Historical

'A gripping story of a cold-blooded murder... This is true crime at its best' Wendy Moore'Drama so addictive it should be illegal' Sam ChristerA true Victorian murder mystery...Great Yarmouth, September 1900: A young woman is found dead on the beach, a...

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-55), one of the most original thinkers of the nineteenth century, wrote widely on religious, psychological, and literary themes. This book shows how Kierkegaard developed his views in emphatic opposition to prevailing...

Frantz Fanon was born in Martinique, a French colony, in 1925. As a young man, he volunteered to fight in de Gaulle's army for the liberation of France, and trained to become a doctor and psychiatrist. His experiences as a black man under French colonial...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781590176658Author Madeline LevineFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint NYRB ClassicsPublisher The New York Review of Books, IncWeight(grams)...

A fascinating insight into the complexity, history and unpredictability of Iraq from Rory Stewart, bestselling author of Politics on the Edge and host of hit podcast The Rest Is Politics.By September 2003, six months after the US-led invasion of Iraq,...

'Fluent and witty . . . confident . . . highly readable'Kathryn Hughes, GUARDIAN'Brilliant - so vivid and so sharp, fantastically clever and consistently fascinating'KATHERINE RUNDELL, author of Super-InfiniteWas Shakespeare gay? The answer is both...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY WINNER OF THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR...

Take a trip down memory lane and read about the life of Britain's most beloved vet, who charmed us all with his bestselling tales of veterinary life in Yorkshire.'A wonderful, glorious insight into the life of the man behind the books' 5***** Reader...

A new biography of Catherine de' Medici, the most powerful woman in sixteenth-century Europe, whose author uses neglected primary sources to recreate the life and times of a remarkable - and remarkably traduced - woman. History is rarely kind to...

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...

The Blair Years is the most compelling and revealing account of contemporary politics you will ever read. Taken from Alastair Campbell's daily diaries, it charts the rise of New Labour and the tumultuous years of Tony Blair's leadership, providing the...

A dazzling piece of Italian history of the infamous family that become one of the most powerful in Europe, weaving its history with Renaissance greats from Leonardo da Vinci to GalileoAgainst the background of an age which saw the rebirth of ancient and...

Lenin is a colossal figure whose influence on twentieth-century history cannot be underestimated. Robert Service has written a calmly authoritative biography on this seemingly unknowable figure. Making use of recently opened archives, he has been able to...

The dramatic life of the revolutionary hero Bolivar, who liberated South America - a sweeping narrative worthy of a Hollywood epic.Simon Bolivar's life makes for one of history's most dramatic canvases, a colossal narrative filled with adventure and...

'My book of the year. Extraordinary' The Times A new history of counterculture...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780954919429Author Michael TraynorFormat HardbackPage Count 326Imprint Michael TraynorPublisher Michael Traynor

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780954919412Author Michael TraynorFormat HardbackPage Count 295Imprint Michael TraynorPublisher Michael Traynor

The most authoritative life of Mao ever written, by the bestselling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang and her husband, historian Jon Halliday.Based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked...

The most authoritative life of Mao ever written, by the bestselling author of Wild Swans, Jung Chang and her husband, historian Jon Halliday.Based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked...

NEWLY REVISED AND UPDATEDA book for all lovers of history: the experienced and the novice, the serious and the silly.Gimson's Kings and Queens whirls us through the lives of our monarchs - from 1066 and William the Conqueror right up to Queen Elizabeth...

A courageous and intimate memoir of China framed in ten telling words. People. Leader. Reading. Writing. Revolution. Grassroots. Through these and other common vernacular words and phrases, Yu Hua - widely regarded as one of China's greatest living...

'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...

'We felt an urge to document what we had witnessed. If we who had experienced it, I reasoned, did not reveal the bitter truth, people simply would not believe the extent of the Nazis' evil. I wanted to share our life, the events and our...

Lady Jane Grey, is one of the most elusive and tragic characters in English history. In July 1553 the death of the childless Edward VI threw the Tudor dynasty into crisis. On Edward's instructions his cousin Jane Grey was proclaimed queen, only to be...

The success of Madame Tussaud's, from its beginnings in Paris before the French Revolution to its prolonged fame as a popular tourist attraction in London, bears out the fascination of waxworks. Yet Madame Tussaud was by no means the inventor of wax...

This is the story of Messalina - third wife of Emperor Claudius and one of the most notorious women to have inhabited the Roman world. The scandalous image of the Empress Messalina as a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer, derived from the work...

Odette Brailly entered the nation's consciousness in the 1950s when her remarkable - and romantic - exploits as an SOE agent first came to light. She had been the first woman to be awarded the GC, as well as the Legion d'Honneur, and in 1950 the release...

'A thrilling read' Tom Holland 'History-writing at its best' Barry Strauss By the end of his short life, Alexander the Great had redrawn the map of the ancient world to create an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indian subcontinent...

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...

'We felt an urge to document what we had witnessed. If we who had experienced it, I reasoned, did not reveal the bitter truth, people simply would not believe the extent of the Nazis' evil. I wanted to share our life, the events and our...

A FINALIST FOR THE US NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2023 FOR NONFICTION 'Profoundly personal as well as historically significant ... In his moral clarity and baring of the heart, Shehadeh recalls writers such as Ghassan Kanafani and Primo Levi' Hisham Matar,...

In the vineyards, wine caves, and cellars of France as war and occupation came to the country winemakers acted heroically not only to save the best wines but to defend their way of life. These are the true stories of vignerons who sheltered Jewish...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA #1 ABA INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE BESTSELLERFew in history can match the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over fifty incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought courageously on both sides of...

The Arab Revolt against the Turks in World War One was, in the words of T.E. Lawrence, 'a sideshow of a sideshow'. Amidst the slaughter in European trenches, the Western combatants paid scant attention to the Middle Eastern theatre. As a result, the...

Brian Keenan went to Beirut in 1985 for a change of scene from his native Belfast. He became headline news when he was kidnapped by fundamentalist Shi'ite militiamen and held in the suburbs of Beirut for the next four and a half years. For much of that...

The new Cabinet in January 1924 consisted, as governments had for generations, of twenty white, middle-aged men. But that is where the similarities with previous governments ended, for the election of Britain's first Labour administration witnessed a...

'Inspired, innovative, remarkable' Independent 'Spurling has done better than anyone else at uncovering intimate information about Matisse' GuardianThe abridged, one-volume edition of Hilary Spurling's critically acclaimed biography of Henri Matisse, one...

The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperbackCharles II has always been one of the most instantly recognisable British kings - both in his physical appearance, disseminated through endless...

Long hidden in archives, Laura Ingalls Wilder's original handwritten autobiography is a tribute to her family and her experiences as a pioneer. Written for an older audience, Pioneer Girl is her first-person narrative of the settling of Dakota Territory,...

The starting point of Roger Knight's magnificent new biography is to explain how Nelson achieved such extraordinary success. Knight places him firmly in the context of the Royal Navy at the time. He analyses Nelson's more obvious qualities, his...