From the Byzantine to the Battle of Bosworth, the Anglo-Saxons to the American Revolution, here are the History books our booksellers have most loved.
We start with new releases in both hardback and paperback, then look at some of the best recent publications in Ancient, British & Military History - and then we've chosen some of our favourite History books from all of, well, history...
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Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe
Katja Hoyer
Weimar looms large in German history: a crucible of democracy and dictatorship. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest.
Weimar shows us a town and its people on the edge of catastrophe. Drawing on a wealth of new archival research, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer takes us from 1919 to 1939 as she tells the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler’s regime.
An unforgettable picture of lives and choices in extraordinary circumstances, Weimar takes us deep into the heart of the storm – to the town that dreamt of a better world, and woke up to tyranny.
Published 7th May 2026
Holbein: Renaissance Master
Elizabeth Goldring
This landmark scholarly biography of Hans Holbein the Younger, court painter to Henry VIII, is the first in more than a century. From his early days in Augsburg and Basel to his lasting impact on British art and culture, this definitive account breathes new life into Holbein’s story, shedding light on the artist whose paintings would shape perceptions of the Tudor court for five hundred years.
Beautifully illustrated, with rarely seen paintings from private collections, this volume weaves the latest research—including new archival discoveries and scientific analysis—into a fresh examination of Holbein’s life and work.
Exit Stalin
Mark B. Smith
Fashioning the Crown
Justine Picardie
Queen James
Gareth Russell
A Spy Amongst Us
Marc Mierowsky
1929
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Rasputin
Antony Beevor
Exile
Rosemary Goring
The Finest Hotel in Kabul
Lyse Doucet
Super Nintendo
Keza MacDonald
Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear
Gyles Brandreth
Scottish History in 15 Violent Crimes
Louise Heren
The Lives of the Caesars
Suetonius
Indignity
Lea Ypi
The Buried City
Gabriel Zuchtriegel
Peacemaker
Thant Myint-U
Raise Your Soul
Yanis Varoufakis
A Scandal in Königsberg
Christopher Clark
A Woman’s Work
Elinor Cleghorn
The Mirror of Great Britain
Clare Jackson
The Discovery of Britain
Graham Robb
Edinburgh: A New History
Alistair Moffat
Mad Tom's Rising
Ian Breckon
Manners and Mischief
Anne Glenconner
Strong Roots
Olia Hercules
The World After Gaza
Pankaj Mishra
A Shellshocked Nation
Alwyn Turner
Samurai
Rosina Buckland and Oleg Benesch
Those Who Are About To Die
Harry Sidebottom
Atlantic Furies
Midge Gillies
Changing Scotland
David McCrone
The Glass Mountain
Malcolm Gaskill
Revolting
Terry Deary
Craftland
James Fox
The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective
Sara Lodge
A History of Scottish Witches
Mary W Craig
Legenda
Janina Ramirez
Land of Mist and Magic
Philip Parker
Converts
Melanie McDonagh
Between Two Rivers
Moudhy Al-Rashid
Hotel Exile
Jane Rogoyska
Wild History
James Crawford
Henry V
Dan Jones
Rain of Ruin
Richard Overy
The Zorg
Siddharth Kara
Between the Waves
Tom McTague
Charles III
Robert Hardman
The Library of Ancient Wisdom
Selena Wisnom
The Rest is History Returns
Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland
Story of a Murder
Hallie Rubenhold
Strong Roots
Olia Hercules
Witches
Steven Veerapen
The English House
Dan Cruickshank
HOW TO KILL A WITCH
Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi
The Mercian Chronicles
Max Adams
This Way Up
Map Men
Paris in Ruins
Sebastian Smee
Glasgow: A New History
Alistair Moffat
The Battle for George Square 1919
Gordon Barclay and Louise Heren
The Great Siege of Malta
Marcus Bull
The Nazi Mind
Laurence Rees
Our Daily War
Andrey Kurkov
A Popular History of Idi Amin's Uganda
Derek R. Peterson
The Scapegoat
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Survivors
Hannah Durkin
The Blood in Winter
Jonathan Healey
Mythica
Emily Hauser
Captives and Companions
Justin Marozzi
Dark Renaissance
Stephen Greenblatt
Goliath’s Curse
Luke Kemp
Made in America
Edward Stourton
Queer Georgians
Anthony Delaney
Saint Petersburg
Sinclair McKay
The Traitors Circle
Jonathan Freedland
Turncoat
Dennis Sewell
Ancient Wisdom for Polarized Times
Emily Katz Anhalt
History in the House
Richard Davenport-Hines
Populus
Guy de la Bédoyère
All His Spies
Stephen Alford
Between Britain
Alistair Moffat
The Cancelled Prime Minister
Walter Reid
El Generalísimo
Giles Tremlett
Every Monument Will Fall
Dan Hicks
Four Points of the Compass
Jerry Brotton
History in Flames
Robert Bartlett
A History of England in 25 Poems
Catherine Clarke
Little Englanders
Alwyn Turner
Queen James
Gareth Russell
James Stuart, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland did not always love wisely, but he never failed to do so boldly.
He fell in love three times – with a Scottish lord, a knight and George Villiers, ‘the handsomest man in the whole world’. He was infatuated three more times – with a Highland earl, a Welsh lord and an English spy.
It is unquestionably one of the most gripping stories in British history, retold in Gareth Russell’s Queen James with scholarship, biographical insight and wit.
A Bookseller Recommends...
