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All Hail the Queen: Twenty Women Who Ruled
By Jennifer Lewis. 2019
Discover twenty true stories of royal intrigue, power, and passion, brought to life through the gorgeous illustrations of Jennifer Orkin…
Lewis and the witty words of Shweta Jha. From Cleopatra to Empress Wu Zetian, Marie Antoinette to Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii, these extraordinary female monarchs from all over the world have captured imaginations throughout the ages. With a deluxe foil-spangled two-piece case, this elegant and diverse celebration of women in charge makes the perfect Mother's Day or girlfriend go-to gift for the queen in our lives.The American Duchess: The Real Wallis Simpson
By Anna Pasternak. 2019
Wallis Simpson is known as the woman at the center of the most scandalous love affair of the 20th century,…
but in this &“unputdownable…lively and detailed&” (The Times, London) biography, discover a woman wronged by history with new information revealed by the latest research and those who were close to the couple. The story that has been told repeatedly is this: The handsome, charismatic, and popular Prince Edward was expected to marry a well-bred virgin who would one day become Queen of England when he ascended the throne. But when the prince was nearly forty, he fell in love with a divorced American woman—Wallis Simpson. No one thought the relationship would last, and when the prince did become king, everyone assumed that was the end of the affair. But to the shock of the British establishment, the new king announced his intention to marry the American divorcée. Overnight, Wallis was accused of entrapping the prince in a seductive web in order to achieve her audacious ambition to be queen. After declaring that he could not rule without the woman he loved, the king abdicated, and his family banished him and his new wife from the country. The couple spent the rest of their days in exile, but happy in their devoted love for each other. Now, Anna Pasternak&’s The American Dutchess tells a different story: that Wallis was the victim of the abdication, not the villain. Warm, well-mannered, and witty, Wallis was flattered by Prince Edward&’s attention, but like everyone else, she never expected his infatuation to last. She never anticipated his jealous, possessive nature—and his absolute refusal to let her go. Edward&’s true dark nature, however, was no secret to the royal family, the church, or the Parliament; everyone close to Edward knew that beyond his charming façade, he was utterly unfit to rule. Caught in Edward&’s fierce obsession, she became the perfect scapegoat for those who wished to dethrone the troubled king. With profound insight and evenhanded research, Pasternak pulls back the curtain on one of the darkest fairy tales in recent memory and effortlessly reveals &“a host of intriguing insights into a misunderstood woman&” (Kirkus Reviews).Stephen: The Reign of Anarchy (Penguin Monarchs)
By Carl Watkins. 2015
Known as 'the anarchy', the reign of Stephen (1135-1141) saw England plunged into a civil war that illuminated the fatal…
flaw in the powerful Norman monarchy, that without clear rules ordering succession, conflict between members of William the Conqueror's family were inevitable. But there was another problem, too: Stephen himself.With the nobility of England and Normandy anxious about the prospect of a world without the tough love of the old king Henry I, Stephen styled himself a political panacea, promising strength without oppression. As external threats and internal resistance to his rule accumulated, it was a promise he was unable to keep. Unable to transcend his flawed claim to the throne, and to make the transition from nobleman to king, Stephen's actions betrayed uneasiness in his role, his royal voice never quite ringing true.The resulting violence that spread throughout England was not, or not only, the work of bloodthirsty men on the make. As Watkins shows in this resonant new portrait, it arose because great men struggled to navigate a new and turbulent kind of politics that arose when the king was in eclipse.Retrouvez tous les dimanches l'actualité nationale et internationale, politique, économique, sportive et culturelle...Le JDD vous permet de revenir sur les…
événements forts de la semaine, et de découvrir aussi les rendez-vous du week-end à ne pas manquer.TIME publishes 52 issues per year, including 14 double issues. TIME magazine's signature voice and trusted content make it one…
of the most recognized news brands in the world. Offering incisive reporting, lively writing and world-renowned photography, TIME has been credited with bringing journalism at its best into the fabric of American life. Every issue delivers a deeper understanding of the world we live in.Theodora: Portrait in a Byzantine Landscape
By Antony Bridge. 2005
&“First rate popular history/biography, evoking the Byzantine empire at its peak. A remarkable story in an entertaining, informative book.&” —The…
Wall Street Journal This is the biography of a Byzantine courtesan who rose from the gutter to the throne of an empire. It is a romantic and improbable story, and Theodora is an extraordinary woman, indeed. Her background and her many actions were scandalous, but she had qualities of greatness and this book sets the record straight. This account of her life is a pageant in which Emperors and barbarian kings, Popes and Patriarchs, eunuchs and generals, heretics and orthodox opponents, charioteers and ladies of easy virtue, saints and sinners move in a formal and splendid rhythm. This formality was often marred by violence: one of the worst riots in Byzantine history took place when Theodora had been empress for a short time, and during much of her reign there was war in Italy, marked by appalling suffering and barbarity. Toward the end of her life, Constantinople was devastated by Bubonic plague. Yet Theodora triumphed over every adverse circumstance, tough and clever to the end. &“ . . . Bridge&’s book, with its exceptionally vivid and evocative style, brings the period alive.&” —Library Journal &“Puts [Theodora] in her own time and place in the vast panorama of the golden age of an empire which lasted 1,100 years.&” —Boston Herald &“Conveys the passion and the fervor of the sixth century A.D.&” —Los Angeles Herald ExaminerRichard III: A Failed King? (Penguin Monarchs)
By Rosemary Horrox. 2020
No English king has so divided opinion, both during his reign and in the centuries since, more than Richard III.…
He was loathed in his own time for the never-confirmed murder of his young nephews, the Princes in the Tower, and died fighting his own subjects on the battlefield. This is the vision of Richard we have inherited from Shakespeare. Equally, he inspired great loyalty in his followers. In this enlightening, even-handed study, Rosemary Horrox builds a complex picture of a king who by any standard failed as a monarch. He was killed after only two years on the throne, without an heir, and brought such a decisive end to the House of York that Henry Tudor was able to seize the throne, despite his extremely tenuous claim. Whether Richard was undone by his own fierce ambitions, or by the legacy of a Yorkist dynasty which was already profoundly dysfunctional, the end result was the same: Richard III destroyed the very dynasty that he had spent his life so passionately defending.Richard II: A Brittle Glory (Penguin Monarchs)
By Laura Ashe. 2016
Richard II (1377-99) came to the throne as a child, following the long, domineering, martial reign of his grandfather Edward…
III. He suffered from the disastrous combination of a most exalted sense of his own power and an inability to impress that power on those closest to the throne. Neither trusted nor feared, Richard battled with a whole series of failures and emergencies before finally succumbing to a coup, imprisonment and murder.Laura Ashe's brilliant account of his reign emphasizes the strange gap between Richard's personal incapacity and the amazing cultural legacy of his reign - from the Wilton Diptych to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales.Richard I: The Crusader King (Penguin Monarchs)
By Thomas Asbridge. 2018
Richard I's reign is both controversial and seemingly contradictory. One of England's most famous medieval monarchs and a potent symbol…
of national identity, he barely spent six months on English soil during a ten-year reign and spoke French as his first language. Contemporaries dubbed him the 'Lionheart', reflecting a carefully cultivated reputation for bravery, prowess and knightly virtue, but this supposed paragon of chivalry butchered close to 3,000 prisoners in cold blood on a single day. And, though revered as Christian Europe's greatest crusader, his grand campaign to the Holy Land failed to recover the city of Jerusalem from Islam.Seeking to reconcile this conflicting evidence, Thomas Asbridge's incisive reappraisal of Richard I's career questions whether the Lionheart really did neglect his kingdom, considers why he devoted himself to the cause of holy war and asks how the memory of his life came to be interwoven with myth. Richard emerges as a formidable warrior-king, possessed of martial genius and a cultured intellect, yet burdened by the legacy of his dysfunctional dynasty and obsessed with the pursuit of honour and renown.The Queen's Houses
