What do women look for in a man? And what do men look for in a woman? And how and why has this changed over the centuries? Every week thousands of people advertise for love either in newspapers, magazines or online. But if you think this is a modern phenomenon, think again – the ads have been running for over three hundred years. From the first ad in 1695 from a young gentleman who ‘would willingly Match himself to some Good Young Gentlewoman, that has a Fortune of GBP3000 or thereabouts’ to the GSOH, WLTM and online dating of more recent years, each ad is a snapshot of its age.

The result is a startling history of sex, marriage and society over three centuries – hilarious and heartbreaking by turn.

Additional

This is an enlightening and entertaining social history of how we have tried (and failed) to battle the bulge over two millennia. Today we are urged from all sides to slim down and shape up, to shed a few pounds or lose life-threatening stones. The media’s relentless obsession with size may be perceived as a twenty-first-century phenomenon, but as award-winning historian Louise Foxcroft shows, we have been struggling with what to eat, when and how much, ever since the Greeks and the Romans first pinched an inch.

Meticulously researched, surprising and sometimes shocking, “Calories and Corsets” tells the epic story of our complicated relationship with food, the fashions and fads of body shape, and how cultural beliefs and social norms have changed over time. Combining research from medical journals, letters, articles and the dieting bestsellers we continue to devour (including one by an octogenarian Italian in the sixteenth century), Foxcroft reveals the extreme and often absurd lengths people will go to in order to achieve the perfect body, from eating carbolic soap to deliberately swallowing tapeworm. This unique and witty history exposes the myths and anxieties that drive today’s multi-billion pound dieting industry – and offers a welcome perspective on how we can be healthy and happy in our bodies. Great reviews too….

Now as well as singing the song, you can knit the characters. The Twelve Knits of Christmas brings together 12 charming knitting patterns for making all of the objects, birds, and people mentioned in the song and a beautifully illustrated book containing the words for each verse. Children will love to play with your knitted creations as you sing along together.

And the projects can double up as Christmas decorations around your home, centering on the colourful and easy-to-assemble cardboard pear tree tucked into the back of the book – a ready made roosting spot fit for the finest partridge to enjoy.

Born of a shared love of washing lines and poetry, the subject of this anthology is laundry and washing, reflecting many human emotions to do with family, relationships and memory. It is a collection of over 50 poems ranging from folk songs such as Dashing Away With The Smoothing Iron to contemporary poems by renowned poets including Seamus Heaney, Gillian Clarke, Tess Gallagher and Pablo Neruda. There are also over a dozen beautiful wood engravings by artists as diverse as Clare Leighton and Clifford Harper. Alexander Lee (who has written the Afterword) has suggested that we are tapping into something far more exciting than a simple love of washing lines the current environmental and economic issues. He started Project Laundry List to campaign in America for the right to dry when he realised that 6-10% of US domestic electricity is consumed by tumble driers. So whether it is the joy of washing blowing on the line, the smell of clean linen or the rhythmic dance of two people folding sheets together, this collection is a celebration.

From gaslit city streets to dark wooded estates, crime was rife in Victorian Britain; through a wide array of historical court records, newspaper accounts and prison books, “The Victorian Criminal” gives a fascinating overview of those involved in it. Within these pages may be found accounts of petty criminals and poachers, baby farmers and notorious murderers, along with stories of the development of detective forces and forensic techniques. Countless novels, plays and films are testament to an enduring fascination with the dark aspects of the time and place that gave us Sherlock Holmes, Wilkie Collins and the great works of Charles Dickens.