20th Century

Since the 1970s, welfare reform has been a political priority throughout the western world. In Britain, it has dominated New Labour under Tony Blair as much as it did the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher. More generally, globalization has raised...

'A fast-moving, entertaining and finely written story' Simon Schama'Masterly ... a remarkable portrait of a brilliant complex and tragic genius' William Dalrymple, Los Angeles TimesGeorge Nathaniel Curzon's controversial life in public service stretched ...

Since he was a child in the 1950s watching Vampires and Meteors operating from RAF Turnhouse, Jim Walls wanted to fly aircraft, he just never envisaged that his flying career would be spent in the back seat as opposed to the front. Jim guides readers...

Patrick Bishop looks at the lives and the extraordinary risks that the painfully young pilots of Bomber Command took during the air-offensive against Germany from 1940-1945. As featured on the BBC 1 documentary BOMBER BOYS, presented by Ewan McGregor. ...

Shortlisted for the Theatre Book Prize; former prime minister John Major takes a remarkable journey into his own unconventional family past to tell the story of the British music hall. John Major shares memories of his performer father Tom and...

Foreword by Dame Winifred Mary Beard. -------- This updated edition is a complete account of the first 100 years of women in Parliament. In 1919 Nancy Astor was elected as the Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton, becoming the first woman MP...

THE TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONSHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE'A marvellous book . . . I just loved it all, and have a permanently marked-up, dog-eared copy on my shelf for the next generation'...

The authoritative and fascinating history of the rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail'Wolmar's book is impeccably organised and makes a fast, enjoyable read' THE TIMES Literary Supplement________British Rail wasn't how we're asked to remember it...

The enthralling Sunday Times bestselling story of a young female journalist exposing murder and lies in her search for the truth, from the international bestseller Lesley PearseTHE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 5 BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE WOMAN & HOME BOOK CHOICE...

The inspiring, uplifting true story of a group of London girls dispatched to a children's home in rural England during the Blitz, and meet the formidable nurse and Lady in Waiting who transformed their lives forever . . .'A heartwarming story of hope and...

Margot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional Prime Minister's wife in British history. Known for her wit, style and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon. Yet her...

'A masterly mix of shrewd analysis, historical detail and telling quotes... Indispensable' Mail on Sunday 'Among a host of recent books on the 1980s, Turner's stands out as comfortably the most entertaining' ...

The account of the fateful bridge too far...'It was a bridge too far and perhaps the whole plan was doomed to failure from the start, but we had to try, didn't we?'17 September 1944: 30,000 airborne soldiers prepare to drop 64 miles behind enemy lines...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781785373459Author Billy HutchinsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 300Imprint Merrion PressPublisher Merrion Press

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781804515297Author Grant R. NewellFormat HardbackPage Count 536Imprint Helion & CompanyPublisher Helion & Company

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780316492065Author Simon ParkinFormat PaperbackPage Count 320Imprint Back Bay BooksPublisher Back Bay BooksWeight(grams) 295gDimensions(mm) 208mm * 137mm *...

The creation of large new tracts of forest, together with the development of a modern wood processing sector, was the single biggest transformation to occur in the Scottish countryside during the twentieth century. While the environmental and landscape...

FOREWORD BY ADAM KAY, AUTHOR OF THIS IS GOING TO HURTPortion of proceeds go to NHS Charities Together.A beautiful and heart-warming collection of stories, this landmark publication tells, for the first time ever, the rich history of the NHS through the...

J. R. D. 'Bob' Braham was Britain's most-decorated fighter pilot and one of the most successful fighter pilots of World War II. Joining the RAF in 1938 at the age of 18, he was posted to No. 29 Squadron at Debdon, where he learned to fly the Hawker...

Following his hugely popular account of the previous 2000 years, John O'Farrell now comes bang up to date with a hilarious modern history asking 'How the hell did we end up here?' An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain informs, elucidates and...

