Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 – The Bell Bookshop

Normal women

Emma — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘A GENUINELY NEW HISTORY OF OUR NATION’ DAN JONES

***** FIVE STARS FROM THE INDEPENDENT *****

‘You’ll lose count of the number of things you learn about women and their skewed place in history as you read Philippa Gregory’s stunning Normal Women ? the book reframes the past ? an essential read’ Independent

FROM THE MULTI-MILLION BESTSELLING HISTORICAL NOVELIST COMES THE CULMINATION OF HER LIFE’S WORK

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasant’s Revolt was started and propelled by women, protesting a tax on women? Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men but that they’d evolve to become ever more inferior.

These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory’s Normal Women. In this ambitious and ground-breaking book, she tells the story of our nation over 900 years, but for the very first time women – some fifty per cent of the population – are no longer invisible in this history of England, but are at its beating heart.

Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records to find highway women, beggars and shepherdesses, through newspapers and diaries to find murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The ‘normal women’ you will meet in her pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency and built ships, corn mills and houses as part of their everyday lives They committed crimes, or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot. They built our society to be as diverse and varied as the women themselves. They are there in the archives – if you look – and they made our history.

‘This radical reframing of conventional history shows the agency, persistence and effectiveness of women in society?Philippa Gregory has been working on this book for more than 10 years, women have been waiting for this gratifying and informative acknowledgment for a thousand’
ADELE PARKS

Alfred’s Dynasty

Emma — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In 878, Alfred, king of Wessex was on the verge of oblivion. Trapped on a small island in the Somerset Levels, it seemed as if he and his kingdom were about to be destroyed. Yet within months he had defeated the Viking invaders and started to reverse the tide of conquest.While Alfred was driven by the prospect of a land called England that did not yet exist, he was not the one who finally created it. Two of his children, Edward – king of Wessex after him – and his remarkable daughter ÃthelflÃ¦d, the Lady of the Mercians, expanded his kingdom into Mercia in the Midlands. His grandson Ãthelstan confirmed the conquest of the north at one of the great battles of the so-called Dark Ages at Brunanburh. The triumph of Alfred’s dynasty was cemented by the short but magnificent reign of Edgar ‘the Peaceable’, a man who could claim to be not just king of England but emperor of the whole of Britain.The ultimate collapse of Anglo-Saxon England, first of all in the face of Cnut of Denmark’s campaigns in 1015/16 and later in the Norman Conquest of 1066, has unjustly obscured their achievements. This book tells the story of the Anglo-Saxons and reasserts their right to be regarded as one of the greatest royal dynasties that Britain has ever seen.

Templars

Emma — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A gripping account of the Knights Templar, challenging received wisdom to show how these devout medieval knights played a profound role in making modern Britain

The Knights Templar have an enduring reputation-but not one they would recognize. Originally established in the twelfth century to protect pilgrims, the Order is remembered today for heresy, fanaticism, and even satanism.

In this bold new interpretation, Steve Tibble sets out to correct the record. The Templars, famous for their battles on Christendom’s eastern front, were in fact dedicated peace-mongers at home. They influenced royal strategy and policy, created financial structures, and brokered international peace treaties-primarily to ensure that men, money, and material could be transferred more readily to the east.

Charting the rise of the Order under Henry I through to its violent suppression following the fall of Acre, Tibble argues that these medieval knights were essential to the emergence of an early English state. Revealing the true legacy of the British Templars, he shows how a small group helped shape medieval Britain while simultaneously fighting in the name of the Christian Middle East.

The Hundred Years War. Volume 5 Triumph and illusion

Emma — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘Sumption is that rare and precious thing: a serious, decent, honest thinker . . . and one of our finest historians.’ Dan Jones, Sunday Times

‘Gripping and eminently readable . . . a compelling justification for the enduring value of historical narrative.’ The Times

‘Unsurpassed, and probably unsurpassable.’ Daily Telegraph

In this final volume of his epic history of the Hundred Years War, Jonathan Sumption tells the story of the collapse of the English dream of conquest, from the opening years of the reign of Henry VI until the loss of all of England’s continental dominions except Calais thirty years later. This sudden reversal of fortune was a seminal event in the history of the two principal nation-states of western Europe, ending four centuries of the English dynasty’s presence in France and separating two countries whose fortunes had once been closely intertwined, creating a new sense of national identity in both. The legacy of these events would influence their divergent fortunes for centuries to come.

