The life and times of Sir Thomas Malory, author of the 'Morte d'Arthur'.  Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur (1469) is one of the best-known books in the world. Virtually all modern versions of the Arthurian legends are derived from its energetic, memorably phrased and remarkably individual telling of the stirring exploits of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Yet the identity of the fifteenth-century knight who wrote it has remained an enigma for centuries. Only in the last few years has it become possible to construct a convincing life story for him.  His life was constantly eventful, marked by great achievement, desperate situations and, at times, deep disgrace. He was an experienced soldier, a star performer at tournaments, a connoisseur of literature, connected to the great and the good, yet he also escaped from prison twice, and was accused of terrible crimes ranging from assault and cattle-rustling to attacks on abbeys and even rape. The foremost chronicler of the legends of the Knights of the Round Table almost certainly wrote much of his great work while imprisoned. Christina Hardyment has written his life story, which was wild enough in itself, and in so doing has penned a social history of a fascinating period of English history, an age which marked the high-water mark of medieval chivalry but which was also an essential bridge from the Middle Ages to the modern world. The book is well furnished with details of clothes, food and domestic interiors, to say nothing of hunting, falconry and jousting techniques, and is a sumptuous work that fleshes out the man and the period in glorious detail.

Malory: The Life and Times of King Arthur's Chronicler

Biographies & Memoirs

Christina Hardyment

Arts & Literature

Harperperennial

This work traces the development of British eating habits from the austerity of the 1940s to the 1990s. It looks at rationing, the explosion of hostess cookery, the mass discovery of cappuccino and coca-cola, the consequences of Chinese and Asian immigration in the 60's, the 1980s (health food, guilt), to the way we eat now, when what we choose to eat has become the ultimate fashion statement.

A Slice of Life: The British Way of Eating Since 1945

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Penguin Uk

A new edition of the classic account of a voyage in search of Arthur Ransome following clues found among the contents of the beloved author's trunk.

Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint's Trunk

Jonathan Cape, London

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Good, 160 pp. Black cloth boards. Lovely glossy pictorial dust jacket, dj has a small 1.5 cm tear to the top of the upper near the top of the spine, otherwise in good condition. The text block is as good as new and is full of photographic illustrations of Ramsomes life. Arthur Ransome is most famous as the author of Swallows and Amazons, but he was also a literary critic, a foreign correspondent, a fisherman and a sailor. The World of Arthur Ransome explores the places that shaped the writer. It tells the story of his childhood, his friendships, his two wives and daughter. It also describes how and where he wrote each of his twelve classic children's books, and the people and books that inspired them. There is no doubt that Ransome's spiritual home was the 'Lake in the North' where he set five of his twelve iconic books for children. He holidayed on the banks of Coniston Water as a boy and camped there as a young man, but his most important and longest-lasting home was Low Ludderburn, on the slopes of Cartmel Fell and close to Lake Windermere. There he wrote Swallows and Amazons and three of its sequels. Another four of his books were set in East Anglia, where he moved so that he could sail on the Norfolk Broads and the east coast rivers around Pin Mill. Here shipboard domestic arrangements came to the fore: all the cabins of his boats were equipped with writing desks and a bookcase. He was never happier than when writing while afloat in his favourite little yacht, the Nancy Blackett, immortalized as Goblin in We Didn't Mean to Go To Sea. With a keen and affectionate eye, Christina Hardyment places this most loved of English authors in the settings which so richly define his work.. . .

The World of Arthur Ransome

Frances Lincoln

William Blake's 'Heads of the poets' for Turret House, the residence of William Hayley, Felpham

Sara Holdsworth

Joan Crossley

Manchester City Art Galleries

Christmas brings out the best and the worst in us, as can be seen in this evocative anthology. Among what Thomas Love Peacock calls the "many poetical charms in the heraldings of Christmas," there are eulogies by saints and diatribes from curmudgeons. Here, Christmas is expounded by divines, sung by rustics, deplored by philosophers, and made mystical in stories. This collection includes complete versions of old favorites and new discoveries: a sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, an account of Christmas under the Puritans, a first, poverty-stricken Christmas in turn-of-the-century New York, and a Mummers' play. Adding the final touch is the music--from traditional Christmas carols to Arcangelo Corelli to Benjamin Britten. On this recording, Christmas past brings alive Christmas present.

The Christmas Collection

Short Stories & Anthologies

Naxos and Blackstone Publishing

'Some of the smartest lessons in how we live now are to be found not in government speeches or fashionable film releases, but in the small grey-covered books published by Persephone Books,' wrote Andrew O'Hagan in the Daily Telegraph. 'The volumes are usually lost classics of female writing; they promote the notion that understanding the past is a reasonable way to go about identifying the present, and I have been looking at their newest release as a way of getting a handle on the idea of British domestic bliss.' The book he was looking at was How to Run Your Home without Help (1949). This, as its title implies, is a book about housework: we have republished it because, even today, it is extremely useful (Kim and Aggie of Channel 4's 'How Clean is Your House' would approve). After the war "a woman's place" was understood for the next couple of decades to be in the home.' As a result, 'lives that had been relatively leisured between the wars were now hectic with housekeeping' says Christina Hardyment in her Persephone Preface: 'How to Run Your Home without Help offers an enthrallingly detailed picture of their duties: laundering techniques "from whites to smalls", methods of darning, bottling fruit, scouring pans and managing children's tea parties. Although the author of the book, Kay Smallshaw, was herself a career woman (she was editor first of Good Housekeeping and later of Modern Woman) she knew that she was in the minority and that most women were at home wishing that the new labour-saving machines were indeed more labour-saving and that pre-war standards could adapt to a post-war world. But this was not to happen for another twenty years; meanwhile Kay Smallshaw's readers continued to keep up appearances and to go on running their homes to the standards of the time when they had both cook, maid and daily help

How to Run Your Home without Help

Smallshaw, Kay

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Persephone Books Ltd.

In November, hundreds of people submitted recordings of Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Roger McGough in an attempt to win the prize - participation in the recording of this new poetry collection by Christina Hardyment, historian and audiobook reviewer for "The Times". The collection covers a wide range of classics by Shakespeare, Keats, Clare, Blake and others, as well as modern poems by Roger McGough among others. They are read mainly by the male and female first prize winners, but also by the runners-up.

Poetry for the Winter Season

Dramas & Plays

Naxos Audio Books

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Books by Christina Hardyment