The unsung and remarkable stories of the women who held London's East End together during not one, but two world wars.'Inspiring tales of courage in the face of hardship' Mail on Sunday'Inspiring . . . Takes you back to a time of community and helping...

***A Waterstones Best Books of 2022 pick***Book of the Year in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and New Statesman'A powerful illumination of a lost world that is nevertheless part of living memory.' Simon Heffer, 'Books of the Year' , Daily Telegraph'A...

The perfect gift for every railway enthusiast. The history of Britain's railways is a long and fascinating one, filled with stories of grand endeavours, noted figures and record-breaking feats. Julian Holland brings together a unique...

John Lambert was a renowned naval draughtsman, whose plans were highly valued for their accuracy and detail by modelmakers and enthusiasts. By the time of his death in 2016 he had produced over 850 sheets of drawings, many of which have never been...

By 1983, many of Scotland's post-punk bands had broken up or moved south to chase the major labels in London. That vacuum was filled by an influx of young musicians who were determined to remake the scene in their own image. In this compelling and...

Decades tend to crest halfway through, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties: peak Britpop (Oasis v Blur), peak YBA (Tracey Emin's tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, when James Brown's Loaded detonated the publishing industry,...

Aristocrat, gambler, innovator and special forces legend, the life of David Stirling should need no retelling. His formation of the Special Air Service in the summer of 1941 led to a new form of warfare and Stirling is remembered as the father of special...

In this captivating and meticulously researched book, delve into the heart of history as the New Forest emerges from obscurity to take its rightful place in the annals of World War II. Through an engaging blend of personal anecdotes, period news items,...

In 1973 a group of North Wales building workers were arrested for picketing-related offences during the first and only national building workers strike in Britain the year before. It was a turning point for halting the growth of trade unionism in the...

With over 260 images, this is a highly illustrated history of the ships and operations of the Royal Navy during the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II. During the 70 years spanned by the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II, the Royal Navy changed...

An updated edition of Ben Pimlott's classic biography of the Queen: 'There is no better biography of Elizabeth II.' PETER HENNESSY, Independent on Sunday 'A magisterial biography and the only one that seriously deals with her constitutional...

South of the Norman city of Caen, the twin features of the Verrieres and Bourguebus ridges were key stepping stones for the British Second Army in late July 1944 - taking them was crucial if it was to be successful in its attempt to break out of the...

A major new history of Churchill in the 1930s, showing how his meetings at Chartwell, his country home, strengthened his fight against the Nazis In the 1930s, amidst an impending crisis in Europe, Winston Churchill found himself out of government and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781915113764Author Jonathan WashingtonFormat PaperbackPage Count 188Imprint Helion & CompanyPublisher Helion & Company

Everyone knows the story of Enigma and secret codebreaking in the Second World War: the triumph of Bletchley Park over world-class cipher technology. Except that excellence in codebreaking was nearly betrayed by incompetence in codemaking.German...

British Summer Time Begins is about summer holidays of the mid-twentieth century and how they were spent, as recounted to Ysenda Maxtone-Graham in vividly remembered detail by people who were there. Through this prism, it paints a revealing portrait of...

A riveting history of the 'Ten Pound Poms', a wave of British citizens who migrated to Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War. Between the 1940s and 1970s, more than a million Britons migrated to Australia. They were the famous 'Ten Pound...

'It reads like fiction, but it is, astonishingly, history' THE TIMESIN 1917, AN ECCENTRIC BAND OF BRITISH SPIES IS SMUGGLED INTO NEWLY SOVIET RUSSIA.Their goal is to defeat Lenin's plan to destroy British India and bring down the democracies of the West...

Archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, photographer, mountaineer and nation builder, Gertrude Bell was born in 1868 into a world of privilege and plenty, but she turned her back on all that for her passion for the Arab peoples, becoming the...

Now a major television documentary (Channel 4, 2021)The epic mission to destroy Hitler's flagship.'Bismarck was now loose in the Atlantic ... we had to find and sink her.'May, 1941. The most powerful battleship the world has ever seen, the German Navy's...