Non-Secondhand Books

A vivid journey around England's great seaside resorts, exploring their history and current struggle, and what they reveal about England, from the award-winning author of Love of CountryEngland's seaside is...

'My book of the year. It's personal, historical, political, and it speaks to where we are now. This is the book I've been waiting for - for years' Benjamin Zephaniah'A...

'Deeply researched and written with verve... thoughtful as well as action packed' The Times'Gripping, moving and important' Simon Sebag Montefiore'Agent Zo is a triumph. Absolutely essential reading' Hallie RubenholdThis is...

Pompeii explodes a number of myths - from the very date of the eruption, probably a few months later than usually thought; the hygiene of the baths which must have...

A Time Travellers Guide to Ancient Rome - by one of the best historians of the ancient worldLiving in ancient Rome was superbly and vividly recorded by Rome's historians, philosophers,...

For seventy years, Queen Elizabeth ruled over an institution and a family. During her lifetime she was constant in her desire to provide a steady presence and to be a...

A Time Travellers Guide to Ancient Rome - by one of the best historians of the ancient worldLiving in ancient Rome was superbly and vividly recorded by Rome's historians, philosophers,...

From Elephant and Castle to Southwark, from London Bridge to Westminster, Black History Walks takes you to historic locations around the city of London and gives in-depth historical context for...

'Excellent ... much to ponder' - Financial TimesIn 1945, Europe lay in ruins - its cities and towns destroyed by conflict, its economies crippled, its societies ripped apart by war...

FEATURING A BRAND NEW CHAPTER ON KING CHARLES III AND HIS CORONATION'Fascinating' The Times'Tantalising' Telegraph The gripping account of how the royal family really operates. Valentine Low, royal correspondent for...

By the summer of 1704 Louis XIV's vast armies dominated Europe. France defeated every alliance formed against her and Louis was poised to extend his frontier to the Rhine and...

This is the story of how Thomas Day, a young man of means, decided he could never marry a woman with brains, spirit or fortune. Instead, he adopted two orphan...

Louis Greig, a war hero and rugby international, entered the privileged world of the British royal family as mentor, physician and friend to a young and hesitant Prince Albert, the...

From the bestselling author of Chums comes an explorer's tale of a naif getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel city.Simon Kuper has experienced Paris both as...

Towards the end of the Second World War, Lali Horstmann and her husband Freddy, a retired diplomat and art collector, were living at Kerzendorf, an elegant eighteenth-century house with a...

The author relies to a great extent on contemporary accounts of a large number of British men and women who were unwittingly caught up in this appalling war. As well...

An acclaimed historian examines postwar migration's fundamental role in shaping modern Europe Migration is perhaps the most pressing issue of our time, and it has completely decentered European politics in...

Although Marcus Junius Brutus is one of the most famous, or infamous, conspirators of Rome and the ancient world, if not of all time, knowledge of this historical figure has...

From the eighteenth century onwards, the ancient Greek writer Thucydides (c 460 - c 395 BCE) was viewed as the most important classical historian. He was acclaimed not only as...

In 1840, conflict within the Ottoman Empire gave rise to a serious all-European crisis which led to a diplomatic rupture between France and other Great Powers. The crisis was given...

She came to the throne in 1952 when Britain had a far-flung empire, sweets were rationed, mums stayed home and kids played on bombsites. Seventy years on, everything has changed...

In 1375, Sir William Cantilupe was found murdered in a field outside of a village in Lincolnshire. As the case progressed, fifteen members of his household were indicted for murder,...

By 1918, after three years of war, Europe was weary of the stalemate and the terrible slaughter on the Western Front. The Russian Front had collapsed but the United States...

On 3 September 1650 Oliver Cromwell won a decisive victory over the Scottish Covenanters at the Battle of Dunbar - a victory that is often regarded as his finest hour...

1815 was the year of Waterloo, the British victory that ended Napoleon's European ambitions and ushered in a century of peace for Britain. But what sort of country were Wellington's...

Though images of women were ubiquitous in the Roman world, these were seldom intended to be taken simply at face value. The importance of marriage, motherhood and political stability was...

A study of the clash between the Roman Empire and the barbarians beyond its imperial frontiers from the viewpoints of four of the major ethic groups on the borders of...

This book is a concise, readable introduction to the Greek author Thucydides, who is widely regarded as one of the foremost historians of all time. Why does Thucydides continue to...

Many books have been written on the Second Punic War and Hannibal in particular but few give much space to his campaigns in the years from 213 203 BC. Most...

As Stuart Laycock's book All the Countries We've Ever Invaded: and the Few We Never got Round to shows, the British have not been backward in coming forward when it...

From the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, Eastern Europe has been a battleground between the East and the West and a region of...

Jonathan Swift was internationally acclaimed in his own time for "Gulliver's Travels" and other satires in verse and prose. In his native Ireland, however, he was most fervently admired as...

The period 1300-1600 CE was one of intense and far-reaching emotional realignments in European culture. New desires and developments in politics, religion, philosophy, the arts and literature fundamentally changed emotional...

Upon publication in 2001, Russia's First Civil War by Chester Dunning was greeted by scholars as a "historical tour de force," the first major post-Marxist reassessment of the Time of...

Since the 1920s, an endless flow of studies has analyzed the political systems of fascism, theseizure of power, the nature of the regimes, the atrocities committed, and, finally, the wars...

Author: Michael Blanding Format: Hardback Number of Pages: 480 The true story of a self-taught sleuth's quest to prove his eye-opening theory about the source of the world's most famous...

Take a walk on the dark side of the street in this unique exploration of the fears and desires at the heart of the British Empire, from the Regency dandy's...

The fifty-odd years of Scottish history dominated by the Jacobite Risings are amongst its most evocative and whilst the last battle, Culloden in 1746, is deservedly remembered as a national...

Since the 1920s, an endless flow of studies has analyzed the political systems of fascism, theseizure of power, the nature of the regimes, the atrocities committed, and, finally, the wars...

The remarkable story of the foreigners who volunteered to join the guerrilla war against Germans and Fascists in World War II Italy. The fighters included Britons, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders,...

This book focuses on the Ashburnham Pentateuch, an early medieval illuminated manuscript of the Old Testament whose pictures are among the earliest surviving and most extensive biblical illustrations. Dorothy Verkerk...

The 'great man' of later Greek historical thought is the long product of traceable changes in ancient ideas about the meaning and impact of an individual life. At least as...

Thucydides was the chronicler of the almost 30-year long Peloponnesian war, which came to a close with Sparta's victory over Athens in 404 BC. His famous historical work was preserved,...

In the first ground breaking volume of a new series, acclaimed Napoleonic scholar Gareth Glover, brings together previously unpublished material relating to the Battle of Waterloo. The hitherto unseen material...

`Belfast Transport' is the story of public transport in Belfast from the horse buses of the 1860s to the Metro buses which were introduced in 2005. It is a fascinating...

Author: F. P. Wilson Format: Hardback Number of Pages: 294

Author: John Julius Norwich Format: Hardback Number of Pages: 336 The greatest living chronicler of Venetian history brings to life the city's magical charm in a beautifully illustrated and captivating...

A highly readable review of some 700 years of avian exploitation. The way wild birds have been exploited over the centuries forms the focus of this remarkable new book by...