{"title":"Catherine Fletcher","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the Tudor era with Catherine Fletcher's captivating historical insights. From royal intrigue to Renaissance lives, discover meticulously researched narratives that bring the past vividly to life. Browse her works today!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"beauty-and-the-terror-book-catherine-fletcher-9781784707941","title":"The Beauty and the Terror","description":"The Italian Renaissance shaped Western culture - but it was far stranger and darker than many of us realise.  'Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a history of compelling originality and freshness' Simon Sebag Montefiore  We know the Mona Lisa for her smile, but not that she was married to a slave-trader. We revere Leonardo da Vinci for his art, but few now appreciate his ingenious designs for weaponry. We visit Florence to see Michelangelo's David, but hear nothing of the massacre that forced the republic's surrender. 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The year is 1531. After years of brutal war and political intrigue, the bastard son of a Medici Duke and a `half-negro’ maidservant rides into Florence. Within a year, he rules the city as its Prince. Backed by the Pope and his future father-in-law the Holy Roman Emperor, the nineteen-year-old Alessandro faces down bloody family rivalry and the scheming hostility of Italy’s oligarchs to reassert the Medicis’ faltering grip on the turbulent city-state. Six years later, as he awaits an adulterous liaison, he will be murdered by his cousin in another man’s bed.  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Brimming with life, it takes us closer than ever before to the lived reality of this astonishing era and its meaning for today.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          'An enthralling account of how Italy was brought low at a time when culture went high' The Times, History Books of the Year 2020","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49526246310161,"sku":"GOR010456738","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51721824239889,"sku":"GOR010850719","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/184792509X.jpg?v=1751186426"},{"product_id":"divorce-of-henry-viii-book-catherine-fletcher-9780099554899","title":"The Divorce of Henry VIII","description":"Set against the backdrop of war-torn Renaissance Italy, The Divorce of Henry VIII combines a gripping family saga with a highly charged political battle between the Tudors and the Vatican to reveal the extraordinary true story behind historys most infamous divorce.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49538045804817,"sku":"GOR004855607","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49547036295441,"sku":"GOR006135625","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49937718182161,"sku":"CIN0099554895G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50134657433873,"sku":"CIN0099554895VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50716934308113,"sku":"NGR9780099554899","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0099554895.jpg?v=1751431389"},{"product_id":"black-prince-of-florence-book-catherine-fletcher-9780099586944","title":"The Black Prince of Florence","description":"A spectacular, elegant, brilliant portrait of skulduggery, murder and sex in Renaissance Florence Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard, Books of the Year   1531  after years of brutal war and political intrigue, the bastard son of a Medici Duke and a half-negro maidservant rides into Florence.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544896282897,"sku":"GOR008487980","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49550800027921,"sku":"GOR008731042","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49728825721105,"sku":"NGR9780099586944","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50058746462481,"sku":"GOR008303284","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53460874199313,"sku":"CIN0099586940A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0099586940.jpg?v=1750972735"},{"product_id":"divorce-of-henry-viii-book-catherine-fletcher-9780230341517","title":"The Divorce of Henry VIII","description":"In this volume a number of British psychoanalysts introduce us to psychoanlaytic definitions of intra-psychic and subjective meaning in patients suffering psychotic conditions. 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Drawing on hundreds of unknown archive documents, Our Man in Rome reconstructs his tumultuous life among the great and powerful at this turning point for European history. From the besieged Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome to the splendours of Greenwich Palace, we follow his trail in the service of Henry VIII. Lavish ceremony and glamorous parties stand in contrast to the daily strains of embassy life, as Casali pawns family silver to pay the bills, fights off rapacious in-laws and defends himself in the face of Anne Boleyn's wrath.   