History

Published on 01/09/2015: It is time for a new book about bog bodies: the number of known bodies is growing. Lindow Man, the famous (read more)

Published on 01/09/2015: It is time for a new book about bog bodies: the number of known bodies is growing. Lindow Man, the famous Pete Marsh discovered in Cheshire in the 1980s, has been joined by new finds from Ireland and elsewhere. Who were these unfortunate people, and why were they killed? Archaeologists, armed with the latest analytical techniques, are today investigating these cold cases to reveal much about our distant past.

Forensic science allows us to deduce the age, physical condition, status, cause and time of death of these ancient victims, helping to answer the fundamental questions that they pose: were these people executed, simply murdered, or victims of human sacrifice? Who selected them? Who delivered the killing blow, and why? Drawing on all the latest evidence and research, Miranda Aldhouse-Green has written an engrossing detective story, uncovering the hidden truths behind these murder mysteries. (hide)

Border Fury provides a fascinating account of the period of Anglo-Scottish Border conflict from the Edwardian invasions of 1296 until (read more)

Border Fury provides a fascinating account of the period of Anglo-Scottish Border conflict from the Edwardian invasions of 1296 until the Union of the Crowns under James VI of Scotland, James I of England in 1603. It looks at developments in the art of war during the period, the key transition from medieval to renaissance warfare, the development of tactics, arms, armour and military logistics during the period. All the key personalities involved are profiled and the typology of each battle site is examined in detail with the author providing several new interpretations that differ radically from those that have previously been understood. (hide)

Britain fought in the Second World War to save the world from fascism. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau (read more)

Britain fought in the Second World War to save the world from fascism. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler came the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya - a massive armed rebellion by the Kikuyu people, demanding the return of their land and freedom. The draconian response of Britain's colonial government was to detain nearly the entire Kikuyu population of one-and-a half-million: to hold them in camps or confine them in villages ringed with barbed wire, to treat and portray them as sub-human savages.

From 1952 until the end of the war in 1960 tens of thousands of detainees - and possibly hundreds of thousands - died from the combined effects of exhaustion, disease, starvation and systemic physical brutality. Until now these events have remained untold, largely because the British government in Kenya destroyed most of its files. For the last eight years Caroline Elkins has conducted exhausted research to piece together the story, unearthing reams of documents and interviewing several hundred Kikuyu survivors. (hide)

The British Empire had a rich, varied and controversial history, commonly perceived to have spanned 500 years from the era of Columbus (read more)

The British Empire had a rich, varied and controversial history, commonly perceived to have spanned 500 years from the era of Columbus and his voyages of discovery to the break up of the Empire after the Second World War. Many statements are made about this era that shaped our nation, but what are the stories behind these facts? Which are true and which are merely beliefs that have grown into fact? Jem Duducu takes us on a whirlwind tour of the Empire and its history, condensing the gigantic story into easy-to-read, bitesize sections. He examines some of the most important aspects of the Empire, from exploration and discovery in the era of Elizabeth I, to the Slave Trade, to the eventual decline after the Second World War.

A compact history book that is easy to pick up. You are guaranteed to impress your friends with your new-found knowledge. (hide)

BRIXMIS (British Commander-in-Chief's Mission to the Group Soviet Forces of Occupation in Germany) is one of the most covert elite (read more)

BRIXMIS (British Commander-in-Chief's Mission to the Group Soviet Forces of Occupation in Germany) is one of the most covert elite units of the British Army. They were dropped in behind `enemy lines' ten months after the Second World War had ended and continued with their intelligence-gathering missions until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. During this period Berlin was a hotbed of spying between East and West. (hide)

Pub Date:28/02/2015 - Napoleon Bonaparte is often credited with saying that 'an army marches on its stomach'. A hundred years after (read more)

Pub Date:28/02/2015 - Napoleon Bonaparte is often credited with saying that 'an army marches on its stomach'. A hundred years after his time, the soldiers of the Great War would do little marching. Instead, they would fight their battles from cold, muddy trenches, looking out across No Man's Land towards another set of trenches that housed the enemy.

