The Secret Diary of Eleanor Cobham

The Secret Diary of Eleanor Cobham
Author: Tony Riches
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2019-02-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781796305418

England, 1441: Lady Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester, hopes to become Queen of England before her interest in astrology and her husband's ambition leads their enemies to accuse her of a plot against the king. Eleanor is found guilty of sorcery and witchcraft. Rather than have her executed, King Henry VI orders Eleanor to be imprisoned for life.More than a century after her death, carpenters restoring one of the towers of Beaumaris Castle discover a sealed box hidden under the wooden boards. Thinking they have found treasure, they break the ancient box open, disappointed to find it only contains a book, with hand-sewn pages of yellowed parchment.Written in a code no one could understand, the mysterious book changed hands many times for more than five centuries, between antiquarian book collectors, until it came to me. After years of frustrating failure to break the code, I discover it is based on a long forgotten medieval dialect and am at last able to decipher the secret diary of Eleanor Cobham.The Secret Diary of Eleanor Cobham from Tony Riches is a new addition to the great historical Fiction tradition of C J Sansom, Conn Iggulden, Philippa Gregory and Anne O'Brien.

The Devil Dancers

The Devil Dancers
Author: Truda Thurai
Publisher: Hot Monkey Publishing
Total Pages: 820
Release: 2011
Genre: Historical fiction
ISBN: 9780956970305

Terra Nova: Antarctic Voyager

Terra Nova: Antarctic Voyager
Author: Tony Riches
Publisher: Tony Riches
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2012-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1480116807

* Updated to include video footage of the discovery of the wreck of the Terra Nova *On the 15th June, 1910 the Terra Nova left Cardiff Docks to the cheers of a huge crowd, sailing into maritime history and carrying the hopes of a nation. The old whaler had been cleaned, painted and fitted out for the voyage of a lifetime to the coldest place on earth, the frozen sea ice of the Antarctic. Robert Falcon Scott's expedition to the South Pole was under way, after many months of planning, fund raising and preparation. The men of the Terra Nova Expedition risked their lives in the pursuit of scientific knowledge and exploration, sailing through the most dangerous waters on Earth. In 1910 there were still many unanswered questions about Antarctica, so Captain Scott recruited the largest team of scientists ever to visit the continent and they returned with over forty thousand zoological and geological specimens which are held in the British Natural History Museum collection.This illustrated book tells the story of the Terra Nova from her launch in 1884 to her sinking off the coast of Greenland in 1943, through many first-hand accounts, including the letters and journals of many who sailed on her. Also included are the seven recently discovered letters from Wilfred Bruce, member of the 1910 expedition and brother of Scott's wife Kathleen.In the foreword to the book, Captain Scott's granddaughter Dafila Scott writes: A hundred years after my grandfather Captain Scott's last expedition to the Antarctic, it is now possible to assess not only the tragedy of the deaths of the polar party but also the scientific legacy of the expedition, which was considerable. In this book, Tony Riches gives an account of the expedition and its scientific legacy but focuses first on the interesting history of the Terra Nova, the expedition ship, which proved suitable if leaky for its purpose in the Southern Ocean. He also draws attention to letters written by one of the crew members, Captain Scott's brother-in-law, Wilfred Bruce, which give a first hand account of life on the Terra Nova and include vivid descriptions of different periods during the expedition. These help one to imagine what it was like to be there.

Katherine - Tudor Duchess

Katherine - Tudor Duchess
Author: Tony Riches
Publisher:
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2019-09-25
Genre: Aristocracy (Social class)
ISBN: 9781695663855

"Attractive, wealthy and influential, Katherine Willoughby is one of the most unusual ladies of the Tudor court. A favourite of King Henry VIII, Katherine knows all his six wives, his daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and his son Edward, as well as being related by marriage to Lady Jane Grey. She marries Tudor knight, Sir Charles Brandon, and becomes Duchess of Suffolk at the age of fourteen. Her Spanish mother, Maria de Salinas, is Queen Catherine of Aragon's lady in waiting, so it is a challenging time for them all when King Henry marries the enigmatic Anne Boleyn. Following Anne's dramatic downfall, the short reign of young Catherine Howard, and the tragic death of Jane Seymour, Katherine's young sons are tutored with the future king, Prince Edward, and become his friends. Katherine and Charles Brandon are chosen to welcome Anna of Cleves as she arrives in England. When the royal marriage is annulled, Katherine's good friend, Catherine Parr becomes the king's sixth wife, and they work to promote religious reform. When King Edward dies, his Catholic sister Mary is crowned queen and Katherine's Protestant faith puts her family in great danger - from which there seems no escape."--Provided by publisher.

A History of Witchcraft in England

A History of Witchcraft in England
Author: Wallace Notestein
Publisher: The Floating Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2014-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1776536010

Many historical treatments of witchcraft tend to be somewhat sensationalistic and cartoonish. Not so with Wallace Notestein's measured, intellectual take on the subject in A History of Witchcraft in England, which offers not only a thorough historical narrative, but also puts the practice into social and political context.

Lost Libraries

Lost Libraries
Author: J. Raven
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2004-01-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 0230524257

This pioneering volume of essays explores the destruction of great libraries since ancient times and examines the intellectual, political and cultural consequences of loss. Fourteen original contributions, introduced by a major re-evaluative history of lost libraries, offer the first ever comparative discussion of the greatest catastrophes in book history from Mesopotamia and Alexandria to the dispersal of monastic and monarchical book collections, the Nazi destruction of Jewish libraries, and the recent horrifying pillage and burning of books in Tibet, Bosnia and Iraq.