Nothing experienced in human history, before or since, eclipses the terror, tragedy and scale of the Black Death, the disease which killed millions of people in Medieval Europe. The Scourging Angel tells the story of Britain immediately before, during and after this catastrophe. Against a backdrop of empty homes, half-built cathedrals and pestilence-saturated cities, we see communities gripped by unimaginable fear, shock and paranoia. By the time it completed its pestilential journey through the British Isles in 1350, the Black Death had left half the population dead. Despite the startling toll of life, physical devastation and sheer human chaos it inflicted, Britain showed an impressive resilience. Amid disaster many found opportunity, and the story of the Black Death is ultimately one of survival.

A hilarious picture book story, featuring the royal family, plus favourite British landmarks. What does the Queen do when a sneaky swan snatches her handbag? Gives chase, of course. By car, motorbike, plane and more! Hold on to your hats (and handbags) for a whirlwind trip around the British Isles. Featuring favourite British landmarks, including Windsor Castle, the Angel of the North and the Giant's Causeway.

This gentle introduction to the biblical account of Jesus's final days on earth, and Resurrection, is perfect for preschoolers. Lush, colorful illustrations of the Last Supper, Jesus carrying his cross, and the angel in the empty tomb are accessible to little readers who are just learning about Easter. At the end of the book, Easter traditions from around the world are introduced, from Ukrainian painted eggs (Pysanky) to the greeting of the Easter sunrise in the British Isles. It's a perfect first book about an important holiday for many, and an ideal Easter gift.

In this vital re-examination of a shared history, historian and broadcaster David Olusoga tells the rich and revealing story of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean. This edition, fully revised and updated, features a new chapter encompassing the Windrush scandal and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, events which put black British history at the centre of urgent national debate. Black and British is vivid confirmation that black history can no longer be kept separate and marginalised. It is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation and it belongs to us all. Drawing on new genealogical research, original records, and expert testimony, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, Elizabethan ‘blackamoors’ and the global slave-trading empire. It shows that the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery, and that black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of both World Wars. Black British history is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation. It is not a singular history, but one that belongs to us all. Unflinching, confronting taboos, and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how the lives of black and white Britons have been entwined for centuries.

Inspired by the history of Britain, from the tree under which the first trade union was formed to the branches from which outlaws were hanged, The Great British Tree Biography details the fascinating stories associated with trees throughout the history of the British Isles. How much did you know about the Glastonbury Hawthorn? A tree on the site of Glastonbury Abbey that flowers on Christmas Day, and is believed to descend from an original thorn planted on the grounds by Joseph of Arimathea. And then there's Oswald's Tree where the dismembered body of Oswald, the Christian King of Northumbria was said to have been hung by Penda, King of Mercia, as a warning to others – and from where the town of Oswestry takes its name. There is the lime that grows stubbornly on a cricket pitch in Kent, the ash tree surrounded by 19th-century gravestones in St Pancras churchyard and the Knole Oak, immortalised on the page in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and in the video for The Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever. From the from oak on Isle Maree in Scotland said to provide release from madness to visitors who offer coins to the tree, to the beeches in Wiltshire that inspired Tolkien, and the sycamore in London where Marc Bolan met his untimely fate, this beautifully illustrated book tells the unique history of the British Isles through its diverse collection of trees and forests. Journalist Mark Hooper also investigates the influence of British trees in folklore, art, literature, music, legend and myth, weaving a fascinating tale of Britain’s woodlands through the stories of the individual trees.

A spectacular treasury of the best British short stories published in the last twenty years We are living in a particularly rich period for British short stories. Despite the relative lack of venues in which they can be published, the challenge the medium represents has attracted many remarkable writers. Philip Hensher, following the great success of his definitive two-volume The Penguin Book of the British Short Story, has been reading a vast trove of material and has chosen thirty great stories, written between the death of Princess Diana and the present day.

