For almost four hundred years, between the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the Greek War of Independence, the history of Greece is shrouded in mystery. What was life really like for the Greeks under Ottoman rule? Was it a period of unremitting exploitation and enslavement for the Greeks until they were finally able to rise up against their Turkish overlords, as is the traditional, Greek nationalistic view? Or did the Greeks derive some benefit from Turkish rule? How did the Greeks and T...

During the 1940s Greece was torn apart twice, first by World War II and second by Civil War.Beginning in 1941, the occupation of Greece by Germany was intensely brutal. Children starved on the streets of Athens. The Jewish population was decimated in the Holocaust. Heroic acts of resistance - performed in concert with the SOE - were met with vicious reprisals. When Greece was finally freed from Nazi rule in 1944, the fractured and embittered nation became engulfed in civil war, as conflict...

The story of the discovery of nearly 300 bird species new to science since 1960.Amazing as it might sound, ornithologists are still discovering several bird species each year that are completely new to science. These aren't all obscure brown birds on tiny islands – witness the bizarre Bare-faced Bulbul from Laos (2009), spectacular Araripe Manakin from Brazil (1998), or gaudy Bugun Liocichla from north-east India (2006).Birds New to Science documen...

This is the first comprehensive guide to these closely related families.The book covers all 75 wrens, 34 thrashers and 5 dippers, almost all of which are New World species.The wrens (Troglodytidae) in particular display great diversity, occupying almost every kind of habitat in the Americas. The family probably originates in Central America where the greatest number of species is to be found.The thrashers (Mimidae) include the mockingbirds, catbirds...

The instant Sunday Times bestsellerA Times, New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year'Simply the best popular history of the Middle Ages there is' Sunday Times'A great achievement, pulling together many strands with aplomb' Peter Frankopan, Spectator, Books of the Year'It's so delightful to encounter a skilled historian of such enormous energy w...

The international bestseller: E. H. Gombrich’s sweeping history of the world, for the curious of all ages“All stories begin with ‘Once upon a time.’ And that’s just what this story is all about: what happened, once upon a time.” So begins A Little History of the World, an engaging and lively book written for readers both young and old. Rather than focusing on dry facts and dates, E. H. Gombrich vividly brings the full span of human experience on Earth to l...

A landmark work of narrative history, Paris 1919 is the first full-scale treatment of the Peace Conference in more than twenty-five years. It offers a scintillating view of those dramatic and fateful days when much of the modern world was sketched out, when countries were created—Iraq, Yugoslavia, Israel—whose troubles haunt us still.Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize • Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize • Win...

All animals are equal - but some, as George Orwell said, are more equal than others, and birds, most people would surely agree, are in the very first rank. They can do almost everything that mammals can do - and more. By mastering flight, they have a way of living that encompasses the whole world. In The Secret Life of Birds, Colin Tudge explores the life of birds, all around the globe. From the secrets of migration to their complicated family lives, their differing habitats and s...

Winston Churchill recounts the end of WWII and its aftermath, in the conclusion of his majestic six-volume history.In Triumph and Tragedy, British prime minister Winston Churchill provides in dramatic detail the endgame of the war and the uneasy meetings between himself, Stalin, and Truman to discuss plans for rebuilding Europe in the aftermath of devastation.Beginning with the invasion of Normandy, the heroic landing of the Allied armies and the m...

'Engagingly fresh and vivid . . . The 21-year-old Mehmet [the Ottoman Sultan] emerges from this book as ruthless but innovative, irascible but versatile and, above all, indefatigable - a worthy successor to Alexander and the Roman emperors he admired as much as any Muslim hero.' Malise Ruthven, Sunday TimesIn the spring of 1453, the Ottoman Turks advanced on Constantinople in pursuit of an ancient Islamic dream: capturing the thousand-year-old capital of Christian ...

How Churchill Saved Civilization resolves the lingering mysteries surrounding the causes of the Second World War, and what transpired during the war to bring its end result. It proposes answers to such questions as Why were the Allies unprepared?”, Why did France collapse so quickly?”, Why didn’t the British government accept Hitler’s peace proposals?” and Why did the Germans allow Hitler to obtain life and death control over them?”But the book’s main ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Life-filled and life-affirming history, steeped in romance and written with verve' GUARDIAN'Richly entertaining and impeccably researched' Peter FrankopanIstanbul has always been a place where stories and histories collide and crackle, where the idea is as potent as the historical fact. From the Qu'ran to Shakespeare, this city with three names - Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - resonates as an idea and a place, and overspil...