Continuum History

The Continuum History team out and about - Anglo-American Conference and IMC 2011

It's officially, as is apparent by all the rain, summer in the UK and so begins our conference season!

The Continuum History team, including myself, will be out and about with stands at both the Anglo-American Conference in London next week and also the International Medieval Congress in Leeds in early July. If you're planning on attending either, do stop by our stand and say hello!

And now for a word from my colleague Rhodri:

From 11th – 14th July we'll be at the International Medieval Congress (organised by the Institute for Medieval Studies at Leeds University) selling books and speaking to people about new commissioning ideas.

We will be based, along with other the publishers, in Bodington Hall and will be more than happy to talk with anyone who would like to stop by and discuss book proposals, Continuum and its Medieval history list or indeed anything book-related. Alternatively if you’d like to make an appointment to come and see us at a specific  time, feel free to contact either Michael Greenwood (Commissioning Editor) at mgreenwood@continuumbooks.com or myself at rmogford@continuumbooks.com.

Look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

 

Charlotte Hoare (Marketing Executive UK) and Rhodri Mogford (Assistant Editor)

The Battle of Britain - a day-by-day blog

Thought I'd share with you a blog that has been set up by one of our authors, Richard North, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. 

Written in the present tense, The Days of Glory blog takes a day-by-day approach to the narrative of the Battle of Britain, with the aim of drawing together events happening at sea and on land, as well as in the air, to present the events of the Battle of Britain as an integral whole.  As well as using sources already familiar to historians, Richard is making special use of the huge wealth of information now available online - pointing out that we have access to so much more source material now than ever before!  There's a really intersting break-down of Richard's approach at his About Us page, which details the archives etc he is using in his research.

Richard argues that by delving into these many layers of information and drawing it all together, the air battle itself is only a very small part of the whole story. 

Carly

Guardian feature on Roland Huntford's polar expedition work

Read Captain Scott: A second-rate hero? - John Crace, The Guardian

Celebrating the publication this week (UK) of Race for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen, John Crace has written a great piece on the 'Scott myth' and Roland Huntford's work in this new book and previous publications to dispel Scott's 'hero' reputation.

As Crace says, Huntford 'breaks new ground by letting both men live and die side by side in their own words' - Race for the South Pole runs Scott and Amundsens' (plus his colleague Olav Bjaaland's) unedited diaries together chronologically.  So you can see for yourself the direct comparison between the two expeditions - 'on days when Scott is tent-bound in a blizzard, Amundsen is again achieving his expected daily distance, because he has brought proper sledge compasses'.

The Times also reviewed the book on Saturday, similarly appreciative: 'Crucially, [Huntford] reads Norwegian, and the translations are his own. Decades of experience allow him to dilate on the idiosyncrasies of fur in the polar environment; on the workings of the anemometers and on the 'meridian sight method of finding latitude' ... This work is brilliant, and well executed.'

Huntford has provided commentary throughout the book, which is also packed full of illustrations.  You can preview the full contents, a big proportion of the Introduction and the Index online.

Carly