Simon Webb

Aesthete, decadent poet, misogynist and violent drunk, Ernest Dowson has been long-listed as a Jack the Ripper suspect for nearly twenty years. Simon Webb's new book takes a fresh look at the evidence, and examines the possibility that Dowson's consumption of epic quantities of absinthe may have turned him from a woman-hating brawler into the terror of Whitechapel.

'In the opinion of this biographer, James Nayler was not a blasphemer, a heretic, a sower of discord, a fool or a madman, but a genuine Quaker prophet who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.'Tried by parliament, whipped, branded and bored through the tongue in the winter of 1656, James Nayler remains the most controversial figure among the early Quakers. Simon Webb's new biography sets the Yorkshireman's story in the context of his turbulent times, and incorporates recent discoveries about the life of the 'Quaker Jesus'.

In October 1346 the Scottish king David II invaded England with as many as thirty-two thousand men at his back. The outcome of the battle he was soon forced to fight at Neville's Cross outside Durham was to influence English, Scottish and Continental power-politics for centuries.This volume includes Simon Webb's 2016 account of the battle, its causes and its aftermath. It also includes a generous selection of the most important historical sources on the battle, some in modern English versions by Simon Webb and William Duggan.Previously published by the Langley Press as 'The Battle of Neville's Cross' and 'Tales of the Battle of Neville's Cross'.

A highly accessible biography of Elias Hicks, a nineteenth-century Quaker from Long Island who campaigned against slavery and was at the centre of some painful political developments among American Quakers.Revised and corrected edition.

Following the disruption, hardship and challenges of the Second World War, the post-war years brought a sense of optimism and excitement, with families at last enjoying peacetime. This new book follows the lives of the nation’s schoolchildren through the two decades following the war years, recalling what it was like for those experiencing the creation of a new school system; a system underpinned by the introduction of the 11 plus exam and the provision of free secondary education for all. Combining personal reminiscences with a lively description of what was going on in the wider world of British education, Simon Webb provides a vivid and entertaining picture of school life during in the 1940s and ’50s which is sure to bring back nostalgic memories for all who remember the best days of their lives.

Taking you through the year day by day, The Colchester Book of Days contains quirky, eccentric, amusing and important events and facts from different periods in the history of Britain’s oldest recorded town. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Colchester’s archives, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

This is not a guidebook. This little book brings together past and present to offer a taste of Kingston upon Thames. Learn about the movers and shakers who shaped this fantastic borough. The great and the good; the bad and the ugly. Small wonders, tall stories. TRIUMPH and tragedy. Best places – worst places. Local lingo, architecture, green spaces, events, traditions, fact, fiction. Origins, evolution, future. Written by a local who knows what makes Kingston upon Thames tick.

This is not a guidebook. This little book brings together past and present to offer a taste of Kensington & Chelsea. Learn about the movers and shakers who shaped this fantastic royal borough. The great and the good; the bad and the ugly. Small wonders, tall stories, TRIUMPH and tragedy. Best places – worst places. Local lingo, architecture, green spaces, events, traditions, fact, fiction. Origins, evolution, future. Written by a local who knows what makes KENSINGTON & CHELSEA tick.

Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessentially British execution. However, many other methods of capital punishment have been used in this country; ranging from burning, beheading and shooting to crushing and boiling to death. Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain explores these types of execution in detail. Readers may be surprised to learn that a means of mechanical decapitation, the Halifax Gibbet, was being used in England five hundred years before the guillotine was invented. Boiling to death was a prescribed means of execution in this country during the Tudor period. From the public death by starvation of those gibbeted alive, to the burning of women for petit treason, this book examines some of the most gruesome passages of British history. This carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to those interested in the history of British executions.

Seven years after the Roman invasion of Britain in ad 43, Londinium was created. It would rise to become one of the most important Roman cities in Northern Europe. Life in Roman London approaches the history of Roman London in an entirely new way. Rather than focusing upon a handful of important figures such as procurators and statesmen, this book explores the lives and concerns of the ordinary citizens. Unlike many books about Roman history which are preoccupied with the basilicas, palaces, grand houses, statues and mosaics, Life in Roman London looks instead at the shops, houses and streets in which the majority of the fifty thousand or so inhabitants of the city spent their lives. In doing so, it reveals a city very different from the clean, white, classical metropolis familiar from the books of our childhood.

