Traces the life of Sir Francis Drake, separates the man from the myth, and describes his voyages

"The Story of Sir Francis Drake" by Letitia MacColl Elton Sir Francis Drake was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition. He often goes unappreciated, which is why this book by Elton is so important. It shines a light on one of the most important figures in travel history.

In The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, Samuel Bawlf offers fascinating insight into life at sea in the sixteenth century, from the dangers of mutiny and the difficulty of understanding patterns of wind and current to the arduous physical challenges faced every day by Drake’s men. But it is Bawlf's assertion of Drake’s whereabouts in the summer of 1579 that gives his book its exciting originality. Based especially on his seminal study of maps produced after the voyage, Bawlf shows with certainty that Drake sailed all the way to Alaska, much farther north than anyone has heretofore imagined, thereby rewriting the history of exploration. He was, Bawlf claims, in search of the western entrance to the fabled Northwest Passage, at which he planned to found England’s first colony, and wrest control of the Pacific from Spain. Drake’s voyage was in fact so far ahead of its time that another 200 years would pass before the eighteenth-century explorers of record reached the northwest coast of North America.

"Sir Francis Drake, a murderous pirate working for the Queen of England in the 16th century, was the second person in the world known to sail around the globe. On a quest to steal treasures, hunt for spices, and annoy the King of Spain as much as possible, Francis and his crew aboard the Golden Hind might not have been the first, but they were certainly the wackiest. Follow his travels full of perils, pongs, and penguins, and learn a little history along the way."--

Here are the daring exploits of the Elizabethan sea dogs who established England as the foremost maritime and colonial power in the 1500s and thus bequeathed the nation a heritage that would endure for many generations.

It is 1577 and Francis Drake, the Queen of England’s favourite adventurer, has been ordered to command a new expedition leaving from Plymouth. Drake has appointed you, Francis Fletcher, as Chaplain on the expedition. You believe you are off on a trading trip to Alexandria in Egypt, but Drake’s expedition has another purpose. Where will this voyage take you? This title in the best-selling children’s history series, You Wouldn't Want To…, features full-colour illustrations which combine humour and accurate technical detail and a narrative approach placing readers at the centre of the history, encouraging them to become emotionally-involved with the characters and aiding their understanding of what life would have been like sailing with Francis Drake. Informative captions, a complete glossary and an index make this title an ideal introduction to the conventions of information books for young readers. It is an ideal text for Key Stage 2 shared and guided reading and helps achieve the goals of the Scottish Standard Curriculum 5-14.

A new, transformative history – in Tudor times there were Black people living and working in Britain, and they were free ‘This is history on the cutting edge of archival research, but accessibly written and alive with human details and warmth.’ David Olusoga, author of Black and British: A Forgotten History A black porter publicly whips a white Englishman in the hall of a Gloucestershire manor house. A Moroccan woman is baptised in a London church. Henry VIII dispatches a Mauritanian diver to salvage lost treasures from the Mary Rose. From long-forgotten records emerge the remarkable stories of Africans who lived free in Tudor England… They were present at some of the defining moments of the age. They were christened, married and buried by the Church. They were paid wages like any other Tudors. The untold stories of the Black Tudors, dazzlingly brought to life by Kaufmann, will transform how we see this most intriguing period of history. *** Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018 A Book of the Year for the Evening Standard and the Observer ‘That rare thing: a book about the 16th century that said something new.’ Evening Standard, Books of the Year ‘Splendid… a cracking contribution to the field.’ Dan Jones, Sunday Times ‘Consistently fascinating, historically invaluable… the narrative is pacy... Anyone reading it will never look at Tudor England in the same light again.’ Daily Mail

How well do you know the life of one of Britain’s great maritime heroes? Discover the truth behind a man who remains a legendary figure of history more than four hundred years after his death. Sir Francis Drake’s career is one of the most colourful on record. The most daring of the corsairs who raided the West Indies and Spanish Main, he led the English into the Pacific, and cirumnavigated the world to bring home the Golden Hind laden with Spanish treasure. His attacks on Spanish cities and ships transformed his private war into a struggle for surivival between Protestant England and Catholic Spain, in which he became Elizabeth I's most prominent admiral and marked the emergence of England as major maritime nation. ‘Excellent...It deserves to become the standard Drake life. His scholarship is impeccable’ Frank McLynn, Sunday Telegraph