History

A WATERSTONES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2022'Simon Jenkins, as ever, writes with clarity and insight' Times'One of the liveliest commentators in Britain, always worth reading and pleasingly contrarian' Jeremy Paxman,...

An illustrated, behind the scenes look at medieval castles and how they combined two purposes, a weapon of war and a home for an entire community. Using the beautiful construction...

In the summer of 793 AD Viking raiders attacked and looted the monastic island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland. This assault was only the beginning, within 18 months...

'I was riveted: this is a fascinating social history.' NIGELLA LAWSON'Five stars... history on a scale at once intimate and grand.' TELEGRAPH'A magnificent book... endlessly fascinating.' JEWISH CHRONICLE'How the Lyons...

A thrilling new account of the tragic life and troubled times of Henry VI. 'The best life of Henry VI now in print' DAN JONES. 'Vivid, absorbing and richly detailed'...

The extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became one of the most powerful women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into empress of...

Located at the far-flung and wild edge of the Roman Empire, Hadrian's Wall was constructed by Emperor Hadrian in the 120s AD. Vast in size and stretching from the east...

A major new biography of the Black Prince. 'A clear-eyed and thrilling vision of the man behind the legend' DAN JONES. 'Pacy, vivid and extremely readable' TLS. In 1346, at...

'Exquisitely written and ripe with detail' Sunday Times. 'An engaging book ... He knows his British stuff' The Times. 'One of England's most skilled and alluring prose writers in or...

In the 50s BC, Julius Caesar conducted a brutal war against the tribes of ancient Gaul. On the pretext of curbing an imminent barbarian threat to the Roman Republic, he...

Tom Wolfe's genre-defining magical mystery tour through the 1960s published in Vintage Classics for the first time to mark its fiftieth anniversary.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JARVIS COCKERIn the summer of...

A wonderful novel and perfect book club choice, The Right Stuff is a wildly vivid and entertaining chronicle of America's early space programme.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY US ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY'What...

Upsets received views to show how rebellious colonies changed British attitudes to empire Much has been written on the how colonial subjects took up British and European ideas and turned...

Since the upsurge of the Arab Spring in 2011, the Syrian civil war has claimed in excess of 200,000 lives, with an estimated 8 million Syrians, more than a third...

Upsets received views to show how rebellious colonies changed British attitudes to empire Much has been written on the how colonial subjects took up British and European ideas and turned...

One hundred years after the Russian Revolution the Soviet Union remains the most extraordinary, yet tragic, attempt to create a society beyond capitalism. Yet its history was one that for...

An entertaining and eye-opening look at the French Revolution, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde. The French Revolution and...

An entertaining and eye-opening look at the French Revolution, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde. The French Revolution and...

During WW2, a group of Jewish refugees (intellectuals, writers, artists and athletes - most from Germany and Austria) escaped to Britain and were interned as 'enemy aliens'. In 1942, they...

A vivid, deeply researched work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman in Edo - now known as Tokyo - and a portrait of a great city...

'Moorehead paints a wonderfully vivid and moving portrait of the women of the Italian Resistance...an excellent book... She depicts a tragic fate that is timeless, of dreams forged in adversity,...

Read the Sunday Times bestseller that reveals the Earth's awesome impact on the shape of human civilisations.'Stands comparison with Sapiens... Thrilling' Sunday Times Human evolution in East Africa was driven...

Donald Maclean was a star diplomat, an establishment insider and a keeper of some of the West's greatest secrets. He was also a Russian spy...Codenamed 'Orphan' by his Russian recruiter,...

A fascinating and dramatic investigation into the events that led to Winston Churchill becoming Prime Minister against the odds.'A gripping story of Churchill's unlikely rise to power' Observer London, May...

At 9am on 13 April 1933 deputy prosecutor Josef Hartinger received a telephone call summoning him to the newly established concentration camp of Dachau, where four prisoners had been shot....

In Tangier, the Moroccan novelist Mohamed Choukri wrote, 'everything is surreal and everything is possible.' In this intimate portrait of a city, the former BBC North Africa correspondent, Richard Hamilton,...

A facsimile edition of Bradshaw's wonderfully illustrated guide to Victorian London, dating from 1862. Bradshaw's guide to London was published in a single volume as a handbook for visitors to...

The parish church is a symbol of continuity, a cornerstone of the urban and rural landscape, and a treasure trove often as rich in cultural history as any museum. This...

Illuminated manuscripts are among the most beautiful, precious and mysterious works of Western art. Before the printing press was invented, books were produced by hand and their illustration using brightly...

Hitler's Third Reich is still the focus of numerous articles, books and films: no conflict of the twentieth century has prompted such interest or such a body of literature. Approaching...

Since leaving office in 2007, the empire of Tony Blair has grown exponentially. As a businessman he has been unprecedentedly successful for a former public servant, with a large property...

WINNER OF THE 2020 MICHEL DEON PRIZE'O'Clery takes us into the hidden heart of Soviet Russia... An arresting and evocative story' Keggie Carew, author of Dadland'A tour de force ......

This is the definitive story of the men who built the railways - the unknown Victorian labourers who blasted, tunnelled, drank and brawled their way across nineteenth-century England. Preached at...

Admiral Lord Collingwood, the eldest son of a Newcastle merchant, went to sea in 1761 at the age of thirteen. In his nearly fifty years in the Navy he rose...

The turbulent Tudor age never fails to capture the imagination. But what was it actually like to be a woman during this period? This was a time when death in...

The bestselling historian tells the story of the landscapes, peoples and culture of early medieval Britain in eight walks, an epic sea voyage and a north-south ride by motorbike. The...

The bestselling historian tells the story of the landscapes, peoples and culture of early medieval Britain in eight walks, an epic sea voyage and a north-south ride by motorbike. The...

The story of Aelfred the Great, his war against the Vikings and the foundations of modern Britain. In AD 865, a 'great host' of battle-hardened Norse warriors landed on England's...

For as long as spirits have existed, there has been someone doing something really naughty with them: selling gin through pipes in a London back alley; standing guard on a...

Imperium is a classic of reportage and a literary masterwork by one of the great writers and witnesses of the twentieth century. It is the story of an empire: the...

In The Future is History Masha Gessen follows the lives of four Russians, born as the Soviet Union crumbled, at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each came...

In this celebrated, landmark history of the Balkans, Misha Glenny investigates the roots of the bloodshed, invasions and nationalist fervour that have come to define our understanding of the south-eastern...

Warrior tells the story of forgotten man, a man whose bones were found in an Anglo-Saxon graveyard at Bamburgh castle in Northumberland. It is the story of a violent time...

In the archives of the Memorial International Human Rights Centre in Moscow is an extraordinary diary, a rare first-person testimony of a commander of guards in a Soviet labour camp.Ivan...

A beautifully illustrated history of the Renaissance told through the lives of its most important and influential patrons. 'Exceptionally sumptuous... This vivid history brings to life the vices and virtues...

Warplanes of World War II provides a detailed look at 50 key aircraft in service between 1939 and 1945. Warplanes profiled include fighters, bombers, fighter- bombers, ground attack and other...

How were agents recruited for secret operations in World War II? How did they fare once dropped behind enemy lines? How effective were resistance movements? And how brutal were the...