Pen Sword History imprint: 259 books

Synonymous with conflict and humanitarian aid, the mandate of the International Red Cross (ICRC) is to protect the wounded victims of war, civilians, prisoners and refugees alike. In Memoirs of a Red Cross Doctor, Frank Ryding recounts the missions he undertook with the Red Cross during a career...

A delightfully illustrated history of makeup and the beauty business. Cosmetics go all the way back to ancient times. In this book, an expert in vintage accessories tells the story of beauty products from the nineteenth century to the present, revealing how both makeup and the women who wear...

“A very fair and balanced portrait of one of the Regency era’s most remarkable—and most unknown—women” from the authors of A Right Royal Scandal (Jacqueline Reiter, author of Earl of Shadows).   Rachel Charlotte Williams Biggs lived an incredible life, one which proved that fact is often...

From Windsor to Weymouth, the shadow of scandal was never too far from the walls of the House of Hanover. Did a fearsome duke really commit murder or a royal mistress sell commissions to the highest bidders, and what was the truth behind George III's supposed secret marriage to a pretty Quaker?With...

Think the world is bad today? Then take a true-crime trip back in time to 1600s England, where violence, robbery, and cold-blooded murder ran amuck.   These days, criminals and evildoers are stopped, caught, and punished every day. But how did people deal with crimes before the police, computer records,...

During the First World War and its immediate aftermath, hundreds of women wrote thousands of poems on multiple themes and for many different purposes. Women’s poetry was published, sold (sometimes to raise funds for charities as diverse as ‘Beef Tea for Troops’ or ‘The Blue Cross Fund for...

Thanks to digitisation, newspapers from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century have become an indispensable and accessible source for researchers. Through their pages, historians with a passion for a person or a place or a time or a topic can rediscover forgotten details and gain new insights...

‘Proud to be British’ is the perfect book for everyone who lives in our wonderful country. Here the British will discover what they already suspected, and that is that many of the GREAT historical figures of all time were British, many of the GREATEST inventions were British, as well as many other...

This fascinating biography “brings to life the excitement and thrills” of the master escape artist’s legendary turn-of-century tour in Great Britain (Lancashire Post).   Between 1900 and 1920, a century before endurance artist and street magician David Blaine, Hungarian-born Harry Houdini traveled...

In the last four decades of the Georgian era 131 women went to the gallows. What were their crimes? And why, unlike most convicted felons, were they not reprieved? Women and the Gallows 1797 – 1837 brings new insights into their lives and the events that led them to their deaths, and includes...

Interest in the theft of cucumbers initially took precedence over news that war had been declared, but Stockport rallied quickly. Wakes week was cancelled, the local 6th Battalion of the Cheshires went to the Front and the town transformed half of its schools into much-needed military hospitals. Admirably,...

In the last few decades, steampunk has blossomed from being a rather obscure and little-known subgenre of science fiction into a striking and distinctive style of fashion, art, design and even music. It is in the written word however that steampunk has its roots and in this book Simon Webb explores...

“Fascinating and enlightening . . . Historical true crime books can often fall victim to being very dry . . . [This book], however, is quite the opposite” (Crime Traveler).   Despite the Victorian period’s reputation for stability and social order, there was plenty of civil disorder during...

The little-known true story of rioting and rebellion among British veterans and workers after the end of World War I.   On the August Bank Holiday of 1919, the government in London dispatched warships to the northern city of Liverpool in an overwhelming show of force. Thousands of troops, backed...