lamdha books -
Catalogue of works of history in Folio Society editions

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97786 Bacon, Francis (Introduction by Roger Lockyer, ed.) The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1971. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in blue morocco with a decorated cloth upper board, gilt spine titles and decorations, and decorated endpapers; 256pp, top edges dyed light blue, with a colour portrait frontispiece and 12 plates likewise. Mild wear; some scuffing to the spine leather; top corners bumped. Slipcase mildly rubbed with some light splitting. Very good. Bacon wrote The History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh during 1621 after his fall from power and during his initial period of disgrace. He had contemplated some such history for a long time; and his exile from the Jacobean court allowed him time to complete this project. Exactly how much 'research' he did remains a matter of debate. But this history exists as an exceptional example of Tudor-Stuart historical writing. Given Bacon's fascination with questions of history, broached in The Advancement of Learning and expanded in De Augmentis Scientiarum one might reasonably expect to find an example of Bacon's practice of history. Henry VII exists as Bacon's only finished full-scale history of an era although other fragments survive. - from David Bergerson Click here to order $28

62689 Bingham, Hiram (Introduction by John Hemming; Reginald Piggott, illus.) The Lost Cities of the Incas - Folio Society edition The Story of Machu Picchu and its Builders The Folio Society, London, 2004. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, with decorated boards, silver-gilt spine-titling and illustrated endpapers; 266pp., with a monochrome portrait frontispiece, maps and 28pp. of monochrome plates. Very minor wear. Near fine in like illustrated slipcase. First published in the 1950s, this is a classic account of the discovery in 1911 of the lost city of Machu Picchu. In 1911 Hiram Bingham, a pre-historian with a love of exotic destinations, set out to Peru in search of the legendary city of Vilcabamba, capital city of the last Inca ruler, Manco Inca. With a combination of doggedness and good fortune he stumbled on the perfectly preserved ruins of Machu Picchu perched on a cloud-capped ledge 2000 feet above the torrent of the Urubamba River. The buildings were of white granite, exquisitely carved blocks each higher than a man. Bingham had not, as it turned out, found Vilcabamba, but he had nevertheless made an astonishing and memorable discovery, which he describes in this bestselling book. Click here to order $35

34672 Burchard, Johann (Geoffrey Parker, ed.& trans.) At the Court of the Borgia - Folio Society edition Being an Account of the Reign of Pope Alexander VI, written by his Master of Ceremonies Johann Burchard The Folio Society, London, 1996. Reprint. Hardcover, octavo; tan buckram boards with elaborate gilt black and red front board decoration with similar motifs on spine and spine titling, map endpapers, top edges dyed brown; 245pp., monochrome frontispiece and illustrations. Minor wear; tiny scrape on front board and very mild insect damage to last few page edges of book. Near fine otherwise in black slipcase. Click here to order $27

205434 Cavendish, George (Introduction by Roger Lockyer, ed.) Thomas Wolsley - Folio Society edition late Cardinal, his Life and Death written by George Cavendish his gentleman-usher The Folio Society, London, 2000. Reprint. Octavo; hardcover, full cloth with gilt spine titles and upper board decorations and decorative endpapers; 242pp., with a monochrome portrait frontispiece and 7 plates likewise. Minor wear. Fine in a like slipcase. Click here to order $28

39166 Clark, Kenneth (Preface by Alan Clark) Civilisation - Folio Society A Personal View The Folio Society, London, 1999. First printing. Quarto; hardcover, gilt decorated boards with gilt spine titles and decorative endpapers; 276pp., with many monochrome and full-colour illustrations. Minor wear. Fine in a like decorated slipcase. Click here to order $50

51280 Cobbett, William (John Derry, ed.) Cobbett's England - Folio Society edition A Selection From the Writings of William Cobbett with Engravings by James Gillray The Folio Society, London, 1968. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling and decorated boards; 276pp., top edges dyed blue, with 8pp. of monochrome plates. Lightly toned text block edges; some sunning along the spine. Very good in a like slipcase. From the time Cobbett found his vocation as a journalist during the 1790s, publications poured from his pen - articles on politics and finance, pieces of autobiography and reminiscence, compendiums of instruction and advice, even textbooks for those wishing to find a wife or improve their command of the English language. As well he participated vigorously in most of the major controversies of his time - parliamentary reform, the evils of paper money, the problems of the Poor Law, the consequences of enclosing the open fields and building new factories, the abolition of slavery and the plight of the English urban workers. Click here to order $27

14822 Dampier, William (Gerald Norris, ed.) William Dampier - Folio Society edition Buccaneer Explorer The Folio Society, London, 1994. First printing. Octavo; hardcover; ochre decorated boards with gilt spine-titling, endpaper maps; 268pp., with a full-colour portrait frontispiece and many engraved illustrations and maps. Mild rubbing to boards. Near fine in like slightly rubbed black slipcase with one or two tiny marks. At one time employed as a privateer - a legitimising term for "pirate" - by the English Crown, Dampier is an instrumental figure in the story of the discovery and exploration of Australia and the Pacific. This printing reproduces his log and journal, highlighting his exploration of the Dutch East Indies, the islands of Melanesia and the northern coastline of Australia. Click here to order $32

69383 Debo, Angie (maps by Reginald Piggott) A History of the Indians of the United States - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2003. Second printing: octavo hardcover; illustrated boards green buckram spine and gilt spine-titling, dark brown endpapers; 490pp., 32pp. of colour and monochrome photographic plates. Near fine in like, slightly rubbed slipcase. Angie Debo became a long-time champion of the Amerindian cause through her academic study; not, she makes clear, because she was "pro-Indian" but because she felt that the integrity of the treatment of America's indigenous population was being violated at the highest levels of Public Administration. This work, first published in 1971, was the first to present the history of the Indian Nations from the indigenous perspective and follows on from Debo's lecture notes during her teaching years wherein she staunchly reversed the viewpoint of the existing dogma to that of the Native Americans. The result is a standard text of Amerindian history from the coming of the White Man to the late 1960s, a period when the role of the US Government vis-a-vis the reservation population of North America was hanging in the balance. Debo may not have wanted especially to be a champion in this cause, but her pursuit of truth and fairness for all made her one in the end. Click here to order $45

60280 Elton, G.R. England under the Tudors: History of England, Vol. 5 - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2002. Reprint: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling on a light blue label and gilt-decorated upper boards; 518pp., on laid paper, top edges dyed blue, with a monochrome frontispiece, maps and 24pp. of colour and monochrome plates. Very minor wear. Near fine in a mildly scuffed gilt-titled slipcase. Click here to order $40

97797 Exquemelin, A.O. (Alexis Brown, trans.; Introduction by Jack Beeching) The Buccaneers of America - Folio Society edition Comprising a pertinent and truthful description of the principal acts of depredation and inhuman cruelty committed by the English and French buccaneers against the Spaniards in America. Written by A.O. Exquemelin who himself, of necessity, was present at all these acts of plunder. The Folio Society, London, 1972. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in blue calf, with silver-gilt spine titles, decorative papered boards and endpaper maps; 194pp., top edges dyed brown, with a monochrome engraved frontispiece, 9 plates likewise and maps. Minor wear; mild rubbing and scuffing to the spine and hinges. Slipcase mildly rubbed. Very good to near fine. During the late 1600s and into the early 1700s, Spain held a tight grip upon her colonies in the Americas. The passage of goods and gold went from the various islands and coastal plantations of the Caribbean into Europe via only one Spanish port - Seville - and attempts to smuggle wealth into Europe was thereby severely curtailed. In the Americas governors grew fat on their produce and hired out-of-work sailors from all nations to defend their holdings. These mercenary seamen learned every inch of the Caribbean coastlines and made contact with the local natives; soon they were paying bribes to the governors to "liberate" warehoused goods and trade them to other European ports. They lived like the Indians, smoking strips of beef to eat while out at sea, in smoking huts called "boucans" and became known as "boucaniers", or buccaneers. In time they began to forego the niceties of bribing the locals for a taste of the region's wealth and began sacking fortresses, sinking ships and shelling towns to get what they wanted. The writer "Exquemelin", about whom very little is known, worked as a ship's surgeon on board a buccaneer vessel and roamed with various notorious buccaneer leaders, often being saved by his promising to write favourably about his hosts upon his return to Europe. His decision to write under a nom-de-plume (and in Dutch, which was probably not his first language) most likely had something to do with not scaring-off his patients after he settled back to life onshore as a doctor with a large practise. Nevertheless, he left us with a stirring account of pirate wickedness in the New World, a book which was a bloody bestseller in its day and which has remained in print ever since. Click here to order $30

74666 Foley, Robert T., & Helen McCartney (eds.) The Somme - Folio Society edition An Eyewitness to History The Folio Society, London, 2006. Second printing. Octavo; hardcover, with illustrated boards, brown endpapers, a fold-out map in a rear pocket; 295pp., with 16pp. of monochrome photographic plates. Near fine in a like slipcase with one or two tiny spots. Click here to order $32

14819 Fothergill, John (Introduction by Craig Brown; Peter Bailey, illus.) An Innkeeper's Diary - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2000. First printing. Royal octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in cloth with decorated boards and spine titles on a yellow label; 278pp., with a monochrome frontispiece and many illustrations likewise. Minor wear. Fine in like slip-case. Click here to order $30

206154 Fraser, Antonia (Introduction by Roy Strong) Mary, Queen of Scots - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2004. First printing: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-title on a brown label and a gilt upper-board decoration; 616pp., with a full-colour frontispiece and 20pp. of plates likewise. Some scattered spots on upper text block edge; mildly rubbed brown slipcase. Very good to near fine. Click here to order $35

85400 Freile, Juan Rodriguez (William C. Atkinson, trans.; Harold Bennett, illus.) The Conquest of New Granada - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1961. First printing. Hardcover, octavo; gilt decorated green boards with red label and gilt spine titling; dark red map endpapers; and top text block edge dyed dark red; 228pp., monochrome engravings. Owner's name. Minor wear; foxing to edges of prelims and title page; text block edges toned and spotted. Very good to near fine in red slipcase with splits to corners and some tape repairs on upper front and lower edges. Click here to order $27

84007 Frere, Sheppard (Reginald Piggott, illus.) Britannia: A History of Roman Britain - Folio Society edition A History of England The Folio Society, London, 2004. Reprint: octavo; hardcover, withgilt spine titles on a sky-blue label and gilt spine and upper board rules and decorations; 431pp., on laid paper, top edges dyed navy blue, with a full-colour frontispiece, 8pp. of plates likewise, maps and many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Fine in a slightly rubbed, titled slipcase. Click here to order $40

86654 Fuller, Thomas (Richard Barber, ed.) Fuller's Worthies - Folio Society edition Selected from the Worthies of England The Folio Society, London, 1987. First printing. Hardcover, octavo; black cloth boards with gilt spine titling and upper board decoration, blue endpapers and top text block edge dyed blue; 441pp., monochrome frontispiece and illustrations, in plain beige slipcase. Upper text block edges slightly faded and other sides mildly toned. Very good to near fine otherwise. Click here to order $28

69785 Glover, Robert, & Thomas Milles (Derek Parker, ed.; Introduction by Nigel Ramsay) The Kings of England ever since it was so called - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1995. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter bound in leather with decorated boards and gilt spine titling and decoration; 367pp., top edges dyed brown, with many colour illustrations. Minor wear. Near fine in a like slipcase. The work was begun by Glover and left with Milles, who translated the Latin manuscripts and reduced them to a printable form. The text of 'The Kings of England' was first published in Latin under the title 'Nobilitas Politica et Civilis' in 1608. An expanded English version entitled 'The Catalogue of Honor' was published in 1610. The text for this edition is taken from the first section of the 1610 edition. Click here to order $32

