This Seat of Mars: War and the British Isles 1485-1746  by Charles Carlton(Yale University Press), 2011 332pp., £25 hard, ISBN 978-0-300-13913-6Shakespeare did not exaggerate when he defined being a soldier as one of the seven ages of man. Over the early modern period, many millions of young men from the four...

This Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe, Robert Tombs, Allen Lane, 2021, 203 pp, £16.99. ISBN 978-0-241-48038-0  Robert Tombs is well-known for his works on French and English history and he has turned his hand to an admirably concise history of Britain’s relationship with its European neighbours from the...

Thomas Chippendale, Adam Bowett and James Lomax, Shire Publications, 2021, 64p, £8-99. ISBN 978-1-78442-477-0. Thomas Chippendale has a claim to be Britain’s most famous furniture designer and manufacturer. Although we will have seen examples of his exquisite work in country houses and museums, we will not necessarily know very much...

Tolkien in East Yorkshire 1917 - 1918: An Illustrated Tour,Phil Mathison, Dead Good Publications, 2012, £8.99.ISBN: 978-0-9562994-1-3Most people are familiar with the works of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). His writings, most notably "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings", have sold in millions of copies round the world and...

Tommy Armstrong; The Pitman Poet, Ray Tilly (Summerhill Books, Newcastle upon Tyne, (2010) 192pp., paperback, £9.99 ISBN 978 1 906721 30 5.This biography of Thomas Armstrong (1848-1920) the Pitman Poet of Tanfield Lea is by his detective grandson Ray Tilly who helps to dispel misconceptions about his father William Hunter...

Tracing Your Ancestors in Lunatic Asylums: a Guide for Family Historians, Michelle Higgs, Pen and Sword, 2019,  196p, £14-99. ISBN 978 1 52674 485 2 My great-great-grandmother Emma Wood’s brother, Theophilus Wood, died in the Warwickshire Lunatic Asylum in 1871. It was his extraordinary fore-name that initially attracted my attention...

Tracing Your Family History with the Whole Family: A Family Research Adventure for All Ages, Robin C. McConnell, Pen and Sword, 2022, 151p, £14.99. ISBN 9781399013888. This is a very well-intentioned book, based on the exceptionally strong idea of inter-generational collaboration. Robin McConnell is very persuasive in his proposition that...

Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors - A Guide for Family Historians, by Mike Royden. Pen and Sword, 2010, Paper, 456 pp, £14.99, ISBN 9781844159901This very useful guide for family historians tracing their Liverpool ancestry is firmly rooted in the belief that genealogical research is both enlivened and enhanced by an appreciation...

Tracing Your Poor Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians, Stuart A. Raymond, Pen and Sword, 2020, 196p, £14-99. ISBN 9781526742933 This is a very helpful aide memoire for anyone wishing to find out what their impoverished ancestors may have experienced. Inevitably it cannot provide precise answers to the most specific...

Tracing Your Prisoner Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians, Stephen Wade, Pen and Sword, 2020, 176p, £14-99. ISBN 9781526778529 This is part of a very helpful series that has been produced by Pen and Sword. In this volume Stephen Wade guides us into a potentially unfamiliar area of family and...

Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Early Modern Mediterranean; Brandel's Maritime Legacy, edited by Maria Fusaro, Colin Heywood and Mohamed-Salah Omri (I. B. Tauris, London and New York, 2010) xiv, 319pp., hardback, £54.50 ISBN 978 1 84885 163 4. Fernand Brandel's original French study of ‘The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean...

Travel and Religion in Antiquity, Philip A. Harland (Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion, Wilfrid Laurier University Press,) xii, 289pp., hardback, £70.99, ISBN 978 1 55458 222 8 This is the 21st volume in the Studies in Christianity and Judaism series.  Philip Harland is an associate professor in humanities and...

Travellers in the Third Reich. The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People, Julia Boyd. London: Elliott and Thompson Limited, 2017, 488 pp., ISBN 978 1 78396 381 2, £10.99 A well-written and interesting account that reflects not only a wideranging trawl through a range of sources but...

Trench: a History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front, Stephen Bull, Osprey Publishing, 2014, 272 pp, ISBN: 978 1 4728 0132 6, £14.99. We have already seen a publishing explosion about World War 1 and, as each succeeding anniversary passes, the older books will be discarded.  However, Trench by...

Tutbury: ‘A Castle Firmly Built' - Archaeological and historical investigations at Tutbury Castle, Staffordshire, Malcolm Hislop, Mark Kincey and Gareth Williams, Birmingham Archaeology Monograph Series 11 [BAR 546], 2011, Archaeopress,  293p,  ISBN 978-1-4073-0855-5, £55-00.This is the long-awaited report on the historical evidence that has emerged at Tutbury Castle and its...

Uncommon Courage: The Yachtsmen Volunteers of World War II, Julia Jones, Adlard Coles, 2022, 310p, £20-00. ISBN 978-1-4729-87105 Historians are frequently obsessed with defining what constitutes a primary source, a source which will be guaranteed to yield reliable data. What Julia Jones has done is to produce a book which...

Under Fire: Essex and the Second World War 1939-1945, Paul Rusiecki, University of Hertfordshire Press, 2015, 320p, £18-99. ISBN 978-1-909291-28-7Paul Rusiecki has explored what happened to Essex during the Second World War in a remarkable manner. This book is in many ways more about the experience of the people who...

Understanding the British Empire by Ronald Hyam(Cambridge University Press), 2010 552pp., £24.99 paper, ISBN 0-978-521-13290-9Ronald Hyam is a highly regarded imperial historian whose work over the last thirty years has been at the forefront of innovative thinking about the subject.  Divided into six main themes, the geopolitical and economic dynamics...

Vanishing London, Paul Joseph, Haynes Publishing Ltd, 2011, hardback, 256p, ISBN 978-0-857330-38-3, £25-00.This book is richly illustrated with a very substantial selection by Paul Joseph of photographs from the Mirrorpix photographic archive. The contents are arranged in themes - public buildings and spaces; trade and industry; entertainment, leisure and sport;...

Victorian Stained Glass, Trevor Yorke, Shire Publications, 20222, 64p, £8-99. ISBN 978-1-78442-483-1 This is an extraordinarily helpful introduction to the art and manufacture of stained glass. Its extra attraction is that it offers much more than the title suggests. Trevor Yorke provides a very succinct but clear explanation of the...