United Kingdom Books

I really would like to know where I can find this book. I have Culinaria Spain and Culinaria Italy, which are both wonderful. I recommend both to anyone interested in the foods and cultures of Spain or Italy. Point is, I would like to see this book. Help?

Was this book ever actually published. I cannot find it anywhere, never seen a picture of it, nothing!

I read this book a year ago prior to a month long stay in Scotland and still think about it.
I am not a "depressed easily" kind of guy, but sometimes I could only read 10 pages at a time. I couldn't take any more. It was also enlightening and amazing.
I have treveled to Middle East, Africa and S. America and around the U.S. so I know what economic depression and social depression can look like. But the dialogues Danzinger brings to the page really hit hard.
Everyday we hear about and see the good effects of globalization. Social welfare--its supposed to be a good thing (it was when my family needed food stamps in the 1980's) This book really shows what happens when all the negative effects of globalization and social welfare converge on one geographic place and on individual people.
Should be mandatory reading by everyone in the British Parliment. AND, by everyone in the U.S. Congress, as there are places in the U.S. that are beginning to look too much like places in this book.
Highly recommended.

Wow. What a depressing book. In it, Danziger (Danziger's Adventures) recounts his attempt to discover, interview, and photograph "the huge ranks of the excluded and marginalized people of Great Britain." Danziger covers the gamut, from inner city, to tiny village, from recent immigrants, to the purest English, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, everywhere. I don't think I can sum up the result any better than the print reviews: "A chilling indictment of what we've let happen in the past two decades.... This book is so important that every one of us should read it and weep." --The Independent, "Grips and appalls the mind....The sheer extent of civil catastrophe and human waste here threatens to beggar belief." --Sunday Times. None of what he describes (children drug addicts, single mothers, welfare catch-22s, no future) would be considered particularly newsworthy in the US, on its own, but it does shatter the common perception Americans tend to hold of Great Britain. A polar opposite to Bill Brysons's fairly affectionate British travelogue, "Notes From a Small Island."

Anyone with an interest in Scottish born guitarist Bert Jansch will know that author Colin Harper has been collecting material for this biography for some years now. Colin has collected interviews with friends, fans and family and those involved in the "business affairs" of Bert's past and present and has wove them into an in -depth, objective volume on the respected and, to many, awe -inspiring musician. Covering Bert's introduction to folk song and blues as a young man in Glasgow, to the 60s London scene, through difficult "health problems" during the 80s and the Bert "renaissance" of the 90s, Colin treats his subject with objective respect and just a touch of the fan enthusiasm one would hope for to make this a wonderful read. Well done Colin!

If you are into the British folk and blues scene of the early 60s, then this is the book for you. It vividly describes the burgeoning Edinburgh folk scene of the Scottish revival where Jansch developed his unique guitar style, drawing heavily upon such blues stylists as Big Bill Broonzy and Brownie McGee. London had its own burgeoning folk scene, dominated by larger than life personalities like Ewan McColl, A.L.Loyd, Dominic Behan, and Davy Graham, who was furrowing a similar furrow to Jansch. Jansch drifted down to London where he met the English folk singer, Annie Briggs. They struck up a close relationship. He learnt a large part of his repertoire from her, to which he would apply his own blues oriented stylistic approach. This would bloom with his third album, "Jack Orion", where he approached traditional English folk songs as if he were a blues artist. For instance, "The Gardener" is sung in a wordless vocal similar to Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was The Night-Cold Was The Ground," while on the title track, he extends phrases and repeats them over and over again for a hypnotic and spellbinding 9 minutes. There had been nothing like this in folk music before. With this album, he extended and fully realised the folk-boroque style, which drew upon folk, blues, and jazz, and which was pioneered by Davy Graham.

Jansch was not only a unique and masterly guitarist and singer, but an excellent songwriter. Steering clear of politics, to the disgust of McColl, he honed in on the personal. He celebrated personal independence with "Strolling Down The Highway" and "Rambling's Going To Be The Death Of Me." He wrote incredibly moving love songs such as "A Dream, A Dream, A Dream" and "Oh How Your Love Is Strong." His anti-drug song, "Needle of Death", was greatly admired by Neil Young, and was to influence Young's own collection of anti-drug songs, "Tonight's the Night."

Jansch met up with John Renbourne and found someone who was not only on the same musical wavelength but who could match him for ability. They recorded "Bert & John" together, a beautiful album of guitar duets, and then they went on to form Pentangle, which had Bert and John on guitars, backed by a jazz rhythm section, and fronted by a traditional English folk singer. It was here that they hit the big time, touring the world and raking in the money.

Jansch is a private man, permanently scruffy and reserved, seemingly unconcerned with the trappings of stardom. However, Colin Harper has successfully brought this man to life, describing Jansch's weakness for alcohol, his failed marriages, and his various friendships, the most important of which seem to be Annie Briggs and John Renbourne. The best part of the book is the first half where he describes Jansch's developing talent and the music scene in which he developed it. The latter part of the book is not so interesting because Jansch is himself less interesting, no longer pioneering, and living off his past reputation.