69779 Green, John Richard (edited with an introduction by Roger Hudson) A Short History of the English People - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1992. First printing. Royal octavo hardcover; green & gilt decorated boards with top edges dyed green, gilt spine titling and decoration, pale brown endpapers; 878pp., monochrome illustrations; top text block edge dyed green. Near fine in brown slipcase. John Richard Green (1837 - 1883) was an English historian. Born the son of a tradesman in Oxford, where he was educated, first at Magdalen College School, and then at Jesus College where he is commemorated by the J. R. Green Society, which meets several times a term and is run by students from the undergraduate body. He entered the Church, and served various cures in London, under a constant strain caused by delicate health. Always an enthusiastic student of history, the little leisure time he had was devoted to research. In 1869 he finally gave up his work as a clergyman, and was appointed librarian at Lambeth. He had been laying plans for various historical works, including a 'History of the English Church' as exhibited in a series of 'Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury', and, what he proposed as his magnum opus, a history of 'England under the Angevin kings'. After suffering from failing health he abandoned these projects and instead concentrated his energies on the preparation of his 'A Short History of the English People', which appeared in 1874, and at once gave him an assured place in the first rank of historical writers. Click here to order $60

55639 Hibbert, Christopher Cities and Civilizations - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2003. First printing. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine and upper board titles and decorations; 279pp., with many colour illustrations. Minor wear. Fine in a like decorated slipcase. This book attempts to give generously illustrated impressions of several of the world's greatest cities at crucial points in their development, to glimpse at their origins, to indicate the nature of the civilisations in which they emerged and whose ethos they reflected as well as to describe their planning and architecture, the artistic treasures provided by the men and women who lived in them, their work, pleasures and customs. The cities of the ancient world are represented here by Thebes in the days of the Pharaohs; Athens in those of Pericles and Rome at the time of the Emperor Trajan, whose monumental column still stands not far from the ruins of his market and forum and whose empire stretched from the Scottish border to the deserts of North Africa; Constantinople of the Emperors Constantine and Justinian; Hangzhou, the capital of the Sung Emperors of China; Cuzco at the time of the Incas; Florence in the time of the Medici; Rembrandt's Amsterdam and Paris in the days of the Sun King; then Pepys' and Wren's London; Peter the Great's Petersburg and Venice in the days of the Grand tour; and finally Vienna of the Habsburgs. The last section visits the modern world: New Orleans, Tokyo, Berlin, Moscow, New York and Sydney. Click here to order $40

60447 Hudson, Roger (ed.) The Folio Book of Days - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2002. First printing. Quarto; hardcover, full cloth with gilt decorated upper board, decorative endpapers and gilt spine titles; 336pp with a colour frontispiece and many monochrome and colour illustrations. Very minor wear. Fine in mildly rubbed illustrated slipcase. Drawing on diaries, letters, journals, eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, speeches and sermons - indeed, on any source that is dated - this specially commissioned volume features around 500 entries by 95 writers, selected and edited by Roger Hudson and 160 paintings, photographs and engravings - 100 in full colour. In The Folio Book of Days you can eavesdrop on the everyday conversations or idle thoughts of the great and the good; view earth-shattering events from a new perspective; or relive memorable days from the lives of the great diarists. From an eyewitness account of the murder of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170, to the terror attacks on New York on 11 September 2001, the voices of past and present echo loud and clear. Click here to order $40

56125 Hudson, Roger (ed.) The Jubilee Years - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1996. First printing. Hardcover, octavo, 240pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Illustrated boards and dark blue cloth spine. Near fine in slightly sunned slipcase. This was a special presentation volume published by the Folio Society in honour of the 100th anniversary of the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. It examines many aspects of the period between the two jubilee years by providing comments from contemporaries of the time. It is profusely illustrated with paintings, drawings and photographs. In all, this book gives an intimate first-hand portrait of England during this ten-year period, a period that set the tone for the country's future. Click here to order $28

84129 Hudson, Roger (ed.) London - Folio Society edition Portrait of a City The Folio Society, London, 1998. First printing. Small quarto; hardcover, quarter-bound in cloth with illustrated boards, 272pp, mostly colour plates. Fine in a like slipcase. Samuel Johnson famously said that: "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." London's remarkable history, architecture, landmarks, streets, style, cool, swagger, and stalwart residents are captured in this sweeping biography of the city. London is a vast sprawling metropolis, constantly evolving and growing, yet throughout its complex past and shifting history, the humour, unique character, and bulldog spirit of the people have stayed constant. This book salutes all those Londoners, their city, and its history. Click here to order $40

14804 Hudson, Roger (ed.) Nelson and Emma - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1994. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in illustrated papered boards, with dark blue buckram spine and gilt spine-titling, cream endpaper maps; 256pp. with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Near fine in like illustrated pale blue slipcase. Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765-1815), model and actress, is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of George Romney... As wife of the British Envoy, Emma welcomed Nelson in 1793, when he came to gather reinforcements against the French. She is described in 1797 in the diary of 18-year-old Elizabeth Wynne as "a charming woman, beautiful and exceedingly good humoured and amiable." Nelson returned to Naples five years later, on 22 September 1798... Emma reportedly flung herself upon him in admiration, calling out, "Oh God, is it possible?", as she fainted against him... Students of Nelson will know about his affair with Emma, while he was still married to Fanny. This well-written book provides a great deal of much needed insight into this relationship. Details are sometimes a bit too sketchy, but it is still a welcome addition to the Nelson lore. We will never know if Horatia was really Emma's daughter (Emma said she was not), but Nelson was certainly the father. Caroline, Queen of Naples, may well have been the mother and Emma, as her close friend, put on the mantle to protect her. Ridiculous? Maybe, but the overland trip from Italy to England left a great deal of room to pull off such a subterfuge. Click here to order $30

