Happy and Glorious
Michael Wilson • £16.99
The History Press
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is a story of intrigue, plot and counter-plot, religious rivalry and nationalist fervour. It tells of the stubborn and bigoted king, James II, in conflict with his subjects – a conflict in which he was finally forced to put aside his crown, making way for his daughter, Mary, and her husband William of Orange. Less than 30 years after Charles II had been restored to the throne, a king was once more deposed (although this time with rather less bloodshed), effectively creating the form of government that we have today. After the Revolution it was no longer possible for British monarchs to ride roughshod over the wishes of their people or to impose religion upon them. Yet, as well as creating a constitutional monarchy, the Revolution also led in time to such events as the Jacobite Rebellions in Scotland and the Orange Order marches in Northern Ireland. This book tells the story of those momentous days and sets them against the turbulent backdrop of 17th life.
Evacuees
Gillian Mawson • £19.99
Pen & Sword
During the first week of September 1939, over three million people were evacuated after the outbreak of World War Two. Operation Pied Piper was the largest ever transportation of people across Britain, and most of those moved to safety in the countryside were schoolchildren.
Social historian Gillian Mawson has spent years collecting the stories of former evacuees and this book includes their personal memories, told in their own words. Their accounts reveal what it was like to settle into a new home with strangers, often staying for years. While many enjoyed life in the countryside, some escaping inner-city poverty, others endured ill-treatment and homesickness. A fascinating insight into the realities of wartime life, and a valuable oral history of a unique moment in British history.
Common People
Alison Light • £20
Penguin
Family history is a massive phenomenon of our times but what are we after when we go in search of our ancestors? Beginning with her grandparents, Alison Light moves between the present and the past, in an extraordinary series of journeys over two centuries, across Britain and beyond.
Epic in scope and deep in feeling, Common People is a family history but also a new kind of public history, following the lives of the migrants who travelled the country looking for work. Original and eloquent, it is a timely rethinking of who the English were - but ultimately it reflects on history itself, and on our constant need to know who went before us and what we owe them.
In These Times
Jenny Uglow • £25
Faber & Faber
Much has been written about the Napoleonic wars, but until now, no-one has considered what life was like for those left behind. The people on a Norfolk farm, in a Yorkshire mill, a Welsh iron foundry, a London bank, an Irish village or a Scottish mountain. The aristocrats and paupers, old and young – how did the war touch their lives?
Every part of Britain felt the long, 20 years of war against the French: boys who were babies when the wars began fought in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, one in five families had people in the services and over 300,000 men died. The government clamped down on freedom of speech, surveillance became legitimised and the country saw the mass expansion of banks and finance. In this, a truly original crowd-biography, Jenny Uglow delves into the archives to tell the story of how people lived and loved and sang and wrote, at a time when Britain was at the dawn of the modern age.