United Kingdom Books

Excellent portrait of this facinating King. Highly recommended. Buy the paperback though....$28.00 as opposed to $60.00.

The late Charles D. Ross presents here one of the most readable and interesting presentations of of English monarch ever written. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the king or his era-I used it extensively in my senior thesis!

Edward IV is one of the great enigmas of history. Even how he was able to become King is not self-evident. His seizing the throne was then followed by government marked by occasional brilliance and great folly. For someone who at times was keenly aware of dynastic considerations, his own marriage was the height of folly compounded by giving far too much influence to the Queen's relatives. He gave far too much trust, power and wealth to a few individuals, especially the Earl of Warrick and his traitorous brother Clarence alienating in the process much of the established nobility and wrecking in his early years the King's finances. Overthrown in the course of his reign, he nevertheless succeeded in recapturing the throne in short order and then repairing his fortunes spectacularly. Even so, this was accompanied by the strangest series of preparations for invasion of France, ending in an almost farcical procession in Northern France and a pusillanimous retreat. Lazy, debauched, perceptive and effective-many such adjectives can be applied to him - and all miss the puzzling essence of the man and his reign. What a set of stories could be woven out of this material without clearly capturing the essence of the situation! One cannot help wondering why of the adult kings between Richard II and Henry VII, Edward IV alone did not attract Shakespeare's pen.

Charles Ross wrote a fascinating book on this puzzling ruler, making as clear as the scanty and somewhat unreliable records allow the course of Edward's life and reign, and the various episodes that both fascinate and puzzle. The book (with a short introduction by R.A. Grifffiths rather than a revision by him) proceeds first by laying out the story, and then returning to give separate investigation of various aspects of Edward's rule, such as governance, his relations with the community and his finances. This latter subject is particularly well handled, as is the penultimate chapter on law and order. The story is well told, without excessive pedantry and without any attempt to hide when the record is unclear or the author has had to make large interpretations. One may not really know or understand Edward by the end of the book, but one's feeling is that it is the man himself who escapes capture by the biographer's art, not any weakness of the biographer himself. For those interested in such matters - and this is not light reading - Griffith's biography should prove highly satisfying.

Charles Ross presents an unforgettable tale of the most confusing, uneven and adventurous reign of any king in the English history. Edward IV remains the only king who was able to loose a kingdom and them successfully reclaim the crown. Possessing remarkable talents in administration and warfare, he however managed to bring the treasury to almost complete ruin by the end of his term, and botch the most impressive show of force in France any English king (including Edward III and Henry V) can ever master to assemble. Edward IV lived in the extraordinary age, full with great personalities like Richard Warwick the "Kingmaker", Margaret, the queen of Henry VI, and his own kid brother Richard, future most vilified by Shakespeare king Richard the III.

It is very easy to fell victim to novelized history when relating the events as extraordinary as the events of Edward's reign. Not Charles Ross. He is extremely well researched and versed in the records of the period, and presents the somewhat dry details of the records of the Household and Exchequer, in an interesting way and extremely well cross-referenced. Internal English sources are corroborated by continental and papal records. I would recommend this book to a serious student of history.

Also see Charles Ross's "Richard III" for a mysterious, bloody, and tragically brief concluding reign of Plantagenet dynasty. This one is also highly recommended.

This is an outstanding collection of letters and documents relating to one of the most important and influential person in English history. My only problem how the edition was published - the type font is way too small. I realize that the subject matter is wide ranging and some economies are necessary to keep the printing costs down - reducing the type front to squeeze in more text is one of them. Unfortunately, this makes casual reading very difficult.

This is a beautifully designed book. As to what's inside: It contains what too many of her biographers are either too dishonest, too ignorant, or, too afraid to include, i.e. her belief in God and her understanding that her country and her country's people had a unique place and a unique role in carrying out God's plan. Elizabeth I had a complete understanding. It's difficult to write off her accomplishments in learning at such a young age as being merely the result of having royal tutors helping her along. This is what many biographers try to do. There's never been an over-supply of young genius in royal families in any era. More attention, as well, should be paid to her reading. Reading great books has never been a guarantee of anything regarding somebody's understanding of themselves and the world, but it is, without exception, a key ingredient in the education (self-education or otherwise) of everybody who eventually DOES attain a real understanding of themselves and the world. Elizabeth's understanding may have even gone beyond herself and the world around her... These writings are not ideal as a window into her, but there is enough here to work up an impression above the words, and, coupled with a good biography such as the one by Paul Johnson the picture can become very complete.

