No comments about Manchester.

No comments about The Borders: A History of the Borders from Earliest Times.

No comments about Understanding Scottish Graveyards.

No comments about The Popinjays: A History of the Woodville Family and an Account of Their Involvement in English History During the Late Medieval Age.

1 comments about Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend.

1. The last sentence of the book summarizes the excellent thrust of this book. "Elizabeth can not be separated from the legend that she helped create." This book is the companion to the traveling exhibit on Elizabeth I that I was not fortunate to see, but stands on it's own merits.
   
   There has been a plethora of books on Elizabeth I; unfortunately many of them are just chronological listings of events or the author has an agenda or preconceived thesis. This book is stellar in avoiding the usual approach. It is thematic. This book concentrates on the effects of Elizabeth's surroundings on her, and her effect on her surroundings. There two very good reasoned chapters on the religion and sexuality of Elizabeth. The book was meticulously researched and documented and used the figures in the book to visually support the book's themes. A very perceptive, albeit brief, section analyzes how Elizabeth I has been portrayed in cinema. The writing is concise and fluid and to the point.
   
   I give a book on the Elizabethan era or Elizabethan/Shakespeare literature to my family every year as gifts. This is probably the finest.

1 comments about The Celtic Book Of Names: Traditional Names from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

1. I should have looked to see what else this author has written before I bought the book - her penchant for New Age subjects would have warned me off. I wanted a book with a lot of Celtic/Gaelic names for a baby. There are those, but half the book is taken up with surnames (not what I was interested in) and the names of Celtic deities (interesting, but again, not what I was looking for).

   And if you write a book with Gaelic names in it, PLEASE include a guide to pronunciation! I admit that my knowledge of Gaelic is pretty limited, but I am pretty sure that some of the pronunciations the author did give were wrong, which didn't exactly inspire a lot of trust in her research.

   All in all, I'll probably return it.

No comments about The Story of the Fens.

No comments about Old Fallin, Cowie and Plean.

No comments about A Past Apart: Studies in the History of Catholic Belfast 1850-1950.

No comments about Dartmoor's War Prison and Church 1805-1817.