The History of the Vampire in Popular Culture

The History of the Vampire in Popular Culture written by Violet Fenn and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 224

Our enduring love of vampires - the bad boys (and girls) of paranormal fantasy - has persisted for centuries. Despite being bloodthirsty, heartless killers, vampire stories commonly carry erotic overtones that are missing from other paranormal or horror stories.

Even when monstrous teeth are sinking into pale, helpless throats - especially then - vampires are sexy. But why? In A History Of The Vampire In Popular Culture, author Violet Fenn takes the reader through the history of vampires in ‘fact’ and fiction, their origins in mythology and literature and their enduring appeal on tv and film. We’ll delve into the sexuality - and sexism - of vampire lore, as well as how modern audiences still hunger for a pair of sharp fangs in the middle of the night.

This was a really pleasant surprise, not being a huge fan of Vampires. I can say that I really enjoyed this book and, to be honest, it seems vampires are around more often than you think. I suppose it helped to be in conjunction with popular culture as I had heard about a number of the books and films spoken about throughout. I enjoyed the writing of the author Violet Fenn who clearly knows her stuff as there was lots of good detail that was enjoyable and engaging. Maybe not a book that would appeal to the many, but actually I think people should give this a chance as I quite enjoyed it.

The Great Miss Lydia Becker

The Great Miss Lydia Becker written by Joanna M Williams and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 328

Fifty years before women were enfranchised, a legal loophole allowed a thousand women to vote in the general election of 1868. This surprising event occurred due to the feisty and single-minded dedication of Lydia Becker, the acknowledged, though unofficial, leader of the women's suffrage movement in the later 19th century.

Brought up in a middle-class family as the eldest of fifteen children, she broke away from convention, remaining single and entering the sphere of men by engaging in politics. Although it was considered immoral for a woman to speak in public, Lydia addressed innumerable audiences, not only on women's votes, but also on the position of wives, female education and rights at work. She battled grittily to gain academic education for poor girls, and kept countless supporters all over Britain and beyond abreast of the many campaigns for women's rights through her publication, the Women's Suffrage Journal.

Steamrollering her way to Parliament as chief lobbyist for women, she influenced MPs in a way that no woman, and few men, had done before. In the 1860s the idea of women's suffrage was compared in the Commons to persuading dogs to dance; it was dismissed as ridiculous and unnatural. By the time of Lydia's death in 1890 there was an acceptance that the enfranchisement of women would soon happen. The torch was picked up by a woman she had inspired as a teenager, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Lydia's younger colleague on the London committee, Millicent Fawcett. And the rest is history.

I can honestly say that since reviewing books for Pen & Sword Books, I have learnt so much more about history and individuals and in particular women’s history and the roles of women throughout history and the importance they play. Having learnt a lot about history at university, I am learning so much from Pen & Sword books like this one about The Great Miss Lydia Becker. Lydia Becker who might have gone unnoticed had she not moved to Manchester was a staunch supporter of women’s rights and suffrage in the mid-1800s from employment, to equal rights, to living & working conditions, to voting eligibility for women. Lydia Becker and her like in the women’s suffrage movement were all strong motivated women who would stand their ground and demand their rights. What comes through in this book is how much women from the north have been undervalued, and yet they are some of the strongest and most determined women you could find. This is a really well-written book by the author Joanna Williams, I’ve enjoyed the whole book and the bibliography at the back is an excellent one I shall be following up on and reading further. A very good book indeed.

The Unofficial History of the Beano

The Unofficial History of the Beano written by Iain McLaughlin and published by White Owl Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 200

The Beano is Britain's longest-running and best-loved comic. Since 1938 it has brought thrills and laughter to generation after generation of children, seeing the young and young-at-heart through World War 2, the social changes of the 1950s and 60s and on into a new millennium. How has the comic evolved since its early days? How many of the classic characters and their stories do you remember? What are the important changes that have happened through the years, why have they happened and why has The Beano survived when all the other comics have folded? Every child in the UK since the 1950s has known Dennis the Menace, the Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx and Roger the Dodger, but how many know the writers and artists who created these iconic comic characters? How do they write the scripts week after week? Where did the inspiration come from? How did the artists come to work for this Great British institution? This is the story of the Beano Comic, told in the words of the people who made it, going back to the dark, harsh days of the 1930s and continuing through to the present day. A unique insight into the country’s most beloved comic.