By Alan Titchmarsh. 2014
The Queen's life was dedicated to her public - every move was scrutinised, every word noted. But her homes were…
havens where peace could be found, away from watchful eyes; sanctuaries of private calm in a whirlwind life of public duty.In The Queen's Houses, Alan Titchmarsh takes us on a tour of the royal residences, examining the personal family stories behind these magnificent buildings. Through personal reflections, interviews with royal staff and meticulous historical research, Alan looks beyond the formal grandeur of Buckingham Palace, the imposing structure of Windsor Castle and the private escape offered by Balmoral and others.Illustrated with intimate family photographs and evocative memorabilia, The Queen's Houses offers a glimpse of life lived behind the state banquets and sovereign duties - a respectful study of the royal family at home.Philip Sidney: A Double Life
By Alan Stewart. 2000
Courtier, poet, soldier, diplomat - Philip Sidney was one of the most promising young men of his age. Son of…
Elizabeth I's deputy in Ireland, nephew and heir to her favourite, Leicester, he was tipped for high office - and even to inherit the throne. But Sidney soon found himself caught up in the intricate politics of Elizabeth's court and forced to become as Machiavellian as everyone around him if he was to achieve his ambitions. Against a backdrop of Elizabethan intrigue and the battle between Protestant and Catholic for predominance in Europe, Alan Stewart tells the riveting story of Philip Sidney's struggle to suceed. Seeing that his continental allies had a greater sense of his importance that his English contamporaries, Philip turned his attention to Europe. He was made a French baron at seventeen, corresponded with leading foreign scholars, considered marriage proposals from two princesses and, at the time of his tragically early death, was being openly spoken of as the next ruler of the Netherlands.The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish
By Christopher Hitchens. 2012
As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex bring renewed focus to the monarchy, now is the perfect time to re-examine…
Christopher Hitchens’s powerful polemic.In this scathing essay, Christopher Hitchens looks at the relationship of the press and the public to the royal family, unpacking the tautology and contradictory arguments that prop it up. In his inimitable style, Hitchens argues that our desire not to profane or disturb the monarchy is a failure of reason and a confusion of reality. Fealty to the magic of monarchy stops us looking objectively at our own history and hinders open-minded criticism of our present. It is time we outgrew it. With the recent birth of royal baby Archie, during a time of austerity and national inequality, Hitchens’s 10,000-word critique is even more relevant today than when it was first published in 1990. 'Christopher is one of the most terrifying rhetoricians that the world has yet seen' Martin AmisReinventing Yourself with The Duchess of York: Inspiring Stories and Strategies for Changing Your Weight and Your Life
By Sarah, The Duchess of York, Weight Watchers. 2001
Are you ready to change your life? Join Sarah, The Duchess of York on an inspiring journey to help you…
rediscover -- and achieve -- your true goals.Today, The Duchess of York is a confident, single working mother of two girls. But, as most of the world knows, that wasn't always the case. Once targeted by the international press, The Duchess has learned one of life's great lessons: how to uncover what you want out of life and get it. She reveals how the ups and downs of her life -- including her divorce, her financial problems, and the deaths of those close to her -- have made her a stronger, wiser person and a better mother.In the first chapter, "Transforming My Life," The Duchess explores how, when and why she decided to take charge and reinvent her life. In the chapters that follow, readers will discover how they, too, can change their own lives. The book provides a series of self-assessment quizzes and questionnaires, as well as concrete steps you can take to initiate change. Throughout, The Duchess offers her insights, including how each chapter topic relates to her life and what she has learned from others.Reinventing Yourself with The Duchess of York supplies a blueprint for action for anyone seeking to change her life. In an easy-to-follow format, the book provides concrete information and advice on how to use an eight-step plan to achieve your goals -- whether it's losing