Catherine was the sister of Christian; in WW2 she worked with the French Resistance but was arrested in 1944 and sent to Ravensbrück. Miraculously she survived, and was awarded both the Cro... read more
Born into an English Catholic family in 1538, she was married into the Spanish Court. After her husband's death she took on the role of unofficial ambassador in Spain, keeping on the good si... read more
Summer, 1865: Dostoevsky was stuck in a Wiesbaden hotel, ill and unable to pay. Combining aspects of his own fix with the story of a notorious Parisian murderer, he wrote a novel that made h... read more
A hotchpotch of journal entries from the last seven years to do with living around Paris, surprisingly free of the angst found in much of her other writing.
One of the great patrons of the Renaissance, creator of perhaps the most remarkable library outside the Vatican, the Duke of Urbino was also the most successful and feared mercenary of the a... read more
Born Elizabeth Forbes in 1912, he lived as a boy/man and had the gender on his birth certificate altered in order to marry. When his older brother died in 1965, his cousin contested Ewan's i... read more
A thorough, readable biography of the Queen's grandfather that seeks to understand how this supposedly dull man navigated the monarchy successfully through a succession of crises.
This little book is a delightful treat for Advent which tells the story of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square and its relationship with the honourable, courageous Norwegian King Haakon V... read more
A memoir by the former President of the Supreme Court. This remarkable and courageous woman, who took up law when told at school that she wasn't clever enough to study history, obtained a st... read more
A diary of the first hundred days under the strange new regime that were the Covid laws. It is both a record of that time and a meditation on an A-Z of subjects, from Alexandria to Queneau's... read more
From France to the American Revolution, then back again to join the French Revolution, whose firebrands threw him into prison for five years, whence he emerged to spar with Napoleon. In 1830... read more
Who was John Lewis? His father died in a Somerset workhouse; he opened his first business in Oxford Street in 1864. Subsequent family feuds are detailed here, as well as the Partnership that... read more
'The lion of Panjshir' was the Afghan politician and military commander who fought brilliantly against the Russians during their occupation, and led the Northern Alliance that resisted the T... read more
Memoir by the magnificent Margolyes, conceived in an air raid in WW2 who, in a life rich with experience, mischief and energy, once mooned at Warren Beatty - "he completely deserved it. The ... read more
Born in Dublin in 1934, McGahern has corresponded with all his contemporary Irish writers. The letters are wonderful, and form a snapshot of late C20 Irish literature.
Moshenka has previously published an excellent biography of Sir Kenelm Digby (A Stain in the Blood). His earlier academic work - Feeling Pleasures: The Sense of Touch in Renaissance England ... read more
Wry and robust memoir from the Conservative MP of - amongst other things - 'Plebgate' notoriety. Praised by voices on both sides of the political divide.
Political debate in India is still divided along lines that can be traced to Nehru's ideas and the foundation of the Republic. This assessment of the exchanges and ideological battles betwee... read more
Grounded by Covid like the rest of us, Nooteboom - a tireless explorer of other cultures - withdrew to his house on Menorca. There he wrote this impressionistic non-diary, reflecting on his ... read more
Born in 1916 to a noble St Petersburg family, he fled Russia with his parents and arrived in England with next to nothing. By the time he was 20 he had scored the winning try in England's fi... read more
PP is an American academic and artist who has immersed herself in Wales, in particular the idea of hiraeth... a word for homesickness, or a deep longing for something left behind. Grappling ... read more
A panorama spanning 150 years and three generations of 'the Rothschilds of the East', written with full access to family documents. Emerging as Jewish refugees from Ottoman Baghdad, their em... read more
A follow-up to his extremely popular first volume, Theft By Finding. Always sardonic and incisive, the witty Anglophile American social commentator has had plenty of material.
Daughter of James I & VI, she briefly became Queen of Bohemia before being deposed along with her husband, Frederick V, Elector Palatine. This fine new biography of 'the Winter Queen' portra... read more