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Matt Easton
Location: Surrey, UK. Joined: 30 Jun 2004
Posts: 241
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 Posted: Fri 26 Oct, 2012 1:06 pm Post subject: Highly recommended book |
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Blades of the British Empire for sale here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/d-a-kinsley/blades-o...28776.html
I can not recommend this book highly enough for anybody interested in reading first hand accounts of hand-to-hand fighting from the 17th-19th centuries. It is a MUST HAVE for any serious HEMA student. This book covers a LOT, describing fighting with swords, sabres, tulwars, baskethilts, bayonets, spears, lances, kukris and a load of other things. It covers the continual thrust vs. cut debate that went on, as well as what happened when European swordsmen met each other, as well as the warriors of Africa and Asia.
This is not fiction, this is the real first hand accounts of people who fought in life and death encounters and survived to tell the tale. If you haven't read any of Kinsley's previous versions YOU NEED TO. If you bought a version quite some time ago then you'll find a lot of new material in this version - including loads of 17th and 18thC Scottish stuff with broadsword and targes, rapiers, smallswords etc.
Basically, BUY IT!
It also comes in other formats (eg. cheap pdf download)
Matt
Schola Gladiatoria - www.swordfightinglondon.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/scholagladiatoria
Antique Swords: www.antique-swords.co.uk/
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Encho Yakovchev
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| Posted: Fri 26 Oct, 2012 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you, Matt!
Just got the pdf - I'll probably get the hard cover if I like it.
Any words on British Sword Fighting? How is it different than Blades of the British Empire?
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Encho Yakovchev
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| Posted: Fri 26 Oct, 2012 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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... and my first impression is, I'm actually quite disappointed that the author chose not to include ANY images of blades.
For a book, called "Blades of the British Empire" I find this rather strange...
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Benjamin H. Abbott
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| Posted: Sat 27 Oct, 2012 9:43 am Post subject: |
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You persuaded me. Initial thoughts: It's an incredible collection of primary sources with questionable commentary. I'm struck by the number of decapitations in these accounts.
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Sean Manning
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| Posted: Sat 27 Oct, 2012 1:24 pm Post subject: |
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How different is this from the 2011 edition?
The other limitation is that its almost all from sources written in English (with a bit of French). I suspect that there are plenty of good sources in French, Russian, German, and the various South Asian languages and some may even had been translated.
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Mike West
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| Posted: Sun 28 Oct, 2012 7:57 pm Post subject: British Sword fighting and, Blades of the British Empire? |
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His British Sword fighting is 640 pages and, Blades of the British Empire is 564 pages. Are these two different books, or is one the updated version of the other?
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Mike West
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| Posted: Wed 31 Oct, 2012 4:45 pm Post subject: Re: British Sword fighting and, Blades of the British Empire |
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| Mike West wrote: | | His British Sword fighting is 640 pages and, Blades of the British Empire is 564 pages. Are these two different books, or is one the updated version of the other? |
Perhaps the two books are part I and, part II? With Blades of the British Empire being the second part? It's 76 pages less than British Sword Fighting. That would seem to be a different book. If it's an updated book, it looks as if he removed information.
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Mike West
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| Posted: Fri 02 Nov, 2012 2:21 pm Post subject: Looks as if the books are different |
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I discovered that the first 12 pages of each book are available for preview on Lulu. While reading page 9 of British Sword Fighting, the author wrote that Blades of the British Empire was a companion to the other book. They appear to be different books, not an updated version of the other.
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This is a standard topic