Which flamboyant king enjoyed wearing pink high heels? Which English Queen had 17 pregnancies but failed to produce an heir? From how Trojan Brutus may have been Britain's first king, the legendary Celtic founder of Bath Bladud who made Britain's first laws, holy wars and Boudicca, find out if Constantine the Great had a British grandfather, Arthur's role in a Somerset zodiac, and if the mystery of Sutton Hoo was this the state funeral of the Anglo Saxon King Redwald. Hadrian's Wall, Scottish monarchy, Alfred the Great, Eadwig the Lustful, Wessex pride, William 'Rufus' gets his comeuppance, uncrowned Queen Matilda mothers the Plantagenet dynasty, Henry II and his turbulent priest, King John, Edward I, Robert the Bruce, Edward III, Richard II, the murky rise of the House of Lancaster, Henry VI more monk than king, did Richard III really deserve his evil image? England's nine-day queen, brave Queen Elizabeth, Charles I and II, Mary distraught at having to marry unattractive William, the Georges and how sober William IV was a welcome relief, Victoria and beyond up to Elizabeth II, every king and queen of England is included, except for the young prince in the tower. 144pp, line art.

Among the bright lights and comfortable surroundings, the hustle and bustle of embarkation and the petty dramas and excitements of exploring a new ship, how many could have foreseen that in a little over 100 hours' time three quarters of their number would be dead and adrift on the freezing Atlantic, and the world's largest moving object - the apotheosis of human engineering achievement, wrought in iron and crewed by master mariners - would like broken up in stone cold pitch darkness 12,000 feet down on the sea bed, never to reach her destination a thousand miles away? It is a story with all the elements of high drama, tragedy, heroism, hubris, humanity and at times grim comedy - at every stage the Titanic's story is a highly sensory tale. Discover which novel predicted the disaster a whole 14 years before the maiden voyage, how a bottle of whiskey saved one of the crew and was a fire burning within the ship the real cause of its downfall? Find the answers to many amazing aspects in this absorbing collection of stories and trivia from stowaways to kidnapping, conspiracy theories and wreckage. The story travels from Belfast, Liverpool, Southampton, America and the characters of Captain Smith, Chief Officer Henry Wilde, John Jacob Astor IV, bedroom steward Henry Etches and stories from steerage to dressing Guggenheim. And stories of the Carpathia to the rescue, Cunard collecting the casualties, the tragic inactivity of the Californian, US and British enquiries, the indomitable Violet Jessop to memorabilia and Titanic in the cinema, it is a story of tragedy, tourism and trade. 144pp, line art.

Native Americans make up less than one per cent of the total US population, but represent half the nation's languages and cultures. Here in one grand sweep is the full story of America's indigenous peoples, their society, culture and religion, everything from the land-based spirituality of their early creation myths, and the late rise of Indian Pride, to the 88 uses to which the Sioux put the flesh and bones of the buffalo, and the practice of berdache (men adopted as women). The book offers a chronological history of Native Americans and their emergence out of the now submerged continent of Beringia, the 'forgotten wars' of the 16th and 17th centuries which wiped many tribes from the East Coast. It finally describes to the last struggles of the Cheyenne and the Comanche. Celebrating these peoples' way of life rather than focusing on the manner of their genocide, it does not ignore uncomfortable facts of the Amerindian past including suspected cannibalism and their part in the decimation of North America's buffalo herds. Some remarkable success stories are now emerging. A compelling account of the truth, tragedy and magic of America's original inhabitants. 571pp in mammoth paperback.

A Spectator Book of the Year, this is sweeping and poetic, tracing the epic paths of wanderers across 12,000 years. Sattin weaves stories of mobile tribes who lived beyond imperial borders and created their own kingdoms and empires - Scythian, Xiongnu, Persian, Hun, Arab, Mongul, Mughal, Ottoman and others. With their embrace of multiculturalism, respect for nature's rhythms, and need for free movement, wandering peoples brought a glorious cultural flourishing to Eurasia, enabling the Renaissance and changing the human story. This is the untold history of civilisation, told through its outsiders, a sweeping narrative reconnecting us with our deepest mythology, unrecorded antiquity, and our natural world. 'He not only describes the nomadic way of life but evokes it in a book of beauty and beguiling rhythm' according to The Times. 'The story begins in the Zagros Mountains, Iran, a young man walking towards me with a stick slung across his shoulder and a flock at his feet...' A page-turning narrative and a brilliant piece of scholarship. 357pp, paperback with line art.

With gold embossed linen cover and magnificent design and presentation as befitting a Thames & Hudson publication and with marbled endpapers, Martin Rees Astronomer Royal introduces us to the starry sky, the 'Vault of Heaven' which has been viewed with awe throughout human history. Over the centuries geocentric cosmology was 'improved' to take account of successively more accurate data as proposed by the great Tycho Brahe and Nicolaus Copernicus with his heliocentric system which eventually triumphed, losing some of its complicity after Kepler (1571-1630) discovered planetary orbits to be ellipses rather than circles. In Atlas Coelestis, Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (1677-1750) masterfully presents a panorama of what was believed about the cosmos in the early 18th century. The splendid ornamentation of his illustrations reflect the cultural breadth and intelligence of his intended readers. His sky maps portray the most prominent stars, the tracks of comets, and the orbits of Saturn's and Jupiter's moons, themselves 'cosmic clocks', observable in principle by navigators. Some of Doppelmayr's most remarkable illustrations depict how the solar system would appear if viewed not from Earth but from another planet. Today we are sending probes to these other worlds. Across 30 remarkable colour plates published by a great cartographic house in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1742, this spectacular outsized guide showcases the 1742 Map of the Cosmos and is a superb introduction to the fundamentals and history of astronomy. Charting constellations, planets, comets and moons, the Atlas presents the ideas of all the famous influential astronomers including Copernicus, Riccioli, Kepler, Newton and Halley. The intricate colour plates interweave annotated diagrams and tables with figurative drawings and ornamental features. At this size we can appreciate the beauty of these exquisite plates which are also presented in a step-by-step deconstructed form by astronomer Giles Sparrow who elucidates the scientific ideas inherent in each plate. He expertly decodes and analyses the complex information in them in this spectacular, revelatory celestial compendium of the cosmos. All in colour, 256 massive pages, 37.5 x 27cm.

No country on earth has a higher concentration of churches and castles than Wales. The most famous date from the late 1200s and are rightly associated with Edward I of England who commissioned the construction of what is now often known as the 'Iron Ring' to act as a sign of dominance over the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Assisting Edward was his master mason, James of St George, probably of Crusader pedigree judging by the castles' appearance. It was in 1277 that Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Gwynedd, met with Edward I in Aberconwy to finalise a treaty that would change the fate of both nations. His hand forced by Edward's invasion earlier that year, the acceptance of the terms confirmed not only short-term peace, but also that the rule of Wales would pass to Edward on Llywelyn's death. Both before and simultaneous to William the Conqueror's establishment of timber and stone fortresses in the south and borderlands, a process continued by many of his descendants, native structures also existed. Though often more palatial than protective, such constructions proved decisive to the ongoing wars, and were often chosen as sites for future castles. Many had begun as Roman forts whereas others date from more modern times and many now are romantic ruins, and others cherished family homes, hotels or museums. From blood-soaked heroes to long-lost legends, violent pirates to despotic Marcher lords, the book offers a fresh investigation into 69 castles and an extra Best of the Rest chapter covering another 30 with a paragraph or two each and a further 16 where gatehouses and ruins remain. 246pp, 16 pages of archive photos.
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