Simon Webb: 32 books

'After eight days they came within view of an island which was very rugged and rocky, and covered over with slag. There were no trees or other plants, but the island was full of blacksmiths’ forges. Brendan said to his brothers, ‘I have a bad feeling about this island. I have no wish to go ashore,...

'At this time, Cuthbert was keeping watch over flocks of sheep on some remote mountains. One night he was staying awake, praying through the night, with his companions sleeping beside him. Suddenly he saw a light streaming down from heaven, breaking through the darkness. In the light were choirs of...

Quakers have been writing poetry about their extraordinary faith and way of life since the beginning of the Society of Friends, in the middle of the seventeenth century. This book brings together poems about Quakerism by Quakers and non-Quakers from the first 250 years of the Society.

Many British baby boomers are very nostalgic about a supposed golden age; a vanished world when children were generally freer, happier and healthier than they are now. They wandered about all day; only returning home at teatime when they were hungry. Nobody worried about health and safety or 'stranger...

One of the most influential books on chess ever published now in digital format. The Tiger is a vicious beast. He doesnt care about the aesthetic side of chess. He doesnt even care about making the best moves. All he cares about is winning. Do you want to win more games? Then become a Tiger. 'Chess...

'When he was at Florence he contracted a friendship with the famous Galileo Galileo, whom he extremely venerated and magnified; and not only as he was a prodigious wit, but for his sweetness of nature and manners.They pretty well resembled one another as to their countenances, as by their pictures...

'And soon after came to them an horrible fish, which followed the ship long time, casting so much water out of his mouth into the ship, that they supposed to have been drowned...' Saint Brendan sets off from Ireland with fourteen companions, and sees many strange sights in 'the great sea ocean,...

All nations and peoples have a body of legendary tales and semi-historical episodes which explain who they are and help to define their place in the world. The British are no exception and in this book Simon Webb explores some of the most well-known episodes from British history; stories which tell...

Following the disruption, hardship, and challenges of the Second World War, the postwar years brought a sense of optimism and excitement, with families at last enjoying peacetime. This new book follows the lives of the nation’s schoolchildren through the two decades following the war years, recalling...

In the years leading up to the First World War, the United Kingdom was subjected to a ferocious campaign of bombing and arson. Those conducting this terrorist offensive were members of the Women's Social and Political Union; better known as the suffragettes. 

The targets for their attacks ranged...

There is an ancient and quite baseless myth that the use of torture has never been legal in Britain. This old wives' tale arose because torture had been neither endorsed nor forbidden by either statute or common law. In other words; the law has, until the late twentieth century, never had anything...

In the last few decades, steampunk has blossomed from being a rather obscure and little-known subgenre of science fiction into a striking and distinctive style of fashion, art, design and even music. It is in the written word however that steampunk has its roots and in this book Simon Webb explores...

We are all familiar with the digital revolution that has swept across the developed world in recent years. It has ushered in an age of smartphones, laptop computers and ready access to the internet. A little over a century ago, a similar explosion took place in the field of information and communication...

'On the 27th of the sixth month, called August, 1725, my husband and all our men-servants being abroad, eleven Indians, armed with tomahawks and guns, who had some time before been skulking about the fields, and watching an opportunity of our men’s absence, came furiously into the house...' ...