Dr J.A. Langford (1823-1903). A Self-Taught Working Man and the Sale of American Degrees in Victorian Britain, Stephen Roberts, Authoring History, paperback, 2014, 65 pp. ISBN 9781495475122John Alfred Langford, is depicted in later life on the cover of this fascinating, brief, biographical profile as an elderly figure with long straggling...

Roman Britain. A New History 55 BC-AD 450, Patricia Southern, Amberley, 2013, paperback, 464 pp., £12.99, ISBN 9781445611907 Boldly billed as ‘the most authoritative history of Roman Britain ever published for the general reader', this readable and engaging analytical narrative by an author with an extensive track record of twelve...

Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914, Prit Buttar, Osprey Publishing, 2014, 472p, £20-00. ISBN 978-1-78200-648-0.In introducing his research and narrative, Prit Buttar makes the point that there is a tendency to consider the Great War from the perspective of what happened on the borders of...

Dinefwr: A Phoenix in Wales, Gerald Morgan, Gomer Press, 2014, 227p, £19-99. ISBN 978-1-84851-820-9.This fascinating book offers the complexities of varying spellings of place names and surnames as it charts the long story of an historic site. Although it was attached to many other landholdings, both in Wales and England,...

Posters of the First World War, David Bownes and Robert Fleming, Shire Publications, 2014, 172p, £10-00. ISBN 978-0-74781-428-3.   With over seventy colour reproductions of Great War poster, David Bownes and Robert Fleming provide us substantial evidence of how the war effort was supported by a propaganda campaign waged with...

American Tanks & AFVs of World War II, Michael Green, Osprey Publishing, 2014, 376 pp, £30.00. ISBN: 978 1 78200 931 3. No better author could have been found for this book.  Michael Green has written or co-written over 100 books on military subjects and is an expert on US...

London's Sewers, Paul Dobraszczyk, Shire Library, 2014, 64p, £6-99. ISBN 978-0-74781-431-3.One of the engineering achievements of 19th Century Britain was the design and construction of a unified sewage system for London. Of course it was much more than this because it began the process by which the people of London...

Trench: a History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front, Stephen Bull, Osprey Publishing, 2014, 272 pp, ISBN: 978 1 4728 0132 6, £14.99. We have already seen a publishing explosion about World War 1 and, as each succeeding anniversary passes, the older books will be discarded.  However, Trench by...

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, Christopher Clark, Penguin Books, 2013, 697p, £10.99, ISBN: 978-0-141-02782-1. Among the many books published about the forthcoming centenary of the First World War, Christopher Clark, the distinguished historian, has produced a masterly survey to try and answer the question - How,...

Mapledurwell [Victoria History of Hampshire], John Hare, Jean Morrin and Stan Waight, Victoria County History, 2012, 85p. ISBN 978-1-905165-89-6.Mapledurwell is still a relatively remote location near to Basingstoke. This volume is part of the new programme whereby the Victoria County History publishes, in paperback form, parish and urban histories, so...

Before Gallipoli: The 29th Division in Warwickshire and North Oxfordshire, December 1914 - March 1915, Chris Holland, Warwickshire Great War Publications, 144p, 2014, £9.95, ISBN: 978-0-9574216-2-2. Obtainable from Chris Holland, Plott Bungalow, Plott Lane, Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Rugby CV23 9HR. Among the many books now being published on World War I, Chris...

Challenge of Battle: The Real Story of the British Army in 1914, Adrian Gilbert, Osprey Publishing, 2014, 304p, £20,ISBN: 978-1-84908-859-6.With the approaching centenary of World War I, there are many books already appearing relating to what is still a massive event in British history, eventually involving almost every family in...

Wakefield Court Roll 1812-13 John A. Hargreaves, (editor)(Volume XVI, Wakefield Court Rolls Series, Yorkshire Archaeological Society), 2014262pp., £20 plus £2.75 postage and packing, ISBN 978-1-903564-17-2Whether 1812 was the worst year in British history, it is certainly up there amongst the worst-1066, 1349, 1914, 1929 and 2008. Britain had been enmeshed...

The SBS in World War II - An Illustrated History, Gavin Mortimer, Osprey Publishing, 2013, 256 p, ISBN 978-1-78200-189-8, £20.Gavin Mortimer has established a firm place as a historian of Special Forces in World War Two.  His outstanding books on the SAS (2004 and 2011) and this one on the SBS...

Strong Women. Life, Text and Territory 1347-1645, Oxford University Press, 2012, paperback, £18, ISBN 9780199661343Originating in a series of Clarendon lectures given at Oxford in October 2007 and first published in hardback in 2011, this welcome paperback edition will enable more widespread access to this remarkable book. Its hardback edition...

Coping with Change: British Society, 1780-1914, Richard Brown, Authoring History, 2013, vi + 762, £21.88, paper ISBN 13: 978-1492969129; 10: 1492969125The title of Richard Brown's revised, composite history of British society unusually draws parallels between Britain today and Britain during the ‘long' nineteenth century. It thus provides a distinctly fresh...

Doodlebugs, Gas Masks and Gum. Children's Voices from the Second World War, Christina Rex, Amberley, 2012, paperback, 192 pp. ISBN 9781445607023This paperback edition of a well-received hardback edition published in 2009 presents wartime Britain ‘through the eyes of children who were there'. The author, who was two years old when...

The First World War The War to End All Wars, Peter Simkins, Geoffrey Jukes and Michael Hickey, Osprey, hardback, 2013, 364 pp. £25 ISBN 9781782002802This conventionally, ironically titled, composite edition of four predecessor volumes first published in 2003, introducing the war and then focusing upon the three main theatres of...

Royal Babies. A History 1066-2013, Amy Licence, Amberley, 2013, hardback, £16.99, 208 pp., ISBN 9781445617626Retrospectives of the year 2013 have viewed the birth of HRH Prince George of Cambridge not only as signifying renewal of the monarchy with the prospect of continuity of the descendants of the house of Windsor...

Alec Ryrie - Being Protestant in Reformation Britain (Oxford University Press), 2013 498pp., £45, hard, ISBN 978-0-19-956572-6 In 1500, Britain was a Catholic country like the rest of Christian Europe.  By 1600, it had been a variegated Protestant country, on and off, for over half a century.  A political imposition...