This vivid and compelling book will make us think anew about Henry, Catherine and the Tudor world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49580807946513,"sku":"GOR010503369","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49587714326801,"sku":"GOR011682667","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50413053051153,"sku":"GOR013940841","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51308223332625,"sku":"GOR011372080","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B0092I5FA6.jpg?v=1751346168"},{"product_id":"roads-to-rome-book-catherine-fletcher-9781847928030","title":"The Roads To Rome","description":"Brimming with life and drama, this is the first book to explore two thousand years of European history through one the greatest imperial networks ever built  'A delightful, novel and authoritative history from the ground up' JUDITH HERRIN  'Epic and witty ... Fletcher is a thoroughly enjoyable narrator because she peppers her learned prose with wry humour' TOBIAS JONES, Observer  'Fletcher is a rare thing: an academic who writes beautifully and accessibly about big subjects ... utterly riveting, filled with golden nuggets' CHARLIE CONNELLY, New European  'All roads lead to Rome.' It's a medieval proverb, but it's also true: today's European roads still follow the networks of the ancient empire, as Rome’s extraordinary legacy continues to grip our imaginations.  Over the two thousand years since they were first built, the roads have been walked by crusaders and pilgrims, liberators and dictators, but also by tourists and writers, refugees and artists. As channels of trade and travel, and routes for conquest and creativity, Catherine Fletcher shows how the roads forever transformed the cultures, and intertwined the fates, of a vast panoply of people across Europe and beyond.  Reflecting on his own walk on the Appian Way, Charles Dickens observed that here is ‘a history in every stone that strews the ground.’ Based on outstanding original research, and brimming with life and drama, this is the first book to explore two thousand years of history through one of the greatest imperial networks ever built.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49753573294353,"sku":"NGR9781847928030","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49922002911505,"sku":"GOR013814357","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50406677643537,"sku":"GOR013936847","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51564407685393,"sku":"GOR014329867","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52135936164113,"sku":"NLS9781847928030","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52816390390033,"sku":"CIN184792803XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/184792803X.jpg?v=1751250148"},{"product_id":"black-prince-of-florence-book-catherine-fletcher-9780190092146","title":"The Black Prince of Florence","description":"Born to a dark-skinned maid and Lorenzo I de' Medici, the illegitimate Alessandro was groomed for power. 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It was in the years and centuries that followed that his racial origin became a focus, first by those seeking to emphasize his savagery and thus to justify his murder, and later to argue his case as the first ruler of color in the Western world. In 1931, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, founder of the famous collection of African history in Harlem, wrote an article about Alessandro in the magazine \u003cem\u003eThe Crisis\u003c\/em\u003e, then edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, calling him the Negro Medici. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDefined by intrigue, opulence, sexual conquest, and an endless struggle to retain power, Alessandro's life and afterlife reveal how racial identity has played out over the centuries, and to what degree it remains in the eye of the beholder. In this captivating biography of an intriguing and forgotten figure, Fletcher does full justice to his remarkable story, unraveling centuries-old mysteries, exposing forgeries, and bringing to life the epic personalities--artists, popes, queens, and pimps--of one of the most colorful periods in history.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49942826221841,"sku":"GOR013820065","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50139264286993,"sku":"CIN0190092149G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50999604248849,"sku":"NIN9780190092146","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0190092149.jpg?v=1751005029"},{"product_id":"beauty-and-the-terror-book-catherine-fletcher-9781847925107","title":"The Beauty and the Terror","description":"'Brilliant and gripping, here is the full true Renaissance in a history of compelling originality and freshness' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE  The Italian Renaissance shaped western culture – but it was far stranger and darker than many of us realise.  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As channels of trade and travel--and routes for conquest and creativity--Catherine Fletcher reveals how these roads forever transformed the cultures, and intertwined the fates, of a vast panoply of people across Europe and beyond.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci helvetica=\"\" segoe=\"\" ui=\"\" web=\"\" west=\"\" font-size:=\"\"\u003eThe Roads to Rome\u003c\/i\u003e is a magnificent journey into a past that remains intimately connected to our present. Traveling from Scotland to Cádiz to Istanbul and back to Rome, the reader meanders through a series of nations and empires that have risen and fallen. Along the way, we encounter spies, bandits, scheming innkeepers, a Byzantine noblewoman on the run, young aristocrats on their Grand Tour, a conquering Napoleon, John Keats, the Shelleys, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and even Mussolini on his motorbike.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Reflecting on his own walk on the Appian Way, Charles Dickens observed that here is \"a history in every stone that strews the ground.\" Based on vibrant original research, this is the first narrative history to tell the full story of life on the roads that lead to Rome.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51042691088657,"sku":"NIN9781639367603","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52465223500049,"sku":"CIN1639367608G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1639367608.jpg?v=1750831503"},{"product_id":"roads-to-rome-book-catherine-fletcher-9781529932690","title":"The Roads To Rome","description":"Brimming with life and drama, this is a magnificent journey into two thousand years of history, from the acclaimed historian of Europe  'Epic and witty' Observer  'Erudite, entertaining' Helena Attlee 'Charming' Wall Street Journal 'Delightful and authoritative' Judith Herrin 'Compelling...enjoyable' Financial Times  'All roads lead to Rome.' It's a medieval proverb, but it's also true: today's European roads still follow the networks of the ancient empire, stitching together our histories and continuing to inspire our imaginations.  Over the two thousand years since they were first built, the roads have been walked by crusaders and pilgrims, liberators and dictators, but also by tourists and writers, refugees and artists. As channels of trade and travel, and routes for conquest and creativity, Catherine Fletcher shows how the roads forever transformed the cultures, and intertwined the fates, of a vast panoply of people across Europe and beyond.  Reflecting on his own walk on the Appian Way, Charles Dickens observed that here is ‘a history in every stone that strews the ground.’ Based on outstanding original research, and brimming with life and drama, this is the first book to explore two thousand years of history through one of the greatest imperial networks ever built.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51629914161425,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51629914456337,"sku":"NGR9781529932690","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51818899046673,"sku":"GOR014411295","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52673152876817,"sku":"NLS9781529932690","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53202798280977,"sku":"GOR014805179","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1529932696.jpg?v=1769682138"},{"product_id":"firearm-revolution-book-catherine-fletcher-9780691272672","title":"The Firearm Revolution","description":"A groundbreaking account of how firearms changed Europe and the world  In Renaissance Italy, the gun was not only a tool of war but also a desirable object, a luxury item carried at court. Guns were in use on the battlefield by 1440; later in that century Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design for a faster-firing, more portable handgun that could be hidden beneath a cloak. As the gun proliferated in society, it became both a means of self-defence and a threat to civic order. In The Firearm Revolution, historian Catherine Fletcher explores the emergence of firearms in Renaissance Italy and beyond, describing the social transformations that accompanied the evolution of the handgun from innovative military technology to widely used personal accessory.  Fletcher shows that as guns became smaller and the new wheellock mechanism made concealed carry possible, Italian states increasingly tried to control their use—even as they viewed firearms as necessary for their militias. In the end, Fletcher reports, the importance of civic defence trumped the concern for social order. As guns became ever more acceptable, stories of how firearms aided Europeans’ overseas conquests created a new and more positive image for a weapon once considered the devil’s work. Debates over the regulation of firearms five centuries ago—which included arguments over the restriction of gun ownership, the use of guns for self-defence and the regulation of an armed militia—in many ways anticipate discussions about gun control today. Fletcher’s groundbreaking account sheds new light on how governments weighed the competing priorities of defence and social order as they set out to build empires.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52413041312017,"sku":"NGR9780691272672","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53262134739217,"sku":"NIN9780691272672","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780691272672.jpg?v=1762250602"},{"product_id":"diplomacy-in-renaissance-rome-book-catherine-fletcher-9781107107793","title":"Diplomacy in Renaissance Rome","description":"Diplomacy in Renaissance Rome is an investigation of Renaissance diplomacy in practice. 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