History

  • Witchcraft

    £20.00

    A lively and immersive global history of witchcraft which shows its evolution from the Middle Ages to the present day and shines a light on the stories of the victims, told in thirteen trials. 
     
     

  • No free parking

    £9.99

    From the medieval cobbles, through Dickensian iron and fog, to the neon lights and bustle of the twenty-first century, the ever-changing streets of London map out the vibrant stories, triumphs and struggles of everyone who ever called London home. From the Roman and Celts marching along the ancient Old Kent Road, to the rattling newspaper presses of Fleet Street, the game of Monopoly has painted London’s story across cheerful coloured tiles. In a city of rags and riches, where folk hero Dick Whittington believed the streets were paved with gold, anything could happen – and everything has. You may think you know the history of London. You don’t. Or at least, not entirely. This is the story of the capital as you’ve never, quite, heard it before.

  • Foreign bodies

    £30.00

    An epic story of humanity’s struggle against pandemics from the renowned historian and broadcaster

  • Great hatred

    £10.99

    A gripping investigation into one of Irish history’s greatest mysteries, ‘Great Hatred’ reveals the true story behind one of the most significant political assassinations to ever have been committed on British soil.

  • Colditz

    £10.99

    In a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their Nazi captors. Or so the story of Colditz has gone, unchallenged for 70 years. But that tale contains only part of the truth. The astonishing inside story is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of snobbery, class conflict, homosexuality, bullying, espionage, boredom, insanity and farce. With access to an astonishing range of material, Ben Macintyre reveals a remarkable cast of characters of multiple nationalities hitherto hidden from history, with captors and prisoners living for years cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse.

  • 1923

    £25.00

    The astonishing story of the critical year 1923 – the year when the French illegally and brutally occupied Germany’s economic heartland, the Ruhr; when hyperinflation wrought havoc with the German economy and plunged millions into poverty; and when Hitler staged his abortive yet pivotal putsch in a Munich beer hall. This period saw the rise of nationalism as the intra-European consensus broke down, populist rhetoric translated into actual violence on the streets and the forces of liberalism underestimate the strength of their enemies. Publishing in the centenary of this extraordinary year, this is the account of a global moment when so much changed and which has so many terrifying lessons for the world today.

  • The limits of genius

    £22.00

    Here is a hilarious look at how the line between ‘genius’ and ‘extremely lucky idiot’ is finer than we’d like to admit. The more you delve into the stories behind history’s greatest names, the more you realise they have something in common – a mystifying lack of common sense. Take Marie Curie, famous for both discovering radioactivity and having absolutely zero lab safety protocols. Or Lord Byron, who literally took a bear with him to university. Or James Glaisher, a hot-air balloon pioneer who nearly ended up as the world’s first human satellite. From Nikola Tesla falling in love with a pigeon to non-swimmer Albert Einstein’s near-fatal love of sailing holidays, ‘The Limits of Genius’ is filled with examples of the so-called brightest and best of humanity doing, to put it bluntly, some really dumb shit.

  • Miss Willmott’s ghosts

    £10.99

    Ellen Ann Willmott was a remarkable woman whose achievements in horticulture, botany, landscape architecture, photography and more, should have made her one of the most well-known trailblazers of her age. Yet, both posthumously and within her lifetime, she instead became known as a bitter, cantankerous and eccentric miser, and her reputation has been forever stained by the image of her maliciously seeding other people’s gardens with thorns. The beginnings of this prickly myth can be traced back to her conspicuous absence at what should have been the pinnacle of her career: the Royal Horticultural Society’s inaugural Victoria Medal of Honour Award ceremony, at which she was due to be one of only two female recipients. Universally difficult and mean as she has been portrayed ever since. Sandra Lawrence has been granted access to her archives, and with it has uncovered the secrets behind this thorniness.

  • Johnson at 10

    £25.00

    In this gripping work of contemporary history, one of Britain’s leading political and social commentators maps Boris Johnson’s time in power across ten decisive moments and sheds light on the most divisive and inscrutable prime minister since Margaret Thatcher. Based on major interviews with key aides and allies, Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell give the first account of Johnson’s explosive time in office.

  • Tempest

    £25.00

    A major new history of the Royal Navy during the tumultuous age of revolution

  • The women who saved the English countryside

    £10.99

    A vibrant history of English landscape preservation over the last 150 years, told through the lives of four remarkable women

  • The stories old towns tell

    £20.00

    A fascinating journey through Europe’s old towns, exploring why we treasure them-but also what they hide about a continent’s fraught history

Nomad Books