Paul Morand

Euan Cameron

The story of Coco Chanel's life, as told by her to Paul Morand

The Allure of Chanel

A fully revised and updated version of this authoritative account of the birth of the Protestant traditions in sixteenth-century Europe, providing a clear and comprehensive narrative of these complex and many-stranded events.

The European Reformation

Richard Marsden

James Carleton Paget

Joachim Schaper

The New Cambridge History of the Bible

Since the dawn of history people have used charms and spells to try to control their environment, and forms of divination to try to foresee the otherwise unpredictable chances of life. Many of these techniques were called 'superstitious' by educated elites. For centuries religious believers used 'superstition' as a term of abuse to denounce another religion that they thought inferior, or to criticize their fellow-believers for practising their faith 'wrongly'. From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, scholars argued over what 'superstition' was, how to identify it, and how to persuade people to avoid it. Learned believers in demons and witchcraft, in their treatises and sermons, tried to make 'rational' sense of popular superstitions by blaming them on the deceptive tricks of seductive demons. Every major movement in Christian thought, from rival schools of medieval theology through to the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, added new twists to the debates over superstition. Protestants saw Catholics as superstitious, and vice versa. Enlightened philosophers mocked traditional cults as superstitions. Eventually, the learned lost their worry about popular belief, and turned instead to chronicling and preserving 'superstitious' customs as folklore and ethnic heritage. Enchanted Europe is the first comprehensive, integrated account of western Europe's long, complex dialogue with its own folklore and popular beliefs. Drawing on many little-known and rarely used texts, Euan Cameron constructs a compelling narrative of the rise, diversification, and decline of popular 'superstition' in the European mind.

Superstition, Reason, and Religion 1250-1750

Enchanted Europe

"Immersive, nuanced, impeccably researched" IAN RANKIN "Beautifully written and moving" ALLAN MASSIE "Poignant, nostalgic and redolent of the smell of France" SIMON BRETT Family history has always been a mystery to Will Latymer. His father flatly refused to talk about it, and with no other relatives to consult, it seems that a mystery it shall always remain. Until of course, Will meets Ghislaine, his beautiful French cousin, in a chance encounter that introduces him to his grandmother, Madeleine, shut away in a quiet Breton manor with her memories and secrets. Before long, Will has been plunged headlong into the life of Madeleine's great love, his longlost grandfather, Henry Latymer. Reading Henry's old letters and diaries for the first time, Will discovers an idealistic young man, full of hopes and optimism - an optimism that will gradually be crushed as the realities of life under the Vichy regime become glaringly clear. But the more Will delves into Madeleine and Henry's past, and into France's troubled history, the darker the secrets he discovers become, and the more he has cause to wonder if sometimes, the past should remain buried.

Madeleine

This book explores the theological lessons to be learnt from 2000 years of Christian Church history. An exploration of the theological lessons to be learnt from the difficult history of the Christian churches over the past 2,000 years Opens with an introductory essay on the whole of Church history, making the book suitable for lay readers as well as students Combines historical, historiographical and theological analysis Reunites the disciplines of theology and Church history Concludes that we can only ever perceive a facet of Christianity given our historical and cultural conditioning Written by a distinguished Church historian.

The Challenge of the Churches' Past

Interpreting Christian History

Yvonne Cloetta

Marie-Françoise Allain

Yvonne Cloetta was Graham Greene's companion for almost 32 years. Graham knew the time might come when Yvonne's privacy would be invaded. His advice was that she could either refuse to speak or to 'tell the truth'. This Cloetta has done startlingly eloquently - with the help of family friend and biographer Marie Françoise Allain. What emerges is the most intimate account of Greeen we have. Yvonne reveals the considerate, jovial and tender side of the private Graham Greene. She provides a new perspective on the 'old firm' and his contact with the former secret service boss Kim Philby. She portrays him as a man prone to swift justice against any violation of human dignity: who would quit the American Academy of Arts and Letters over America's involvement in Vietnam and forbid his novels to be published in the USSR unless Soviet authorities agreed to give his royalties to the widows of fallen comrades. In Search of a Beginning is a book to send the reader racing either to reread or to discover the novels of Graham Greene, a writer who truly believed you had to go out and see the world to have anything to write about - which of course made his life more interesting than most. The fact that we can now see his life so intimately constitutes a literary milestone.

Euan Cameron

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