69381 Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon (Roger Lockyer, ed.) The History of the Great Rebellion - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1967. First printing. Royal octavo; hardcover, boards decorated in gilt; 469pp., top edges dyed blue, with some maps and monochrome plates. Minor wear; slight spotting to fore edge; slightly rubbed along the hinges and on the rear board. Very good to fine in slightly worn slipcase. After serving Charles I, Hyde had preferred to go into exile and serve Charles II rather than come to terms with the king's enemies. He could have made his peace with Cromwell, and returned to England to safeguard what was left of his estates, as many men did in the eleven years that passed between the execution of Charles I and the restoration of Charles II. But Hyde was not a compromiser. The History shows him to be a man of principle who believed that the best guide to action is morality, and that time servers are detestable. He could not be sure as we can that the Restoration would one day take place. he had to endure exile and often poverty in the hope that eventually England would return to her senses, but he must sometimes have wondered whether in fact that day would ever come. Meanwhile he did all that he could to advance the royalist cause. He kept up a voluminous correspondence with his contacts in England, he went on missions to foreign courts, and most important of all he acted as chief advisor to the young and politically inexperienced Charles II, constantly impressing on him the need to remain faithful to those two great works of time: the English church and the English constitution. It says much for Charles that he listened to Hyde's advice, and in 1658 appointed him Lord Chancellor. Clarendon's History of the Rebellion is divided into sixteen books, beginning with the accession of Charles I in 1625 and ending with the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. The present selection is taken from books 6-11 and covers the period from the raising of the king's standard at Nottingham in 1642 to the end of the second civil war and the execution of Charles I. Long passages dealing with negotiations between king and Parliament, and with events in Scotland and Ireland have been omitted. Click here to order $30

205618 Josephus, Titus Flavius (Introduction by Martin Goodman; John Gregory, trans.) Life of Herod - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2007. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, in full cloth, with gilt spine and upper board titles and decorations and decorative endpapers; 295pp., with maps, a full-colour frontispiece and 12pp. of plates likewise. Minor wear. Slipcase lightly rubbed. Near fine. Josephus (37-100), who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in 70. His works give an important insight into first-century Judaism. His works provide crucial information about the First Jewish-Roman War. They are also important literary source material for understanding the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls and post-Second Temple Judaism. Josephus offers information about individuals, groups, customs and geographical places. His writings provide a significant, extra-biblical account of the post-exilic period of the Maccabees, the Hasmonean dynasty and the rise of Herod the Great. Click here to order $30

201858 Longford, Elizabeth (Introduction by Roy Strong; Reginald Piggott, illus.) Queen Victoria - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2007. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, full cloth with gilt upper board decoration and gilt spine titles on a lilac label; 626pp., with a colour portrait frontispiece, a folding genealogical chart and 20pp. of colour and monochrome plates. Very minor wear. Near fine in a like slipcase. Queen Victoria was the longest reigning monarch in British history. In this concise biography, Lady Longford, long recognised as an authority on the subject, gives a full account of Queen Victoria's life and provides her unique assessment of the monarch. Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 on the death of her uncle William IV. In 1840 she married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and for the next twenty years they were inseparable. Their descendants were to succeed to most of the thrones of Europe. When Albert died in 1861 Victoria's overwhelming grief caused her to almost withdraw from public life for several years. This perceived dereliction of public duty, coupled with rumours about her relationship with her Scottish ghillie, John Brown, led to increasing criticism. Coaxed back into the public eye by Disraeli, she resumed her political and constitutional interest with vigour until her death in 1901. This classic and concise biography of Britain's longest-reigning monarch was written by Lady Elizabeth Longford who was a renowned biographer (she died in 2002). Her other titles include Wellington, Byron and the Queen Mother. Elizabeth Longford's first work on Queen Victoria, "Victoria RI", won the James Tait Black memorial prize. Click here to order $40

201844 Macartney, Lord George (Introduction by Jonathan Spence; J.L. Cranmer-Byng, ed.; William Alexander, illus.) An Embassy to China - Folio Society edition Being the Journal kept by Lord Macartney during his Embassy to Emperor Ch'ien-lung, 1793-1794 The Folio Society, London, 2004. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in cloth, with decorative papered boards, gilt spine titles and endpaper maps; 314pp., with a colour frontispiece and many illustrations likewise. Very minor wear. Near fine in a like illustrated slipcase. King George III (1738-1820) of England sent Lord Macartney (George Macartney, 1737-1806) to convince the Chinese emperor to open northern port cities to British traders and to allow British ships to be repaired on Chinese territory. Macartney arrived in North China in a warship with a retinue of 95, an artillery of 50 redcoats, and 600 packages of magnificent presents that required 90 wagons, 40 barrows, 200 horses, and 3,000 porters to carry them to Peking. Yet the best gifts of the kind of England had to offer - elaborate clocks, globes, porcelain - seemed insignificant beside the splendours of the Asian court. Taken on a yacht trip around the palace, Macartney stopped to visit 50 pavilions, each "furnished in the richest manner . . . that our presents must shrink from the comparison and hide their diminished heads," he later wrote. Immediately the Chinese labelled his mission as "tribute," and the emperor refused to listen to British demands. He also ordered Macartney to perform the kow-tow and dashed off the following reply to the British king: "Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its borders. There is therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce". This is one of the most famous British attempts to expand trade with China demonstrates the miscommunication between the two nations. Lord Macartney led a doomed mission to the court of an emperor who reigned over perhaps the most luxurious court in all Chinese history. The Qianlong Emperor had inherited a full treasury, and his nation seemed strong and wealthy enough to reach its greatest size ever and also to attain a splendour that outdazzled even the best Europe - and particularly England - could then offer. Click here to order $40

97742 Macaulay, Thomas Babington (Introduction Prof. J.P. Kenyon; Peter Rowland, ed.) The History of England in the Eighteenth Century - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1980. First printing. Octavo, hardcover; gilt decorated red cloth boards with gilt spine titling and decoration, dark cream endpapers; top text block edge dyed cream/green; 318pp., monochrome illustrations. Mild spotting to spine. Near fine in light brown slipcase with small tears and browning to edges. Click here to order $30

97804 Madame de la Tour du Pin (Felice Harcourt, trans. & ed.) Escape from the Terror - Folio Society edition The Journal of Madame de la Tour du Pin The Folio Society, London, 1979. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, full cloth, with gilt spine and upper board titles and decorations and endpaper maps; 351pp., top edges dyed plum with a red and white headband, with a monochrome portrait frontispiece and 11 plates likewise. Minor wear. Slipcase rubbed and sunned with some mild splitting. Very good to near fine. When she turned 50 in 1820, Lucie Dillon, Marquise de la Tour du Pin, began to write her memoirs. She intended them for her two surviving children (four were deceased), but in 1822 Lucie's daughter Charlotte suddenly died, leaving only Aymar, her last-born son, as recipient of the record of his mother's extraordinary life. The unfinished text, which breaks off at Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815, was not published until 1907; it has rarely been out of print since. Click here to order $30

75639 Masterman, J.C., Introduction by M.R.D. Foot, Foreword by Norman Holmes Pearson The Double-Cross System - Folio Society edition In the War of 1939 to 1945 The Folio Society, London, 2007. First printing. Octavo; hardcover; blue buckram boards with illustrated upper board and gilt spine-titling; 215pp., with monochrome portrait frontispiece and 12pp. of photographic plates similar. Fine in like slightly rubbed slip-case. The Double Cross System is not the only document to describe double agents and deception. It is simply the best. Masterman gives us a world of stratagems, inhabited by characters like SNOW, ZIGZAG and TRICYCLE. They were known only by these cover names and in them they lived and operated. Nuance became all. Even the methods of communication between the agent and the enemy, whether by wireless, by secret writing, or by personal contact in neutral countries, required empathy on the part of the case officers and planners. The details of a man's wireless style, for example, the warning signals, the very rhythm of the key in sending messages must be mastered so that if the agent should die or for one reason or another be removed, a substitution could be made but not recognised. 'A game played with dynamite in which those who couldn't play were executed ... Should on no account be missed by anyone who enjoys a good thriller.' - Anthony Price Click here to order $30

40773 Mayhew, Henry (Christopher Hibbert, ed.) London Characters & Crooks - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1996. First printing. Quarto; hardcover, with illustrated upper board, silver-gilt spine and upper board titles, and laid paper endpapers; 535pp., top edge dyed green, with a monochrome photographic frontispiece and 19pp. of plates likewise. Near fine in lightly scuffed slipcase. Henry Mayhew (1812 - 1887) was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the co-founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch in 1841, and was the magazine's joint-editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days. He is also known for his work as a social researcher, publishing an extensive series of newspaper articles in the Morning Chronicle that was later compiled into the book series "London Labour and the London Poor" (1851), a groundbreaking and influential survey of the city's poor. Click here to order $60

79003 Morton, Frederic (Reginald Piggott. illus.) A Nervous Splendour - Folio Society edition Vienna, 1888-1889 The Folio Society, London, 2006. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, bound in full Bengaline silk, with illustrated endpapers and gilt spine titles; 236pp., with a monochrome frontispiece, maps and 24pp. of monochrome and full-colour plates. Minor wear. Fine in like illustrated slipcase. On January 30, 1889, at the champagne-splashed height of the Viennese Carnival, the handsome and charming Crown Prince Rudolf fired a revolver at his teenage mistress and then himself. The two shots that rang out at Mayerling in the Vienna Woods echo still. Frederic Morton, author of the bestselling Rothschilds, deftly tells the haunting story of the Prince and his city, where, in the span of only ten months, 'the Western dream started to go wrong.' In Rudolf's Vienna moved other young men with striking intellectual and artistic talents - and all as frustrated as the Prince. Among them were: young Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Theodor Herzl, Gustav Klimt, and the playwright Arthur Schnitzler, whose La Ronde was the great erotic drama of the fin de siecle. Morton studies these and other gifted young men, interweaving their fates with that of the doomed Prince and the entire city through to the eve of Easter, just after Rudolf's body is lowered into its permanent sarcophagus and a son named Adolf Hitler is born to Frau Klara Hitler. Click here to order $32

73329 Moss, H.St.L.B.; Geoffrey Barraclough; R.W. Southern; John H. Mundy; J. Huizinga The Story of the Middle Ages - Folio Society edition, five volumes The Birth of the Middle Ages; The Crucible of the Middle Ages; The Making of the Middle Ages; The High Middle Ages; The Waning of the Middle Ages The Folio Society, London, 1998. Five hardcover volumes, octavo; hardcover with gilt-decorated spines and upper boards, and decorated endpapers; 1605pp. [321pp. + 216pp. + 284pp. + 443pp. + 341pp.], 5 full-colour frontispieces and 80pp. of colour plates and monochrome maps. Mild wear; boards a bit rubbed; spine heads pulled on most volumes (but not split); a bump to the fore-edge of the second volume. No dustwrappers as issued. Slipcase is heavily scuffed and rubbed with a sticker ghost to the top panel. Very good. Click here to order $160

97800 Napier, Major General Sir William (Introduction by Brian Connell, ed.) History of the War in the Peninsula - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1973. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, full cloth, with gilt spine titles on a plum label, spine and upper board decorations, and endpaper maps; 332pp., top edges dyed plum and a plum and white headband, with an engraved frontispiece and 13 plates likewise. Minor wear. Slipcase mildly rubbed. Near fine. Classic account of the Napoleonic War in Spain & Portugal. Abridged version of the monumental six volume work. Click here to order $30

48180 Pearson, Hesketh (Intro. Malcolm Muggeridge) The Smith of Smiths - Folio Society edition Being the Life, Wit and Humour of Sydney Smith The Folio Society London 1977. Reprint, Hardcover, octavo; quarter bound blue decorated papered boards with blue spine and gilt spine titling and decorations; tan endpapers; 295pp., monochrome illustrations. Lower board edge and corners rubbed; spine panel head bumped and mild rubbing to boards. Very good otherwise in rubbed cream slipcase with frayed corners and small tears. Click here to order $25

