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An ambitious, revisionist and wide-ranging account of the centuries-old relationship between Islam and Europe, from the Moorish invasion of Spain to the present, for readers of Peter Frankopan, Mary Beard and William Dalrymple.
Political intrigue and treachery, heroism and brutal violence victory and defeat – all this is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, an epic account of one of the pivotal episodes in English history embroidered on a strip of linen. Famously, it shows the stricken Anglo-Saxon king Harold dying on the battlefield of Hastings in 1066 amid a shower of arrows, as axes clash, spears fly and fallen warriors are trampled beneath charging hooves. However, there is much more to this remarkable historical and artistic treasure, which tells its tale with an intensity and immediacy that speak to our modern world, almost 1,000 years after its creation. David Musgrove and Michael Lewis skilfully lead us through the full story of the Tapestry and the history it relates, providing illuminating insight into a world of fascinating details that might otherwise be overlooked or their significance missed.
Writer and journalist Peter Stephan Jungk tells the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, his great-aunt, informed by lived experience and years of research into her mysterious and enigmatic life and career. With The Darkrooms of Edith Tudor-Hart he paints a vivid portrait of one of the most important Austrian-British photographers of the twentieth century.
Emily, Countess Cowper – born Hon. Emily Lamb – was a dazzling, ambitious force in Regency society. Raised amid the glamour and scandal of high society, with Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as her godmother and Lord Byron among her admirers, she thrived in a world of duels and intrigue. After her marriage to Earl Cowper faltered, she embarked on notable affairs, eventually marrying the charismatic Lord Palmerston. More than a society beauty, Emily wielded formidable political influence, helping engineer the premierships of her brother, Lord Melbourne, and Palmerston. In Downing Street she acted as adviser, speechwriter and strategist for the Whig cause, championing reform from women’s rights to abolition. A real-life inspiration for Bridgerton’s Cressida Cowper, Emily became one of the most powerful women in England – shaping history from behind the scenes.
A riveting and deeply researched account of King Juan Carlos’s epic fall from grace.
A respected historian of the British Empire closes the chasm between how the British see themselves and how they are actually seen abroad. The United Kingdom is a country that evokes strong opinions but frequently escapes rigorous definition. Seen from the outside, it is a wildly contradictory place. One of the world’s strongest economies, where inequality is rampant. Famous for its pageantry and traditions, but selective about remembering its imperial past. By diving into its many paradoxes, Helene von Bismarck reveals why the political debate in – and, internationally, about – the United Kingdom has for years been driven by people who talk past, rather than with, each other. This title explores and challenges the way the British see themselves, their political and constitutional system and their role in the world – encouraging readers to leave our echo chambers and look through new eyes at this complex and sometimes bewildering countr
The greatest empire in Western history – told as never been told before. Rome is often remembered for its spectacular collapse. But for over two thousand years – through civil wars, plagues, invasions, and religious upheaval – the Roman state survived, adapted, and reinvented itself. From a muddy settlement on the banks of the Tiber to the glittering court of Constantinople, this is the untold story of a civilisation that endured. Acclaimed historian Edward J. Watts tells a truly complete history of Rome in all its epic sweep: the Punic Wars, the fall of the republic, the coming of Christianity, Alaric’s sack of Rome, the rise of Islam and the onslaught of the Crusaders who would bring about the empire’s end.
There are fewer than 5000 people who can genuinely claim to be members of the British aristocracy, and yet they loom large in the popular consciousness. We’re fascinated by their houses and estates, their lives and loves, their foibles and eccentricities. And we entertain the strong suspicion that, while they may be fellow citizens, they are very far from being people like us. In this book, Eleanor Doughty draws on her unparalleled access to a bewildering range of dukes, duchesses, earls and others to create a vivid picture of who they are and how they tick.
Dressed in armour and clutching a bloody sword, the Roman gladiator is the most iconic figure of the ancient world. Both fascinating and repulsive to us now, he was in his own time a deeply controversial character, by turns hated and idealized – and always at the heart of Roman culture. But what did he really mean to the Romans? What did they see in the gladiator and the spectacle of the games? And what does he reveal to us today about the Roman way of life? Brilliantly written and meticulously researched, this book tells the stories of the gladiators and those who observed them – from grand emperors to lowly slaves – illuminating and analysing the all-consuming passion of the Roman Empire for the spectacle of mortal combat. In doing so, it reveals Roman ideas about everything from freedom and servitude to sex and desire, from courage and cowardice to death and the afterlife.
A gripping, persuasive and authoritative account of Britain's tumultuous relationship with Europe.
The acclaimed historian of Russia offers his compelling analysis of a dramatic turning point in recent Russian history: the August Coup of 1991.
Summer, 1940. Winston Churchill watches in horror as France falls to the Germans in just six weeks, completing the Nazi conquest of mainland Europe. He faces an urgent question: what will happen to France’s mighty navy? Under German control it presents a major threat to Great Britain, and could mark a point of no return. With the Nazis closing in and time running out, Churchill ordered Operation Catapult. By the end of one of the most agonising but necessary military operations of the war, a large part of the French navy would be destroyed and nearly 1,300 French sailors would be dead, a number which would haunt all involved for the rest of their lives. Based on extensive new archival research, rediscovered eyewitness accounts and reflections from the private papers of the key protagonists, ‘A Hateful Decision’ tells the full story of the British attack on the French navy at Mers el Kébir, on 3 July 1940.
What do we leave behind when we move to a new place – and what do we carry with us, physically and emotionally, wherever we land? Here are the voices of people who have come to Britain to make a new life: a Czech-Roma lawyer in Reading, an Iranian taxi driver in Shropshire, a Sierra Leonean actor in Northampton, a Romanian police officer in Edinburgh. Colin Grant has travelled the country and listened to their stories – foundational tales of arriving in a new land, along with rarely spoken stories of love and loss. Together, these accounts ask questions about assimilation, identity, belonging and the emotional cost of migration in twenty-first-century Britain.
Eleni put an arm around him and said: ‘Come, come, life is ahead of us. Raise your soul now. We have much to do’. This is a book about how the great forces of history shape us – and how world-famous political activist Yanis Varoufakis was inspired by the resilience and the courage of his family, from his mother Eleni and grandmothers Anna and Trisevgeni, to his partner Danae. It is both an intimate portrait of a political awakening and a dramatic sweep through Greece’s history of post-colonial independence, Nazi occupation, communist partisan resistance, Cold War fracture, civil war, fascist dictatorship, socialist revival and tumultuous present-day economic collapse.
A compelling dual biography of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle that shines new light on two of the greatest figures of the twentieth century.
Weimar looms large in German history: a crucible of democracy and dictatorship. This ancient town nestled in the heart of the country was home to some of Europe’s greatest thinkers, Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Nietzsche among them. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest. This book shows us a town and its people on the edge of catastrophe. Drawing on a wealth of new archival research, historian Katja Hoyer takes us from 1919 to 1939 as she tells the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler’s regime. We encounter a vividly drawn cast of characters, from bookbinder Carl Weirich and hotel owners Rosa and Arthur Schmidt, to Friedrich Nietzsche’s sister Elisabeth.
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