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The Rotten Romans (Horrible Histories)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Terry Deary, Nick Baker

July 07, 2003
...a contents page, like most other books, it has chapters, also like most other books, and it has a blurb, like most other books, but it also has a timeline (like most of the other Horrible History books) about the most important events in the Roman Era. The Rotten Romans features beastly battles, deadly doctoring and marvellous myths - and you can even find out how to tell the future using a dead chicken! It's packed with quizzes, sketches, music and jokes, as well as mini-dramas and real life re-enactments - telling you the kind of foul facts which just aren't available from a classroom education!

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Letter from America (BBC Radio Collection)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Alistair Cooke

November 01, 1993
Its not too much of an exageration to say that this book is an oversight of 20th century usa. Alistair Cooke's letter is something i came too only a few years before his death and this book goes through from the 40s right until his last letter.

The quality of writing is superb of a man at the cutting edge of history.

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Horrible Histories: The Frightful First World War (BBC Radio Collection)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Terry Deary, Nick Baker

June 07, 2004
`The Frightful First World War tells you all the horrors and hardships of the war that was meant to last for four months...but ground on for four grim years.'

The usual Deary humour flows through the 136 pages packed with facts, written in a variety of fonts and full of black and white illustrations and cartoons, from Martin Brown.

`Want to know how sniffing your own pee could save your life in the First World War?'

Read on!

Split into 5 chapters:-

1914 - The year of the first shot
1915 - The year of total war
1916 - The year of the Somme
1917 - The year of the mud
1918 - The year of exhaustion

with an introduction, a `Test Your Teacher' section
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A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? - 3000 BC-AD 1603 Vol 1 (BBC Radio Collection)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Simon Schama

October 02, 2000
This History of Britain vol. 1 is by no means exhaustive but that's not what it intends nor claims to be. Instead, you get an engaging page-turner, as addictive as the best detective or adventure novel, told by an expert in the matter and a consummate story-teller to boot. I bought this after having seen the BBC series but, trust you me, the book is even better!

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Fermat's Last Theorem

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Simon Singh

July 21, 1997
The book looks like the author is just postponing the end of the story just repeating and repeating the same ideas. The part of the proof and the attempts to correct the proof are quite disappointing because they are too much redundant. Moreover Singh is sliding some e-mails which don't add anything to the story and are quite "impenetrable". I do not like this way of writing. The author pretends not to use math symbology and math concepts beyond very basic ones, and then he lets go concepts like Hecke algebra, Euler system, "quasi-automorphic representations", i.e. without giving any clue about what they mean.
I think it leaves too much maths unexplained (and in a book about a math conundrum you understand it is a big problem!); I would have loved to see ... Read More:

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The English: A Portrait of A People

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Jeremy Paxman

October 25, 2001
The first 70-100 pages form the start of an interesting and entertaining essay- however the book does not close on many of the promises made in the opening chapters. For example, many references are made to the impossibility of defining a singular English identity- certainly true enough. However, the book gradually builds into a sustained focus on 'the breed' (read traditional stereotype of a Public School educated Englishman from the Home Counties). There are ample opportunities to reject further discussion of this tired stereotype but few are given more than lip service. This book may be interesting for some and opens with some interesting observations, however it fails to materialise as a coherent comment on the diverse English people.

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Dr Johnson's London (Tape): Everyday Life in London in the Mid 18th Century

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Liza Picard

August 10, 2000
I have enjoyed this book. It is valuable whether you are researching 18th century English history, of whether you just want to immerse yourself in the atmosphere and activities of the times. Focus is more on what normal men and women got up to rather than on the kings and queens and wars and so on (the kind of thing that is perhaps more usual for history books). But this is not just a history book. It is entertaining as well. It is written without aloofness or any hint of stuffiness, and has humour and wit to lighten the load. Academic, well researched and yet warm and full of humanity. What a combination!

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Elizabeth

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: David Starkey

February 19, 2001
So much has been written about Queen Elizabeth I and her glorious reign, but it seems that her life prior to coronation is glossed over. This book concentrates on her birth, early childhood and adolescence. It helps to explain many of her later idiosyncracies. Her early years were uncertain and changeable. One moment Princess Elizabeth, the next just Lady Elizabeth. In adolescence, years spent in The Tower at her sisters disposition! Such a dramatic childhood and youth need a separate book dedicated solely to them. This is that book. It reads very smoothly and ends tantalisingly just as Elizabeth's reign begins. Highly recommended.

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The Woeful Second World War (Horrible Histories)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Terry Deary, Nick Baker

July 07, 2003
...Dad's Army, or how sweet rationing drove a teacher to steal from his pupils, or what happened when an elephant got loose in the blackout, the full foul facts about life on the home front are laid out before your ears. It's packed with quizzes, sketches and jokes, as well as mini-dramas and real life re-enactments - telling you the kind of foul facts which just aren't available from a classroom education! This book is like most of the other Horrible Histories which have very practical timeline which are terrific! Rating: 7/ 10.

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Churchill: A Biography

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > History
by: Roy Jenkins

June 24, 2002
I never agreed very much with Roy Jenkins's political views and I was therefore wary of purchasing a book written by him on a man whom I greatly admire as I feared left wing revisionism. I was pleasantly surprised that Jenkins managed to put aside his political diffences to produce a fine biography of the national icon.

Much of the information in the book, I had already picked up by means of television programmes, articles in book reviews, history books and the like but the review of Churchill's writings encouraged me to read some of Churchill's own works. I therefore purchased "My Early Life" as well as Churchill's six volume "History of the Second World War" and read these afterwards as well.

The sheer courage, immense ability and vast energy of the man were outstanding. ... Read More: