History Books

Book SynopsisThe problem with the history of twentieth-century Europe is that everyone thinks they know it. The great stories of the century - the two world wars, the rise and fall of Nazism and communism, female emancipation - seem self-evidently important. But behind the grand narratives, the politics and the ideologies, lies another history: the history of forces that shaped the lives of individual Europeans.That is the thrust of Richard Vinen''s magisterial survey of this uniquely destructive and creative century. It argues that there is no single history that encompasses the experience of all Europeans, but rather a multiplicity of different, partially interlocking, histories. Some of these histories are told here in a book which seeks to root the generalisations of large-scale analysis in the concrete - and sometimes incongruous - details of individual lives. Challenging, informing and revealing, this is history writing at its finest.Trade ReviewFascinating and immensely readable...often sums up key moments in soundbite phrases that imprint themselves beautifully on the memory. * GLASGOW SUNDAY HERALD *Beautifully written, and can be confidently recommended to anyone seeking to make sense of our recent history. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *A master of telling fact and illuminating insight, Vinen somehow manages to be both opinionated and objective. * Andrew Roberts *I admired [A HISTORY IN FRAGMENTS] very much indeed. It struck me as a tour de force, as impressive in its collation of little-known facts as in its presentation of fresh and always intelligent interpretation. * Anthony Howard *

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Book SynopsisTHE YEAR 1000 is a vivid evocation of how English people lived a thousand years ago - no spinach, sugar or Caesarean operations in which the mother had any chance of survival, but a world that knew brain surgeons, property developers and, yes, even the occasional gossip columnist. In the spirit of modern investigative journalism, Lacey and Danziger interviewed the leading historians and archaeologists in their field. In the year 1000 the changing seasons shaped a life that was, by our standards, both soothingly quiet and frighteningly hazardous - and if you survived, you could expect to grow to just about the same height and stature as anyone living today. This exuberant and informative book concludes as the shadow of the millennium descends across England and Christendom, with prophets of doom invoking the spectre of the Anti-Christ. Here comes the abacus - the medieval calculating machine - along with bewildering new concepts like infinity and zero. These are portents of the futTrade ReviewThoroughly enjoyable ... a superb insight into life as it was lived a thousand years ago INDEPENDENT A brilliant little book, well-written, knowledgeable, insightful, accessible, a model of how popular social history should be written GLASGOW HERALD A series of deftly-turned vignettes of what it was like to live in England at the turn of the last millennium ... a quirky and engaging book SUNDAY TELEGRAPH A beautiful window on past history. My book of the year Simon Schama

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Book SynopsisWhat were pirates really like? How much, if any, of the piratical stereotype - of a dashingly handsome man with an eye-patch, peg-leg and a parrot on his shoulder - is based on the documented fact.In this revealing and highly original study David Cordingly sets out to discover the truth behind the piracy myth, exploring its enduring and extraordinary appeal, and answering such questions as: why did men become pirates? Were there any women pirates? How much money did they make from plundering and looting? And were pirates really dashing highwaymen of the Seven Seas or just vicious cut-throats and robbers?From Long John Silver to Henry Morgan, Robert Louis Stevenson to J.M. Barrie, LIFE AMONG THE PIRATES examines all the heavyweights of history and literature and presents the essential survey of this fascinating phenomenon.Trade ReviewA comprehensive and colourful account of seafaring life. * MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS *Readable, wideranging and entertaining * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *Fascinating * GUARDIAN *Entertaining and popular but also serious in its intent * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Splendidly illuminates the blurred distinctions between pirates, privateers and those who attacked ships in the name of their sovereigns * EVENING STANDARD *Excellent * TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT *Cordingly knows all there is to know about his subject * DAILY TELEGRAPH *There is much to entertain and fascinate in all sections of Cordingly's readable book * GLASGOW HERALD *

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Book Synopsis* A book that will change the course of modern history, and specifically our attitudes to China.* Three of the top four China scholars in America have said this is the most important book on China published in decades.Trade ReviewThanks to these documents, we can read the words of the Party bosses, angry and baffled... Today many Chinese officials blandly deny that there was a massacre at all. These documents, however, prove it all. * John Simpson, BBC's World Affairs Editor *Fascinating. * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *The significance and rarity of the book and its potential value to researchers can hardly be overstated. * OBSERVER *The most valuable political book I read was THE TIANANMEN PAPERS, which gives an extraordinary insight into the old regime's ruthless stand against the freedom campaigners in Beijing in 1989. * GUARDIAN *

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Book Synopsis1967 did not mark the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it was a year that changed the course of history. When Egypt''s President Nasser closed the straits of Tiran to Israeli navigation, it triggered a conflict between Israel and the armies of Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Within six days the Israelis had occupied territories three times wider than their own, populated by over a million Palestinian Arabs.Israel suddenly became something of a colonial empire, more Goliath than David. The war granted political legitimacy to Menachem Begin''s right-wing Herut party, and Arab terrorism paved the way for Israel''s secret service to become a major factor in the country''s power structure.1967 will not be a military history, nor will it focus mainly on political developments. The year 1967 dramatically altered the lives of millions of individuals and this book will focus on the personal stories from both sides of the conflict.Trade Review1967 offers a brilliant description of the Six Day War in its widest context. The crucial role of individual actors is deftly woven into the general picture, the description of the military events is enthralling. This is probably the best book on those most fateful days in the history of Israel and the Middle East * SAUL FRIEDLANDER, author of THE YEARS OF EXTERMINATION: NAZI GERMANY AND THE JEWS (1939-1945) **'Today we know that Israel's triumph in 1967 was a Pyrrhic victory. Tom Segev's 1967 makes that more clear than anything written on the subject . . . Segev documents this historic tragedy brilliantly, authoritatively, as no one has before.' AMOS ELON, HA * 'Excellent book’ *LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS * 'A riveting narrative . . . [that] offers a shrewd insight into the nation's psyche’ *THE ECONOMIST * 'Despite the controversy, this left=wing journalist has emerged as one of the foremost historians of the [Israel/Palestine] region *

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Book SynopsisThe story of the fight to gain the vote for women is about much more than a peripheral if picturesque skirmish around the introduction of universal suffrage. It is an explosive story of social and sexual revolutionary upheaval, and one which has not yet ended. The movement for women''s suffrage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries prefigured to a startling extent the controversies which rage today around the role of women. Far from the stereotype of a uniform body of women chaining themselves to railings, the early feminist movement was riven by virulent arguments over women''s role in society, the balance to be struck between self-fulfilment and their duties to family and children, and their relationship with men.Melanie Phillips'' brilliant book tells the story of the fight for women''s suffrage in a way which sets the high drama of those events in the context of the moral and intellectual ferment that characterised it.Trade ReviewA gripping and rather magnificent new book * THE TIMES *A richly detailed history. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *This highly enjoyable history gives an excellent sense of the vivid feuds, ideological divides and disputes which fractured the enlivened the progressive Victorian feminist movement * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *[A book] shot through with Phillip s' customary clariy... [she] shows beautifully that the vote was really symbolic of a far wider range of issues on which women were struggling to find a public voice * EVENING STANDARD *

