Charles Spencer – författare

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Times, Spectator and Waterstones Book of the Year 'Shocking and moving' Guardian 'Top marks for its searing frankness, framed in wistfully beautiful prose’ The Times At eight years of age, Charles Spencer was sent away to one of England's most England's most exclusive boarding schools. Here he reveals the strange secrets of the school, and the culture of cruelty and abuse he experienced in his five years there as pupil.Spencer reflects on the misery, hopelessness and abandonment he felt aged eight, viscerally describing the intense pain of homesickness and the vicious brutality of a boys' school in the 1970s. All these years later, Spencer's bafflement at the teachers' motivations to inflict such cruelty on young children in palpable. As is his fury that, even if somehow he had spoken up, he'd never have been believed. Charles Spencer's book 'A Very Private School' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 11-03-2024.

Whatever you think you know about history… think again!The first trivia book from the team behind the hit history podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives, investigating the provenance of historical objects, real and metaphorical, with intelligence and humour'Compulsively dip-in-able' The Times----Ever fallen down a rabbit hole? Ever got lost chasing a fact, a hunch or a curious piece of cultural ephemera?Then the Rabbit Hole Detectives – Richard Coles, Cat Jarman and Charles Spencer – are here to do the burrowing for you.Why were eight WWII Hurricane fighter planes buried in Ukraine?What have chimpanzees to do with the invention of toilet paper?How many dynamite sticks should not be used to blow up a whale?Which ancient civilisation liked a short tongue and a shaved head?The Rabbit Hole Book follows Richard, Cat and Charles as they investigate and elucidate weird and wonderful curiosities from history, telling stories that are as often dumbfounding as they are gripping, as unexpected as they are hilarious or deeply moving.What are you waiting for?Welcome to the warren . . .Whatever you think you know, guess again.

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘As gripping as any thriller. History doesn't get any better than this’ BILL BRYSON’A brilliant read … Game of Thrones but in the real world’ ANTHONY HOROWITZPICKED AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 BY THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN, THE DAILY MAIL AND THE DAILY EXPRESS.The sinking of the White Ship in 1120 is one of the greatest disasters England has ever suffered. In one catastrophic night, the king’s heir and the flower of Anglo-Norman society were drowned and the future of the crown was thrown violently off course.In a riveting narrative, Charles Spencer follows the story from the Norman Conquest through to the decades that would become known as the Anarchy: a civil war of untold violence that saw families turn in on each other with English and Norman barons, rebellious Welsh princes and the Scottish king all playing a part in a desperate game of thrones. All because of the loss of one vessel – the White Ship – the medieval Titanic.‘Highly enjoyable’ Simon Heffer‘Brilliant’ Dan Jones‘Fascinating’ Tom Bower The #2 Sunday Times bestseller on Sunday 18 June 2021

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A Times, Spectator and Waterstones Book of the Year 'Shocking and moving' Guardian 'Top marks for its searing frankness, framed in wistfully beautiful prose’ The Times At eight years of age, Charles Spencer was sent away to one of England's most England's most exclusive boarding schools. Here he reveals the strange secrets of the school, and the culture of cruelty and abuse he experienced in his five years there as pupil.Spencer reflects on the misery, hopelessness and abandonment he felt aged eight, viscerally describing the intense pain of homesickness and the vicious brutality of a boys' school in the 1970s. All these years later, Spencer's bafflement at the teachers' motivations to inflict such cruelty on young children in palpable. As is his fury that, even if somehow he had spoken up, he'd never have been believed. Charles Spencer's book 'A Very Private School' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 11-03-2024.

How two men brought about the defeat of Louis XIV's previously unbeaten army and saved Europe from French domination - A Sunday Times BestsellerBy the summer of 1704 Louis XIV's vast armies dominated Europe. France defeated every alliance formed against her and Louis was poised to extend his frontier to the Rhine and install a French prince on the throne of Spain. Two men saved Europe from French military domination: the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. Marlborough masterminded a brilliant campaign, working with Eugene to surprise the French invaders inside Germany. The rival armies clashed in August and the hitherto unbeaten French were utterly destroyed.Blenheim was a major turning point in European history. Charles Spencer's narrative is drawn from original sources and moves seamlessly from the deliberations of Kings and princes to the frontline soldiers. This is the battle that creates the enduring reputation of the British redcoat and shatters the image of the 'Sun King' and his mighty army.

King Charles's Pirate PrinceTo his fellow Royalists, fighting for King Charles I, Prince Rupert of the Rhine was the archetypal 'cavalier'. Young, handsome, expert horseman, crack pistol shot, his swaggering style irritated the stuffier of the king's courtiers almost as much as the 'Roundheads' they were fighting. To the parliamentarians, above all Oliver Cromwell, he was the ultimate 'malignant', one of those Royalists who fought on even after Charles was executed in 1649. Rupert commanded the Royalist forces in exile, at one point reduced to little more than pirates before the triumphant restoration of the monarchy in 1660.In Charles Spencer's thoroughly researched account, Prince Rupert is revealed as more than just a great general and dashing cavalier. He was a scientist and classical scholar too: a true renaissance prince. From his dramatic childhood escape through the snows of Bohemia to respected older statesman, this is the first comprehensive biography of the greatest cavalier of them all.

Charles Spencer tells the shocking stories and fascinating fates of the men who signed Charles I’s death warrant in this Sunday Times bestseller'Seamless, pacy and riveting ... exceptional' ALISON WEIR'The virtues of a thriller and of scholarship are potently combined' TOM HOLLAND'Outstanding: a thrilling tale of retribution and bloody sacrifice' JESSIE CHILDS__________________January, 1649. After seven years of fighting in the bloodiest war in Britain’s history, Parliament faced a problem: what to do with a defeated king, a king who refused to surrender?Parliamentarians resolved to do the unthinkable, to disregard the Divine Right of Kings and hold Charles I to account for the appalling suffering and slaughter endured by his people. On an icy winter’s day on a scaffold outside Whitehall, the King of England was executed.When the dead king’s son, Charles II, was restored to the throne, he set about enacting a deadly wave of retribution against all those – the lawyers, the judges, the officers on the scaffold – responsible for his father’s death. Bestselling historian Charles Spencer explores this violent clash of ideals through the individuals whose fates were determined by that one, momentous decision. A powerful tale of revenge from the dark heart of royal history and a fascinating insight into the dangers of political and religious allegiance in Stuart England, these are the shocking stories of the men who dared to kill a king.

A WARREN OF WEIRD AND WONDERFUL FACTS AND TALES RESCUED FROM OBSCURITYThe first trivia book from the team behind the hit history podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives, investigating the provenance of historical objects, real and metaphorical, with intelligence and humour'Compulsively dip-in-able' The Times----Ever fallen down a rabbit hole?Ever got lost chasing a fact, a hunch or a curious piece of cultural ephemera?Then the Rabbit Hole Detectives – Richard Coles, Cat Jarman and Charles Spencer – are here to do the burrowing for you.Why were eight WWII Hurricane fighter planes buried in Ukraine?What have chimpanzees to do with the invention of toilet paper?How many dynamite sticks should not be used to blow up a whale?Which ancient civilisation liked a short tongue and a shaved head?The Rabbit Hole Book follows Richard, Cat and Charles as they investigate and elucidate weird and wonderful curiosities from history, telling stories that are as often dumbfounding as they are gripping, as unexpected as they are hilarious or deeply moving.What are you waiting for?Welcome to the warren . . .Whatever you think you know, guess again.