Peter Tonkin continues his deep dive into the sometimes grim and sometimes fabulously opulent world of sixteenth-century Europe as he returns to spymaster Robert Poley’s adventures. In this novel, spanning Paris, London, Eyemouth, Sheffield, and more, he brings to...
Book Review
Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry that Shaped Ancient Greece, by Adrian Goldsworthy
The Romans too often get the good gigs, both on our screens and on the shelves, these days; the Greeks, not so much… That is the starting point of Adrian Goldsworthy’s journey east across the Mediterranean and his sweeping account of the two headline acts at the tip...
Behind Caesar’s Back: Rumor, Gossip, and the Making of the Roman Emperors, by Caillan Davenport
Caillan Davenport’s Behind Caesar’s Back is, for me, a rare book, in that it covers a subject I have not come across before and therefore opened up all sorts of new research ideas for me. The book investigates examples of gossip and rumour in Rome, from the end of the...
Dance of the Earth, by Anna M Holmes
There are novels that inform you, and there are novels that transport you. Anna M Holmes's Dance of the Earth does both with rare confidence, depositing the reader into the smoky gaslight of a Victorian music hall and then sweeping them forward, through the...
Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens: Her Story: “So The World May Know He Loved Me Once.”, by Annie Elliot
Annie Elliot crafts an intimate glance into the life and marriage of one of the most celebrated English writers of the 19th century, Charles Dickens. Within Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens: Her Story: “So The World May Know He Loved Me Once.”, Elliot masterfully explores...
Those Who Are About To Die: Gladiators and the Roman Mind, by Harry Sidebottom
Harry Sidebottom has written an invaluable work for scholars and storytellers alike. Those Who Are About To Die is a masterclass in how to both educate and entertain the reader simultaneously. Although the overall narrative deals with one day in the life of a Roman...
Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee, by Charlie Higson
Whether you are interested in being introduced to British history, or you are familiar with it, Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee, will prove to be a find. Borne out of a successful podcast of the same name, Charlie Higson has written a book which entertains and educates in...
A Woman Named Edith: Emigre, Photographer and Secret Agent – The Extraordinary Life of Edith Tudor Hart, by Daria Santini
There is something fitting in the idea of a photographer spy. Both espionage and photography require close attention to detail, an awareness of perspective, and an ability to manipulate reality. Sometimes, usefully, the activities overlap. Perhaps the most influential...
Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination, by Simon Ball
On 28 June 1914, a collection of Bosnian terrorists gathered in Sarajevo to target the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, Franz Ferdinand. It was a chaotic operation, with the first go not even attempted. A later grenade missed the Archduke’s motorcar and instead...
George Orwell: Life and Legacy, by Robert Colls
In George Orwell: Life and Legacy, Robert Colls provides a sharp and very lively examination of the man born Eric Arthur Blair, exploring how a "lower upper middle class" Etonian transformed into the world’s defining political writer of the twentieth century. Colls...










