Fashionable Underwear
5th August, 2024
In this blog, author of The Virtues of Underwear, Nina Edwards, discusses the fashionable nature of underwear… *** We all tend to wear underwear: it protects our modesty, it’s practical, usually comfortable and saves on laundry, protecting outer cl…
The Crimean Tatars – with Donald Rayfield, Hatchards Piccadilly
24th July, 2024
Wednesday, 7 August 2024 6.30pm We are thrilled to welcome eminent historian Donald Rayfield here to Hatchards this evening to discuss his new history of the Crimean Tatars, ‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’: The Crimean Tatars and Their Khanate. The…
Letter from Sidney Street
15th May, 2024
When Andrew Whitehead began writing A Devilish Kind of Courage: Anarchists, Aliens and the Siege of Sidney Street, little did he know what he would uncover. Thus began a journey that took over 100 years to complete. Here is the story of Fritz Svaars’…
From ‘Shōgun’ Fan to Historian: My Journey into Japanese History and the Making of a TV Epic
26th April, 2024
Author of In the Service of the Shogun, Frederik Cryns, was historical adviser on the new Disney+ television series, ‘Shōgun’, and in this blog he discusses his journey into Japanese history and how the show, and his book, came into being … *** At…
A History of the Embassy
24th April, 2024
In this blog, G.R. Berridge explores the reasons behind his new book, Outposts of Diplomacy, and how he came to write it… *** Oddly enough, it was well before I became a serious student of the history of diplomacy that I was first struck by the adv…
How to End a Revolution
4th March, 2024
Napoleon Bonaparte, perhaps one of the most famous revolutionaries, not only began, but ended the French Revolution. In this blog, author William Doyle examines how the Revolution came to an end… *** Looking back on his triumphant entry into world…
Paul Baker Online Talk
7th February, 2024
Join Portal Bookshop for an online talk with historian and author Paul Baker as part of LGBT+ History Month! Join Portal Bookshop for an exciting online event with Paul Baker, Polari expert and author of multiple books on UK LGBT+ History. Paul will…
Strange Times
6th February, 2024
The run for president in the United States has always been something to behold. Now, even more so. John Rennie Short, author of Insurrection: What the January 6th Assault on America Reveals about America and Democracy, takes a look at these strange t…
Excerpt: The Illuminated Window
7th December, 2023
In this short extract, Virginia Chieffo Raguin describes her intention for The Illuminated Window: Stories Across Time, and what inspired her to write the book. *** Last Judgement (detail), dead rising, c. 1200, cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris, transf…
The Persistence of Inflation
11th October, 2023
Inflation is a hot topic right now, and there is much debate about its significance and persistence. In this blog, Paul Mattick writes about this phenomenon, as well as what caused him to write his book, The Return of Inflation: Money and Capital in…
Restoring Women’s Fairy-Tale Legacies
29th September, 2023
When people think of fairy tales, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Walt Disney immediately come to mind. But, as Anne E. Duggan makes distinctly clear, women writers and storytellers, and especially Marie-Catherine d…
Meet Kerri Andrews
30th August, 2023
Join Kerri Andrews, talking about walking and Way Makers across the country! SEPTEMBER Topping & Co Booksellers, Edinburgh, 5 September, 7.30pm Heron and Willow of Jedburgh, 6 September, 7pm Wedale Bookshop, Stow, 16 September, 7pm Atkinso…