No.333 October 2021 Books by mail since 1987 This month’s features ASSASSINATION Page 13 Playing with words Pages 26–27 Wave power: Tudor & Stuart Seafarers is a featured title on page 3 Order line: 01626 897100 www.psbooks.co.uk Welcome... to Postscript’s new selection of books for NEW SCOTLAND: October. We’ve never been able to resist DEFENDING an old ship and our cover picture this THE NATION month is a detail of An English Ship in Mapping the Action with Barbary Corsairs (c.1685) by Military Landscape Willem van de Velde the Younger, now Carolyn Anderson; in the new Tudor and Stuart Seafarers Christopher Fleet Gallery at the National Maritime Museum Scotland’s warring and reproduced – among many other relationship with maritime paintings – in a handsome England, from the Wars volume published to mark the Gallery’s of the Rough Wooing opening in 2018 (opposite). in the 1540s to the We are indulging another Postscript Jacobite uprising in enthusiasm in the centre pages (pp26–27): 1745, and its later roles Playing with Words, whether exploring in defending against strange etymologies, solving word puzzles, French invasion, the or simply marvelling at the endless two world wars and oddities of the English language. Cold War defences, There are also guides to getting it right, have left a rich legacy of including our favourite, My Grammar and I (or Should that be ‘Me’?). Scottish military mapping. Using all types of maps Elsewhere in this issue, The Zoo tells the and plans – for fortifications story of the founding of London Zoo (back and reconnaissance, Nikola Tesla and the Electrical Future page); military roads, defensive is a study of the scientist’s life and his constructions, battle plans visionary ideas (p38); and, among our and maps showing military special offers (p7), our set of four books targets – this book examines by Christopher Hitchens includes his final reflections on Mortality. the history of attacking and defending Scotland. Detail of the Blairgowrie BIRLINN 2018 HB 240pp Illus 248x244mm to Braemar road map, Best wishes from all at Postscript. £30.00 516200 now £14.99 completed in 1750 NEW ELIZABETHANS How Modern Britain Was Forged Andrew Marr ’s study of post-war RACHEL STEWART October 2021 Britain discusses how profoundly attitudes to various aspects of life INSIDE THIS ISSUE including politics, manners, social inequality and sexuality have changed Featured Titles 2-3/50-53 since the Queen came to the throne Special Features 13/26-27 Back by Popular Demand 4-5 in 1952. Selecting notable figures Special Offers 6-7 in numerous fields of endeavour, Academic Titles 32-33 from Roy Jenkins and Elizabeth Architecture/Design 25 David to David and Victoria Art/Photography/Fashion 22-24 Biography/Memoirs 16-17 Beckham, he traces the nation’s British Isles 14 transformation, describing how Children’s 48-49 each personality helped shape Crafts/Hobbies/Collectables 46-47 contemporary perspectives. Crime 8 WILLIAM COLLINS 2020 HB 512pp Illus Fiction 20-21 Food & Drink 44-45 £20.00 516356 now £7.99 Health/Mind, Body & Spirit 37 HISTORY Established in 1987, Social/Cultural 9 Modern/20th Century 11 Ancient/Medieval 10 Contemporary 12 Postscript is an independent Limited Quantities 34-35 mail order bookseller Literature/Poetry 18 specializing in carefully Military History 40-42 Music/Stage & Screen/Dance 19 selected overstocks, out-of-print books and new titles that we sell at Nature/Gardens/Pets 15 exceptionally good discounts of up to 75% off published prices. We buy Politics 39 from both major publishers and small presses and aim always to offer a Reference/Humour/Stationery 28-29 very broad and interesting selection of academic and general interest books. Science/Maths 38 Sport 36 For details on how to order, turn to page 51, or go to psbooks.co.uk Transport 43 where you will find our full range of almost 10,000 titles. Because our Travel 30-31 books are often in limited supply, we recommend that you order promptly. THE POSTSCRIPT GUARANTEE Your Order Form is inside the back cover If you are not satisfied with your books, please return them within 15 days and we will send a full refund or replacement. PostscriptBooks @PostscriptBooks FEATUREDARCHAEOLOGY TITLES NEW BIG HISTORY David Christian Spanning 13.8 billion years, Big History brings together science and humanities to trace the progress of the universe across eight thresholds: the Big Bang, the birth of stars, forging of elements, planet formation, the emergence of life, human evolution, the development of civilizations and, finally, the rise of industry. Each topic within this vast sweep is explained in over 150 concise, well illustrated double-page spreads, and the book ends with timelines of world history. DK 2016 HB 440pp Illus 297x250mm $50.00 513685 now £14.99 Coming soon... Our 2022 calendars Make a date with our next catalogue NEW SIR JOHN TIPTOFT: ‘THE BUTCHER OF ENGLAND’ The Earl of Worcester 1427–1470 