This week's new books

Sibelius: A Composer’s Life and the Awakening of Finland, Glenda Dawn Goss (University of Chicago Press)
A biography of Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), set against the backdrop of Finland’s national awakening. It considers the composer’s relationships with his creative contemporaries with whom he worked to usher in a golden age of music and art that would endow Finns with a sense of national pride in their heritage and encourage their hopes for the possibilities of nationhood.


Ancient Rome: The Fall and Rise of an Empire 753 BC-AD 476, Patricia Southern (Amberley)
This ‘long’ history of Ancient Rome, from a settlement of primitive huts to a sophisticated city ruling and then losing an Empire, considers the lives of figures such as Julius Caesar, Augustus, Caligula and Nero, the successes and set-backs and what the Romans learned on their way to Imperial rule and final disintegration.


The Herald in Late Medieval Europe, ed. Katie Stevenson (Boydell)
A study of the diverse roles and experiences of heralds in foreign and domestic relations and chivalric culture in the late middle ages, which covers a range of European regions including Florence, Scandinavia, Poland, the German Empire, the Burgundian Low Countries, Brittany, Scotland and England.


The Fighting Temeraire, Sam Willis (Quercus)
This history of HMS Temeraire, portrayed in J.M.W. Turner’s iconic painting, provides a detailed picture of Britain’s maritime power at the climaxes of both the Seven Years War (1756-63) and the Napoleonic Wars (1798-1815) and covers various aspects of life in the sailing navy, including amphibious warfare, disease, victualling, mutiny and fleet battle.