{"title":"Henry Sire","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"affair-of-state-book-henry-sire-9780720612332","title":"Affair of State","description":"The story of the affair between Louise Alten and Lord Hartington, and their later marriage, takes place at the heart of aristocratic and political life during one of the most exciting eras of English politics. It runs from the front benches of the House of Commons to the Prince and Princess of Wales' high-living circle, yet it has never been the subject of a full biography. Lord Hartington, Duke of Devonshire, was a political high flyer, heir to one of the great Whig families. A Liberal leader who turned down the opportunity to be Prime Minister three times, he served at the heart of government during a seminal political age, serving under Gladstone and battling with Disraeli. Louise Alten, the Double Duchess of Manchester and Devonshire, was first well-known as one of the legendary beauties of Victorian high society. She became the mistress of Lord Hartington as he disentangled himself from a tumultuous affair with the famous society courtesan Skittles, and their loyalty to each other remained constant for 30 years. The Duchess was widely reputed to be the most powerful person in England outside the government and one of the great society hostesses of the age. She manipulated political events in favor of her husband through lavish house parties at the couple's Chatsworth estate--parties that were attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales (the King and Queen from 1901), and their fashionable set, of which the Duke and Duchess were at the center.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49507405955345,"sku":"GOR002805500","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49850057654545,"sku":"GOR012861027","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52652342247697,"sku":"GOR004822553","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0720612330.jpg?v=1751430238"},{"product_id":"phoenix-from-the-ashes-book-henry-sire-9781621381402","title":"Phoenix from the Ashes","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50993426301201,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50993428922641,"sku":"NIN9781621381402","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51695648768273,"sku":"CIN1621381404G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52604254650641,"sku":"GOR007700943","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53021498704145,"sku":"NLS9781621381402","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53565727342865,"sku":"GOR014963803","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1621381404.jpg?v=1750862840"},{"product_id":"phoenix-from-the-ashes-book-henry-sire-9781621382072","title":"Phoenix from the Ashes","description":"Phoenix from the Ashes is a comprehensive look at the state of the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council--one of a series of recurrent periods of moral and intellectual crisis to which it has succumbed in its history. A chapter on the Council describes in detail how Pope Paul VI diverted it by placing it under the exclusive control of European liberals. An equally close study is devoted to the liturgical reform entrusted by the same pope to a group of radicals whose work undermined the spiritual and devotional legacy of the faithful. The loss of orthodox teaching and the disorientation following upon these changes produced a grave crisis in both clergy and laity, but the movement of return to tradition visible today promises a revival of the full Catholic life of the Church. Catholic readers now have a complete and eminently accessible account of the last 50 years of momentous changes in the Church, right up to the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Francis I.\u003cp\u003e This wide-ranging account of the self-destruction of the Roman Catholic Church and its identification of her only realistic route back to the land of the living simultaneously strikes a blow at history's two most prevalent temptations: rejection or twisting of evidence in the service of an ideological thesis, and honest dedication to intense research on subjects whose ultimate existential value the 'unbiased' historian somehow fears to reveal to his readers. Henry Sire courageously shuts no doors and stifles no evidence, employing a passionate and lively prose that leaves no doubt regarding his sense of the crucial moral and cultural importance of his topic.--JOHN RAO, author of Black Legends and the Light of the World and Removing the Blindfold\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e For Catholics feeling lost at sea as a result of the turbulent crisis tossing and flooding the Barque of Peter, Henry Sire's work identifies clear landmarks to steady our gaze. He situates the present disarray within the larger historical context of the Arian heresy and Protestant revolution, and points to the buoys of tradition--liturgical, doctrinal, and philosophical--as sure guides to our way out. Sire distills entire epochs of history, from the first centuries of the Church through the current pontificate, into a highly readable and thought-provoking story. In the course of his tale he exposes the radical progressivism of the Second Vatican Council and its after-effects as well as the tepid conservatism of the Reform of the Reform and the Hermeneutic of Continuity.--BRIAN M. MCCALL, author of To Build the City of God\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Historian H.J.A. Sire has compiled a balanced assessment of the revolution in the Roman Catholic Church. His mastery of the material is complete. The book flows along easily and readers will finish it confident that they have a comprehensive understanding of the last 60 years in the Church.--ROGER MCCAFFREY, President, Roman Catholic Books\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Thanks to Henry Sire's penetrating book, we have some profound answers to nagging questions. How did the West end up so quickly in a post-Christian age, when only decades ago one could still speak of a Christian culture? How did we go from the seemingly healthy Roman Catholic Church of the 1950s to the mass apostasy and grave scandals of recent years? As Sire shows, the antecedents go back quite far, in fact many centuries, but the possibility of healing and regeneration is not as remote as we think.--STEPHEN KLIMCZUK-MASSION, Senior Adviser, Hildebrand Project\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e H.J.A. SIRE was born in 1949 in Barcelona of a family of French ancestry and was educated in England, at Stonyhurst College and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took a degree in Modern History. He has written several books on subjects of Catholic history and biography and currently lives in Rome, where he works professionally as a historian.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51040116605201,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51040119324945,"sku":"NIN9781621382072","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53022082728209,"sku":"NLS9781621382072","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1621382079.jpg?v=1751310505"},{"product_id":"stonyhurst-1884-1914-book-henry-sire-9781916846654","title":"Stonyhurst 1884-1914","description":"Stonyhurst 1884–1914 gives a full account of the Jesuit school Stonyhurst College during the years when it was at its height as the leading Catholic public school in England. The study is fully situated in the social history of the time, including the public school world itself. It describes school life, the academic standards of the time and the personalities who were responsible for them.        This was a time when Stonyhurst produced a colourful range of alumni, from an archduke, through a son of Oscar Wilde, five VCs and many famous Church figures, to the MI5 officer Frank Foley, who was responsible for saving 10,000 Jews from Nazi Germany.        The book substantiates the claim that ‘Stonyhurst was a supremely effective institution’, not merely keeping its position as the academic leader of the Catholic schools but holding to a distinctive religious system of education and providing the driving force for a flourishing Jesuit mission in England.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51216182149393,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51216184672529,"sku":"GOR014050300","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51216185360657,"sku":"NGR9781916846654","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52610890072337,"sku":"NLS9781916846654","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1916846653.jpg?v=1770889965"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-henry-sire.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}