Translated from the French, a biography of the complex Swiss founder of the Red Cross, a devout Christian and social activist, but also an ambitious - and unsuccessful - businessman.
Marten organised the trial of Charles I. During the years he spent in the Tower awaiting execution, he wrote letters to his mistress Mary Ward, which were stolen and used in an attempt to ex... read more
In 1864 the Austrian Archduke Maximilian went to assume a distant throne. The operatic episode ended in his death by firing squad, famously memorialised by Manet.
The rise of Suleyman the Magnificent is told with a clever balance of the close (viziers, lovers, military commanders) and the distant (Venice, popes, emperors, Christendom and its interneci... read more
A biography of Thomas Kendrick (1881-1972), the British spy who created intelligence networks across Europe, facilitated the escape of Austrian Jews and set up a listening operation known as... 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
That venerable and dedicated historian of ancient India travelled half a century ago to northern and north-western China to work at the cave sites of Maijishan and Dunhuang; based on her dia... read more
A biography of the Hungarian scientist who created the first ever programmable digital computer, and whose colleagues thought his brain was too inexplicably powerful to be entirely human.
From a working-class English family, Wells blasted off to international fame with The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. Tomalin gives a sympathetic account of the remarkable reformer... read more
A deeply affecting memoir of coming of age in Albania - the last outpost of Stalinism in Europe. Tracing the transition in 1990 from repression, food shortages and political executions to po... read more
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
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.
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 moving and unique coming-of-age diary written by Churchill's daughter Mary during WW2 which shows her father as PM, military leader and family man. Carefully edited by ES, Churchill's gran... 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
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
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
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
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
Wry and robust memoir from the Conservative MP of - amongst other things - 'Plebgate' notoriety. Praised by voices on both sides of the political divide.
In February 1938 Georg Klaar, a Jewish lad of seventeen, went to his first ball in Vienna, staying until the band's last waltz. A month later came the Anschluss. The ensuing years brought ch... read more
A rollicking account of the pursuit of love among the Good, the Bad and the Beautiful; abridged from 3 large volumes of memoirs that he left on his death in 2011.
A biography of the Swiss tennis divinity, champion of sweetie-coloured blazers, master of self-possession, likened by fellow tennis players to Michelangelo for his skill.
Translated from the Italian, this biography marks the 700th anniversary of Dante's death. It brings to life the context in which he wrote. (Barbero's book on Waterloo was excellent.)
The magnificent Eland publisher considers his ilk through the stories and gossip of 15 generations of farmers, colonels, brewers, naval commanders and horse-lovers, as told to him by a great... read more