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Book SynopsisFollowing on from the success of A N. Wilson's THE VICTORIANS, Roy Hattersley's major new appraisal of Edwardian Britain is his finest book to dateTrade ReviewInformative and always easy to read . . . Hattersley has done a fine job * Andrew Lycett, SUNDAY TIMES *Well written and wide ranging book . . . his account of the period is consistently enjoyable * Piers Brendon, DAILY TELEGRAPH *Hattersley makes a riveting case . . . a bold, sweeping synthesis . . . full of gleaming nuggets and offbeat points redolent of hours hunched over neglected papers. It is no surprise to readers of his journalism that it is superbly written, gleefully but wryly highlighting the absurdities and pomposities of the age . . . Hattersley's prose flows smooth as the port at a Sandringham shooting party. What makes this book is not just the quality of its social and political analysis, but the breadth of detail and the quality of its gossipy anecdotes * Colin Donald, HERALD *[A] solid book . . . Hattersley writes entertainingly . . . He is a clear and vigorous writer * Anne Chisholm, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *

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Book SynopsisIn 1688, a group of leading politicians invited the Dutch prince William of Orange over to England to challenge the rule of the catholic James II. When James''s army deserted him he fled to France, leaving the throne open to William and Mary. During the following year a series of bills were passed which many believe marked the triumph of constitutional monarchy as a system of government. In this radical new interpretation of the Glorious Revolution, Edward Vallance challenges the view that it was a bloodless coup in the name of progress and wonders whether in fact it created as many problems as it addressed. Certainly in Scotland and Ireland the Revolution was characterised by warfare and massacre. Beautifully written, full of lively pen portraits of contemporary characters and evocative of the increasing climate of fear at the threat of popery, this new book fills a gap in the popular history market and sets to elevate Edward Vallance to the highest league of popular historians.Trade ReviewAn account that is balanced without being anodyne, wide-ranging without being superficial, assured without being complacent . . . An up-to-date and well informed narrative * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Gripping . . . [Vallance] writes with considerable narrative flair . . . a tremendously exciting introduction to the period * TELEGRAPH *Lucid and perceptive * Blair Worden, LITERARY REVIEW *Vivid pen portraits of contemporary characters . . . a colourful, lively account * HERALD *

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Book SynopsisThe SS was one of the most important institutions of Third Reich Germany, yet it is also among the least well understood. From the end of 1935, the SS had control over all police and internal security duties in Germany and the militarised Waffen SS had more than eight hundred thousand men serving in the field, in direct rivalry with the traditional German armed forces, the Wehrmacht.Making use of material not previously available, this definitive book refocuses attention on and enhances understanding of the hard-nosed political fanatics and opportunists who were responsible for one of the most appalling crimes in human history, the attempted execution of the Jews of Europe.Trade ReviewWeale's style is spare and compelling. He deftly evokes the various personalities involved in a paramilitary army which shrouded itself in bureaucratic acronyms ... This is an extremely important book which I recommend most highly Michael Burleigh, author of MORAL COMBAT 'In this landmark history, Adrian Weale deftly charts the development of the SS from its origins as a personal entourage to a weapon of genocide ... This is a major achievement by a historian at the top of his game, and deserves a lasting place on the Guy Walters, author of HUNTING EVIL and BERLIN GAMES

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Book SynopsisThe Prophet Muhammad taught the word of God to the Arabs. Within a generation of his death, his followers - as vivid a cast of heroic individuals as history has known - had exploded out of Arabia to confront the two great superpowers of the seventh-century and establish Islam and a new civilization. That the protagonists originated from the small oasis communities of central Arabia gives their adventures, their rivalries, their loves and their achievements an additional vivacity and intimacy. So that on one hand, THE HEIRS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD is a swaggering saga of ambition, immense achievement, self-sacrificing nobility and blood rivalry, while on the other it allows us to understand some of the complexities of our modern world. For within this fifty-year span of conquest and empire-building, Barnaby Rogerson also identifies the seeds of discord that destroyed the unity of Islam, and traces the roots of the schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims to the rivalry of the two individuaTrade ReviewA natural storyteller, [Rogerson] achieves his purpose not by viewing the first great schism of Islam from the outside, but by immersing his readers in the master narrative of events as these came to be viewed ... An absorbing narrative that captures the epic quality of an era to which Muslims of all persuasions look for inspiration * SUNDAY TIMES *THE HEIRS OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD vividly illustrates how the debates, the decisions and the sometimes bloody conflicts that resulted from trying to discern God's will in the absence of God's Prophet ultimately gave birth to the varied and wonderful trad * GUARDIAN *

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Book SynopsisThe brutal assasination of Commissioner Frederick Mackeson on British India''s North-West Frontier in 1853 was a bloody and public declaration of a conflict that was to stretch well into the next one hundred and fifty years. The Wahhabi tribe, extreme Islamist fundamentalists, set out to restore purity to their faith by declaring violent jihad on all who opposed them. Their history has long been forgotten and yet their vicious brand of political ideology lives on. The Wahhabi deeply influenced not only the formation of modern Saudi Arabia, but Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Their teachings educate orphan boys in Afghanistan and press rifles into their hands, for the sake of jihad. The parallels between this pivotal terrorist network and our post-9/11 political climate are staggering. Charles Allen sheds lights on the historical roots of modern terrorism and shows how this dangerous nineteenth-century theology lives on today.Trade ReviewAllen traces the story with meticulous care. Steeped in the subject and already respected as an authority, he commands all the detail . . . Allen's approach is exemplary * THE TIMES *Those who relish Allen's India books will not be disappointed...Rich in instruction for the current administration in, say, Basra - and better still, it's vintage Charles Allen * LITERARY REVIEW *Allen tells his complex story with concision, insight and wide-ranging vision * SUNDAY TIMES *A fascinating new book * SPECTATOR *

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Book SynopsisMany of the prisoners held by the Japanese during the WWII were so scarred by their experiences that they could not discuss them even with their families. They believed that their brutal treatment was, literally, incomprehensible. But some prisoners were determined that posterity should know how they were starved and beaten, marched almost to death or transported on ''hellships'', used as slave labour - most notoriously on the Burma-Thailand railway - and how thousands died from tropical diseases. They risked torture or execution to draw and write diaries that they hid wherever they could, sometimes burying them in the graves of lost comrades.The diaries tell of inhumanity and degradation, but there are also inspirational stories of courage, comradeship and compassion. When men have unwillingly plumbed the depths of human misery, said one prisoner, the artist Ronald Searle, they form a silent understanding of what solidarity, friendship and kindness to others can mean. The diariTrade ReviewBrian MacArthur has made a significant contribution to the literature of the war in the Far East, which is still much less known to us than the matching struggle in Europe * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *MacArthur does justice to these men. He lays bare the horrors, so awful that, reading of them, one is amazed that there were any survivors. But he also pays tribute to the courage the vast majority showed in their determination not to die, and especially * Allan Massie, TIMES *Commendably, in this first essay into military history, he has allowed the voices of these veterans of the Far East Prisoners of War Association to speak to us directly across the 60-year void; they echo from the mouth of a tropical hell with an awful eloquence . . . a deeply moving read * John Crossland, SUNDAY TIMES *Brian MacArthur's compelling story of the extraordinary suffering of British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of the Japanese provides excruciating detail . . . the capacity of men to inflict misery on each other is almost balanced by their abil * TLS *

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Book SynopsisPLAYING CARDS IN CAIRO is a fly-on-the-wall account - like THE BOOKSELLER OF KABUL - of life (for western readers) in a strange and exotic environment. Hugh Miles lives in Cairo and is engaged to an Egyptian woman. Twice a week he plays cards with a small group of Arab, Muslim women and through this medium he explores their lives in modern Cairo, the greatest of Arab cities. It is a secretive, romantic, often deprived but always soulful existence for the women as they struggle with abusive husbands and philandering boyfriends. The book is a window onto a city - and a way of life - which is at a crucial juncture in its history. Hugh Miles, who knows the Arab world intimately, is the perfect guide.Trade Review** 'Behind the veil are the frustrations, fads, fashions and fallibilities familiar to women the world over. Miles is a loving listener, whose understanding of the Islamic world is sharpened by tea and sympathy * THE TIMES *** 'Playing Cards mixes personal vignettes with an informed overview of Egyptian politics, and although unflinching about Cairo's problems, Miles shows his affection for this great city of every page. * FINANCIAL TIMES *** 'An intriguing read and, as an introduction to Egyptian life, it's fascinating * DAILY MAIL *** 'Miles should be applauded for telling their stories so compellingly, and for giving us such a detailed insight into their everyday lives. * SCOTSMAN *

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Book SynopsisThe compelling story of the only concentration camp for women by the acclaimed author of A Life in Secrets.Trade ReviewCompelling ... [Helm] has painstakingly sought out many survivors and talked to them herself. The results are devastating ...What one is left with at the end of this momentous book is a sense of the power of human nature, both for good and evil Independent on Sunday A profoundly moving chronicle Observer An epic feat of scholarly investigation Spectator Where Helm's history excels is in her refusal to reduce any of the people in her history to stereotypes. Complexity is respected. She pays attention to the specificities of people's lives, including their religious beliefs, political aspirations and dreams. Even when discussing brutal female guards, Helm avoids demonisation -- Joanna Bourke Telegraph Helm has done us all a great service in this compelling, magisterial volume ... Read this book. Be appalled. Be moved. And be angry that so little action was taken to help, or to remember, until it was nearly too late. Read it, and weep Jewish Chronicle A sense of urgency infuses this history, which comes just in time to gather the testimony of the camp's survivors ... meticulous, unblinking ... [Helm's] book comes not a moment too soon The Economist Splendidly researched and tremendously moving ... Helm's book, based in part on interviews with survivors, is a model of sensitivity and seriousness Sunday Times Sarah Helm's momentous uncovering of Ravensbruck -- Rachel Holmes Guardian A groundbreaking chronicle -- Nicholas Shakespeare Telegraph It not only fills a gap in Holocaust history but it is an utterly compelling read -- Taylor Downing History Today

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Book SynopsisFrom medieval Runnymede to twentieth-century Jarrow, from King Alfred to George Orwell by way of John Lilburne and Mary Wollstonecraft, a rich and colourful thread of radicalism runs through a thousand years of British history. In this fascinating study, Edward Vallance traces a national tendency towards revolution, irreverence and reform wherever it surfaces and in all its variety. He unveils the British people who fought and died for religious freedom, universal suffrage, justice and liberty - and shows why, now more than ever, their heroic achievements must be celebrated. Beginning with Magna Carta, Vallance subjects the touchstones of British radicalism to rigorous scrutiny. He evokes the figureheads of radical action, real and mythic - Robin Hood and Captain Swing, Wat Tyler, Ned Ludd, Thomas Paine and Emmeline Pankhurst - and the popular movements that bore them. Lollards and Levellers, Diggers, Ranters and Chartists, each has its membership, principles and objectives

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Book Synopsis''An enthralling book'' Sunday Telegraph''Fascinating'' Sunday TimesThe Royal Navy to which Admiral Lord Nelson sacrificed his life depended on thousands of sailors and marines to man the great wind-powered wooden warships. Drawn from all over Britain and beyond, often unwillingly, these ordinary men made the navy invincible through skill, courage and sheer determination. They cast a long shadow, with millions of their descendants alive today, and many of their everyday expressions, such as ''skyscraper'' and ''loose cannon'', continuing to enrich our language. Yet their contribution is frequently overlooked, while the officers became celebrities. JACK TAR gives these forgotten men a voice in an exciting, enthralling, often unexpected and always entertaining picture of what their life was really like during this age of sail. Through personal letters, diaries and other manuscripts, the emotions and experiences of these people are explored, from the dread of press-gangs, shipwreck and disease, to the exhilaration of battle, grog, prize money and prostitutes. JACK TAR is an authoritative and gripping account that will be compulsive reading for anyone wanting to discover the vibrant and sometimes stark realities of this wooden world at war.

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Book SynopsisRecent years have seen a remarkable growth of interest in revolution and social upheaval. This collection of essays by distinguished historian and long-standing Marxist Eric Hobsbawm is a commentary and critical retrospective on the revolutionary movements and ideas that dominated the twentieth century, and which remain of crucial contemporary relevance. The essays here explore a broad range of related topics including the history of communism, the influence of marxism, insurrection, military coups and guerrilla warfare, and the role of intellectuals. This updated edition presents new thoughts on anti-communist polemics and the Spanish Civil War.Written with clarity and masterly assurance, Eric Hobsbawm''s essays are indispensable for a true understanding both of twentieth-century history and of the pattern of events today.Trade ReviewThis is a highly readable, lucid and well-written book from which any student of contemporary revolutions can derive a great deal of profit * NEW STATESMAN *This is an unusually rewarding book; almost every item bears witness to Professor Hobsbawm's sharp intelligence and felicitous style * TLS *This is an extraordinarily clear-sighted and accessible work of hindsight. * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *

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Book SynopsisIn this collection of illuminating, incisive and thought-provoking essays, Eric Hobsbawm examines every aspect of the issues that have inspired the greatest debate - not only among politicians, academics and commentators but among all of us - in recent years: that is, the effects of globalisation, the plight of democracy and the threat of terrorism. As we are only too aware, all of these have the power to affect our daily lives, from the state of our economies to the fear of murderous bomb attacks in our cities. Hobsbawm discusses war and peace in our lifetime, problems of public order, anarchy and terrorism, nationalism and the changing nature of the nation-state, and the future prospects for democracy, setting out the historical background and the lessons it can offer us. Above all, he turns his piercing gaze to the Middle East and Western imperialism.Engaging, erudite and demonstrating his characteristically firm grasp of the facts and statistics, Hobsbawm''s essays are indisTrade Review** 'Hobsbawm is as intellectually lively and politically provocative as ever in these lectures on the "barbarisation" of society through technology, economic activity and globalisation * THE TIMES *** 'This collection of recent essays gives a good sense of the vigour and passion with which this famous intellectual surveys the contemporary world * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *** 'Britain's greatest living left-wing historian . . . GLOBALISATION, DEMOCRACY AND TERRORISM picks up where the bestselling AGE OF EXTREMES and THE NEW CENTURY left off * THE SCOTSMAN *** 'Hobsbawm is one of the leading intellectual authors of the concepts and language in which all of us now discuss our situation. He sketches here with great lucidity and his usual effortless compression the new landscape of the 21st century * GUARDIAN *

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Book SynopsisAuthor of the best-selling AGINCOURT, Juliet Barker now tells the equally remarkable, but largely forgotten, story of the dramatic years when England ruled France at the point of a sword.Henry V''s second invasion of France in 1417 launched a campaign that would put the crown of France on an English head. Only the miraculous appearance of a visionary peasant girl - Joan of Arc - would halt the English advance. Yet despite her victories, her influence was short-lived: Henry VI had his coronation in Paris six months after her death and his kingdom endured for another twenty years. When he came of age he was not the leader his father had been. It was the dauphin, whom Joan had crowned Charles VII, who would finally drive the English out of France. Supremely evocative and brilliantly told, this is narrative history at its most colourful and compelling - the true story of those who fought for an English kingdom of France.Trade Review** 'Juliet Barker's new book is a magnificently readable account of the last four decades of that war, and a reminder that the reality was much nastier than the myth ... Barker disentangles the dark threads to tell a story that never flags. I thought Agincourt was a superb book, but Conquest is even better. Once upon a time there was an English kingdom in France and Juliet Barker has brought it to extraordinary life' Bernard Cornwell, Mail on Sunday ** 'There was a need for a good history of the failed enterprises of the English. Juliet Barker's book supplies it handsomely' Literary Review ** 'Barker's kaleidoscopic narrative of Henry VI's reign reveals the brutal realities of medieval warfare that lay behind the chivalric ideals to which the leading men of the time paid lip service' Nick Rennison, Sunday Times ** 'This book is as gripping as its predecessor' Independent ** 'It is easy to fall in love with Henry V and his achievements rather than to question the responsibility of conquest. Barker keeps a steady head. Her prose is snappy and elegant' Evening Standard ** 'Immensely well-researched account' Financial Times Magazine ** 'Any historical novelist looking to set a swords'n'arrows actioner in a time and place not already hackneyed to death should read Juliet Barker's brilliant account' Mail on Sunday

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Book SynopsisIndia''s lost emperor Ashoka Maurya has a special place in history. In his quest to govern India by moral force alone he turned Buddhism from a minor sect into a world religion, and set up a new yardstick for government. But Ashoka''s bold experiment ended in tragedy and he was forgotten for almost two thousand years.In this beautifully written, multi-layered journey Charles Allen describes how fragments of the Ashokan story were gradually discovered, pieced together by a variety of British Orientalists: antiquarians, archaeologists and epigraphists. In doing so, they did much to recover India''s ancient history itself. The Lost Emperor tells the story of the man who was arguably the greatest ruler India has ever known.

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Book SynopsisSea Wolves is the story of the crews who bravely manned British submarines in the Second World War. This small band of highly trained and highly skilled individuals fought in the front line for six long years, undertaking some of the most dangerous missions of the war. Britain''s Sea Wolves operated close to shore in mined waters, attacking warships and heavily guarded convoys. But in the course of these vital operations, the submariners suffered devastating casualties.This is the vivid, thrilling story of the survivors and their promising young comrades who fought with such courage, in the face of the sickening terror of depth-charge attacks and the cold fear of having to escape from a sunken submarine filled with the bodies of close friends.

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Book SynopsisSPIES IN THE SKY is the thrilling, little-known story of the partner organisation to the famous code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park. It is the story of the daring reconnaissance pilots who took aerial photographs over Occupied Europe during the most dangerous days of the Second World War, and of the photo interpreters who invented a completely new science to analyse those pictures. They were inventive and ingenious; they pioneered the development of 3D photography and their work provided vital intelligence throughout the war.With a whole host of colourful characters at its heart, from the legendary pilot Adrian ''Warby'' Warburton, who went missing while on a mission, to photo interpreters Glyn Daniel, later a famous television personality, and Winston Churchill''s daughter, Sarah, SPIES IN THE SKY is compelling reading and the first full account of the story of aerial photography and the intelligence gleaned from it in nearly fifty years.Trade ReviewSpies in the Sky fills in a huge gap in Second World War historiography in both an exciting and intellectually stimulating way. No-one will be able to write a history of the conflict again without giving Medmenham its central role in Allied Intelligence-gathering. -- Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of WarA fascinating read and a significant contribution to the history of World War Two. The code-breakers of Bletchley have become internationally renowned. Now Taylor Downing tells the unsung story of the photo-analysts of Medmenham and the heroic pilots in the skyplanes, putting them back where they belong - at the heart of Britain's secret war. * Professor David Reynolds, author of In Command of History *Taylor Downing's brilliant research has created a ripping yarn. * Kevin Wilson, Sunday Express *Spies in the Sky combines the breathless courage of pilots . . . with the mild eccentricity of RAF Medmenham. There's a diverting cast of characters, from Winston Churchill's daughter Sarah to the young matinee idol-to-be Dirk Bogarde, and there's a beguiling account of the way in which the maverick pilot Sidney Cotton . . . fought the brass-hats in Whitehall. * Sinclair McKay, Daily Telegraph *Spies in the Sky gives a new perspective to some of the most famous moments of the conflict. * Robert McCrum, Observer *

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Book SynopsisWhen Charles I was executed, his son Charles II made it his role to search out retribution, producing the biggest manhunt Britain had ever seen, one that would span Europe and America and would last for thirty years.Men who had once been among the most powerful figures in England ended up on the scaffold, on the run, or in fear of the assassin''s bullet. History has painted the regicides and their supporters as fanatical Puritans, but among them were remarkable men, including John Milton and Oliver Cromwell. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh bring these remarkable figures and this astonishing story vividly to life an engrossing, bloody tale of plots, spies, betrayal, fear and ambition.Trade ReviewJordan and Walsh provide a thoroughly entertaining account of these extraordinary events . . . a vivid and consuming piece of historical narrative -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times *A fast-paced, lively work * BBC History Magazine *In this beautifully detailed and seamlessly written book Jordan and Walsh shine a new light on Charles II . . . their energetic and masterful account makes for a Restoration romp worth reading * Sunday Express *This is a terrific read * Spectator *An absorbing history packed with more plotting than an episode of The Borgias. * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisFor readers of Graham Robb and Simon Schama, this elegantly written, vivid chronicle of Paris during the Belle Epoque brings to life some of best-known characters and buildings of the era, and shows how closely the fears and anxieties of the early 19th century mirror our own today

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Book Synopsis''A fascinating book . . . Bhaskar is a reassuringly positive and often witty guide''Observer''A fascinating, must-read book covering a vast array of topics from the arts to the sciences, technology to policy. This is a brilliant and thought-provoking response to one of the most critical questions of our age: how we will come up with the next generation of innovation and truly fresh ideas?''Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of DeepMind and Google VP''Have big ideas and big social and economic changes disappeared from the scene? Michael Bhaskar''s Human Frontiers is the best look at these all-important questions.''Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation and The Complacent Class''Michael Bhaskar explores the disturbing possibility that a complacent, cautious civilization has lost ambition and is slowly sinking into technological stagnation rather than accelerating into a magical future. He is calling foTrade ReviewA fascinating, must-read book covering a vast array of topics from the arts to the sciences, technology to policy. This is a brilliant and thought-provoking response to one of the most critical questions of our age: how we will come up with the next generation of innovation and truly fresh ideas? -- Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder, DeepMind; Google VPHave 'Big Ideas' and big social and economic changes disappeared from the scene? Michael Bhaskar's HUMAN FRONTIERS is the best look at these all-important questions -- Tyler Cowen, author of THE GREAT STAGNATION and THE COMPLACENT CLASSMichael Bhaskar explores the disturbing possibility that a complacent, cautious civilisation has lost ambition, and is slowly sinking into technological stagnation, rather than accelerating into a magical future. He is calling for bold, adventurous innovators to go big again. A fascinating book -- Matt Ridley, author of HOW INNOVATION WORKSMichael Bhaskar deftly delivers big ideas about big ideas ... HUMAN FRONTIERS is an admiring stroll through the history of ideas and an impressive display of innovation erudition -- Safi Bahcall, author of LOONSHOTS: NURTURE THE CRAZY IDEAS THAT WIN WARS, CURE DISEASES, AND TRANSFORM INDUSTRIESMichael Bhaskar's HUMAN FRONTIERS is a greatly welcome contrast to both doom-and-gloom and overly boosterish views of humanity's future. It combines a masterful breadth of social perspective with an impressive grasp of our problems and potential solutions. Visionary and convincing -- Christine Peterson, co-founder, Foresight InstituteBhaskar wants us to believe that big ideas, sometimes seized upon in an instant, propel humankind's progress. The thesis is boldly and elegantly stated; the examples work in its favor. This important book demands our answer -- Margaret C. Jacob, University of California, Los AngelesSweeping in scope and thought-provoking throughout, HUMAN FRONTIERS is vital for understanding every aspect of Big Ideas: their origins, their role in societal progress, and how we can make more of them ... A paean to curiosity, HUMAN FRONTIERS is essential reading for understanding how science and progress works, and how it can work in the future -- Samuel Arbesman, Scientist in Residence, Lux Capital; author of OVERCOMPLICATED and THE HALF-LIFE OF FACTSThe world's big ideas are slowing down, but it needn't be that way. Bhaskar brilliantly shows how we can do better. If you loved books like HUMANKIND and SAPIENS, you'll love HUMAN FRONTIERS -- David Bodanis, author of EINSTEIN’S GREATEST MISTAKE and THE ART OF FAIRNESSIdeas through history often reconfigure our world. But is this vital process slowing down and stagnating? With infectious enthusiasm and verve, Michael Bhaskar addresses these questions by taking us on an exhilarating grand tour of the history and future of big ideas. Bhaskar's inspiring call to arms, shining a bright and unflinching light on the challenges we face, is itself a reason to feel hopeful -- Ziyad Marar, author of JUDGED: THE VALUE OF BEING MISUNDERSTOODFull of fascinating stories and surprising insights, HUMAN FRONTIERS is one of the most exciting and thought-provoking books I've read in years. Only a genuine polymath like Michael Bhaskar could write a book as big and bold as this -- Roman Krznaric, author of THE GOOD ANCESTOR: HOW TO THINK LONG TERM IN A SHORT-TERM WORLDthe most important book that I have read in a long time. With a broadside of explosive arguments, superb examples that effortlessly jump from big science to literature and back again, and an unputdownable writing style, Michael Bhaskar explains why our civilization appears to have run out of big ideas. An essential read -- Mark Piesing, journalist and author of N-4 DOWN: THE HUNT FOR THE ARCTIC AIRSHIP ITALIAA brilliant, and brilliantly readable, survey of the frontiers of human ingenuity and how we might, just, think our way through the big challenges of the century ahead -- Professor Sir Geoff Mulgan, UCLA fascinating book . . . Bhaskar is a reassuringly positive and often witty guide * Observer *

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Book Synopsis''Impassioned, scholarly and succinct'' The TimesFREE SPEECH AND WHY IT MATTERSFree speech is the bedrock of all our liberties, and yet in recent years it has come to be mistrusted. A new form of social justice activism, which perceives language as potentially violent, has prompted a national debate on where the limitations of acceptable speech should be drawn. Governments throughout Europe have enacted ''hate speech'' legislation to curb the dissemination of objectionable ideas, Silicon Valley tech giants are collaborating to ensure that they control the limitations of public discourse, and campaigners in the US are calling for revisions to the First Amendment.However well-intentioned, these trends represent a threat to the freedoms that our ancestors fought and died to secure. In this incisive and fascinating book, Andrew Doyle addresses head-on the most common concerns of free speech sceptics, and offers a timely and robust defence of this most foundational of principles.Trade ReviewImpassioned, scholarly and succinct -- Dominic Maxwell * The Times *The primer that we have been needing for some time * Areo magazine *A fantastically timely book written by one of the smartest thinkers in Britain * Piers Morgan *A powerful, timely and sadly necessary book * Richard Dawkins *Doyle's book is terse, restrained, and as carefully argued as a QC's summing-up in a top-drawer courtroom drama . . . a beautifully balanced and comprehensive overview * The Critic *

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Book Synopsis''A stunning book, a powerful investigation, utterly compelling,'' James Holland, The Daily Telegraph, Five stars''Terrifying'' Simon SchamaPonar, Lithuania. 1944. The Nazis have enslaved Jewish men to exhume and incinerate the bodies of more than 70,000 Jews previously shot to death in the forest. Trapped in almost unimaginable horror, a group develop an audacious escape plan. Despite being guarded day and night, they dig a tunnel with their bare hands. Twelve men escape - an act of great bravery and desperation as well as extraordinary imagination.Based on first-person accounts of the escapees and on every scrap of evidence that has been documented, repressed or amplified since, No Road Leading Back resurrects the lives of the twelve and their acts of witness, as well as providing an urgent analysis of why their story has rarely been told - and never accurately. Author Chris Heath explores the cultural use and misuse of Holocaust testimony and the need for us to face uncomfortable historical truths with honesty and accuracy.This shattering and inspiring true story of prisoners who dug their way out of torture and imprisonment by the Nazis is both a stunning escape narrative and an object lesson in how we remember and continually forget the particulars of the Holocaust.

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Book SynopsisEavesdropping on Jane Austen''s England explores the real England of Jane Austen''s lifetime. It was a troubled period, with disturbing changes in industry and agriculture and a constant dread of invasion and revolution. The comfortable, tranquil country of her fiction is a complete contrast to the England in which she actually lived. From forced marriages and the sale of wives in marketplaces to boys and girls working down mines or as chimney sweeps, this enthralling social history reveals how our ancestors worked, played and struggled to survive. Taking in the horror of ghosts and witches, bull baiting, highwaymen and the stench of corpses swinging on roadside gibbets, this book is a must-read for anyone wanting to discover the genuine story of Jane Austen''s England and the background to her novels.

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Book SynopsisBy now everyone knows the basic facts of China''s rise to pre-eminence over the past three decades. But how did this erstwhile sleeping giant finally manage to arrive at its current phase of dynamic growth? How did a century-long succession of failures to change somehow culminate in the extraordinary dynamism of China today? By examining the lives of eleven influential officials, writers, activists and leaders whose contributions helped create modern China, Wealth and Power addresses these questions. This fascinating survey moves from the lead-up to the first Opium War through to contemporary opposition to single-party rule. Along the way, we meet titans of Chinese history, intellectuals and political figures. By unwrapping the intellectual antecedents of today''s resurgent China, Orville Schell and John Delury supply much-needed insight into the country''s tortured progression from nineteenth-century decline to twenty-first-century boom. By looking backward iTrade ReviewWealth and Power offers everything readers might expect from its two eminent authors. It is both sweeping and specific, authoritative and lively, sympathetic and critical, offering the perspective of both the hedgehog and the fox. The hardest challenge in writing about China, or finding things to read about it, is perceiving significant patterns while remaining aware of the chaos and contradictions. Orville Schell and John Delury meet that challenge in exemplary form. I only wish that they'd written the book years ago, so that (along with other readers) I could have been taking advantage of its insights all along -- James Fallows The Atlantic A brilliantly original and essential book: the road map to China's quest for national salvation. This is a story of ideas and the vibrant figures who shaped them: rebels, thinkers, and rivals, united by the quest for reinvention. It is required reading for anyone seeking to understand China's motives and the future of global competition, and is, quite simply, a pleasure to read. Vivid, literate, and brimming with insights, Wealth and Power deserves to become a classic -- Evan Osnos New Yorker In Wealth and Power, their crisp and comprehensive introduction to the history of modern China, historians Orville Schell and John Delury present us with the historical background we need to understand the driving mechanism that lies at the center of China today. By no longer presenting China's past two centuries as a record of recurrent failures and humiliations, they give us a portrait of a nation in the making, and of leaders with the skills and determination to redirect China's energies on a global scale. The change of perspective is valuable and challenging -- Jonathan D. Spence, author of The Search for Modern China

