The story of an ordinary seaman born in Scarborough who would go on to play a key role in some of the major events of seventeenth-century England.

Why did England’s one experiment in republican rule fail? Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658 sparked a period of unrivalled turmoil and confusion in English history. In less than two years, there were close to ten changes of government; rival armies of Englishmen faced each other across the Scottish border; and the Long Parliament was finally dissolved after two decades. Why was this period so turbulent, and why did the republic, backed by a formidable standing army, come crashing down in such spectacular fashion? In this fascinating history, Henry Reece explores the full story of the English republic’s downfall. Questioning the accepted version of events, Reece argues that the restoration of the monarchy was far from inevitable—and that the republican regime could have survived long term. Richard Cromwell’s Protectorate had deep roots in the political nation, the Rump Parliament mobilised its supporters impressively, and the country showed little interest in returning to the old order until the republic had collapsed. This is a compelling account that transforms our understanding of England’s short-lived period of republican rule.

In 1669, fleeing a London decimated by the plague and the Great Fire, a young English child arrived, alone, at Fort St. George, the first English fortress in Mughal India. The boy survived to become a maverick merchant-mariner, an ‘independent’ trading on the fringes of the East India Company. Captain Thomas Bowrey gained renown in numerous fields. Operating throughout the East Indies and speaking Malay, the lingua franca of diplomacy and trade in the region, he would write and publish the first ever Malay-English dictionary, a seminal work that even a century later would be used by the likes of Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore. It has also been claimed Bowrey wrote the earliest first-hand account of the recreational use of cannabis. Bowrey’s shipping interests, however, were plagued by pirates, privateers and mutiny and included the tragic Worcester, which played a pivotal role in the union of England and Scotland. Subsequent projects included the east African slave trade and his collaboration with Daniel Defoe in the founding of the South Sea Company. Despite everything, Bowrey succeeded in amassing sufficient fortune for alms-houses to be built in his name following his death, but his true legacy is his papers that lay hidden in an attic for two centuries and which now shed light not only on the exploits of this remarkable man but also on life and commerce at the start of globalisation.

'Superb ... There is no disputing the enormous knowledge, the sheer love of books that is gathered here' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY ____________________ A great and fascinating work from Scottish literary legend Alasdair Gray, beautifully illustrated throughout, chronicling the history of how literature spread and developed throughout the world. This is a unique history of literature as presented through the collected and annotated prefaces of major writers, including commentary by a range of authors including James Kelman, A.L. Kennedy, and Virginia Woolf. The result of a lifetime's reading and creative labour, intellectual and artistic, The Book of Prefaces will delight, amaze and inform both casual browsers and students. Its like will not be seen again for at least another millennium. ____________________ Praise for Alasdair Gray 'A necessary genius' ALI SMITH 'One of the brightest intellectual and creative lights Scotland has known in modern times' NICOLA STURGEON

From a Scottish waterfall three times the height of Niagara Falls to the last foreign invasion of Britain, The British Isles: A Trivia Gazetteer brings together hundreds of remarkable facts concerning different locations across Britain and Ireland. An As much an accessible and informative reference book as it is an entertaining miscellany.

The social life and customs of 17th Century England are vividly portrayed in these extracts from the diary of Samuel Pepys.