18th Century

Napoleon In Egypt 15% off

Strathern, Paul Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £17.00 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 was the first attack on a Middle Eastern country by a Western power in modern times. With 400 ships and 55,000 men, it was the largest, long-distance seaborne force the world has ever seen. But Napoleon's assault was intended to be much more than a colonial adventure for he took with him more than a hundred scientists, mathematicians, artists and writers - a 'Legion of Culture' for the purpose of bringing Western civilization to 'backward' Egypt. Ironically, what these intellectuals discovered in Egypt would transform our knowledge of Western civilization and form the basis of Egyptology. Travelling to the far reaches of the Upper Nile, Napoleon's artists sketched the great temples and ruins of the Pharaohs, and his soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone, which would eventually lead to the deciphering of the mysterious Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. But there were also setbacks. Nelson's destruction of the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile apparently put an end to Napoleon's ambitions, though the General himself did not see it that way. His secret plan was to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and invade India.

Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh 20% off

Colley, Linda Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £16.00 — You save £4.00  <convert> 

From the author of 'Britons', the story of the exceptional life of the intrepid Elizabeth Marsh - an extraordinary woman of her time who was caught up in trade, imperialism, war, exploration, migration, growing maritime reach, and new ideas. Linda Colley's new book breaks the boundaries between biography, family stories and global history. This is a book about a world in a life. An individual lost to history, Elizabeth Marsh (1735-85) travelled farther, and was more intimately affected by developments across the globe, than the vast majority of men. Conceived in Jamaica and possibly mixed-race, she was the first woman to publish in English on Morocco, and the first to carry out extensive overland explorations in eastern and southern India, journeying in each case in close companionship with an unmarried man. She spent time in some of the world's biggest ports and naval bases, Portsmouth, Menorca, Gibraltar, London, Rio de Janeiro, Calcutta and the Cape. She was damaged by the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War; and linked through her own migrations with voyages of circumnavigation, and as victim and owner, she was involved in three different systems of slavery.

George III 10% off

Black, Jeremy Normal price £25.00 — Discount price £22.50 — You save £2.50  <convert> 

The sixty-year reign of George III (1760-1820) witnessed and participated in some of the most critical events of modern world history: the ending of the Seven Years' War with France, the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, the campaign against Napoleon Bonaparte and battle of Waterloo in 1815, and Union with Ireland in 1801. Despite the pathos of the last years of the mad, blind, and neglected monarch, it is a life full of importance and interest. Jeremy Black's biography deals comprehensively with the politics, the wars, and the domestic issues, and harnesses the richest range of unpublished sources in Britain, Germany, and the United States. But, using George III's own prolific correspondence, it also interrogates the man himself, his strong religious faith, and his powerful sense of moral duty to his family and to his nation. Black considers the king's scientific, cultural, and intellectual interests as no other biographer has done, and explores how he was viewed by his contemporaries.

Liberty 20% off

Moore, Lucy Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £16.00 — You save £4.00  <convert> 

The bestselling author of "Maharanis" recreates the lives of six remarkable women who, in a time of violent revolution, leapt at the chance to exercise their considerable charm, intelligence and acumen to make their mark on history. At the heart of Paris's intellectual movement, Germaine de Stael was a figure like no other. Passionate, fiercely intelligent and equally obsessed by love affairs as she was by politics, she helped write the 1791 Constitution at the salon in which she entertained the thinkers of the age. Her fellow salonniere, Mme Roland, was a bourgeois housewife who became a fervent and influential revolutionary, until Robespierre sent her, still defiant, to the guillotine. At the other end of the social scale, her working class counterparts patrolled the streets of Paris with pistols in their belts. Theroigne de Mericourt was an ill-treated mistress when she fell in love with revolutionary ideals. Denied a political role because of her sex, she nevertheless campaigned tirelessly until a mob beating left her broken in both mind and body.

High Road to China 15% off

Teltscher, Kate Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £17.00 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

In 1774, the head of the East India Company in Bengal, Warren Hastings, determined to open trade relations with the hitherto impenetrable court of imperial China. To this end he entrusted the young Scotsman George Bogle to be the first British envoy to Tibet. Once there, Bogle attempted to enlist the influence of the Panchen Lama in a bid to attract the sympathy of the Qianlong Emperor; a hard task, for the imperial court generally viewed trade with disdain, and took an altogether dim view of the British Empire. But what began as an unprecedented diplomatic mission soon acquired a different character. Bogle became smitten by what he saw, and in particular by the person of the Panchen Lama himself, with whom he struck up a remarkable friendship, fuelled by a reciprocal desire for understanding. And as for Tibet: 'When I look upon the time I have spent among the Hills it appears like a fairy dream.' Bogle's letters and journals, by turns playful, penetrating, self-deprecating and packed with engaging detail, were to help create the myth of Tibet in the West, the Shangri-La so familiar to us today.

Pursuit of Glory 20% off

Blanning, Tim Normal price £30.00 — Discount price £24.00 — You save £6.00  <convert> 

In "The Pursuit of Glory", Tim Blanning brings to life one of the most extraordinary and dynamic periods in Europe's history: from the desolate, battered and introvert continent of the end of the Thirty Years War to the overwhelmingly dynamic one that experienced the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon. How did people really live their lives? How did they understand their world? What did they buy? What did they eat? How did they pray? What were their loyalties and their values? From the lives of ordinary farmers and soldiers to great kings, princes and bishops and the dominant personalities of the age (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Napoleon); from art, leisure pursuits and garden design to the strange sport of fox-tossing, Blanning explores this era of immense change, and cultural, political and technological ferment. This was a world in which the elite were obsessed with the pursuit of glory: their own glory, that of their families and that of their countries. It was a time of immense expenditure - as much on clothes, banquets and palaces as on fortresses and artillery - which shaped the societies and economies of entire countries.

Down and Out in Eighteenth-century London 15% off

Hitchcock, Timothy Normal price £16.99 — Discount price £14.44 — You save £2.55  <convert> 

'45 30% off

Duffy, Christopher Normal price £16.99 — Discount price £11.89 — You save £5.10  <convert> 

The '45 Rising has been romanticised over the centuries in many books and films, and still arouses strong emotions in Scotland, but this is the first comprehensive history ever. It is based on original research in all available archives, including Swedish, French and German records. These make nonsense of the many popular histories based on self-serving accounts written by a few of the key participants. But it is no dry academic analysis. Christopher Duffy, the world's greatest authority on 18th century warfare, writes a vivid narrative that overturns many accepted 'facts' about The '45. His text is supported by numerous maps and a comprehensive guide to the key sites that can be visited today. This is a major work that addresses a crucial episode in British history: the last time that a British monarch stood a serious chance of being unseated by a dynastic rival at the head of an army.