14826 Perry, Maria Elizabeth I - Folio Society edition The Word of a Prince A Life from Contemporary Documents The Folio Society, London, 1990. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter bound in cloth with marbled boards, gilt spine titling and decorated endpapers; 352pp., with many colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Near fine in a slightly scuffed slipcase. Until Maria Perry began her exploration of Elizabeth's papers, this vivid raw material had only been partially studied. From it, a fresh portrait of Elizabeth emerges, one which is often more cohesive and less baffling than some offered by her biographers. The dangers and insecurities of her early life, her sense of divine protection, her formidable education, all stand out as crucial elements in the formation of her character; but behind the acquired circumspection lies a personality of great warmth and spirit. The earliest letter to survive was written to her stepmother Katherine Parr, in Italian, when she was ten years old; her last words to be formally recorded are two moving speeches to Parliament at the end of her reign. In between, her letters and papers illuminate her relations with her family, and with Mary Queen of Scots; she reflects on the nature of kingship, performs miracles of circumlocution to achieve diplomatic ends, and communicates her feelings to her inner circle of trusted friends; on the teasing questions of love, marriage and virginity, the letters and speeches offer oblique comment. Elizabeth's papers are not only personally revealing, when studied with the care that Maria Perry brings to the task; they are also intellectually and stylistically very much a product of their time, generous in their display of Renaissance learning and concerns. Click here to order $30

84952 Pindar, Ian (ed.) The Folio Book of Historic Speeches - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2007. First printing: hardcover, octavo; black boards with silver gilt front board decoration and spine titling, pale blue/silver endpapers; 324pp., colour and monochrome illustrations. Fine in illustrated black slipcase. Texts of nearly 100 famous and influential speeches, from Moses to Neil Armstrong. Click here to order $30

79004 Pindar, Ian (ed.) The Folio Book of Historical Mysteries - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2008. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, with silver-gilt upper board decorations and spine titles; 377pp., with a monochrome frontispiece, maps and 24pp. of monochrome and full-colour plates. Still in original shrink-wrapping. Fine in like illustrated slipcase. From the decline and fall of the Roman empire to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, history is littered with tantalising enigmas that have defied easy explanation and generated a wealth of speculation. In this book of historical whodunits, Ian Pindar has drawn upon the wisdom of many of the leading experts to dispel myth and propaganda, weigh the evidence and reveal the most likely solutions to 20 of the past's most intractable mysteries. Some of these mysteries, such as the murder of the princes in the Tower, are familiar from our schooldays. Others were the causes celebres of their day: why was the Mary Celeste abandoned by her crew? Did Anastasia miraculously survive the callous murder of the Russian Imperial family in 1918? Many conundrums are so old that they have become the subject of legend. The disappearance of 130 children from the German town of Hamelin in 1284 gave rise to tales of a charismatic piper who lured them from their homes - but what is the truth concealed behind the well known story? As A. J. P. Taylor said, the duty of the historian "is to understand what happened and why it happened". For anyone who has been captivated by the legend of Atlantis or dreamt about unearthing Captain Kidd's pirate treasure, this book will prove impossible to put down. Click here to order $35

9053 Procopius (G.A.Williamson, trans.; Introduction by Phillip Zeigler) The Secret History - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1990. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, with decorated boards; 151pp., with maps and 12pp. of full-colour plates. Minor wear. Fine in foxed slipcase. Having dutifully written the official war history of Justinian's reign, Procopius turned round and revealed in "The Secret History" the other faces of the leading men and women of Byzantium in the sixth century. Justinian, the great law-giver, appears as a hateful tyrant, wedded to an ex-prostitute, Theodora; and Belisarius, the brilliant general whose secretary Procopius had been, is seen as the pliable dupe of his wife Antonina, a woman as corrupt and scheming as Theodora herself. Click here to order $28

78996 Reed, John (Preface by John Simpson; Introduction by A.J.P, Taylor; Foreword by V.I. Lenin) Ten Days that Shook the World - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2006. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, full gilt-decorated cloth with upper board title and endpaper maps; 369pp., with a monochrome frontispiece and 16 plates likewise. Very minor wear. Near fine in a like slipcase. Click here to order $32

48138 Roper, William (A.L. Rowse, ed.) A Man of Singular Virtue - Folio Society edition Being A Life of Sir Thomas More by his son-in-law William Roper and a selection of More's Letters The Folio Society, London, 1980. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, quarter bound in cloth boards with gilt spine titling and upper board decorations; 127pp., with a colour frontispiece and many colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; faint spotting to the text block upper edge. Near fine otherwise in a rubbed and scuffed slipcase. "More had the good fortune of having a beautiful and compassionate biography of him written by an intimate, his son-in-law Roper, which is one of the first of modern classics of biography. No other Tudor figure had such luck, except possibly More's patron, Cardinal Wolsey, whose life was written by his intimate, George Cavendish, his gentleman-in-attendance. Both Wolsey and More were great men - More a man of genius and a saint to boot; both caught in the revolution of their time and in the end its victims. Roper wrote his book not long after More's execution in 1535, though it was not published until 1626 in Paris. This was the first of many biographies of More and by all counts the best and the source of most of the intimate details about his personal and family life. It is a family circle of exceptional charm that is depicted, taking its tone and ultimately its law from the kindly, humorous inwardly austere master." - from Rowse's introduction. Click here to order $25

