United Kingdom Books

Ron Ramdin is the leading historian in the history of Black and Asian British. He left Trinidad and came to England in the 1960s. Since then he has devoted his life to study in the British Musuem and British Library. Several of his books are now used as course texts in universities. Reimaging Britain is the pinnacle of his achievement. It evaluates where Black and Asian Britons have come from - and points the way ahead.

Ron Ramdin is the leading historian in the history of Black and Asian British. He left Trinidad and came to England in the 1960s. Since then he has devoted his life to study in the British Musuem and British Library. Several of his books are now used as course texts in universities. Reimaging Britain is the pinnacle of his achievement. It evaluates where Black and Asian Britons have come from - and points the way ahead.

The author takes us on a delightful trip through the consumer age with its roots in the Victorian era, when mass production first began. Since then, fashionable clothes, cosmetics, books, music and other good things have become available to the general public. The higher standard of living also went hand in hand with increased literacy and greater freedom for women.

This engaging book explores the 20th century decade by decade, looking at aspects of daily life like food, shopping, fashion, entertainment, travel, toys and games through the packaging material, advertising and products themselves. Important events like the World Wars, the coronations, the first man on the moon and the impact of radio and TV are also covered.

Opie's wonderful collection of original items includes comic books, records, newspapers, posters, magazines and various types of souvenir. These objects and images relive history as people remember it, bringing to life again the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of the 20th century.

The book contains an introduction under the headings The Robert Opie Collection, Understanding Our Past, Memories and Our Consumer Society. This is followed by separate chapters on The Victorians and The Edwardians. From there, the chapters follow the decades from The 1910's to The 1990's. The book concludes with an index.

Remember When will appeal to all readers with a fondness for the past, from historians to graphic designers, music, movie and art lovers to those just into nostalgia for the sake of it.

I first set eyes on this gem of a book at my neighbours beach house whilst we were relaxing with a glass of red, and was entranced from the moment I picked it up. I am an avid collector of memorabilia and found this book to be excellent. I can identify with many of the items that were shown as being popular throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's. I regret that so much of what I had has long ago perished in rubbish dumps, and some of the items are so rare and collectable now. I found thememorablia from the 60's and earlier the most exciting, and loved reading about and looking at items that I hunt for in antique shops and markets! This nostalgic book is very hard, if not impossible, to put down once you start flicking through the pages, and is an absolutely essential purchase for anyone that has an interest in or is a collector of memorabilia. I cannot wait to order my copy!

Well I admit I found Pope very hard when i first had to read some of his verses on my course! And he seemed so hard and cruel and judgmental, not someone you would like as a friend. But this book has opened my eyes and now i can love him like the rest of humanity. This is a very understanding book and helps with the poems very strongly and well.

This book is a learned, compassionate and fascinating study
of how Pope's sense of embodiment makes its way into his
writing and his philosophy of civic "enlightenment." Part of
the 'new wave' of sharp 18th century scholars who appeared
on the scene over the last fifteen years, Deutsch, among others,
has helped to turn the field into a growing intellectual concern.
This book is foundational to anyone working on Augustan literature
and the "age of reason."

A welcomed and surprising analysis, placed in historical context and revealing meanings and subtexts that had never previously occurred to this reader in a lifetime of reading the classics. Absolutely grand.

This is one of those books that didn't get much review coverage when it came out but has come to be recognized since as the classic on its subject. That subject is how the English novel got thrown into creative ferment by the French Revolution and how that ferment produced the novel as we still know it. It's one of the only books about the late eighteenth century novel that isn't drearily plodding and worthy -- the prose is a joy, full of quirky flair and fizz that will remind you why you ever found fiction sexy. Rousseau, Austen, Scott, Hazlitt, Hogg, Hays, Wollstonecraft, Byron -- this is one of the mosty distinctive and persuasive books available about any of them. The section on Hazlitt's confessional Liber Amoris is the only good thing I know on the subject & puts Tom Paulin's embarrassed dismissal in his big biography to shame. This is a cult work of intellectual history, and deserves to be.

