Britain's Living Past is a celebration of the best of the past, of things that have been preserved because they still matter to the community. It is a book in which the emphasis is very much on the word 'living'; looking at traditions, pastimes and working practices, some centuries old, that survive today not as museum pieces or in pages of a history book but as part of everyday modern life. From reminders of Britain's great maritime past in the crafts of the shipwright and the rope maker, to the organised mayhem that is the Ashbourne Tuesday football match and the exotic splendour of Giffords traditional circus, writer Tony Burton and photographer Rob Scott have travelled the length and breadth of our great nation to recreate for the reader the amazing sights they have seen. Together they have travelled from Shetland in the far north to the tip of Cornwall. They have sailed along the Scottish coast in a paddle steamer and learned how to make Melton Mowbray pork pies by hand. They have watched ponies galloping through the streets of Appleby and resisted the temptation to try too many of the sweets in the world's oldest sweet shop. This is a book that delights in the rich diversity of our historic survivors. For both author and photographer it has been a pleasure to witness many skilled people at work: to discover the complexity of building a fairground organ or to marvel at the skill and athleticism of circus performers. This is a book of rich variety that celebrates the great survivors from our islands' history.

This is the book that put Britain's 'heritage industry' on the map, opening one of the defining cultural and political debates of its time, and showing why conservation was a subject of broad significance, far broader than its professional status might suggest.

The middle of the twentieth century– from the early 1930s, through theSecond World War, to the end of the1970s – was a period in which Britainchanged perhaps more definitivelyand dramatically than at any othertime in its long history. Historian andbroadcaster Juliet Gardiner has studiedthis period extensively and in Memoriesof Britain Past she looks back at thekey areas of everyday life – childhood,work, housing, entertainment andcelebrations – and with the help ofunique photographs from the GettyCollection, brings them to life again.With more than 300 illustrations, manypersonal recollections and an evocative,informative text, this book shows howlife really was in those days gone by.

A beautifully observed history of the British home front during the Napoleonic Wars by a celebrated historian We know the thrilling, terrible stories of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars—but what of those left behind? The people on a Norfolk farm, in a Yorkshire mill, a Welsh iron foundry, an Irish village, a London bank, a Scottish mountain? The aristocrats and paupers, old and young, butchers and bakers and candlestick makers—how did the war touch their lives? Jenny Uglow, the prizewinning author of The Lunar Men and Nature's Engraver, follows the gripping back-and-forth of the first global war but turns the news upside down, seeing how it reached the people. Illustrated by the satires of Gillray and Rowlandson and the paintings of Turner and Constable, and combining the familiar voices of Austen, Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron with others lost in the crowd, In These Times delves into the archives to tell the moving story of how people lived and loved and sang and wrote, struggling through hard times and opening new horizons that would change their country for a century.

This book surveys the lives and experiences of hundreds of thousands of eighteenth-century non-elite Londoners in the evolution of the modern world.

Dramatic social and economic change during the middle ages altered the lives of the people of Britain in far-reaching ways, from the structure of their families to the ways they made their livings. In this masterly book, preeminent medieval historian Christopher Dyer presents a fresh view of the British economy from the ninth to the sixteenth century and a vivid new account of medieval life. He begins his volume with the formation of towns and villages in the ninth and tenth centuries and ends with the inflation, population rise, and colonial expansion of the sixteenth century. This is a book about ideas and attitudes as well as the material world, and Dyer shows how people regarded the economy and responded to economic change. He examines the growth of towns, the clearing of lands, the Great Famine, the Black Death, and the upheavals of the fifteenth century through the eyes of those who experienced them. He also explores the dilemmas and decisions of those who were making a living in a changing world—from peasants, artisans, and wage earners to barons and monks. Drawing on archaeological and landscape evidence along with more conventional archives and records, the author offers here an engaging survey of British medieval economic history unrivaled in breadth and clarity.

This is the only official handbook for the new Life in the UK tests taken on or after 25 March 2013. This large print version contains all the official learning material for the test and is written in clear, simple language - making it easy to understand. This essential handbook covers a range of topics you need to know to pass your test and apply for UK citizenship or permanent residency, including: The process of becoming a citizen or permanent resident; the values and principles of the UK; traditions and culture from around the UK; the events and people that have shaped the UK's history; the government and the law; getting involved in your community

First published in 1892, this fascinating collection of articles relating to the art of shepherding in Britain is a wonderful glimpse into farming in Victorian Britain. Packed full of snapshots of a rural lifestyle in steep decline, with wonderfully titled chapters including, Contentedness of Southdown Shepherds, A Sussex Shepherdess, Lazy Shepherds and an Exception, Sheep Farming in Cumberland, A Curious Usage in the Lake District, The Bone Eater, The Powers of the Collie, the Sheep Dogs of Ireland and many more including plenty of countryside folklore and a brand new introduction of sheep farming.

A best-selling journalist’s illuminating tour through the hidden legacies and modern realities of British empire that exposes how much of the present-day United Kingdom is actually rooted in its colonial past. Empireland boldly and lucidly makes the case that in order to understand America, we must first understand British imperialism. "Empireland is brilliantly written, deeply researched and massively important. It’ll stay in your head for years.” —John Oliver, Emmy Award-winning host of "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" With a new introduction by the author and a foreword by Booker Prize-winner Marlon James A best-selling journalist’s illuminating tour through the hidden legacies and modern realities of British empire that exposes how much of the present-day United Kingdom is actually rooted in its colonial past. Empireland boldly and lucidly makes the case that in order to understand America, we must first understand British imperialism. Empire—whether British or otherwise—informs nearly everything we do. From common thought to our daily routines; from the foundations of social safety nets to the realities of racism; and from the distrust of public intellectuals to the exceptionalism that permeates immigration debates, the Brexit campaign and the global reckonings with controversial memorials, Empireland shows how the pernicious legacy of Western imperialism undergirds our everyday lives, yet remains shockingly obscured from view. In accessible, witty prose, award-winning journalist and best-selling author Sathnam Sanghera traces this legacy back to its source, exposing how—in both profound and innocuous ways—imperial domination has shaped the United Kingdom we know today. Sanghera connects the historical dots across continents and seas to show how the shadows of a colonial past still linger over modern-day Britain and how the world, in turn, was shaped by Britain’s looming hand. The implications, of course, extend to Britain’s most notorious former colony turned imperial power: the United States of America, which prides itself for its maverick soul and yet seems to have inherited all the ambition, brutality and exceptional thinking of its parent. With a foreword by Booker Prize–winner Marlon James, Empireland is a revelatory and lucid work of political history that offers a sobering appraisal of the past so we may move toward a more just future.