10734 Russell, William (Introduction by Max Hastings; Denys Baker, illus.; Roger Hudson, ed.) William Russell, Special Correspondent of the Times - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1997. Reprint: royal octavo; hardcover, with gilt decorated and titled spine and upper board; 426pp., top edges dyed brown, with a monochrome portrait frontispiece and 27pp. of plates likewise. Minor wear. Very good to near fine in a like slipcase. Initially sent by editor John Delane to Malta to cover British support for the Ottoman Empire against Russia in 1854, Russell despised the term 'war correspondent' but his coverage of the conflict brought him international renown, and Florence Nightingale later credited her entry into wartime nursing to his reports. The Crimean medical care, shelter and protection of all ranks by Mary Seacole was also publicised by Russell and by other contemporary journalists, rescuing her from bankruptcy. Russell was described by one of the soldiers on the frontlines thus: 'a vulgar low Irishman, who sings a good song, drinks anyone's brandy and water and smokes as many cigars as a Jolly Good Fellow. He is just the sort of chap to get information, particularly out of youngsters.' This reputation led to Russell's being blacklisted from some circles, including British commander Lord Raglan who advised his officers to refuse to speak with the reporter. His dispatches were hugely significant; for the first time the public could read about the reality of warfare. Shocked and outraged, the public's backlash from his reports led the Government to re-evaluate the treatment of troops and led to Florence Nightingale's involvement in revolutionising battlefield treatment. In the 1868 General Election Russell ran unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate for the borough of Chelsea. He retired as a battlefield correspondent in 1882 and founded the Army and Navy Gazette. Russell was knighted in May 1895. He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) by King Edward VII on 11 August 1902, - a dynastic order handed out by the King without government interference. During the investiture, the King reportedly told Russell 'Don't kneel Billy, just stoop'. Russell died in 1907 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London. Click here to order $40

209060 Scott, Captain R.F. (Herbert Ponting, illus.) Scott's Last Expedition - Folio Society edition The Journals of Captain R.F. Scott The Folio Society, London, 2009. First printing: royal octavo; hardcover, full decorated cloth; 496pp., with a monochrome frontispiece schematics and 50pp. of plates likewise. Minor wear. Fine in mildly sunned slipcase. Scott's Last Expedition is the explorer's detailed account of his time in Antarctica. The team's daily progress towards their final goal is recorded in Scott's vivid, personal narrative, as well as his impressions of the harsh conditions, the stark beauty of the tundra, and his own increasingly desperate ambition to beat his rivals to the Pole. Shortly before he died, Scott wrote: "Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman." Robert Falcon Scott and his men died, but their story lives on in his journals. Click here to order $60

215665 Scott, W.S. (intro. & notes) The Trial of Joan of Arc: Folio Society edition Folio Society, London, 1956. Royal octavo hardcover; blue boards with gilt spine titling and decorations with matching upper board decoration; 173pp., top edges dyed blue. Owners' bookplates. Offsetting and foxing to endpapers; toned text block edge with very faint spotting; a few small spots and marks on boards. Lacks slipcase. Very good. Click here to order $22

78982 Suetonius (Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus) (Robert Graves, trans.; Raymond Hawthorn, illus.) The Twelve Caesars - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2005. Reprint: octavo; hardcover, with gilt spine-titling on a navy blue label, gilt board decorations and endpaper maps; 318pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Near fine in a mildly rubbed slipcase. Click here to order $32

60279 Trevelyan, George Macaulay England under the Stuarts: History of England, vol. 6 - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1997. Reprint. Hardcover, octavo, 503pp., monochrome illustrations and colour plates. Blue cloth boards with gilt decoration to front panel and titles on spine. Light spotting to text block edges; minor wear; near fine in a like slipcase. This is George Macaulay Trevelyan's timeless treatise on English history. Covering the period from 1603-1714: the time of the English Civil War, the Glorious (Great) Revolution, and the Restoration. He not only looks at the historical events that occurred, but how these events affect modern England. Trevelyan takes a multifaceted approach, looking not only at the political, but also the social and cultural aspects of England during this tumultuous era. Click here to order $40

14863 Trevelyan, Raleigh The Shadow of Vesuvius - Folio Society edition Pompeii AD 79 The Folio Society, London, 1976. First printing: quarto; hardcover, quarter bound in cloth with silver gilt upper board decoration, with gilt spine-title and illustrated endpapers; 128pp., with a full-colour frontispiece, a decorated title page and many full-colour illustrations. Mild wear; boards very slightly rolled with bumping to corners and mildly spotted upper text block edge; small mark on upper front edge. No slipcase. Very good. Among Trevelyan's early popular books were several about Italy, including "Princes Under the Volcano" (1973), an account of the British role in Sicily in the 19th and 20th centuries; and "The Shadow of Vesuvius" (1976), about the discovery of the remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century. This is the Folio Society edition of that last work, which came out in the year of the work's first publication. Click here to order $22

82590 Voltaire, Francois-Marie Arouet de (Antonia White, trans.; Introduction by R. Hatton) The History of Charles XII King of Sweden - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1976. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, decorated boards with gilt spine tiles on a red label and endpaper maps; 285pp., top edges dyed blue, with many monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; a few spots on the text block edges. Near fine in a mildly rubbed slipcase. Offering a good insight into the life of one of Sweden's most famous kings, Voltaire's history is an enjoyable and educational experience. While the story is written in the style of an epic, and judged as a 'romantic' telling of Charles's life by many, the author pays credit where credit is due, and does a good job of being impartial in his judgement of Charles. It's clear he holds this historical figure in veneration, but he doesn't hold back in his criticisms of some of Charles's decisions, being quick to point out instances where Charles could have better benefited his kingdom, while also - perhaps - living past the age of thirty-six. Click here to order $28

97819 Vossler, Lt. Heinrich August (Walter Wallich, trans.; Christian-Wilhelm von Faber du Faur, illus.) With Napoleon in Russia, 1812 - Folio Society edition The diary of Lt. H.A. Vossler, a soldier of the Grand Army, 1812-1813 The Folio Society, London, 1970. Reprint: octavo; hardcover, full decorated cloth, with gilt spine titles on a brown label, and endpaper maps; 176pp., top edges dyed yellow, with many lithographic plates. Minor wear; light rubbing and sunning to the spine. Slipcase is lightly rubbed. Near fine. A compelling and honest account of one of the most infamously devastating conflicts in war history, told by an officer serving in Napoleon's army. Click here to order $28

