About 	 Lucy Rycroft: Lucy is the founder of The Hope-Filled Family, a ministry encouraging Christian parents, carers and all those investing in the younger generation. She is the author of several books for adults and children, including Busy Family Devotional and the Mighty Girl, Mighty God series. She is mum to four children ages 11 to 16, who arrived by birth and adoption, and is married to Al, a church leader in York, England.

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A A Gill

About A D Swanston: Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

About A J Baime: A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

About A J Pollard: Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

About A K Benjamin: A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

About A L Berridge: A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

About A L Gaylin: Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

About A S Webb: A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

About A. A. Dhand / A. A. Dhand: A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

About A. B. Poranek / A. B. Poranek: A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

About A. C. Grayling / A. C. Grayling: Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

About A. D. Miller / A. D. Miller: A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
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Edward White

In February 1981 a 19-year-old nursery teacher’s assistant overnight became globally famous. In a frenzy of excitement, jumping every barrier of language and class, a new, overwhelming icon was conjured up. 
 
This is a guide to Dianaworld – the extraordinary hall-of-mirrors through which one young woman, the world’s media, the royal family, and everybody else stalked one another. Fashion-plate, breeder of heirs, role model, fantasy object, saint and sinner, Diana gripped the minds of millions of people in ways which were unique, complex and distressing. After her death, chased by paparazzi through a Paris traffic tunnel, an estimated 2.5 billion people watched her funeral. 
 
Edward White examines Princess Diana as the complex figure she was: a scion of a great aristocratic house, wife of the future king, mother of his heirs, an inspiration and delight to countless people for many years. And yet, of course: a human being inevitably and woefully underequipped either to deal with the horrors of the House of Windsor or control, or even lightly supervise, the Dianaworld she and others had created. This is a wonderful book, both admiring and incredulous, exuberant and melancholy.

Dianaworld

An Obsession

Gyles Brandreth

This is the intimate biography of our beloved Queen Elizabeth II, which tells the story of her remarkable life, reign and times, based upon unrivalled access to royal circles and from a perspective unlike any other. Gyles Brandreth writes the Queen's tale candidly with grace and sensitivity as someone close to the monarch, her husband Philip and the wider Royal family. 
 
Told with a refreshing dose of humour and moving honesty, Elizabeth is the must-have biography of the longest-serving monarch in English history, now complete with exclusive content about the 2023 coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Elizabeth

An intimate portrait from the writer who knew her and her family for over fifty years

Suetonius

The ancient Roman empire was the supreme arena, and to rule as a Caesar was to stand as an actor upon the great stage of the world. No biographies invite us into the lives of the Caesars more vividly or intimately than those by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, written from the centre of Rome and power, in the early 2nd century AD. 
 
That Rome lives more vividly in people's imagination than any other ancient empire owes an inordinate amount to Suetonius. Now award-winning author and translator Tom Holland brings us even closer in a new, spellbinding translation. Giving a deeper understanding of the personal lives of Rome’s first emperors, and of how they swayed the fates of millions, The Lives of the Caesars is an astonishing, immersive experience of a time and culture at once familiar and utterly alien to our own.

The Lives of the Caesars

Fern Riddell

'Weep with me for we all have lost the best, the truest heart that ever beat!' 
 
From the moment John Brown arrived as a servant to Queen Victoria's household, he became known across the land as her loyal companion, her fierce protector, and her right-hand man, their friendship immortalised in print and on-screen. But what if there was more to their relationship than we know? And what has history been hiding from us? 
 
In this passionate and provocative exploration of Victoria's private passions, the acclaimed historian Fern Riddell re-examines everything we thought we knew about one of Britain's most iconic women. A timeless romance and an extraordinary retelling of the emotional life of a queen, Victoria's Secret is an unmissable account of a woman in love.

Victoria's Secret

The Private Passion of a Queen

Russell Myers

From the relentless media scrutiny and controversies of their 2022 Caribbean Tour to the shock cancer diagnoses of both the Princess of Wales and the King, this captivating biography by acclaimed royal expert Russell Myers intimately traces the story of William and Catherine’s relationship from their earliest meeting at St Andrews University to the present day. 
 
