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Henry: Virtuous Prince

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: David Starkey

October 01, 2008

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The Duchess

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: Amanda Foreman

August 04, 2008
I was very pleased that I was able to get into this book and I remember it as if it was a story! It is so well done and gave me the information I would want from any historical biography without the boredom! The film is good but isn't the tiniest patch on the book!

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A History of Modern Britain

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: Andrew Marr

May 02, 2008
I took this book on holiday with me and I feel a week by the pool is a perfect way to enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed the pace of this work. I felt it gave just the right amount of detail without dwelling on unimportant facts.

For me it was constantly enthralling. As a 23 year-old I certainly learnt a great deal. The detail is far greater than the BBC series that accompanied the book. My only doubt is whether had I lived through the times discussed I would have found it a little lightweight.

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An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: John O'Farrell

May 05, 2008
I really enjoyed this book . Obviously you can't expect to have a very detailed account of 2000 years of history in just over 500 pages, but I found it informative in that there were a lot of things I didn't know. OK, perhaps some of them weren't really worth knowing, and maybe the historica acuracy was questionable in places, but as a light-hearted 'potted history' I thought it worked well. Humour is very subjective and I see that several reviewers of this book didn't think it was at all funny, but I was quite amused and after I'd read out several 'funny bits' to my husband he decided he had to read it for himself. He wasn't as enthusiastic as me as he prefers more heavyweight reading, but I really enjoyed it. As someone else has said, history books can ... Read More:

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Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: Amanda Foreman

June 07, 1999
Although 'Georgiana' is competently written and well-researched, I am frankly amazed that it has achieved such massive success and popularity since its first publication ten years ago. As other reviewers have pointed out, it perhaps fulfills a useful purpose in putting women back in the 'front-line' of the eighteenth-century political scene but, speaking for myself, I found the exhaustive discussion of the ups-and-downs of the Whigs and Tories tedious in the extreme and an almost total turn-off. This was doubly disappointing, since the rave reviews had led me to expect so much more.

Strangely enough, the most engaging part of the book was the introduction, in which the author writes with real verve and enthusiasm of how she was first 'introduced' ... Read More:

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The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: Alison Weir

November 22, 2007
After watching the TV series the Tudors. I was interested in finding out more about the real events. This book is fantastic I couldn't put it down and will be buying more books by Alison Weir.

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Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: Adam Nicolson

September 01, 2008
After watching the TV series the Tudors. I was interested in finding out more about the real events. This book is fantastic I couldn't put it down and will be buying more books by Alison Weir.

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Our Times

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: A.N. Wilson

September 18, 2008
This is the most absurd book of history I have ever read. Wilson is ruthlessly judgemental, sloppy with his dates, casual in his disdain for the niceties of 'proper' history, and his book is brilliant.

In his lucid, digressive style, Wilson delineates an alternately hilarious and devastating analysis of the major events - political, cultural, religious - in British life over the last sixty years. It induced in me convulsions of sadness, laughter, and anger, and I only wish other historians had the temerity - not to mention the learning - to deliver a book of this standard.

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Tommy's War: A First World War Diary 1913-1918

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: Thomas Cairns Livingstone

September 15, 2008
This book is a delight, a gem. The original illustrations take the diaries beyond the mundane, and Thomas Livingstone's gentle humour enlivens the often dreary weather and seemingly constant worries over Agnes health. Zeplins, Chimneys, the wash house, news from the front, the ironing, the cost of coal..... all of life is here. You will love it!

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Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Britain and Ireland
by: Alison Weir

August 07, 2008
Although Weir has written historical biographies of women who were intrinsically interesting -- Eleanor of Acquitaine and Isabella (the She Wolf) of France -- I have always found them a little dry. It's surprisingly, then, that her most lively and readable book so far should be about a woman about whom so little is known.

We can conjecture who Katherine de Roet's father was but the identity of her mother remains unknown; we cannot be sure how many children she bore, assuming that some died young, as was almost inevitable; Weir makes silly statements such as 'Katherine may well have been there that day but there is no evidence of it' a little too often.

Even so, the character of Katherine shines through, the first royal mistress ever to achieve the status ... Read More: