Книги, похожие на «Rodney Castleden, The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts»

A historical book, written in Latin by Paolo Diacono in the eighth century after Christ, tells the story of the Lombard people who left Scandinavia to reach Italy and reign there for over two centuries. Today, Milan is the capital of that region which bears the name of Lombardy, the land of the Lombards. The story is interesting even if the conquest Franca takes away the taste of the happy ending. On TV and fantasy there are stories that seem drawn from the events of this people, the life of Grimoaldo, King of the Lombards is worth a novel on its own It starts with the departure from Scandinavia and the legend of the name. Then follows a story of the long march towards Italy. A brief digression on San Benedetto with two unimportant poems, then the arrival of Italy, the description of the peninsula, Alboino, his exploits, Rosmunda and Elmiche who kill Alboino. The ten years of anarchy of the dukes, Autari and Teodolinda Catholic princess of the Bavari, Astolfo, second husband of Teodolinda, Rotari the King of the Edict and the first body of Lombard laws, after Roman law a first example of organic legislation, very important for the future history of legal law. This is followed by Grimoaldo's extraordinary adventure with the escape from captivity, intrigue, the Duchy of Bemevento and the conquest of the throne. Then Grimoaldosc defeats Franks and Byzantines, deceives the Avars .... Then go from king to king until the other human event, that of Liutprando and his family. A compelling and evocative story useful to understand today's Italian divided between north and south.

‘A litany of fresh heroes to make the embattled heart sing’ Caitlin Moran‘Newman is a brilliant writer’ ObserverA fresh, opinionated history of all the brilliant women you should have learned about in school but didn’t.For hundreds of years we have heard about the great men of history, but what about herstory?In this freewheeling history of modern Britain, Cathy Newman writes about the pioneering women who defied the odds to make careers for themselves and alter the course of modern history; women who achieved what they achieved while dismantling hostile, entrenched views about their place in society. Their role in transforming Britain is fundamental, far greater than has generally been acknowledged, and not just in the arts or education but in fields like medicine, politics, law, engineering and the military.While a few of the women in this book are now household names, many have faded into oblivion, their personal and collective achievements mere footnotes in history. We know of Emmeline Pankhurst, Vera Brittain, Marie Stopes and Beatrice Webb. But who remembers engineer and motorbike racer Beatrice Shilling, whose ingenious device for the Spitfires’ Rolls-Royce Merlin fixed an often-fatal flaw, allowing the RAF’s planes to beat the German in the Battle of Britain? Or Dorothy Lawrence, the journalist who achieved her ambition to become a WW1 correspondent by pretending to be a man? And developmental biologist Anne McLaren, whose work in genetics paved the way for in vitro fertilisation?Blending meticulous research with information gleaned from memoirs, diaries, letters, novels and other secondary sources, Bloody Brilliant Women uses the stories of some extraordinary lives to tell the tale of 20th and 21st century Britain. It is a history for women and men. A history for our times.