A Railway History of New Shildon by George Turner Smith* – From George Stephenson to the Present Day – was the perfect book to take with me on my trip to up north. Why? Because on the 27th September 1825 the first public railway steam…
History, Memory and Public Life by Adam Sutcliffe, alongside with two other editors, Anna Katharina Maerker and Simon Sleight. Each chapter is written by another author expert in the topic, so it is a fascinating book because there are short chapters, of less than 30…
The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by John Pickard* is a fantastic book. The description of the book mentions that this is “a book by a non-believer for other non-believers, and it will be a revelatory read, even to those already of an atheist,…
A Short History of War by Jeremy Black is a very short history of warfare. I like how the book started, with the origins of conflict and looks at both conflict between humans and humans and other animals. It was an unexpected way to look…
A Dark History of Chocolate by Emma Kay* is the second book in the series A Dark History. The book had a lot of trivia-like snippets, which were interesting. It covers a lot of subjects, from piracy to slavery, including a few things on modern-day…
The History of Sweets by Paul Chrystal* is the second book I read by this author. The first one was Rowntree’s, reviewed last month. I loved that one and I loved this book too. There are some parts overlapping, as expected, but it didn’t bother…
Rowntree’s by Paul Chrystal* – The Early History is such an interesting book. I knew only a few things about the history of chocolate and its York connections. The great things about this book is that, while talking a lot about the Rowntree family, with…
A History of the Medicines We Take by Anthony Armstrong, Anthony Cartwright* – From Ancient Times to Present Day – was great! I liked very much how the book started (cats and catnip) and how it was structured too. The first part of the book…
I received this book on Saturday and I started reading it straight away. I finished it today, so I can share my thoughts on Dogs by Mike Loades: Working Origins and Traditional Tasks*. In one word I can describe the book as: amazing. No worries,…
I started Historical Controversies and Historians by William Lamont a month ago, I stopped reading it during the holidays, but finished it on the first day I “went back” to university, as in, a week before the actual start of the term, when I also…
I don’t think I can recommend enough Life in Miniature by Nicola Lisle* – A History of Dolls’ Houses. I loved it! It was such a fascinating book. I had no idea, before reading the book, how widespread the doll houses were before the Victorian…
A History of British Baking by Emma Kay* – From Blood Bread to Bake-Off is just the book I wanted to read now, after my last Bake Off bake along. I baked along each year for the last few years, at least one challenge, from…
Centuries of Change by Ian Mortimer – Which Century Saw the Most Change and Why it Matters to Us – sounds like a very interesting book and it was. Each chapter dealt with the changes happening in a century, starting from the 11th. The focus…
I’ve read a history of salt last year and found it fascinating, so I imagined that The Dark History of Tea by Seren Charrington-Hollins* would be just as interesting. I was right. Unlike salt, where my knowledge prior to reading the book was limited, I…
I felt I need to know more about UK’s PMs and so I got the British Prime Ministers by Robert Parker. Parker is an American historian, which makes him a less obvious candidate for writing a book about the British PMs. But he did and…
Instant History by Sandra Lawrence* is a small but informative book from the Instant series. I have three more books from this series to review, including one that I’m reading at the moment, on Engineering. The book is divided into four periods: Early modern period;…