5ive Guys FC

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A A Gill

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

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

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

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

A K Benjamin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Tom Service

Music transports us and defines us. As a form of expression, it has been passed down through oral tradition, musical notation and recordings in a chain of connection that spans the globe, across the millennia. A History of the World in 50 Pieces follows that chain, collating 50 pieces of classical music that reflect our changing politics, social structures and technological development, and how composers, musicians and listeners have shaped those currents of history.From Bach to Beethoven, Songlines to Saariaho, Hildegard of Bingen to the Happy Birthday song, Tom Service offers a fresh take on pieces that many of us think we know, and many more we might not. With each short, sharp analysis, he expands the typical canon and tests the boundaries of what we understand to be ‘classical music’ – or even music at all, such as the sounds of the earth’s rotation, and the songs of humpback whales.An official BBC Radio 3 publication, A History of the World in 50 Pieces is a book for anyone curious about the power of music and how it shapes us and connects us.

A History of the World in 50 Pieces

The Classical Music That Shapes Us

James Bluemel

Accompanying the 4-part documentary series from multi-award-winning filmmaker, James Bluemel.It’s been 63 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to ever go into space. Since then, only 676 people have followed him up there. But now with huge technological advances bridging the gap between our planet and all that lies beyond, that number is about to rise dramatically.Once Upon a Time in Space is the human story of how we’ve made it this far – the remarkable achievements, tragic losses, left-field experiments, renegade characters and ever-shifting powerplay – and where we’re about to go. 
 
Featuring stunning full-colour photography from both personal collections of astronauts and NASA’s archives, the human story of space is told through intimate and powerful testimonies from the astronauts, scientists, engineers and space tourists who have lived it.Looking ahead as we take the first steps towards becoming an interplanetary species, Once Upon a Time in Space brings you closer to the incredible story of our next stage of evolution. Life on Earth will never be the same again.

Once Upon a Time in Space

John Willis

There was a German bomber flying right towards us – a Dornier, one of their biggest. It was so low we could see the pilot flying it and the gunner in the nose of the bomber pointing his machine gun at us…Schoolboy in Kent, during the Battle of BritainMy legs pressed harder around my father's waist; my arms nearly choked him. The humming of Japanese aircraft was loud enough for everyone to hear now, and panic spread like ink on a blotter.Child saying goodbye to her parents, Singapore 1942 
In the early 2000s, the BBC launched its biggest oral history project, recording the lives and experiences of the ordinary people who lived through World War II. It amounted to 47,000 testimonies and over 400 diaries and letters, all of which have remained unexplored in the archives for twenty years – until now. In The People's War, John Willis reveals untold stories of everyday bravery, moments of terror, and tales of life-affirming community, that guide us through the years of the World War II. From soldiers in North Africa and prisoners of war in East Asia, to evacuees in the British countryside and women in the factories, The People's War is a truly ambitious and comprehensive journey through a devastating and pivotal period of our history, as you've never read before.Follow the remarkable stories of ordinary individuals who lived, fought, grieved, loved, and survived through the war.

The People’s War

Unheard Voices: Life on the Battlefront and at Home in World War II

Gyles Brandreth

As fans of Just a Minute know, the key to the game is knowing your way around the English language: how it works, how it’s evolved, and how words connect, often in surprising ways. When it comes to the English language (and Just a Minute), Gyles Brandreth has seen it all – and now he’s ready to put you through your linguistic paces, to become a Just a Minute expert yourself. 
 
In this wildly entertaining A to Z of verbal acrobatics, Gyles takes you on a whirlwind tour of our mother tongue – from the origins of words and correct grammar and punctuation, to similes, euphemisms and record breaking tongue twisters (try getting your mouth around floccinaucinihilipification!). An idiosyncratic blend of history, word play, anecdote, and hyperbole, all in 60-second instalments, this is Gyles Brandreth at his word-perfect, Just-a-Minute best. You’ll never mix your metaphors again...

Prose & Cons

The English Language in Just A Minute

Meg Clothier

There’s a sea lover in every Brit. 
 
The Shipping Forecast on Radio 4 has been keeping people in tune with the gloriously fickle British weather for a century, and capturing our hearts and imaginations along the way. 
 
Celebrating a hundred years since the first broadcast, this book takes you to the heart of what the Shipping Forecast means to us as a nation. Each of the ten chapters brings you on a fascinating exploration of a different area of our British maritime history, from stormy weather up above to the seabed far below, and from fishing boats and battleships to the songs and poems inspired by the forecast. 
 
This joyous book invites you to sail away into the enchanting world of the forecast, and is the perfect companion for anyone curious about our great British skies and seas.

The Shipping Forecast

Celebrating 100 Years

Karen Farrington

Bargain Hunt is a British institution, entertaining audiences for over 20 years, and encouraging us to look for diamonds in the rough at antique fairs and shops across the country. A Bargain Hunt is more than just a quest for cash, though - from traveller's trunks and tea caddies to walking canes, coins and quirky costumes, each of the items chosen has their own story to tell, forming a small part of our collective social history. 
 
The Bargain Hunt Spotter's Guide to Antiques is packed with essential information from the Bargain Hunt experts on identifying quality across a range of antiques. From makers' marks and tell-tale historical styles to details in foils and finials, this will be your one-stop guide to making good choices on your own bargain hunt - while also delving into the fascinating stories behind many of our favourite antiques. 
 
With a foreword from Natasha Raskin Sharp, as well as tips, advice, and stories throughout from each of the show's experts (including 'league tables' of best and worst finds), this is the essential companion to all your future Bargain Hunts!

Bargain Hunt: The Spotter's Guide to Antiques

Alan Titchmarsh

In this inspirational and practical guide to country life, passionate and hugely knowledgeable countryman Alan Titchmarsh explores the heritage of rural Britain, its landscapes and wildlife, its traditions, customs and crafts. 
The Lost Skills and Crafts Handbook will help you rediscover your love of the countryside, including: 
 
- a checklist of British butterflies and where to find them 
- how to keep chickens, ducks, goats and sheep 
- how to make soap, candles and your own herbal remedies 
- how to track animals and forage for food 
- essential knot tying 
- how to build a campfire without matches 
- how to create a kitchen garden 
- the origins of country superstitions 
 
And much more. With beautiful line art illustrations throughout, this compendium of the British countryside and its delights will be an essential read for any nature lover in your life.

Lost Skills and Crafts Handbook

Laurence Rees

Following the success of Rees' bestselling Auschwitz, this substantially revised and updated edition of The Nazis - A Warning from History tells the powerfully gripping story of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. 
 
During a 16-year period, acclaimed author and documentary-maker Laurence Rees met and interviewed a large number of former Nazis, and his unique insights into the Nazi psyche and World War 2 received enormous praise. 
 
At the heart of the book lies compelling eyewitness accounts of life under Adolf Hitler, spoken through the words of those who experienced the Nazi regime at every level of society. An extensive new section on the Nazi/Soviet war (previously published in Rees' War of the Century) provides a chilling insight into Nazi mentality during the most bloody conflict in history. 
 
Described as one of the greatest documentary series of all times The Nazis - A Warning from History won a host of awards, including a BAFTA and an International Documentary Award.

The Nazis

A Warning From History

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 
 
'Superb' ANDREW ROBERTS 
 
In this classic book, highly acclaimed author and broadcaster Laurence Rees tells the definitive history of the most notorious Nazi institution of them all. We discover how Auschwitz evolved from a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners into the site of the largest mass murder in history - part death camp, part concentration camp, where around a million Jews were killed. 
 
Auschwitz examines the mentality and motivations of the key Nazi decision makers, and perpetrators of appalling crimes speak here for the first time about their actions. Drawing on Rees's landmark documentary and material from the Russian archives, which challenged many previously accepted arguments, this book reveals significant and disturbing facts - from the operation of a brothel to the corruption that was rife throughout the camp. 
 
This is the story of murder, brutality, courage, escape and survival, and a powerful account of how human tragedy of such immense scale could have happened.

Auschwitz

Renad Mansour

In war, there is no easy victory. 
 
When troops invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, most people expected an easy victory. Instead, the gamble we took was a grave mistake, and its ramifications continue to reverberate through the lives of millions, in Iraq and the West. As we gain more distance from those events, it can be argued that many of the issues facing us today – the rise of the Islamic State, increased Islamic terrorism, intensified violence in the Middle East, mass migration, and more – can be traced back to the decision to invade Iraq. 
 
In The Iraq War, award-winning documentary maker James Bluemel collects first-hand testimony from those who lived through the horrors of the invasion and whose actions were dictated by such extreme circumstances. It takes in all sides of the conflict – working class Iraqi families watching their country erupt into civil war; soldiers and journalists on the ground; American families dealing with the grief of losing their son or daughter; parents of a suicide bomber coming to terms with unfathomable events – to create the most in-depth and multi-faceted portrait of the Iraq War to date. Accompanying a major BBC series, James Bluemel’s book is an essential account of a conflict that continues to shape our world, and a startling reminder of the consequences of our past decisions.

Once Upon a Time in Iraq

Alan Connor

Attention all Shipping Forecast fans. Set sail on a voyage unlike any other... 
 
Each day, millions tune in to hear the Shipping Forecast's unique cadence and poetry, words thatturn our island landscape into something strangeand magical. It's almost like a puzzle to be solved... 
 
The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book tests your general knowledge and lateral thinking through a series of fiendish puzzles, in which all the answers can be found on a map as place names on the coasts or in the seas. For example: 
 
· An eagle's under this 
· What a Komodo Dragon really is 
· Near where someone was horribly cruel to 343 felines 
 
And because your voyages trace the shapes of letters of the alphabet, that's just the beginning... 
 
With a foreword by Zeb Soanes, the voice of the Shipping Forecast, and fully illustrated with specially commissioned maps, The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book will help make you a Master of the quizzing world.

The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book

Alexandra Coghlan

The exquisite sound of a lone chorister singing Once in Royal David’s City amid the candlelit chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, marks the start of the Christmas festivities for millions of people round the globe. Broadcast at 3pm on Christmas Eve, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols provides a precious moment of tranquillity amongst the bustle of the festive season. 
 
 Take a journey through the fascinating history of carols, from the very first - sung by the angels to the shepherds at Bethlehem - to anecdotes from contemporary King's choristers. Learn how carols have evolved from pagan songs to become one of our nation's most sacred treasures. Accompanied by lyrics and music and compiled in conjunction with Radio 4 and King’s College Chapel, Carols From King’s is the official companion for fans of Christmas and carols alike.

Carols From King's

Peter Molloy

There was life before the fall. 
 
1989 was a year of astonishing and rapid change: the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and an end to an entire way of life for millions of people behind the Iron Curtain. Bloc Life collects first hand testimony of the people who lived in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania during the Cold War era, and reveals a rich tapestry of experience that goes beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political corruption. In fact, many of the people remember their lives under communism as 'perfectly ordinary' and even hanker for the 'security' that it offered. 
 
From political leaders, athletes and pop stars, to cooks, miners and cosmonauts, the stories collected in Bloc Life evoke the moods, preoccupations and experiences of a world that vanished almost overnight.

Bloc Life

Stories from the Lost World of Communism

This is WWII history, as it happened. All the horror and excitement of eleven months that changed the world. 
 
On D-Day (6 June 1944) a team of BBC reporters, trained and were embedded with British troops, achieved a first in war reporting: they landed side by side with soldiers, in gliders, by parachute, in assault-craft, talking into portable recording machines to ‘tell it as it was’. For eleven months reporters such as Richard Dimbleby, Chester Wilmot and Frank Gillard were in the vanguard, filing over 1,500 dispatches covering the desperate exchanges on the D-Day beaches, the battle for Caen, the advance through Normandy, the liberation of Paris and, finally, the German surrender in 1945. 
 
75 years after the invasion of Normandy, the dispatches of War Report collected here are as visceral and urgent as ever, and provide a remarkable account of Allied efforts to liberate Europe and end the war. With a foreword by John Simpson, War Report is a vital piece of modern history, direct from the front line.

War Report

From D-Day to Berlin

From D-Day to Berlin, as it happened

Bridget Kendall

The Cold War is one of the furthest-reaching and longest-lasting conflicts in modern history. It spanned the globe - from Greece to China, Hungary to Cuba - and lasted for almost half a century. It has shaped political relations to this day, drawing new physical and ideological boundaries between East and West. 
 
In this meticulously researched account, Bridget Kendall explores the Cold War through the eyes of those who experienced it first-hand. Alongside in-depth analysis that explains the historical and political context, the book draws on exclusive interviews with individuals who lived through the conflict's key events, offering a variety of perspectives that reveal how the Cold War was experienced by ordinary people. From pilots making food drops during the Berlin Blockade and Japanese fishermen affected by H-bomb testing to families fleeing the Korean War and children whose parents were victims of McCarthy's Red Scare, The Cold War covers the full geographical and historical reach of the conflict. 
 
The Cold War is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how the tensions of the last century have shaped the modern world, and what it was like to live through them.

The Cold War

A New Oral History

A New Oral History of Life Between East and West

Dan Waddell

Do you know where you came from? 
 
Who Do You Think You Are? has been a BBC hit since its first series in 2004, which ignited an extraordinary boom in researching family history in the UK. Since then, the world of genealogy has transformed and while our sources of information remain the same, our ways of accessing them have multiplied and changed beyond recognition. In this practical, easy-to-use handbook, the WDYTYA? team share their experience and expertise, essential for anyone who would like to discover their family’s history. 
 
Drawing on celebrity stories to illustrate and inspire, and providing hints, tips and practical step-by-steps this pocket handbook will bring family history to life for fans of the show, and for any amateur sleuths starting out on their own journey of discovery.

Who Do You Think You Are?

The Genealogy Handbook

BBC History Magazine

Who is the Downing of Downing Street? What did the first illuminated adverts in Piccadilly Circus advertise? Was Oliver Cromwell actually Welsh? Questions like these and many more are answered in this, the first ever miscellany from the editors of BBC History Magazine. 
 
The Celebrated Pedestrian - the title refers to people in Victorian times who walked for sport - collects a wide variety of historical facts and curiosities, helping to uncover little-known truths (Who was the richest man who ever lived?) and debunk myths (Was there one man who survived both the sinkings of the Titanic and the Lusitania?) from ancient times to the present day. 
 
Also including a collection of fascinating lists (Top 10 famous riots! Top 10 writers who were banned by the Vatican!) and 'This Day in History' features, The Celebrated Pedestrian is the perfect gift for trivia fans and history buffs alike.

The Celebrated Pedestrian and Other Historical Curiosities

Lucy Worsley

This is the story of a national obsession. 
 
Ever since the Ratcliffe Highway Murders caused a nation-wide panic in Regency England, the British have taken an almost ghoulish pleasure in 'a good murder'. This fascination helped create a whole new world of entertainment, inspiring novels, plays and films, puppet shows, paintings and true-crime journalism - as well as an army of fictional detectives who still enthrall us today. A Very British Murder is Lucy Worsley's captivating account of this curious national obsession. It is a tale of dark deeds and guilty pleasures, a riveting investigation into the British soul by one of our finest historians.

A Very British Murder

Joseph Bullman

Neil Hegarty

Brian Hill

The Secret History of Our Streets explores six roads spread across inner London - from Camberwell, Holland Park and Islington to Shoreditch, Deptford and Bermondsey - through the experiences of the people who lived there. Stories of poverty and violence, faith, love and hope, this is an intimate examination of our capital and the changing lives of its inhabitants. The history of over a hundred years of social change, this is the untold history of the sreets beneath our feet. 
 
You'll never look at your own street the same way again.

The Secret History of Our Streets: London

On 2 June 1953, 27-year-old Princess Elizabeth of York was crowned Queen, the eyes of the world upon her as she dedicated herself to her country. It is fascinating to look back over the sixty years since then and see how this remarkable woman, decade by decade, has brought the monarchy into the modern world, earning admiration and respect for her unerring sense of duty, her determination to innovate, her tremendous dignity, integrity and wisdom. 
 
Drawing from his own experience and time spent with the royal family, alongside additional meticulous research, Alan Titchmarsh observes the woman, the mother and the monarch. He explores key moments in her reign, both personal to her and in a wider historical context, and traces how our relationship with the royal family has developed and morphed, gone through ups and downs, but is arguably now stronger than ever in this very special anniversary year. 
 
Featuring wonderful memorabilia and rarely seen archive photography, Elizabeth II: Her Life, Our Times defines an era, pays tribute to our inexhaustable Queen and celebrates the example of responsibility, loyalty and patriotism she has set for generations past, present and future. She is an inspiration to us all.

Elizabeth: Her Life, Our Times

Martin Sixsmith

Russia is a country of contradictions: a nation of cultural refinement and artistic originality and yet also a country that rules by 'the iron fist'. In this riveting history, Martin Sixsmith shows how Russia's complex identity has been formed over a thousand years, and how it can help us understand its often baffling behaviour at home and abroad. 
 
Combining in-depth research and interviews with his personal experiences as a former BBC Moscow correspondent, Sixsmith skilfully traces the conundrums of modern Russia to their roots in its troubled past, and explains the nation's seemingly split personality as the result of influences that have divided it for centuries. 
 
A Sunday Times bestseller, Russia is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the complex political landscape of this country, and its unique place in the modern world.

Russia

A 1,000-Year Chronicle of the Wild East

Based on the popular Radio 4 series, Great Lives highlights some of the world's most fascinating and influential characters. Chosen by the show's guests, each biography reveals the life and times of artists, sportsmen, statesmen, authors, monarchs, actors, musicians and scientists, showing why they inspire, what they achieved and how they have influenced the world at large. Discover the intriguing lives of Clement Attlee and Henri Matisse, King Alfred and Samuel Johnson, Tommy Cooper and Robert Kennedy, Robin Day and Edith Wharton, along with many more. 
 
From the famous to the obscure, the historical to the contemporary, each biography provides an insight into the character's personality, why they were driven to achieve so much, and separates fact from fiction. With a foreword by the show's presenter, Matthew Parris, Great Lives is an ideal gift for history and biography enthusiasts, and for fans of the Radio 4 series.

Great Lives

As heard on Radio 4

Gavin Weightman

BBC TWO's Restoration Home goes on an extraordinary journey of discovery with six new owners of crumbling listed buildings, as they restore them into beautiful 21st Century homes, and uncover, layer by layer, a rich and detailed history of the house and its former occupants. 
 
These stories are fascinating, but what lies behind your own front door? What secrets are held in your own four walls? This official companion to the TV series provides all the information you need to take your own home back in time, to discover who built it, how it was used, and even how it looked. 
 
Includes: 
 
How to use maps to track the changing landscape of your area 
 
How to identify the style of your home and when it was built 
 
Detailed information on key resources, including maps, censuses, deeds and Post Office directories, 
 
A photographic checklist of architectural features to look out for

Restoration Home

The Essential Guide to Tracing the History of Your House

In When I Was a Nipper Alan Titchmarsh goes on a personal and nostalgic journey through post-War Britain in search of treasured values and traditions that were once the soul of society. With characteristic wit, warmth and humour he draws on the experience of his own childhood, and also takes a broader perspective, creating a wonderfully detailed and evocative portrait of a way of life that is fast disappearing, and asks what can we learn from this era of austerity to make our lives better today? 
 
Born in Yorkshire in 1949 and brought up in a Britain still recovering from World War 2, Alan remembers a time of relative calm, when it was enough to return home at night knowing that the house would still be standing. We were known throughout the world for our patience, resourcefulness and resilience. 'Mustn't grumble' was almost a national catchphrase, and queuing was second nature. Peppered with wonderful archive photographs and advertisements, When I Was a Nipper takes us back to those days, down high streets and through farmyards, on to trolley buses and into local pubs. 
 
As we move towards a global economy, as communities fragment and customs are lost, When I Was a Nipper captures a world that is fast receding into history. It's powerfully nostalgic for those who remember those days, but it's also Alan's timely call to all recession-hit Brits to heed the lessons of austerity Britain: 'make do and mend'; 'look on the bright side' and 'take the knocks on the chin'.

When I Was a Nipper

The Way We Were in Disappearing Britain

Jeremy Paxman

Jeremy Paxman's unique portrait of the Victorian age takes readers on an exciting journey through the birth of modern Britain. Using the paintings of the era as a starting point, he tells us stories of urban life, family, faith, industry and empire that helped define the Victorian spirit and imagination. 
 
To Paxman, these paintings were the television of their day, and his exploration of Victorian art and society shows how these artists were chronicling a world changing before their eyes. This enthralling history is Paxman at his best - opinionated, informed, witty, surprising - and a glorious reminder of how the Victorians made us who we are today.

The Victorians

When do you think the Second World War ended? 
 
If the end of the war was supposed to have brought 'freedom' to countries that suffered under Nazi occupation, then for millions it did not really end until the fall of Communism. In the summer of 1945 many of the countries in Eastern Europe simply swapped the rule of one tyrant, Adolf Hitler, for that of another: Joseph Stalin. Why this happened has remained one of the most troubling questions of the entire conflict, and is at the heart of Laurence Rees' dramatic book. 
 
In World War II: Behind Closed Doors, Rees provides an intimate 'behind the scenes' history of the West's dealings with Joseph Stalin - an account which uses material only available since the opening of archives in the East as well as new testimony from witnesses from the period. An enthralling mix of high politics and the often heart-rending personal experiences of those on the ground, it will make you rethink what you believe about World War II.

World War Two: Behind Closed Doors

Stalin, the Nazis and the West

Dan Snow

Peter Snow

In this riveting book, political journalist Peter Snow and military historian Dan Snow bring to life the most intense and bitterly fought battles of the 20th century - from the apocalyptic terrain of the Western Front to the desert landscape of Iraq. Punctuated by powerful eyewitness testimony, their compelling and often shocking narrative highlights the strategy of military commanders as well as the experience of men on the frontline. 20th Century Battlefields looks back at the most violent century in history and examines the challenges facing armed forces in the future.

20th Century Battlefields

Simon Baker

This is the story of the greatest empire the world has ever known. Simon Baker charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower, focusing on six momentous turning points that shaped Roman history. Welcome to Rome as you've never seen it before - awesome and splendid, gritty and squalid. 
 
From the conquest of the Mediterranean beginning in the third century BC to the destruction of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian invaders some seven centuries later, we discover the most critical episodes in Roman history: the spectacular collapse of the 'free' republic, the birth of the age of the 'Caesars', the violent suppression of the strongest rebellion against Roman power, and the bloody civil war that launched Christianity as a world religion. 
 
At the heart of this account are the dynamic, complex but flawed characters of some of the most powerful rulers in history: men such as Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Nero and Constantine. Putting flesh on the bones of these distant, legendary figures, Simon Baker looks beyond the dusty, toga-clad caricatures and explores their real motivations and ambitions, intrigues and rivalries. 
 
The superb narrative, full of energy and imagination, is a brilliant distillation of the latest scholarship and a wonderfully evocative account of Ancient Rome.

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

Alan Ereira

Terry Jones

Terry Jones' Barbarians takes a completely fresh approach to Roman history. Not only does it offer us the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also reveals that most of those written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated and intelligent groups of people, with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire. 
 
This original and fascinating study does away with the propaganda and opens our eyes to who really established the civilized world. Delving deep into history, Terry Jones and Alan Ereira uncover the impressive cultural and technological achievements of the Celts, Goths, Persians and Vandals. 
 
In this paperback edition, Terry and Alan travel through 700 years of history on three continents, bringing wit, irreverence, passion and scholarship to transform our view of the legacy of the Roman Empire and the creation of the modern world.

Terry Jones' Barbarians

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

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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