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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2020

        Political culture in later medieval England

        Essays by Simon Walker

        by Michael J. Braddick

        This is an important collection of pioneering essays penned by the late Simon Walker, a highly respected historian of late medieval England. One of the finest scholars of his generation, Walker's writing is lucid, inspirational, and has permanently enriched our understanding of the period. The eleven essays featured here examine themes such as kingship, lordship, warfare and sanctity. There are specific studies on subjects such as the changing fortunes of the family of Sir Richard Abberbury; Yorkshire's Justices of the Peace; the service of medieval man-at-arms, Janico Dartasso; Richard II's views on kingship, political saints, and an investigation of rumour, sedition and popular protest in the reign of Henry IV. An introduction by G.L. Harriss looks back across Walker's career, and discusses the historiographical context of his work. Both the new and previously published pieces here will be essential reading for those working on the late medieval period.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        August 2024

        Ireland and the Renaissance court

        by David Edwards, Brendan Kane

        Ireland and the Renaissance court is an interdisciplinary collection of essays exploring Irish and English courts, courtiers and politics in the early modern period, c. 1450-1650. Chapters are contributed by both established and emergent scholars working in the fields of history, literary studies, and philology. They focus on Gaelic cúirteanna, the indigenous centres of aristocratic life throughout the medieval period; on the regnal court of the emergent British empire based in London at Whitehall; and on Irish participation in the wider world of European elite life and letters. Collectively, they expand the chronological limits of 'early modern' Ireland to include the fifteenth century and recreate its multi-lingual character through exploration of its English, Irish and Latin archives. This volume is an innovative effort at moving beyond binary approaches to English-Irish history by demonstrating points of contact as well as contention.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2025

        Beyond the Pale and Highland Line

        The Irish and Scottish Gaelic world

        by Simon Egan

        This book offers important new insights into the history and culture of the Gaelic-speaking world from the mid-fifteenth century through to the reign of James VI and I. Throughout this period, the reach of the English and Scottish crowns within these western regions was limited. The initiative lay with local communities and royal power was contingent upon negotiating with well-established and largely autonomous aristocratic lineages. Moreover, events within this western world could exert a powerful, often unpredictable, influence upon the affairs of the wider archipelago. Using a series of case studies, this collection examines the evolving relationship between Ireland and Scotland in rich detail. It demonstrates how this world interacted with the encroaching English and Scottish states and underlines the importance of paying closer attention to this neglected area of Irish and British history.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2018

        Noble society

        Five lives from twelfth-century Germany

        by Jonathan R. Lyon

        This book provides scholars and students alike with a set of texts that can deepen their understanding of the culture and society of the twelfth-century German kingdom. The sources translated here bring to life the activities of five noblemen and noblewomen from Rome to the Baltic coast and from the Rhine River to the Alpine valleys of Austria. To read these five sources together is to appreciate how interconnected political, military, economic, religious and spiritual interests could be for some of the leading members of medieval German society-and for the authors who wrote about them. Whether fighting for the emperor in Italy, bringing Christianity to pagans in what is today northern Poland, or founding, reforming and governing monastic communities in the heartland of the German kingdom, the subjects of these texts call attention to some of the many ways that noble life shaped the world of central medieval Europe.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Christian theology

        The Christ Always New

        The Place of Context in Christology

        by Francisco García Martínez

        Something has changed in Christology, something that causes anxiousness and worry among the shepherds and theologians that try to give reason of their faith in a time and in a society where certitudes have dwindled. However, since Christ is the same yesterday, today and always, the only and universal Salvator in history, theology, forced by Christ’s eschatological lordship, which does not despise any historical present as his own body, must look for new ways to offer today’s men and women the truth, beauty and goodness that are in store for all in God’s very depths. According to this logic, where the context becomes a provocation inviting faith and theology to be daring, the liturgical Christ reveals himself as the foundation of Christology, since it is the place where he displays his truth and living presence.