Queen Elizabeth I of England has had hundreds of books written *about* her, but very few of them allow us to hear what she has to say in her own words. I found this an accessible, well-edited collection, not of *all* her words, but of a very good sample. It includes all of the speeches, prayers and poems she wrote that are available from reliable contemporary sources (as with all famous people, things have been attributed to her that she never wrote). It also includes -- and this is my favorite part -- a selection of her letters; sometimes the replies are also included, as with a series of angry letters she exchanged with King James of Scotland (all the while addressing him as "my right dear brother and cousin"). The documents range from formal speeches to Parliament to the occasional playful, teasing or personal note, such as the one she wrote to Lord Leicester in the Netherlands that begins, "Rob, I am afraid you will suppose by my wandering writings that a midsummer moon hath taken large possession of my brains..." Spelling and punctuation have been modernized, and unusual words have been footnoted, but the words are otherwise unaltered, and the texts are presented in full, sometimes in several versions where they differ significantly. I did find that a basic knowledge of the outline of the events of her life is immensely helpful in understanding who she is addressing and why, which is often mentioned only briefly in the notes. There is a certain amount of theorizing in the book's Preface about the "strategic gendering of Elizabeth's self-representation" -- but the texts really speak for themselves. This is a rare chance to see historical material that's often hard to locate, and an enjoyable chance to be "inside the head" of a fascinating historical person.

There are countless books on Tudor England and Elizabeth I in particular. So, it is refreshing to finally read some of the letters so many authors have used as source material in their books about the Virgin Queen. There's little doubt that she was well educated and highly intelligent. Now, readers ready and willing to dive into medieval letters, in the formal language of the time, will be rewarded by the ability to form their own opinion about whether this woman was politically savvy, or a political pawn.

You be the judge--no, really:)

David Hume was perhaps the leading light in the Empiricist movement in philosophy. Empiricism is seen in distinction from Rationalism, in that it doubts the viability of universal principles (rational or otherwise), and uses sense data as the basis of all knowledge - experience is the source of knowledge. Hume was a skeptic as well as empiricist, and had radical (for the time) atheist ideas that often got in the way of his professional advancement, but given his reliance on experience (and the kinds of experiences he had), his problem with much that was considered conventional was understandable.

Hume's major work, 'A Treatise of Human Nature', was not well received intially - according to Hume, 'it fell dead-born from the press'. Hume reworked the first part of this work in a more popular way for this text, which has become a standard, and perhaps the best introduction to Empiricism.

In a nutshell, the idea of empiricism is that experience teaches, and rules and understanding are derived from this. However, for Hume this wasn't sufficient. Just because billiard balls when striking always behave in a certain manner, or just because the sun always rose in the morning, there was no direct causal connection that could be automatically affirmed - we assume a necessary connection, but how can this be proved?

Hume's ideas impact not only metaphysics, but also epistemology and psychology. Hume develops empiricism to a point that empiricism is practically unsupportable (and it is in this regard that Kant sees this text as a very important piece, and works toward his synthesis of Empiricism and Rationalism). For Hume, empirical thought requires skepticism, but leaves it unresolved as far as what one then needs to accept with regard to reason and understanding. According to scholar Eric Steinberg, 'A view that pervades nearly all of Hume's philosophical writings is that both ancient and modern philosophers have been guilty of optimistic and exaggerated claims for the power of human reason.'

Some have seen Hume as presenting a fundamental mistrust of daily belief while recognising that we cannot escape from some sort of framework; others have seen Hume as working toward a more naturalist paradigm of human understanding. In fact, Hume is open to a number of different interpretations, and these different interpretations have been taken up by subsequent philosphers to develop areas of synthetic philosophical ideas, as well as further developments more directly out of Empiricism (such as Phenomenology).

This is in fact a rather short book, a mere 100 pages or so in many editions. As a primer for understanding Hume, the British Empiricists (who include Hobbes, Locke, and Berkeley), as well as the major philosphical concerns of the eighteenth century, this is a great text with which to start.

If sceptical thought has evolved since Socrates this book is the evidence. Hume perhaps sets the standard for all philosophical inquiry that is scholarly and brilliant. The subject matter I found most illuminating and delightful to read was on moral distinctions (right and wrong). This is serious stuff. If you take the time to understand Hume, you certainly will not be wasting your time.

Mr. Hume presents a psuedo-transient macro-realistically templable prescript for the acogitive development of pertinent systems within the spheres aforetoherein ascribed to the previously-defined source wherein the constructs devised to meet the needs of the specified systems or entities oriented within such a paradigm would be construed as a non-extant positable body of asubstantive text as pre-emptively pertinent to the essence of the text-body at hand thereupon wherein tofore.

Hume's Enquiries are more or less a repackaging of the material from Books I and III of his earlier A Treatise of Human Nature. Ever desirous of literary fame and dismayed by the lack of interest others had shown for his prior tome, Hume went back to the drawing board and attempted to present his philosophical system in a way that would be palatable to the reading public. We should feel fortunate that he did so. For, though the significant changes are in style and emphasis rather than substance, these books are a perfect introduction to Hume's thinking. And while the shorter form did require some not insignificant cutting, most of what you find in the earlier book is presented here in a simpler, more accessible manner. That's not to say that there is nothing new here; there is. In particular, he considers some religious subjects (i.e. miracles and immortality) that he was unwilling to broach in the earlier work.