If you love Jansch then you will want to read this book. If you love the British folk and blues revival, then you will also want to read it, because the period and the characters that dominated it are brought vividly to life. Colin Harper deserves credit for that.

'Death in Childbirth: An International Study of Maternal Care and Maternal Mortality 1800-1950' is a researched and detailed account of the risks of childbirth over the past two hundred years. It documents the changes which have taken place over that period of time and the reasons for the improvement in maternity care.

What I have learned from the book is that the teaching I received in midwifery was, from its criterion, very good but I wish that I had the knowledge derived from 'Death in Childbirth' while I was still actively engaged in obstetrics and teaching general practice.

Much of the medical profession is reasonably well-versed nowadays on the subject of midwifery but some misconceptions heard by me have been rectified by the information given.

I would recommend that 'Death in Childbirth' be required reading by medical students, doctors interested in obstetrics, and by ministers of health.

This is an utterly stunning work that should be required reading for all midwives, obstetrician-gynecologists, feminists of all persuasions--anybody involved in the health care of women. Not only does it take the wind out of the sails of those who believe childbirth is without consequences (part of the natural history of natural childbirth is maternal death), but it demonstrates how the industrialized world dropped its maternal mortality ratios nearly 100-fold in a century. This has important policy implications for international health work--providing that the international community can persuade developing countries to take women's health care needs seriously. Highly recommended.

This has been one of the best books I have read in grad school. Basically, it deals with the creation of the British Anatomy Act and with the criminalization of poverty. However, it's also got great info about grave robbing, murder for body-procurement, burial practices, and corpse decomposition - and it's extremely readable. Richardson explains that she began this book while reading Shelley's Frankenstein and with questions she had about the meanings of dissection and the body. This book is not about Frankenstein, but it's a must-read if you are to truly understand the society that Frankenstein was created for. It's also a must-read if you are at all interested in anatomy, poverty, or social policy dealing with anatomy and poverty.

I'd like say that this book is ver intrested for me, because I write my book about tha modern anatomy, medicine and politics.

I first read Mattingly's book as a grammar school (high-school to readers on the other side of the pond) history student in England in the 1960s, and have been coming back to it regularly ever since for the sheer pleasure of it. My old paperback copy wore out, so my family gave me the hardback version.

The great strength of Mattingly's treatment is that he went far beyond the purely naval aspects of the campaign. He set it squarely in the context of the politico-religious struggle for domination in western Europe, with England and the Dutch Protestants on one side, Spain and all her allies and dependencies on the other, and France paralysed by a ferocious three-cornered internal struggle in which both sides intervened. He is particularly strong on the events before and after the battle of Coutras which prevented France from either pursuing the ultra-Catholic preferences of the house of Guise (of which Mary Queen of Scots' mother was a member), or the traditional French policy of opposition to the Hapsburg rulers of Spain, which the Catholic King Henri of Valois and his Protestant heir-apparent Henri of Navarre would both have preferred. Mattingly shows great insight in realising that it was the execution of Mary Queen of Scots (the event with which he opens his narrative) that freed Philip to launch the Armada; sending it while she was alive would have risked putting a pro-French queen on the English throne.

I do nevertheless find two serious gaps in Mattingly's handling of the geopolitical context. The first is the Dutch, who after all had been fighting the war, and suffering the casualties, longer than anyone else except Spain. Mattingly ignores their internal dynamics and skates over the detail of their relationships with England, in both areas doing far less than justice to a key element in the strategic equation. The second gap is the lack of treatment of the Scottish dimension. Scotland, ruled by Mary's son James VI, was the dog that did not bark in the night in 1587-88, and the reasons for that deserve analysis. Yes, after his mother's death James was nearest heir to the English throne, but just HOW did he dissuade the Scots - over whom his power was strictly limited - from using the excuse for their usual descent on England?

Mattingly's general strength on the geopolitical aspects does not mean he is weak or lacking in detail on the naval and military aspects: quite the contrary. Coverage of Drake's 1587 raid on Cadiz is pretty much obligatory in a history of the Armada, and Mattingly gives it blow by blow (incidentally revealing what a thoroughly impossible man Drake was to work with). But he is equally strong on Parma's capture of Sluys, which he hoped would be his troops' embarkation point, in the face of dour resistance by the Dutch-English garrison. When it comes to the Armada itself, his grasp of detail is supreme. Mattingly was probably the first of all the many hundreds of Armada historians to read a tide-table and work out that Drake really would have had time to finish his game of bowls - had he ever played it. My only quibble here is over the Dutch naval contribution: they were never in contact with the Armada itself, but their presence scotched any possibility of Parma's forces making a rendezvous. Mattingly acknowledges their importance, but I personally would have welcomed more detail.

Mattingly belonged to the bravura school of English-language historians (Gwyn "The Vikings" Jones is another great exponent), which is both a strength and a weakness. His magnificent prose and grand narrative sweep carry the reader along on a flood tide - sometimes to the extent of concealing omissions and even (for all I know, not being a professional historian) errors. A few of his stylistic mannerisms grate a little nowadays, notably his use of "men" (as in "men said that ...") when a modern viewpoint requires acknowledgement that half the population is female. But these are minor quibbles - buy it and read it!

