History

Offers an account of the age of Empire flying boats, whose story began in July 1936 with a reassuringly trouble-free test flight on Kent's River Medway. This title tells of slow, meandering flights across the Empire, swooping down on sun-warmed stretches of water for luncheon and tea.

A thrilling and very personal history of flight by the world-famous adventurer and businessman.
As far back as stories go, pioneers have reached for the skies. In the last two hundred years, they have mastered the air and made the modern world possible. Today they are bringing outer space within our reach. They're in... read more

In September 1996, a fourteen-year-old Fatima Bhutto hid in a windowless dressing room, shielding her baby brother while shots rang out in the streets outside the family home in Karachi. This was the evening that her father Murtaza was murdered, along with six of his associates.
In December 2007, Benazir Bhutto, Fatima'... read more

The story of the most famous protest in sports history, written by one of the men who staged it.
At the 1968 Olympics, Tommie Smith came in first in the 200-meter dash. As they received their medals, he and bronze winner John Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist, creating an indelible image of courage and protest that... read more

Cleopatra's palace shimmered with onyx and gold but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Stacy Schiff boldly separates... read more

A modern biography of the great mariner and adventurer, William Bligh.
The eighteenth century was an era when brave mariners took their ships beyond the horizon in search of an unknown world. Those chosen to lead these expeditions were exceptional navigators, men who had shown brilliance as they ascended the ranks in th... read more

In Bligh, the story of the most notorious of all Pacific explorers is told through a new lens as a significant episode in the history of the world, not simply of the West. Award-winning anthropologist Anne Salmond recounts the triumphs and disasters of William Bligh's life and career in a riveting narrative that for the first... read more

Four months after the end of the war, Hitler's personal physician Theo Morell stated to his fellow prisoner Karl Brandt: "In fact, Hitler was never sick." Brandt, who had been responsible for the "euthanasia" killings and was thus deeply implicated in the crimes of the Nazi regime, disagreed. He claimed that Morell had "p... read more

Forbidden Lessons in a Kabul Guesthouse is an inspirational memoir by Suraya Sadeed, an Afghan woman from a wealthy family who became an exile in America after the Russians invaded. She made a happy and successful life for herself in Virginia with her husband and child. Then, in the wake of her husband's sudden death, she... read more

A glorious account of the life of the Spanish infanta who became Queen of England and changed the course of Tudor history.
The image of Catherine of Aragon has always suffered in comparison to the vivacious eroticism of Anne Boleyn. But when Henry VIII married Catherine, she was an auburn-haired beauty in her 20s with a... read more

The inspiring story of a German-Jewish family named Frank which, like Anne Frank's family and 25,000 other Dutch and other 'stateless' Jews, 'dived under' in Nazi-occupied Holland in 1942 - but miraculously survived.
Told by the grandson of the head of the family, this is the gripping odyssey of the other Frank family: ... read more

George VI reigned through taxing times. Acceding to the throne upon his brother's abdication, he was immediately confronted with the turmoil in European politics leading up to the Second World War, then the War itself, followed by a period of austerity, social transformation and loss of Empire. George was unprepared for kings... read more

On April 12 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. An icon of the 20th century, he also became a danger to himself and a threat to the Soviet state. At the age of 34, he was killed in a plane crash. Based on KGB files, restricted documents from Russian space authori... read more

On 14th April 1912 the Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank. Fifteen hundred passengers and crew lost their lives. As the order to abandon ship was given, the orchestra took their instruments on deck and continued to play. They were still playing when the ship went down. The violinist, 21 year-old Jock Hume... read more

Divided City is a vivid memoir of an American boy growing up in the midst of the Arab-Israeli conflict, three major wars and three decades of political upheavals in the Middle East. Set in Jerusalem (1956-1958), Beirut (1970), Saudi Arabia (1962-1965), Amman and Cairo (1965-1967), Bird's book explains through a blend of memoi... read more

In this astonishing and riveting book, Alison Weir shows that Mary's story had a happy ending and that she was by far the luckiest of the Boleyns.
Mary Boleyn has gone down in history as a 'great and infamous whore'. She was the mistress of two kings, Francois I of France and Henry VIII of England, and sister to Ann... read more

The age of discovery was at its peak in the eighteenth century, with heroic adventurers charting the furthest reaches of the globe. Foremost among these explorers was navigator and cartographer Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy. Recent writers have viewed Cook largely through the lens of colonial exploitation, rega... read more

The first serious yet sympathetic biography by a woman of the Duchess of Windsor, Mrs Simpson.
This will be the first serious yet sympathetic book by a female biographer to explain the story of how an American divorcee became a hate figure for allegedly ensnaring a British King from his throne. It focuses on the core co... read more

That Woman, as Wallis Simpson was dubbed by the Queen Mother, is the title of this new well-researched book. The author had access to the Duchess of Windsor’s recently released letters and is able to shed new light on the turbulent events of the time. - Beverly

Esteemed historians Burstein and Isenberg join forces to reveal the crucial partnership of two extraordinary founders, creating a superb dual biography that is a thrilling and unprecedented account of early America.

Henry 'Birdie' Bowers realised his life's ambition when he was selected for Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic, yet he also met his death on the journey. Born to a sea-faring father and adventurous mother on the Firth of Clyde, Bowers' boyhood obsession with travel and adventure took him round the world se... read more