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Book SynopsisCOROMANDEL. A name which has been long applied by Europeans to the Northern Tamil Country, or (more comprehensively) to the eastern coast of the Peninsula of India.This is the India highly acclaimed historian Charles Allen visits in this fascinating book. Coromandel journeys south, exploring the less well known, often neglected and very different history and identity of the pre-Aryan Dravidian south. During Allen''s exploration of the Indian south he meets local historians, gurus and politicians and with their help uncovers some extraordinary stories about the past. His sweeping narrative takes in the archaeology, religion, linguistics and anthropology of the region - and how these have influenced contemporary politics. Known for his vivid storytelling, for decades Allen has travelled the length and breadth of India, revealing the spirit of the sub-continent through its history and people. In Coromandel, he moves through modern-day India, discovering as much about the present as he does about the past.Trade ReviewCoromandel is lively and its stories well chosen * The Economist *An engaging and meaningful account of a very long and complex history * Times Literary Supplement *A writer whom India as well as Britain should be proud to call its own, this account is seductive and convincing * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisA bullet misses its target in Sarajevo, a would-be Austrian painter gets into the Viennese academy, Lord Halifax becomes British prime minister in 1940: seemingly minor twists of fate on which world-shaking events might have hinged.Alternative history has long been the stuff of parlour games, war-gaming and science fiction, but over the past few decades it has become a popular stomping ground for serious historians. Richard J. Evans now turns a critical, slightly jaundiced eye on the subject. Altered Pasts examines the intellectual fallout from historical counterfactuals. Most importantly, Evans takes counterfactual history seriously, looking at the insights, pitfalls and intellectual implications of changing one thread in the weave of history.Trade ReviewUnfailingly interesting -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times *A stimulating, thought-provoking and in places quite humorous book that will be of interest to professional and lay readers alike * Times Higher Education Supplement *His critique is eloquent and lively, without rancour or cruelty -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto * The Times *Characteristically pugnacious -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Prospect *Evans is at his best when dissecting the motives of right-wing thinkers * SFX *Wide-ranging polemic . . . Evans is at his best on questions of historical causation . . . Altered Pasts brings an impressive historical intelligence to bear on what are too often dismissed as parlour games * Sunday Telegraph *Evans is ruthless, forensic and totally convincing in demolishing this pretext, finding instead an even greater determinism, where the autonomous actions of a handful of great men set in motion enormous, immutable forces * Guardian *The place of Richard Evans in modern historiography - a distinguished place - is assured * Times Literary Supplement *One of the most important and prolific historians of our time . . . Altered Pasts provides much food for thought, not only for professional historians but also for general readers interested in how and why history is written in certain ways. Intelligent, lucid and engaging * Irish Times *A good read, which stimulates further reflection about the nature of history * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisThe questions have haunted our nation for half a century: Was the President killed by a single gunman? Was Lee Harvey Oswald part of a conspiracy? Did the Warren Commission discover the whole truth of what happened on November 22, 1963?Philip Shenon, a veteran investigative journalist who spent most of his career at The New York Times, finally provides many of the answers. Though A CRUEL AND SHOCKING ACT began as Shenon''s attempt to write the first insider''s history of the Warren Commission, it quickly became something much larger and more important when he discovered startling information that was withheld from the Warren Commission by the CIA, FBI and others in power in Washington. Shenon shows how the commission''s ten-month investigation was doomed to fail because the man leading it - Chief Justice Earl Warren - was more committed to protecting the Kennedy family than getting to the full truth about what happened on that tragic day. A taut, page-turning narrativTrade ReviewWith meticulous rigour and the sure-handed storytelling of a gifted thriller writer . . . Shenon's careful delineation of the limits of the facts is more necessary than ever * Metro *A masterful piece of modern history * Independent *Compelling * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisIn this fascinating and enlightening collection of essays, one of the most important historians of our time reflects on the ways our understanding of Nazi Germany have been transformed in the twenty-first century. Richard Evans examines new historical perspectives on the Third Reich, such as showing how it is increasingly viewed in a broader international - even global - context, as part of the age of imperialism. He investigates how Nazi policies in Europe drew on Hitler''s image of the American colonisation of the Great Plains, how companies like Volkswagen and Krupp operated on a global scale and - perhaps most controversial of all - how historians have come to see the Holocaust not as a unique historical event but as a genocide with parallels and similarities in other countries and at other times. THE THIRD REICH IN HISTORY AND MEMORY explores how these new perspectives have brought dividends, but also offers a critical perspective on the ways they are changing our perc

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Book SynopsisAt the beginning of each decade for 200 years the national census has presented a self-portrait of the British Isles.The census has surveyed Britain from the Napoleonic wars to the age of the internet, through the agricultural and industrial revolutions, possession of the biggest empire on earth and the devastation of the 20th century''s two world wars.In The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker, Roger Hutchinson looks at every census between the first in 1801 and the latest in 2011. He uses this much-loved resource of family historians to paint a vivid picture of a society experiencing unprecedented changes.Hutchinson explores the controversial creation of the British census. He follows its development from a head-count of the population conducted by clerks with quill pens, to a computerised survey which is designed to discover ''the address, place of birth, religion, marital status, ability to speak English and self-perceived national identity oTrade ReviewA quirky mix of broad-sweep history and fascinating nuggets of fact or biography . . . Hutchinson traces the real-life social changes behind Flora Thompson's Lark Rise novels, winkles out Britain's longest-lived citizens and its most prolific mother (Mary Jonas, who bore 33 children before dying aged 85 in 1899). But beneath these eye- catching incidental details lie deeper swells -- Nick Curtis * Evening Standard *A warm-hearted book about a uniquely British triumph, a resource of a depth unrivalled anywhere in the world . . . His achievement, beneath the joy of the detail, teeming with Dickensian energy, is to suggest that the census is also a story of enterprise, vision, trust and reliability - a force of enlightenment. This is not a dense book. Rather it is light, wry and compassionate * The Times *Compelling . . . Hutchinson's book is a sobering reminder of how often we have ignored facts and listened to panic merchants * Sunday Telegraph *Using the census records as the basis for a history of Britain is clearly an excellent idea for a book. Even so. Roger Hutchinson has carried it out particularly well . . . Happily, too. he manages to do this without the result ever becoming merely a blizzard of statistics. Admittedly, if you have ever wondered how many Brits made artificial flowers for a living in 1851. then here's where you'll find out. (Spoiler alert: it was 3.510.) Yet Hutchinson's sharp eye for the telling detail, his deft use of individual stories to illustrate the wider trends and his willingness to throw in any vaguely related facts that he (rightly) thinks we might find interesting make this a book to read with much pleasure * Spectator *Filled with interesting titbits, the book burrows into the official records to present a story that is sometimes uplifting and, at others, brutally stark * i *Absorbing . . . uplifting * Scotsman *Roger Hutchinson combines the history of the census itself with what the census can tell us about British society over the past 200 years, in a remarkably entertaining way * Times Literary Supplement *This combination of personality and wider perspective, character study and big history, makes for a compelling read. * History Revealed *so rich in personality and character that we are left wondering where those stories of marriage, migration and ambition went next. Hutchinson can weave a fine tale * BBC History *Outstanding . . . This is a quite splendid piece of research . . . The private evidence of futility is quietand compelling. Hard, bright anecdote and exhausted futility stand proud - memorially! The vainglory of war, butalso of ingenuity and courage ultimately lit up death, and are magnificently served in this calm and brilliant narrative -- Edward Pearce * Tribune *Fascinating . . . what it tells us about who we are is simply priceless * Mail on Sunday *Enthralling * Readers Digest *

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Book SynopsisIt is often assumed that the national identity must be a matter of values and ideas. But in Robert Winder''s brilliantly-written account it is a land built on a lucky set of natural ingredients: the island setting that made it maritime; the rain that fed the grass that nourished the sheep that provided the wool, and the wheat fields that provided its cakes and ale. Then came the seams of iron and coal that made it an industrial giant.In Bloody Foreigners Robert Winder told the rich story of immigration to Britain. Now, in The Last Wolf, he spins an English tale. Travelling the country, he looks for its hidden springs not in royal pageantry or politics, but in landscape and history.Medieval monks with their flocks of sheep . . . cathedrals built by wool . . . the first shipment of coal to leave Newcastle . . . marital contests on a village green . . . mock-Tudor supermarkets - the story is studded with these and other English things.And it starts

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Book SynopsisAn immensely impressive, authoritative history of the Irish diaspora''A richly detailed, scholarly and challenging history'' Sunday Times''Impressive, provocative and perception-tilting... it''s indispensable'' Irish Independent''Essential reading for understanding how the people of Ireland shaped the world'' Belfast TelegraphOn Every Tide explores both an Irish story and a chapter in world history. Irish emigrants fled a society blighted by poverty and lack of opportunity, seeking new lives in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. In doing so they became part of a massive population movement that has shaped the modern world. What distinguishes the Irish from tens of millions of other European immigrants is the position they established in their new homes. Initially treated as a despised and exploited underclass, they created a commanding position, in politics, in the labour movement, and, by the twentieth century, as cultural icons. Drawing on the latest ground-breaking research, and Sean Connolly''s career-long engagement with the complexities of Irish identity, On Every Tide addresses wider, contemporary debates about migration, as well as offering a unique and distinctive view of two hundred years of Irish history.Trade ReviewA richly detailed, scholarly and challenging history of the Irish diaspora.... challenges conventional wisdom - and captures the emigrant struggle for power and prosperity * Sunday Times *A brilliant and thorough account of a formative part of the Irish experience... [Connolly] brings to this, his first work of popular history, the same ability to describe his subjects in their own terms * Tablet *An absorbing, lucid and sometimes harrowing account * Daily Telegraph *A masterwork of Irish diaspora history and immigration studies * Kirkus *Rich in detail and well researched, this is essential reading for understanding how the people of Ireland shaped the world * Belfast Telegraph *'An impressive [...] feat of scholarship and research -- Andrew Lynch * Business Post *One of the great migrations in history... Sean Connolly, an expert in the field, offers an accessible and impressively lucid overview * Literary Review *Impressive, provocative and perception-tilting... This is an exhaustive, yet never exhausting, historical account of the multi-faceted story of the Irish diaspora... For Irish history buffs, it's indispensable * Irish Independent *Stylish and lucid, this intrepid and provocative book traces in a manner at once bold and nuanced the movements of Irish migrants across space and time over the past two centuries. Sean Connolly is alert to the complex fate of victims, exploiters, soldiers of fortune or the merely footloose, who used the wide world to explore themselves. In his analysis, imaginative audacity is tempered only by sound scholarly scruple. A work of unprecedented synthesis which is magisterial and informed, yet whose challenge to conventional wisdom will generate animated debate for years to come. -- Declan Kiberd, University of Notre DameOn Every Tide, is the first comprehensive history of the Irish diaspora from pre-famine times to the present. This remarkable book, which is both readable and scholarly, ranging from North America and Britain to South America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, highlights the diversity of the Irish diaspora: Protestant and Catholic, unionist and nationalist, and their different experiences in the places where they settled. -- Mary E. Daly, professor at University College DublinConnolly draws on an impressive array of primary evidence, including census records, personal testimonies, and popular fiction, without getting bogged down in statistics and minutiae... a seamless and well-rounded study * Publishers Weekly *Wide-ranging... based on Sean Connolly's long-standing research and takes us from the grim realities of the famine years through to the present day... bringing the story full circle * Family Tree Magazine *A provocative and at times audacious challenge to this [narrative], Connolly examines the complexity of Irish identity and reassesses the lived experience of Irish immigrants... He doesn't pull his punches * Irish Examiner *Connolly employs extensive research to weave an engaging account of emigration from Ireland... an authoritative but accessible and illuminating read * Who Do You Think You Are Magazine *

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Book Synopsis''Brilliant, hilarious... My book of the year'' INDIA KNIGHT''A wonderful book'' CRAIG BROWN, Mail on Sunday''Funny, bloodcurdling and moving'' Daily MailThe cruel teachers. The pashes on other girls. The gossip. The giggles. The awful food. The homesickness. The friendships made for life. The shivering cold. Games of lacrosse, and cricket. ''The girls'' boarding school! What a ripe theme for the most observant verbal artist in our midst today - the absurdly undersung Ysenda Maxtone Graham, who has the beadiness and nosiness of the best investigative reporter, the wit of Jane Austen and a take on life which is like no one else''s. This book has been my constant companion ever since it appeared'' A.N. WILSON, Evening StandardTrade ReviewBrilliant, hilarious... My book of the year * India Knight *Funny, bloodcurdling and moving... this will make old boarding-school girls sigh with nostalgia, and everyone else sigh with relief at having avoided the experience * Daily Mail *The girls' boarding school! What a ripe theme for the most observant verbal artist in our midst today - the absurdly underrated and undersung Ysenda Maxtone Graham, who has the beadiness and nosiness of the best investigative reporter, the wit of Jane Austen and a take on life which is like no one else's. This book has been my constant companion ever since it appeared a few months ago * Evening Standard *A rich read... Ysenda Maxtone Graham has drawn aside the curtain on the hermetic, arcane world of the mid-twentieth-century girls' boarding school, which we all believed to be weird, but few of us - unless we were there - realized was as eccentric, hilariously funny, cruel, terrifying, snobbish, rapturous and emotionally intense as the profoundly outlandish environment portrayed in these pages... Terms & Conditions is a funny, vivid and excruciating book, which has left me filled with admiration for the brave, damaged survivors of this lost world * The Times *If you think the St Trinian's films were fictitious, then this wonderful book will surely convince you that they were documentaries * Mail on Sunday *Sparklingly good * Evening Standard *This vivid, vivacious and poignant look at how boarding school life used to be is as engaging as it is educational -- Eithne Farry * Sunday Express *A scintillating history of the mid-twentieth century girls' boarding school... this is by far the most entertaining book I have read this year -- D.J. Taylor * Oldie *This vivid study of life at girls' boarding schools between 1939 and 1979 is both hilarious and poignant * Country Life *

