World War Two from Above

Jeremy Harwood • £14.99
The History Press

Aerial intelligence, pioneered during World War One, was an essential tool of both Allied and Axis powers during World War Two.

Most people are well aware of the importance of strategic bombing or the role of the RAF and its adversary, the Luftwaffe. The story of aerial intelligence during WW2 is perhaps less well known, though certainly no less important.

Jeremy Harwood tells the story of those daring aerial reconnaissance flyers who risked their lives to shoot photographs and the strategic photographic interpreters who pioneered a new method of strategic military analysis and planning. They were the pioneers of a new science. Inspiring, informative and captivating; special features focus on some of the most important and crucial aerial operations of the Second World War including the hunt for the Bismarck, the Dam Busters, DDay landings and bridge over the River Kwai.

Beauty and bravery have never been more closely intertwined. Without these men, allied victory was not possible. The elegance of these photographs is preserved and honoured in this book.

The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs drawn from the archives of Axis and Allied powers, many of which are revealed for the very first time

Author Jeremy Harwood’s other books include five volumes in the Looking Back at Britain history series, Hidden History and the Atlas of History’s Greatest Military Victories .

Great War Britain

Lucinda Gosling • £25
The History Press

The declaration of war in August 1914 was to change Britain and British society irrevocably as conflict came to dominate almost every aspect of civilian life for the next four years. Popular weekly magazines such as The Tatler, The Sketch and The Queen, recorded the national preoccupations of the time and in particular, the upper-class experience of war.

Targeted at a well-heeled, largely female audience, these magazines were veteran reporters of aristocratic balls, the latest Parisian fashions and society engagements, but quickly adapted to war-like conditions, as Lucinda Gosling reveals. Fashion soon found itself jostling for position with items on patriotic fundraising, and Court presentations were replaced by notes on nursing convalescent soldiers. This book offers a fascinating, at times amusing and uniquely feminine perspective of life on the home front during World War One.

Queen of the Courtesans

Barbara White • £20
The History Press

Fanny Murray was the most desired courtesan of the 1750s. The daughter of an impoverished musician from Bath, she took London society by storm, becoming a fashion icon and muse to poets, writers and artists. Barbara White’s portrait of Fanny Murray takes readers from the brothels of Covent Garden to sex romps at Medmenham Abbey, from refined drawing rooms in London to marital respectability in Edinburgh. This is an illuminating contribution to the scholarly understanding of the era.

Tracing Your Jewish Ancestors

Rosemary Wenzerul • £12.99
Pen & Sword

This fully revised second edition of Rosemary Wenzerul’s lively and informative guide to researching Jewish history will be absorbing reading for anyone who wants to find out about the life of a Jewish ancestor. In a clear and accessible way she takes readers through the entire process of research.

She provides a brief social history of the Jewish presence in Britain and looks at practical issues of research – how to get started, how to organize the work, how to construct a family tree and how to use the information obtained to tell the story of a family. In addition she describes, in practical detail, the many sources that researchers can go to for information on their ancestors, their families and Jewish history.