Behind the clash of arms stood some of the most remarkable personalities of the age: the Duke of Bedford, the English Regent who ruled much of France; Charles VII of France, who patiently rebuilt his kingdom after the disasters of his early years; the captains populating the pages of Shakespeare – Fastolf, Montagu, Talbot, Dunois and, above all, the extraordinary figure of Joan of Arc who changed the course of the war in a few weeks at the age of seventeen.

‘The Hundred Years War ends in England’s agonising defeat – but triumph for Jonathan Sumption . . . There is no doubting his achievement. It is, as everyone says, a “monumental” work.’ Spectator

Basilisks and Beowulf

Emma — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

An eye-opening, engrossing look at the central role of monsters in the Anglo-Saxon worldview-now in paperback.

This book addresses a simple question: why were the Anglo-Saxons obsessed with monsters, many of which did not exist? Drawing on literature and art, theology, and a wealth of firsthand evidence, Basilisks and Beowulf reveals a people huddled at the edge of the known map, using the fantastic and the grotesque as a way of understanding the world around them and their place within it. For the Anglo-Saxons, monsters helped to distinguish the sacred and the profane; they carried God’s message to mankind, exposing His divine hand in creation itself. At the same time, monsters were agents of disorder, seeking to kill people, conquer their lands, and even challenge what it meant to be human. Learning about where monsters lived and how they behaved allowed the Anglo-Saxons to situate themselves in the world, as well as to apprehend something of the divine plan. It is for these reasons that monsters were at the very center of their worldview. From map monsters to demons, dragons to Leviathan, we neglect these beasts at our peril.

The house of Godwin

Emma — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Godwin and his family dominated English politics for almost half a century, establishing themselves as the most influential and powerful dynasty in Anglo-Saxon England. At the height of its power, it took a matter of weeks for the dynasty to fall.Earl Godwin established himself as Cnut’s most senior advisor and continued that role to become even more influential during the reign of Edward the Confessor, seeing his daughter Edith become queen and his two eldest sons, Swegn and Harold, given earldoms. After Godwin’s death four of his sons held earldoms, and Harold was to emerge as Edward the Confessor’s senior earl and eventually become king of England.This book considers the key events throughout this period, including Godwin’s emergence, the succession dispute after Cnut’s death, the rise to prominence of his eldest children, the family’s exile and dramatic return, the quarrel between Harold and Tostig, and the Norse and Norman invasions. Specific chapters are devoted to Godwin’s involvement in the Anglo-Danish succession, the family’s exiling, Harold’s trip to Normandy, William of Normandy’s claims to the English throne, reassessments of the accepted Norman landing site and traditional site of the battle of Hastings, and the fate of the remaining Godwinsons post-1066.

Every rising sun

Emma — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Before she was the legendary Persian queen who spun a thousand tales, Shaherazade was a girl who saw something she shouldn’t have.

She told the king.

She thought she was doing what was right.

She couldn’t have imagined what was to come.

The Seljuk Empire is on fire and the king is on a rampage after learning of his wife’s infidelity. Unsated by her execution, he has gone on to wed and behead a new wife night after night. Fear spreads through the city and Shaherazade must do something, anything, to halt the horror she has set in motion. When the king starts searching for his next bride, Shaherazade steps forward.

As the sun sets on her wedding night, she begins to weave a tale that will go down in history.

‘A sumptuous, moreish novel infused with the joys of storytelling’ LEILA ABOULELA, author of Minaret

‘I was entranced by this marvel of a book, wound about by the weave of its tales, unable to put it down’ CLAIRE GILBERT, author of I, Julian

Anatomy of a Nation

Emma — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Britain is experiencing an acute trauma of identity, being pulled simultaneously towards its European, Atlantic, and wider heritages. One way to understand the dislocation and collapse in consensus is by looking to Britain's rich history: its evolution, achievements, complexities, and tensions. 'Anatomy of a Nation' explores over 800,000 years of British identity by examining 50 documents that tell the story of what makes Britain unique. They are not Britain's most famous documents, but each reveals something key about who the British have been down the ages. A few of the documents are well known. Most are not. The result is an anthology that offers a rich and unusual insight into the development of the British people and their sense of place in the world.

Empires of the Normans

Emma — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘Powerful’ The Economist

‘Fascinating, panoramic . . . Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy’ Helen Castor, bestselling author of She Wolves

‘Narrated with pace, clarity, authority and style, Roach’s book is a bracing tour of the world that the Normans made their own’ Thomas Williams, bestselling author of Viking Britain

‘A fresh retelling . . . written with enthusiasm and brio’ Marc Morris, bestselling author of The Anglo-Saxons

How did descendants of Viking marauders come to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East?

It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten – until now.