Episode 274
Summer Reads 2026
This week, it’s a special episode as three of the Aspects of History gang – Antonia Senior, Richard Foreman and Jane Thynne – join Zeb Baker-Smith in person to talk through their recommendations for your holiday reading list.
Plenty of picks, with links below, to accompany you in your hand luggage this summer!
Books
The August Coup: The Destruction of the Soviet Union and the Making of New Russia, 1985-1991, by Robert Service
Stalin’s Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire, by Antonia Senior
The Writers’ Castle: Reporting History at Nuremberg, by Uwe Neumahr
Cold War Football: A History in Ten Matches, by Tony Shaw and Alan McDougall
White River Crossing, by Ian McGuire
The Black Death: A Global History, by Thomas Asbridge
Nonesuch, by Francis Spufford
Conquest: A History of Roman Britain, by Ferdinand Addis
Guests
Antonia Senior – Author and Historical Fiction Reviewer for The Times
Richard Foreman – Author and Publisher
Aspects of History Links
AoH on Twitter /X
AoH on Substack
Zeb Links
Zeb on Twitter /X
Zeb on Substack