No comments about Morriston: Then & Now.

No comments about Conwy Mulberry Harbour.

1 comments about American Ancestors and Cousins of the Princess of Wales.

1. It should come as no surprise that the late Princess Diana had strong American connections through her Spencer heritage and Roberts skillfully outlines the most important and useful links among her estimated 20 million living American relatives. Di had ancestors in six of the thirteen colonies, so non-New Englanders need not despair. The principal author is well known for his work at the New England Historic Genealogical Society and this not-large volume is crammed with useful gateway ancestors in abbreviated and modified Register format.

No comments about Diana, A Cultural History: Gender, Race, Nation and the People's Princess.

2 comments about Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine: A Biography of the Black Prince.

1. If you're looking for an upbeat, easy-to-read history of Prince Edward, look elsewhere. This is definitely NOT the book for you.
   
   If you are looking for a book that details the life of a great leader, and digs deeply into the machinations behind the events of his times, this is definitely the book to get.
   
   So, point of the review: Armchair historians beware! This is a deep, quite dry history of the Black Prince.



2. Richard Barber's biography of the Black Prince is the best of its kind. It gave a informative insight into a man who can not easily be analyized because a legend has built up around him in the last 650 years. But Barber did his best, and his best was surely enough.
   
   First off is the looking into of the Prince's childhood. In all the books I've read on him, Barber's account of the young prince's childhood was the most detailed account of the household, and it clearly showed the Prince's upbringing as a war leader: he had horses by the age of four and armor by the age of seven. This is clearly a preview of his later military success.
   
   Another thing Barber brings across is the relationship between the Prince and his father, Edward III. It showed a great father son love/respect for each other. It is also a huge impact on the Prince's career; he learned everything from his father, from warfare to leadership. Hugely important, and Barber clearly makes the relationship known.
   
   I particularly liked the battles: Crecy, Poitiers, Najera, and Limoges were very well descriped. Barber has a talent for writing an account of a battle that really takes you back to the battlefields of the Prince's incredible victories. Another thing about the battles is that Frossait is absent from the records, usually. Barber cleary states that he doesn't use Frossait's chronicle is that it doesn't present the facts in a scholarly way, but in story form. Good move for Mr. Barber.
   
   This book is very detailed and an incrediable good study and biography of a famous legend of someone like the Black Prince

No comments about Basil Williams of South Wales, and Seneca Hundred, Montgomery County, Maryland by 1748, with some notes on his distinquished kinfolk in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky and elsewhere.

5 comments about Diana: Portrait of a Princess.

1. This book is one of my favorite picture books of Diana. The pictures are just gorgeous, like the lady herself. For anyone who is a Diana fan, this book is for you...It really is beautiful.



2. About 95% of DIANA: PORTRAIT OF A PRINCESS is photos, with only minimal narrative. And almost all of the photos were taken by Fincher, who was a royal photographer. The pictures are fantastic -- a couple just take my breath away. How could this exquisite person be gone? (see page 95) Surely, Diana was one of the most photogenic persons who ever lived. Here in the photos we watch her grow up, make fashion choices (not all good!) to find her own image, and create her own life just in time to lose it. Sometimes she looked a bit like a tired, frumpy housewife. In other pictures she's just perfection. The heavy, oversize book is divided into three parts: For Love, For Loyalty, For Liberty. The printing quality of the photos is EXCELLENT. This was a beautiful gift from my beloved niece, who knows me well. I must say, it makes an excellent gift. This book is one to keep and treasure.



3. This was a breathtakingly beautiful tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, but I wish there had been more text to go along with the incredible pictures. If you are a serious collector of Diana memorabilia or just a casual fan, this is one book you should own.



4. TONS and TONS of pictures -lots that aren't common- and interesting but brief stories explaining what she was doing in each photo, like where she was and general background on the situation. Photos by Jayne Fincher, who followed Diana all over the globe ever since she first appeared in on the royal stage in 1980. I love the layout of the photos and captions. Includes photos from her funeral. I own dozens of books on Princess Diana, from between 1981 and 2006, and this is by far my absolute favorite! It's a terrific, beautiful pictorial of her entire life, with just enough text to add some interesting stories as you flip through the thousands of photos.



