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Passionate about music from childhood and much-respected as a teenage guitarist in his native Birmingham, Jeff Lynne rose through the ranks of vari...

Engineer and inventor Richard Trevithick, chemist Sir Humphrey Davy, artist John Opie, historian A.L. Rowse, poet Charles Causley, opera singer Ben...

This work tells the love story of the royal couple against the changing background of 19th-century Germany. It looks at the differing political sym...

The history of Devon is full of dark deeds and horrible happenings. Among the county's more macabre claims to fame are England's first documented s...

In 1848, 28-year-old Francis Joseph became King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. He would reign for almost 68 years, the longest of any modern Eu...

Hidden behind the picturesque facade of country lanes and rugged coastlines, quaint villages and busy market towns, the South West counties of Corn...

The origins of the maritime city of Plymouth can be traced back to Saxon times, when farmland on a small peninsula at the mouth of the river Plym d...

John Van der Kiste's book takes in the principal monarchies of Scandinavia going back to the beginning of the 19th century. He uses unpublished sou...

This biography of Xenia, sister of Nicholas II gives a new angle on the Romanov story and provides new information on relationships within the fami...

On 12 August 1762, Queen Charlotte gave birth to her first child. Twenty-one years later, to the week, the 15th and youngest was born. All but two ...

The six children of King George V and Queen Mary all lived to maturity except the youngest, Prince John. The eldest, who was Prince of Wales and he...

This work examines Alexander II's life and reign, and the lives of his children, including his successor Tsar Alexander III, whose determination to...

Princess Victoria Melita played a colourful role from her birth in 1876. The second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, she made a brief and unh...

At the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, almost every European nation was a monarchy, most linked by close family ties to her and Edward VII, the "u...

A Grim Almanac of Cornwall is a day-by-day catalogue of 365 ghastly tales from around the county. Full of dreadful deeds, macabre deaths, strange o...

Surrey Murders is an examination of some of the county's most notorious and shocking cases. They include the 'Wigwam Girl', Joan Wolfe, who lived i...

Somerset Murders brings together numerous murderous tales that shocked not only the county but also made headlines throughout the country. They inc...

Mary (1662-94), daughter of James, Duke of York, heir to the English throne, then 15, is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told s...

Eighth-century martyr St Boniface, tennis player and TV presenter Sue Barker, painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, scholar Sir Thomas Bodley, actor Sir Don...

There is little available on the dramatic and colourful history of the Spanish monarchy. Experienced author and historian John Van der Kiste provid...

It recounts several notable cases, from the killing of Sarah and Edward Glass at Wadland Down in 1827 and the poisonings of Samuel Wescombe in Exet...

How was Queen Victoria influenced by her closest male ministers, relatives, advisers and servants? John Van der Kiste is the first to explore this ...

Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort had nine children who despite their very different characters, remained a close-knit family. Inevitably, ...

Kate Bush began her career in 1978 at the age of 19 with the single 'Wuthering Heights', inspired by a film adaptation of the Emily Bronte novel, t...