69797 Wilson, Harriette (Introduction by Lesley Blanch, ed.) Harriette Wilson's Memoirs - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1964. First printing. Octavo; hardcover, 378pp., monochrome illustrations. Owner's name. Mauve cloth boards with gilt decoration and titling. Browned and spotted text block edges with brown mark on lower edge; foxing to pastedowns and endpapers with random spotting on preliminaries and title page; front board slightly bowed. Very good. No slipcase. "Harriette Wilson liked to insult her suitors. Early on in her career she discovered the fastest way to get a man on his knees was to show him how little he could succeed the first go around. Courtesans, of course, were famous for this. For a certain calibre of female, hardships birth wit, and to the gentleman trapped in a stratum of dull, mannered ladies, wit was an aphrodisiac.... sauciness inspired the ardour of many influential men during her reign, including the Duke of Wellington, the Marquess of Worcester, the Duke of Argyll, and Lord Melbourne's son, the Honorable Frederick Lamb. One can scarcely leave out her first lover, the Earl of Craven. At the age of 15, Craven introduced her to the pursuits of pleasure, but she was no more enamoured of him than of his cocoa trees from the West Indies. By her own account, he would amuse her by drawing pictures of his 'fellows' along with the dreaded trees, a practice Harriette called a 'dead bore.' It didn't help that she despaired of his cotton night cap. 'Surely,' (she) would say, 'all men do not wear those shocking nightcaps; else all women's illusions had been destroyed on the first night of their marriage.' Harriette Wilson's dismal opinion of marriage was borne from early experience:". . .my dear mother's marriage had proved to me so forcibly the miseries of two people of contrary opinions and character torturing each other to the end of their natural lives, that, before I was ten years old, I decided in my own mind to live free as air from any restraint but that of my own conscience." Although Harriette forbore blaming her parent's marriage, and indeed stressed that her dear mother did not influence her choice in profession, an unhappy home life seemed to affect the family at large. Among her sisters, three of them turned Cyprian - Amy, Sophia, and Fanny. The closest in age, Harriette and Amy spent their careers competing for affections with the latter sister stealing lovers from the former.... Although a well-known courtesan in Regency times, we have Harriette's memoirs to thank for her enduring legacy in ours. The memoirs were published in 1825, a move she describes as a 'desperate effort to live by my wits.' This is a marked contrast from the manner in which she formerly earned her living. The memoirs gained her a reputation far exceeding that of a demimondaine. Rather than earning admiration for her enterprise in a sticky situation, she was scorned by her methods. Harriette was nearing old age, 'in truth, her thirties', when her protectors decided she wasn't worth the jangle in their pockets. Denied the annuity promised by the Duke of Bedford upon her agreement to forsake his heir, the Marquess of Worcester, Harriette was left penniless. Her beauty diminishing along with her funds, the woman who later wrote, 'I will be the mere instrument of pleasure to no man. He must make a friend and companion of me, or he will lose me,' dared blackmail the feckless gentlemen who had thrown her off. The famous reply by the Duke of Wellington, 'publish, and be damned,' arises from Harriette's request for funds in exchange to leave his name out of her memoirs. Regardless of who paid up, the surprisingly tasteful history of her love life earned her a small fortune. Her publisher, John Stockdale, was forced to queue the crowds that stormed his shop upon the latest print instalments. This nail-biting manoeuvre served Harriette well. The instalments tested the nerves of her former lovers while they awaited the appearance of their names in the next issue. How many cried off at the last minute, we can only imagine. From the date of their publication, her memoirs increased in notoriety and exceeded Harriette's hope of twenty editions - reaching thirty in its first year as well as the six volume French version. Even today they are great reading. Harriette may have resorted to blackmailing and thereby acquired a reputation for unreliability, but she has an intelligent wit. She vilified some of her lovers, yes, but treated others with a fair pen. And she did not always spare herself in the telling.' - Susan Ardelie. Click here to order $25

78984 Wolff, Leon, with Lyn Macdonald & Major-General J.F.C. Fuller (maps by Reginald Piggott) In Flanders Fields - Folio Society edition The 1917 Campaign The Folio Society, London, 2003. First printing. Octavo; hardcover; illustrated boards, gray endpapers; 298pp., with a monochrome photographic frontispiece, 16pp. of plates likewise, and many maps. Minor wear only; near fine in brown slipcase. Click here to order $32

36915 Wood, Frances The Silk Road - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 2002. First printing. Quarto; hardcover, bound in decorated turquoise silk with silver-gilt spine-titling and endpaper maps; 270pp., with many colour illustrations. Minor wear; spine sunned. Near fine in illustrated slipcase. This is one of the loveliest of the Folio Society's publications and also one of the hardest to locate in a pristine condition. Inspired by the subject matter, the publishers wrapped the boards of the book in gorgeous turquoise silk, patterned in gold; unfortunately, whilst undeniably beautiful, silk is not as robust as standard book cloth, so finding a copy that hasn't been sunned along the spine is extremely difficult. Such is the case with this copy; however, this state is ameliorated by the fact that this copy has rarely been opened. The text covers the establishment of the famous trade route from Europe to Asia and is replete with many photographs, both colour and monochrome, of the cities, peoples, produce, artefacts and wilderness through which it meanders and which it has brought into being. A beautiful copy of this sumptuous work. Click here to order $65

14485 Woodforde, Rev. James (David Hughes, ed.; Ian Stephens, illus.) The Diary of a Country Parson - Folio Society edition The Folio Society, London, 1994. Reprint: octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in marbled boards, with gilt spine-titling on red labels; 445pp., top edge dyed red, with a monochrome frontispiece and many illustrations likewise. Minor wear. Fine in a like slipcase. In this handsome edition, wood engravings by Ian Stephens bring to life the pastoral beauties and modest amusements of Parson Woodforde's quiet life: fishing trips, near-daily card games, concerts and dinners (large ones, famously and minutely documented) with friends. Occasionally the pleasant tenor of his days is ruffled by the impudence of a servant or friend ('Mrs Davie and Nancy made me up an Apple Pye Bed') or the louche behaviour of his younger brother ('Brother John is very indifferent by his being too busy with Girls'). There are excitements - the launching of a hot-air balloon, the day the pigs got drunk - but essentially his life was a peaceful one and sometimes, as he puts it, 'comical dull'. His diary is anything but. As the novelist David Hughes states in his introduction, 'No amount of history written with hindsight can be anything like as good as a document never meant to be read.' Click here to order $30