      • August 2024

        Principles of Catholic Theology, Book 3

        On God, Trinity, Creation, and Christ

        by Thomas Joseph White

        What if anything can human beings know about God, either by way of philosophical reasoning or by divine revelation? How does the mystery of the Incarnation illuminate our understanding of the nature and mystery of God and the nature and destiny of the human person? The essays in this book explore topics pertaining to the nature of God, apophatic theology, divine simplicity and the holy Trinity, divine beauty, and the beauty of creation. The book also contains a series of speculative considerations of Christology: Why did God become human? How ought we understand the two natures of Christ and the topic of the communication of idioms (attribution of both divine and human properties to one person)? There is also a sustained treatment of Jesus' human knowledge and voluntary freedom. Did Jesus understand his own lordship and his unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and if so, how? Did Christ's human will always accord with the divine will, and what significance does this idea have for our understanding of the redemption affected by Christ for the whole human race? Through these explorations, principles drawn from Thomas Aquinas and from Thomistic tradition are taken into account as key resources for the adjudication of contemporary theological challenges. Principles of Catholic Theology, Book 3 is a continuation of Fr. Thomas Joseph White's collection of essays, extending over a range of fundamental topics in Catholic dogmatic theology.

      • Romance
        August 2014

        A Heaven on Earth

        by Barbara Cartland

        "Beautiful Aurora Hartnell is returning home to Hadleigh Hall for Christmas. Looking forward to seeing her elderly father Lord Hartnell again, she ruefully acknowledges that life in the country is likely to seem rather dull after the elegance of her Finishing School in fashionable Paris. Resigned to a quieter pace of life, she is therefore filled with anticipation when she hears that an eligible bachelor, Lord Moreton, has moved into nearby Elton Hall. Dreaming of an attractive stranger who will sweep her off her feet, Aurora is delighted when her father invites the mysterious Lord for dinner on Christmas Eve Swept up in a frenzy of excitement, and determined to look her absolute best, Aurora is so caught up in romantic dreams she hardly notices that her intimidating stepmother, Lady Harntell, is behaving oddly. Hypercritical and quickly irritated, it seems that the only time Lady Hartnell smiles is when planning the impending dinner, which she insists must be perfect for his Lordship. But Aurora’s dreams are crushed like a daisy underfoot when she finally meets the man she has pinned all her hopes upon. A favourite of her father and stepmother’s, Aurora knows instantly that Lord Moreton is not a man she can respect or give her heart to. Then the dashing Earl of Linford gallops into Aurora’s life. Tall, handsome and with a twinkle in his dark eyes, she immediately knows that she must put a stop to any notions of a match between herself and Lord Moreton if she is ever to find happiness. But how can she extricate herself from Lord Moreton’s increasingly cloying attentions, without disappointing her beloved father? And just why is her stepmother so keen that they marry immediately? As the pressure to accept this unwanted proposal increases, Aurora is caught in an unhappy trap that she struggles to see a way out of.

      • Fiction
        November 2013

        Dear Friends: Letters from Abroad

        by Ann Brady

        A story of a friendship between two women from different social stratus' that shouldn't have existed in the 19th century. The story tells how both ladies suffer, survive and find happiness and love with the most unlikely of men.

      • Historical fiction
        May 2015

        Bloodie Bones: A Dan Foster Mystery

        by Lucienne Boyce

        “Parsons and tyrants friends take note. We have born your oppreshuns long enough. We will have our parish rights or else Bloodie Bones will drink your blood.”  When Lord Oldfield encloses Barcombe Wood, depriving the people of their ancient rights to gather food and fuel, the villagers retaliate with vandalism, arson and riot. Then Lord Oldfield’s gamekeeper, Josh Castle, is murdered during a poaching raid. Dan Foster, Bow Street Runner and amateur pugilist, is sent to investigate.  Dan’s job is to infiltrate the poaching gang and bring the killers to justice. But there’s more to Castle’s death than at first sight appears. What is the secret of the gamekeeper’s past and does it have any connection with his murder? What is Lord Oldfield concealing? And did someone beside the poachers have a reason to want Josh Castle dead?  As tensions in Barcombe build to a thrilling climax, Dan will need all his wits and his fighting skills to stay alive and get to the truth.

      • Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

        Bach and The Tuning of the World

        by Jens Johler

        Everyone has heard of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier – but hardly anybody knows anything about his journey to F sharp major.In March of 1700, shortly before his fifteenth birthday, Johann Sebastian Bach set off on his journey. His destination: to create perfect music, music that unites heaven and earth in harmony. His search finally brought him to Lübeck, where he became acquainted with Andreas Werckmeister and the well-tempered tuning. In this tempering – and that is new! – you can play everything, all keys, in major and minor. But perfection has its price: All notes are "tempered" a bit, which means falsified; the music has a touch of artificiality from now on. And not only the notes and pitches – nature and people are also being tempered. Gardens are laid out with geometric precision, rivers are canalized, cities redesigned. Night becomes day thanks to street lighting, the pocket watch makes it possible to take along the time with you, the tuning fork enables choral pitch. The journey into an artificial world has begun. When Bach completed the Well-Tempered Clavier, he was overcome with profound doubt: Is not his work "only of this world" – perfect, artificial, profane?

      • History
        September 2010

        National Thought in Europe

        A Cultural History

        by Jope Leerssen

        Bringing together sources from many countries and many centuries, this study critically analyses the growth of nationalism - from medieval ethnic prejudice to the Romantic belief in a nation’s “soul”. The belief and ideology of the nation’s cultural individuality emerged from a Europe-wide exchange of ideas, often articulated in literature and belles lettres. In the last two centuries, these ideas have transformed the map of Europe and the relations between people and government. Tracing the modern European nation-state as the outcome of a cultural self-invention, cross-nationally and historically, Leerssen also provides a new approach to Europe’s contemporary identity politics. This study of nationalism offers a startling new perspective on cultural and national identity. National Thought in Europe was shortlisted for the Europe Book Prize.

      • Biography: historical, political & military

        Somerled

        Hammer of the Norse

        by K. M. MacPhee

        Born c.1113 in Morvern, Argyll, Somerled was half-Norse through his mother. His father's lineage was reputedly of royal blood. Forced into exile in Ireland his family convinced the Colla clan to help them reclaim their Argyll lands, but his father was killed in the attempt. Growing up and living as a warrior hermit, Somerled led the inhabitants of Morvern against the Norse and regained his family's lands thus becoming master of large tracts of northern Argyll. Soon after, he took control of the south of Argyll and pronounced himself Thane of Argyll. At the same time, King David I was waging war against the Norwegians and Somerled's stature and currency rose with the king accordingly.;Somerled wooed King Olaf the Red by marrying his daughter c.1140. For 14 years they lived in relative peace until Olaf was murdered by his nephews who siezed control of the Norse lands in the Hebrides. Olaf's son Godfrey, a tyrant, reclaimed these lands but the inhabitants revolted and appealed to Somerled who then led a successful resistance and took Argyll in its entirety. Somerled's invention of the moveable stern rudder gave his sailors an advantage over the Norse war galleys and when Godfrey and Somerled clashed again two years later the Norse galleys were routed.;Somerled became King of the Isles around 1156 but was able to treaty with King Malcolm IV who was concerned at Somerled's increasing power. However, after being insulted by Malcolm once too often, Somerled invaded the Clyde in 1163 with 164 galleys and 15,000 men and marched on Renfrew. What happened next is unclear but Somerled died in 1164 and his army dispersed back to the isles. His legacy was in fathering the Clan Donald, the creation of the finest galleys ever seen in Scottish waters and the enduring power base of the Lordship of the Isles.