It is one of the remarkable successes of the war that they rarely went hungry. During the war, the army grew from its peace-time numbers of 250,000 to well over 3 million. They needed three meals a day and, using the men's own letters and diaries, John Hartley tells the story of the food they ate, how it got to them in those trenches and what they thought of it. (hide)

Pub Date:28/01/2016 - 'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra (read more)

Pub Date:28/01/2016 - 'One of the great love stories of history, in a league with Napoleon and Josephine, and Antony and Cleopatra ...Excellent, with dazzling mastery of detail and literary flair' Economist It was history's most successful political partnership - as sensual and fiery as it was creative and visionary. Catherine the Great was a woman of notorious passion and imperial ambition. Prince Potemkin - wildly flamboyant and sublimely talented - was the love of her life and her co-ruler.

Together they seized Ukraine and Crimea, defining the Russian empire to this day. Their affair was so tumultuous that they negotiated an arrangement to share power, leaving Potemkin free to love his beautiful nieces, and Catherine her young male favourites. But these 'twin souls' never stopped loving each other. (hide)

A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings. Operation (read more)

A brand new history of the Dambusters raid from best-selling and critically acclaimed military historian, Max Hastings. Operation Chastise, the destruction of the Mohne and Eder dams in north-west Germany by the RAF's 617 Squadron on the night of 16/17 May 1943, was an epic that has passed into Britain's national legend. Max Hastings grew up embracing the story, the classic 1955 movie and the memory of Guy Gibson, the 24-year-old wing-commander who led the raid.

In the 21st Century, however, he urges that we should see the dambusters in much more complex shades. The aircrew's heroism was entirely real, as was the brilliance of Barnes Wallis, inventor of the `bouncing bombs'. But commanders who promised their young fliers that success could shorten the war fantasised as ruthlessly as they did about the entire bomber offensive.
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The modern Christmas was made by the Victorians and rooted in their belief in commerce, family and religion. Their rituals and traditions (read more)

The modern Christmas was made by the Victorians and rooted in their belief in commerce, family and religion. Their rituals and traditions persist to the present day but the festival has also been changed by growing affluence, shifting family structures, greater expectations of happiness and material comfort, technological developments and falling religious belief. Christmas became a battleground for arguments over consumerism, holiday entitlements, social obligations, communal behaviour and the influence of church, state and media.

Even in private, it encouraged reflection on social change and the march of time. Amongst those unhappy at the state of the world or their own lives, Christmas could induce much cynicism and even loathing but for a quieter majority it was a happy time, a moment of a joy in a sometimes difficult world that made the festival more than just an integral feature of the calendar: Christmas was one of British culture's emotional high points. Moreover, it was also a testimony to the enduring importance of family, shared values and a common culture in the UK. (hide)

Combining the latest scholarship with a highly readable style, Kathryn Tempest looks at Cicero the politician and orator, and the (read more)

Combining the latest scholarship with a highly readable style, Kathryn Tempest looks at Cicero the politician and orator, and the private man. On the back of his natural talent for oratory, Cicero set out on the path to a glorious reputation - his earliest speeches brought the name of Cicero out of the shadows and hurled him into the spotlight. Cicero was the first 'new man' in thirty years to reach the consulship; the fact that he managed to do so without bribery or violence makes his success even more remarkable.

His year of office witnessed events of such a scale that he was granted the extraordinary honour of the title 'pater patriae' - he was the father of his fatherland. Following the Civil War, and with renewed hopes for the restoration of the Roman Republic, Cicero launched a fierce attack on Mark Antony by delivering a series of speeches that cannot be matched for their vigour. It was these speeches that would be the cause of Cicero's death, and his death was to be as dramatic as his life. (hide)