Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. He was also the author of Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and many more brilliant stories.

Roald Dahl

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David Rohl

David Rohl continues his quest to reach the historical kernel lying at the heart of some of the greatest unsolved problems and mysteries of Old World history and archaeology. He reveals what really happened in seven famous myths and legends bequeathed to us by the ancients and shows us that the passage of time has not wiped away all the evidence, and it is possible to reach the reality behind the legends. LEGEND reveals the historical truth which lies at the heart of the Book of Genesis: * The Garden of Eden is finally found * Heroes from the Book of Genesis are indentified in ancient records * The true site of Noah's Ark is located in Kurdistan * Paradise is discovered on a desert island in the Persian Gulf * The mysterious origins of the first pharaohs are revealed

Legend

As the leading figure in New Archaeology, David Rohl has been at the forefront of the movement to discover the archaeological evidence for events described in the Old Testament which we have come to think of as myths. His previous books, Test of Time and Legend presented the arguments and counter-arguments. In From Eden to Exile this discursive approach is replaced by historical storytelling, which follows the sequence of events from the rise of Neolithic civilisation in a region now part of Iran which inspired the story of the Garden of Eden, through Noah, Abraham and the sojourn in Egypt, to the fall of Jericho, the dual kingdoms of the Promised Land and lastly, the exile in Babylon, where the stories of the Old Testament were collated into something very like their present form. A fascinating history book that will appeal to anyone with an interest in ancient history, religion and archaeology.

From Eden To Exile

Tom Chivers

'A lyrical meditation on landscapes and cities, vivid reportage and a memoir. And also a beautifully realised and moving read.' Financial Times 
 
'A beguiling mix of history, geology, folklore and memoir that captivated me from the first page.' Lara Maiklem, author of Mudlarking 
 
'Tom Chivers brings a poet's sensibility to this book about the hidden parts of the capital, mixing the past with the present, the known with the unknown and his personal story with social history and geology.' Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other 
 
What secrets lie beneath a city? 
 
Tom Chivers follows hidden pathways, explores lost islands and uncovers the geological mysteries that burst up through the pavement and bubble to the surface of our streets. From Roman ruins to a submerged playhouse, from an abandoned Tube station to underground rivers, Chivers leads us on a journey into the depths of the city he loves. 
 
A lyrical interrogation of a capital city, a landscape and our connection to place, London Clay celebrates urban edgelands: in-between spaces where the natural world and the metropolis collide. Through a combination of historical research, vivid reportage and personal memoir, it will transform how you see London, and cities everywhere. 
 
'Tom Chivers, with the forensic eye of an investigator, the soul of a poet, is an engaging presence; a guide we would do well to follow.' Iain Sinclair, author of The Last London

London Clay

Journeys in the Deep City

Neil Oliver

'Oliver is an evocative storyteller, vividly bringing his tales to life' BBC History 
 
From Genghis Khan's domination on earth to Armstrong's first steps on the moon, discover the 100 moments that defined humanity and shaped our world forever. 
 
Neil Oliver takes us on a whistle-stop tour around the world and through a million years to give us this unique and invaluable grasp of how human history pieces together. 
 
From the east to the west, north to south, these 100 moments act like stepping stones allowing us to make sense of how these pivotal events have shaped the world we know today. 
 
Including many moments readers will expect - from the advent of the printing press to the birth of the internet - there are also surprises, and with them, some remarkable, unforgettable stories that give a whole new insight on our past. 
 
From the bestselling author of The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places, this is outstanding new history of how our world was made from 5000 BC to the present. 
 
********************* 
Praise for Neil Oliver 
 
'Neil Oliver writes beautifully - bringing the past to life and letting us see ourselves in a new light.' - Professor Alice Roberts 
'Brilliantly demonstrates Neil's mastery of the broad sweep of British history and landscape.' - Dan Snow 
'Highly-crafted...a vivid, pungent history.' - TLS 
'Compelling' - Daily Mail

The Story of the World in 100 Moments

Discover the stories that defined humanity and shaped our world

By employing the same basic methodologies used to establish the currently accepted chronology, it has been possible for a group of young archaeologists, including David Rohl, to create a New Chronology which resolves many of the problems permeating ancient world studies. In particular, one model has been developed which has major implications for Old Testament research. Through the revision of the master chronology of ancient Egypt they have unlocked the key to biblical history - the epic events of the Bible really did happen as recorded in the Books of Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles - the problem was that we had previously been looking for them in completely the wrong place in time.Many of the conundrums of the past are explained, and legendary figures such as Joseph, Moses, David and Solomon find their true political setting. Exodus and Conquest will be restored to history and the magic of legend will begin to make its great comeback

A Test Of Time

Volume One-The Bible-From Myth to History

"Everyone should have two copies - one for the car and one for the house to plan journeys. . . a reminder to think more about the places you pass and less about your route, because every British journey is through rich history." (Edward Stourton) 
 
From much-loved historian Neil Oliver, comes this beautifully written, kaleidoscopic history of a place with a story like no other. 
 
The British Isles, this archipelago of islands, is to Neil Oliver the best place in the world. From north to south, east to west it cradles astonishing beauty. The human story here is a million years old, and counting. But the tolerant, easygoing peace we enjoy has been hard won. We have made and known the best and worst of times. We have been hero and villain and all else in between, and we have learned some lessons. 
 
The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places is Neil’s very personal account of what makes these islands so special, told through the places that have witnessed the unfolding of our history. Beginning with footprints made in the sand by humankind’s earliest ancestors, he takes us via Romans and Vikings, the flowering of religion, through civil war, industrial revolution and two world wars. From windswept headlands to battlefields, ancient trees to magnificent cathedrals, each of his destinations is a place where, somehow, the spirit of the past seems to linger.

The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places

David Graeber

David Wengrow

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged, and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, cities, democracy, slavery and civilization itself. 
 
 Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent of their past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture and cities did not mean a plunge into hierarchy, then what kinds of organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume. 
 
 The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action.

The Dawn of Everything

A New History of Humanity

Francis Pryor

Landscapes reflect and shape our behaviour. They make us who we are and bear witness to the shifting patterns of human life over the generations. Formed by a complex series of natural and human processes, they rarely yield their secrets readily. 
 
Bringing to bear a lifetime's digging, Francis Pryor delves into England's hidden urban and rural landscapes, from Whitby Abbey to the navvy camp at Risehill in Cumbria, from Tintagel to Tottenham's Broadwater Farm. Scattered through fields, woods, moors, roads, tracks and towns, he reveals the stories of our physical surroundings and what they meant to the people who formed them, used them and lived in them. These landscapes, he stresses, are our common physical inheritance. If we can understand how to make them yield up their secrets, it will help us, their guardians, to maintain and shape them for future generations.

Paths to the Past

Encounters with Britain's Hidden Landscapes

THE PERFECT READ FOR TROUBLED TIMES 
 
From the bestselling author of The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places comes this inspiring and beautifully written meditation on the wisdom inherited from our ancestors. 
 
For all we have gained in the modern world, simple peace of mind is hard to find. In a time that is increasingly fraught with complexity and conflict, we are told that our wellbeing relies on remaining as present as possible. But what if the key to being present lies in the past? 
 
In Wisdom of the Ancients, Neil Oliver takes us back in time, to grab hold of the ideas buried in forgotten cultures and early civilizations. From Laetoli footprints in Tanzania to Keralan rituals, stone circles and cave paintings, Oliver takes us on a global journey through antiquity. A master storyteller, drawing on immense knowledge of our ancient past, he distils this wisdom into twelve messages that have endured the test of time, and invites us to consider how these might apply to our lives today. The result is powerful and inspirational, moving and profound.

Wisdom of the Ancients

Life lessons from our distant past

Christopher Somerville

Travelling a thousand miles and across three billion years, Christopher Somerville, author of The January Man and Ships of Heaven, sets out to discover how the land beneath our feet shapes our past, our present and our future. 
 
Taking a journey of a thousand miles, Christopher Somerville begins in the far north, at the three-billion-year-old rocks of the Isle of Lewis, formed when the world was still molten, and travels south-eastwards to the furthest corner of Essex, where new land is being formed. Crossing bogs, scaling peaks and skirting quarry pits, he unearths the stories bound up in the layers of rock beneath our feet, and examines how they have influenced everything from how we farm to how we build our houses, from the Industrial Revolution to the current climate crisis. 
 
Told with characteristic humour and insight, this gripping exploration of the British landscape and its remarkable history cannot fail to change the way you see the world beyond your door. 
 
&lsquo;Somerville is a walker&rsquo;s writer&rsquo; Nicholas Crane

Walking the Bones of Britain

A 3 Billion Year Journey from the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary

Julia Blackburn

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE AND THE HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZE 
 
A journey told through stories and songs into Doggerland, the ancient region that once joined the east coast of England to Holland 
 
Time Song tells of the creation, the existence and the loss of a country now called Doggerland, a huge and fertile area that once connected the entire east coast of England with mainland Europe, until it was finally submerged by rising sea levels around 5000 BC. 
 
Julia Blackburn mixes fragments from her own life with a series of eighteen 'songs' and all sorts of stories about the places and the people she meets in her quest to get closer to an understanding of this vanished land. She sees the footprints of early humans fossilised in the soft mud of an estuary alongside the scattered pockmarks made by rain falling eight thousand years ago. She visits a cave where the remnants of a Neanderthal meal have turned to stone. In Denmark she sits beside Tollund Man who, despite having lain in a peat bog since the start of the Bronze Age, seems to be about to wake from a dream... 
 
'This book is a wonder' Adam Nicolson, Spectator 
 
'A clairvoyant and poetic conversation with the past' Antony Gormley

Time Song

Searching for Doggerland

Joyce Tyldesley

For nearly two thousand years after the last pharaoh ruled Egypt the wonders of this ancient culture remained hidden, seemingly lost and forgotten for ever. Then, in the late eighteenth century, Napoleons invasion of the country sparked an explosion of interest in ancient Egypt that burns as strongly today as ever. The obsession with anything and everything Egyptian has inspired many to dedicate their lives to the search for treasure in Egypts sands.   All of these explorers, collectors and archaeologists can be loosely classified as Egyptologists and this relatively new science has been blessed with more than its fair share of intriguing characters, some of whom, by virtue of their larger-than-life personalities, curious habits or spectacular finds, have come to dominate the story of the rediscovery of ancient Egypt - the story of this book.  In 'Egypt: How A Lost Civilization was Rediscovered', highly respected author and archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley follows these real-life Indiana Joneses in their quest for the splendid monuments, tombs and artefacts that have unlocked many of the secrets of this mesmerizing civilization. From the nail-biting race to crack the hieroglyphic code to Howard Carters dramatic discovery of the golden treasures in Tutankhamen's tomb - surely the most heart-stopping moment in the history of archaeology - we experience the excitement, emotion and intrigue of this gripping adventure story.    Praise for Joyce Tyldesley:    Tyldesley has added a new, more human dimension her book should be required reading. Sunday Times on Ramses: Egypts Greatest Pharaoh

Egypt

How A Lost Civilisation Was Rediscovered

Ruth Scurr

'A truly remarkable writer, one of the most gifted non-fiction authors alive' Simon Schama, Financial Times 
 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 
 
This is the autobiography that John Aubrey never wrote. 
 
You may not know his name. Aubrey was a modest man, a gentleman-scholar who cared far more for the preservation of history than for his own legacy. But he was a passionate collector, an early archaeologist and the inventor of modern biography. 
 
With all the wit, charm and originality that characterises her subject, Ruth Scurr has seamlessly stitched together John Aubrey's own words to tell his life story and a captivating history of seventeenth-century England unlike any other. 
 
'A game-changer in the world of biography' Mary Beard 
 
'Ingenious' Hilary Mantel 
 
'Irresistible' Philip Pullman

John Aubrey

My Own Life

Aubrey Manning

All 31 episodes of the archaeological series investigating the mysteries and secrets of the pastMuch of human history is hidden from us, buried deep under our feet. Layered beneath the landscape are the unknown stories of ancient peoples and civilizations, written in bones and long-lost artefacts, waiting to be revealed and deciphered. Between 1999 and 2006, over eight radio series, renowned author and broadcaster Aubrey Manning followed geological and archaeological clues in an attempt to unravel some of these mysteries – from the Lost Map of London and the Amber Room to the Pharos Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Antikythera Mechanism and the Land of Punt. This landmark radio series, lost for years, can now be listened to again.Journeying around the British Isles and worldwide, he visits sites including tombs, tunnels and temples, setting out to uncover the secrets that lie within them. Could ‘KV 55’ in the Valley of the Kings be the final resting place of the great Pharaoh Akhenaten? What can the ‘Red Lady’ of Paviland tell us about how homo sapiens succeeded Neanderthals? Did the Saxons make top-notch steel 1,000 years before the Industrial Revolution? And was a swamp in the South Anatolian plain the unlikely location for the world’s first city?These and other burning questions are tackled by Manning, with erudite input from a host of expert researchers, historians, scientists and archaeologists. His investigations take in a Roman drinking cult; a Bronze Age archer dubbed the ‘King of Stonehenge’; Boudica’s forgotten husband, Prasutagus; the tale of a saint, severed hands and a sword in the stone – and the remarkable discovery of British prehistoric cave art...Production creditsPresented by Aubrey Manning and Brian Moffat (Series 1, Episode 4)Produced by Dave Sharp, Sue Broom, Pam Rutherford, Helen Sharp and Martin RedfernFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:Series 1 (first broadcast 13 July-3 August 1999)Valley of the KingsGlozelLost Map of LondonSoutraSeries 2 (first broadcast 7-28 November 2000)Sounds of the Stone AgeThe Amber RoomThe Drinking CultThe Pharos Lighthouse of AlexandriaSeries 3 (first broadcast 30 October – 20 November 2001)The 'Red Lady' of PavilandLondon's Mediaeval MedicineSaxon SteelSan Galgano and the Sword in the StoneSeries 4 (first broadcast 5-26 November 2002)Taming the HorseCatal HuyukThe Amesbury ArcherMeadowcroft Rock ShelterSeries 5 (first broadcast 5-26 August 2003)Lynford NeanderthalsAncient Egyptian IllnessesTri Radial CairnsGreat Orme MineSeries 6 (first broadcast 7-28 December 2004)The Land of PuntWharram PercyBritish Cave ArtMound BuildersSeries 7 (first broadcast 20 December 2005-17 January 2006)The Tunnellers of the First World WarThe Romans in IndiaBen Lawers and Loch TayThe First AmericansSeries 8 (first broadcast 12-26 December 2006)The Antikythera MechanismFirst Residents of BritainPrasutagus, husband of Boudicca© 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2025 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Unearthing Mysteries: The Complete Series 1-8

A BBC Radio History Series

Graham Hancock

FROM THE MULTI-MILLION-COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS AND CREATOR OF NETFLIX'S ANCIENT APOCALYPSE 
 
'Nail-biting' SUNDAY EXPRESS 
'An intellectual whodunit by a do-it-yourself sleuth' GUARDIAN 
___________________________________ 
 
The greatest secret of the last 3000 years is about to be shattered. 
 
After nine years investigating the exact location of the ultimate religious icon, the Ark of the Covenant, British researcher and investigative journalist Graham Hancock reveals his status-quo shattering discoveries. 
 
Part true adventure and part travel book, this gripping piece of historical research challenges society's principal religious preconceptions and takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride through ancient history. 
___________________________________ 
 
'It should cause widespread discussion, and it deserves to' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Eat your heart out, Harrison Ford' Gerald Seymour 
 
'Highly readable' The Times

The Sign And The Seal

Dan Hicks

‘An extraordinary intervention. If you want to understand the stakes and the limitations of contemporary conflict over culture and colonial history this bold, provocative book is an indispensable resource’ Paul Gilroy, founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Race and Racism at UCL 
 
‘Hicks’ must-read book describes how it was possible for a human skull to be made into a drinking cup and used in a genteel Oxford college, well into the 21st century, as if empire were an eternal state of nature . . . Read it to learn new ways to be anti-racist, abolitionist and to tell other stories than those commemorated by the monuments that surround us, from statues, to museums and the police’ Nicholas Mirzoeff, author of White Sight 
 
‘Brave and clear-sighted. Hicks opens up an extraordinary conversation between the past and the present. This is a book about falling statues, but so much more. It’s about how we’ve been lied to, and how we can approach the past with honesty. Hicks asks whether history and archaeology should be used to justify actions we know impinge on the rights of others - or to understand ourselves better’ Alice Roberts, bestselling author of Crypt 
 
‘Dan Hicks writes with grace and fierce focus about what we choose to remember and why, in our patterns of thought, our institutions and the built environment in which we live’ Eyal Weizman, director of Forensic Architecture 
 
The culture war is over. If you want it to be. It wasn’t even a culture war; it was a war on culture. A sustained attack, Dan Hicks argues, in the form of the weaponisation of civic museums, public art, and even universities — and one that has a deeper history than you might think. 
 
Tracing the origins of contemporary conflicts over art, heritage, memory, and colonialism, Every Monument Will Fall joins the dots between the building of statues, the founding of academic disciplines like archaeology and anthropology, and the warehousing of stolen art and human skulls in museums — including the one in which he is a curator. 
 
Part history, part biography, part excavation, the story runs from the Yorkshire wolds to the Crimean War, from southern Ireland to the frontline of the American Civil War, from the City of London to the University of Oxford — revealing enduring legacies of militarism, slavery, racism and white supremacy hardwired into the heart of our cultural institutions. 
 
Every Monument Will Fall offers an urgent reappraisal of how we think about culture, and how to find hope, remembrance and reconciliation in the fragments of an unfinished violent past. Refusing to choose between pulling down every statue, or living in a past that we can never change, the book makes the case for allowing monuments to fall once in a while, even those that are hard to see as monuments, rebuilding a memory culture that is in step with our times.

Every Monument Will Fall

A Story of Remembering and Forgetting

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

Francis Pryor's search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor's own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors created the institution that remains at the heart of the way we live now: the family.

Home

A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Prehistory

Gillian Tindall

Crossrail, the ‘Elizabeth’ line, is simply the latest way of traversing a very old east–west route through what was once countryside to the city and out again. Visiting Stepney, Liverpool Street, Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, Gillian Tindall traces the course of many of these historical journeys across time as well as space. 
 
The Tunnel Through Time uncovers the lives of those who walked where many of our streets still run. These people spoke the names of ancient farms, manors and slums that now belong to our squares and tube stations. They endured the cycle of the seasons as we do; they ate, drank, worked and laughed in what are essentially the same spaces we occupy today. As Tindall expertly shows, destruction and renewal are a constant rhythm in London’s story.

The Tunnel Through Time

Discover the secret history of life above the Elizabeth line

Tom Higham

50,000 years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements - in radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA, for example - that allowed each of these discoveries to be made, enabling us to be more accurate in our predictions about not just how long ago these other humans lived, but how they lived, interacted and live on in our genes today. This is the story of us, told for the first time with its full cast of characters.

The World Before Us

How Science is Revealing a New Story of Our Human Origins

Tim Cooper

From steam engines and suspension bridges to canals, factories and pubs, the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries transformed the social and material landscape of Britain. Yet how many of us know why our local pub looks the way it does or why a railway station might resemble a cathedral? This book reveals how, by 'reading' buildings, structures and townscapes, we can understand their context and significance for the society that created them. 
 
Author Tim Cooper uses themes including transport, education and religion to show how the geographical and architectural remains of industrial Britain have shaped us as a people. He sheds light on how and why the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution redesigned our towns and countryside, and draws on a wealth of British sites to explain, for instance, how canals were instrumental in the expansion of industry, or why affluent suburbs are usually situated in the west end of a town. 
 
This book is a joy for anyone wanting to investigate our industrial heritage and discover the secret history behind familiar, everyday features of our urban and rural landscapes.

How to Read Industrial Britain

Everyone has heard of Ramesses the Great - but what is the truth behind the legend? Joyce Tyldesley's lively book explores the life and times of Egypt's greatest king. Ramesses II was the archetypal Egyptian pharoah: a mighty warrior, an extravagant builder and the father of scores of children. His momuments and image were to be found in every corner of the Egyptian empire. This is his amazing story.

Ramesses

Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh

Chris Stringer

Chris Stringer's Homo Britannicus is the epic history of life in Britain, from man's very first footsteps through to the present day. 
 
 When did the first people arrive here? What did they look like? How did they survive? Who were the Neanderthals? 
 
 Chris Stringer takes us back to when it was so tropical we lived here alongside hippos, elephants and sabre-toothed tigers or to times so cold we hunted reindeer and mammoth, and to others even colder when we were forced to flee a wall of ice. Here is the incredible truth about our ancestors' journey over millennia - and a glimpse of the future to see how it might continue. 
 
 'A beautiful book on a fascinating subject, written by a world authority' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Richard Dawkins 
 
 'Superlative ... Pure stimulation from beginning to end' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Bill Bryson 
 
 'Every chapter contains something new, and throws up a fresh location that deserves to become famous' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sunday Times 
 
 'This important and eminently readable book pulls together all the best scientific work on the first humans to inhabit Britain' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Tony Robinson 
 
 Chris Stringer is Britain's foremost expert on human origins and works in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum. He also currently directs the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project, aimed at reconstructing the first detailed history of how and when Britain was occupied by early humans. His previous books include African Exodus: The Origins of Modern Humanity, The Complete World of Human Evolution and most recently, Homo Britannicus, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book of the Year in 2007.

Homo Britannicus

The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain

Robin Lane Fox

Homer's Iliad is the famous epic poem set among the tales of Troy. Its subject is the anger of the hero Achilles and its dreadful consequences for the warring Greeks and Trojans. It was composed more than 2,600 years ago, but still transfixes us with its tale of loss and battle, love and revenge, guided throughout by the active presence of the gods. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving but great questions remain: where, how and when it was composed and why it has such enduring power? 
 
In this compelling book Robin Lane Fox addresses these questions, drawing on a life-long love and engagement with the poem. He argues for a place, a date and a method for its composition, giving us a sense of alternative approaches and grounding his own in discoveries about long heroic poems composed elsewhere in the world, and the ever-growing evidence of archaeology. 
 
Unlike other books on the Iliad, this one combines the detailed expertise of a historian with the sensitivity of a teacher of it as poetry. Lane Fox goes on to consider hallmarks of the poem, its values, implicit and explicit, its characters, its women, its gods and even its horses. He argues repeatedly for its beautiful observation and addresses its parallel use of what is, to us, the natural world. Thousands of readers turn to the Iliad every year. In this superbly written and conceived tribute, Lane Fox expresses and amplifies what old and new readers can find in it. It is pervaded, he argues, by a poignant hardness which is not just a poetic trick. It is a deeply held view of the world.

Homer and His Iliad

David J Breeze

Brian  Dobson

A penetrating and lucid history of the best-known and most spectacular monument to the Roman Empire in Britain. Taking into account new research findings about the building of the Wall, Breeze and Dobson include fascinating details about the Roman army, its religion and daily bureaucratic life. A selection of photos, maps and diagrams help make this a book for both the expert and the layman, being simultaneously erudite and unusually accessible.

Hadrian's Wall

Eve MacDonald

'This is not only history reclaimed, this is history at its best!' Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, author of Persians: the Age of the Great Kings 
 
'A bravura re-telling' Daily Mail 
 
Carthage was a power that dominated the western Mediterranean for almost six centuries before its fall to Rome. The history of the realm and its Carthaginians was subsumed by their conquerors and, along the way, the story of the real Carthage was lost. An ancient North African kingdom, Carthage was the home of Hannibal and of Dido, of war elephants and enormous power and wealth, of great beauty and total destruction. 
 
In this landmark new history, Eve MacDonald tells the essential story of the lost culture of Carthage and of its forgotten people, using brand new archaeological analysis to uncover the history behind the legend. A journey that takes us the Phoenician Levant of the early Iron Age to the Atlantic and all along the coast of Africa, Carthage puts the city and the story of North Africa once again at the centre of Mediterranean history. Reclaimed from the Romans, this is the Carthaginian version of the tale, revealing to us that, without Carthage, there would be no Rome.

Carthage

A new history of an ancient empire

Peter Wadhams

'Astonishing ... beautiful, compelling and terrifying' Observer 
 
'Wadhams' writing sparkles ... a lyrical sense of wonder at the natural world ... essential reading ... may be the best reader-friendly account of the greenhouse effect available to date' John Burnside, New Statesman 
 
Ice is beautiful and complex. It regulates our planet's temperature. And it is vanishing - fast. Peter Wadhams, the world's leading expert on sea ice, draws on his lifetime's research in the Arctic region to illuminate what is happening, what it means for the future, and what can be done. 
 
'This most experienced and rational scientist states what so many other researchers privately fear but cannot publicly say' John Vidal, Guardian 
 
'Wadhams brings huge expertise to his subject - and he is an excellent writer' Martin Rees 
 
'Utterly extraordinary' Jonathon Porritt

A Farewell to Ice

A Report from the Arctic

From our suburban streets which still trace the boundaries of long vanished farms to the Norfolk Broads, formed when medieval peat pits flooded - evidence of man's effect on Britain is everywhere. Packed with over 250 maps and photographs, compellingly written and argued, this highly acclaimed book will permanently change the way you see your surroundings.

The Making of the British Landscape

How We Have Transformed the Land, from Prehistory to Today

Frank Pope

The Hoi An, a wreck deep beneath the waves of the South China Sea. In her fifteenth-century hull a priceless treasure; on the waves above a team of treasure hunters racing against the clock to claim the fabulous cargo via dangerous saturation dives. But typhoons, pirates, gunships, mutiny, rival treasure hunters, storms and greed were to make this deep-sea dive one of the most dramatic and gruelling expeditions ever undertaken. Frank Pope was there and his gripping tale of this high-stakes folly will captivate anyone who loves undersea adventure.

Dragon Sea

John Romer

Archaeologist John Romer has spent a lifetime chronicling the history of Ancient Egypt, and here he tells the epic story of an era dominated by titans of the popular imagination: the radical iconoclast Akhenaten, the boy-king Tutankhamun and the all-conquering Ramesses II. But 'heroes' do not forge history by themselves. This was also a time of international trade, cultural exchange and sophisticated art, even in the face of violent change. 
 
Alongside his visionary new history of this, the most famous period in the long history of Ancient Egypt, Romer turns a critical eye on Egyptology itself. Paying close attention to the evidence, he corrects prevailing narratives which cast the New Kingdom as an imperial state power in the European mould. Instead, he reveals - through broken artefacts in ruined workshops, or preserved letters between a tomb-builder and his son - a culture more beautiful and beguiling than we could have imagined. 
 
Romer carefully reconstructs the real story of the New Kingdom as evidenced in the archaeological record, and the result - the final volume of a life long project - secures his status as Ancient Egypt's finest chronicler.

A History of Ancient Egypt, Volume 3

From the Shepherd Kings to the End of the Theban Monarchy

The Roald Dahl Series

Penguin Readers Roald Dahl

The Roald Dahl Classic Collection

Roald Dahl’s Words for…

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