History

'Fascinating, extraordinary, gripping' Jeremy PaxmanThe Storming of Berlin had been the Red Army's dream of vengeance ever since the German's invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941. Antony Beevor...

On 8 March 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen set sail from China. The ships, some nearly five hundred feet long, were under the command of Emperor...

*A BBC RADIO 4 Book of the Week*'A fantastic achievement' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads'Bright, expansive, and iconoclastic, this deliciously witty book has the potential to upset the...

Discover the world's most significant events through a detailed, dynamic, book-long timeline of over 7 million years.When did Hannibal cross the Alps? What caused the War of Jenkins' Ear? Who...

**Explore the fascinating history of the real Downton Abbey as the Crawley family saga makes its way on to the big screen with Downton Abbey, the major motion picture**'Bright, breezy...

Burke's seminal work was written during the early months of the French Revolution, and it predicted with uncanny accuracy many of its worst excesses, including the Reign of Terror. A...

By the time Stephen Matthews was six years old, he had been bombarded by the Luftwaffe and deported from Nazi-occupied Guernsey, along with his family, to a prison camp in...

This book is firstly a testament to those of many nationalities who found themselves imprisoned at Stalag Luft VII, Bankau (Luft 7 for short) in Upper Silesia, the Luftwaffe's last...

As the bombs began to fall in September 1940, as homes were flattened and people emerged from cramped shelters and sleepless nights into barely recognisable streets, something very British happened...

In the early modern world three dominant cultures of war were shaped by a synergy of their internal and external interactions. One was Latin Christian western Europe. Another was Ottoman...

Wounded traces the journey made by a casualty from the battlefield to a hospital in Britain. It is a story told through the testimony of those who cared for him...

During the First World War and its immediate aftermath, hundreds of women wrote thousands of poems on multiple themes and for many different purposes. Women's poetry was published, sold (sometimes...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2014WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE 2015One morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, seal hunter and abolitionist Captain...

Praise for Small's earlier work on Nightingale: 'Hugh Small, in a masterly piece of historical detective work, convincingly demonstrates what all previous historians and biographers have missed . . ....

Established in June 1940, the Long Range Desert Group was the inspiration of scientist and soldier Major Ralph Bagnold, a contemporary of T.E Lawrence who, in the inter-war years, explored...

'A travelogue and memoir to rank alongside anything by Chatwin or Thubron' Jim Crace'A most absorbing and rewarding book' Michael PalinA moving portrait, part history, part memoir, of Sudan -...

On June 25, 1876, 611 men of the United States 7th Cavalry rode towards the banks of the Little Bighorn where three thousand Indians stood waiting for battle. The lives...

After rewriting history with their discovery of a Nazi U-boat off the coast of New Jersey, legendary divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler decided to investigate the great enduring mystery...

Bess of Hardwick was one of the most remarkable women of the Tudor era. Gently-born in reduced circumstances, she was married at 15, wedded at 16 and still a virgin....

THE AGE OF EXTREMES is eminent historian Eric Hobsbawm's personal vision of the twentieth century. Remarkable in its scope, and breathtaking in its depth of knowledge, this immensely rewarding book...

In 1914 Vera Brittain was eighteen and, as war was declared, she was preparing to study at Oxford. Four years later her life - and the life of her whole...

From the survivor of ten Nazi concentration camps who went on to become the City of Boston's Director of Education and created the New England Holocaust Memorial, a wise and...

A comprehensive account of the most audacious bombing raid of the Second World War.Operation Chastise - the Dambusters Raid, as it became known - undertaken by 19 Lancasters of 617...

CLOSING THE RING covers the decisive 12 months between June 1943 and June 1944. Command of the seas had returned to Allied hands, the U-boats were mastered and the Luftwaffe...

'[He] inspired a generation ... He changed the course of history' Barack ObamaAs Martin Luther King, Jr. prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963, he drafted the final sermons...

SOLDIER, ESCAPER, SPYMASTER, POLITICIAN - Airey Neave was assassinated in the House of Commons car park in 1979. Forty years after his death, Patrick Bishop's lively, action-packed biography examines the...

How did the most wanted man in the country outwit the greatest manhunt in British history? In January 1649, King Charles I was beheaded in London outside his palace of...

Spies, bed-hopping, treachery and executions - this story of espionage in wartime Bordeaux is told for the first time. Game of Spies uncovers a lethal spy triangle at work during...

From the bestselling author of 'Fighter Boys', the true story of two ruthless adversaries and a wartime killing that shook the modern world. On a cold, bright morning in February...

Cities and countries engulfed by panic and death, desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring. This is what the world has just gone through with Covid-19. But...

Fresh, exciting and vividly readable, this is popular history at its very best.Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old...

An extraordinary French Resistance wartime memoir, combining the best kind of adventure story with a coming of age testimony of unforgettable resonance and poignancy.September 2011, Halkidiki, Northern Greece. A solitary...

'Masterly' Observer'Brilliant' Independent on Sunday'Sparks of life' Daily MailThomas More is one of the great figures in English history. Pre-eminent as a courtier and as a humanist, a friend to...

Does America's pro-Israel lobby wield inappropriate control over US foreign policy? This book has created a storm of controversy by bringing out into the open America's relationship with the Israel...

The most authoritative life of Mao ever written, by the bestselling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang and her husband, historian Jon Halliday.Based on a decade of research, and on...

Shortlisted for the 2023 East Anglian Book Awards'A deeply sensitive and engaging portrait of a misunderstood county and its people' Financial Times, 'Books to Read in 2023''Celebrates the rich history...

8th April 2009 was just an ordinary day for 53 -year-old Richard Phillips, captain of the United States-registered cargo vessel, the Maersk Alabama, as it headed towards the port of...

'I can never understand how the scribbles of such an ordinary person ... can possibly have value.' So wrote Nella Last in her diary on 2 September 1949. Sixty years...

The hotly anticipated memoir of one of New Labour's three founding architects. Peter Mandelson is one of the most influential politicians of modern times. The Third Man is his story...

Winner of the British Army Military Book of the Year 2011 The story of one of the most brutal battles in modern history - fought at a major turning point...