Emily Wilding Davison

Maureen Howes • £12.99
thehistorypress.co.uk

As our article on the suffragettes mentions, this month marks the centenary of the grim death of Emily Wilding Davison, who stepped in front of the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby to draw attention to her cause – and lost her life as a result.

Although her life and death were much publicised by the suffragette movement, until now her family has remained silent.

In this revealing book, Maureen Howes (a genealogist based in Morpeth, Northumberland) redresses the balance by exploring Emily’s background in Morpeth, her highflying education and the family influences on her. The book has been produced with the blessing of the Davison family and includes a preface from Emily’s great-nephew, as well as more than 100 rare photographs and period documents, many of them from the Davison family and others connected to Emily’s life. In the course of her research, Howes builds a clear picture that although Davison was certainly a militant activist, she had no designs on martyrdom, and both the movement and the popular press distorted her image after her death: “Emily did not go to Epsom with the intention of committing suicide; she went as the representative of the women of Northumberland.”

The book is accompanied by timelines of the suffrage movement in general, plus the Davison family and the events that led to Emily’s death. The result is a fascinating exploration of the wider subject as well as a proper rehabilitation of Emily’s memory in the broader context it deserves.

London’s Big Day

David Long & Gavin Whitelaw • £14.99
The History Press

June 2013 sees the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation, only the second time in British history a monarch has reached this remarkable milestone.

The event was the first of its kind to be televised, but less familiar are the scenes in the streets outside Westminster Abbey, where huge crowds assembled to see a procession of state coaches and historic regiments marching past many famous landmarks.

At the core of this full-colour book, which would make a good gift, is a hitherto private collection of more than 200 images showing London’s West End on the day. None has been published before, and together they provide a unique and precious record of this historic occasion. Anyone who is old enough to remember the occasion will find great memories here, and the book also serves as a wider depiction of London in the 1950s.

Liverpool in the 1950s

Robert Edwards • £13.99
thehistorypress.co.uk

Still on the theme of the 1950s, here is another pictorial celebration of an iconic British city, but one with a ver y different flavour.

The book infiltrates the lives of residents in the city as they battled the austerity and economic frailty of post-war Br itain. Slums were cleared, the consumer mind-set spread and rock ‘n’ roll fever gripped the nation. Local historian Robert F Edwards documents the unique fashions, mo des of transport and other developments that changed the lives of this inspirational decade.

Different chapters explore the city by area, and also by themes such as the overhead railway, the police – and of course the Coronation.