Local interest, family history & nostalgia

No-one knows a city like the people who live there - so who better to relate the history of Paris than its inhabitants through the ages? A collection of true stories, culled from the authors insatiable historical reading and lit by his imagination.. ..More

The fascinating story of a famous Victorian murder case - and the notorious detective who solved it. ..More

A portrait of modern America collects essays from around the country and the world that attempt to capture the essence of a country whose diversity and pluralistic culture often presents challenges from within and encourages threats from without.. ..More

Based on many conversations and interviews with Waltham local people, recalling life in the village over the past century, this title recounts various memories, including childhood and schooldays, work and play, sport and leisure, and the war years. It pa. ..More

Portrays the saga of the Bronfman family, and above all, their patriarch Sam, the greatest figure in the history of liquor, the man who made drinking whiskey respectable and who built the first global empire of alcohol. This book recounts the soap operaish struggle of his brothers and heirs for control.. ..More

Many an occupant of an old house would like to know more about its history, and this book explains how to gather evidence from the house itself and the surrounding area. It then describes, in visually-led chapters covering individual architectural periods, how to analyze the evidence collected.. ..More

This work evokes and chronicles a long-lost world of rustic quiet, prior to the advent of mechanization, communication and supply equipment. The author recorded the flora, fauna and climate of the village of Selborne in a way which portrays its serene and tranquil life.. ..More

Presents a comparative history, with insights into the austerity years and the lessons we can learn from them. This title looks at two very different generations which show similarities in their approaches to preserving their futures and an ever dwindling supply of resources.. ..More

"Guardian" columnist the author is one of the most high-profile commentators in Britain. After her father's death, wanting to understand him better, she began to explore his passionate, lifelong attachment to a small plot of land in North Yorkshire. This title uncovers traces of the plot's Neolithic inhabitants and of the Cistercian monks.. ..More

A fascinating account from award-winning author Adam Nicolson of the history of Nicolson's own national treasure, his family home: Sissinghurst.. ..More

Madresfield Court is an arrestingly romantic stately home in the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. It has been continuously owned and lived in by the same family, the Lygons, back to the time of the "Domesday Book". This book explores its treasures and secrets.. ..More

Offers a guide to this extraordinary river and the towns and villages which line it. Exploring its history since prehistoric times, this book shows the fishes that swam in the river and the boats that plied its surface; about floods and tides; hauntings and suicides; miasmas and malaria; locks, weirs and embankments; bridges, docks and palaces.. ..More

Kate Grenville's "The Secret River" was one of the most loved novels of 2006. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and awarded the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. This book tells the story of how Grenville came to write this book. It maps this creative journey into fiction, and illuminates the importance of family in our lives.. ..More