Great-granddaughter of Augustus. Great-niece of Tiberius. Sister of Caligula. Wife of Claudius. Mother of Nero.

The story of Agrippina – at the centre of imperial power for three generations – is the story of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and of Rome itself,  at its bloody, extravagant, chaotic, ruthless and political height.

In her own time, she was recognised as a woman of unparalleled power.

Beautiful and intelligent, she was portrayed as alternately a ruthless murderer and helpless victim, the most loving mother and the most powerful woman of the Roman empire, using sex, motherhood, manipulation and violence to get her way, and single-minded in her pursuit of power for herself and her son.

This book follows Agrippina as a daughter, born in Cologne, to the expected heir to Augustus’s throne,  as a sister to Caligula who raped his sisters and showered them with honours until they attempted rebellion against him and were exiled, as a seductive niece and then wife to  Claudius who gave her access to near unlimited power, and then as a mother to Nero who adored her until he had her killed.

 

From  the camps of Germany during a mutiny, through senatorial political intrigue, assassination attempts and exile to a small island, to the heights of imperial power, thrones and golden cloaks and games and adoration, Agrippina scaled  the absolute limits of female power in Rome. Her biography is also the story of the first Roman imperial family – the Julio-Claudians, and of the empire itself.

 

Emma Southon has a PhD in Ancient History from the University of Birmingham and researches sex, the family, gender and religion. She holds a long running obsession with the bad guys of the Roman empire, has a cat called Livia, blogs at Agrippinilla.com and tweets at @NuclearTeeth.

The success of the German U-boats has been covered in numerous books but, astonishingly, the story of how the British turned the situation around has never before been investigated.

From Chess to Space Invaders, war has always been a central theme in play; a lesser known fact is that the reverse is also true. Since the 1800s war-themed games have been adapted to real-world situations, recreating recent or forthcoming battles. As journalist and games expert Simon Parkin was to discover, what happens in these games often goes on to play out in real life. Earlier this year, whilst researching a piece for the New Yorker’s radio station about the role games can play in war, Simon was invited to visit the British Defence Academy in Shrivenham. He asked the overseeing Army Major whether he could offer up a concrete example of “gaming” influencing military tactics and policy. The answer led him to “Operation Raspberry”.

Operation Raspberry was born in the dilapidated WATU offices in Liverpool and first played out on a linoleum floor divided into painted squares. Model ships were moved across this make-believe ocean in a manner reminiscent of the childhood game, Battleships. Famed for his success in defeating U-boats,  Admiral Max Horton was invited to play, assuming the role of a German U-boat commander and tasked with defending his fleet from the British, played by a person concealed behind a canvas screen. Horton’s initial skepticism dissolved as in the course of five separate games, his U-boats were sunk without his unseen opponent sustaining a single loss. When Horton demanded the victor reveal himself, seventeen-year-old Janet Okell stepped out from behind the screen. Okell was one of eight women whose work, with Gilbert Roberts, on ‘The Game’ would help win Churchill’s battle for the Atlantic.

Combining novelistic (though resolutely non-fictional) accounts with Simon’s vast gaming experience and the often-unexpected things they reveal about us, A GAME OF BIRDS AND WOLVES promises to breathe a breath of fresh air into this period whilst finally bringing to the fore the unlikely hero(ines) of this fascinating and astonishing story. Along with already-established interviews with the surviving WRENs and their families, he plans to work with renowned archive researcher Laura Berry, to fully excavate these stories. Simon has already attracted film/TV interest in the book.

A British writer and journalist, Simon Parkin is a contributing writer for the New Yorker.com and a critic for The Observer newspaper. He has contributed to The New York Times, Harper’s, the Guardian, New Statesman, Technology Review, BBC and a variety of other publications. His first non-fiction book, DEATH BY VIDEO GAME, was published in 2015 by Serpent’s Tail and in the US in June 2016 by Melville House. It was a NYTBR ‘Recommended Read’, described therein as “very, very good”.

Never work with children or animals – they steal the show. That’s certainly the case with the animals in this collection of 45 true stories.

Gerald Durrell shares his bed in Argentina with a feverish baby peccary; John Rendall travels to Africa to introduce Christian the lion to the wild; Sarah Outen makes fishy friends while rowing solo across the Indian Ocean; and Jonathan Scott joins a pack of painted dogs.

Other journeys involve a smuggled tortoise, a dancing snake and a baby elephant; a dog that runs an ultra-marathon through the Gobi desert; Persian kittens on camelback and cats on boats; a 19th-century giraffe that walked from Marseilles to Paris drawing crowds of thousands; and a cockerel that accompanied a climber up the highest peak in Madagascar. Read about
the travelling musicians from Russia who needed a guinea pig to warm the maestro’s hands, and a rabbit in Ghana with a custom-made waistcoat.

With extracts from classic writers like Robert Louis Stevenson, Isabella Bird and Dervla Murphy, and original stories from new writers, this anthology might make you think differently when choosing a travel companion. There are birds and dogs that help people find their way, and beasts of burden that become burdensome beasts. Whether great or small, these are all creatures that make the human journey exceptional.

‘Fish got a ticket, has he?’ asked the stationmaster.   Emma Macdonald