I was really looking forward to reviewing this book as I was a big Beano fan as a kid popping down to the shops with my pocket money for a copy of the Beano and some sweets on a Saturday. My favourites were Billy Whizz, Ball Boy, Dennis the Menace and the Bash Street Kids It was nice to hear about all the goings-on in the background, hearing about the ideas and plans that revolved around various characters and what created the inspiration. Hearing about how the cartoons and scripts were written and how some of the cartoons have been drawn for many years by the same artists. It was a really good behind the scenes look at the Beano. All we could do with now is a book about my other favourite cartoon as a kid, Oor Wullie. I would happily recommend this book as it takes you back in time to being a big kid, my only small complaint was not being able to see any of the comic strips or characters.

The Greatest Explorers in History

The Greatest Explorers in History written by Michelle Rosenberg and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 208

This is a book about one of the first recorded pilgrims who climbed Mount Sinai; it’s about Amelia Earhart, the famous American aviator whose story and disappearance continues to capture the world’s imagination. It’s the story of a doomed expedition to discover the North-West Passage, and the tale of Marco Polo, who remained at the court of the Kublai Khan for an incredible 17 years.

The Greatest Explorers in History brings to life the pioneers in aviation flying thousands of miles with the most basic of maps in open cock-pits, exposed to the elements and the unrelenting smell of petrol fumes. They travel by steamboat, on horseback, by rickshaw, motorbike, train, swim with piranhas, embark into black nothingness in new spacecraft, explore by jeep, yachts, tea boats and elephants, disguise themselves as men, take canoes and use innovative, advanced technological scuba equipment.

Going where in many cases, no man or woman had ever gone before, some women featured in The Greatest Explorers in History were often denied respect, acknowledgement or recognition and they determined to break the ‘men's club’ mentality of global exploration from which they were excluded.

Marco Polo:

“This desert is reported to be so long that it would take a year to go from end to end, and at the narrowest point, it takes a month to cross it. It consists entirely of mountains and sands and valleys. There is nothing at all to eat.”

It's unfortunate that more publicity or writing goes doesn’t go to renowned explorers because when you read some of the stories and adventures these men and women attempt is truly staggering. In a number of cases, you could say that what some of these people try to attempt is like certain death, so there has to be a little admiration that these people attempt these feats. This book is divided into separate chapters for each explorer, and what is actually a nice thing is that the women and men are split up, I personally think this helps put both on a par with each other rather than the women being overshadowed. I also liked the fact that the ‘space’ explorers and ‘South Pole’ explorers were put into separate sections too. 

It is surprising how many of these explorers are easily recognisable such as Amelia Earhart, Ernest Shackleton, Meriwether Lewis, David Livingstone, Nellie Bly, Marco Polo & Neil Armstrong to name just a few. It was also nice to see such an array of names going back a couple of thousand years right up to the 20th century. A subject that gets little converge, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was a really good read, with some examples for further reading. A book I would recommend to others.

Transport Curiosities

Transport Curiosities 1850 - 1950 written by John Wade and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 208

Over the years many weird and wonderful types of transport have come and gone, some of which succeeded against all odds, others that spectacularly failed, and some that never got beyond a designer’s drawing board. Railway engines driven by horses, for example. Or maybe the surprising number of cars, boats and trains driven by aeroplane propellers. In this book you will find cars that flew, cars that floated on water and boats that ran on roads; steam-powered aeroplanes, electric submarines, railways driven by pneumatic air, aircraft with flapping wings… and a whole lot more. If you are a person who would like to have flown in an airship or travelled in a train whose carriage sat on stilts above the sea with its tracks below the water, or dreamed of riding on a London to New York railway that took twelve days to travel the long way around the world, or maybe just fancied fixing your bicycle to a railway track, then this book is for you.

This book is like a collection of ideas from British eccentrics, some of the designs in this book could fit into four categories as they were just not practical, didn’t get the financial support, physically impossible and just bizarre. In a way, all the designs shown were fantastic in their own ways and some were just out there. I must admit some of the bizarre inventions were my favourites but just impossible to work or be mass-produced. I found this book fascinating and I think the beautiful drawings and designs really make the book as it made every design seem cool but the book has that cool 50’s feel to it. As I said at the beginning this book looks like a collection of eccentric designs produced in the shed of a mad engineer. I really enjoyed this book and would happily recommend it for a good read.

Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Keep the Home Fires Burning written by Phil Carradice and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 224

Keeping the Home Fires Burning tells the story of how the troops and the general public were kept happy and content during the First World War. Between 1914 and 1918 there was the entertainment of the masses for the sole purpose of promotion of the war effort. It was the first time that a concerted effort to raise and sustain morale was ever made by any British government and was a combination of government sponsored ideas and lucky happenstance. It was all picked up and used by the new Propaganda Ministry.

The range of activities was wide and varied, from poetry to cinema, from music hall singers and artists to the creation of battlefield heroes. There was postcard humour and deliberate veneration of philanthropists - and war participants - like Woodbine Willie.

The theme of Keeping the Home Fires Burning is backed up by 40 illustrations from the time, including participants, posters, battlefield views and so on.

Keeping the Home Fires Burning looks at a part of the war not often mentioned but some would say was important. This book looks at the entertainment side of the Great War, it was seen by the Propaganda Ministry that what was needed was a way of keeping up the morale of the people both at home and abroad. After all, this was one of the first wars that not only involved combatants abroad but affected the non-combatants at home especially as a world war was happening just across the channel.

This involved entertainment for the masses in a number of ways from screen stars seen in the local picture house, to entertainment, shows at the local music halls, celebrating war heroes on postcards, art to even poetry. In a world where everything was being targeted towards the war effort, it was seen that rather than a public getting down and depressed by military losses and casualties. There needed to be a concerted effort to keep the public morale high in order to help the positivity among the population buoyant to help the effort.

This book written by Phil Carradice is an easy but entertaining read, but it seems well researched and documented. I have always enjoyed books by Carradice, as you kind of always guaranteed a good read. I also enjoyed the notes section and bibliography and will be reading further books that have been listed. This book should be recommended as it does look at an important part of the war that doesn’t get enough recognition.

Medieval Military Medicine

Medieval Military Medicine written by Brian Burfield and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20.00 - Hardback - Pages 224

Soldiers of the Middle Ages faced razor-sharp swords and axes that could slice through flesh with gruesome ease, while spears and arrows were made to puncture both armour and the wearer, and even more sinister means of causing harm produced burns and crush injuries. These casualties of war during the 500-year period between the ninth and thirteenth centuries in Northern and Western Europe are the focus of Brian Burfield’s study, but they represent just a portion of the story – disease, disability, disfigurement, damaged minds all played their roles in this awful reality.

Surgical methods are described in the book, as are the fixes for fractured skulls, broken bones and damaged teeth. Disfiguring scars and disabling injuries are examined alongside the contemporary attitudes towards them. Also investigated are illnesses like dysentery and St Anthony’s Fire, plus infected wounds which were often more deadly than the weapons of the age. A final chapter on the psychological trauma caused by war is included and contains a significant focus on the world of the Vikings.

Brian Burfield’s account features many individual cases, extracting their stories of wounds, sickness and death from chronicles, miracle collections, surgeries, government records and other documents. The prose, poetry and literature of the period are also of great value in bringing these cases to life, as is the evidence provided by modern archaeological and historical scholarship.

There are some books via their covers and descriptions that I just love to get my head into because they are so interesting or intriguing. So I was really looking forward to this, in military terms who doesn’t want to read about limbs being hacked off, stomachs run through and all the other types of injuries incurred on the battlefield. The book is a little gruesome in some places but it’s not too bad, this is what happens when your fighting in a medieval battle. What is quite impressive is the hard work and amount of research put into the book by the author Brian Burfield, he has written an excellent book that’s a good clear and easy to understand book. The book also goes over the number of effects of these injuries which were numerously described, the book goes into treatments, diseases and results. Yet again we read about my favourite, the good old leeches too. The notes and bibliography are great in this book and certainly a bonus. I would certainly recommend this book and can see it appealing to a wide audience.