Drawing on exclusive access to numerous palace insiders, it offers never-before-told context about the biggest stories to have followed the Prince and Princess of Wales in recent years – including the Sussex departure, the forming of the ‘Cambridge way,’ and the death of Queen Elizabeth II – and provides an unprecedented glimpse into their private lives. 
 
Highlighting the couple's resilience and dedication in the face of adversity, William and Catherine presents a deeply personal perspective on how the events the Prince and Princess have weathered together will shape their vision for a modern monarchy – as they set out to secure its safe continuation at a time of extreme change and turmoil.

William & Catherine

The Intimate Inside Story

Andy Webb

Andy Webb exclusively reveals the true extent of the deception Princess Diana experienced at the hands of BBC reporter Martin Bashir before giving her iconic 1995 Panorama TV interview, and how the cover-up that followed left the vulnerable princess to her fate. Andy Webb, the journalist who obtained the secret files that first broke the story, offers unrivalled insider access to the key players in a thrilling narrative spanning thirty years, from the moment Bashir made his first move in 1995 to the 2024 courtroom where Webb faced the BBC's elite legal squad to demand access to highly contested documents relating to the scandal. Filled with revelations that have not yet entered the public record, Dianarama will become a key part in the first draft of history.

Dianarama

The Betrayal of Princess Diana

Helen Castor

Richard of Bordeaux and Henry Bolingbroke were first cousins, born just three months apart. Their lives were from the beginning entwined. When they were still children, Richard was crowned King Richard II with Henry at his side: a ten-year-old lord in the service of his ten-year-old king. Yet they soon grew up to be opposites: Richard was the white hart, a thin-skinned narcissist, and Henry the eagle, a chivalric hero, a leader who inspired loyalty where Richard inspired only fear. Increasingly threatened by his charismatic cousin, Richard became consumed by the need for total power, and the stage was set for a final confrontation. This is a story about a nation brought to the brink of catastrophe – and two men whose lives were played out in parallel, to devastating effect.

The Eagle and the Hart

The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV

Clare Jackson

ames VI & I, who died 400 years ago, was one of Britain’s most consequential and interesting monarchs, not least in creating the British monarchy itself by joining the English and Scottish thrones. A major intellectual, James's preoccupations ranged from witchcraft and theological controversy to hunting, diplomacy, poetry and sartorial fashion. The 'Mirror of Great Britain' was a spectacular jewel that gave symbolic endorsement to James's vision of British union, but mirrors themselves — with their limitless capacity to magnify, illuminate and distort — supplied James with one of his favourite literary metaphors.Ruler of Scotland for nearly four decades before his accession to the English throne in 1603, James was a ‘cradle king’ whose long reigns encompassed extraordinary dramas, including his abduction in the ‘Ruthven Raid’ in 1582 and his attempted assassination in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. In his lifetime, James often confounded contemporaries’ expectations while his posthumous reputation has been distorted by crude stereotypes.Closely attentive to James’s own words — in numerous publications, manuscript musings, topical verse and private correspondence — Clare Jackson's wonderful new book tells the story of this highly unusual monarch with great flair and insight.

The Mirror of Great Britain

A Life of James VI & I

Estelle Paranque

A queen on the edge. 
 
Anne Boleyn has mesmerised the English public for centuries. Her tragic execution, orchestrated by her own husband, never ceases to intrigue. How did this courtier's daughter become the queen of England, and what was it that really tore apart this illustrious marriage, making her the whore of England, an abandoned woman executed on the scaffold? While many stories of Anne Boleyn's downfall have been told, few have truly traced the origins of her tragic fate. 
 
In Thorns, Lust and Glory, Estelle Paranque takes us back to where it all started: to France, where Anne learned the lessons that would set her on the path to becoming one of England's most infamous queens. At the court of the French king as a resourceful teenage girl, Anne's journey to infamy began, and this landmark biography explores the world that shaped her, and how these loyalties would leave her vulnerable, leading to her ruin at the court of Henry VIII. 
 
A fascinating new perspective on Tudor history's most enduring story, Thorns, Lust and Glory is an unmissable account of a queen on the edge.

