Mostrando resultados por autor "Simon Webb" en Todas las categorías

A century before Britain became involved in this terrible business, whole villages and towns in European countries were being depopulated by slavers, who transported the men, women, and children to Africa, where they were sold. This is the forgotten slave trade, one which saw over a million Christians forced into captivity in the Muslim world. Starting in the ancient world, Simon Webb traces the history of slavery in Europe, showing that the numbers involved were vast and that the victims were often treated far more cruelly than black slaves in America and the Caribbean.

Courtier, scholar, politician and, finally, monk, Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator was a sixth-century Roman who tried to keep the ideal of civilization alive at a time when the empire he served was in its death-throes. Simon Webb’s book is the first new stand-alone biography of this fascinating figure to be published for over forty years.

‘To rid Bath of scorpions, first one must create an image of a scorpion curled up backwards as if stinging itself . . . ’ Writer, scientist, philosopher and dabbler in magic Adelard of Bath travelled widely throughout the Mediterranean world, wrote about what he had learned, and produced pioneering translations of important Arabic texts. Simon Webb’s highly accessible biography of this celebrated Bathonian sets his life against the background of the twelfth century in Europe and the Middle East; a time of growing enlightenment, but also of superstition, instability and conflict.

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.

The London-born son of an Italian refugee, John Florio (1553-1625) was raised on the Continent and returned to England to find fame as a translator, language teacher and author. Simon Webb’s book examines the impact of this Renaissance man in Shakespeare’s England.

In 2013 the bones of as many as twenty-nine young men and boys were discovered under a disused courtyard in Durham City. A team of experts later determined that these were the remains of some of the hundreds of Scottish prisoners of war who died in Durham Cathedral over three hundred and sixty years ago. Simon Webb's highly accessible new book offers an up-to-date account of the Dunbar Martyrs - so called because they were taken prisoner after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. The book also follows the later history of some of the survivors, who were dispatched from Durham to new lives in the ...

'It was revealed to Eadmar, a devout monk, that Durham was to be Cuthbert's final resting-place.' Robert Hegge's 1624 book tells the story of St Cuthbert with humour, insight and accuracy. Simon Webb's highly accessible modern English version draws back the curtain on a masterpiece that has remained unpublished for 200 years. Illustrated. For the paperback version of this book, search Amazon for ISBN 9780954475963.

Though he features in the first of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, Nicholas Flamel was a real person who lived in medieval Paris. Simon Webb's new book attempts to reconstruct his life, and also looks into the legends that have attached to his name over the centuries. Was he an alchemist, could he make gold from mercury, and are Nicholas and his wife Perenelle still alive after over six hundred years? Published by the Langley Press.

A friend of Laurence Sterne and David Garrick, Charles Ignatius Sancho was born on a slave ship in the Atlantic around 1729. Largely self-taught, he became a butler and then a valet in the household of the distinguished Montagu family, before setting up his own shop in Westminster. His entertaining letters, first published in 1782, astonished readers with their wit and insight. Simon Webb’s book is the first stand-alone biography of this fascinating figure from Black British history.

Friedrich Engels spent more than twenty years in Salford and Manchester, learning the cotton trade and becoming a mill-owner in his own right. Meanwhile he was the co-author of The Communist Manifesto, and funded the life and work of fellow-German Karl Marx. Posing as a respectable Victorian bachelor, Engels also lived a second life with his working-class girlfriend, Mary Burns. Simon Webb’s book brings the story of Engels in ‘Cottonopolis’ up to date by examining new developments, and exploring the relevance of the paradoxical Prussian for the twenty-first century.

Born in Ukraine in 1879, Lev Davidovich Bronstein (known as Leon Trotsky) became one of the most significant figures in the crowded history of the twentieth century. Simon Webb’s biography, written after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, places particular emphasis on Trotsky as a Ukrainian, and sets his life against the background of Ukrainian, Russian and British history and culture, and the story of Russian colonialism.

Historian, saint, scientist, monk and biblical scholar, the Venerable Bede was one of the most remarkable figures to come out of the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain. Simon Webb's book gives an introduction to the life of this extraordinary man: an eighth-century Northumbrian whose works are still read throughout the world. Illustrated. For the paperback version of this book, please search Amazon for ISBN 978-0-9564551-2-3

A native of County Durham, Mary Ann Cotton was the most prolific female serial killer in British history. This new book from Simon Webb and Miranda Brown re-tells her story, re-examines the evidence, and includes a startling new theory about the so-called West Auckland Poisoner. Illustrated.

‘The bishop became the first state prisoner to be locked up in the Tower of London: after six months, he became the first to escape from the Tower. ’ For nearly eight hundred years, the bishops of Durham ruled like kings between Tees and Tyne. Simon Webb’s book takes a close look at eight of the most famous prince bishops, and explains the origins and development of this unique piece of English history. Illustrated. For the paperback version of this book, search Amazon for ISBN 978-0956455178.

A humble tailor and apple-grower from New Jersey, John Woolman became one of the leading voices against the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century. Simon Webb's highly accessible new biography takes a fresh look at the life of this inspirational figure.

Based on the biography of Hilda (or Hild) that appears in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, Simon Webb’s new book tells the story of a much-loved Northern Saint. Abbess of Whitby and friend of Aidan, Hilda was one of the most influential women of the Anglo-Saxon age.

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.

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.

Raised in a white working-class family in Croydon, as a very young man Samuel Coleridge-Taylor became one of the most celebrated composers in the English-speaking world. Written to mark 150 years since his birth, Simon Webb’s new biography traces SCT’s meteoric rise, the generations of neglect, and the triumphant rediscovery of this Black British genius in the 21st century.

The free-born son of an African ex-slave and a Native American woman, Paul Cuffe (1759-1817) made a fortune trading up and down the Atlantic coast of America, eventually mounting trading expeditions to Europe and Africa. A devout Quaker and staunch opponent of slavery, Cuffe became involved in a controversial scheme to ‘return’ free American black people to Africa.