The Times Book of the Week * * * 'I could read Martin Williams all day. He is a staggeringly communicative historian; this book throws shafts of light on recent history almost repeating itself, giving vivid glimpses into monarchy and the way things were, and are. Compulsory reading.' --- Dame Joanna Lumley 'A social historian and gifted storyteller, Williams is by turns moved and amused as he reflects on the poignancy and rituals of a nation united (pretty much) in grief...' --- The Times 'adroitly-written...[told by Williams] so skilfully, and with such silken prose, that it's a pleasure to spend the time inside his head' --- The Oldie 'delightful details...to rekindle this vanished epoch' --- Country Life 'Vivid, panoramic, skilfully written, this gripping book is an insight into a time and an age'. --- Kate Williams 'Martin Williams has written a fascinating and absorbing account of the Edwardian era, the demise and funeral of the King, and the iconic Black Ascot that followed it. He has brought a lost age grippingly to light'. --- Hugo Vickers 'witty, informative and immensely readable... captures the spirit of the times'. --- Miranda Seymour 'A tour de force'. --- Dr Kate Strasdin 'We tend to think that Cecil Beaton single-handedly invented the Edwardian Age. Martin Williams shows us succinctly and elegantly that perhaps it was the King himself.' --- Nicky Haslam '... moves with unflagging wit and style. A fresh perspective on a brilliant life and a lost era beautifully evoked, it is impossible not to be swept away by this gem of a book. Pure pleasure.' --- Robin Muir 'a must-have... a wonderful and thought-provoking read.' --- The Historian '...a book about a changed and changing world trying to cope with even more change...beautifully written [and] timely' --- The Catholic Herald Unforgettable as it was, the public response to the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 was not without precedent. When her great-grandfather King Edward VII - glamorous, cosmopolitan and extraordinarily popular - died in May 1910, the political, social and cultural anxieties of a nation in turmoil were temporarily set aside during a summer of intense and ritualised mourning. In The King is Dead, Long Live the King! Martin Williams charts a period of tension and transition as one era slipped away and another took shape. Witnessed by a diverse but interconnected cast of characters - crowned heads and Cabinet ministers, debutantes and suffragettes, artists and murderers - here is the swansong of Edwardian Britain. Set against a backdrop of bereavement and parliamentary crisis overshadowed by the gathering clouds of war, we see a people caught between past and future, tradition and modernity, as they unite to bid farewell to a much-loved monarch who had personified his age. From Buckingham Palace to Bloomsbury, and from the lying-in-state in Westminster Hall to a now legendary Royal Ascot enveloped in black, this is a vivid evocation of a world on the brink of seismic upheaval.

Ellery Queen and his father discover a baffling murder on a private island Ellery Queen and his father are meandering through breakfast when their apartment is invaded. Without making a sound, 2 men appear in the Queens’ living room, guns drawn, and proceed to search the place. When they’re done, a 3rd man follows: a paunchy little professor-type who happens to be the brother of a king. King Bendigo doesn’t rule a country, but his control of the international arms trade has made him one of the richest men in the world. It’s not surprising that somebody wants him dead. Bendigo’s brother comes to the Queens to ask them to save the tycoon’s life—but they fail. The king is found dead in a hermetically sealed room, a bullet lodged in his heart. The murder is impossible to solve—that is, for anyone but Ellery Queen.

This open access book consists of essays written by Kishore Mahbubani to explore the challenges and dilemmas faced by the West and Asia in an increasingly interdependent world village and intensifying geopolitical competition. The contents cover four parts: Part One The End of the Era of Western Domination. The major strategic error that the West is now making is to refuse to accept this reality. The West needs to learn how to act strategically in a world where they are no longer the number 1. Part Two The Return of Asia. From the years 1 to 1820, the largest economies in the world were Asian. After 1820 and the rise of the West, however, great Asian civilizations like China and India were dominated and humiliated. The twenty-first century will see the return of Asia to the center of the world stage. Part Three The Peaceful Rise of China. The shift in the balance of power to the East has been most pronounced in the rise of China. While this rise has been peaceful, many in the West have responded with considerable concern over the influence China will have on the world order. Part Four Globalization, Multilateralism and Cooperation. Many of the world's pressing issues, such as COVID-19 and climate change, are global issues and will require global cooperation to deal with. In short, human beings now live in a global village. States must work with each other, and we need a world order that enables and facilitates cooperation in our global village.

Set against the backdrop of the Obama presidency, Julian Randall's Refuse documents a young biracial man's journey through the mythos of Blackness, Latinidad, family, sexuality and a hostile American landscape. Mapping the relationship between father and son caught in a lineage of grief and inherited Black trauma, Randall conjures reflections from mythical figures such as Icarus, Narcissus and the absent Frank Ocean. Not merely a story of the wound but the salve, Refuse is a poetry debut that accepts that every song must end before walking confidently into the next music.

A soulful, illuminating novel of love, murder and redemption, from a rising star on the American literary scene.

Edward II's murder at Berkeley Castle in 1327 is one of the most famous and lurid tales in all of English history. But is it true? For over five centuries, few people questioned it, but with the discovery in a Montpellier archive of a remarkable document, an alternative narrative has presented itself: that Edward escaped from Berkeley Castle and made his way to an Italian hermitage. In Long Live the King, medieval historian Kathryn Warner explores in detail Edward's downfall and forced abdication in 1326/27, the role possibly played by his wife Isabella of France, the wide variation in chronicle accounts of his murder at Berkeley Castle and the fascinating possibility that Edward lived on in Italy for many years after his official funeral was held in Gloucester in December 1327.