Thorns, Lust and Glory

The betrayal of Anne Boleyn

Justine Firnhaber-Baker

One of the great epics of Europe's history, the story of the rise and rise of the Capetian dynasty dominates the Middle Ages. Starting in the tenth century from an insecure foothold around Paris, the Capetians built a nation that stretched from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and from the Rhône to the Pyrenees. They founded practices and institutions that endured until the Revolution, transformed Paris from a muddy backwater to a splendid metropole, and popularized the fleur-de-lys, the lily, as the emblem of France. Time and again, their opponents woefully misjudged who they were up against, as through guile, ruthlessness, luck and marriage the Capetians disposed of them all. 
 
This is their story, the story of the most powerful kingdom in Christendom. It is a tale of religious upheaval, heroism, adulterous affairs, holy wars, pogroms and persecution. From Hugh Capet to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Capetians were men and women of vision and ambition, who considered themselves chosen by God to fulfil a great destiny. If they were mistaken in their assumptions and merciless in their methods, in one respect they were right. They did not simply rule France: they created it. 
 
House of Lilies is a highly enjoyable, state-of-the-art account of this extraordinary sequence of events, set against one of the great eras in the history of western Europe, a time of remarkable cultural efflorescence. Justine Firnhaber-Baker brilliantly conveys not only the sheer glamour of the French court, but also the intellectual achievements, the battles and the centrality of religion, as well as the series of catastrophes that led to the dynasty's ultimate demise.

House of Lilies

The Dynasty that Made Medieval France

Livia Manera Sambuy

A lost princess and a vanished world: a remarkable true story that moves from the Punjab of the Raj to 1930s Paris and the Second World War 
 
‘Remarkable and compelling’ Edmund de Waal 
 
‘Thoroughly engaging’ Kamila Shamsie 
 
In a Mumbai museum in 2007, Livia Manera Sambuy encounters a photograph that will change her life forever. 
The caption claims that the Punjabi princess Amrit Kaur sold her jewels in occupied Paris to save Jewish lives, only to be arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp where she died within a year. 
 
For Livia, this marks the beginning of a compulsive search for the truth as she delves into the history of the British Raj, the diamonds and sapphires of the twentieth-century aristocracy, and the lives of extraordinary figures: bankers, jewellers, explorers and spies. 
 
‘An ambitious, absorbing work that peels back the layers of its enigmatic subject and digs deeply into the author's own emotional vicissitudes’ Jhumpa Lahiri 
 
‘A tantalizing true story . . . In Search of Amrit Kaur plunges into the glittery world of Indian royalty’ New York Times Book Review

In Search of Amrit Kaur

An Indian Princess in Wartime Paris

David Mitchell

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.

Unruly

A History of England's Kings and Queens

Marc Morris

This is the first major biography for a generation of a truly formidable king. Edward I is familiar to millions as 'Longshanks', conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace ('Braveheart'). Edward was born to rule England, but believed that it was his right to rule all of Britain. His reign was one of the most dramatic of the entire Middle Ages, leading to war and conquest on an unprecedented scale, and leaving a legacy of division that has lasted from his day to our own. 
 
In his astonishingly action-packed life, Edward defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort in battle; travelled across Europe to the Holy Land on crusade; conquered Wales, extinguishing forever its native rulers, and constructed - at Conwy, Harlech, Beaumaris and Caernarfon - the most magnificent chain of castles ever created. After the death of his first wife he erected the Eleanor Crosses - the grandest funeral monuments ever fashioned for an English monarch.

A Great and Terrible King

Edward I and the Forging of Britain

Leanda de Lisle

A myth-busting biography of Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, which retells the dramatic story of the civil war from her perspective 
 
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE 
 
Henrietta Maria, Charles I's queen, is the most reviled consort in British history. Condemned as the 'Popish brat of France' and a 'notorious whore', she remains in popular memory the woman who turned the king Catholic - so causing a civil war - and a cruel and bigoted mother. 
 
Leanda de Lisle unpicks these myths to reveal a very different queen. We meet a new bride who enjoyed annoying her uptight husband, who was a passionate advocate for the female voice in public affairs and who, when civil war came, proved crucial to Charles's campaign. The image of the Restoration queen as an irrelevant crone is replaced with Henrietta Maria as an influential 'phoenix queen'. It is time to look again at this despised queen and judge if she is not in fact one of our most remarkable. 
 
