19th C Archives - Aspects of History

2025 Summer Reads from Aspects of History

Our authors and contributors recommend books to take on summer holidays.

Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryLucy Ashe Author of The Sleeping BeautiesThe Eights is Joanna Miller’s debut novel that combines fascinating historical research with the creation of four compelling female characters, The Eights is set at St Hugh’s College, Oxford,...

The Tunnel Under the Channel

Delays and cancellations are a common feature for rail travellers in Britain. But today’s delays are nothing compared with the delays in creating a railway under the Channel to connect Britain with the Continent of Europe - a process that took more than 200 years.

Robin Laurance

The tunnel under the English Channel - the seaway the French call La Manche - was ready for its first trains when a Frenchman looked set to derail the whole enterprise. Florent Longuepee, a right-wing Paris city councillor, wrote to the British government requesting...

Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, by Alice Loxton

In this wonderfully entertaining book, written with assured flair, historian Alice Loxton takes the age of eighteen as a unifying theme for telling the story of Britain.

Richard Stone

Views on age and life’s milestones have changed over time. In the last century average life expectancy exceeded what we would call middle age for the first time and in the process changed perspectives. Empress Matilda, one of the subjects of Eighteen, married Henry V...

Nelson: Hero of the Seas, by Dominic Sandbrook

Dominic Sandbrook’s latest entry to his Adventures in Time series, aimed at younger readers, is perhaps his best yet.

Oliver Webb-Carter

Nelson: Hero of the Seas, by Dominic Sandbrook On 24 September 1805, Admiral Horatio Nelson was waiting for an audience with Lord Castlereagh, Secretary for War and the Colonies, at the Colonial Office. In the assembly room with him was Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had...

‘Educating the Natives’

In his latest novel, the American writer and film director John Sayles examines the treatment of the Native Americans in the late 19th, and early 20th centuries, as young Indians were ‘civilised.’

John Sayles

‘Educating the Natives’ Like most Americans, my initial and only knowledge of the Carlisle Indian School was in relation to Jim Thorpe, the star football player and Olympic athlete who was a student there in the early 1900s. I did a report in class on a young-adult...

Historical Heroes: Matthew Flinders

Conscious of following in the footsteps of his own heroes, Flinders, the cartographer of Australia, illustrates all the questions surrounding the definition of a historical hero.

Michael Barritt

On a grey evening last autumn in the outer concourse of drab Euston Station, I took pity on two teachers and their assistants who were corralling a large group of school-children. I offered them a distraction. We moved across to one of the two statues – not that of...

Maritime Nation, N.A.M. Rodger Interview

N.A.M. Rodger’s The Safeguard of the Sea was published in 1997 and covered nearly 1,000 years of naval history. His second, The Command of the Ocean, came out seven years later, and now, with The Price of Victory, we have the final part. He met with our editor recently to discuss.

N.A.M. Rodger

Maritime Nation, N.A.M. Rodger Interview For N.A.M. Rodger the third book in his epic trilogy, The Price of Victory, is the culmination of a lifetime’s work. He has charted Britain’s naval history – not a history of the navy, there is a difference, from 660AD...

Holand Press

Holand Press is a new, independent publisher which is focused on fostering new talent. We believe in building brands and generating sales through an ongoing, long-term strategy.

Sharpe Books

Holand Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on AmazonFrom the Publisher Books matter. Readers matter. Writers matter. As such, there is always a demand for new stories and new authors. Holand Press has been founded to help...

Napoleon’s Brush With ‘Black Spartacus’

Napoleon Bonaparte and Toussaint Louverture, the great Haitian freedom fighter, were initially allies. Sudhir Hazareesingh, who has written a celebrated biography of Louverture, describes how the two men’s relationship subsequently soured.

Sudhir Hazareesingh

Napoleon’s Brush With ‘Black Spartacus’ The Haitian revolution was one of the defining episodes in modern global history. It began in 1791 with a mass uprising of the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue, France’s richest and most profitable colony. Drawing upon local...

Phil Craig

The bestselling historian discusses his history, influences and his latest book.

Phil Craig

What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? I was a 60s child and brought up on Airfix models, the Air Training Corps and Victor comics, so the Second World War obsessed me, especially the Battle of Britain. When I was about 40 the BBC asked me to...