Page 93 - All About History - Issue 72-18

Book of the

Georgians
Book TV Podcast From lusty monarchs and

long-suffering queens, to the
incredible flowering of culture,
conflict and colonialism,
Film Games Other All About History’s brand
new 147-page Book of the
Georgians lays bare this
dynamicperiodofBritish
history. Discover how the
Reviews by HouseofHanoverwent Out
Catherine Curzon, Ben Gazur, James Hoare, Jessica Leggett and Beth Wyatt from regional rulers to
constitutional monarchs, now!
how humiliation in
theAmericanWarsofIndependenceendedwithGreat
Britain’srisetoglobalsuperpower,howdreamsof
ARTHUR: aStuartrestorationdiedwiththefailedJacobite
Rebellion, and how Napoleon Bonaparte’s grand
designswerecutshortatWaterloo.
WARRIOR myfavouritemagazines.com
Buy it now from

AND KING Price: £9.99

A pseudo-historical search for a pseudo-historical king

Author Don Carleton Publisher Amberley Publishing Price £20 Released Out now
ingArthurisoneofthemostwidely Surmises such as this are piled ponderously up to
recognised, and yet least knowable, figures in increasing heights of incredulity.
British history. Unfortunately Arthur: Warrior It is not even an entertaining read. Lengthy sections
and King does nothing to get us closer to deal in tedious detail with place-name etymologies
K the truth. The book claims to reveal the real that leave the reader equal parts bored and confused.
Arthur to us down to his hair colour, but fails to We are also treated to cameo appearances by the
convince us he ever existed at all. Many literary and Loch Ness Monster, Mary Magdalene building the first
historical sources on the life of Arthur are quoted church in Britain (or the world!), and a comet causing
but their interpretation is troubling. For example, a natural disaster. Extraordinary claims require
a poetic reference to Arthur sweeping his foes extraordinary proofs but the evidence presented here
from the field like a wave must, the author insists, is always prefaced with an “if”, a “may”, or a “perhaps”.
point to him unleashing an actual flood in battle. Lurking in the background are glimpses of life and
warfare in the 6th century which would
“It is not even an entertaining read. Lengthy make an interesting study. This is not it.

King Arthur is not returning
sections deal in tedious detail with place-name from Avalon to rescue us in our
Frustrating,
etymologiesthatleave thereaderequal time of need. If he was he would Inconclusive,
have come back to prevent the Flimsy
parts bored and confused” publication of this book. BG

ASUPERNATURALWAR

Oh what a spooky war

Author Owen Davies Publisher Oxford University Press Price £15.99 Released Out now

n most studies on spiritualism and the occult – and constables in the crackdown on fortune tellers under
indeed on changing culture generally – the Great War theVagrancyAct,totheboomingtradeincauls–the
acts as an iron curtain between a simpler age and a membrane covering the heads of some infants at birth
darker, more anxious one. It’s either the trauma that –asprotectiveamulettoseamen.
I opens a history, or the watershed moment that ends It’s the gentle debunking of assumed truths
it, and with supernatural thinking especially it has been that proves themostrewarding,for examplethe
incredibly ill-served. Professor Owen Davies is one of the storyoftheAngelofMons–theheavenlyhostand
undisputed leaders in his field, and this comprehensive spectral Agincourt bowmen attending to the British
study covers the use of fortune telling for wartime Expeditionary Force in August 1914 – began not as
propaganda, spiritualism, charms and talismans, a hoax or a battlefield legend, but a piece of
conventional religiosity, and accounts of spectral soldiers short fiction repeated out of context.
and angels haunting the front. ASupernaturalWar:Magic,
ASupernaturalWar is a fascinating deep dive Divination, and Faith During the
that offers tantalising glimpses of a very different First World War is impossible to Fascinating,
Surprising,
world, from domestic violence cases where the wife’s describe without simply rattling Informed
consorting with mediums is cited, to the role of female off a list of highlights. JH

93