The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
There is a lot that has been said, written and mulled over when it comes to Roman Britain, and, consequently, a reader glimpsing Ferdinand Addis’ Conquest on the shelves might be forgiven for thinking it another interpretation of those well-trodden stories and a...
There are historical novels that inform you, and there are historical novels that unsettle you, and it's rare to find one that manages both. A Tibetan Girl Called Ata, the first English-language novel from Xiao Hei (the pen name of Zhang Pu, brother of Wild Swans...
This wonderful novel made me ache to visit Syracuse just as Antony and Cleopatra took me to Egypt and Julius Caesar took me to Rome. Why? Because one of the most important characters in Syracuse Will Burn is Syracuse itself. In a highly effective narrative strand, the...
Sawadika American Girl is a moving coming-of-age novel that explores identity, belonging, grief, and the complicated legacy of the Vietnam War. Drawing on her own experiences as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) – someone who spends a significant part of their developmental...
Women of SOE from the historical research and pen of Kate Vigurs’ is a meticulous history of the women who served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) across occupied Europe during the Second World War. Building on the success of her earlier book, Mission...
For those who say that lessons cannot be learned from historical experience, my advice would be to study in some considerable detail Thomas Smith’s The Fifth Crusade. For some of us who studied medieval Europe many decades ago, and are familiar with the activities of...
Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English is a new biography by the University of Cambridge historian Elisabeth van Houts. The subject of the book, Empress Matilda, is one of the most fascinating and, arguably, one of the most overlooked characters in...
Antonia Senior’s exceptional new book opens with a bold claim: that an innocent-looking meeting between Comintern spymaster Arnold Deutsch and the 22-year-old Harold ‘Kim’ Philby on a London park bench in June 1934 ‘would change history and help to gift Joseph Stalin...
One always approaches the publication of a new book regarding Rasputin with a certain amount of dread; will it have something new to say, or will it simply peddle the old misconceptions and prejudices where the ‘infamous’ Siberian sorcerer is concerned? Having come at...
When Britain’s history is told, the railway is usually suddenly introduced in the early to mid-19th century. Yet long before this, it was quietly developing, shaping the future of transport. This early period of rail development is the subject of David Gwyn’s latest...
