Social History

Before It Went Rotten takes a trip back to the world before punk. When Anarchy in the UK appeared, London enjoyed one of the most vibrant music scenes in the world. A network of mainly Irish owned pubs and clubs provided music every night, much of it...

In the 1800s, a shepherd's hut or living van would have been an unremarkable sight in many regions of rural Britain. By the 1970s most lay abandoned as farming methods and industry left them behind. Today the humble shepherd's hut is making a comeback...

This is the book that made Simon Schama's reputation when first published in 1987. A historical masterpiece, it is an epic account of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age of Rembrandt and van Diemen. In this brilliant work that moves far beyond the...

A Waterstones Travel Book of the Year 2023 A funny, warm and timely meditation on identity and belonging, following the scenic route along the England-Wales border: Britain's deepest faultline. There is a...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780143118077Author Rebecca SolnitFormat PaperbackPage Count 368Imprint Penguin USAPublisher Penguin Putnam Inc

The bestselling social history of Victorian domestic life, told through the letters, diaries, journals and novels of 19th-century men and women. The Victorian age is both recent and unimaginably distant. In the most prosperous and...

Author and historian David Paul brings us a selection of strange and mythical tales from across Yorkshire, from the Wolds, Dales and Moors to its lesser-known rural landscape, from the coast to its towns, villages and cities, including a whole range of...

In 2020 and 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic, Gwrych Castle was familiar to the British public as the setting of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Lesser known is that, at the beginning of the Second World War, this once-grand country house...

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...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781612199337Author David GraeberFormat HardbackPage Count 560Imprint Melville House PublishingPublisher Melville House Publishing

Announcing the arrival of a major new talent, an astonishing work of social history which captures Black gay Britain as never before.'In this seminal book Okundaye gives us juicy dialogue, tears and laughter, and vivid landscapes of memory.'MENDEZ,...

**WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE** 'A book of big questions, and big answers' Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens Why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe? And what can it teach us about our current crisis? Jared Diamond...

'Majestic ... [an] excitable, illuminating and sure to be enduring work' Financial Times 'Brilliant, authoritative and engaging' Country Life British architecture between the wars is most famous for the rise of modernism - the flat roofs, clean...

"1100 men went into the water..." So begins the critically acclaimed and haunting monologue by actor Robert Shaw as grizzled shark hunter Quint in the movie Jaws, in which he describes his experience as a survivor of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis...

From the author of Fake History, Otto English, comes a shocking yet hilarious look at ten of the greatest liars from our past, examining these previously unquestioned idols and exposing what they were trying to hide.'A brilliant book.' James O'BrienWas...

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...

**OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD****THE TIMES MEMOIR OF THE YEAR 2019**'The best royal book by miles . . . funny, gossipy and riveting'JANE RIDLEY, SPECTATOR'If your jaw doesn't drop at least three times every chapter, you've not been paying proper...

'Endlessly fascinating and full of surprises. Easily one of my books of the year' BILL BRYSONThe myth-busting science behind our modern attitudes to exercise: what our bodies really need, why it matters, and its effects on health and wellbeing. In...

'This is a history shaken by intimacy - a brave and rigorously humane book' Sean HewittHow far would you go for the missing?When Clair Wills was in her twenties, she discovered she had a cousin she had never met. Born in a Mother and Baby Home in 1950s...

For fans of Thinking, Fast and Slow and The Power of Habit, a groundbreaking new study of how disrupting our well-worn routines, both good and bad, can rejuvenate our days and reset our brains to allow us to live happier and more fulfilling lives.Have...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2023 A WATERSTONES BOOK OF YEAR FOR POLITICS 2023 'I learned something new on every page of this totally essential book'...

'There have been plenty of books on the Edwardians before, but never one as richly enjoyable as this ... nobody has done a better job of capturing what ordinary people thought and cared about more than a century ago' Dominic Sandbrook, Book of the Week,...

'A truly radical book; radical in subject, radical in form. For the most tragic reasons, it could not feel more immediate; and yet it's a fluid, fast-paced, hugely enjoyable and engaging read.' - Andrew Marr''Unforgettable... Non fiction will be...

Shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2011. Life is on the up. We are wealthier, healthier, happier, kinder, cleaner, more peaceful, more equal and longer-lived than any previous generation. Thanks to the...

An extraordinary tale of family feuds, forbidden love, civil unrest and the downfall of a mining dynasty Wentworth in Yorkshire was surrounded by 70 collieries employing tens of thousands of men. It is the finest and largest Georgian house in Britain and...

A fascinating slice of social history - Jennifer Worth's tales of being a midwife in 1950s London, now a major BBC TV series.Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which...

A fascinating slice of East End life, from the No.1 bestsellilng author of CALL THE MIDWIFE, soon to be a major BBC TV series.In this follow up to CALL THE MIDWIFE, Jennifer Worth, a midwife working in the docklands area of East London in the 1950s tells...

'MASTERFUL' Time Out'REVELATORY' Scotland on Sunday'GLORIOUSLY READABLE' Metro'FASCINATING' Independent 'EXCELLENT' Telegraph'ABSORBING' GuardianWinner of the British Sports Book AwardsFootball Book of the YearThe fifteenth anniversary edition, fully...

An updated edition of the Sunday Times Bestseller Britain's best-known classicist Mary Beard, is also a committed and vocal feminist. With wry wit, she revisits the gender agenda and shows how history has treated powerful women. Her examples range...

What if meeting new people were a gift, not a burden? How might we transform our lives if we set aside our fear of outsiders? When Will Buckingham's partner died, the shock of his grief told him to withdraw. Instead, he sought solace in throwing...

In a mist-shrouded valley on China's invisible border with Tibet is a place known as the 'Kingdom of Women'. A small tribe called the Mosuo lives in a cluster of villages that have changed little in centuries. This is one of the last matrilineal...

Ranging from the age of slavery to contemporary injustices, this groundbreaking history of race, gender and class inequality by the radical political activist Angela Davis offers an alternative view of female struggles for liberation.Tracing the...

Known as the 'grandmother of herbalism', Juliette de Bairacli Levy travelled throughout Europe and North America in pursuit of her passion for herbs and holistic medicine, living mostly in rural places whose nomadic communities helped expand her...

'[A] comprehensive and important history of black Britain . . . Written with a wonderful clarity of style and with great force and passion.' - Kwasi Kwarteng, Sunday TimesIn this vital re-examination of a shared history, historian and broadcaster David...

**Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize 2024****A Financial Times Best Book of 2023**'A moving love letter to Europe' Lea Ypi, author of FreeDrawing from the people who lived it, Homelands explores how Europe slowly recovered and rebuilt from World War Two...

'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,...

Award-winning writer Richard Williams tells the remarkable story of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world's most iconic motorsports events, which celebrates its centenary in 2023. The event was created by a group of Frenchmen in 1923 and remains...

This rich and enjoyable book by the acclaimed author of Japan Story explores the many ways in which Asia has influenced Europe and North America over centuries of tangled, dynamic encountersFrom the time of the ancient Greeks onwards the West's...

'Read this book' Alastair Campbell'A really wonderful book' Nigella Lawson via TwitterIn 1975 Richard Beard was sent away to boarding school. So were Boris Johnson and David Cameron.He didn't enjoy it. But the first and most important lesson was not to...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'A mind-expanding tour of the world without leaving your paintbox. Every colour has a story, and here are some of the most alluring, alarming, and thought-provoking. Very hard painting the hallway magnolia after this inspiring...