The connecting thread here is an emphasis on grounding philosophical inquiry in an empirical account of human nature, and particularly of the human mind. The first Enquiry is an account of Hume's take on the implications of the classical empiricism he inherited from Locke and Berkeley. For Hume, as for the other classical empiricists, empiricism was primarily a psychological theory about the origin and content of our concepts. (So empiricism, Hume thought, is a crucial element of any plausible account of the human mind.) The central tenet of this theory is that our concepts are furnished by experience, which includes both sensory experience and introspection (i.e., the experience of our own mental states). And the empiricists also agreed about the way we can justify our beliefs. Some beliefs are true (or false) in virtue of the ideas they contained, and we can know their truth (or falsity) simply by thinking about them; other beliefs are true (or false) in virtue of how the external world is, and we can know their truth (or falsity) only by drawing on our experiences of the world. According to Hume, all substantial conclusions about the world fall into this second category. That is, the truth (or falsity) of all substantial claims about the existence and nature of things in the external world can be discovered only by checking those claims against the evidence of our senses.

Here we seem Hume wielding this philosophy of mind in order to adjudicate disputes in metaphysics and epistemology. Do you want to know whether something can be known? Then think about the concepts in which it is expressed. Could we come to know this by thinking about the meaning of our concepts? Could we come to know it by going and looking or doing certain empirical tests? If the answer to both these questions is no, then knowledge of this subject is an impossibility for us. Do you want to know whether some claim of the metaphysicians is true or whether it even makes sense? Consider the concepts they use to express their views. Is there any way you could reduce the content of this concept to some experience? If not, their claims are literally meaningless.

This interpretation of Hume's project downplays his skepticism and emphasizes his professed intentions to provide a positive account of the operation of the human mind that appealed to nothing beyond the evidence of our senses. According to proponents of this interpretation, Hume is most interested in a description of the operation of the human mind. He's describing what human nature allows us to know and what it doesn't allow us to know. Furthermore, he argues that our nature is such that, where it fails to provide us with the resources to acquire the knowledge we might want, it provides us with a natural habit of forming the right conclusions anyway. Even though our nature limits our knowledge of the world, it ensures that we possess the habits of mind needed to make our way in the world. Hume dubs all these habits of mind "custom."

And I think this naturalistic interpretation of Hume's project provides an entry into the views he defends in the Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. Again, it's possible to interpret Hume's project in moral philosophy as a skeptical one. The fact that he thinks morality is based in human sentiments show that he is, in some sense, a subjectivist about morality. He doesn't think there is any plausible account of our moral thinking as based on reason or empirical inquiry alone. Morality, then, is more a matter of feeling than a matter of thinking, observing, and reasoning. But, importantly, Hume doesn't think this is indicative of some problem with morality, and so he doesn't understand himself to be undermining ordinary morality. His aim is to expose the groundless pretensions of reason in order to make room for a wholly naturalistic account morality; it's not to show that morality doesn't have a firm basis. For he does not think that morality would ideally be based on reason and empirical evidence rather than sentiment. Rather, he thinks there is a sort of philosophical overreaching involved in trying to base morality on reason or empirical evidence as opposed to sentiment.

But what is the relevant sentiment? According to Hume, it is a general sort of benevolence, of concern for others. Our possessing such a feeling does not mean that we'll always set aside our own interest in the interest of others; nor does it mean that we are not largely self-interested. It does, however, mean that we're not wholly self-interested, as we are motivated to do (and not do) certain things even when they do not affect our own interests and desires. But what inspires these sentiments, and how exactly do they translate into moral judgments? Morality, Hume argues, is based on sentiments of approbation and disapprobation that are prompted by a recognition of the connection between human actions, dispositions, etc. and what is in the best interest of oneself and of mankind in general. What we take to be virtues, Hume argues, are those dispositions that lead a person to perform actions tending to promote his own happiness and the happiness of others, whereas vices are dispositions that do the opposite.

Father and Son is the story of two men, Edmund Gosse (the writer) and his father, Philip Gosse. Philip was a biologist, a contemporary of Charles Darwin. The story covers a period of about twenty years, from 1849 to about 1870, during which Edmund grew from infancy to university student. Edmund Gosse became a well-known English man of letters. Among his works is a biography of his father.

Speaking of his parents' faith, he writes ...

They called themselves 'the Brethren', simply; a title enlarged by the world outside into 'Plymouth Brethren'.

