BLUEINK Review A Toynbee to Remember offers unique insight into the First World War ..... through the correspondence of working class East Londoners William and Lizzie Toynbee and their son Stan, a military clerk stationed in Egypt far away from the bloody trenches of combat. The correspondence begins when Stan volunteers for enlistment, but due to his physical ailments he never sees a battlefield. Meanwhile Will and Lizzie endure life in London, suffering everything from food shortages and illnesses to Zeppelin raids on civilians. The Toynbee household also experienced its own discord ..... Wills hectic travelling schedule throughout the war (including Union organizer) speaker for the Voluntary Enlistment and War Savings Campaigns ... Lizzies anxiety at her husband and sons illnesses, wartime chaos and raising her two daughters. ..... Travers has a knack for historical prose .... since her writing effectively transforms ..... family history into a lively narration of life during wartime ... the 500 Toynbee letters on which the book is based serve as an exceptional primary source to a conflict that has been culturally dwarfed by World War II. KIRKUS Review A Scholarly real-life portrait of an East London working-class family, during and after World War I. ..... Travers very ably places everything in a broader historical context that touches on the still-contemporary problem of equitable distribution of wealth. This elevates her work above mere memoir and achieves her goal of adding incrementally to the body of British working-class history. William began as a compositor ... but later co-founded a newspaper and eventually rose to elite status in Labour ranks ..... He and Elizabeth were also local organisers of the Brotherhood, a nontraditional church movement ..... During the war Will worked as a paid government orator all over Britain to drum up voluntary enlistment and, later, to promote what was called war savings ..... Happily Travers had the prescience to make copies of the lengthy correspondence ..... The originals, it seems, were burned by order of a new principal at Ruskin College, to which Travers had donated them. CLARION Review Scholarly and precise exposition lets illuminating family letters take center stage. ..... The book is organised by themes within the letters; voluntary enlistment, the politicks of war, and the wars impact on the home. This approach is more effective at deriving meaning from the letters than a chronological approach would be. ..... It is true Travers is a historian at heart the book is full of well-researched information that connects the Toynbees lives to the broarder world of their time. As such, her work will appeal most to others passionate about history or to those who trace their roots to working class England of the 1900s. Joy Travers, born in 1926 in Walthamstow was brought up by her Toynbee grandparents. Evacuated in 1939-1943 and returning with the school to London, she left with Higher School Certificate. In 1959 she married Michael Travers whose rare book collection she donated to Sussex University after his death in 1977. The Collection can be accessed on Internet.

From “one of science fiction’s grand masters” (Library Journal), a new reissue of Ray Bradbury’s The Toynbee Convector: a collection of twenty-two stories, including the continuing saga of H.G. Well’s time traveler and his Toynbee Convector, a ghost on the Orient Express, and a bored man who creates his own genuine Egyptian mummy. The world’s only time traveler finally reveals his secret. An old man’s memory of World War I conjures ghostly parachutists. An Egyptian mummy turns up in an Illinois cornfield. A lonely Martian prepares to face his doom. From the iconic author of Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, and The Illustrated Man, The Toynbee Convector is a true cause for celebration. The twenty-two classic tales in this special Ray Bradbury collection begin in the familiar rooms and landscapes of our lives, in common thoughts and memories, and then take off into the farthest reaches of the imagination. “The fiction creates the truth in this lovely exercise in utopian dreaming” (Publishers Weekly)—stunning stories that could only come from the brilliant mind of Ray Bradbury.

The most comprehensive book on Roman burial practices—now available in paperback Never before available in paperback, J. M. C. Toynbee's study is the most comprehensive book on Roman burial practices. Ranging throughout the Roman world from Rome to Pompeii, Britain to Jerusalem—Toynbee's book examines funeral practices from a wide variety of perspectives. First, Toynbee examines Roman beliefs about death and the afterlife, revealing that few Romans believed in the Elysian Fields of poetic invention. She then describes the rituals associated with burial and mourning: commemorative meals at the gravesite were common, with some tombs having built-in kitchens and rooms where family could stay overnight. Toynbee also includes descriptions of the layout and finances of cemeteries, the tomb types of both the rich and poor, and the types of grave markers and monuments as well as tomb furnishings.

Britain has the lowest social spending and the highest poverty in Europe. As the income gap between top and bottom has widened, so social mobility has shuddered to a halt. The low-paid are caught in an economic double bind that victimises them and shames the rest of us.