The defeat of the Armada inaugurated a period which, for English history at least, culminated in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the triumph of a bourgeois science-based way of life.

In this book, Mattingly, unlike many others who have concentrated on the naval aspects of the episode, explores the motivations of the states and individuals involved. In brisk, experienced vignettes, he presents the dilemma facing the English government faced with the intractable problem of the putative heir to the throne, Mary, Quen of Scots, a Catholic, at a time when Elizabeth's throne had been explicity threatened by the Pope.

We see the weakness of France; the relentless attempts of the leading Catholic power, Habsburg Spain, to suppress the Protestant inspired revolt of Holland, which involved military action close to the Kent shore, and action in which England was already heavily involved and expensively subsidizing.

The cutting of the Gordian knot by the execution of Mary precipitated the Spanish attack. Philip II hoped to achieve several objectives at once: to remove Elizabethan Protestantism from Europe; to end English interference with his military action in Holland; finally to crush the Dutch Republic and re-establish the unity of Christendom.

The social and religious motivations of the actors are brilliantly portrayed by an expert in the diplomatic records of the period.

Perhaps the most telling thing you can say in favour of this book is that it is not written for the professional historian, but cannot be ignored by any of them.

This is one of the best cook books I own. There are so many flavorful, interesting recipies using healthy ingredients in unique ways. Everything I have made has been a hit.

especially in light of the overshelming popularity of other British "cookery" writers like Nigella, Jamie, Nigel - all of whom only need to be identified by their first names. Anyone who likes them should immediately become familiar with Delia Smith. She might not be as glamerous or as much "fun" to read, but she is definitely as much fun to cook with, and her food is delicious, her writing is clear, her recipes are well-written and very easy to follow guaranteeing excellent results. This book is a good place to start getting to know Delia!

Comprehensive view of Wm. de Morgan for the interested person. It covers a huge period in English ceramic art. This book has hundreds of his pieces or designs and tells his chronology as an artist. I will not lend it out; this is the ultimate compliment.

Published in conjunction with an exhibition of de Morgan's work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1989, this book contains the complete collection of William de Morgan's original pottery and tile designs and drawings that was given to the museum after his death in 1917. With just about 20 pages of text of the total 256 pages, it is nearly all photographs with over 50 pages in color. De Morgan began working with William Morris in 1862, but after ten years he set up his own studio making tiles, vases, bowls and other domestic ceramics. His designs, inspired by brightly colored Middle-Eastern, Hispanic and Italian Renaissance pottery are beautiful. The forms of his vessels seem, for the most part, somewhat stilted but ocasionally they become organic enough to be satisfying to the modern eye. However his use of decoration is without equal except, perhaps, in some Hopi work. This book will be of interest to ceramic artists in particular, but any artist, art historian, or collector will enjoy it.

I am new to British genealogy, so this book is very helpful to me because whenever I need help with a certian topic, I just look it up and there's help right there. The explanations under each topic aren't too wordy. They just cut to the main points, I think.

The book itself is made of good quality materials and it seems that it will stand up to my constant page flipping for help!

Also, Amazon offers this book at a great price!

This book is one of my favorites for understanding family history in the United Kingdom.

It is basically an A through Z dictionary of genealogical terms and concepts commonly encountered in British research. The definitions given are both thorough and entertainingly written. Many include references on where more information on the topic may be obtained or where particular records are held. There are illustrations and photographs every four to five pages showing useful examples of terms defined in the text.

If you don't know an advowson from a wardmote, this dictionary will help you decipher both the quaint and common words used in British family history.

Oxford Dictionary Of Superstitions is a no-nonsense, definitive reference to superstitions ranging from spells, cures, and rituals to taboos, charms and omens. Entries are arranged alphabetically by subject; each listing presents a handful of historical citations that offer evidence of the belief. A select bibliography and analytical index round out this exemplary and easy-to-use quick reference.

According to _A Dictionary of Superstitions_, the answer to that one goes back to 1507. The book is filled with page after page of the interesting stories behind close to any superstition one could imagine. As its title suggests, the superstitions are presented in a dictionary format, something that I found very helpful. The definitions include--to different extents--histories, dates, publications, locations, and sometimes even related poetry or bits of songs. There are fifteen different entries for "Eggs," if this gives you any idea as to the scope of book! More than anything, it's a fun read (and to be taken with a "grain of salt" perhaps). It's entirely possible to sit down and read the letter "C," for example, all of the way through, from "Cabbage Stalk: divination" to "Cutlery falls=visitor." One of the best aspects of the text is the sometimes bizarre anecdotes included by the editors, and the conversational and often entertaining manner in which the entries are written. Wonder why it's bad luck to have a clock facing a fire or to crack a mirror, why it's a good idea to rub a dead mouse on your cheek, or where the first references to the cricket as an omen appeared? There's a lot more (494 pages worth), and I definitely recommend it.