THE LAST ASSASSIN by PETER STOTHARD Weidenfeld & Nicolson, hardback, 1 October 2020 

A new history of the fall of the Roman republic, told through the gripping story of Caesar's longest-surviving assassin. Many men killed Julius Caesar. Only one man was determined to kill the killers. From the spring of 44 BC through one of the most dramatic and influential periods in history, Caesar's adopted son, Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, exacted vengeance on the assassins of the Ides of March, not only on Brutus and Cassius, immortalised by Shakespeare, but all the others too, each with his own individual story. The last assassin left alive was one of the lesser-known, Cassius Parmensis, a poet and sailor who chose every side in the dying republic's civil wars except the winning one, a playwright whose work was said to have been stolen and published by the man sent to kill him. Parmensis was in the back row of the plotters, many of them Caesar's friends, who killed for reasons of the highest political philosophy and lowest personal pique. For fourteen years he was the most successful at evading his hunters but has been barely a historical foot note - until now. The Last Assassin dazzlingly charts an epic turn of history through the eyes of an unheralded man. It is a history of a hunt that an emperor wanted to hide, of torture and terror, politics and poetry, of ideas and their consequences, a gripping story of fear, revenge and survival. 

​Peter Stothard is an author, journalist and critic. He is a former editor of The Times and of The Times Literary Supplement. His books include Alexandria, The Last Nights of Cleopatra and On the Spartacus Road, A Spectacular Journey through Ancient Italy. 

 THE GOOD GERMANS: Resisting the Nazis, 1933-1945 by CATRINE CLAY 
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, hardback, 20 August

Award-winning historian Catrine Clay tells the gripping stories of six ordinary Germans who witnessed the rise of Nazism in Germany from within and dared to resist it. After 1933, as the brutal terror regime took hold, most of the two-thirds of Germans who had never voted for the Nazis - some 40 million people - tried to keep their heads down and protect their families. They moved to the country, or pretended to support the regime to avoid being denounced by neighbours, and tried to work out what was really happening in the Reich, surrounded as they were by Nazi propaganda and fake news. They lived in fear. Might they lose their jobs? Their homes? Their freedom? What would we have done in their place? Many ordinary Germans found the courage to resist, in the full knowledge that they could be sentenced to indefinite incarceration, torture or outright execution. Catrine Clay argues that it was a much greater number than was ever formally recorded: teachers, lawyers, factory and dock workers, housewives, shopkeepers, church members, trade unionists, army officers, aristocrats, Social Democrats, Socialists and Communists. Catrine Clay's ground-breaking book focuses on six very different characters: each experiencing the momentous events of Nazi history as they unfold in their own small lives. 

​Catrine Clay worked for the BBC for over twenty years, directing and producing award-winning television documentaries. She is the author of King, Kaiser, Tsar, Trautmann's Journey and Labyrinths. THE GOOD GERMANS will be read on Book of the Week, BBC Radio 4 in the Autumn. 

 THE CROWN IN CRISIS: Countdown to the Abdication by ALEXANDER LARMAN 
Weidenfeld & Nicolson hardback, 9 July 2020 

In December 1936, Britain faced a constitutional crisis that was the gravest threat to the institution of the monarchy since the execution of Charles I. The ruling monarch, Edward VIII, wished to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson and crown her as his Queen. His actions scandalised the establishment, who were desperate to avoid an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. That the King was rumoured to have Nazi sympathies only strengthened their determination that he should be forced off the throne, by any means necessary. Using previously unpublished and rare archival material, and new interviews with those who knew Edward and Wallis, THE CROWN IN CRISIS is the conclusive exploration of how an unthinkable and unprecedented event tore the country apart, as its monarch prized his personal happiness above all else. This seismic event has been written about before but never with the ticking-clock suspense and pace of the thriller that it undoubtedly was for all its participants. THE CROWN IN CRISIS by Alex Larman is the definitive book about the events of 1936. 


​Alexander Larman is a historian and journalist. He is the author of three previous acclaimed books of historical and literary biography. He writes for the Times, Observer and Telegraph, as well as The Spectator and The Critic. 

Inside History writer, Anthony Ruggiero has released his debut book focusing on the reign of Mary Tudor. 
​
Anthony told Inside History a little more about his debut historical book. 
​
“The Tudor Dynasty of England, spanning from the late fifteenth century into the early seventeenth century, was filled with colourful monarchs that impacted the country politically, economically, and socially. One of those monarchs was Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Mary ruled over England from July 1553 to her death in November 1558. Despite its initial promise and success, Mary Tudor’s reign was unsuccessful due to the increased influence of foreign power. Mary’s early life and struggle to the throne reflected her determination to rule, her strong religious conviction to Catholicism, and her reliance on Spain.”

Ruggiero’s new book is an excellent introduction to those wishing to explore the life of Mary Tudor further. The daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s turbulent reign is a long and often complicated story but Anthony has managed to create a concise narrative ideal for those discovering the fourth Tudor Monarch. 
​
 Mary Tudor: A Story of Triumph, Sorrow and Fire is available on Amazon now on both Paperback and Kindle. 

Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 978-1-4766-8152-8
Kindle: Out Now
Paperback: Pre-Order 30th October (UK) 


Readers of Inside History will be familiar with the work of Rebecca Frost with her article about H.H Holmes in our Crime and The Underworld issue. Now she focuses her attention on the Media and its point of views of Murder and those that commit these terrible crimes. Whilst our American friends can get there hands on a physical copy right now, our British readers will have to wait a little bit longer. However, for kindle readers it is available right now. 

Some criminals become household names, while others—even those who seek recognition through their crimes—are forgotten. The criminal’s actions are only a part of every famous true crime story. Other factors, such as the setting and circumstances of the crimes and the ways in which others take control of the narrative, ultimately drive their notoriety. Through a comparison of the tellings and retellings of two famous cases more than a century apart—the Jack the Ripper killings in 1888, and the murder trials of Steven Avery as documented in Making a Murderer—this book examines the complicated dynamics of criminal celebrity.

Rebecca Frost is an independent scholar and freelancer. She lives in L’Anse, Michigan.

​Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 3 September 2020 in
hardback at £20, eBook £10.99, audio £19.99

Award-winning historian Catrine Clay tells the gripping stories of six ordinary Germans who witnessed the rise of Nazism in Germany from within and dared to resist it.

After 1933, as the brutal terror regime took hold in Germany, most of the two-thirds of Germans who had never voted for the Nazis - some 40 million people - tried to keep their heads down and protect their families. They moved to the country, or pretended to support the regime to avoid being denounced by neighbours, and tried to work out what was really happening in the Reich, surrounded as they were by Nazi propaganda and fake news. They lived in fear. Might they lose their jobs? Their homes? Their freedom? What would we have done in their place?

Many ordinary Germans found the courage to resist, in the full knowledge that they could be sentenced to indefinite incarceration, torture or outright execution. Catrine Clay argues that it was a much greater number than was ever formally recorded: teachers, lawyers, factory and dock workers, housewives, shopkeepers, church members, trade unionists, army officers, aristocrats, Social Democrats, Socialists and Communists.

Catrine Clay's ground-breaking book focuses on six very different characters: Irma, the young daughter of Ernst Thalmann, leader of the German Communists; Fritzi von der Schulenburg, a Prussian aristocrat; Rudolf Ditzen, the already famous author Hans Fallada, best known for his novel Alone in Berlin; Bernt Engelmann, a schoolboy living in the suburbs of Dusseldorf; Julius Leber, a charismatic leader of the Social Democrats in the Reichstag; and Fabian von Schlabrendorff, a law student in Berlin. The six are not seen in isolation but as part of their families: a brother and sister;
a wife; a father with three children; an only son; the parents of a Communist pioneer daughter. Each experiences the momentous events of Nazi history as they unfold in their own small lives -Good Germans all.

Catrine Clay worked for the BBC for over twenty years, directing and producing award-winning television documentaries. She won the International Documentary Award and the Golden Spire for Best History Documentary, and was nominated for a BAFTA. She is the author of King, Kaiser, Tsar, Trautmann's Journey and Labyrinths, an account of Emma Jung's complex marriage to Carl Jung. She is married with three children and lives in London.

In December 1936, Britain faced a constitutional crisis that was the gravest threat to the institution of the monarchy since the execution of Charles I. The ruling monarch, Edward VIII, wished to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson and crown her as his Queen. His actions scandalised the establishment, who were desperate to avoid an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. That the King was rumoured to have Nazi sympathies only strengthened their determination that he should be forced off the throne, by any means necessary.  

An influential coalition formed against him, including the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin; his private secretary Alec Hardinge; the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the editor of the Times. Betrayal and paranoia were everywhere, as MI5 bugged his telephone and his courtiers turned against him. Edward seemed fated to give up Wallis and remain a reluctant ruler, or to abdicate his throne. Yet he had his own supporters, too, including Winston Churchill, the Machiavellian newspaper proprietor Lord Beaverbrook and his brilliant adviser Walter Monckton. They offered him the chance to remain on the throne and keep Wallis. But was the price they asked too high? And what really lay behind the assassination attempt on Edward earlier that year?

Using previously unpublished and rare archival material, and new interviews with those who knew Edward and Wallis, THE CROWN IN CRISIS is the conclusive exploration of how an unthinkable and unprecedented event tore the country apart, as its monarch prized his personal happiness above all else. This seismic event has been written about before but never with the ticking-clock suspense and pace of the thriller that it undoubtedly was for all its participants. THE CROWN IN CRISIS by Alex Larman is the definitive book about the events of 1936.    

​Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 9 July 2020 in hardback at £20, eBook £10.99, audio £19.99

About the author:

Alexander Larman is a historian and journalist. He is the author of three previous acclaimed books of historical and literary biography. He writes for the Times, Observer and Telegraph, as well as The Spectator and The Critic. He lives in Oxford.