The January Man is the story of a year of walks that was inspired by a song, Dave Goulder's 'The January Man'. Month by month, season by season and region by region, Christopher Somerville walks the British Isles, following routes that continually bring his father to mind. As he travels the country - from the winter floodlands of the River Severn to the lambing pastures of Nidderdale, the towering seabird cliffs on the Shetland Isle of Foula in June and the ancient oaks of Sherwood Forest in autumn - he describes the history, wildlife, landscapes and people he encounters, down back lanes and old paths, in rain and fair weather. This exquisitely written account of the British countryside not only inspires us to don our boots and explore the 140,000 miles of footpaths across the British Isles, but also illustrates how, on long-distance walks, we can come to an understanding of ourselves and our fellow walkers. Over the hills and along the byways, Christopher Somerville examines what moulded the men of his father's generation - so reticent about their wartime experiences, so self-effacing, upright and dutiful - as he searches for 'the man inside the man' that his own father really was.

When a young woman is found dead, Detective Jane Rizzoli and Forensic Pathologist Maura Isles are called to the scene of the murder. Though the body bears startling wounds, the actual cause of death is not immediately clear. A few days later, another body is discovered – a seemingly unrelated crime, but the lack of an obvious cause of death shows they have more in common than it would first appear. As Rizzoli and Isles race to discover the link between the victims before the killer can strike again, a mysterious person watches from the sidelines. She has the answers they’re looking for. But she knows she has to stay quiet, if she wants to stay alive . . .

Updated with the latest archaeological research new chapters on the most influential yet widely unrecognised people of the British isles, In Search of the Dark Ages illuminates the fascinating and mysterious centuries between the Romans and the Norman Conquest of 1066. In this new edition, Michael Wood vividly conjures some of the most important people in British history such as Hadrian, a Libyan refugee from the Arab conquests and arguably the most important person of African origin in British history, to Queen Boadicea, the leader of a terrible war of resistance against the Romans. Here too, warts and all, are the Saxon, Viking and Norman kings who laid the political foundations of England: Offa of Mercia, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, and William the Conqueror, whose victory at Hastings in 1066 marked the end of Anglo-Saxon England. Reflecting the latest historical, textual and archaeological research, this revised and updated edition of Michael Wood's classic book overturns preconceptions of the Dark Ages as a shadowy and brutal era, showing them to be a richly exciting and formative period in the history of Britain.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. The stories contained in this volume take rank with the most mature and romantic of his works. The charming love and adventure of the life that he depicts in remote places confirm the growing belief that he is among the greatest of living creative writers. The story of The Nigger of the Narcissus have started when a black sailor with tuberculosis boards the ship Narcissus. The shadow of death falls across the ship and the lingering gloom brings out both the best and the worst in the crew.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. The stories contained in this volume take rank with the most mature and romantic of his works. The charming love and adventure of the life that he depicts in remote places confirm the growing belief that he is among the greatest of living creative writers. The story of The Nigger of the Narcissus have started when a black sailor with tuberculosis boards the ship Narcissus. The shadow of death falls across the ship and the lingering gloom brings out both the best and the worst in the crew.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. The stories contained in this volume take rank with the most mature and romantic of his works. The charming love and adventure of the life that he depicts in remote places confirm the growing belief that he is among the greatest of living creative writers. The story of The Nigger of the Narcissus have started when a black sailor with tuberculosis boards the ship Narcissus. The shadow of death falls across the ship and the lingering gloom brings out both the best and the worst in the crew.

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. The stories contained in this volume take rank with the most mature and romantic of his works. The charming love and adventure of the life that he depicts in remote places confirm the growing belief that he is among the greatest of living creative writers. The story of The Nigger of the Narcissus have started when a black sailor with tuberculosis boards the ship Narcissus. The shadow of death falls across the ship and the lingering gloom brings out both the best and the worst in the crew.

A journalist must follow the clues, no matter how far that takes her.Casey Benedict, star reporter at the Post, has infiltrated the lives and exposed the lies of countless politicians and power players. Using her network of contacts, Casey is always on the search for the next big story, no matter how much danger this might place her in, no matter what cost emotionally.Tipped off by an overheard conversation at an exclusive London nightclub, she begins to investigate the apparent suicide of a wealthy young British man, whose death has left his fiancee and family devastated.Casey’s determined hunt for the truth will take her from the glitz of St-Tropez to the deserts of Libya and on to the very darkest corners of the human mind.

NOW A STARZ ORIGINAL SERIES The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NOW A STARZ ORIGINAL SERIES The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .