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ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
by ADRIAN GOLDSWORTHY
The story of Antony and Cleopatra has been told time and again, yet each retelling augments the myth at the expense of truth. Adrian Goldsworthy peels back the fictions. Using ancient sources and archaeological evidence, Cleopatra loses her Egyptian garb (she was actually Greek) and Antony morphs from smitten soldier to forthright politician. Beauty, passion and power remain central to the plot as history proves to be as fascinating - and heart-rending - as silver-screen legend.
£ 25 Hardback 9780297845676 Available Now
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AT HOME: A SHORT HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE
by BILL BRYSON
Please see VIPs for details.
£ 20 Hardback 9780385608275 Available Now
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CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS: THE BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, 200 YEARS OF ARGUMENTS, SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
by DOUGLAS HURD
In dispute over policy during the Napoleonic War, Foreign Secretary Canning and Minister for War Castlereagh fought a duel. Canning was an interventionist; Castlereagh believed in compromise. It was the last duel to be fought between Cabinet Ministers, but the argument as to the best approach continues in our own day with the 'War on Terror'. Douglas Hurd, himself a former diplomat and Foreign Secretary, presents 200 years of dramatic conflicts and powerful personalities from the heart of the Foreign Office.
£ 25 Hardback 9780297853343 Available Now
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COURTIERS: THE SECRET HISTORY OF KENSINGTON PALACE
by LUCY WORSLEY
Kensington Palace in the 18th century was a hotbed of skulduggery and scandal as the ambitious gathered in search of power and prestige. In this enthralling portrait, Lucy Worsley looks through the eyes of the men and women who worked in the gilded cage of George II and Queen Caroline. Expect Vice Chamberlains with many vices, penniless poets, discarded mistresses, murder, baby snatching and deathbed repentances. History in all its earthy glory.
£ 20 Hardback 9780571238897 Available Now
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EMPEROR OF THE WEST: CHARLEMAGNE AND THE CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE
by HYWEL WILLIAMS
Charlemagne was crowned King of the Franks in 768: it was to be a turning point in the history of Europe. He reunited lands in western and central Europe for the first time since the collapse of the Roman Empire, his power rivalling even that of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. And, as Europe emerged from the Dark Ages, so a new cultural golden age dawned. A magisterial survey of a defining figurehead whose legacy remains with us today.
£ 25 Hardback 9781849161909 Available Now
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FULL CIRCLE: HOW THE CLASSICAL WORLD CAME BACK TO US
by FERDINAND MOUNT
It is a rather disconcerting truism that history is cyclical; it overturns modern belief in progress. Yet as Ferdinand Mount discovers in this lively and thought-provoking exposition, our lives today mirror those of the Greeks and Romans. From political institutions to science, religion, sexuality, entertainment and food, the Modern and the Classical seem almost interchangeable: as if, after a 2000 year detour, we have rediscovered our traditional ways of living.
£ 20 Hardback 9781847377982 Available Now
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HISTORY AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT
by HUGH TREVOR-ROPER
Piercing intellect and polished narrative mark the essays collected together here - many of which were previously unavailable - as testament to Hugh Trevor-Roper's deep understanding of the history and historians of the 18th century. Illuminating portraits figure Gibbon, Hume and Carlyle against and through their intellectual contexts (from the Scottish Enlightment to the Romantic movement), developing inspired insights.
£ 30 Hardback 9780300139341 Available Now
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MOLOTOV'S MAGIC LANTERN: LETTERS FROM RUSSIA
by RACHEL POLONSKY
In Molotov's former apartment, Rachel Polonsky made a grim discovery: he was a bibliophile. The man responsible for breaking so many writers' lives in the purges and the GULAG had read their books. In turn, Polonsky visits cities and landscapes associated with the library. These are places rarely on any tourist's trail. It is a unique methodology, generating an alternative perspective on 20th century Russia, as she records personal, intellectual and social histories anew.
£ 20 Hardback 9780571237807 Available Now
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MORAL COMBAT: A HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II
by MICHAEL BURLEIGH
The moral maze of war: from national sentiment to political leaders' decisions, military strategy-making to soldiers' reactions on the ground, each individual has to make a moral choice. Reassessing World War II, Michael Burleigh focuses on the ethics of decision-making in the almost unimaginable circumstances of 'total war'. Are there lessons to be learnt from the past? Or is morality context-specific?
£ 30 Hardback 9780007195763 Available Now
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OUR FRIENDS BENEATH THE SANDS: THE FOREIGN LEGION IN FRANCE'S COLONIAL QUESTS 1870-1935.
by MARTIN WINDROW
For most of us, our image of the French Foreign Legion is inspired by Beau Geste - desperate men of all nationalities fighting under the searing desert sun. The reality of course is different: it is even more extraordinary. Martin Windrow takes us back to those scorching plains of North Africa. Vivid descriptions of frenzied battles and last stands are grounded in political and historical context, and Windrow even suggests possible foreshadows of events today.
£ 25 Hardback 9780297852131 Available Now
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PARISIANS: AN ADVENTURE HISTORY OF PARIS
by GRAHAM ROBB
Please see VIPs for details.
£ 18.99 Hardback 9780330452441 Available Now
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PIRATES OF BARBARY: CORSAIRS, CONQUESTS AND CAPTIVITY IN THE 17th CENTURY MEDITERRANEAN
by ADRIAN TINNISWOOD
The pirates of the Barbary Coast were violent criminals and traders. A species apart. Yet the legendary Yusuf Raïs, who made a fortune as the scourge of merchants and navies, was in fact John Ward, a simple fisherman from Faversham. With a wealth of primary material drawn from East and West, Adrian Tinniswood presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of this twilight world from royal proclamations and the private letters of pirates and their victims.
£ 20 Hardback 9780224085267 Available Now
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ROAD OF BONES: THE SIEGE OF KOHIMA 1944
by FERGAL KEANE
In the remote Indian village of Kohima, on the border with Burma, a tiny force of British and Indian soldiers faced the might of the Imperial Japanese army. District Commissioner Charles Pawsey's bungalow and tennis court became the last stand as 1,500 soldiers endured a 16-day siege. Fergal Keane's vivid account of this 1944 battle, makes graphic the heroism and brutality of this desperate struggle.
£ 25 Hardback 9780007132409 Available Now
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THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
by JAMES HOLLAND
With the force of a hammer blow, the Nazi invasion swept through France and the Low Countries in May 1940. If Hitler's army could conquer Britain, then he could increase the military pressure on the USSR and, ultimately, have all Europe at his feet. Drawing on new research and personal accounts, James Holland charts the astonishing defences put up by Britain: from the battles with U-boats in the icy Atlantic to the aerial clashes in the sky. Through determination, defiance and occasionally desperation, the Battle of Britain was won, and the tide turned against the Nazis.
£ 25 Hardback 9780593059135 Available Now
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THE GOOD SOLDIERS
by DAVID FINKEL
In 2007, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel joined the Rangers infantry battalion's fifteen month tour of duty in Iraq. Baghdad-based, they were strategic to President George W. Bush's "surge". This frontline account is necessarily powerful and nerve-shredding as Finkel brings to the page the intensity of the situation, the heroism and the horrors of everyday army life, with polished but unflinching prose.
£ 14.99 Paperback 9781848873261 Available Now
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THE LEGACY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
by JOHN LUKACS
World War II is central to the history of the 20th century, yet many historical details remain elusive. What were nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg's 1941 discussions in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen about? What led to the American 'Rainbow Five' decision that made war against Germany a priority? Who decided on the post-war divisions of Europe - and was the Cold War a direct consequence? In a thought-provoking analysis, John Lukacs addresses many of the riddles that still shape the War's legacy today.
£ 16.99 Hardback 9780300114393 Available Now
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THE LONG ROAD HOME: THE AFTERMATH OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
by BEN SHEPHARD
Remembering how civilian disaster struck in the wake of WWI due to disease and starvation, plans for the re-stabilisation of Europe were being made long before the Allied victory in WWII. Strategy focused on displaced persons and the creation of the Israeli state. Yet events usurped the best-laid plans: many people refused repatriation and thousands of war criminals escaped justice. The Long Road Home is a radical reassessment of Europe in the chaos of peace.
£ 25 Hardback 9780224062756 Available Now
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THE NEAREST GUARD: 500 YEARS OF PROTECTING THE SOVEREIGN
by DAVID EDELSTEN
With a personal foreword by HM Queen Elizabeth II, The Nearest Guard is a history of Her Majesty's Body Guard. Formed five hundred years ago by Henry VIII as a mounted escort, it last saw active service during the English Civil War before becoming a primarily ceremonial unit. Beautifully illustrated and including a Roll of Gentlemen, this book is a reminder, as Her Majesty notes, of "the rich panoply of British life".
£ 29.99 Hardback 9781903071267 Available Now
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THE SECOND CRUSADE: EXTENDING THE FRONTIERS OF CHRISTENDOM
by JONATHAN PHILLIPS
In this first study of the Second Crusade for over 140 years, Jonathan Phillips presents a brilliant, clear analysis of this neglected Christian war. From policy and planning to the roles of Pope Eugenius III and King Conrad III of Germany, we witness the Crusader armies' attempt to overcome Muslims in the Holy Land and in Iberia and pagans in northeastern Europe. Despite its radical intentions, the Crusade largely failed: the consequences, however, were profound.
£ 16.99 Paperback 9780300164756 Available Now
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THE THIRTIES: AN INTIMATE HISTORY
by JULIET GARDINER
The 1930s: a jigsaw-puzzle decade, often neglected in history as the pieces rarely fit together. On the one hand the thrall of modernism, the obsession with speed, the cult of glamour and the suburban dream. On the other, the rank poverty of unemployment - as finance and industry collapsed - that made everyday existence so desperate for so many. Collating newspaper stories, personal letters and statistical reports, Juliet Gardiner brings the decade to account in this engrossing - often shocking - narrative.
£ 30 Hardback 9780007240760 Available Now
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THE WOMAN WHO SHOT MUSSOLINI
by FRANCES STONOR SAUNDERS
On 7th April 1926, The Honourable Violet Gibson raised her old revolver and fired it at the Italian head of state, Benito Mussolini. Narrowly missing her target, the bullet hit his nose. In that moment, the daughter of an Anglo-Irish lord nearly changed the course of the bloody 20th century. In return she was confined to a lunatic asylum for life. Frances Stonor Saunders rescues this dignified, serious-minded woman from the void and restores her voice to history.
£ 20 Hardback 9780571239771 Available Now
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UNRELIABLE SOURCES: HOW THE 20th CENTURY WAS REPORTED
by JOHN SIMPSON
Casting his analytical eye from the heart of the media establishment, John Simpson questions the power of the press to report and influence events. From the stoking of anti-German sentiment in the lead up to World War I by the Daily Mail to the support of Thatcherism by The Sun, newspapers in particular presume power and freedom: but wherein lies responsibility? Simpson relates a fascinating history and asks some deeply probing questions.
£ 20 Hardback 9781405050050 Available Now
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