Given that there is no mention of John Darby in the book, and that the book follows the 1848-49 schism that resulted in open and exclusive brethren, and that the assemblies described in the book seem essentially autonomous, I assume Gosse is referring to the 'open brethren' when he speaks of Plymouth Brethren.

Readers raised among any of the groups that have evolved from the Brethren groups that began in Dublin in the 1820's will find much familiar material.

The book is worth reading at least twice. I've just read it again after owning it for a year and am struck again at how well he describes life among the brethren and the incredible stress parents can put upon their children in the name of faith.

There are few works of autobiography that lay bare the author's soul as convincingly and seeringly as this. In an astonishing tour de force Edmund Gosse, by then a substantial Edwardian homme des lettres, remembers his childhood and adolescence in his father's house and his indoctrination into a Victorian, evangelical, creationist, scientific, wilfully unliterary way of life and his growth out of this via Shakespeare, Marlowe and some decidedly morbid poems. What is so astounding about this book is the kindness with which Gosse remembers his past which is always present and never tempered with dishonesty. There are moments when we cannot but find fault with Gosse senior (when he writes to his son in London invoking his mother's memory to try and force him back to the brethren) but with the Edmund Gosse painting so loving a picture of him we could never see him as, for example, the father of Samuel Butler's "The Way of All Flesh" (a great and loosely autobiographical novel which is often metioned alongside "Father and Son" as expressing the same painful differences between the evagelical Victorians and their children) - that is desicated, corrupted, and malicious. There is one killingly funny moment where Edmund Gosse reads from Marlowe's "Hero and Leander" to his stepmother and the idea of the straight laced little saint reading aloud about Leander "His bodie was as straight as Circes wand,/ Jove might have sipt out Nectar from his hand./ Even as delicious meat is to the tast,/ So was his necke in touching, and surpast/ The white of Pelops shoulder." to the god fearing wife of his god fearing father, minister to the brethren, and not expecting a strange reaction, is as bizarre as it is amusing. A most endearingly human work most warmly recommended.

"Father and Son" is widely reckoned as the most brilliant work of Edmund Gosse whose delicate use of English, no doubt, partly accounted for his literary success. To attach too much literary importance to the book may, however, obscure its main purpose, which is an attempt of the writer to vindicate his attitude towards his father. The attempt failed, to put it mildly.

Gosse lived in an age when people held very high standard of propriety; any departure from rules of behaviour would be seen as an offence. But conflicts between fathers and sons, or between their respective thoughts, are as common nowadays as they were in ancient times. Gosse revealed in his book the differences between his father and himself mainly in their beliefs as to how life should be lived. The book caused a sensation upon release not because of the revelation but because of the daring publication of the differences - Gosse did as people at that time were not bold enough to do. As such differences were common, though they might not be voiced, many people shared the writer's experience and the book became instantly popular.

Nevertheless, to explain the success of the book in so few words as those said above will not do justice to Gosse. It is, in Bernard Shaw's words, one of those immortal pages in English literature. These might be extravagant words. Even so, Gosse, indeed, earned himself a place in English literature by such a bold attempt as mentioned earlier. But the attempt need not have been made - two men of widely different ages look at each other from different angles; the gap between them is only natural; it need not be alluded to nor elucidated. Any attempt which need not have been made cannot succeed.

Edmund Gosse's FATHER AND SON is legitimately considered one of the highpoints of Victorian autobiography. As has been noted by others, the book recounts the relationship between Edmund Gosse and his father, a member of the Christian sect generally known as Plymouth Brethren, but who was also a member of the Royal Society and one of the foremost marine biologists of his time. The narrative tends to break down into a number of definite segments: the author's birth until the death of his mother; life with his father until the time of the publishing of Darwin's THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES; the move of the Gosses to the coast of England; and young Gosse's schooling and gradual growth away from the religious teachings and expectations he had received from his parents.

A number of powerful impressions evolve over the course of the telling. First and foremost, one is left with an impression of how overwhelmingly Gosse's childhood was stripped of nearly all fun by his parents' puritanical and stern religion. Gosse's father is presented not as a cruel, vicious, and hypocritical. Instead, he is shown as a caring parent, a completely earnest practitioner of his religion, but fanatically concerned to eliminate all activities that do not lead to increased religious devotion and moral seriousness. Unfortunately, this resulted for Gosse in a childhood from which all possibility of play and fun and delight had been eliminated. Near the end of the book, I was left wondering if Gosse would have been inclined to leave Christianity if he had just had more fun as a kid.

The section of the book dealing with his father's reaction to Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES was for me the most interesting part of the book. His father's scientific standing was such that Darwin actually contacted him before the publication of his theories, and asked his response. Gosse notes that his father instantly understood that the scientific evidence clearly supported Darwin's theory. His reading of Genesis, however, indicated to him that the world was created in six days, which precluded the scenario articulated by Darwin. He therefore concluded that god created the earth in six days, but in so doing implanted fossils and geologic strata into the earth. In this way, his father was able to explain both the apparent evidence for eons long development of the earth and homo sapiens and yet retain his belief in the belief that Genesis taught a six day literal creation.

