British House

As World War I drew to a close, change reverberated through the halls of England's country homes. As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, the shadows lengthened on the lawns of a thousand stately homes. In The Long Weekend, historian Adrian Tinniswood introduces us to the tumultuous, scandalous, and glamorous history of English country houses during the years between world wars.

After a wealthy woman was brutally murdered in her Glasgow home in 1908, the police found a convenient suspect in Oscar Slater, an immigrant Jewish cardsharp. Though he was known to be innocent, Slater was tried, convicted, and consigned to life at hard labor. Outraged by this injustice, Arthur Conan Doyle, already world famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, used the methods of his most famous character to reinvestigate the case, ultimately winning Slater’s freedom.

Neil Carson, a lifelong sceptic inherits his late uncle’s Victorian house where, in spite of life-long scepticism, he starts to experience increasingly weird events and seeing spectral figures all seemingly reliving a long forgotten tragedy. His scepticism is stretched still further when he meets the living counterpart of one of the spectres he has seen and then matters take a horrifying turn as those long-ago events start to play themselves out once more. Extract I suppose I must have been working sporadically for maybe an hour when suddenly I once again had that feeling that I wasn’t ...

The year is 1861. The American Civil War has just begun, and London arms dealer Daniel Alberton is becoming a very wealthy man. His quiet dinner party seems remote indeed from the passions rending America. Yet investigator William Monk and his bride, Hester, sense growing tensions and barely concealed violence.

England, 1925. When a strange young woman is found murdered on the grounds of Unsworth Castle, the duke and his family are astounded at first, but quickly become enraged when the police begin asking all sorts of impertinent questions. And when suspicions dare to fall on one of their own, it is up to Mr. Quayle, Lord Unsworth's exceedingly efficient secretary, to find the true culprit and save the House of Unsworth from scandal and ruin.

This book presents a comprehensive history of the existential war waged between the Anglo-Dutch imperial system and what became known as the American System of political economy ever since the creation of the predatory British and Dutch East India Companies. On that basis, the book presents a counterintuitive solution to the crisis confronting humanity today, arguing that only a combination of the Four Powers, the USA, Russia, China and India, has the power to finally dismantle the Anglo-Dutch imperial system as it emerged from the British and Dutch East India Companies. The book documents ...

I had a plan: work hard, save money, and move to the UK to be with my boyfriend. But when I get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work as a data analyst in Dublin, I can’t say no. As my career takes off, my intense long-distance romance with my brother's best friend faces the ultimate test, leading me to the UK in a desperate bid to save our love amidst the challenges of a new life abroad. I believe this country holds my happily ever after, but it looks like I'm going to lose everything I worked so hard for. --- Every Move I Make is the second book in the All of Me Trilogy with a Happy ...

Amber ignored the tales of Gull's Nest, the sea-cliff house shrouded in dark history. When she realizes the legends are terrifyingly real, it's already too late. Amber's world spiraled into the unknown when her brother, Jeremy, ignored all cautions and bought Gull's Nest, an eerie house perched on a sea cliff, notorious for its dark past. Jeremy's disturbing visions were hardly a shock, given his penchant for delving into the mystical, beyond mere earthly indulgences. Amber's visit to Gull's Nest took a chilling turn when she was greeted not by her brother, but by the police, demanding she ...

Alex-Li Tandem sells autographs. A small blip in a huge worldwide network of desire, his business is to hunt for names on paper, collect them, sell them, and occasionally fake them - all to give the people what they want: a little piece of Fame. But what does Alex want? Only the return of his father, the reinstatement of some kind of all-powerful, benevolent God-type figure, the end of religion, something for his headache, three different girls, infinite grace, and the rare autograph of '40s movie actress Kitty Alexander. With fries.

Jas’ fantasy is Mr. Darcy, elegant balls, and amusing assemblies. So romantic. Jas’ reality? Rory, boring work, and painting the hall. Not romantic … at all. An accidental purchase of a lover’s locket enables Jas to time travel back to its origins: the Regency era. Her excitement is short-lived, however, when she realizes she is not just an observer but is inhabiting the real lives of real, living people; people never mentioned in any of Jane Austen’s novels; people whose lives are neither romantic nor elegant. So much for fantasy. Seeking romance in the Regency era seems like a ...

Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the truth about Joseph P. Kennedy's shockingly controversial tenure as ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II.

A lump of concrete dropped deliberately from a little stone bridge over a relatively unfrequented road kills the wrong person. The driver behind is spared. But only for a while.

From the frenzy of the 2012 Olympics to the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, here Jonathan Coe chronicles the story of modern Britain by way of a cast of characters whose world is being upended. There are newlyweds who disagree about the country’s future and, possibly, their relationship; a political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his lavish town house while his radical teenage daughter undertakes a relentless quest for universal justice; and Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father.

The final volume in A History of the Plantagenets covers the century from 1377 to 1485, when civil war ravaged England, rebellious peasants marched on London and wandering preachers sowed dissent in the credulous poor. The last Plantagenet monarchs governed in violence and confusion. Kings came and went, deposed or murdered. Princes and nobles slaughtered or were slaughtered in bloody battles or private feuds. It was an era of brilliant successes, tragic reverses, and wild extravagance.

In this eye-opening companion to seasons 2 and 3 of Netflix’s acclaimed series The Crown, renowned biographer - and the show’s historical consultant - Robert Lacey takes us through the real history that inspired the drama. Covering two tumultuous decades in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, Lacey looks at the key social, political, and personal moments and their effects - not only on the royal family but also on the world around them.

Featuring seven significant cases from the files of Scotland Yard. Read the story of Inspector George Feltham and Sergeant Samuel Pegler’s pursuit of ‘the sincere and honourable’ James Greenacre, in ‘Whatever Happened to Hannah Brown?’ a case that predated the formation of the Yard’s Detective Branch. Discover the trials of Inspector Whicher and his attempt to break through the class barriers that protected the murderer of an innocent child, in ‘Road Kill’. Hear of the harrowing chase through the streets of London, as the brave bobbies and the fearless public chase down two ...

In an innovative and engaging narrative of everyday life in Shakespeare’s England, Ramie Targoff carries us from the sumptuous coronation of Queen Elizabeth in the mid-sixteenth century into the private lives of four women writers working at a time when women were legally the property of men.

The Grim Reaper is an anthropomorphic symbol of death, except when a serial killer thinks he is real, thinks he is himself. Follow the Spittlefields urchins as they discover who is killing drunks in East End London.

In July 1949, an unpopular and deeply unpleasant man is stabbed to death in the courthouse of an English city. As the murder has been committed in a room to which the general public doesn’t have access, it seems probable that the culprit is someone involved with the business of the courts. Suspects include a number of lawyers, police officers, and magistrates. For various reasons, the local Chief Constable decides to ask Scotland Yard to investigate the murder. Chief Inspector Philip Bryce and Sergeant Alex Haig are assigned to the case. Theirs is a recent partnership, but the two men ...

Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton, has brought to Howenstow, his family home, the young woman he has asked to be his bride. But the savage murder of a local journalist is the catalyst for a lethal series of events that shatters the calm of a picturesque Cornwall village and embroils Lynley and St. James in a case far outside their jurisdiction - and a little too close to home.