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Book SynopsisThe Roman army was the greatest fighting machine the ancient world produced. The Roman Empire depended on soldiers not just to win its wars, defend its frontiers and control the seas but also to act as the engine of the state. Roman legionaries and auxiliaries came from across the Roman world and beyond. They served as tax collectors, policemen, surveyors, civil engineers and, if they survived, in retirement as civic worthies, craftsmen and politicians. Some even rose to become emperors. Gladius takes the reader right into the heart of what it meant to be a part of the Roman army through the words of Roman historians, and those of the men themselves through their religious dedications, tombstones, and even private letters and graffiti. Guy de la Bédoyère throws open a window on how the men, their wives and their children lived, from bleak frontier garrisons to guarding the emperor in Rome, enjoying a ringside seat to history fighting the emperors'' wars, mutinying ovTrade ReviewGladius makes for a richly researched, detailed and plausible portrait, warts and all, bang up to date with the latest archaeological finds, and a highly enjoyable read throughout -- Christopher Hart * Sunday Times *A remarkably precise picture of life in the Roman army - how the men were armed and billeted, what they ate, drank, wore, how they were promoted or punished, how they built their great, straight roads, what they did for sexual relief * Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisLion City tells the extraordinary story of Singapore - the world''s most successful city state. In 1965, Singapore''s GDP per capita was on a par with Jordan. Now it has outstripped Japan. After the Second World War and a sudden rupture with newly formed Malaysia, Singapore found itself independent - and facing a crisis. It took the bloody-minded determination and vision of Lee Kuan Yew, its founding premier, to take a small island of diverse ethnic groups with a fragile economy and hostile neighbours and meld it into Asia''s first globalised city. Jeevan Vasagar, former Singapore correspondent for the Financial Times, masterfully takes us through the intricate history, present and future of this unique diamond-shaped island one degree north of the equator, where new and old have remained connected. Lion City is a personal, insightful and essential guide to the city, and how its remarkable rise is shaping East Asia and the rest of the worlTrade ReviewUnexpectedly moving...a good introduction for the general reader suddenly turns to questions of love, grief, deceit and identity -- Sholto Byrnes * The TLS *Vasagar gives Singapore a fair-and detailed-shake * Asian Review of Books *A comprehensive look at the sleek city-state that strongman Lee Kuan Yew forged into a model society of authority and order. * Kirkus Reviews *[An] enlightening look at how Singapore has become what it is today. * Washington Independent Review of Books *

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Book Synopsis''Taylor Downing is a wonderful historian and a wonderful history communicator'' Dan Snow, History Hit''Vividly brings to life a terrible year'' Max Hastings, Sunday Times''Sheds intriguing light on just how close Churchill was to losing his grip on power'' Publishers WeeklyIn 1942, Britain stood at the brink of defeat. From the collapse in Malaya and the biggest surrender in British history at Singapore to the passing of three large German warships through the Straits of Dover in broad daylight and the longest ever retreat through Burma to the gates of India, a string of military disasters engulfed Britain in rapid succession. People began to claim that Churchill was not up to the job and his leadership was failing badly. Public morale reached a new low.In 1942: Britain at the Brink, Taylor Downing charts the frustration and despair that characterised this year. Most people think that Britain''s worst Trade ReviewTaylor Downing vividly brings to life a terrible year -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *Taylor Downing is a wonderful historian and a wonderful history communicator. -- Dan Snow * History Hit *A revealing study... Downing sheds intriguing light on just how close Churchill was to losing his grip on power * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisA RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK''An impressive amalgamation of scholarly research with popular history'' The Times''An evocative account of an era of epic riches and ruthlessness'' History Revealed''De la Bédoyère has not just an archaeologist''s eye for accuracy but also a broadcaster''s nose for a colourful story'' Radio TimesFor more than two centuries Egypt was ruled by the most powerful, successful and richest dynasty of kings in its long and epic history. They included the female king Hatshepsut, the warrior kings Thutmose III and Amenhotep II, the religious radical Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti, and most famously of all for the wealth of his tomb the short-lived boy king Tutankhamun. They presided over a system built on war, oppression and ruthlessness, pouring Egypt''s wealth into grandiose monuments, temples and extravagant tombs. But the power and riches of the Pharaohs of the 18th DynaTrade ReviewAn impressive amalgamation of scholarly research with popular history * The Times *A scrupulous yet accessible history of ancient Egypt under the 18th dynasty... Complemented by striking illustrations and valuable appendices, this impressive survey will be welcomed by ancient history buffs * Publishers Weekly *Superb... de la Bédoyere lays out the elusive history of Egypt's 18th dynasty * Library Journal *Packed with big names, from Tutankhamun to Nefertiti, and de la Bédoyere sets their stories alongside those of the populations they so often exploited... Along the way, he offers an evocative account of an era of epic riches and ruthlessness * History Revealed *De la Bédoyere tells the story with not just an archaeologist's eye for accuracy but also a broadcaster's nose for a colourful story... His book is peppered with lively details * Radio Times *

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Book SynopsisA highly readable history of the stock market crash of 1929, and the depression that followed itTrade Reviewa concise, lively study of the Depression * TIME OUT *A lively and readable account of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the worldwide depression that followed * IRISH TIMES *

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Book SynopsisThe first instalment of Rebel Takes, On the Future of Food explores global legacies of ownership of and access to food in the past and present - and how we can reconstruct this relationship.

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Book SynopsisYou may not think that a history book could make you laugh, but Kennedy/O'Mara's THE AMERICAN PAGEANT, 18th Edition, just might. It's known for being one of the most popular, effective and entertaining texts on American history. Colorful anecdotes, first-person quotations and the authors' trademark wit bring history to life. Learning aids make the book as accessible as it is enjoyable. Part openers and chapter-ending chronologies provide a context for the major periods in American history, while primary sources and introductions to key historical figures give you a front row seat to the nation's past and place today's debates in historical context.

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Book SynopsisFrom the dawn of civilization to the modern dilemmas of nation building in Africa and the Middle East, Duiker/Spielvogel's WORLD HISTORY, 10th Edition, takes a fascinating look at the common challenges and experiences that unite the human past and inform the future. The text uses colorful visuals, maps and dramatic first-hand historical accounts to give you an insightful perspective on the human experience over time. The easy-to-read narrative is organized around seven major themes (Science and Technology, Art and Ideas, Family and Society, Politics and Government, Earth and the Environment, Religion and Philosophy and Interaction and Exchange). Important to all cultures from all time periods, these themes help you understand the course of world history and make connections across chapters.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisSince independence in 1947 India has remained a stable and functioning democracy in the face of enormous challenges. Amid a variety of interlinking contraries and a burgeoning media one of the largest in the world there has been a serious dearth of scholarship on the role of journalists and dramatically changing journalism practices. This book brings together some of the best known scholars on Indian journalism to ask questions such as: Can the plethora of privately run cable news channels provide the discursive space needed to strengthen the practices of democracy, not just inform results from the ballot boxes? Can neoliberal media ownership patterns provide space for a critical and free journalistic culture to evolve? What are the ethical challenges editors and journalists face on a day-to-day basis in a media industry which has exploded? In answering some of these questions, the contributors to this volume are equally sensitive to the historical, social, and cultural context inTable of ContentsIntroduction: Democracy, civil society, and journalism in India 1. Indian Journalism in the Colonial Crucible: a nineteenth-century story of political protest 2. Popular Cinephilia in North India: Madhuri shows the way (1964-78) 3. A Media Not for All: A comparative analysis of journalism, democracy and exclusion in Indian and South African media 4. Phantom Journalism: Governing India’s proxy media owners 5. Shaming the Nation on Public Affairs Television: Barkha Dutt tackles colorism on We the People 6. Playing Reporter: Small-town women journalists in north India 7. The Potential and Limitations of Citizen Journalism Initiatives: Chhattisgarh’s CGNet Swara 8. Connecting Activists and Journalists: Twitter communication in the aftermath of the 2012 Delhi rape 9. How Well do India’s Multiple Language Dailies Provide Political Knowledge to Citizens of this Electoral Democracy? 10. Our Media, Our Principles: Building codes of practice for community radio in India

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