British Culture

From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realize that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves. Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine.

A top-10 list is nobody’s perfect tool, especially when trying to measure up 10 of the most significant and influential bands of the British Invasion. Nevertheless, this book presents 10 biographies of classic bands of the era widely regarded as the best of the best, putting their contributions to music in sharp focus. And what contributions they have made! Over half a century later, their songs still ring out on radios, their names are well-known to many, and songs released today are inspired by the music they produced.

When you can’t hear…death comes silently. Scotland Yard detective Valerie Crowther is assigned to investigate the murder of a student at a university for the Deaf in London, England. The murder investigation coincides with a deadly flu virus outbreak, resulting in the university being quarantined from the outside world. When more Deaf students are murdered, it becomes clear there is a serial killer operating within the sealed-off university. A chilling cat-and-mouse game evolves as the unknown killer targets Valerie and the virus claims more lives. A stunning, claustrophobic, “...

“Happy, sad and all emotions!” Dull and predictable English retiree, Frank, gets more adventure than he bargained for when he sets off on a road trip across 1980s Europe hoping to shake up his mundane life. Be transported with him to Berlin as the Berlin Wall falls, to Nice in the South of France, and to Naples and Sicily. In East Germany, Frank finds getting in much easier than getting out. In France, Frank meets the exotic Delphine who persuades him to cast a lifetime of caution to the wind. He's having the time of his life on the Cote d'Azur until things get complicated and the two ...

Bond and the Beatles present us with opposing values, visions of the British culture, and ideas about sexual identity. Love and Let Die is the story of a clash between working class liberation and establishment control, and how it exploded on the global stage. It explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.

Roald Dahl is one of the most famous children's book authors ever. Now, in this Who Was...? biography, children will learn of his real-life adventures. A flying ace for the British air force, he was married to an Academy Award-winning actress. He also wrote books and screenplays for adults.

A gallant attempt to narrate history through a multidimensional coverage of contemporary events in 19th and 20th century China and British Malaya. It brings to light the effects on the life of the Chinese migrants and the evolution of their role in the new country. The elaborate insertion of Confucian ethos draws attention to deep rooted attachment of the Chinese to their cultural root and a penetrating insight into Chinese customs and culture. The story is deeply embedded and wrapped into the events of the time. One can easily miss the narrative by the constant diversions to the multi-...

The first time Dieter Schmidt meets Mad Maggie is at a blockade on a logging road. He’s there to threaten the local First Nations band with court action if they don’t allow his client’s heavy equipment access to Deadman’s Island. Maggie emerges from the forest, but rather than chastise the lawyer for his part in trying to replace this unique ecosystem of magnificent old-growth trees with a housing development, she gives him an ultimatum. She will cure his yet-to-be-diagnosed terminal cancer if he saves the trees. Dieter dismisses Maggie's prediction as the delusions of someone ...

Did you know that the first people who settled on the grey-green islands of Great Britain were Black? How about that some of the Roman soldiers who invaded and even ruled Britain were Black, too? After that there were Black Tudors, Georgians and Victorians. In this easy-to-digest chronological journey through our shared history, award-winning author Atinuke brings her experience as an oral storyteller to carry listeners through the fascinating history of Black people in Britain.

In The British Bloke Decoded, writer, comedian and regular bloke, Geoff Norcott peels back the layers of blokedom, revealing the truth behind the sometimes inexplicable behaviour of Britain's husbands, dads and brothers. Based on 46 years of field research and almost scientific insights, Geoff digs deep into subjects as wide as: the value of Banter, the surprising roots of Mansplaining, the near impossibility of getting blokes to send birthday cards, and whether there could be a medal system for Hoovering.

The influence of the comic book has never been greater, from movies to streaming and beyond, but the journey comics took from little-regarded kids' magazines to literary prize-winning books and global franchises turned on a highly unusual group of writers and artists. Few would have expected a small gathering of British comic book fans and creators in the early 'seventies to be a global cultural pivot-point, but this was the start of a disparate movement of punks, dropouts, and disaffected youths who reinvented a medium and became the imaginative heart of a global success story.

