Early English History

In 1910, Mary Acworth Evershed (1867-1949) sat on a hill in southern India staring at the moon as she grappled with apparent mistakes in Dante's Divine Comedy. Was Dante's astronomy unintelligible? Or was he, for a man of his time and place, as insightful as one could be about the sky? As the 20th century began, women who wished to become professional astronomers faced difficult cultural barriers, but Evershed joined the British Astronomical Association and, from an Indian observatory, became an experienced observer of sunspots, solar eclipses, and variable stars.

From ambitious scientists rising above the clouds to analyse the air to war generals floating across enemy lines, Richard Holmes takes to the air in this heart-lifting history of pioneer balloonists. Falling Upwards asks why they risked their lives and how their flights revealed the secrets of our planet. The stories range from early ballooning rivals to the long-distance voyages of American entrepreneurs; from the legendary balloon escape from the Prussian siege of Paris to dauntless James Glaisher, who, in the 1860s, flew seven miles above the earth - without oxygen.

SHORTLISTED FOR 2021 READER'S FAVORITE AWARD FOR HISTORICAL FICTION Fazle Chowdhury's Never Among Equals is a compelling historical novel set in the early 20th century, focusing on Firoze Hazari, a young man navigating life in pre-World War I London. After graduating from Oxford, chooses to remain in London, defying his family's expectations to return and join the family business. He secures a position at an investment firm, but his career takes a downturn when he is dismissed after voicing concerns about the firm's risky investments related to the German Empire. Facing financial hardship ...

Lester grew up on the banks of the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River in eastern Kentucky during the early 1900s. For his time, he was progressive who had the forethought to document the life and times as a mountaineer. Lester left the little community called Wilder Branch to marry, serve his country, and later write his memoirs. Lester left behind a treasure of historical nuggets for anyone wanting to learn more about pioneer life in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.