5. It's very hard to believe that next year will be a whole decade since the untimely death of Diana, Princess of Wales. What's a shame is the fact that today's teenagers and those in their early-20's probably don't remember her and I'm sure the "Windsors" are in their glory over that.
   
   But Jayne Fincher, royal photographer, has put together a coffee table book that is loaded with rarely published images of the one and only Princess of Wales and it should be a required addition to anyone's royal library.
   
   Ms. Fincher's photographs really brought out Diana's natural charm and inner beauty and that's what makes this volume so special and the scope of the loss even deeper. (It's been hilarious seeing the paparazzi trying to find her replacement ever since 1997 with "winners" such as Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, and Angelina Jolie.)
   
   In any case, this is a beautiful photography book and a tasteful tribute to Diana. - Donna Di Giacomo

1 comments about The Surnames of Wales for Family Historians and Others.

1. This is an OUTSTANDING resource for anyone doing Welsh research! It provides excellent background information on surname derivation, frequency, and geographic dispersal. Be sure to utilize their family origins prediction service described in the book which uses surname frequency to narrow your search. Required reading for researching in Wales.

1 comments about The Celtic Book Of Names: Traditional Names from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

1. I should have looked to see what else this author has written before I bought the book - her penchant for New Age subjects would have warned me off. I wanted a book with a lot of Celtic/Gaelic names for a baby. There are those, but half the book is taken up with surnames (not what I was interested in) and the names of Celtic deities (interesting, but again, not what I was looking for).

   And if you write a book with Gaelic names in it, PLEASE include a guide to pronunciation! I admit that my knowledge of Gaelic is pretty limited, but I am pretty sure that some of the pronunciations the author did give were wrong, which didn't exactly inspire a lot of trust in her research.

   All in all, I'll probably return it.

5 comments about Celtic Baby Names: Traditional Names from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man.

1. My husband and I have really enjoyed leafing through this excellent resource. We are searching for baby names that reflect our heritage, but are not ridiculous to spell or pronounce (like my Scottish name is). I haven't ordered any other baby name books...who wants to wade through a sea of 1500 names, when we know we will probably select a British name for our child?



2. I really liked this book. As someone who's been been pregnant five times I've read most baby name books and this one has some great options. (The pronunciations are so helpful). But I had one enormous problem with this book. It's not arranged according to gender. All names are just lumped together in each section. (This bothered me so much I wrote to the author.) I finally went through with a pink highliter and underlined all the girls names (since that's what I was pregant with at the time). It may not be a big deal to you, since many of these names are unheard of anyway; but I hated it.



3. My husband and I really liked this book. While I can't attest for historical accuracy of references, at least this book had many of them and seemed to be thorough with the info it provided. There were some names I learned a lot about, and some I decided NOT to choose due to information provided. I lent this to my brother for his children. We all love it. we chose Fiona and Gwendolyn for my red-headed twins.



4. Wonderful assortment of names (not definitive and maybe difference of opinion on some)> Not divided into male and female names, but then these days with a penchant for giving male names to females maybe I am being picky.

   It gives the meaning of the names,drawn from Celt Languages of Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Manx, Beton and Cornish - 1200 traditional first names from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Mane, with the pronunciations, and interesting tidbits about people that had the name. The only US book with names offering this wide of a selection. Since many people have trouble with pronouncing these names, the pronunciations guide is every helpful.

   Of special interested to writers looking for Celt derivative characters for their books.




5. I'm a name lover. Always have been; always will be. Heck, I even spend most of my free time posting on a message board full of other name lovers. But more specifically, I love Celtic names. I look at every Celtic name book I see. And this is by far one of the worst, in my opinion. So many of their pronunciations are wrong, which means that when I find a name I haven't seen before, I don't know whether or not I can trust the pronunciation that they have listed. If you want a really good Celtic name book, check out Loreto Todd's "Celtic Names for Children". If I had to pick my all time favorite name book, that'd be it.