How England Made the English

How England Made the English PDF Author: Harry Mount
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 9780670919147
Category : England
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Harry Mount's How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours is packed with astonishing facts and wonderful stories. Q. Why are English train seats so narrow? A. It's all the Romans' fault. The first Victorian trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; and they were designed to fit the ruts left in the roads by Roman chariots. For readers of Paxman's The English, Bryson's Notes on a Small Island and Fox's Watching the English, this intriguing and witty book explains how our national characteristics - our sense of humour, our hobbies, our favourite foods and our behaviour with the opposite sex - are all defined by our nation's extraordinary geography, geology, climate and weather. You will learn how we would be as freezing cold as Siberia without the Gulf Stream; why we drive on the left-hand side of the road; why the Midlands became the home of the British curry. It identifies the materials that make England, too: the faint pink Aberdeen granite of kerbstones; that precise English mix of air temperature, smell and light that hits you the moment you touch down at Heathrow. Praise for Harry Mount: 'Highly readable, encyclopeadic, marvellous, illuminating. Mount portrays England via dextrous excavations of its geography, geology, history and weather' Independent 'Fascinating. Mount's an intelligent, funny and always interesting companion' Daily Mail 'Charming and nerdily fact-stuffed' Guardian Harry Mount is the author of Amo, Amas, Amat and All That, his best-selling book on Latin, and A Lust for Window Sills - A Guide to British Buildings. A journalist for many newspapers and magazines, he has been a New York correspondent and a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph. He studied classics and history at Oxford, and architectural history at the Courtauld Institute. He lives in north London

How England Made the English

How England Made the English PDF Author: Harry Mount
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 9780670919147
Category : England
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Harry Mount's How England Made the English: From Why We Drive on the Left to Why We Don't Talk to Our Neighbours is packed with astonishing facts and wonderful stories. Q. Why are English train seats so narrow? A. It's all the Romans' fault. The first Victorian trains were built to the same width as horse-drawn wagons; and they were designed to fit the ruts left in the roads by Roman chariots. For readers of Paxman's The English, Bryson's Notes on a Small Island and Fox's Watching the English, this intriguing and witty book explains how our national characteristics - our sense of humour, our hobbies, our favourite foods and our behaviour with the opposite sex - are all defined by our nation's extraordinary geography, geology, climate and weather. You will learn how we would be as freezing cold as Siberia without the Gulf Stream; why we drive on the left-hand side of the road; why the Midlands became the home of the British curry. It identifies the materials that make England, too: the faint pink Aberdeen granite of kerbstones; that precise English mix of air temperature, smell and light that hits you the moment you touch down at Heathrow. Praise for Harry Mount: 'Highly readable, encyclopeadic, marvellous, illuminating. Mount portrays England via dextrous excavations of its geography, geology, history and weather' Independent 'Fascinating. Mount's an intelligent, funny and always interesting companion' Daily Mail 'Charming and nerdily fact-stuffed' Guardian Harry Mount is the author of Amo, Amas, Amat and All That, his best-selling book on Latin, and A Lust for Window Sills - A Guide to British Buildings. A journalist for many newspapers and magazines, he has been a New York correspondent and a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph. He studied classics and history at Oxford, and architectural history at the Courtauld Institute. He lives in north London

Agincourt

Agincourt PDF Author: Juliet Barker
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
ISBN: 0316055891
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
From a master historian comes an astonishing chronicle of life in medieval Europe and the battle that altered the course of an empire. Although almost six centuries old, the Battle of Agincourt still captivates the imaginations of men and women on both sides of the Atlantic. It has been immortalized in high culture (Shakespeare's Henry V) and low (the New York Post prints Henry's battle cry on its editorial page each Memorial Day). It is the classic underdog story in the history of warfare, and generations have wondered how the English -- outnumbered by the French six to one -- could have succeeded so bravely and brilliantly. Drawing upon a wide range of sources, eminent scholar Juliet Barker casts aside the legend and shows us that the truth behind Agincourt is just as exciting, just as fascinating, and far more significant. She paints a gripping narrative of the October 1415 clash between outnumbered English archers and heavily armored French knights. But she also takes us beyond the battlefield into palaces and common cottages to bring into vivid focus an entire medieval world in flux. Populated with chivalrous heroes, dastardly spies, and a ferocious and bold king, Agincourt is as earthshaking as its subject -- and confirms Juliet Barker's status as both a historian and a storyteller of the first rank.

Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix PDF Author: Brian Southall
Publisher: Ovolo Publishing, Limited
ISBN: 9781905959419
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A never-before-seen look at the years that made Jimi Hendrix into the legend he is today.

England Made Me

England Made Me PDF Author: Graham Greene
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description


The Plantagenets

The Plantagenets PDF Author: Dan Jones
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143124927
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
The New York Times bestseller, from the author of Powers and Thrones, that tells the story of Britain’s greatest and worst dynasty—“a real-life Game of Thrones” (The Wall Street Journal) The first Plantagenet kings inherited a blood-soaked realm from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic narrative history of courage, treachery, ambition, and deception, Dan Jones resurrects the unruly royal dynasty that preceded the Tudors. They produced England’s best and worst kings: Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice a queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; their son Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and his conniving brother King John, who was forced to grant his people new rights under the Magna Carta, the basis for our own bill of rights. Combining the latest academic research with a gift for storytelling, Jones vividly recreates the great battles of Bannockburn, Crécy, and Sluys and reveals how the maligned kings Edward II and Richard II met their downfalls. This is the era of chivalry and the Black Death, the Knights Templar, the founding of parliament, and the Hundred Years’ War, when England’s national identity was forged by the sword.

Made in England

Made in England PDF Author: David Malouf
Publisher: Quarterly Essay
ISBN: 9781863953955
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
In the fourth Quarterly Essay of 2003, David Malouf looks at Australia's bond with Britain and wonders whether it wasn't the Mother Country which did most of the giving. This is an essay which presents British civilisation, the civilisation of Shakespeare and the Enlightenment and the Westminster system, as the irreducible ground on which any Australian achievement is based. Britain has always been the tolerant parent, and an older Australia could be both intensely patriotic and see itself as what it was, a transplantation of Britain. This relationship did not exclude America but it made for a sometimes complicated threesome of nations. This is a brilliant, deeply meditated essay by one of our finest writers about the traditions that shaped Australia and which connect it to one of the mightier traditions in world history. '... Made in England is ... a case of one of Australia's most eminent novelists allowing himself to imagine, and by imagining to analyse, the hopes and glories, once and future, that were part of this new Britannia.' - Peter Craven, Introduction'Any argument for the republic based on the need to make a final break with Britain will fail.' - David Malouf, Made In England

Chart Watch UK - Hits of 1988

Chart Watch UK - Hits of 1988 PDF Author: James Masterton
Publisher: James Masterton
ISBN: 0463270991
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
From the longest-serving music columnist online comes this comprehensive account of the Top 40 hit singles of 1988. Every artist to land a hit single during the year is documented and every one of their hits is catalogued. A full account of who made the charts, when, and most importantly why. The year when Kylie Minogue was transformed from Australian soap actress to global chart superstar. The year which saw House Music change the world. The year of Yazz, of S-Express, but also of Glen Medeiros. And the year which ended with Cliff redefining Christmas songs forever. The essential guide to a fascinating year in pop music, and the perfect reference book for any self-respecting 80s music fan.

Henry IV: The Righteous King

Henry IV: The Righteous King PDF Author: Ian Mortimer
Publisher: Rosetta Books
ISBN: 0795335431
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 862

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Book Description
The real life story of the Plantagenet ruler, by “the most remarkable medieval historian of our time” (The Times, London). The talented, confident, and intelligent son of John of Gaunt, Henry IV started his reign as a popular and charismatic king after he dethroned the tyrannical and wildly unpopular Richard II. But six years into his reign, Henry had survived eight assassination and overthrow attempts. Having broken God’s law of primogeniture by overthrowing the man many people saw as the chosen king, Henry IV left himself vulnerable to challenges from powerful enemies about the validity of his reign. Even so, Henry managed to establish the new Lancastrian dynasty and a new rule of law—in highly turbulent times. In this book, noted historian Ian Mortimer, bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England and The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England, goes beyond the legend portrayed in Shakespeare’s history play, and explores the political and social forces that transformed Henry IV from his nation’s savior to its scourge.

Made in England

Made in England PDF Author: Dorothy HARTLEY
Publisher: Little Toller Books
ISBN: 9781908213600
Category : Country life
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
First published in 1939, this is a book about the people and crafts of the cottage industries of England.

Jew Made in England

Jew Made in England PDF Author: Anthony Blond
Publisher: Timewell Press
ISBN: 9781857252002
Category : Book industries and trade
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A rake's progress by one of publishing's great eccentrics--the memoirs of Anthony Blond. Richly entertaining...delightfully unstuffy...plenty of juicy gossip --Mail on Sunday