A brilliantly researched and vividly written history of the English Civil Wars, from one of Britain's most prominent Civil War historiansThe sequence of civil wars that ripped England apart in the seventeenth century was the single most traumatic event in this country between the medieval Black Death and the two world wars. Indeed, it is likely that a greater percentage of the population were killed in the civil wars than in the First World War.This sense o...

Born in 1912, Christopher Hill was one of the foremost historians of his generation. Abandoning the respectable provincial Methodism of his youth, Hill embraced Marxism and pursued a celebrated intellectual career. His early enthusiasm as a member of the Communist Party eventually gave way to disillusionment with its doctrinaire practices. Hill embodied the conflicts and challenges of the postwar decades. Michael Braddick's astute biography situates Hill's life and work in the proper histo...

The United Kingdom has not yet lasted as long as the Kingdom of Wessex, and may not do so. Conventional histories of Britain, though, tell the story of the origins of the UK as if that was the natural endpoint of political development on the island. Here, Michael Braddick sets out to do something else—to ask how people in the past used political power to get things done. Offering a concise thematic overview, it shows how history can speak directly to current political debates. Many people ...

The second son of a modest gentry family, John Lilburne was accused of treason four times, and put on trial for his life under both Charles I and Oliver Cromwell. He fought bravely in the Civil War, seeing action at a number of key battles and rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, was shot through the arm, and nearly lost an eye in a pike accident. In the course of all this, he fought important legal battles for the rights to remain silent, to open trial, and to trial by his peers. He ...

From the acclaimed author of The Watchers, the untold story of Robert Cecil - the ultimate Tudor spy-master'Alford triumphs… in recreating the historical moment. By immersing himself in Cecil’s vast archive, he draws the reader deep into his working environment, capturing the closeness of his study and the chaos of the court… this is turn-of-century England as it really was – dangerous, gritty, on a knife edge' - The Times...

A Uyghur poet's piercing memoir of life under the most coercive surveillance regime in history*WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE'S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK**WINNER OF THE CHRISTOPHER G. MOORE PRIZE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WRITING 2024*'Essential reading'AI WEIWEI, author of 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows'Deserves to be read widely'FINANC...

WINNER OF THE LONDON HELLENIC PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR THE RUNCIMAN AWARDA Sunday Times, BBC History Magazine, and Evening Standard Book of the Year'Majestic, sparkling' Peter Frankopan'Superb and gripping' Simon Sebag Montefiore'Effortlessly erudite' Rory Stewart'Masterful' Anita Anand'...

*WINNER OF THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2022***A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021, AS CHOSEN BY THE TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, TELEGRAPH AND TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'A big historical advance. Ours, it turns out, is a very un-insular "Island Story". And its 17th-century chapter will never look quite the same again' John Adamson, Sunday TimesA ground-breaking portrait of the most turbulent century in English history**Among foreign obs...

'A compelling and wry narrative of one of the most intellectually thrilling eras of British history' Guardian.*****************SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020England, 1651. Oliver Cromwell has defeated his royalist opponents in two civil wars, executed the Stuart king Charles I, laid waste to Ireland, and crushed the late king's son and his Scottish allies. He is master of Britain and Ireland.But Parli...

A sparkling exploration of direction, by the acclaimed author of A History of the World in 12 MapsNorth, south, east and west: almost all societies use the four cardinal directions to orientate themselves, to understand who they are by projecting where they are. For millennia, these four directions have been foundational to our travel, navigation and exploration and are central to the imaginative, moral and political geography of virtuall...

‘A superb account of the 1860 Damascus massacres—much neglected nowadays but central to the creation of the modern Middle East’ - Simon Sebag Montefiore‘A stunning portrait of the Ottoman Empire and of Damascus during a time of crisis. Absolutely riveting’ - Peter FrankopanThis remarkable book recreates one of the watershed moments in the history of the Middle East: the ferocious outbreaks of disorder across the Levant in 1860 which...

‘Lisa Kaltenegger offers first-hand access to her expertise on the search for planets in the universe, and the life they may contain. Along the way, Lisa's breezy narrative style invites you to experience with her the challenges and joys of being a scientist on the frontier of discovery’ Neil deGrasse Tyson, AstrophysicistFor thousands of years, humans have wondered whether we're alone in the cosmos. Now, for the first time, we have the technology to investigate. T...