There are any of a number of reasons to read this work. It is a classic autobiography, an important source for one response to the reception of Darwin, and a magnificent evocation of puritanical religious life during the Victorian age. Most of all, it is a disturbing account of the distortive effect that intolerant and narrow-minded religious upbringing can have on an individual.

This book tells the reader all he or she needs to know, and even some things they might not want to know about the food in the Georgian Royal Navy. In this highly detailed book, Ms. Macdonald traces the supply of food from sources to purchasing to consumption from the lower to the Captain. Included are charts of calories, vitamin content, recipes, conversion charts, etc., etc. The book is very readable and of use to the casual reader as well as the scholar. This is a permanent edition to my bookshelf.

Author Janet Macdonald writes an informative and in depth book about feeding English sailors in the early 19th century. Macdonald covers everything that made up the sailors diet, from hard tack (ships biscuit) to salted beef. She writes in detail for example how the hard tack was made, who made it, and how it was delivered, stored and dispensed on the ships. She covers the different subjects throughly and supports her writings with facts from many sources such as the Naval historical archives and log books to name a few sources.

This book is an interesting read for those who want to know about such a integral part of the English sailor's life!

Cervantes in "Don Quixote" lampoons the writers of chivalric romances for failing to address the mundane realities of life, chief among them being how their heroic knights errant managed to feed themselves. To a lesser degree, perhaps, the modern authors of nautical fiction likewise do not much address the question of how their seaborne heroes (and their crews) were fed, day in and day out. Undoubtedly this is partly because it is far more interesting to write about boarding an enemy frigate than boiling salt beef, but I suspect that it also has to do with the absence of readily available, reliable information about the subject. Now, Janet Macdonald has addressed this want of discussion with "Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era". Coming from a background of writing about cookery, she has tackled the complex and surprisingly mysterious question of how in the world the Royal Navy fed itself during the classic Age of Fighting Sail. Although it might be thought that a matter of such obvious vital importance to maintaining a fighting fleet of tens of thousands of mariners would have been recorded officially in detail, in point of fact Macdonald has had to sift through obscure primary documents such as ships' logs, personal memoirs, and period letters to adequately explore how it was all done: from procuring the foodstuffs (and drink) in the first place, to storing them, getting them to the ships in port and at sea, storing the victuals aboard, preparing meals, and serving them to officer and crews. And even with such diligent research, she must resort to informed speculation to address some questions, such as just how a ship's cook kept separate the rations for the various messes and served them out in an efficient manner. The breadth of coverage is impressive: the Navy's Victualling Board administration, officially mandated rations and substitutes, typical recipes, shipboard organization, disease and vermin, the "hardware" of food preparation and consumption (stoves and dining implements), and surrounding social customs. For anyone interested in the real world of the Royal Navy behind the fiction Horatio Hornblowers and Jack Aubreys, "Feeding Nelson's Navy" is a revelation, dispelling old myths and offering new facts such as the caloric and vitamin content of the men's meals. Macdonald throughout her book illustrates the practicalities of the subject by citing numerous real-life incidents drawn from period documents.

In "Feeding Nelson's Navy", author Janet MacDonald has put together some remarkable research to lay waste the myths of shipboard feeding in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

The British Navy, in the long struggle against Revolutionary and then Imperial France, kept tens of thousands of men at sea for months on end. Popular myth has them subsisting on rotten salted meat and weevily bread. MacDonald shows the sailor aboard the average British warship ate a sufficient and reasonably nutritious diet. Official rations were based on biscuit (pilot bread for today's readers), salt beef, salt pork, cheese, peas, oatmeal, and beer. These were the foods which kept best in a world without refrigeration or canning. Other foods were provided when available, and the British Navy lead the way in experimenting with dried vegetables, "portable" soups, and lemon juice to stave off nutritional diseases such as scurvy.

The British Navy's ability to supply its sailors with a good ration through years of war were thanks to the efforts of the Navy Board and its victualing system. MacDonald's description of its business techniques may be daunting for the reader, but the lesson is that the system was made to work, around the fleet and around the world, in a consistent manner. No other navy of the period enjoyed so much consistent success at sea.

Along with the details of the ration cycle and the mechanics of the supply system, MacDonald provides considerable insight into "messing" at sea, a vital and often unremarked portion of naval culture.

This book is very highly reccommended to students of the Nelsonian Navy and of the Napoleonic Wars. MacDonald has mined this particular academic niche to its reasonable limits.

