I love this book. Every chapter holds many surprises about household terms and items that I had totally taken for granted all my life. Bill Bryson relates it himself, which as he is talking about his own home, is fascinating. I always enjoy his narrations.
It is never too late to find out your own home is another country.
Great book!
A Different Kind of Courage is the spellbinding account of a young woman who witnessed personally Hitler's racist spite at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and endured the shock of the disappearance of her best friend and her family during Kristallnacht, the night of atrocities against the Jews. She allied herself to the German resistance fighters, passing on secrets learnt from her work on the Enigma decoding machines.
Witness the events which shaped this prosperous capital and brought its lively cosmopolitan population together. See a unique living chronicle of Cardiff; the bustling streets if horse drawn carts and electric trams, the thriving docks as they were, the hey-day of sail and steam at the zenith of the coal trade, and a stirring record of how the city and it's people coped with two world wars and with post-war triumphs and tragedies including the agony of Aberfan.
In the years between 1854 and 1856, Britain fought its only European war between the ending of the Napoleonic conflict in 1815 and the opening of the Great War in 1914. Although eventually victorious, this was a hard war fought with little skill and filled with great loss. Indeed the Crimean War became infamously known for military and logistical incompetence, perhaps most aptly epitomised by the near annihilation of the British Light Brigade.
The programme will show you how to dig out the incredible wealth of information kept about your family in millions of lovingly preserved records. With an introduction by His Royal Highness, Prince Michael of Kent, Discover Your Family History has been produced in conjunction with the Society of Genealogists, the world's leading experts in the field. Family History is no longer the preserve of the rich or titled. Everybody has roots. Now we can all find ours.
Starting with the development of the city as a bronze age settlement on the castle rock and on through the dangerous political climate of the 16th century, Edinburgh Through the Ages also shows how the city came of age during the Scottish "enlightenment", becoming a hotbed of artistic and philosophical achievement as figures such as Allan Ramsey Jr. and intellectuals like David Hume won it the title of "the Athens of the North".
At the end of the Second World War, some of the highest ranking Nazis escaped from justice, Aided and abetted by the Vatican, they travelled down secret 'rat lines' and were taken in by shady Argentine secret agents. Vengeful Holocaust survivors and inept politicains attempted to bring them to justice and there were daring plots to kidnap or assassinate the fugititives.
A completely original history of one of the most extraordinary movements in the world - the Girl Guides - and how they helped win the war.Mention Girl Guides to any woman and the reaction will be strong.
If you've ever wanted to add a little savoir faire to your badinage, or chutzpah to your spiel, then fear not, help is at hand. A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi is an entertaining jaunt through the legions of words, from aficionado to zeitgeist, that we English-speakers have pilfered from across the globe. It includes fascinating derivations and witty examples, as well as all the stories of just how and why we absorbed such exotic imports.
An engrossing BBC Radio 4 series spanning the history of the home and domestic relationships over the past 500 years, presented by Amanda Vickery. Professor Vickery is one of the most charismatic historians in Britain today. In 'A History of Private Life' she reveals the intimate secrets of life at home, from the Tudor mansion to the modern bedsit.Through letters, diaries and other first-person accounts, we hear the voices of men and women from very different backgrounds telling their stories.
From the best-selling author of Agent Zigzag, the thrilling true story of the greatest and most successful wartime deception ever attempted. One April morning in 1943, a sardine fisherman spotted the corpse of a British solder floating in the sea off the coast of Spain and set in train a course of events that would change the course of the Second World War.
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