This is the entwined story of three Victorians. Two of these men were brothers - Sir Samuel Baker, the irrepressible explorer; and Valentine Baker, reckoned to be the leading cavalry officer of the British Army before disgrace overwhelmed him. The third is the troubled Charles "Chinese" Gordon, murdered by the Mahdi's forces in Khartoum. "Imperial Vanities" is an adventure story in the high tradition, ranging from the Upper Nile, to Ceylon, Egypt and the slave markets of the Balkans. In his second book on Victorian life, Brian Thompson recounts the beginnings of the end of British Empire through the story of three men - the explorer Samuel Baker, whose second wife was a slave; his brother Valentine, who indecently assaulted a girl on a train and their friend Gordon of Khartoum, who preferred the company of men and the Bible.

Imperial vanities: The adventures of the Baker brothers and Gordon of Khartoum

Thompson, Brian

Harpercollins

A Monkey Among Crocodiles: The Life, Loves and Lawsuits of Mrs Georgina Weldon – a disastrous Victorian

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

'A Victorian drama of three intertwined lives set against a backcloth of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. By degrees heroic, poignant, whimsical and tragic, Brian Thompson's wonderful book is precisely what that much-misused cliche "rattling good yarn" might have been coined to describe.' RICHARD HOLMES 'Victorian Britain, that seemingly most conformist of ages, was in fact teeming with eccentrics. The fabulous Baker Brothers were eccentric in a conformist way for the time: Sir Samuel searched for the source of the Nile; Baker Pasha became leader of the Ottoman army. But it was that epitome of empire, and epitome of the Christian English gentleman, who was the most peculiar of them all: 'Chinese' Gordon is finally depicted as the anarchist he really was as he marched to his death against the Mahdi. It is Thompson's triumph that he gives these characters, straitjacketed first by their time, and then by history, the freedom to dance across the page once more.' JUDITH FLANDERS Imperial Vanities is an adventure story in the high tradition, ranging from the Upper Nile, to Ceylon, Egypt and the slave markets of the Balkans. Livingstone, Speke and Burton also make an appearance, with the shadowy and elusive Laurence Oliphant spying from the sidelines. Written with Thompson's masterly touch, this is history at its best. 'A tale of Empire at its most eccentric. Part biography, part history, part adventure yarn, Imperial Vanities is an ingeniously enjoyable read.' Fergus Fleming

Imperial Vanities: The Adventures of the Baker Brothers and Gordon of Khartoum

Harpercollins Pb

Or A Plan to Beat the Devil! A brilliant narrative history of Harmony, Robert Owen -the attempt to found an idealistic community in the town. And its miserable failure. This is the story of two experiments in Idealism, under the leadership of two remarkable and very different men. George Rapp, along with his 800 followers from Germany came to the New World in 1815, and founded the town of Harmony in Indiana. Preparing for the imminent coming of Christ, they lived in piety, abstained from sexual relations and worked hard under Rapp's leadership, holding all goods in common. Except, that is, from the profits in gold that Rapp horded under his blanket: the fruits of Harmony's economic miracle. In 1825 Rapp left for Germany, and sold the town to Robert Owen, British millionaire, mill owner and later, founder of the Co-operative Movement. Owen re-named the town New Harmony and changed the experiment to one where a system of communistic societies would become a model for the entire world. In just 5 years, New Harmony had sunk from being a crucible of great ideas to a fable about human inadequacy. Both Owen and Rapp were ruthless achievers; inspired men whose social experiments throw up larger questions about how we interpret human nature. Rapp, a penniless peasant, persuaded 800 landless neighbours to follow him across an ocean. Owen invited the world to the little town on the Wabash. Rapp made a fortune, Owen lost one. Thompson's enormous storytelling abilities, wit and novelistic sensibilities are perfectly suited to this extraordinary tale of brave new world idealism, utopias eaten by worms, strong biographical narrative and a rich and colourful cast of characters.

Devastating Eden : The Search for Utopia in America

History

Americas

HARPER/COLLINS

Meet Bella Wallis—a charismatic Victorian widow with a sideline in sensationalist novels, and a fierce determination to seek revenge in print for what can never be achieved in real life Bella Wallis is a respectable society woman with a secret identity: in an office buried deep within the seedy backstreets of London, she writes sensationalist novels under the pen name Henry Ellis Margam, exposing the scoundrels that litter high society. So when a crested cigar case is found near the body of a murdered prostitute, Bella and her friends are determined to trace the murderer and write a mystery that will avenge the poor girl's untimely death. But the owner of the cigar case is a dangerous—and rich—man who has already destroyed the lives of others who have crossed him. Will Bella see justice done, or will she meet the same fate as so many of her characters? The first in the Bella Wallis series of mysteries takes readers from London to Paris, from the highest of society to the lowest of the low. It is an entertaining, effervescent romp and a wonderful introduction to this most charismatic of sleuths.

The Widow's Secret: A Bella Wallis Mystery (Bella Wallis Mysteries)

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

RANDOM HOUSE UK

Alexander McCall Smith meets Sarah Waters in an effervescent new series with a glamorous, witty heroinethink 1870s Murder She Wrote London, 1875. At Lady Cornford's famous soiree (sugared almonds and tittle-tattle) everyone is gossiping about Henry Ellis Margam's latest hit, The Widow’s Secretbut only a few people know that one of Lady C's guests, the enigmatic Bella Wallis, is in fact the bestselling novelist. Bella punishes evil-doers by exposing them as thinly-disguised characters in the books she writes under her male pseudonym. One of her confidantes is the dashing Philip Westland, who comes to her now with a problem: his best friend Kennett is smitten by Miss Mary Skillane, an heiress whose father has promised her to Robert Judd, a vulgar treasure seeker. Mary is due to inherit the Skillane pearls, currently residing in a Cornish bank vault, but it seems the pearls were ill-gotten. Can Bella and her friends unite the young lovers and escape the attention of the villainous Judd?

The Sailor's Ransom: A Bella Wallis Mystery (Bella Wallis Mysteries)

A Corner of Paradise: A Love Story (with the usual reservations)

Vintage Books

Illustrations present familiar words and key concepts--such as colors and numbers--using capital and lowercase letters and featuring an index of words

Puffin First Picture Dictionary

Children's Books

Puffin

Cases &amp; Materials on Constitutional &amp; Administrative Law provides students with a comprehensive selection of legal resources to accompany their studies. Extracts from leading cases, academic works, and political documents are drawn together with incisive author commentary and thought-provoking questions to highlight the historical debates and ongoing development of the subject. The authors take a critical look at the doctrines of constitutional law and the principles of administrative law, showing how the constitution operates in relation to Parliament, the Executive, and the citizen. Online Resource Centre This book is supported by an Online Resource Centre providing a wide range of extra resources to further support students in their studies, including: - Updates in constitutional and administrative law - An extensive range of web links - An interactive timeline of significant public law events throughout history - 'Oxford News Now'- a live feed on topical public law issues, sourced from news websites such as the BBC and Guardian

Cases & Materials on Constitutional & Administrative Law

Gordon, Michael

Administrative Law

Oxford University Press

Cases and Materials on Constitutional and Administrative Law

Tucker, Adam

Specialties

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Books by Thompson, Brian