Historical

'That word, "vacation," makes me sweat.' Coco Chanel on taking a break'You must do it irregardless, or it will eat its way out of you.' Zora Neale Hurston on writing'One has to choose between the Life and the Project.' Susan Sontag on choosing artFrom...

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...

A complex and captivating portrait of Mark Antony that offers a fresh perspective on the fall of the Roman Republic In his lifetime, Mark Antony was a famous man. Ally and avenger of Julius Caesar, rhetorical target of Cicero, lover of Cleopatra, and...

The electrifying story of India's struggle for independence, told in this classic account (first published in 1975) by two fine journalists who conducted hundreds of interviews with nearly all the surviving participants - from Mountbatten to the...

The Sunday Times BestsellerAt the age of 23, Brian Wood was thrust into the front line in Iraq, in the infamous Battle of Danny Boy. Ambushed, he led a charge across open ground with insurgents firing at just five soldiers. On his return, he was awarded...

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...

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is recognized as one of the fathers of modern philosophy and political theory. In his own time he was as famous for his work in physics, geometry, and religion. He associated with some of the greatest writers, scientists, and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781785374562Author Tim FoleyFormat PaperbackPage Count 272Imprint Merrion PressPublisher Merrion Press

The #1 New York Times Bestseller 'Walter Isaacson is not an art historian, he's simply a lover of Leonardo, who manages to communicate the sheer joy of this remarkable man'Books of the Year - The Times He was history's most creative genius. What secrets...

'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...

Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018 A Book of the Year for the Evening Standard and the Observer A black porter publicly whips a white Englishman in the hall of a Gloucestershire manor house. A Moroccan woman is baptised in a London...

The Times Biography of the YearWinner of the Hawthornden Prize 2019Shortlisted for the HWA Non-Fiction Prize 2019Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2019Longlisted for the Cundhill History Prize 2019'Outstanding.' The Sunday Times 'A revelation.'...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Winston Churchill began his career as a junior officer and war correspondent in the North West borderlands of British India, and this experience was the beginning of his long relationship with the Islamic world. Overturning the widely-accepted consensus...

'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...

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...

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...

'Masterly' - Robert Harris, author of Imperium 'Essential reading for anyone interested in Ancient Rome' Independent*****Caesar Augustus schemed and fought his way to absolute power. He became Rome's first emperor and ruled for forty-four years before...

Elizabeth I came to the throne at a time of insecurity and unrest. Rivals threatened her reign; England was a Protestant island, isolated in a sea of Catholic countries. Spain plotted an invasion, but Elizabeth's Secretary, Francis Walsingham, was...

A laugh-out-loud memoir by Parachute Regiment and 22 SAS veteran John Wick - the man who helped break the story of the 2009 MPs' Expenses Scandal. Have you ever wondered how to conduct a ransom negotiation? Would you know what to do if you...

Elizabeth I came to the throne at a time of insecurity and unrest. Rivals threatened her reign; England was a Protestant island, isolated in a sea of Catholic countries. Spain plotted an invasion, but Elizabeth's Secretary, Francis Walsingham, was...

When Denis and Margaret Thatcher met on a blind date in 1949, he never dreamed that he would become the consort to the first woman prime minister. He fulfilled this role with tact, humour and charm but remained a private man. This biography, written by...

The classic eye-witness account of Nazi Germany, by Hitler's Armaments Minister and right-hand man.'Inside the Third Reich is not only the most significant personal German account to come out of the war but the most revealing document on the Hitler...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780692101742Author P T BarnumFormat PaperbackPage Count 442Imprint Creative Texts Publishers, LLCPublisher Creative Texts Publishers, LLCWeight(grams)...

Ibn Battutah - ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal historian and occasional botanist - was just twenty-one when he set out in 1325 from his native Tangier on a pilgrimage to Mecca. He did not return to Morocco for another twenty-nine years, travelling...

'[The Gulag Archipelago] helped to bring down an empire. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated' Doris Lessing, Sunday TelegraphWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY NATALIA SOLZHENITSYNA vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of...

There's no pain, no theatrical agony. No screaming, no shouting. The kill shot is catastrophic and conclusive. I slump silently on to my knees and topple forward, head first, into the dirt. The lads have seen enough death to assume mine is instantaneous...

The Man Who Knew Infinity is the true story of a friendship between Srinivasa Ramanujan and G.H. Hardy that forever changed mathematics. In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G H Hardy, begging the pre-eminent English...

A memoir about home and belonging, from the author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMAMaya Angelou's five volumes of autobiography, beginning with I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD...

Often remembered as the president who died shortly after taking office, William Henry Harrison remains misunderstood by most Americans. Before becoming the ninth president of the United States in 1841, Harrison was instrumental in shaping the early years...

Told for the very first time, this is the shocking and extraordinary story of the most-conniving and manipulative Tudor family you've never heard of . . . The perfect gift for every history lover this Christmas'A tour-de-force of Tudor history...

The authoritative and illuminating biography of T. E. Lawrence - the man who inspired the iconic film Lawrence of Arabia - from "The World's Greatest Living Explorer" Ranulph Fiennes.Thomas Edward Lawrence first set foot on the hot sands of Arabia in...

Niccolo Machiavelli taught that political leaders must be prepared to do evil so that good may come of it, and his name has been a byword ever since for duplicity and immorality. Is his sinister reputation deserved? In answering this question Quentin...

In these searing profiles the author dissects the lives of fifteen infamous Nazis,including Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann, Ernst Roehm, Hans Frank, Rudolph Hoess, Albert Speer, and Hitler himself. He also analyzes the...

In Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's "compelling" (The Economist) and "fascinating" (The Wall Street Journal) New York Times bestselling autobiography, the prime minister of Israel tells the story of his family, his path to leadership, and his unceasing...

'I was born in Tuckahoe I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my...