This is a GREAT book, what a fabulous idea. I've always been obsessed with anything Sherlock Holmes, and this book is a perfect addition to my collection. I love looking at the actual physical places Doyle was writing about. It's Fascinating! I recommend this one HIGHLY. If you love Sherlock, you'll love this guide

Mr. Wheeler has done it again. This is a great guide for those who love Sherlock Holmes. It is a great addition to his LONDON SECRETS which we couldn't do without while traveling in London.

A must have for any Sherlock Holmes fan. What an accessory to Mr. Wheeler's London Secrets!

In addition to identifying an astonishing 200+ sites in London, the author has given us a wonderful tool by cross-referencing the sites by the closest modern underground station, and also by adventure. This has to be the definitive book on the subject. It is a must for Sherlock Holmes fans who are visiting London, and for Sherlockians generally, to keep as a reference guide.

Having been to London twice in 2001, I can say that I relied heavily on my Fodor's. It gives you clear concise, and most importantly, accurate information on almost any topic or question. For example, I did not believe them when they said you should reserve ahead for Buckingham Palace. Sadly, they were right, and I could not get tickets. They also told me that I would probably not be able to visit the Millenium Dome as it was closed and up for sale. London is arranged by neighborhoods, so the first part of the book dealing with sightseeing is arranged accordingly. There is a large foldout map in a back pocket, but also each section gives you small maps, which are arranged so that you can do a self-guided walking tour. I found these quite invaluable. I did look at the restaurant section for a general impression, but did not rely on the restaurant or hotel section, although one could. This forms the second half of the book. However, in the back there is also information about shopping, outdoor life, activities for kids, and at the very back an index of vital information, everything from how to use buy a London Travel Card, how to change money, or make an international call.

..........I carried this book with me around London each day and found it priceless! Comes complete with a maps, guide to all the sites major and minor (with descriptions of each, hours and days open, and even tube stops), as well as guides to lodgings, restaurants, nightspots and day trips outside of London, etc. At the same time the book is fairly compact so is easy to carry around with you. Using this book, it was very simple to plan an itinerary and to find my way around the streets of London! Very recommended!

I've taken Fodor's guides with me on many trips and have found them to always be a reliable and ready companion. Their suggested sightseeing tours and ample lists of museums, lodging, and restaruants have helped me find efficient outings into new cities and countries. It's often intimidating to travel to a foreign destination, but the competency of Fodor's guides with their well constructed presentation have often made me the most confident of travelers.

I just got back from spending spring break in London. This book, which stayed in my backpack, and the Lonely Planet's Condensed Guide, which stayed in my pocket, helped my mother and I have an incredible time. Rather than sticking to a rigid itinerary, we planned our day the night before, with a rough to-do list of places we wanted to see and things we had to do. Substantial background information is given for main attractions and contact information and the nearest tube stop are given for all attractions. The pull-out map provided, however, was pretty useless.

These are first hand accounts of men and women that lived through the first world war. It is all there--loyalty to your fellow soldiers, cowardice, indifferent heroism, terror, and the feeling of apartheid from home and family. The most striking rememberances I took from the book were the white feather incidents--where white feathers were given to soldiers out of uniform on leave in England by young women as a goad to get to the trenches.

This is the first book I've ever read in one day; 'I rest my case'.

My most lingering memory is the story of the soldier who was shot for 'losing his way' and not showing up for a battle. When offered brandy by the narrator before meeting his maker, he said he'd 'never drunk spirits and wasn't going to start now'. Not such a coward, after all.

Max Arthur's new book covering the Great War is quite unique in that its content is nearly all first-hand accounts from people who experienced the horror of the Great War. The author has utilized a number of tape recorded interviews conducted by the Imperial War Museum in 1972. Many of the tapes from the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive had been forgotten and left unheard for years.

Now Max Arthur has put together many of these unheard voices from the Great War to produce this spellbinding and captivating book. I must admit that I was reluctant to buy this book as I was worried that a book full of short accounts would be too disjointed and really not detailed enough to satisfy my interest. I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed reading this book.

Each chapter of the book was a year of the Great War and was commenced by an introduction by the author offering a brief run down on the major events of that year. Then we heard from the men and women who participated in these events, from both sides of no-man's land. The author has concentrated mainly on the Western Front and Gallipoli and has tried to run the oral segments in chronological order.

I was really taken by these segments and I found it hard to stop reading. The accounts from these soldiers and civilians alike were at times humorous, strikingly direct, horrifying and on many occasions quite sad. I was really taken in by these accounts and I don't think that any World War One library would be complete without this title sitting on the shelf. I can honestly say that I learnt quite a few things from this book and I would place it along side such works offered by Lyn MacDonald. Well done to the author and the Imperial War Museum for allowing these veterans, many now long dead, the last word on their experiences in the Great War. This is a great book, you won't be disappointed.

