The Tommy’s Handbook

Jeremy Harwood • £9.99
The History Press

By the time war broke out in 1914 there were standard military manuals for just about every aspect of training for the British soldier. The Tommy’s Handbook is a compilation of chapters from original training manuals and booklets that would have been drawn upon by officers, non-commissioned officers and men to train recruits to become soldiers for active service in World War One.

In the years immediately before the war, the British Army was comprehensively reformed, and new training manuals and regulations were issued across the force. The Tommy’s Handbook covers every aspect of life as a Tommy imaginable, such as uniform, drill, equipment, trench construction, scouting and reconnaissance work, field communications, modern military techniques and strategy, and how casualties and prisoners of war should be dealt with. Written by experts for the average Tommy in the trenches, these manuals were filled with concise and practical advice on how one could become the model British soldier and survive even the harshest conditions.

Excerpts in The Tommy’s Handbook have been carefully selected by expert historian Neil R. Storey from his nationally respected archive. This volume provides the most authentic overview of how a typical Tommy was trained and sustained, both at home and in the field.

Female Tommies

Elisabeth Shipton • £18.99
The History Press

World War One saw one of the biggest ever changes in the demographics of warfare, as thousands of women donned uniforms and took an active part in conflict for the first time in history. Female Tommies looks at the military role of women worldwide during the Great War and reveals the extraordinary women who served on the frontline. Through their diaries, letters and memoirs, meet the women who defied convention and followed their convictions to defend the less fortunate and fight for their country. The personal accounts of these women, who were members of organisations such as the US Army Signal Corps, the Canadian Army Medical Corps, the FANY, WRAF, WRNS, WAAC and many others, provide a valuable insight into what life was like for women in a male-dominated environment. Look out for an exclusive extract of this book in our next issue.

Passenger Steamers of the River Conwy

Richard Clammer • £14.99
The History Press

With the blossoming of Victorian tourism in the 1840s, the beautiful Conwy Valley in North Wales, with its healthy climate and picturesque scenery, became immensely popular. This absorbing book traces a colourful but largely forgotten chapter in British maritime and social history: the rise and fall of both the passenger steamer trade on the River Conwy and of the village of Trefriw as a fashionable chalybeate spa resort.

Divorced, Beheaded, Sold

Maria Nicolaou • £12.99
Pen & Sword

A fresh perspective on the seamy side of history, Divorced, Beheaded, Sold: Ending an English Marriage 1500-1847 is full of scandalous, little-known stories of wife sale, marital discord and audacious escapades of errant spouses. Maria Nicolaou reveals how people ended their marriages in the days before divorce was readily available – from committing bigamy to selling a wife at market. Her book is full of colourful characters and warring spouses, such as Con Philips, who fought off her husband with a gun filled with firework powder; the Duke of Grafton, who hired an army of detectives to spy on his wife and obtain proof of her adultery; and Marion Jones, who recruited a gang to take back her property from her husband. This book allows the reader to enter the homes, hearts and minds of their ancestors who battled against society in order to end unhappy marriages and seize control of their lives.