      • January 2018

        Gebrek is een groot woord

        by Nina Polak

        Nynke ‘Skip’ Nauta has already been at sea for seven years when, in the Cannes Marina, her past catches up with her. There she sees the Zeno family with their brilliant adolescent son, Juda. The enthusiastic Zenos have previously taken good care of Skip and they invite her to spend a summer in their garden pavilion in Amsterdam.   Reluctantly, Skip accepts the invitation and travels back to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam she finds a city and a family slowly being eroded by the zeitgeist. Moreover, in the overcrowded, well-trodden streets of Amsterdam, there is no escape from the traces of two lost loves: a man and a mother, both of whom have tried unsuccessfully to drag Skip with them into tragedy.   Skip, the heroine, has always successfully opposed the roles forced upon her, but this time she will have to reconsider her outsider status. The question: Can an exile ever be at home?                   Great Love Comes To Mind is a novel about the disorientation between freedom and belonging. A book about attachment to each other, but also to our own reality.

      • March 2020

        Ghoulslayer

        by Darius Hinks

        In the bleak, haunted underworld of Shyish, a vengeful Slayer seeks the Lord of Undeath. Gotrek Gurnisson returns, his oaths now ashes alongside the world-that-was, his fury undiminished. Branded with the Master Rune of Grimnir, the God that betrayed him, and joined by Maleneth Witchblade, a former Daughter of Khaine turned agent of the Order of Azyr, the hunt has taken them far and wide through the Realm of Death. Will Gotrek find a path to the Undying King or will the underworlds claim him as their own?

      • Humour

        All Mouth and Codpiece

        by Roger Butters

        Through the perilous world of late mediaeval espionage strides the intrepid figure of Ancient Pistol, secret agent. Never at a loss for an insult or an anachronistic quotation from the Bard, Shakespeare’s vainglorious soldier has been entrusted by Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, to investigate a matter of the utmost delicacy, involving as it does the fate of the mightiest in the land. Pistol would not be everyone’s choice for such a task, being a loud-mouthed, cowardly, drunken fathead. But before the monumental ineptitude of his blundering, the Machiavellian schemes of the mighty crumble and fall. Ridiculed, beaten, humiliated but undefeated, Pistol triumphs in the end. Historical spoof based on the antics of Shakespeare’s character Ancient Pistol. Sequel to All Wind and Pistol, published by Book Guild Publishing, Brighton, 2008. Approximately 65,000 words.

      • Fantasy
        December 2010

        The Written

        by Ben Galley

        His name is Farden.  They whisper that he’s dangerous.  Dangerous is only the half of it.  Something has gone missing from the libraries of Arfell. Something very old, and something very powerful. Five scholars are now dead, a country is once again on the brink of war, and the magick council is running out of time and options.  Entangled in a web of lies and politics and dragged halfway across icy Emaneska and back, Farden must unearth a secret even he doesn’t want to know, a secret that will shake the foundations of his world. Dragons, drugs, magick, death, and the deepest of betrayals await.  Welcome to Emaneska.   --------------------   Want to know what The Written is? Just think Lord of The Rings meets Sin City, and you'll be on the right track. The Written is the first volume in The Emaneska Series and the debut book of young UK author Ben Galley. The Written is available in eBook, paperback and special edition hardback. The epic sequels Pale Kings, Dead Stars - Part One, and Dead Stars - Part Two are also now available. You can follow Ben on Twitter @BenGalley, on Facebook at /BenGalleyAuthor, or at www.bengalley.com

      • Fantasy

        Dan/Ozzy versus De Lack.

        The Rape of the Rath - print

        by James Kilcullen

        Jack De Lack, ambitious EU Transport Commissioner finally gets permission to build his new mega airport to cater for the 719 jet which will carry 1,200 passengers - in Connemara beside Rath Pallas, a fairy fort near the town of Conna. Dan/Ozzy, he of the Little people, and Ulick Joyc, a local member of the Irish Parliament, are determined to preserve the peace and quiet of Connemara. But De Lack is not for turning.

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