This is a fabulous cookbook I will rely on again and again! After searching a half-dozen books for a recipe for rack of lamb I knew I'd found "the one" as soon as I skimmed Gary Rhodes' "Roast Rack of Lamb with a Parsnip Crumble." The recipe was simple and straight-forward, as are most recipes in the book. The result was a fabulous dish that was familiar yet significantly better than basic British fare! Homemade Pork Pie had my mouth watering, and looked beautiful - good enough for guests. Can't wait to try more - cod, duck, bubble and squeak, fritters, sponges and ice creams. "Rhodes around Britain" is a great collection of recipes that are time-tested and traditional, yet so yet much more imaginative. The recipes are easy to produce, delicious to eat and great for everyone - even my kids appreciate this food!

This is a fabulous cookbook I will rely on again and again! After searching a half-dozen books for a recipe for rack of lamb I knew I'd found "the one" as soon as I skimmed Gary Rhodes' "Roast Rack of Lamb with a Parsnip Crumble." The recipe was simple and straight-forward, as are most recipes in the book. The result was a fabulous dish that was familiar yet significantly better than basic British fare! Homemade Pork Pie had my mouth watering, and looked beautiful - good enough for guests. Can't wait to try more - cod, duck, bubble and squeak, fritters, sponges and ice creams. "Rhodes around Britain" is a great collection of recipes that are time-tested and traditional, yet so yet much more imaginative. The recipes are easy to produce, delicious to eat and great for everyone - even my kids appreciate this food!

Richard Hillary was a decorated fighter pilot who flew and fought in the Battle of Britain during the some of darkest days of World War II. He became an ace pilot and was shot down in September 1940 by enemy fire, experiencing severe facial burns. During a painful recovery he wrote the wartime classic, The Last Enemy under the pen name David Ross. He returned to flying but was killed in a Blenheim on January 8, 1943, at the age of 23. Richard Hillary is a superbly researched and written biography of a remarkable young man and highly recommended reading, especially for anyone with an interest in World War II, the Battle of Britain, and the young men who stood against a seemingly overwhelming tyranny.

A biography of a fighter pilot and author.

This book expertly captures the emotions of the time in which it is set whilst giving us an in depth look at the life of one of our Battle of Britain heros.

It is extremely well researched and puts right many of the inaccuracies of previous publications. If you have read The Last Enemy, then this is a 'must read'. It will appeal to a broad spectrum; not only those interested in aviation, history or the lives of authors and pilots. This is not your standard military aviation book, it is full of facts, yes, but it is also an exciting, emotive and most of all, enriching read.

I have never read a book on squadron history but will definitely read this authors book to be published next year on No. 603 squadron (Richard Hillarys squadron based in Edinburgh).

Finally, don't be put off by the size of it....it's a great read with plenty of photos (some never seen in the public domain before)!

If someone wanted to read one book to find out about the Richard III controversy, this is the one that I would recommend, although I think that it is valuable for anyone interested in the topic. In addition to a history of the man and the times, it also brings "richardology" up to date with discussions of romance novels and the Richard III society. If that's not enough, it's gorgeously and generously illustrated.

I have some disagreements with the author, but he is relatively fair-minded and even-handed. Pollard hews to the traditionalist view, i.e. that Richard III was a usurper and murdered his nephews, but unlike so many authors (on either side) he is not consumed with a desperation to prove his case that leads him into nonsensical arguments. He even punctures a few of the sillier traditionalist arguments. He goes into some detail about some of the fine points of the arguments, e.g., the symbolism of the hog, that will be valuable even to people who are already knowledgeable. Pollard also has a dry sense of humor that enlivens the writing.

If the reader wants more, most scholarly biographies of Richard III are traditionalist, i.e., regard him as guilty. The classic Richardian (pro-Richard) biography is Paul Kendall's massive but readable Richard the Third.

Pollard gives an excellent discussion and history of his subject, thorough and clearly written. Much of the material can be found in any book on the subject, but some of it cannot, particularly his discussion of a popular play of the Babes in the Wood and its influence on Shakespeare's version of Richard. Pollard believes Richard murdered his nephews, although he softens it by saying it's OK because everybody did it--well, lots of people anyway. He makes a strong case, perhaps the strongest of anyone who argues that Richard was guilty, but is not biased against Richard. His discussion of the bones found in the the Tower during the reign of Charles II would have been more valuable, however, had Pollard researched forensic pathology even a tiny bit; he reports what this scientist says and what that scientist says, throwing anatomical terms around and then in parenthese saying "whatever that is." (A glance at Gray's Anatomy could have told you, Pollard.) Pollard is simply parroting, with only a hazy idea of what he is saying, which pretty much destroys the worth of any conclusions he draws. But the bones are ultimately not conclusive, even assuming that they are the bones of the Princes, and the rest of the book is of solid worth. Every library should own a copy; individuals may well hesitate at the stiff price, cause by the fact that the book is printed on glossy paper and stuffed with colour pictures. Go for the paperback if you must, but the content makes this book in some form essential for those interested in Richard.

