Book News December 2021




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Escorting the Monarch: We Lead Others Follow 

Paperback – 30 October 2021 (UK) & 30 December 2021 (US)

Escorting the Monarch is as close to an official history of the Metropolitan Police’s ‘Special Escort Group’ (SEG) as one could hope for. You may have seen the team at work; as the combination of motorcycles and cars pass you by, they glide elegantly and seemingly effortlessly through busy traffic. Developing a dedicated and diligent team culture, they are masters of their trade. They hold a well-earned reputation for excellence amongst their peers; delivering their passengers (and cargo) on time, safely, in a great deal of style, and without fuss or mishap. Professional and precise in the execution of their operations, they are neither shaken nor stirred. Although the work of the SEG demands exquisitely high levels of presentation there is little room for gloss or glitter. The individuals and property they are charged to protect are assessed by government to need the highest possible levels of protection. From queens, kings, presidents and emperors, to priceless works of art, terrorists and high risk prisoners, the group escort them all.

The Making of Juana of Austria: Gender, Art, and Patronage in Early Modern Iberia (New Hispanisms) 

Hardcover – 8 December 2021 (US & UK)

Edited by art historian Noelia García Pérez, this first-ever collection of essays on Juana of Austria, the younger daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and sister to Philip II of Spain, offers an interdisciplinary study of the Habsburg princess that addresses her political, religious, and artistic dimensions. The volume’s contextual framework shows her sharing agency with other women of her dynastic family who governed in the sixteenth century and developed an outstanding reputation for promoting artists and works of art. The Making of Juana of Austria demonstrates how Juana’s role as a leading patron of the arts offered her a means of creating her own image, which she then promulgated through the objects she collected and her crowning architectural endeavor, the Monastery-Palace of the Descalzas Reales.

1001 Days: Memoirs of an Empress 

Hardcover – 16 November 2021 (US) & 2 December (UK)

This memoir by empress Farah Pahlavi looks back on her reign over an Iran so modern it is unrecognizable today―written just a few years before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Catherine of Aragon: Infanta of Spain, Queen of England 

Hardcover – 15 December 2021 (US & UK)

Catherine of Aragon is an elusive subject.

Despite her status as a Spanish infanta, Princess of Wales, and Queen of England, few of her personal letters have survived, and she is obscured in the contemporary royal histories. In this evocative biography, Theresa Earenfight presents an intimate and engaging portrait of Catherine told through the objects that she left behind.

Sybil: Queen of Jerusalem, 1186–1190 (Rulers of the Latin East)

Hardcover – 15 December 2021 (US) & 25 March 2022 (UK)

Queen Sybil of Jerusalem, queen in her own right, was ruler of the kingdom of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1190. Her reign saw the loss of the city of Jerusalem to Saladin, and the beginning of the Third Crusade. Her reign began with her nobles divided and crisis looming; by her death the military forces of Christian Europe were uniting with her and her husband, intent on recovering what had been lost. Sybil died before the bulk of the forces of the Third Crusade could arrive in the kingdom, and Jerusalem was never recovered. But although Sybil failed, she went down fighting – spiritually, even if not physically.






About Moniek Bloks 2882 Articles
My name is Moniek and I am from the Netherlands. I began this website in 2013 because I wanted to share these women's amazing stories.

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