Maritime History & Piracy

Two hundred years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte dominated Europe and threatened Britain with invasion. Against him stood the Royal Navy and the already legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson.On 21 October 1805, a massive naval battle off the coast of Spain decided...

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BALLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION* *SELECTED AS ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2023* 'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction...

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER *LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BALLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION* *SELECTED AS ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2023*'The beauty of The Wager unfurls like a great sail... one of the finest nonfiction...

FINANCIAL TIMES 2023 HIGHLIGHT'Helen Czerski weaves together physics and biology, history and science, in a beautifully poetic way.'Professor Alice Roberts'In Helen Czerski's hands, the mechanical becomes magical. An instant classic.'Tristan Gooley,...

An epic journey through sea shanties, high tides and seven seasFrom the international bestselling singer comes The Book of Sea Shanties.The world sang in harmony with Nathan Evans, the Glaswegian postie turned singer of sea shanties. Join him as he takes...

The official celebration of the 100th anniversary of The Shipping Forecast There's a sea lover in every Brit. The Shipping Forecast on Radio 4 has been keeping people up to date with the latest changes to British weather for a century, and capturing our...

'Masterful and entrancing - this is big history at its best.' Professor Alice Roberts, author of Ancestors'A real-life Indiana Jones takes readers on a dive through these underwater museums, revealing the sunken secrets of the past' The Times'Fascinating...

From the acclaimed historian of global empire, the dramatic story of how steam power reshaped our cities and our seas, and forged a new world orderSteam power transformed our world, initiating the complex, resource-devouring industrial system the...

A Guardian, Financial Times, New Statesman, The Rest is Politics and Waterstones Highlight for 2024 'Quinn has done a lot more than reinvent the wheel. What we have here is a truly encyclopaedic and monumental account of the ancient world' THE TIMES 'A...

'An acerbic, compelling and always accessible account of how opium corrupted the world' TLS'The writing is sublime, the research thorough, the eye for story superb' Sunday TelegraphWhen Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels...

"The first of an extraordinary trilogy" DANIEL MASON, author of North WoodsIn a remote part of Iceland, a boy and his friend Bardur join a boat to fish for cod. A winter storm surprises them out at sea and Bardur, who has forgotten his waterproof as he...

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'As gripping as any thriller. History doesn't get any better than this' BILL BRYSON 'A brilliant read ... Game of Thrones but in the real world' ANTHONY HOROWITZ ...

For over a decade this annual has provided an authoritative summary of all that has happened in the naval world in the previous twelve months, combining regional surveys with one-off major articles on noteworthy new ships and other important developments...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER & THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF 2021 'Astonishing and compelling' Bernard Cornwell 'This superb book is like a classical symphony, perfectly composed and exquisitely performed' THE TIMES Books of the Year ...

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR'As brilliant a history of the Vikings as one could possibly hope to read' Tom HollandThe 'Viking Age' is traditionally held to begin in June 793 when Scandinavian raiders attacked the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria, and...

In the early hours of 15 April 1912, after the majestic liner Titanic had split apart and the 1,500 men, women and children struggled to stay alive in the freezing Atlantic, the sea was alive with the sound of screaming. Then, as the ship sank to the...

Sunday Times Bestseller and Blackwell's Non-Fiction Book of the Month.Over one hundred years after its wreck, Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, was found in the depths of the most hostile sea on Earth. The Ship Beneath the Ice is the astonishing...

'There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers.' - Phillip Franklin, White Star Line Vice-PresidentOn April 15th, 1912, Titanic, the world's largest passenger ship, sank...

The Command of the Ocean describes with unprecedented authority and scholarship the rise of Britain to naval greatness, and the central place of the Navy and naval activity in the life of the nation and government. It describes not just battles, voyages...

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat...

'An epic of survival' -- MICHAEL PALIN'A "grade-A classic"' -- SUNDAY TIMES'Utterly enthralling' -- GEOFF DYER, GUARDIAN'Deeply engrossing' -- NEW YORK TIMESLISTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SUNDAY TIMESThe harrowing, survival...

The Sunday Times bestseller 'One of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings' DAILY MAIL In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis,...

On the night of 14/15 April 1912, a brandnew, supposedly unsinkable ship, the largest and most luxurious vessel in the world at the time, collided with an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage. Of the 2,208 people on board, only 712 were saved. The rest...

The story of four families of Cajun boatmen and their rise from trappers and shrimpers to mega-millionaires.Rise of the Cajun Mariners documents an untold piece of American history-the beginnings of what is now the global, multibillion-dollar marine oil...

The Midway-class were the US Navy's biggest carriers built during World War II. Superbly illustrated, this explains how they became the backbone of the Cold War fleet. Entering service in September 1945, the Midway-class aircraft carrier was the US...

The 2024 edition of Warship, the celebrated annual publication featuring original research on the history, development, and service of the world's warships. For over 45 years, Warship has been the leading annual resource on the design, development,...

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**An inventive biography of one of the most famous ships of all time - recently discovered off the coast of America- Endeavour is an alluring combination of history, adventure and science. From Johnson's Dictionary to...

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**An inventive biography of one of the most famous ships of all time - recently discovered off the coast of America- Endeavour is an alluring combination of history, adventure and science. From Johnson's Dictionary to...

Take a voyage through the rich history of passenger ships. From mass migration through to luxury holidays, passenger shipping has played a central role in the collective human story. They have been at the forefront of innovative technology, leading to...

The story of Liverpool is, in many ways, the story of its docks. Before the docks, trade was limited by the tides and at the mercy of the Mersey's currents. After dock construction began, the city became a hub of Britain's worldwide trading network...

'Wise, compassionate, and urgent.' Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland A Bookseller Nonfiction Editor's Choice for March 2024 Plunge into the depths of the unknown in this thrilling work of nonfiction that combines science, history, and nature...

A thought-provoking and important book that raises essential issues crucial not only for understanding our past but also the present day.In this panoramic history, Jeremy Black tells how slavery was first developed in the ancient world, and reaches all...

Hands-on science in the Age of Exploration.Winner of the John Lyman Book Award in Naval and Maritime Science and Technology by the North American Society for Oceanic History and the Leo Gershoy Prize by the American Historical AssociationThroughout the...

'An epic tale of exploration, daring and tragedy told by a fine historian - and a wonderful writer' - Peter Frankopan, author of the bestselling The Silk Roads. 'The name of William Barents isn't that familiar to us these days...but this enthralling,...

A compendium of fascinating information about the great waters that cover two-thirds of our Earth and the men and women that sailed them.Breverton's Nautical Curiosities is about ships, people and the sea. However, unlike many other nautical...

'Consistently illuminating ... Like all the best stories, it is about the timeless tides of power and influence ... trade deals can sometimes be sexy, thrilling and epic' Sinclair McKay, SpectatorLife in Europe was fundamentally changed in the 16th...

The latest edition of Warship, the celebrated annual publication featuring the latest research on the history, development, and service of the world's warships. For over 45 years, Warship has been the leading annual resource on the design,...

In Empire's Crossroads, Carrie Gibson offers readers a vivid, authoritative and action-packed history of the Caribbean. For Gibson, everything was created in the West Indies: the Europe of today, its financial foundations built with sugar money: the...

When the Dutch East Indiaman Batavia struck an uncharted reef off the new continent of Australia on her maiden voyage in 1629, 332 men, women and children were on board. While some headed off in a lifeboat to seek help, 250 of the survivors ended up on a...

The first account of Britain's convoys during the Napoleonic Wars-showing how the protection of trade played a decisive role in victory During the Napoleonic Wars thousands of merchant ships crisscrossed narrow seas and wide oceans, protected by...