Peter Spring As holder of the highest offices of state, Sir John Tiptoft was a powerful figure during the reigns of Henry VI and Edward IV, but became known for the scale and brutality of the executions he ordered. In this reappraisal the author argues that contemporary denigration of Tiptoft’s character reflected the deep antipathy of the English towards a cosmopolitan intellectual who refashioned the royal court according to continental models. PEN & SWORD 2018 HB 400pp Illus £25.00 515831 now £9.99 COVER TITLE NEW TUDOR & STUART SEAFARERS The Emergence of a Maritime Nation, 1485–1707 Ed. James Davey Between the first English ‘Merchant Adventurers’ who voyaged to the New World opened up by European mariners such as Columbus and Vespucci, and the early 1700s, when British sea power was seen as the bastion of national liberty, stability and prosperity, this richly illustrated volume explores a formative period in our maritime history. Published to mark the opening of the Tudor and Stuart Seafarers gallery at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, the book draws on the Museum’s unparalleled collections and comprises essays by 13 eminent historians. ADLARD COLES 2018 HB 272pp Illus 255x198mm £25.00 516739 now £9.99 Back by popular demand DIARY OF A RURAL GP This month’s features Hilarious True Stories from a Country Practice Michael Sparrow For almost 30 years ASSASSINATION on the Devon/Cornwall border, Dr Mike Political murder from the Sparrow attended to his patients in his Princes in the Tower to JFK village surgery or in their farms and hamlets scattered across the countryside. Page 13 Now retired from general practice, he looks back on his most memorable cases: Playing sewing fingers back on, delivering babies vet-style, burying beagles... but Sparrow with words was never a man for Standard Operating Pages 26–27 Procedure. DUCKWORTH 2020 PB 222pp £9.99 514326 now £4.99 3 BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND SENTINELS OF THE SEA A Miscellany of Lighthouses Past RG Grant The extraordinary saga of the Eddystone lighthouse serves as prologue to this engrossing and authoritative study of the history and construction of lighthouses, the development of their lights and lenses and the ‘splendours and miseries’ of the lighthouse keepers’ work. Among the period drawings, architectural plans and photographs evoking the bygone era of manned lighthouses are visual surveys and details of 100 of the most famous; and the book ends with their demise in the era of automation, radar and GPS. THAMES & HUDSON 2018 HB 160pp Illus 304x197mm £19.95 514649 now £7.99 The 1823 design for Wolf Rock lighthouse between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles, by Robert Stevenson, the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson WHO KILLED KITCHENER? The Life and Death of Britain’s Most Famous War Minister THE SPITFIRE MANUAL David Laws The death of Lord Ed. Dilip Sarkar Before being let loose in a Kitchener when the battleship carrying Supermarine Spitfire, fighter pilots would have him on a secret mission to Russia struck to familiarize themselves with the ‘Pilot’s Notes’ a German mine stunned a nation at war, which comprehensively detailed the aircraft’s and gave rise to various conspiracy equipment, controls and operation. These theories. Suspicion fell on the IRA, the instructions are reproduced in this book together Boers and even the British government, with examples of log books, combat reports and who disliked him intensely. Drawing on other contemporary training booklets advising recently declassified documents, this on such skills as identifying enemy aircraft, history separates truth from fiction to estimating range and combat flying. reveal what really happened that day in AMBERLEY 2010 PB 286pp Illus June 1916. BITEBACK 2019 HB 320pp Illus £9.99 225681 now £3.99 £20.00 513837 now £7.99 Turn to page 13 for our special feature ASSASSINATION TORNADO on political murder and other f New Peppercorn Class A1 deadly historical conspiracies Geoff Smith The Peppercorn Class A1 Pacific Tornado was completed in 2008 and is the first steam locomotive built in Britain since 1960. This illustrated celebration of the achievement reveals how it was designed and constructed and is now run and maintained. Including a technical breakdown of the engine, the book was originally published in a larger format as the Tornado Owners’ Workshop Manual. HAYNES 2018 HB 160pp Illus 226x176mm £12.99 512967 now £4.99 Back on the rails: Steam Today: Britain’s Heritage Railways in Photographs is in Transport on page 43 f SHACKLETON’S HEROES The Epic Story of the Men Who BREAKFAST WITH Kept the Endurance Expedition Alive THE CENTENARIANS Wilson McOrist Shackleton’s 1914–17 Antarctic The Art of Ageing Well expedition is best remembered for its legendary Daniela Mari The renowned escape after his ship Endurance was crushed by gerontologist Daniela Mari draws ice.