This book is full of fascinating wartime anecdotes given by the soldiers fighting it and the citizens involved in it. The staff of the UK's Imperial War Museum sifted through mountains of archives and picked out the very best to use in the book. Through the use of their own personal letters/interviews, the book follows the history of particular, mostly British, individuals during the war. It loosely follows the major battles of the Western Front and Gallipoli and even the Home Front.

Most of the letters vary in length between one paragraph and one page and are packed with the kind of realistic details that typical narrative histories of the World War I skip over. For example, in Gallipoli (p. 118) one soldier writes, "One of the biggest curses was flies. Millions and millions of flies. ... Immediately you bared any part of your body you were smothered." Short of actually being there, these kind of first person participant narratives deliver the essence of the war - harsh, demanding, brutal, comedic, and ocassionally surreal. The straightforward writing styles and unusual content make this book a true pleasure to read.

I have read over 40 books about the Great War, and this book is one of the best for personal narratives about the war. It's multi-person perspective delivers a well-balanced, insightful picture of the war at ground level (free of any hidden agenda). This book would perfectly complement a broad narrative history of World War I.

I was lucky enough, at the time when the book was written, to have not only read it when the author was alive but also to meet him during one of his Police "investigations" and he willing signed my copy but, without any blood on it!! Being a serving Police Officer then, as now, he willing signed my copy. This man had, in his lifetime, been to many a morbid and disgusting scene that the average person would have fainted at.

As British Home Office Pathologist, Professor Keith Simpson spent forty years in the investigation of both famous and obscure murders. The violent death of King Ananda of Siam was one of his most famous cases. At the opposite end of the notoriety scale was an incident involving the murder of a Shoreditch girl whose sister flung a bread knife at her. As a pathologist, Simpson saw it all and wrote about it in clear, robust prose that does not spare his reader the gruesome details.

The introductory chapter to "Forty Years of Murder" is "Why choose Pathology?"

Professor Simpson goes on to answer his own question with a great deal of relish, even quoting John Wesley: /Ah, lovely appearance of Death, /What sight upon earth is so fair? /Not all the gay pageants that breathe /Can with a dead body compare./

If you can imagine the autobiography of Sherlock Holmes as ghost-written by Rabelais, you will acquire a good notion of Professor Simpson's style. However, the best way to get an impression of the man and his methods is to read "Forty Years of Murder." (Skip the black-and-white photographs if you are squeamish.) Simpson concentrates on several interesting cases, but also gives his reader a fascinating overview of homicide investigations as practiced in Great Britain (with a few side trips to Thailand, Portugal, Canada, and the Caribbean) from the late 1920s through the 1960s.

In Chapter 19, "The Innocence of Dr. Bodkin Adams" there is an eerie foreshadowing of the recent case of Dr. Harold Shipman, the most prolific serial killer in British criminal history. This Greater Manchester doctor was sentenced to life in prison for murdering fifteen of his middle aged and elderly women patients by lethal injection. The police believe he may have killed as many as 150 patients during his thirty-year career.

Dr. Bodkin Adams in "Forty Years of Murder" proved to be innocent of killing his elderly patients, but Simpson says doctors are in a particularly good position to commit murder and escape detection. "Their patients, sometimes their own fading wives, more often mere ageing nuisances, are in their sole hands." A sudden "grave turn for the worse" or even death is for them alone to interpret.

One wonders whether the murderous Dr. Shipman would have escaped detection as long as he did, if Professor Simpson had still been the British Home Office Pathologist.

Not for the squeamish!!!!! A well-written, first-hand account of many murders, both famous and not so famous. Included are the stories of Haigh (the vampire killer), Dr. Bodkin Adams, Christie and Evans (posthumously pardoned) Lord Lucan (where is he??), the notorious Kray twins, the A-6 layby murder and the King of Siam. Also mentioned are several unusual deaths including a patient suffocated by an angry matron, a boy who bled to death after stepping on a glass during a drunken rampage and a pregnant woman who was found dumped in a canal. Several murders involved Canadian soldiers who murdered local women after they became pregnant. Worst of all were the unsolved child murders. A funny story emerged when Dr. Simpson was on his way to the lab with a severed head in a package. A suspicous policeman refused to believe what was inside or who Dr. Simpson was and screamed for sanity when the head was slowly bought out of the parcel... Dr. Simpson asked the young constable "Would you like me to ring Scotland Yard for confimation"? to which the bobby replied "No, I've seen enough, I believe you sir"!!

As British Home Office Pathologist, Professor Keith Simpson spent forty years in the investigation of both famous and obscure murders. The violent death of King Ananda of Siam was one of his most famous cases. At the opposite end of the notoriety scale was an incident involving the murder of a Shoreditch girl whose sister flung a bread knife at her. As a pathologist, Simpson saw it all and wrote about it in clear, robust prose that does not spare his reader the gruesome details.

The introductory chapter to "Forty Years of Murder" is "Why choose Pathology?"

"You might well ask what could possibly persuade any young doctor, unmarried and without ties, to take up the study of the dead - the diseased, mutilated, sometimes even dismembered dead, whose bodies seem to come to light at such odd hours and in such queer places."

Professor Simpson goes on to answer his own question with a great deal of relish, even quoting John Wesley: "Ah, lovely appearance of Death, /What sight upon earth is so fair? /Not all the gay pageants that breathe /Can with a dead body compare."

If you could imagine the autobiography of Sherlock Holmes as ghost-written by Rabelais, you will acquire a good notion of Professor Simpson's style. However, the best way to get an impression of the man and his methods is to read "Forty Years of Murder." (Skip the black-and-white photographs---and the cover for that matter, if you are squeamish.) Simpson concentrates on several interesting cases, but also gives his reader a fascinating overview of homicide investigations as practiced in Great Britain (with a few side trips to Thailand, Portugal, Canada, and the Caribbean) from the late 1920s through the 1960s.

In Chapter 19, "The Innocence of Dr. Bodkin Adams" there is an eerie foreshadowing of the recent case of Dr. Harold Shipman, the most prolific serial killer in British criminal history. Just this week, the Greater Manchester doctor was sentenced to life in prison for murdering fifteen of his middle aged and elderly women patients by lethal injection. The police believe he may have killed as many as 150 patients during his thirty-year career.

Dr. Bodkin Adams in "Forty Years of Murder" proved to be innocent of killing his elderly patients, but read what Simpson has to say about physicians:

"Doctors are in a particularly good position to commit murder and escape detection. Their patients, sometimes their own fading wives, more often mere ageing nuisances, are in their sole hands. 'Dangerous drugs' and powerful poisons lie in their professional bags or in the surgery. No one is watching or questioning them, and a change in symptoms, a sudden 'grave turn for the worse' or even death is for them alone to interpret."

One wonders whether the murderous Dr. Shipman would have escaped detection as long as he did, if Professor Simpson had still been the British Home Office Pathologist.

The story of Norse Greenland, the settlement at the end of the earth, and its disappearance, has fascinated scholars and laypeople for 500 years.

Kirsten Seaver has produced the best and most readable work on the subject in 50 years, incorporating the large amount of very recent study being done in the field with acute insight and a clear narrative.

(Although it means there is not much point in me writing my book on the subject :( )

Was it the Thule Eskimos attacking the Norse Greenland colonies which cause these groups of hardy descendants of Vikings to fall off the map of the North Atlantic after 1408? Was it changes in climate that caused them to move? Where then did they go? Was it the fishing vessels of unfriendly foreign powers or neglect from the homeland which cause these settlements to fail? This well-written scholarly work is difficult to put down as it traces the Greenland colonies from their establishment through their explorations of North America until their existance was "forgotten" by the Western World. Drawing on the latest works in archeology, medieval studies, and related scientific fields, this book provides illuminating insight into a unique culture on the edge of the known world and its final destiny.

This is a very well-written intellectual piece tracing Greenland colonies from establishment, to explorations of North America, and subsequently, their disappearance.

The author portrays a history of over five centuries and has made discoveries that other researchers have missed. The author's conclusions are solid, however rather than sticking to solely historical facts, she speculates slightly on political issues. Nevertheless, the bulk of the book is thoroughly researched and well presented. An interesting read and a great way to learn some history as it is a book that is difficult to put down once you start.

Author Seaver seems to have ramsacked the archives of Iceland and Norway to compile a thorough history of five centuries of Norse settlement in Greenland, including the famous and ill-fated Norse effort to establish a colony in North America about 1000 AD. There are enough Olafs and Sigrids here to people Lake Wobegone. The author is apparently Scandinavian -- or speaks Icelandic and medieval Norwegian -- and is thus able to dig deeper than most authors on this topic. She presents her findings in dry professorial prose that may tell some readers more than they really want to know about the internal politics of the North Atlantic back in medieval times.

The great mystery is, of course, why did the Norse colonies in Greenland disappear and when? A worsening climate, Innuit attacks, inbreeding, and isolation have all been cited as reasons. I won't reveal the author's conclusion except to say that she theorizes the Norse survived longer in Greenland -- perhaps after 1500 -- than most scholars believe. The most interesting and original part of the book for me was her examination of the important role of traders and cod fisherman from the English port of Bristol in the exploration of the North Atlantic in the 15th century. She makes a good case that these sailors might have reached the New World a few years before Columbus -- but like good fishermen everywhere kept their favorite fishing holes secret.

All in all, this is a well-researched scholarly history with just enough learned speculation to keep a history and exploration buff reading on. It's the kind of book that -- if you're really, really a fanatic -- you could read a second time and benefit from many small points you missed on the first reading.

Smallchief