James Barry was one of the most outstanding doctors of the nineteenth century – a brilliant surgeon, a tireless campaigner for medical reform, and a compassionate Inspector-General of the Army.

But throughout a long and distinguished career an air of secrecy, even of scandal, always clung to Barry. The shrill voice, the diminutive build, the almost ostentatious humanity – all struck a discordant note in the stiff, conventional world of the officers’ mess. Only after the doctor’s death in 1865 did the incredible truth come to light:

Dr. James Barry was a woman.

What was her real identity? How did she manage to conceal her sex from the army for forty-six years? Why did she take on a man’s role and a man’s work?

In this vivid and meticulous biography, June Rose pieces together the clues in the Barry mystery and comes up with some astonishing answers. She tells of the elite intellectual circle which first conceived the masquerade and sponsored the little girl’s entrance, in disguise, into Edinburgh University; she recounts Barry’s strange connection with a powerful aristocratic family and her intense relationship with Lord Charles Somerset, Governor of the Cape Colony and one of the few men to know her secret.

And, most fascinating of all, she provides rare insights into Barry’s unique and contradictory personality: her determined clashes with authority, her courageous endurance of appalling conditions in every corner of the globe, her unforgettable encounter with Florence Nightingale.

The Perfect Gentleman is the story of an extraordinary adventure – and a remarkable woman.

Praise for June Rose

‘A fascinating, well-documented book’ - Sunday Telegraph

‘June Rose has succeeded in re-creating the past and relating it to the present... a fascinating account’ - Times Literary Supplement

June Rose (1926-2018) was a writer and broadcaster who specialised in probing into the human and historical background of the social issues of the day. She authored several biographies, including Marie Stopes and the Sexual Revolution, Elizabeth Fry, the nineteenth-century prison reformer and Modigliani, the twentieth-century Italian painter and Susan Valadon: Mistress of Montmartre.

How do you remove an unpopular president from office?

On February 24, 1868, members of the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson on thirteen separate charges of having committed high crimes and misdemeanors against the government and the people.

In this impressive biography, Noel B. Gerson examines how these extraordinary events came about, the circumstances leading up to it, and the aftermath of a trial that was unique in the history of the country.

Born into poverty and with no formal education, Johnson rose to prominence through perseverance and hard work. Entering politics, he became an adept stump speaker, championing the common man and vilifying the plantation aristocracy. Nominally a Democrat, who advocated free homesteads and education for all, he was soon to discover that not all agreed with his desire to see the nation reunited under the Constitution, as it had been before the Civil War.

Sworn in as seventeenth President of the United States following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, Johnson faced the enormous task of presiding over the tumultuous first years of Reconstruction, a task made harder by his enemies, notably radical Republicans Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner and Edwin Stanton, who turned the tide of support against him and were instrumental in the campaign to disgrace Johnson and drive him from office.

By utilizing a wealth of primary sources, including quoted speeches, letters and press articles, Gerson masterfully portrays a sympathetic national figure devoted to his country and the Constitution, who escaped conviction by a single vote and went on to achieve a level of popularity he had never before known.

The Trial of Andrew Johnson is an ideal read for those who wish to find out more about the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson and his fight for vindication against the radical Republicans in the United States Congress.

By the author of Ashes Under Water (Lyons Press), here is one of the great untold stories of World War II. The Hidden Hindenburg at last reveals the cause of aviation’s most famous disaster and the duplicity that kept the truth from coming to light for three generations. It also finally catches up with a German legend who misled the world about the Hindenburg to bury his own Nazi connections.

Drawing on previously unpublished documents from the National Archives in Washington, along with archival collections in Germany, this definitive account explores how the Hindenburg was connected to the Dachau concentration camp, a futuristic German rocket that terrified the Allies, and a classified project that imported Nazi scientists to America after the war.

It took author Michael McCarthy four years to get to the bottom of this epic disaster, in which the largest object civilization has ever managed to fly burnt up in less than one minute. Along the way, he found a tale of international intrigue, revealing a whistleblower, a cover-up and corruption on two continents.

The newly discovered diary of a wartime nurse makes for a fascinating, dramatic and uniquely personal insight into the experience of being on the frontline of service during the Second World War.

As the war gets underway, eighteen-year-old trainee nurse Mary Mulry arrives in London from Ireland, hoping for adventure. Little does she know what the next seven years will bring.

In this extraordinary account, Mary records in intimate detail her day-to-day life as a nurse, both on the Home Front and abroad. From nursing children during bombing raids in London to treating Allied soldiers in Normandy, Mary's experiences gave her vivid and unforgettable material for the private diary she was dedicated to keeping. We feel her strength of character during the risk of infection, the threat of shrapnel, and the ongoing hunger of rationing, but we also feel her warmth as she connects to her patients and, eventually, celebrates victory.

