Denmark. He quitted it in 1633 to beat up recruits in England, but before his return his regiment had been cut to pieces at Nerlin. This book is the first regimental history, contains a store of first hand information on soldiering in the 1600's and is highly readable. The book was exceedingly rare as it was printed in only a few copies for friends of Lord Rhees.

For scholars on a budget, Pallas Armata Press, the vanity press of THE PIKE and SHOT SOCIETY, offers a reproduction of the original for 11 pounds from Gareth Simon 98 Priory Road, Tonbridge Kent, TN9 2BP England. Their catalog lists over 100 reprints of 16th and 17th century military works.

Andrew Thomas' Mosquito Aces Of World War II focuses on the all-wooden Mosquito aircraft, which entered service in early 1942 and was an effective fighter in Britain. It went on to counter the V-1 flying bombs in 1944 and made a name for itself with its ability to locate the enemy at night and develop hard blows with four cannons. Vintage black and white photos are packed throughout but it's the written history of the Mosquito and its 59 pilot fighters which is the meat of Mosquito Aces Of World War II, which will delight any avid scholar or WWII student.

The exploits of the 50-odd aces who scored with the Mosquito fighter bomber are chronicled by author Andy Thomas in this Osprey Aircraft of the Aces volume.

Whether operating as a nightfighter, day intruder or Coastal Command strike aircraft, DeHavilland's elegant but lethal wooden wonder racked up kills over Ju 88s, Bf 110s, He 111s, V-1s, Ki-46s and assorted Axis aircraft in the ETO, Pacific and Mediterranean theaters. Thomas succintly covers these kills, scored by such Mossie aces as John Cunningham, Bob Kipp, Branse Burbridge, Roger Bannock, Bob Braham and others. Ten pages of color profiles by Chris Davey and dozens of photos of aircraft and crews complement the text.

As always, good value at a modest price. Recommended.

Exciting description of the evolution of the treatment of mental illness over centuries in Britain.

Loved this book...Used it as one of my sources for a research paper. Well written. I'd probably even read it for fun.

I bought this book when it came out in the early 1980s for identifying British fungi. At the time it was revolutionary as the use of photographs allowed the author to depict mushrooms much more accurately than the paintings of earlier guides. It is still one of the top field guides to this region (also check Courtecuisse & Duhem and Jordan). I still use this volume a lot for identifying American fungi, both in the tropics and North America. Although I have over 200 field guides of different sorts on my shelves this remains one of my all time favourites. If you're interested in fungi, don't hesitate.

I have been a big mushroom entusiast for some time now and I have at least 14 different field guides to mushrooms, this book is my all time favourate. Everything you have ever wanted in a field guide, pictures pictures and more pictures. Every mushroom is photographed and represented clearly from all angles, even cross sections showing the flesh. Good descriptions for every one, maybe not the longest description but detailed enough. If more information is needed on a mushroom I look it up else where. The photos make identifying mushrooms a breeze. I would recommend this book to any one interested in Mushrooms, I for one could not do without it!!

I haven't read the book yet but I do want to get in touch with the author, Penny Gouk. We were at university together and I am putting together a newsletter for all those of us in her year. Please ask her to contact me on: MWaller@compuserve.com

How changes in the theory and practice of music echoed and exemplified a crescendo of new natural philosophy, and an equal and opposite diminuendo of traditional natural magic, is the subject of Gouk's book, an harmonious work that comprises three movements. The first, 'Geographies', poses and answers such questions as how was music understood in the period; how was it taught; who performed it, and on what instruments; where was it played and appreciated; and who were its audiences. The second is an annotated 'Gallery' of illustrations -picturing, amongst other things, the Theatre of Instruments, the Division of the Scale, and the Harmony of the Spheres- taken from contemporary publications by diverse authors, among them Fludd, Kircher, Schott and Mersenne. The last part, 'Narratives' relates the history of the Royal Society's engagements with music and the new Science of Acousticks, then studies of the role of music in the lives and works of Hooke and Newton. The author shews that, over the course of the century in question, the pursuit of knowledge and truth via natural philosophy took on an increasingly public and collaborative character, and this trend had an analogue in the increasing prevalence of public performance of music that had previously been confined to the chambers of the elite: in both cases, a species of Performing Art was being redirected, outward, to a broad audience in a secular setting. This absorbing book is clearly a distillation of many years' study and thought, and the resultant brew is a potent elixir of images and ideas, which almost evokes, at times, the sound of a lute, a viol or a virginal.