Janina Ramirez (Author)
From the bestselling author of FEMINA, a brilliant reappraisal of the medieval women whose lives have been exploited over centuries for political, nation-building ends.
In LEGENDA, bestselling historian Professor Janina Ramirez peels back the layers of time to reveal how the lives of women have been co-opted by those intent on crafting national identities. Their names are well known, and summaries of their achievements have been recited in classrooms for decades, but medieval women like Joan of Arc, Lady Godiva and Isabella of Castile have been misrepresented, their stories twisted and weaponised. Meanwhile, ground-breaking 18th- and 19th-century women who blazed a trail through revolutionary Europe have been forgotten, their legacies too easily dismissed or ignored.
Questioning established narratives and searching for the real women behind the legends, Ramirez interrogates what defines a nation and who gets to build it, shining a light on how history is so often hijacked to serve the ideological and political interests of the present.
PRAISE FOR JANINA RAMIREZ:
'Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character' DAN SNOW, host of History Hit
'Skillfully brings out from the shadows the lives of women who ruled, fought, traded, created, and inspired' CAT JARMAN, author of River Kings
'Like the interlace stonework on an Anglo-Saxon cross, Janina Ramirez's themes are interwoven with a conssumate skill' TOM HOLLAND, author of Dominion and host of The Rest is History
'Ramirez makes us look into the mists of history in new, exciting and provocative ways' PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads
Hallie Rubenhold (Author)
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
The new page-turning, feminist retelling of the historical true-crime story of infamous wife-murderer Dr Crippen, brought to justice by an extraordinary group of women.
FROM THE AWARD-WINNING, SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR OF TRUE CRIME SENSATION THE FIVE: THE WOMEN KILLED BY JACK THE RIPPER, WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION.
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'Thoughtful, humane, gripping. The kind of popular history you devour in one sitting' Sunday Times, Dominic Sandbrook
'A finely layered portrait of a hypocritical Edwardian society’ Financial Times
'An exceptional achievement. I was gripped from the very first page' The Secret Barrister, Sunday Times bestselling author
‘I couldn't put it down' Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
'Under her pen, history comes alive' Professor Dame Sue Black
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No murderer should ever be the keeper of their victim's story …
On 1 February, 1910, vivacious music-hall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends, the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild who demanded an immediate investigation.
They could not have known what they would provoke: the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime suspect: Belle’s husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen.
Hiding in the shadows of this evergreen tale is Crippen’s typist and lover, Ethel Le Neve – was she really just ‘an innocent young girl’ in thrall to a powerful older man as so many people have since reported?
In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold gives voice to those who have never properly been heard – the women.
Featuring a carnival cast of eccentric entertainers, glamorous lawyers, zealous detectives, medics and liars, STORY OF A MURDER is meticulously researched and multi-layered, offering the reader an electrifying snapshot of Britain and America at the dawn of the modern era.
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PRAISE FOR STORY OF A MURDER:
'Gripping and eye-opening' I-news, Book to Watch Out For
'Reads like a great thriller. I inhaled it' Bella Mackie, bestselling author of How to Kill Your Family
'A unique combination of sleuthing, storytelling and compassion' Lucy Worsley, bestselling author and historian
'Fascinating. It's about time Belle became the hero of her own story' Val McDermid, bestselling author of the Karen Pirie series
'As compelling as any crime drama' S J Parris, bestselling author of the Giordano Bruno series
'I had my hand over my wide-open mouth…I can’t recommend it more: I will be thinking about it for a very long time. Rachel Joyce, bestselling author of The Homemade God
'Takes us beyond the world of Dr Crippen into the lives impacted by him and the society in which he moved. Terrific' Ian Rankin, bestselling author of the Rebus series
'Compelling to the very last page' Denise Mina, award-winning author of Reese’s Book Club pick, Conviction
'Does for the Crippen Murder case what THE FIVE did for the victims of Jack the Ripper. Forensic research and insistent sympathetic writing. I loved it' PROFESSOR DAVID WILSON, BBC 1, The Crime
Squad
'Breathtaking. Rubenhold has not only produced a thrilling reassessment of a notorious crime, but an impressive portrait of an age' Spectator
David Mitchell (Author)
This will be the most refreshing, entertaining history of England you'll have ever read.
