John Bunyan

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Loraine Fletcher

Charlotte Turner Smith (1749-1806) was born into the landed gentry and married off at 15, on the insistence of a hostile stepmother, to a wastrel from a West Indian family whose money came from the slave trade. When her husband's fecklessness forced her to support herself and their nine surviving children alone, she at once became a celebrated poet and novelist. Writing at the time of the French Revolution, she wanted change in England too and commented sharply on the injustice of England's class system, on the legalized looting of Empire and the legal prostitution of arranged marriages. Her Elegiac Sonnets with their lonely landscapes greatly influenced William Wordsworth, while Jane Austen devoured her satirical fiction and adapted her plots and settings for novels of her own. Her personality comes across vividly from her letters, published here for the first time, and from Loraine Fletcher's sympathetic, scholarly narrative.

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[by] Roger Lancelyn Green & Walter Hooper

"Born in Belfast in 1898 and sent to England for a public school education with his elder brother, Warren, C.S. Lewis exhibited a genius for imagination and perception from his earliest years. Later, his Chronicles of Narnia became children's classics and he was deluged with correspondence from his young readers." "During his lifetime C.S. Lewis suggested to his friend, Roger Lancelyn Green, that he would undertake his biography one day. After Lewis's death in 1963 Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper, Lewis's personal secretary during the last months of his life, were approached by several of Lewis's friends who encouraged them to write his story. Lewis's brother Warren contributed a great deal to the research, and the authors had at their disposal a vast collection of letters and diaries and the unique recollections of many surviving family members and friends."--Jacket.

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David Loades

"'Henry VIII' focuses on the fluctuating, often fraught relationship between the king and his court, his Church and his people -- and with the other powers of continental Europe, relations with whom were thrown into turmoil by Henry's successive marriages. It explores Henry's policies and strategies and his manipulation of key players such as Wolsey, Cromwell, Fisher and More, as well as the shaping of his royal image over decades of change. It also probes the intriguing nature of the man behind the monarch, especially his complex religious beliefs that determined the shape of England's reformation. David Loades, an authoritative historian of Tudor England, begins by explaining how historians have treated Henry and the expectations contemporaries had of the Renaissance prince who ascended the throne. He describes the ensuing reign in detail, taking in the wars, law enforcement, the succession question, the court, the rebellions and the problem of Ireland, illustrating the narrative with original National Archives documents and full colour portraits of those involved.The author concludes by considering the ambiguous but still tangible legacy that this most high-profile of monarchs has left us."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

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Patrick Marnham

Biography of Mary Farmar, a descendant of the Duke of Wellington, who married first Baron Swinfen and then Eric Siepmann. She started writing seriously at the age of 70 under the pen name of Mary Wesley to stave off poverty. Between the ages of 70 and 85 she produced a series of best sellers including "The Camomile Lawn", which appear to include significant autobiographical elements. Her life in pre-war and wartime Britain was remarkable, and almost scandalous. Her friends provided first hand experience of pre-war Europe, and then of the post war challenges that followed. A fascinating window into upper middle class Britain of the time.