Latest Reviews
Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity
Elizabeth I is one of England’s most recognisable monarchs.
Coughton Court, Warwickshire
Coughton Court near Alcester in Warwickshire is a National Trust-owned Tudor manor house built on land that has been home to the Throckmorton family for over 600 years.
Falling in love with the Chalke Valley History Festival
Chalke Valley History Festival is designed to inspire, excite, and inform. Established in 2011 as a fundraiser for the local cricket club, the festival has rapidly grown in size to become the largest festival dedicated to history in the UK. With a comprehensive programme of speakers lined up for the whole week, it also has living history, ‘pop-up’ free talks, air displays, and family activities, including sword school and interactive First World War trench experiences.
The Black Country Living Museum, West Midlands
The Black Country Living Museum is the UK's third largest open-air museum, covering the history of the area from the 1850s to the 1950s. Set within 26 acres of land, it has a range of period buildings, shops and workshops, carefully transported to and reconstructed at the site, as well as working trams and buses, a 1930s fairground, its own mine shaft and a working replicaan exact copy of something.an exact copy of something. of Thomas Newcomen's 1712 steam engine
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Peter Frankopan's The Silk Roads provides a new economic perspective on world history, taking as its centre not Europe, but the 'true middle of the world', 'the halfway point between east and west, running broadly from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea to the Himalayas'. In so doing, it provides 'a major reassessment of world history', by firmly taking the action away from the West and placing it, as Frankopan would argue, back in its proper place: the crossroads of civilisations.
Canons Ashby, Daventry, Northamptonshire
Canons Ashby is a Tudor home in Northamptonshire which has been brought back to life by the National Trust. The village was first mentioned in Domesday Book, and during the Medieval period we hear of a number of canons behaving badly at the Augustinian priory, from whence Canons Ashby gets its name.
Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire
Being less than seven miles from the popular, Merlin Entertainments-owned Warwick Castle, Kenilworth Castle is often overlooked. This is a great pity. While it doesn't have the flash of Warwick, and is much more ruinous, it is perhaps the more atmospheric of the two.
Warwick Castle, Warwick
Warwick Castle has a fascinating history. The original wooden motte-and-bailey castle was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror on the site of a defensive Anglo-Saxon settlement established by Alfred the Great's warrior daughter, Æthelflæd Lady of the Mercians.
The Mary Rose, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
Built in 1510 and launched the following year, the Mary Rose was one of Henry VIII’s new warships, and the largest in the fleet. Designed purely for battle, she saw action during the next 30 years, but sank quickly during the Battle of the Solent in 1545. No definitive reason has ever been found.
SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Mary Beard has set herself a huge task in writing SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Her aims are to cover Rome's first thousand years, from 'a tiny and very unremarkable little village' to an empire that ruled from Britain to Egypt. In telling the story, she asks not just 'why' Rome was so successful, but also what impact it had on its citizens, from emperors down to slaves, how they thought about themselves and their place in the world, and why their story still matters to us.