​On 26 December 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie announced to the
world the existence a new element: ‘radium’. Outside the
scientific world, the response was muted at first – the Guardian
even misspelled the scientists’ names in a 1902 article on the
subject.

In the early 20th century, that all changed. As its applications
became known, the radium craze took off. It became a
desirable item – a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure
hunt, a glow-in-the-dark dance costume, a boon to the
housewife, and an ingredient in a startling host of consumer
products –a cure-all in everyday 20th-century life.
​
In Half Lives, Lucy Jane Santos tells this extraordinary story.
Radium formed the basis for films and novels. To be
described as being ‘like radium’ was a compliment to
someone’s enthusiasm and drive. We meet entrepreneurs
promoting cures for baldness and plugging beauty products
from face creams to hair removal products. We learn of
remedies ranging from the bizarre (such as the O-Radium
Hat-Pad to promote hair health) to the simply fraudulent
(Radol, which claimed to be a radium impregnated cancer cure). We uncover the glow-in-the-dark watch (the must-have for an officer the trenches of World War I). Radium was everywhere.

Finally, as the longer-term effects of radium became better known, the book tells of the downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear it.

Half Lives is the story of an element – but also the story of us as a society. How did we get from the enthusiastic usage of radium beauty treatments to the revulsion we feel at that prospect today? Why does Boots the Chemist no longer stock radium water siphons or belts filled with radium mud? With wit and empathy, Santos tells the story of the entrepreneurs and consumers in radium’s history who have until now been considered quacks, or fools, or both.

Praise for Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium

'Half Lives shines a light on the shocking history of the world's toxic love affair with a deadly substance, radium. Unnerving, fascinating, informative and truly frightening.'
​Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five

’In Half Lives, Lucy Santos transports us back to a time when consumers wondered whether mixing radium into chicken feed might result in eggs that could hard-boil themselves; when diners cheerfully drank radioactive cocktails that glowed in the dark; and when people used toothpaste containing lethal thorium oxide in the pursuit of healthy gums. Santos unpicks fact from fiction and exhibits a masterful grasp of a complex area of science history that is so often mistold. Half Lives is a delightfully disturbing book that reminds us all of the age-old Latin maxim, 'caveat emptor.'
Dr Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of The Butchering Art

Publisher: Icon Books
RRP: £16.99 (Hardback)
Release: 2nd July 2020

​Pre-order your copy here: 

​Price: £10.99
Publisher: Amberley
ISBN: 978-1-4456-5543-7
Size: 198 x 124mm
Binding: Paperback
Extent: 464 pages
Illustrations: 31 illustrations

​For over 500 years witches, male and female, practised magic for both harm and good in their communities.

Most witches worked locally, used by their neighbours to cure illness, create love, or gratify personal spite against another. Margaret Lindsay from Northumberland was prosecuted for making men impotent, John Stokes in London for curing fevers, Collas de la Rue on Guernsey for killing people by witchcraft, and Isobel Gowdie in Auldearn for a variety of offences including consorting with Satan and fairies.

In the fifteenth century witches attacked a succession of English monarchs using enchanted images, and in the sixteenth they also sought ways to kill James VI of Scotland. In response a series of Acts of Parliament were passed which made much magic criminal and punished offenders severely, until a final Act in 1735 repealed them.

This impressive history shines a new light on witches, their magic, and the attempts to eradicate them throughout the British Isles, altering our picture of who witches were and why people employed them but also tried to suppress them.

THE AUTHOR
P. G. Maxwell-Stuart is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of St Andrews. He lives in St Andrews.

​Yet, the story doesn’t end with the closing ceremony at the 1936 Olympiad in Berlin. The Nazi desire to prove that they were the greatest sporting nation did not just apply to track and field. Golf became the next target. Soon after the notorious Berlin Games of 1936 a Golf tournament took place in the town of Baden-Baden. The führer himself personally sanctioned the event. 

The story that unfolds to one of Golf’s lesser known events is one where the führer takes yet another knock in his attempts to put Nazi Germany on the sporting map. The Hitler Trophy by Alan Fraser brings the event to life in a wonderfully researched and compelling narrative that tells the story of how two plucky young Englishmen (Arnold Bentley and Tom Thirsk) took the title away from Germany, much to Hitler’s disgust. 

However the book is so much more than giving the reader an account of the tournament that annoyed Hitler. It is also the search and battle to bring the Trophy back to its spiritual home. Appearing as Lot 169 at a Chester auction there was plenty of interest in the silver-gilt salver. Hesketh Golf Club were desperate to bring the Trophy back to the club where Arnold Bentley played. However, there was lots of interest including from Germany. 

What the Hitler Trophy proves is that the game golf is so much more than just a game. In extraordinary circumstances the game can be a tussle on and off the course. It also emphasises the power of a trophy and the honour that comes with it.

Published by Floodlit Dreams
RRP: £7.99
https://www.floodlitdreams.com/product/the-hitler-trophy/

​