 
'Brilliantly written, mesmerising, superb scholarship and totally immersive... A total game changer' KATE WILLIAMS, author of Rival Queens 
 
'This is revisionist history at its absolute best' ANDREW ROBERTS author of Churchill 
 
'Beautifully written and endlessly fascinating' ALEXANDER LARMAN author of The Crown in Crisis 
 
'Popular history of the finest kind' RONALD HUTTON author of The Witch

Henrietta Maria

Conspirator, Warrior, and Phoenix Queen – the true story of Charles I’s wife

Conspirator, Warrior, Phoenix Queen

Jane Ridley

The prequel to The Crown: the first truly candid portrait of George V and Mary, the Queen's grandparents and creators of the modern monarchy 
 
Shortlisted for the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography prize and the History Reclaimed Book of the Year prize 
 
The lasting reputation of George V is for dullness. However throughout his reign, the monarch navigated a constitutional crisis, the First World War, the fall of thirteen European monarchies and the rise of Bolshevism. The suffragette Emily Davison threw herself under his horse at the Derby, he refused asylum to his cousin the Tsar Nicholas II and he facilitated the first Labour government. 
 
How this supposedly limited man steered the Crown through so many perils is a gripping tale. With unprecedented access to the Royal archives, Jane Ridley has been able to reassess the many myths associated with this dramatic period for the first time. 
 
'Wonderful... Never a dull paragraph' Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Times 
 
'Magnificent... An evocative and touching portrait of a surprisingly impressive man' Philip Hensher, Spectator 
 
'A big, beautiful beast of a book. Fair, thorough and unexpectedly funny' Lucy Worsley

George V

Never a Dull Moment

Joanne Paul

Was the House of Dudley out to steal the throne? 
 
This was the question on the mind of Elizabeth I's courtiers when a forbidden book accused generations of the Dudley family of poisonings, plottings, murders, treason, incitement and other 'evil stratagems.' 
 
For decades, the Dudleys had been close to the throne, rising from nobodies to the land's highest offices. Under Henrys VII and VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and, finally, Elizabeth, they risked execution and imprisonment as they audaciously stole, murdered and swindled in the name of the monarch. 
 
But were they loyally protecting the crown, or did they secretly covet it for themselves?

The House of Dudley

A New History of Tudor England. A TIMES Book of the Year 2022

'A story told with verve and passion' The Times, Book of the Week 
 
'An alternative and engaging biography...accessible and unpretentious' The Telegraph 
 
'A stunning portrayal of two of the most powerful women in European history' Tracy Borman 
 
'Exciting and compelling, packed full of tantalising details of diplomacy and court life, Paranque succeeds both in bringing history to life, but also in putting flesh on the bones of these two extraordinary women and rival queens' Kate Mosse 
 
'A smart and stylish portrait of two of Europe's most remarkable rulers, a compelling profile of female power and - that rarest of things - a truly original book about the Tudor period' Jessie Childs 
 
In sixteenth-century Europe, two women came to hold all the power, against all the odds. They were Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici. 
 
 One a Virgin Queen who ruled her kingdom alone, and the other a clandestine leader who used her children to shape the dynasties of Europe, much has been written about these iconic women. But nothing has been said of their complicated relationship: thirty years of friendship, competition and conflict that changed the face of Europe. 
 
 This is a story of two remarkable visionaries: a story of blood, fire and gold. It is also a tale of ceaseless calculation, of love and rivalry, of war and wisdom - and of female power in a male world. Shining new light on their legendary kingdoms Blood, Fire and Gold provides a new way of looking at two of history's most powerful women, and how they shaped each other as profoundly as they shaped the course of history. Drawing on their letters and brand new research, Estelle Paranque writes an entirely new chapter in the well-worn story of the sixteenth century.

Blood, Fire and Gold

The story of Elizabeth I and Catherine de Medici

Andrew Roberts

Andrew Roberts's magnificent new biography portrays George as intelligent, benevolent, scrupulously devoted to the constitution of his country and (as head of government as well as head of state) navigating the turbulence of eighteenth-century politics with a strong sense of honour and duty. He was a devoted husband and family man, a great patron of the arts and sciences, keen to advance Britain's agricultural capacity ('Farmer George') and determined that her horizons should be global. He could be stubborn and self-righteous, but he was also brave, brushing aside numerous assassination attempts, galvanising his ministers and generals at moments of crisis and stoical in the face of his descent - five times during his life - into a horrifying loss of mind. 
 