Fascinating novel-length poem exploring the various sides in a real life 16th century Italian murder trial. This edition is nice, with critical reviews from Robert Browning's contemporaries. A Victorian poem that isn't read as often as it should be.

I've just read some Amazon reviewers' responses to T. S. Eliot's poetry as testimony to his possibly being the greatest poet ever. Such an evaluation practically proves Eliot's insistent point about the cultural impoverishment of the present.

Indeed, Browning's masterwork may very well be the ultimate poetic epic in the English language, rivaled certainly not by Spenser, Wordsworth, and Pound but only by Chaucer and Milton. The fact that even the "trial of the century"--the O. J. Simpson case--did not produce widespread renewed interest in its literary predecessor and equivalent would produce surprise and disappointment were I not so aware that, outside of Shakespeare, the academic canon has been foreshortened (and engendered) to a tradition that begins with Virginia Woolf and ends with Sylvia Plath.

In "Ring and the Book" Browning takes the sordid event of an enraged husband murdering his helpless bride--the daughter of a prostitute and rescue project of a priest--to "explain the ways of God to man." The reader of the poem becomes, in effect, a "privileged" juror in the trial of the murderer, positioned through Browning's protean and powerful rhetoric within the consciousness of each of the principals before finally being enabled to glimpse the "truth" that affords meaning to human mutability and suffering.

The poem no doubt will remain in dust closets, largely unread even by literature Ph.D's. But there's little chance of its ever becoming lost. Like the priest-hero of the poem, a few priests of the imagination will ever so often make the poem's discovery and be lured into the quest of pursuing its singular meanings.

[A reader recently wrote asking me about this edition, which led to the discovery that Amazon often uses the same review for any and every edition! (Be careful about ordering used editions for the same reason.) I was referring to the Penguin edition, which is now out of print. Beware of the "Kessinger Edition," which is really no edition at all but a bootleg, an uncredited reprint. Moreover, it's the version that a search of the title is apt to take you to. You might try the Collins and Altick edition on Broadview.]

As an English major at the University of Pittsburgh, I was never exposed to this series of dramatic monologues. It's a pity, because when I finally stumbled across it, Browning went from being just another 19th-century poet to my favorite English language poet of them all, at one fell swoop. The Ring and the Book is based on a real-life murder trial in 17th century Rome. The story is told from multiple perspectives, changing with every new section of the book; we hear from the "Man on the Street", the murderer, the victim on her death-bed, and even the Pope. The details of the story are far too convoluted to explain in summary and do anything resembling justice to the book, but it can be safely said that once you've begun, you're in for a whirlwind ride through a carnival of a trial that makes the O.J. Simpson affair look like a parking-ticket dispute by comparison. The truly stand-out feature of The Ring and the Book is not in the story itself, however, but in the telling. Browning handles the English language like a virtuoso emulating angel's choruses on a Stradivarius. If the book suffers any single flaw, it is the simple fact that at times, Browning writes these lines almost TOO well, making it difficult for the reader to pay attention to the actually progression of the story, as said reader becomes entraced by the beauty of the poetry. (In particular, I consider Caponsacchi's description of the flight from Arezzo beginning at line 1152 of Book VI to be one of the best written passages in literature of all time.) Dramatic blank verse hasn't seen genius of this level since Milton wrote of the angelic Fall. It's a pity this book isn't more widely recognized and discussed, for it deserves recognition as one of the best-constructed poetic stories of history, and the pinnacle of 19th century authorship.

Robin Hood is a cultural icon, one of those stories everyone believes they know. It would surprise causual readers, however, just how much of what we think we know about Robin Hood has changed across the years. Many of the stories surrounding the figure, for example, never discussed stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Stealing from the rich, maybe. Giving to the poor? Not so much. Knight has provided us with thorough scholarship, from the earliest ballads through the hollywood movies and television programs (across several countries). The eye for detail is apparent, right down to the fact that the actor playing "Will Scarlet O'Hara" in the "Men in Tights" send-up later wound up playing Hood himself in a Hercules/Xena type television series. Knight is a man who has done his homework! How and why each era claims Hood for its own, and just how this may or may not have corresponded to any true Robin Hood, if there was such a person, is explored. The book is indispensible for the bookshelf of any Hood fan. My only hope would have been for a bit more discussion of Howard Pyle, a personal favorite retelling.

Every culture has need for stories about the outlaw hero. Odysseus, in way, was one, as was William Tell, and John Wayne as the Ringo Kid. Jesus's story certainly conforms to the myth of the "good outlaw," and a more contemporary version was Martin Luther King. The figure best known for being a hero and being an outlaw, however, has been with us for over six hundred years: Robin Hood. Now he has an authoritative life story: _Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography_ (Cornell University Press) by Stephen Knight. Knight, a professor of literature at Cardiff University, is an authority on all Robin Hood lore, but does not here restrict himself to the early ballads of Bold Robin. In a witty and universal tour of the legend, he takes in all the Hollywood and television versions, and even the parodies. Most of them stay quite close to the Robin Hood legend as it was formed in its early stages.

The question for any biographer of such a legend always is: "Did he really exist?" There is an eagerness to find a real human being who performed Robin's feats, or at least served as a starting point for the stories. But Knight doubts there was any real figure: "... it seems highly improbable, or at least unprovable, that a Mr. R. Hood ever existed." It is far more likely that the character in the ancient plays and poems "...is the original Robin Hood, real only in the sense that he is the focus of a real myth." The important thing is not the Robin Hood incarnate, but what tellers and audiences made of him. For those who needed monetary relief, he began not only to rob from the rich but to give to the poor. For those who were distressed over corruption, he especially robbed sleazy officials of the state and church. For those needing national or racial identity, he became Saxon against the bad Norman Prince John. In the twentieth century, he raised his bow against (metaphorically) Nazism and McCarthyism.

Robin Hood has been portrayed by Kermit the Frog (whose green made him a natural for the role). In _Time Bandits_ he was John Cleese, stiffly introducing himself: "Hello, I'm Hood," and going on to explain the nature of the poor he is bound to assist: "I'm sure you'll like them. Of course they haven't got two pennies to rub together but that's because they're poor." Robin's outfit received top billing in Mel Brooks's _Robin Hood: Men in Tights_; Knight explains the association of tights to the story thus: they were "originally deployed so that nineteenth-century actresses playing Robin could show their legs." The myth has proved powerful enough to survive much kidding, and not just recently; a 1600 play _Looke About You_, has the unique stage direction "Enter Robin Hood in the Lady Faukenbridge's gowne, night attire on his head." Knight, in a remarkable and witty study of the formation and re-creation of a legend, shows that in times of oppression, Robin Hood has always been there for us as resistance to authority. May he ever fight on.

I purchased this as a gift but much enjoyed going through and reading chunks of it before giving it. While I have seen many of the places discussed, that's not a requirement to enjoy this combination of good writing and modern publishing which can use run-of-color throughout. The author does a fine job of melding the physical remains of today with the long period (nearly 400 years) of Roman occupation of Britain. And it's not all about soldiers and fighting either--much of the book is given over to everyday life in Roman Britain, both by the small and wealthy elite and the far more numerous but individually forgotten common people. This is a fine example to show how history can be anything but dry and boring---the author does a good job communicating his enthusiam for his subject.

Whenever encountering a book published by Thames & Hudson, I will always look twice.

Until I purchased a copy of this book last year (2006) the only meaningful book on my shelves was ROMAN BRITAIN by Salway but the addition of this beautiful book rivals that from 1993 issued by Peter Salway.

Though this book is a bit smaller in overall size than the Salway book, it has as many pages and is loaded with both photographs and color illustrations, 285 illustrations and 75 color. Covering multitude of subjects from conquering and garrisoning, to town building and administration, to people, places, and religion, this is a wonderful book. It would be difficult to choose which book, this one or the Salway, is the better.

If a reader has interest in this period, then this is a book he/she want to at the very least browse through.

Semper Fi.