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'A brilliant book . . . stories that still resonate today' Professor Alice Roberts, bestselling author History loves a villain. Across the entire span of human civilisation, certain people and groups have been identified as being responsible for the ills of the world, and have remained hated for...

Eric Hobsbawm traces with brilliant anlytical clarity the transformation brought about in every sphere of European life by the Dual revolution - the 1789 French revolution and the Industrial Revolution that originated in Britain. This enthralling and original account highlights the significant 60 years when industrial capitalism established itself in Western Europe and when Europe established the domination over the rest of the world it was to hold for half a century.

Bloomsbury presents The Thistle and The Rose by Linda Porter, read by Alix Dunmore. Margaret Tudor, the elder sister of her more famous brother Henry VIII, is the single most important Tudor figure of this era that historians have consistently overlooked. Married at thirteen to the charismatic...

No. 1472 was the third of a class of steam locomotives that was eventually to number 79 engines, and did not originally even carry a name. The Great Northern Railway A1 4-6-2, though, was the biggest express steam engine ever to have been seen in Britain at the time. It was chosen to be displayed at a major exhibition at Wembley in 1924, and for this it was given the name Flying Scotsman.

Bloomsbury presents this Unabridged recording of The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple, read by Sagar Arya In May 1857 India’s flourishing capital became the centre of the bloodiest rebellion the British Empire had ever faced. Once a city of cultural brilliance and learning, Delhi was reduced...

Bloomsbury presents The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan, read by Mike Grady. The No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller – a major reassessment of world history in light of the economic and political renaissance in the re-emerging east For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in...

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE From National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer comes the gripping story of Pope Pius XI’s secret relations with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. This groundbreaking work, based on seven...

In Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, one of our very best writers brings the opulent world of the Tudors to bloody, glittering life. It is the backdrop to the rise and rise of Thomas Cromwell: lowborn boy, charmer, bully, master of deadly intrigue, and, finally, most powerful of Henry VIII’s coutiers. But the bloody theatre of Cromwell’s ascension will leave no one unscathed. 

Brought to you by Penguin. Devour the latest epic tale of ancient Greece and Sunday Times top 5 bestseller from the author of War of the Roses. On the plains of Marathon an army of slaves gathers . . . Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army - swollen by 10,000 Immortal...

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Saul David's comprehensive history, All The King's Men: The British Soldier from the Restoration to Waterloo, read by the actor Sean Barrett. "The British soldier," wrote a Prussian officer who served with Wellington, "is vigorous, well fed, by...

Brought to you by Penguin. REVEALED FOR THE FIRST TIME: THE TRUE STORY OF THE DECEPTION OF PRINCESS DIANA The death of Princess Diana in August 1997 was one of the most shocking events in recent history. Many events surrounding the tragedy have been shrouded in mystery, in particular the BBC...

A queen's death and a king's coronation. Rising mass media and declining public morals. Splits in all the major political parties and a new wave of social activism. War abroad and strikes at home. Welcome to Edwardian England. When Queen Victoria died in 1901 it was the end of an era. Britain's...

The six-month battle for Monte Cassino was Britain's bitterest and bloodiest encounter with the German army on any front in World War Two. At the beginning of 1944 Italy was the western Allies' only active front against Nazi-controlled Europe, and their only route to the capital was through the...

The stories of two undercover agents: the man known as Stakeknife, Force Research Unit (FRU) agent and deputy head of the IRA’s infamous ‘Nutting Squad’, the internal security force which tortured and killed suspected informers; and Brian Nelson, who worked for the FRU, aiding loyalist terrorists and murderers in their bloody work. The inside story on: – How the British Secret Service uses informers – The recruitment, briefing and handling of spies – Murders and set-ups in Northern Ireland.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE The original bestseller from the beloved author of UNDERLAND, LANDMARKS and THE LOST WORDS - Robert Macfarlane travels Britain's ancient paths and discovers the secrets of our beautiful, underappreciated landscape 'The Old Ways...

The Book of Margery Kempe is the extraordinary account of a medieval wife, mother, and mystic from Norfolk. Having married in c. 1393, given birth to 14 children, and pursued unsuccessful ventures in brewing and milling, Kempe made a vow of chastity and embarked on a life of prayer, penance, and pilgrimage.

1179. Henry II is King of England, Wales, Ireland, Normandy, Brittany and Aquitaine. The House of Plantagenet reigns supreme. But there is unrest in Henry's house. Not for the first time, his family talks of rebellion. Ferdia - an Irish nobleman taken captive during the conquest of his homeland - saves the life of Richard, the king's son. In reward for his bravery, he is made squire to Richard, who is already a renowned warrior. Crossing the English Channel, the two are plunged into a campaign to crush rebels in Aquitaine. 

A Bridge Too Far is Cornelius Ryan’s masterly chronicle of the Battle of Arnhem, which marshaled the greatest armada of troop-carrying aircraft ever assembled and cost the Allies nearly twice as many casualties as D-day. In this compelling work of history, Ryan narrates the Allied effort to end the war in Europe in 1944 by dropping the combined airborne forces of the American and British armies behind German lines to capture the crucial bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem. Focusing on a vast cast of characters, Ryan brings to life one of the most ill-fated operations of the war.

For three decades one of the most secretive units in the British military has been a mystery force known as X Platoon. Officially there was no X Platoon. The forty men in its elite number were specially selected from across the Armed Forces, at which point they simply ceased to exist. X Platoon had no budget, no weaponry, no vehicles and no kit - apart from what its men could beg, borrow or steal from other military units. For the first time a highly decorated veteran of this specialised force - otherwise known as the Pathfinders - reveals its unique story.

SOLDIER, ESCAPER, SPYMASTER, POLITICIAN – Airey Neave was assassinated in the House of Commons car park in 1979. Forty years after his death, Patrick Bishop’s lively, action-packed biography examines the life, heroic war and death of one of Britain’s most remarkable 20th century figures...