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...

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 ...

A luminous biography of one of the 20th century's most influential historiansChristopher Hill was one of the leading historians of his generation. His work across more than 15 books and dozens of articles fundamentally rewrote the way we understand the English Revolution and the development of the modern British state. While his career brought many of the trappings of establishment respectability - he was both a Fellow of the British Academy and the Master of Balli...

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 ...

A mind-expanding exploration of the ethical bonds we share with the nonhumanMoral relationships saturate the living world, and the line between the human and nonhuman is blurrier than we might think. Animals, Robots, Gods provides a bold new vision of ethics defined less by the individual mind or society and more by our interactions with those around us, whether they are the pets we keep, the gods we believe in, or the machines we endow with life.D...

In the early years of Vladmir Putin’s Russia, Yevgeny Prigozhin emerged as one of the President’s most trusted assets. By 2023, he had become a dangerous warlord – and also one of Putin’s chief rivals in Russia’s tumultuous political climate, exiled after leading an attempted coup, and shortly after killed in a mysterious plane crash.But what is the truth about this enigmatic figure, his role in the war with Ukraine, and the chaos unleashed across Russia by his turn against Putin? ...

Enter the mysterious world of sixteenth-century science, where astronomers and alchemists shared laboratories.In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus declared the earth revolved around the Sun, overturning centuries of scholastic presumption. A new age was coming into view – one guided by observation, technology and logic.But omens and elixirs did not disappear from the sixteenth-century laboratory. Charms and potions could still be found nestled between glistening br...

SOON TO BE ADAPTED FOR TV!'Glorious fun, packed with puzzles and twists. An absolute riot’ Tom Mead, author of The Murder WheelA gripping new mystery featuring Detective Tess Fox and her con-artist sister Sarah Jacobs.Members of the Lewes Bonfire Society would say afterwards that the event would have been a huge success that year, if it hadn’t been for the dead body…When the charred remains of MP Rupert Mil...

How Labour took power and what they're doing with it'Taken As Red stands out for its balance and the depth of its reporting' The Guardian'Revelatory and insightful.' Tim ShipmanIn Taken As Red acclaimed political journalist Anushka Asthana takes us behind the scenes of the 2024 general election campaign.As the political landscape undergoes a seismic shift, this gripping account pro...

A “masterful” (Foreign Policy), authoritative, and timely look at the unprecedented economic war the United States and its European allies are waging against Russia after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that “reads like a detective novel” (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)—written by a veteran journalist with unparalleled access to Western and Russian sources.Undeterred by eight years of timid US sanctions, Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukrain...

The definitive history of the self-destruction of the autocratic Romanov dynasty.**“Filled with revelations and fresh insights and rich with observations.” —**The Wall Street JournalIn 1917, Imperial Russia faced a series of overlapping crises, from war to social unrest, that culminated in Tsar Nicholas II’s dramatic fall from power. Though Nicholas’s life is often described as tragic, a trove of new archival discoveries confirms t...

This insightful portrait of Winston Churchill delves beyond well-known political moments, incorporating perspectives from various individuals who encountered him throughout his life.From Bletchley Park codebreakers and Hollywood stars such as Charlie Chaplin, through writers as varied as H. G. Wells and P. G. Wodehouse, to the likes of Harold Wilson, Mahatma Gandhi and Queen Elizabeth II, these lesser-known interactions reveal glimpses of the man behind the legend....