The book gives a detailed, revisionist account of the American Revolutionary War, persuasively taking apart a significant proportion of the Declaration of Independence, which Roberts shows to be largely Jeffersonian propaganda. In a later war, he describes how George's support for William Pitt was crucial in the battle against Napoleon. And he makes a convincing, modern diagnosis of George's terrible malady, very different to the widely accepted medical view and to popular portrayals. 
 
In presenting this fresh view of Britain's most misunderstood monarch, George III shows one of Britain's premier historians at his sparkling best.

George III

The Life and Reign of Britain's Most Misunderstood Monarch

James Patterson

At the age of thirteen, she became Lady Diana Spencer. 
 
At twenty, Princess of Wales. 
 
At twenty-one, she earned her most important title: Mother. 
 
As she fell in love, first with Prince Charles and then with her sons, William and Harry, the world fell in love with the young royal family - Diana most of all. 
 
With one son destined to be King and one needing to find his own way, she taught them lessons about royal tradition and also real life. 'William and Harry will be properly prepared,' Diana once promised. 'I am making sure of this.' 
 
Even after her tragic death, the strength of her love for her sons remains an enduring inspiration, not only for the two princes, but for the entire world.

Diana, William and Harry

Tina Brown

'Impeccable sources, historical heft and canny insights served up with a zingy wit. There are many royal biographers, but few as good as this. She turns gossip into the first draft of history.' TELEGRAPH 
_________________________________ 
'Never again', became Queen Elizabeth II's mantra shortly after Diana's death. More specifically, there could never be 'another Diana' - a member of the family whose global popularity upstaged, outshone, and posed an existential threat to the British monarchy. The Palace Papers reveals how the royal family reinvented itself after the traumatic years when Diana's blazing celebrity ripped through the House of Windsor like a comet. 
 
Tina Brown shows the Queen's stoic resolve as she coped with the passing of Princess Margaret, the Queen Mother and her partner for seven decades, Prince Philip, and triumphed in her Jubilee years even as the family dramas raged around her. She explores Prince Charles's determination to make Camilla his queen, the tension between William and Harry, the ascendance of Kate Middleton, the disgraced Prince Andrew, and Harry and Meghan's stunning decision to 'step back' as senior royals. Despite the fragile monarchy's best efforts, 'never again' seems fast approaching. 
 
Praise for The Palace Papers: 
'Clever, well-informed and disgustingly entertaining' THE TIMES 
'Eye-poppingly revealing' TELEGRAPH 
'Her prose has the swoosh of an enjoyably OTT ballgown' FINANCIAL TIMES 
'The most explosive royal book of the year' THE SUN 
'Scholarly and scandalous' INDEPENDENT

The Palace Papers

Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil

Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother's coffin as the world watched in sorrow-and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling-and how their lives would play out from that point on. 
 
For Harry, this is that story at last. 
 
Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness-and, because he blamed the press for his mother's death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight. 
 
At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn't find true love. 
 
Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple's cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . . 
 
For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Spare

Catherine Mayer

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller 
 
'Breathtaking' The Times 
 
'[The book that] made headlines around the world.' Independent 
 
The former Prince of Wales has lived his whole life in the public eye, yet he remains an enigma. He was born to be king, but he aims much higher. A landmark publication, Charles: The Heart of a King reveals Charles in all his complexity: the passionate views that mean he will never be as remote and impartial as his mother; the compulsion to make a difference and the many and startling ways in which the Prince and now King of the United Kingdom and fifteen other realms has already made his mark. 
 
The book offers fresh and fascinating insights into the first marriage that did so much to define him and an assessment of his relationship with the woman he calls, with unintended accuracy, his 'dearest wife': Camilla, now Queen Consort. We see Charles as a father and a friend, a serious figure and a joker. Life at court turns out to be full of hidden dangers and unexpected comedy. 
 
Now, updated and revised with a new preface and two new chapters - covering details of Harry and Meghan's exit and its implications, the cash-for-honours scandal, Prince Andrew, and more - this significant study reveals a monarchy threatened and a man in sight of happiness yet still driven by anguish and a remarkable belief system, a charitable entrepreneur, activist, agitator and avatar of the Establishment who just as often tilts against it. 
 
Based on multiple interviews with his friends and courtiers, palace insiders and critics, and rare access to Charles himself, before his kingship, this biography explores his philanthropy and his compulsive interventionism, his faith, his significant impact on politics and the philosophy that means when he seeks harmony he sometimes creates controversy. 
 
Gripping, at times astonishing, often laugh-out-loud, this is a royal biography unlike any other. 
 
'A must-read ... this important book is nothing short of a manual to our future King's world-view' GQ 
 
'A sustained piece of higher journalism' Independent

Charles: The Heart of a King

James Naughtie

James Naughtie examines the lives and impact of the men and women who have given the second Elizabethan Age its character 
 
As the longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II has presided over an era of tremendous social, political and cultural change. In 2012, to mark her Diamond Jubilee, Radio 4 looked back on the long span of her reign, and asked the public to choose high-profile public figures who have helped to define this New Elizabethan Age. Almost a thousand nominations poured in, and the final selection was decided by a panel of leading writers and historians, including Dominic Sandbrook, Bamber Gascoigne and Max Hastings. 
 
In this celebratory collection, distinguished broadcaster James Naughtie profiles 37 of these iconic individuals. They come from all walks of life - from artists and scientists like David Hockney and Francis Crick, to business legends such as Alan Sainsbury and Anita Roddick, politicians including Roy Jenkins, Tony Blair and Alex Salmond, and even a member of the Royal Family: Diana, Princess of Wales. Some are world-famous, others less well-known, and there are several surprising choices - and a few controversial ones. But all have made their mark on our nation, for good or ill. 
 
Here are fascinating portraits of mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, whose conquest of Everest was announced on the day of the Queen's coronation; Elizabeth David, the food writer who brought European cuisine to British tables; leading thinker on British culture, race and identity Stuart Hall; renowned English composer Benjamin Britten; the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee - and many more, whose achievements and influence will stand the test of time. Together, they shine a light on postwar Britain, illuminating how our society has evolved over the seven decades since Queen Elizabeth II's accession. 
 
Production credits 
Presented by James Naughtie 
Produced by James Cook, Sukey Firth, Clare Walker, Sarah Taylor, Alison Hughes, Poppy Goodheart and Kate Howells 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates: 
 
Edmund Hilary 11 June 2012 
Elizabeth David 12 June 2012 
Graham Greene 13 June 2012 
Michael Young 14 June 2012 
Vladimir Raitz 15 June 2012 
Francis Crick 18 June 2012 
Alan Sainsbury 20 June 2012 
Benjamin Britten 25 June 2012 
Dorothy Hodgkin 26 June 2012 
Alfred Denning 4 July 2012 
Paul Foot 5 July 2012 
Francis Bacon 6 July 2012 
Peter Hall 12 July 2012 
Terence Conran 13 July 2012 
Enoch Powell 16 July 2012 
Cicely Saunders 17 July 2012 
Basil D'Oliveira 19 July 2012 
Germaine Greer 23 July 2012 
Robert Edwards 24 July 2012 
Jack Jones 26 July 2012 
Talaiasi Labalaba 31 July 2012 
Jocelyn Bell Burnell 2 August 2012 
Roy Jenkins 3 August 2012 
Vivienne Westwood 6 August 2012 
Jayaben Desai 7 August 2012 
Stuart Hall 9 August 2012 
David Hockney 14 August 2012 
Ralph Robins 16 August 2012 
Anita Roddick 21 August 2012 
Norman Foster 22 August 2012 
Charles Saatchi 23 August 2012 
Goldie 24 August 2012 
John Hume/David Trimble 27 August 2012 
Tim Berners-Lee 29 August 2012 
Diana, Princess of Wales 30 August 2012 
Alex Salmond 31 August 2012 
Tony Blair 3 September 2012 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

The New Elizabethans

A BBC history of the Queen’s reign, told through its most notable characters

Joan Bakewell

Humphrey Carpenter

Francine Stock

Matthew Parris

Household names nominate leaders from the past for BBC Radio 4's Great Lives 
Since its inception in 2001, Great Lives has been one of Radio 4's most popular programmes, presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Francine Stock and Matthew Parris. The format is simple, but compelling: each week, a distinguished personality is invited to select an inspirational figure who has influenced them. Talking with the presenter and a guest expert, they assess the importance of their chosen candidate. 
 
This special collection, celebrating the programme's 20th birthday, comprises the very best episodes featuring leaders' lives, from the worlds of politics, religion, royalty, business and the military. Some are heroes, some tyrants, and several spark controversy. Among them AA Gill puts forward the case for Neville Chamberlain, Maxine Peake chooses Ellen Wilkinson, the Duke of Wellington is picked by Frederick Forsyth, and Leon Trotsky is selected by Christopher Hitchens in a hugely entertaining show that culminated in fireworks. In these cases, and many others, the life of the invited guest is as riveting as that of their subject - who wouldn't want to listen to Ken Livingstone discussing Robert Kennedy, George Monbiot champion Thomas Paine, and Trevor McDonald on Learie Constantine? 
 
From Nancy Dell'Olio on Lucrezia Borgia to Al Murray on Field Marshal Montgomery, these fascinating episodes showcase the lives of some of the most legendary figures from history, revealing their achievements and enduring influence and demonstrating why their greatness is undisputed. 
 
Episode list and date of first broadcast on BBC Radio 4: 
Robert Kennedy - 06/02/2009 
Henry V - 08/12/2009 
Richard Nixon - 17/08/2010 
Bernard Montgomery - 01/10/2013 
Richard III - 06/01/2015 
Elizabeth I - 18/08/2015 
Dag Hammarskjold - 23/08/2016 
Neville Chamberlain - 20/09/2016 
Gandhi - 26/12/2017 
David Lloyd George - 30/05/2003 
Queen Elizabeth 1 - 06/06/2003 
Machiavelli - 02/04/2004 
Thomas Paine - 23/04/2004 
Lyndon B Johnson - 07/05/2004 
Benjamin Disraeli - 28/05/2004 
Michael Collins - 01/10/2004 
Arthur Wellesly, the 1st Duke of Wellington - 03/06/2005 
Genghis Khan - 01/04/2005 
John Rockefeller - 06/05/2005 
Ronald Reagan - 27/05/2005 
Thomas Cromwell - 11/11/2005 
Leon Trotsky - 08/08/2006 
Eleanor Roosevelt - 22/08/2006 
Millicent Garrett Fawcett - 22/12/2006 
Julius Caesar - 25/05/2007 
George Washington - 02/10/2007 
Winston Churchill - 14/09/2010 
Rommel - 26/08/2014 
Ida B Wells - 19/08/2014 
Learie Constantine - 07/04/2015 
Abraham Lincoln - 26/01/2016 
Lucrezia Borgia - 12/04/2016 
Richard the Lionheart - 10/05/2016 
Dadabhai Naoroji - 27/09/2016 
Pope John XXIII - 24/01/2017 
Sitting Bull - 09/05/2017 
Emma of Normandy - 16/05/2017 
Constance Markievicz - 19/09/2017 
Ellen Wilkinson - 01/08/2017 
Daniel O' Connell - 19/12/2017 
Catherine the Great - 29/05/2018 
Jayaben Desai - 10/04/2018 
 
Copyright © 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
Presented by Joan Bakewell, Humphrey Carpenter, Matthew Parris and Francine Stock 
Produced by Miles Warde, Peter Everett, Christine Hall, Perminder Khatkar, Mark Smalley, Charles Ledgard, Maggie Ayre, Beth O'Dea, Jolyon Jenkins, John Byrne, Polly Weston, Julia Johnson, Mary Ward-Lowery, Isobel Eaton, Toby Field

Great Leaders' Lives

A BBC biography collection

Anthony McCarten

From the prize-winning screenwriter of The Theory of Everything and Darkest Hour, The Two Popes is a fascinating, revealing and gripping tale of two very different men whose destinies converge with each other - they both live in the Vatican - and the wider world. 
 
On 28 February 2013, a 600-year-old tradition was shattered: the conservative Pope Benedict XVI made a startling announcement. He would resign. Reeling from the news, the College of Cardinals rushed to Rome to congregate in the Sistine Chapel to pick his successor. Their unlikely choice? Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,200 years, a one time tango club bouncer, a passionate football fan and a man with the common touch. 
 
How did these two men become two of the most powerful people on Earth? 
What's it like to be the Pope? 
What does the future hold for the Catholic Church and its 1 billion followers? 
 
The Two Popes is a dual biography that masterfully combines these two popes' lives into one gripping narrative. From Benedict and Francis' experiences of war in their homelands - when they were still Joseph and Jorge - and the sexual abuse scandal that continues to rock the Church to its foundations, to the intrigue and the occasional comedy of life in the Vatican, The Pope glitters with the darker and the lighter details of life inside one of the world's most opaque but significant institutions.

The Two Popes

The subject of a BBC TV series on Charles I 
The prize-winning biography of Charles I 
 
* Winner of the HWA Crown for Best Work of Historical Non-Fiction 2018 * 
* Times Book of the Year * 
* Shortlisted for the Catholic Herald Biography Award 2019 * 
 
Less than forty years after the golden age of Elizabeth I, England was at war with itself. At the head of this disintegrating kingdom was Charles I, who would change the face of the monarchy for ever. 
 
His reign is one of the most dramatic in history, yet Charles the man remains elusive. To his enemies he was the 'white tyrant of prophecy: to his supporters a murdered innocent. Today many myths still remain. 
 
It is an epic story of glamour and strong women, of populist politicians and religious terror, of mass movements and a revolutionary new media: one that speaks to our own divided and dangerous times. 
 
'This is the most gripping piece of revisionist history I have read for a long time' - The Spectator

White King

The Tragedy of Charles I

Charles I, Traitor, Murderer, Martyr

Tom Holland

The formation of England happened against the odds - the division of the country into rival kingdoms, the assaults of the Vikings, the precarious position of the island on the edge of the known world. But King Alfred ensured the survival of Wessex, his son Eadweard expanded it, and his grandson Æthelstan finally united Mercia and Wessex, conquered Northumbria and became Rex totius Britanniae. 
 
Tom Holland recounts this extraordinarily exciting story with relish and drama. We meet the great figures of the age, including Alfred and his daughter Æthelflæd, 'Lady of the Mercians', who brought Æthelstan up at the Mercian court. At the end of the book we understand the often confusing history of the Anglo-Saxon kings better than ever before.

Athelstan (Penguin Monarchs)

The Making of England

Douglas Hurd

Elizabeth II is the longest-serving monarch who ever sat on the English or British throne. Yet her personality and influence remain elusive. This book, by a senior politician who has spent significant periods of time in her company, and is also a distinguished historian, portrays her more credibly than any other yet published.

Elizabeth II (Penguin Monarchs)

The Steadfast

Philip Ziegler

If Ethelred was notoriously 'Unready' and Alfred 'Great', King George VI should bear the designation of 'George the Dutiful'. Throughout his life he dedicated himself to the pursuit of what he thought he ought to be doing rather than what he wanted to do. Inarticulate and loathing any sort of public appearances, he accepted that it was his destiny to figure regularly and conspicuously in the public eye, gritted his teeth, largely conquered his crippling stammer and got on with it. He was not born to be king, but he made an admirable one, and was the figurehead of the nation at the time of its greatest trial, during the Second World War. This is a sparklingly brilliant and enjoyable book about him.

George VI (Penguin Monarchs)

The Dutiful King

_____________________________________________ 
The 20th Anniversary Edition of Tina Brown's definitive behind-the-scenes insight into the life of Diana Princess of Wales, as depicted in the hit Netflix series The Crown, with a brand new introduction by Andrew Marr. 
_____________________________________________ 
More than twenty years after her death, Princess Diana remains a mystery. Was she "the people's princess," who electrified the world with her beauty and humanitarian missions? Or was she a manipulative, media-savvy neurotic who nearly brought down the monarchy? 
 
In this commemorative edition, which includes a new introduction by Andrew Marr, The Diana Chronicles parts the curtains on Diana's troubled time in the mysterious world of the Windsors, as she breaks out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect. 
 
Knowing Diana personally, Tina Brown understands her world, understands its players and has-reaching insight into the royals and the Queen herself. Meet the formidable female cast and get to know the society they inhabit, as you never have before.

The Diana Chronicles

20th Anniversary Commemorative Edition

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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