Pen Sword History imprint: 259 books
The Suffering of Women Who Didn't Fit
'Madness' in Britain, 1450–1950
Language: English
Release Date: November 30, 2018
For over 500 years, women have suffered claims of mental decay solely on account of their gender. Frigid, insane, not quite there, a witch in sheep's clothing, labels that have cast her as the fragile species and destroyer of Man.This book reveals attitudes, ideas and responses on what was to be done...
by Ruth Alexandra Symes
Language: English
Release Date: November 30, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: November 30, 2016
Could your ancestors write their own names or did they mark official documents with a cross? Why did great-grandfather write so cryptically on a postcard home during the First World War? Why did great-grandmother copy all the letters she wrote into letter-books? How unusual was it that great-uncle...
London Curiosities
The Capital's Odd & Obscure, Weird & Wonderful Places
Language: English
Release Date: April 30, 2017
An off-the-beaten-path tour of the city’s hidden highlights, and the stories behind them.
London is full of curiosities. Who knew that beneath the Albert Memorial lies a chamber resembling a church crypt? Or that there are catacombs under Camden? Who would expect to find a lighthouse in East...
by Gerry van Tonder
Language: English
Release Date: June 30, 2018
Language: English
Release Date: June 30, 2018
‘Smoke rises in the City of Three Spires, the smouldering remnant of the Nazi hate. Coventry and England will remember and repay’.
From August 1940, Hitler’s Luftwaffe mercilessly and indiscriminately bombed cities and towns in Britain. The historic West Midlands city of Coventry did...
by Neil Holmes
Language: English
Release Date: September 30, 2017
Language: English
Release Date: September 30, 2017
Merseyside has a long and varied history, one which its sons and daughters are justifiably proud. It has come through many struggles, but perhaps its darkest hour was the air raids that were launched against it in 1940 and 1941\. Around 4,000 people lost their lives and many prominent buildings and...
by Lynn Huggins-Cooper
Language: English
Release Date: July 30, 2018
Language: English
Release Date: July 30, 2018
This book offers a whistle-stop guide to the history of leathercraft and tanning. The story begins in prehistory when people discovered, perhaps by chance, that skins exposed to smoke or accidentally soaked in autumnal puddles lasted longer. Skins were a valuable resource, used for everything from...
by Luci Gosling
Language: English
Release Date: May 30, 2017
Language: English
Release Date: May 30, 2017
Drawing on the archives of Mary Evans Picture Library, ‘Images of the Past – The British Seaside’ is a nostalgic promenade through the history of Britain’s seaside resorts from their early genesis as health destinations to their glorious, mid-20th century heyday, subsequent decline and recent...
Life in the Victorian Kitchen
Culinary Secrets and Servants' Stories
Language: English
Release Date: September 30, 2014
A fascinating and deeply researched behind-the-scenes journey into Victorian-era kitchens, with authentic nineteenth-century techniques, tips, and recipes.
Have you ever wondered what life was like for domestic servants, the etiquette involved during upper class banquets, or simply wished for...
The Komnene Dynasty
Byzantium's Struggle for Survival 1057–1185
Language: English
Release Date: August 30, 2018
The 128-year dynasty of the Komneni (1057 to 1185) was the last great epoch of Byzantium, when the empire had to fend off Turkish and Norman foes simultaneously. Starting with the extremely able Alexios I, and unable now to count on help from the West, the Komneni played their strategic cards very...
Struggle and Suffrage in Manchester
Women's Lives and the Fight for Equality
Language: English
Release Date: October 30, 2018
‘Women are not persons.’ That was the ruling of the Court of Appeal when Gwynneth Bebb challenged the Law Society to allow her to take exams and become a solicitor. The case was dismissed because only ‘persons’ (i.e. males) could become members of the Law Society and it proved the depth of...
Landru’s Secret
The Deadly Seductions of France’s Lonely Hearts Serial Killer
Language: English
Release Date: October 30, 2018
On 12 April 1919, the Paris police arrested a bald, short, 50-year-old swindler at his apartment near the Gare du Nord, acting on a lead from a humble housemaid. A century later, Henri Désiré Landru remains the most notorious and enigmatic serial killer in French criminal history, a riddle at the...
by Nigel Blundell
Language: English
Release Date: October 30, 2019
Language: English
Release Date: October 30, 2019
This book is a catalog of disaster – literally. Within its pages are the major man-made calamities that shocked the world throughout the twentieth century.
It was a period during which the power and scale of industrialization changed the planet, an unforeseen consequence being the creation...
Struggle and Suffrage in Leeds
Women's Lives and the Fight for Equality
Language: English
Release Date: April 30, 2019
The story of Leeds is bound up in the stories of its women workers. But what were conditions like for ordinary women, and how did their lives change in the hundred years between 1850 and 1950? Who were the women who toiled in the mills, factories and sweatshops that transformed the city’s landscape?...
Founder, Fighter Saxon Queen
Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians
Language: English
Release Date: August 30, 2018
The story of the daughter of Alfred the Great, who fought against Viking invaders and ruled a kingdom in the tenth century.
Alfred the Great’s daughter defied all expectations of a well-bred Saxon princess. The first Saxon woman ever to rule a kingdom, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, led...