Certainly, the funniest.
Because David Mitchell will explain how it is not all names, dates or ungraspable historical headwinds, but instead show how it's really just a bunch of random stuff that happened with a few lucky bastards ending up on top. Some of these bastards were quite strange, but they were in charge, so we quite literally lived, and often still live, by their rules.
It's a great story. And it's our story. If you want to know who we are in modern Britain, you need to read this book.
Neil Price (Author)
The 'Viking Age' is traditionally held to begin in June 793 when Scandinavian raiders attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria, and to end in September 1066, when King Harald Hardrada of Norway died leading the charge against the English line at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. This book, the most wide-ranging and comprehensive assessment of the current state of our knowledge, takes a refreshingly different view. It shows that the Viking expansion began generations before the Lindisfarne raid, and traces Scandinavian history back centuries further to see how these people came to be who they were. The narrative ranges across the whole of the Viking diaspora, from Vinland on the eastern American seaboard to Constantinople and Uzbekistan, with contacts as far away as China. Neil Price takes us inside the Norse mind and spirit-world, and across their borders of identity and gender, to reveal startlingly different Vikings to the barbarian marauders of stereotype. He cuts through centuries of received wisdom to try to see the Vikings as they saw themselves - descendants of the first human couple, the Children of Ash and Elm.
Terry Deary (Author)
The surprisingly sadistic Boudica would be forgotten if it weren't for the Ninth Legion, Elizabeth I a minor royal without the Spanish Armada, and Churchill an opposition windbag without the Nazis. Britain loves its heroes so much we have been known to pickle them in brandy to keep them fresh. And after all, every nation sometimes needs a bit of unifying Blitz spirit (although in an ideal world, we wouldn’t have accidentally let Corporal Hitler go in the first place).
Britain and the British have a proud history of choosing their enemies, from the Romans to the Germans. You might even say they made Britain what it is today...
Bart van Es (Author)
The last time Lien saw her parents was in the Hague, where she was collected at the door by a stranger and taken away to be hidden from the Nazis. She was raised by her foster family as one of their own, but a falling out after the war put an end of to their relationship. What was her side of the story, Bart van Es - a grandson of the couple who looked after Lien - wondered? What really happened during the war, and after? So began an investigation that would consume and transform both Bart's life and Lien's. This is an astonishing portrait of a young girl's struggle to survive war, and her powerful, tumultuous and painful ties with her foster family.
Ben Macintyre (Author)
In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, has a vision for a new kind of war: attacking the enemy where they least expect it - from behind their own lines.
Despite the intense opposition of many in British High Command, Winston Churchill personally gives Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he can find. And so begins the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS.
With unprecedented access to the SAS secret files, unseen footage and exclusive interviews with its founder members, SAS: Rogue Heroes tells the remarkable story behind an extraordinary fighting force, and the immense cost of making it a reality.
Zeinab Badawi (Author)
Discover the ground-breaking, must-read history of Africa, the Sunday Times bestseller charting the epic story of the oldest inhabited continent in the world from the perspectives of Africans themselves. Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards
Picked as a best paperback by the Sunday Times, Guardian and I paper
Radio 4 Book of the Week
As recommended on The Rest is Politics
Everyone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone. For too long, Africa’s history has been dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, or simply ignored. Now, award-winning journalist and broadcaster Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight. In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history – from the origins of humanity, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence.
Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, Badawi weaves together a gripping new history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.
Praise for An African History of Africa:
‘Fascinating, thought-provoking and entertaining’ Sunday Times
‘Dazzling . . . A book that feels long-overdue’ Vogue
‘Authoritative and compelling’ BBC History
‘Both a tour d'horizon and a tour de force, marvellously readable and beautifully written . . . I cannot recommend it too strongly or praise it too highly’ Professor Sir David Cannadine
‘Remarkable’ Margaret Busby CBE
‘Epic, magnificent, brilliant’ Professor Kate Williams
