Social History

'This riveting behind-the-scenes story of the clothes on our backs is a must-read for clotheshorses everywhere' Harper's Bazaar 'Extraordinary . . . fascinating . . . a wonderful way into history, quite often through the voices of people who don't have...

In 1956 the Suez Crisis finally shattered the old myths of the British Empire and paved the way for the tumultuous changes of the decades to come. In NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD, Dominic Sandbrook takes a fresh look at the dramatic story of affluence and...

'Extraordinary. An intellectual feast as well as a visual one'Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber EyesThe world comes to us in colour. But colour lives as much in our imaginations as it does in our surroundings, as this scintillating book...

Selected as one of the Sunday Times best gardening books of 2023Discover the lavish beauty and fascinating history of the 40 most important and inspiring botanic gardens from across the globe.From the Renaissance gardens of Italy to the futuristic...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781612194196Author David GraeberFormat PaperbackPage Count 548Imprint Melville House PublishingPublisher Melville House PublishingWeight(grams) 540g

A unique chronicle of the hundred-year period when the Jewish people changed the world - and it changed them Marx, Freud, Proust, Einstein, Bernhardt and Kafka. Between the middle of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a few dozen men and women...

What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine-yes, that...

The perfect Mother's Day gift - a compulsive collection of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and powerful letters with mothers at their heart, curated by the founder of the global phenomenon lettersofnote.comIn Letters of Note: Mothers, Shaun...

The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, published on the 25th anniversary of the handoverIn June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to try to prepare it not (as other British colonies over the decades) for...

Fifty years since first publication, E. P. Thompson's revolutionary account of working-class culture and ideals is published in Penguin Modern Classics, with a new introduction by historian Michael KennyThis classic and imaginative account of...

First published in 1969, An Orkney Tapestry, George Mackay Brown's seminal work, is a unique look at Orkney through the eye of a poet. Originally commissioned by his publisher as an introduction to the Orkney Islands, Brown approached the writing from a...

New updated edition of the seminal work by Catherine Dunne, which charted the multifarious lives of the London Irish, in all their variety and colour, now with a brand new foreword by Diarmaid Ferriter. Before the 'Ryanair Generation', leaving home...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781910383667Author Lyn JuliusFormat PaperbackPage Count 360Imprint Vallentine Mitchell & Co LtdPublisher Vallentine Mitchell & Co Ltd

THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR*Shortlisted for the 2021 Financial Times and McKinsey & Company Business Book of the Year Award*'This unique and fascinating history explains why the blame now being piled upon meritocracy for many social ills is misplaced-and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780735225268Author Timothy EganFormat HardbackPage Count 432Imprint Prentice Hall PressPublisher Prentice Hall Press

State of Emergency : Britain 1970-74 is a brilliant history of the gaudy, schizophrenic atmosphere of the early Seventies. The early 1970s were the age of gloom and glam. Under Edward Heath, the optimism of the Sixties had become a distant memory. Now...

In Letters of Note: Grief, Shaun Usher gathers together some of the most powerful messages about grief, from the heart-wrenching pain of losing a loved one to reliving fond memories of those who have passed on.Includes letters by:Audre Lorde, Robert...

'This book deserves a place in your bookcase next to Harari's Sapiens. It's every bit as fascinating and is surely destined to be just as successful' Julian Norton From the plains of ancient Mesopotamia to the vast sheep farms of modern-day Australia,...

An intensely moving account of George III's doomed attempt to create a happy, harmonious family, written with astonishing emotional force by a stunning new history writer. George III came to the throne in 1760 as a man with a mission. He was...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780399582677Author Joe GillardFormat HardbackPage Count 192Imprint Ten Speed PressPublisher Ten Speed Press

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780593534144Author Ric BurnsFormat HardbackPage Count 736Imprint Random House IncPublisher Random House USA Inc

The Danes are the happiest people in the world, and pay the highest taxes.'Neutral' Sweden is one of the biggest arms manufacturers in the world.Finns have the largest per capita gun ownership after the US and Yemen.54 per cent of Icelanders believe in...

A revelatory uncovering of a vanished agricultural way of life by bestselling nature writer Sally Coulthard. 'A gem of a book' Country Smallholding 'Engaging and filled with gentle humour and fascinating facts' Get History 'Shows us the beauty and...

In 1872, a young archaeologist at the British Museum made a tremendous discovery. While he was working his way through a Mesopotamian 'slush pile', George Smith, a self-taught expert in ancient languages, happened upon a Babylonian version of Noah's...

'Those left cold by the sober tones of scholarship will find this voice liberating and intoxicating. Its energy is boundless and its range immense.' Wall Street Journal In Ancient Rome all the best stories have one thing in common - murder. Romulus...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781497424326Author Joseph L TroiseFormat PaperbackPage Count 310Imprint Createspace Independent Publishing PlatformPublisher Createspace Independent...

Garden and social historian Advolly Richmond (of Gardener's World) unravels the surprising histories of 60 flowers that shape our gardens. Have you ever wondered where your favourite garden flowers came from? Where their names derived? Or why some...

How do you tell that a country has died? In this devastating, pessimistic, though critically-timed revised edition of his classic book, Peter Hitchens describes and regrets the abolition of Britain. In the years since Peter Hitchens first wrote The...

'Nobody knows more about everyday life in Victorian Britain than Judith Flanders' - Douglas Robert-Fairhurst, author of Metamorphosis and The Turning PointIn Rites of Passage, acclaimed historian Judith Flanders deconstructs the intricate, fascinating,...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEARFINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times 'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read'...

Dominic Sandbrook's magnificent account of the late 1970s in Britain The late 1970s were Britain's years of strife and the good life. They saw inflation, riots, the peak of trade union power - and also the birth of home computers, the rise of the ready...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2023WINNER OF THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2023A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKAn indelible exploration of...

An epic history of the 'other' Europe, a place of conflict and coexistence, of faith and folklore. 'Do not rush to bid farewell to eastern Europe until reading this book. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, this very personal story of the...

We may all feel we know what an "English" garden is, but do we really? England's Gardens offers a holistic, modern-day tour and an update on the history of some of the most iconic, enduring, and influential gardens across the country.A fresh take on a...

*A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week* 'Carefully observed, rich in detail, imaginative, compassionate and angry. A raw, unexpected portrait of Britain's grandeur, wealth, energy, cruelty and hypocrisy in the age of liberalism' RORY STEWART 'A shocking story...

An incisive and deeply candid account that explores autistic women in culture, myth, and society through the prism of the author's own diagnosis. Until the 1980s, autism was regarded as a condition found mostly in boys. Even in our time, autistic girls...

'Passionate and absorbing'SUNDAY TIMES'I learned more about the Moon by reading this book than after a lifetime of study'CHRIS HADFIELD, author of An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth'Superb: as much a feat of imagination as it is a work of...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781915513014Author Amy BatemanFormat HardbackImprint Jake Island LtdPublisher Jake Island Ltd

'Compulsively readable' - Times Literary Supplement 'An outstanding work' - Philippa Gregory 'A powerful narrative told with frankness and sensitivity' Helen Fry, historian and author of Women...

Four stunning pocket-sized fashion books in one box set. Includes Little Book of Chanel, Little Book of Dior, Little Book of Gucci and Little Book of Prada - telling the stories of four iconic fashion houses. With images of the four houses' most timeless...