jacey: (Default)

Not exactly books, but an amusing listening experience. Professor Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince ramble through various aspects of science with a varied panel of comedic and academic guests for each (approx.) 30-minute show as first broadcast on BBC Radio4. Fascinating facts presented in an amusing way, and can be consumed in small bites.

 
 
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Options : History : Feedback : DonateClose
jacey: (Default)

Audiobook. History you didn’t learn in school. A wry account of the awful things Britain has done over the centuries from hanging monkeys to massacring nations, causing famines, and starting the opium wars in order to get access to tea. It would be funny if it were not so tragic, but James Felton reads it well, and it fairly zips along. Yes, fellow Brits, our ancestors were really this awful, collectively if not individually.

jacey: (Default)

A short introduction to the world of Jodi Taylor's historians who investigate historical events in contemporary time. (Don't call it Time Travel.)

jacey: (Default)

Not exactly a book, but delivered by Audible, so I’m reviewing it as one. This is a general overview of England (specifically) from post Roman times until Henry Tudor took the crown from Richard III on Bosworth Field. It’s delivered in handy bite-sized (30 minute) chunks and covers domestic as well as political history. There was a fair amount of it that I already know, but stringing it together as a continuous narrative made it a very good reminder of things I’d half forgotten. Jennifer Paxton wrote and read this production. Recommended.

jacey: (Default)
RevolutionI haven't read the whole six book set of Peter Ackroyd's History of England. I read the first and wanted to skip ahead to this one because it covers the period I'm writing about in my Rowankind novels, that is, the Napoleonic wars. This is a well written account, probably greatly simplified, but with enough information for my purposes. Peter Ackroyd's writing is smooth and delightfully readable and delivered just the right amount of information. It's definitely 'popular' rather than 'academic'. Highly recommended if you have a general interest in English history.
jacey: (Default)
What Kings Ate and Wizards DrankA book about fantasy worldbuilding for writers. Some useful tips, especially for beginners. It's heavily into food and food history from a fantasy preoccupation with stew to provisioning an army. Recommended
jacey: (Default)

Beside the SeasideNon Fic

A history of Yorkshire's coastal towns, Whitby, Scarborough, Bridlington and Filey etc., and how they became popular seaside resorts. There's interesting stuff for both the historian and the casual reader, but for my purposes it wasn't as useful as 'The Georgian Seaside' by Louise Allen.
jacey: (Default)
FoundationA remarkably readable popular history, not too deep and academic, but a quick reminder from 15,000 years ago (the Neolithic), through Roman rule, the Dark Ages (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) and the medieval to 1509, the death of Henry VII. This is the first in a six volume set, easily digestible and informative.
jacey: (blue eyes)
PandaemoniumThe Coming of the Machine as Seen by Contemporary Observers
A collection of contemporary texts on the progress of the industrial revolution from 1660 to 1866, well chosen and arranged in chronologigal order. It includes poetry, diary extracts and contemporary writings and gives an excellent flavour of the changes taking place. It provides a continuous narrative of the industrial revolution, but told from many different viewpoints, a narrative of ideas and emotions, not merely of hard facts and mechanical innovations. The pieces illuminate the industrial revolution as straightforward text books cannot.

Humphrey Jennings was a documentary film maker who died in 1950 with this work incomplete, but with a huge selection of writings and notes from which it has been assembled by Charles Madge. True to Jennings original intention this collection of writings is a visual piece. From a personal research point of view, it provides an insight into the period I'm writing about, from descriptions of London, scientific treatises, newspaper articles, letters, extracts, pamphlets, diaries and poems. It includes writings of Lord Byron, William Cobbett, William Blake, Jeremy Bentham, James Watt, Vincent Lunardi, Tom Paine, Elizabeth Fry, Dorothy Wordswirth, Tom Poole, Michael Faraday and many, many more. Highly recommended.

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