weight, getting fit, or simply improving your health. Reinventing Yourself also explains how to apply the plan to other areas of life, including changing careers, starting over after divorce, and more.To help inspire you toward your goals, Reinventing Yourself also includes heartwarming and motivating profiles of women who have redefined their lives: Weight Watchers Leaders, real women who have lost weight and transformed their lives in countless ways. In interviews with The Duchess and profiles throughout, these women explore how to make the best of your circumstances, live a happier, healthier life, and change your destiny.Avec L'Express vivez au coeur de l'actualité. Faites le tour complet des événements qui agitent la planète. Allez plus loin…
avec des enquêtes, des dossiers, des reportages photo inédits. Zoomez sur l'économie et ses enjeux. Disposez d'un véritable hebdo de l'emploi avec la rubrique Réussir et les pages d'offres d'emploi. Découvrez l'actualité culturelle, les nouvelles tendances, la mode, la déco, tout ce qui rend la vie personnelle plus riche.Meghan and Harry: The Real Story: Persecutors or Victims
By Lady Colin Campbell. 2018
**A Wall Street Journal bestseller** An updated edition of this blockbuster narrative provides the first behind-the-scenes, authoritative account of the…
Duke and Duchess of Sussex&’s marriage, by the New York Times bestselling author of Diana in Private.Meghan and Harry: The Real Story: Persecutors or Victims presents the reader with a strikingly forthright analysis of what happens when a vulnerable male, raised in the traditions of the Old World and protected by a lifetime of privilege, falls head over heels in love with a steely and ambitious doyenne of the New, who is careless of tradition, ignorant of its purpose, contemptuous of its consequences, and convinced that her own way is the best way even as the evidence to the contrary mounts. Exposing as she does a titanic clash of two civilisations, mores, and attitudes divided by a common language, Sunday Times best-selling author Lady Colin Campbell scrutinizes with insight, clarity, and precision the evidence of the circumstances, actions, and motives of Meghan and Harry with an impeccable and aristocratically experienced vision honed by five decades in the public eye. She catalogues in depth how this apparently brilliantly-favoured couple came to lose their way, how they exhibited profound contemptuousness for practices built up by a treasured institution over a millennium, and how they were unable to understand the potential benefits of their destiny to such an extent that they managed to turn their fate on its head. Contrary to their statements, Meghan and Harry prove through their own actions that they are ill-judged characters, unable to bring the dynamism of the New to the Old or represent the dignity of the Old to the New. Falling between these two stools, they conspire time and again against themselves and others, inviting nothing but unnecessary controversy and unintended failure, despite the fact that the vast majority of onlookers, who would ultimately become critics, originally wished them well and hoped they would successfully forge a unique way forward in their ground-breaking union. Lady Colin&’s pen allows the couple no escape from the consequences of their actions, whether these be royal and aristocratic customs governed by tradition, precedence, and conservation; the racial furore they unleashed and the damage they wrought throughout the Commonwealth; the speculation they engendered with regards even to something as straightforward as pregnancy; the very different laws on each side of the Atlantic and how these affect inheritance as well as other important factors; the differing attitudes to money of those who have had it for many a year and those for whom it is newly minted; the merits of position versus celebrity; the benefits of freedom of the press and the efforts of the couple to curtail them; the dangers of suppression of civil liberties or even simply the choice of everyday activities which Meghan and Harry have shown time and again will involve themselves and onlookers in controversy after controversy.A weekly magazine offering a signature mix of reporting and commentary on politics, international affairs, popular culture and the arts,…
science and technology, and business, along with fiction, poetry, humor, and cartoons.Retrouvez tous les dimanches l'actualité nationale et internationale, politique, économique, sportive et culturelle...Le JDD vous permet de revenir sur les…
événements forts de la semaine, et de découvrir aussi les rendez-vous du week-end à ne pas manquer.