Filled with romance, action, and an inevitable sadness, A Very Private Diary records the rich memories of an irrepressible personality that shone during our darkest hour.

Praise for A Very Private Diary:
‘Mary is a talented writer and a humane observer of her remarkable experiences. Her diary is full of vivid, sometimes shocking vignettes ... [A] fascinating and deeply moving book’ - Daily Mail

‘A remarkable work ... [Mary] was a lucid observer of some of the most cataclysmic events in history’ - Irish Times

Mary Morris (nee Mulry) was born in County Galway in 1921. After completing her nursing training in London in 1939, she joined the Queen Alexandra Imperial Nursing Service Reserve in 1944. She married Captain Malcolm Morris in London in 1946, and they settled in Britain after the war. Mary later returned to nursing and never stopped writing. She died in 1997, and is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.

Carol Acton is Associate Professor of English, St Jerome's University at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, specialising in war writing, especially autobiographical works. She discovered Mary's diaries in the Imperial War Museum archives.

‘In the end it is Lord Trevelyan’s vivid personal portraits of the men who made the Middle Eastern revolution that leave the strongest impressions.’ The Economist

The years from 1955 to 1967 saw revolutions in the Arab world that set the stage for the present continuing crisis. In his remarkable memoirs, Sir Humphrey Trevelyan recounts this turbulent time in Middle Eastern history. Serving as British Ambassador in Cairo from 1955 to 1956, in Baghdad from 1958 to 1961 and then as High Commissioner in Aden in 1967, no one is better placed to tell his tale.

Describing the events of the Suez Crisis from the inside, Sir Humphrey’s portrait of President Nasser at this crucial time is a masterful combination of insight and forbearance. Meanwhile during his years in Baghdad, he witnessed political shootings, bombings and killings daily. Later conducting the British withdrawal from Aden, all the while endangered by the threat of anarchy and massacre, he famously followed a policy of ‘unite and quit’ instead of the official ‘divide and conquer’ approach.

Sir Humphrey’s fascinating personal account of three troubled countries provides information and a perspective on events in the Arab world which readers could acquire from no other source.

Praise for The Middle East in Revolution
‘His portrait of Nasser is drawn not from journalistic interviews but from the experience of hard negotiation. It is therefore worth having’ - New Statesman

‘It is a personal record of the utmost importance to all who wish to understand the progressive British withdrawal from the Middle East’ - The Spectator

‘Beyond the fascination of the daily detail there builds up a portrait of President Nasser which should not be ignored by anyone involved in today’s Arab-Israeli crisis’ - The Financial Times

Humphrey Trevelyan (1905-1985) was a British diplomat and author. He occupied several diplomatic posts, including Ambassador to Egypt during the Suez Crisis and Ambassador to Iraq during the Kuwait Crisis. He wrote a number of books including The Middle East in Revolution and The India We Left.

So often we hear that an obsession with class is what defines the British. But when we talk of the middle class, what do we really mean?

When was it first possible to define such a thing and is the term still relevant today? Would members of the middle class recognise themselves in their historical antecedents?

The Middle Class: A History tells the rich and compelling story of this disparate and constantly evolving group whose materialism and hunger for social advancement is an index of Britain’s evolution. The death of feudalism, the furthering of democracy, the spread of literacy, the industrial and sexual revolutions, the development of mass media – the middle class is never far away, drawing up petitions, lobbying for changes in attitude and legislation, engaging in philanthropy, while always mindful to protect its own interests.

In this scholarly yet entertaining – and often highly amusing – account, historian Lawrence James has searched high and low to find the heartbeat of his subject. Balancing acuity with anecdote, he draws on an extraordinary range of sources, from medieval legal records to twentieth-century advertising slogans.

The Middle Class is a truly engrossing portrait of a sprawling and complex social group, so familiar to many of us yet so often misunderstood and unappreciated. It is a masterpiece of popular history.

Praise for The Middle Class: A History:
‘A wonderfully enjoyable history of the changing fortunes of the middle orders over the past 500 years. A magisterial survey of the entire British class system, filled with richly detailed observation of the social differences on which it has thrived’ - Sunday Times

‘An enchanting compendium of the games the English play, and the anxieties, frictions and resentments engendered in the pursuit of status’ - Times Literary Supplement

Lawrence James was born in Bath in 1943 and brought up in Weston-super-Mare. He secured a first in History and English at York University and subsequently undertook an M.Litt. at Merton College, Oxford, where he studied medieval history. After a career as a schoolmaster at Merchant Taylors’ and Sedbergh schools, he became a full-time writer in 1985. He has written several books, including the acclaimed The Golden Warrior: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire and Raj: The Making of British India.