Is it true that the trans-Atlantic slave trade, about which so much has been heard in recent years, would have been impossible without the willing and enthusiastic cooperation of African leaders? Slavery was a common practice in Africa long before the arrival of Europeans, with the trade in black slaves, who were transported from Africa to America and the islands of the Caribbean, aided by the African traders who benefited from the arrangement. Even when Europe and America outlawed slavery and the slave trade, those living in Africa clung tenaciously to their old ways and refused to relinquish what was, to them, a time-honoured custom. It is for this reason that slavery lingers on in Africa to this day. In this book, Simon Webb explores the history of slavery in Africa and finds that it was not necessarily imposed upon the continent by Europeans, but was rather an integral part of many, perhaps most, cultures. Even when the British deployed their army and navy to try to suppress the trade in slaves during the nineteenth century, their efforts were largely ineffectual because many societies saw no reason to give up such an old, useful and profitable system. At a time when the subject of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is seldom out of the news, this book provides a vital corrective to the popularly accepted view of the matter. Nobody reading it will ever view slavery and the slave trade in quite the same light again.

Vera Zasulich, would-be assassin who later worked with Lenin. Alexandra Kollontai, the only woman in Russia's cabinet after the revolution of 1917. Louise Bryant, American reporter and 'Queen of Bohemia' who was thereon the spot and covered the Russian revolution and its aftermath.

Chaucer's Legend of Good Women re-tells the stories of some of the most fascinating women in history and mythology, including Cleopatra, Medea and Dido, Queen of Carthage. This edition includes Simon Webb's highly accessible prose translation, and an introduction which examines how this neglected work has been rediscovered as a key text for understanding the medieval view of women.

Much more than a simple guidebook, Exploring Roman London is an indispensable guide for anyone interested in the early history of England's capital city. In addition to containing information on every site in London where Roman remains can be seen, the history of the foundation of the city and its subsequent development is meticulously chronicled. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of the first incarnation of London, when the invading Romans established their settlement in the 1st century CE. Even those who pride themselves on their knowledge of the city will find much here which is new to them, as street-by-street instructions for self-guided walks around central London allow those interested to follow the hidden rivers and lost roads of the Roman town. Exploring Roman London describes the many fragments of Roman London on open display in the city, most of which are quite unknown to the average citizen. From the huge statue of Minerva which was standing unnoticed in a churchyard until two years ago, to the Roman house which lies in a church crypt, this book will allow anyone curious about London's history to examinethe archaeology for themselves.

The father of Marxism spent roughly half his life in the English capital. Simon Webb's new book takes a fresh look at where and how he lived, who he knew and the effect the Victorian city had on himself and his family.

Is it true that the trans-Atlantic slave trade, about which so much has been heard in recent years, would have been impossible without the willing and enthusiastic cooperation of African leaders? Slavery was a common practice in Africa long before the arrival of Europeans, with the trade in black slaves, who were transported from Africa to America and the islands of the Caribbean, aided by the African traders who benefited from the arrangement. Even when Europe and America outlawed slavery and the slave trade, those living in Africa clung tenaciously to their old ways and refused to relinquish what was, to them, a time-honoured custom. It is for this reason that slavery lingers on in Africa to this day. In this book, Simon Webb explores the history of slavery in Africa and finds that it was not necessarily imposed upon the continent by Europeans, but was rather an integral part of many, perhaps most, cultures. Even when the British deployed their army and navy to try to suppress the trade in slaves during the nineteenth century, their efforts were largely ineffectual because many societies saw no reason to give up such an old, useful and profitable system. At a time when the subject of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is seldom out of the news, this book provides a vital corrective to the popularly accepted view of the matter. Nobody reading it will ever view slavery and the slave trade in quite the same light again.