Centred on the life of Benjamin Franklin, featuring figures like the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the ground-breaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician John Wilkes and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine, this book looks at the generation that preceded the Declaration in 1776. It takes us back to a vital moment in the foundation of the West, a time full of intent, confidence and ideas. It tells a whole new story about the birth of the United States of America – and some of the key principles by which we live to this very day.
An inventive biography of one of the most famous ships of all time – from the oak tree it was made from to its last voyage in the American War of Independence.
The story of the meteorological enlightenment through a group biography of the people that mattered. Leading the cast of characters is Robert FitzRoy: sailor, scientist and inventor of the weather ‘forecast’.
On Midsummer Day 1806 the Reverend George Parker of Oddingley is murdered in his glebe meadows. The suspect, a man wearing a long blue coat, vanishes soon after. It took a generation for this crime to be solved and when it did, it shocked a nation.
