Paul Chambers

It was described at the time as the most perfect crime ever committed and became a mystery that obsessed Victorian England. On the night of 29 June 1860 at Road Hill House in Wiltshire four-year-old Francis Kent had his throat cut and his body dumped in an outdoor privy. Twelve people had slept in the house and there were no signs of the house being broken into. There were three main suspects: Samuel Kent, the head of the household; Elizabeth Gough, the boy's nanny; and, Constance Kent, the sixteen-year-old stepsister. Top detectives from Scotland Yard were brought into the case. The public and the press changed their view of who was the guilty party with each report. There were three court cases, which all ended in confusion. Eventually Constance Kent confessed, was found guilty and sentenced to hang. After a public outcry the sentence was commuted to twenty years' penal servitude. Paul Chambers investigates what really happened in the style of Inspector Poirot, bringing in material that has only recently become available. It shows that the case replicates many of the mistakes made by more recent investigations.

Genealogy has seen a phenomenal rise in popularity over the last decade. It constitutes the second most common use of the internet and local and family history societies are recording their highest membership totals ever. With its strong appeal to the sense of continuity, of personal and social identity and its ease of application to the information revolution, genealogy looks set to become the nation's favourite productive pastime. Many people consider themselves lucky to be able to trace their ancestors for more than a few generations back in time. However, as genealogical information becomes more organised and accessible, an increasing number of people find that they are able to go back not just a few generations but back to Stuart times. "Early Modern Genealogy" is a companion volume to the author's previous book, the highly successful "Medieval Genealogy". It provides a clear and comprehensive account to the records available and the techniques needed to find and understand them. With numerous illustrations and practical examples the book is an informative and helpful addition to the genealogists' library.

The Cock Lane Ghost is a true story of sexual infatuation, conspiracy, murderous accusations and ghostly visitations. Played out in London in the 1760s, it involved everyone from a drunken landlord, respected clergymen, newspaper journalists and a powerful aristocratic family to Dr Samuel Johnston. Its effect was such that the term Cock Lane was still synonymous with folly, superstition and corruption over a century later. Paul Chambers draws on a wealth of contemporary sources to paint a vivid picture of the events that led to the scandal and its aftermath in this entertaining portrait of eighteenth-century life.

For millennia the mighty giant tortoises lived in isolation on remote oceanic islands such as the Galapagos, Seychelles and Mauritius. Then in the sixteenth century sailors discovered that they were good to eat, and their strategic location led to a wholesale plunder of their population by passing ships. Later, many Victorian scientists became fascinated with these creatures, directly inspiring the first understanding of ecology and biogeography and Darwin's theory of natural selection. The giant tortoise was also the subject of the world's first conservation fight in the 1870s. Indeed many people's lives have been touched by these gentle giants. The French were happy to surrender the island of Mauritius in 1810, but baulked at handing over their mascot tortoise, and the British and American governments were forced to concede the tortoises in a major Cold War incident. The twentieth century saw the establishment of wildlife reserves in the Galapagos and elsewhere, but it has been too late for many species. However, modern genetics has been able to track down members of what were once believed to be extinct populations. A Sheltered Life is a fascinating look at one of the world's strangest and most wondrous animals--whose significance in modern science and culture cannot be underestimated.

Medieval Genealogy provides an account of the records available and the techniques needed to find and understand them. In his accessible and comprehensive guide, Paul Chambers helps the amateur genealogist research records before 1600. Discover how to use wills, taxation lists, parish records, manorial documents, funeral monuments and coats of arms to search for your medieval ancestors. DNA testing can even establish your original ancestral stock - whether Viking, Celt or Middle Eastern. By focusing on published sources, Medieval Genealogy can be used by those who do not have access to original documents. It highlights common problems, clears away misconceptions and fills an obvious gap in the genealogists' library.

This book addresses the marked decline of religious practice and subsequent eclipse of the social significance of religious institutions in contemporary Wales from a sociological perspective. Throughout, the text is lively, lucid, well paced and is written to be accessible to non-specialists and church leaders as well as sociologists of religion. It breaks new ground in its combination of fieldwork and theory, redressing the tendency within British sociology of religion towards either over-generalized abstraction or under-theorized empirical description. Beginning with a wide-ranging and critical exploration of the main theoretical currents informing the idea of secularization, it then focuses on an account of social and religious change in Wales that incorporates a range of sociological factors relating to class, economy, community, social mobility, demography and cultural identity. Fieldwork interviews provide a compelling account of contemporary religious practice while offering a strong sense of the historical dimension of patterns of social and cultural change within Wales. Apart from its contribution to the sociology of religion, this book makes a significant contribution to the relatively new discipline of congregational studies. It is particularly useful in bringing a more nuanced understanding to notions such as 'evangelical' and questioning the myth of the comparative success of evangelical-charismatic religion in late-modern society. Questions of social class are dealt with directly and usefully as is the impact of social change on difference of outlook between the generations.