Nonfiction

For those living outside Scandinavia, the Viking Age effectively began in 793 with an attack on the monastery at Lindisfarne. The attack on Lindisfarne was a characteristically violent harbinger of...

Who's Whose? is an entertaining and straightforward guide to the most commonly confused words in English today, with real examples of good and bad usage to make differences crystal-clear. The...

Globalisation was the buzzword of the 1990s; it promises to become even more important in the first decade of the new century. There is now a flood of literature on...

In this influential study, Ian Watt traces the genesis and development of the most popular of all literary forms, the novel. In his penetrating and original readings of Daniel Defoe,...

At the age of nine, the author was knocked on the jaw in her school playground. What her family initially thought was a toothache brought on by the accident, turned...

Written by a management consultant who has extensive experience in the training field, this book provides practical, inside advice on getting maximum value for your training money. Real-life examples, anecdotes...

Look out for more Pitkin Guides on the very best of British history, heritage and travel.

Captivated is a true story of genius and possession. The background is the turn of the century, when a late 19th century world of mesmerists, psychics, trancers and table-turners gave...

Imran Khan's family are Pathans from the fiercely independent tribal areas of the north-west frontier province of Pakistan and in this book he describes their way of life, culture and...

In the fight for women's equality, one issue is still undiscussed, according to this book. The issue is women's compulsive pursuit of personal beauty. The book aims to confront this...

He claimed he couldn't talk about his work, but Samuel Beckett proves remarkably forthcoming in this text, which documents the 30-year working relationship between the playwright and Alan Schneider, his...

Written by a well-known scholar on China, this text offers an expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast and ancient civilization. Fairbank's work provides a concise, comprehensive and authoritative...

Known to mankind since before the time of Christ, opium is probably the oldest and most widely used narcotic drug. Its dual properties - both as a painkiller and as...

Gives a left-wing conservative assessment of Thatcherism in action - as ideology, style, monarchy, millenarianism, 19th-century liberalism, a set of moral values, right-wingery, or as a combination of them all...

An account of all the forces in India during the last 90 years of the British Raj. It includes information on the organization of the Indian Army, the Khyber Rifles...

This is the story of the Byzantine Empire, from its earliest days to the beginnings of the emergence of its only European rival, the Holy Roman Empire. Those first five...