Fame fades. Regret lingers. Terry Sparkes was almost famous. A fleeting soap opera role in the 1970s catapulted him into brief stardom—and an even longer spiral of loneliness, missed chances, and quiet decline. Now, decades later, Terry sits alone in a dingy flat, clinging to old tabloid clippings and watching the Oscars, dreaming of the one actor who still inspires him: Sir Michael Brookes. But Terry has a secret. One decision—made in a rain-soaked moment of panic—may have changed both their lives forever. An Actor’s Life is a darkly comic, quietly devastating exploration of ...

Joe Jackson is a life-long Scott Walker fan who, after interviewing Leonard Cohen in 1985, became an interviewer "purely to talk with more of my heroes," he says. First on his list was Scott Walker, when they finally did the interview a decade later, Walker thanked Jackson for a review he did of the Climate of Hunter album in 1984 and said it helped him redefine for himself how his music could best be described at that point. They did two in-depth interviews, unlike any ever given by Scott Walker. Both interviews, plus the backstory, will be in the second digital magazine in this two-part ...

A short, essential introduction to Black British history. When did Africans first come to Britain? Who are the well-dressed Black children in Georgian paintings? Why did the American Civil War disrupt the Industrial Revolution? These and many other questions are answered in this essential introduction to 1800 years of the Black British history: from the Roman Africans who guarded Hadrian’s Wall right up to the present day.

In 1918 Lytton Strachey published Eminent Victorians, which was a take-down of popular Victorian heroes. In reality, he argued, these paragons of virtue had feet of clay, a dark side that had been conveniently overlooked. The book was an enormous hit, for in speaking to his generation, he was preaching to the converted: even beyond the influential Bloomsbury Circle, of which he was a leading light, there was a widespread revulsion against the hypocrisy, the stilted formalism, and the emotional repression of the Victorian era. In the following study, Morris Berman aims to do the reverse, i.e...

The newspaper headlines all asked the same question; is James Brennan the new Messiah? Roy Lindermann's, MP for a ruling Liberal Party in crisis, is left a Top Secret folder by his dead friend Dustin Hislop. Investigating the folder's contents, he begins to unravel the story of James Brennan, writer, philosopher and, some would say, Messiah, who the Government put on trial for Treason. Brennan has been under house arrest for years, his only communication with the outside world being a soundless, live broadcast on TV every night from his farm. Now the transmissions have suddenly stopped. Is ...

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Mary Berry's autobiography, Recipe for Life, read by the actress Patricia Hodge. From Queen of Tarts to the nation's heart, Mary Berry shares her Recipe for Life. "In the words of my father, my birth caused no end of trouble..." From the moment she came into the world - two weeks early, throwing her parents' lives into disarray - Mary has gracefully but firmly done things her own way.

Twelve-year-olds Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle are from different worlds – Lizzie lives in Westminster in her dad’s tea shop, while Belle is an heiress being brought up by her aunt and uncle at grand Kenwood House – but they both share a love of solving mysteries. And after saving Lizzie’s father from attempted murder surely there is no threat too dangerous for the detective duo?

A short, essential introduction to Black British history. When did Africans first come to Britain? Who are the well-dressed Black children in Georgian paintings? Why did the American Civil War disrupt the Industrial Revolution? These and many other questions are answered in this essential introduction to 1800 years of the Black British history: from the Roman Africans who guarded Hadrian’s Wall right up to the present day.

Award-winning spoken word artist George the Poet brings together an incredible roster of Black British poets in this important and exciting new anthology, exploring people, moments and events from Black British history. Featuring works by established poets and new wordsmiths alike, Part of a Story That Started Before Me is the perfect listen for fans of Kayo Chingonyi's More Fiya and David Olusoga's Black and British.