[b]Rating[/b]: 5 out of 5 stars I so enjoyed reading about Mary Tudor - she has so often been a character in other Tudor history books I have read, both factual and fictional, but has always been on the periphery. With Amy McElroy’s wonderful book she is now taking centre stage and the result is an engrossing and enthralling study of this fascinating woman. From Princess to Queen to Duchess and her roles as daughter, sister, wife and mother Mary takes the spotlight in this excellent book. I would not hesitate to recommend Amy McElroy’s latest work.
NetGalley, Nicola Hall

Any Napoleonic memoirs edited by Gareth Glover can be relied upon to contain interesting primary source material, supported by informative biographical details of the original author and explanatory footnotes on the military-historical background, and this book is no exception. Captain James Stirling’s memoirs cover his service in the 42nd in the Corunna and Walcheren campaigns, and in the Peninsula from April 1812 to October 1813. In that month he transferred into the Portuguese 11th Line Regiment, giving him a step up to Brevet Captain, so the book includes some details of his service with that regiment at the Battle of Nivelle. He became a Captain by purchase in the 42nd on 11th May 1815 but did not serve in the Waterloo Campaign and died on 20th January 1818 aged only twenty-five. His journals, written up from notes made in pocketbooks, are thus untainted by reading Sir William Napier’s History of the War in the Peninsula and are a valuable addition to the relatively few Black.. Read more
Miniature Wargames, Arthur Harman

[b]Rating[/b]: 5 out of 5 stars Birks does a very good job tackling the messy, convoluted Wars of the Roses and breaking them down into understandable parts, digging into both the facts of what happened, who did what, and what the possible motivations were. Birks outlines the factions and battles, making a point to underline the idea that the wars were not an inevitable outcome. I love how he pushed back against the classist, oft-repeated idea of the Woodvilles being a powerful faction, showing just how individual and power-less the Woodvilles actually were. Birks also works to try and get away from all the bias over Richard III, righty pointing out how tainted most of what we think we know about him, and he works hard here to try and look at just the actions Richard took... it is an excellent guided tour of the thorny wars of the roses.
NetGalley, Kara Race-Moore

This book is for all of those who appreciate the lure of these celebrated holy warriors. In my opinion, it is best consumed in bite-sized portions. It has a read and savor flow versus that of an immediate digestion flow. Readers who enjoy digging into history's cloak and dagger esque subject matters should like this one.
NetGalley, Beyond the Pages with Eva K

I have to come clean, Nellie Bly did not visit the North West of England. She did, however, circumnavigate the globe in seventy two days, visiting twenty two cities and towns. She travelled by train or on ocean going vessels in various states of sea-worthiness, carrying a single bag - her grip sack - containing essential items including a large glass jar of cold cream but not, as advised, a revolver. This was in 1889 when young women of 25 years of age were not expected to traverse their own neighbourhoods unchaperoned. How did Nellie find herself holed up in Hong Kong awaiting a ship delayed by engine failure or inspecting a mass execution ground in Canton? She was furious at being refused admission to a Hindu temple in Singapore. “Why should my sex exclude me from a temple as in America it confines me to the side entrances of hotels and other strange and incommodious things?” She was born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane to working class parents in Pennsylvania. She moved to New York to pursue.. Read more
Paula Moorhouse for the North-West Labour History Journal no. 49