A biography of the celebrated Italian artist and his influence on the Baroque style that defines and immortalizes Rome.Sculptor, architect, painter, playwright, and scenographer, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680) was the last of the great universal artistic geniuses of early modern Italy, placed by both contemporaries and posterity in the same exalted company as Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. And his artistic vision remains palpably present today, through the ...

Plague was one of the enduring facts of everyday life on the European continent, from earliest antiquity through the first decades of the eighteenth century. It represents one of the most important influences on the development of Europe’s society and culture. In order to understand the changing circumstances of the political, economic, ecclesiastical, artistic, and social history of that continent, it is important to understand epidemic disease and society’s response to it.To date...

'Action-packed, magisterial ... Caravaggio's life was every bit as bloody, sexy and attention-grabbing as the paintings themselves and Graham-Dixon is a man who knows the paintings better than almost any' The TimesMichelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio lived the darkest and most dangerous life of any of the great painters. The worlds of Milan, Rome and Naples through which Caravaggio moved and which Andrew Graham-Dixon describes brilliantly in this book, are th...

'You will love Harry Sidebottom’s magnificent, blood-drenched study of the life of a gladiator … Was I not entertained? I absolutely was.' Dominic Sandbrook, The Times'Grippingly original' Tom Holland***A TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR***In ancient Rome, a single day could decide a gladiator’s fate. Follow in their footsteps with bestselling author Harry Sidebottom.

Wreckers sinks the old narratives of imperialism, revealing the violent, chaotic and improvised reality of empire-building from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.'Clever and compelling book. The storytelling and the scholarship fairly spark off each other. It could be a model for how academics should write history for a general audience' The Times‘A flowing, gripping narrative, Wreckers is distinguished by en...

Discover a story 400 years in the making - the definitive biography of the man who dominated England in the first half of the sixteenth century'Engrossing' THE TIMES'In this excellent study, Thomas More is reborn as a complex, absorbing man' DAILY TELEGRAPH'[A] immersive, richly told account of life, death, faith and politics at the early Tudor court' SPECTATOR'THE ...

The most engaging, surprising and revealing look at the Beatles story you’ll read.Everyone knows a Beatles tune. But their story goes beyond the omnipresent songs and iconic albums. Theirs is a tale that has become one of the core stories we tell about ourselves as a nation. The Beatles narrative has both shaped and reflected the country we live in today. Four lads from Liverpool have taken a seat alongside Shakespeare as one of our key cultural exports to the worl...

From the bestselling author of FEMINA, a brilliant reappraisal of the medieval women whose lives have been exploited for political, nation-building ends.From Joan of Arc to Lady Godiva, Isabella of Castile to Catherine of Siena, famous medieval women have become national icons, their legends burnished and celebrated. But over the centuries their lives have been exploited, their stories twisted and weaponised. Searching for the real women behind the legends...

'Cannon has a keen descriptive eye and a striking, lyrical turn of phrase . . . a rich, warm, authoritative book' TLSThis is the definitive tale of how our island history is written in stone.The Stones of Britain is about how rocks make places, exploring the connection between geology and landscape, the stones beneath the surface and the history that has played out above it. It movingly investigates the diverse character o...

Hold the glory—and infamy—of ancient Rome in the palm of your hand with this “brilliant combination of history and storytelling” (Conn Iggulden, author of the Emperor series) as it explores history’s greatest superpower, as told through humanity’s most universal object: the coin.When Gareth Harney was first given a Roman coin as a child, he became entranced by its beauty, and its unique ability to connect us with the past. He soon learned that the Romans saw coins ...

'Elegant, erudite, ambitious, inventive - a remarkable blend of research, imagination and first-hand experience.' Rory Stewart**'**A sweeping and superbly written epic' Wall Street Journal'A work of great ambition... an account that is informed, filled with insights and a cracking read too.' Peter FrankopanIraq is where civilisation was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Ale...

**WINNER OF THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD'A tense account of going undercover inside Britain's far-right groups. At times it reads like a novel... only the stakes are real' Sunday Times‘Important and courageous’ James O’Brien**Harry Shukman led a double life. Friends and family knew him as a journalist, but unbeknownst to them he was secretly infiltrating the British far right. Equipped with a hidden camera, he posed as 'Chris' an...