Secondhand History Books

During the ferocious Normandy campaign of World War Two, 20-year-old Christopher Portway was taken prisoner, transported to Silesia and forced to work as a slave in a Polish coalmine. Escaping...

The year was 1935: the twilight of the English aristocracy. It was a time of wealth and glamour; of lavish balls and evening gowns; of tiaras and a Coronation. As...

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ON THE LAST DAYS OF THE THIRD REICH'Recounts, in harrowing detail and with formidable skill, the brutal death-throes of Hitler's Reich at the hands of the...

WINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 'A heartbreaking, beautifully written book. A classic for sure' Claire Tomalin, GuardianExtraordinary true stories of those who lived in East Germany. Travel...

A gripping and shocking insight into the lives of Russia's most famous oligarchs from New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House. Once Upon...

'The best book in English about one of the world's most brutal and under-reported conflicts ... fascinating' Christina Lamb, Sunday TimesIn the early hours of New Year's Eve 1994, Russian...

Theodosius II (AD 408-450) was the longest reigning Roman emperor. Ever since Edward Gibbon, he has been dismissed as mediocre and ineffectual. Yet Theodosius ruled an empire which retained its...

A gripping account of both an individual caught on the horns of an excruciating moral dilemma and a continent at a turning point. When Michela Wrong's Kenyan friend John Githongo...

'With one's face in the wind you were almost burned with a shower of Firedrops'A selection from Pepys' startlingly vivid and candid diary, including his famous account of the Great...

D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in history, took place on 6 June 1944. The subsequent battle of Normandy involved over a million men, and helped seal the fate of The...

This gripping audio pack provides genuine historical recordings of 20 of the most significant speeches of the 20th century and is accompanied by a deluxe illustrated book containing the transcripts...

From the bestselling author of Normandy '44 and Sicily '43, a brilliant new history of the last days of the war'Seldom is war so vividly described...An assault on the senses...Painful...

'Supernatural: of or relating to things that cannot be explained according to natural laws.''As gripping as any thriller' New Statesman'Provocative and fascinating' Daily Mail____________________________________Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had...

Between April 20th and June 22nd of 1945 the anonymous author of A Woman in Berlin wrote about life within the falling city as it was sacked by the Russian...

The fourteenth century was a time of fabled crusades and chivalry, glittering cathedrals and grand castles. It was also a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos...

'...a thoroughly reliable and a highly attractive volume. Meiggs is to be congratulated on his success in combining preservation and adaptation so successfully.' - Hermathena '...a major overhaul by Russell...

Today Italy is a land of beauty and prosperity but in 1944-45 it had become a place of nightmares, a land of violence, war, and destruction. James Holland's ground-breaking account...

Examines the beginning of the Christian movement during the first centuries AD, and the explosive force of its expansion throughout the Roman world

Were the signs that Putin is a ruthless dictator there all along? How should we deal with President Xi of China? Given the world seems to be moving more and...

The gripping story of Taiwan, from the flood myths of ancient legend to its 'Asian Tiger' economic miracle - and the looming threat of invasion by China.Once dismissed by the...

'History is made up of myths,' writes the renowned Russian dissident journalist Mikhail Zygar. 'Alas, our myths led us to the fascism of 2022. It is time to expose them.'...

The young George III was a poignant figure, humdrum on the surface yet turbulent beneath: hiding his own passions, he tried hard to be a father to his siblings and...

In the darkest days of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anna-Maria van der Vaart sheltered Allied pilots, gave refuge to persecuted Jews and participated in audacious acts of sabotage....

This intriguing book tells the story of England's great medieval Angevin dynasty in an entirely new way. Departing from the usual king-centric narrative, Richard Huscroft instead centers each of his...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'Hums with living history, human warmth and indignation' New York Times Less a mystery unsolved than a secret well kept The mystery has haunted generations since the...

In the Shadow of the Empress is the sweeping family saga of beautiful Maria Theresa, the only woman to inherit and rule the vast Habsburg empire in her own name,...

'A METICULOUS HISTORY THAT READS LIKE A THRILLER' BEN MACINTYRE, TEN BEST BOOKS TO READ ABOUT WORLD WAR II An astounding story of heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over...

What caused the Russian Revolution?Did it succeed or fail?Do we still live with its consequences?Orlando Figes teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London and is the author of many acclaimed...

On a mild winter's evening in 1850, Isabella Robinson set out for a party. Her carriage bumped across the wide cobbled streets of Edinburgh's Georgian New Town and drew up...

Athens and Sparta were the two leading powers in the Classical Greek world. They represented entirely different systems of social organization: oligarchic conservatism at Sparta versus radical democracy at Athens....

The author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind looks at covert operations and assassination plots in the medieval period, matching anything to be found in our...

The effects of an Allied air raid, over seventy minutes, on an unnamed German city in July 1944 are recounted in horrifying detail. As American planes discharge their bombs over...

A full-scale new and revised edition of a pioneering work of synthesis, this book provides a comprehensive chronological narrative of the history of the British empire between 1815 and 1914,...

In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around...

This colourful, perceptive portrayal of English country life reverberates with the voices of the village inhabitants, from the reminiscences of survivors of the Great War evoking days gone by, to...

This is the incredible story of Shin Dong-hyuk - the only person born in a North Korean gulag ever to escape to freedom. A gripping, terrifying biography, Escape from Camp...

In recent years, traditional views of a rapidly growing British economy between 1700 and 1850 have been overturned by convincing new research indicating that British economic growth was, in fact,...

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERDAILY MAIL & SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOKS OF THE YEARThe inspiring true story of a father and son's fight to stay together and survive the Holocaust,...

'This is a fascinating book which re-examines events that liberated and thus shaped the future of Europe.' Lord Soames, Winston Churchill's grandson 'An engrossing delight . . . Dannatt and...

The year was 1899, as the old people told the story; the place a sweltering tobacco farm in Truevine, Virginia, the heart of the Jim Crow South, where everyone they...

WINNER OF THE 2024 SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARDIts name means 'centre of the world', and since the dawn of history the Mediterranean Sea has formed the shared horizon of innumerable cultures....

THE EXTRAORDINARY TALE OF THE FATHER OF MODERN GEOLOGYHidden behind velvet curtains above a stairway in a house in London's Piccadilly is an enormous and beautiful hand-coloured map - the...

The remarkable life of the vivacious, clever - and forgotten - Kennedy sister, who charmed the English aristocracy and was almost erased from her family history. The favourite child of...