History books? Where to start? Fact * The Midland Peasant. The economic and social history of a Leicestershire Village by W G Hoskins. A study of the peasant farmer pre 1066-1800 (a classic) * The Making of the English Working Class by E P Thompson ('written in Yorkshire and coloured by West Riding sources' - strong stuff) * Condition of the Working Class in England by Friedrich Engels (1844 Manchester - grim) * The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 by Lawrence Stone ('highly informative ...') * Any title by Eric Hobsbawm Fiction * Hilary Mantel seems to be doing a pretty good job on the Tudor period with 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring up the bodies'. * British Victorian novelists a-plenty. * English Passengers by Matthew Kneale (1857 and a ship sets out for Tasmania... 'Breathtakingly good ...Funny, savage, compassionate ...') * Sweet Thames by Matthew Kneale (1849 London. 'Raw in content, elegant in treatment ...') I can't recommend these 2 books by Kneale strongly enough!) * The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell (Witty and passionate. 'The first great English novel about class war' -Alan Sillitoe. * Small Island by Andrea Levy (1948 and the arrival of the Windrush from the Caribbean) * Still here by Linda Grant (modern day Liverpool, emigration and immigration) Biography * Brother to the Ox by Fred Kitchen (remarkable, simple, gentle autobiography of a farm labourer in Nottinghamshire and the West Riding, 1891-1969 - lovely read) * Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett (highly readable, full of surprises - to me at least) * 1599 A year in the life of Shakespeare by James Shapiro (original, enlightening) * Any title by Claire Tomalin: Mrs Jordan's Profession: (actress Dora Jordan, mistress of George lV); The Invisible Woman: (Nelly Ternan, mistress of Charles Dickens); Jane Austen: A Life; The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecroft; The Unequalled Self: Samuel Pepys; Charles Dickens; A Life; ... and more And where to stop? History is always in the making. Oh! If I had to choose one book as a genealogist's Bible I would recommend 'The Parish Chest' by W E Tate. It has all the answers you will ever need to know about English parish records. Watch the archivists reach for it when they get stuck! Ruth