38 Londres Street
Philippe Sands
"The final piece of the triptych alongside his Baillie Gifford winning East West Street and The Ratline. The book has a dual-centre: Pinochet and his arrest in 1998, and the story of the Nazi Walter Rauff, responsible for the orchestration of mass murder in WW2.
As Sands pulls on the thread of Rauff, his story is revealed to be tangled inextricably with the crimes committed under Pinochet’s rule, wound around the heart of the torture and disappearances that occurred in 38 Londres Street. An extraordinary book by a master storyteller." ~ Saskia, Edinburgh
How the World Made the West
Josephine Quinn
Legenda
Janina Ramirez
The Lives of the Caesars
Suetonius
The Buried City
Gabriel Zuchtriegel
Unfortunately, She was a Nymphomaniac
Joan Smith
Those Who Are About To Die
Harry Sidebottom
Mythica
Emily Hauser
Between Two Rivers
Moudhy Al-Rashid
Lawless Republic
Josiah Osgood
The Rest is History Returns
Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland
The Ruins of Rome
Roland Mayer
Fall of Civilizations
Paul Cooper
Populus
Guy de la Bédoyère
A Short History of Ancient Rome
Pascal Hughes
Plebs Romana
Peter Jones
Ancient Myths and Legends Without Men
Mara Gold
The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome
Guy de la Bedoyere
Heresy
Catherine Nixey
Lawless Republic
Josiah Osgood
The Library of Ancient Wisdom
Selena Wisnom
Miracula
Paul Chrystal
On the Ocean
Barry Cunliffe
Strike
Sarah E Bond
Surviving Rome
Kim Bowes
Carthage
Eve MacDonald
On This Horrible Day in History
Terry Deary
Ancient Civilizations of Afghanistan
Warwick Ball
Children of Mars
Jeremy Armstrong
The Far Edges of the Known World
Owen Rees
The Folds of Olympus
Jason König
The History of the Peloponnesian War
Robin Waterfield
Master of Rome
The Mesopotamian Riddle
Joshua Hammer
The Missing Thread
Daisy Dunn
The Romans
Edward J. Watts
Rome Before Rome
Philip Matyszak
Ancient Britain for Modern Folk
Tom Howells
Ancient Rome: Infographics
Nicolas Guillerat, John Scheid and Milan Melocco
Ancient Wisdom for Polarized Times
Emily Katz Anhalt
Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World
Philip Matyszak
Greek To Us
John Davie
The Last Dynasty
Toby Wilkinson
Love, War, and Diplomacy
Eric H. Cline
Proto
Laura Spinney
Stone Lands
Fiona Robertson
Theoderic the Great
Hans-Ulrich Wiemer
Why I am a Stoic
Seneca
Behind Caesar's Back
Caillan Davenport
The Cleopatras
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Divine Egypt
Diana Craig Patch and Brendan Hainline
Fulvia
Jane Draycott
How to Fit All of Ancient Greece in an Elevator
Theodore Papakostas
Julian
Philip Freeman
The Library of Ancient Wisdom
Selena Wisnom
Moneta
Gareth Harney
The Neverending Empire
Aldo Cazzullo
Olympia
Judith M. Barringer
Origins of the Just War
Rory Cox
Perpetua
Sarah Ruden
Plato and the Tyrant
James Romm
Raiders, Rulers, and Traders
David Chaffetz
Ramesses the Great
Toby Wilkinson
Rome
James Lacey
Scipio Africanus
Dexter Hoyos
Sparta
Andrew Bayliss
Themistocles
Michael Scott
There Was a Roman in Your Garden
Bettany Hughes
Thucydides on Strategy
Athanasios G. Platias and Constantinos Koliopoulos
Vergil
Sarah Ruden
What Is Ancient History?
Walter Scheidel
Holbein
Elizabeth Goldring
The Lost Paths
Jack Cornish
Queen James
Gareth Russell
Finding Albion
Zakia Sewell
The Discovery of Britain
Graham Robb
Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee
Charlie Higson
Craftland
James Fox
Exile
Rosemary Goring
Land of Mist and Magic
Philip Parker
Upon A White Horse
Peter Ross
Night Life
John Lewis-Stempel
A Shellshocked Nation
Alwyn Turner
The Blood in Winter
Jonathan Healey
The Colour of Home
Sajid Javid
The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective
Sara Lodge
With the Law on Our Side
Lady Hale
A Spy Amongst Us
Marc Mierowsky
The Art Isles
Charlotte Mullins
The Siege
Ben Macintyre
Out
Tim Shipman
Tree Hunting
Paul Wood
Archbishop, Chancellor, Kingmaker
Chris Given-Wilson
The Curious Life of the Cuckoo
John Lewis-Stempel
The Mercian Chronicles
Max Adams
Beneath our Feet
Michael Lewis, Ian Richardson and Mackenzie Crook
By My Hands
Florian Gadsby
Church Going
Andrew Ziminski
Converts
Melanie McDonagh
Eighteen
Alice Loxton
The Haunted Wood
Sam Leith
A History of Britain in Ten Enemies
Terry Deary
The North Sea
Alistair Moffat
Operation Biting
Max Hastings
The Scapegoat
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
Charles III
Robert Hardman
Enchanted Ground
Steven Lovatt
Failed State
Sam Freedman
The Foreign Invention of British Art
Leslie Primo
Human Resources
Renay Richardson and Arisa Loomba
Queer Georgians
Anthony Delaney
Soft
Ferdinand Mount
The Strategists
Phillips Payson O'Brien
The Bonfire of the Insanities
John Crace
The Cancelled Prime Minister
Walter Reid
Every Monument Will Fall
Dan Hicks
Every Valley
Charles King
The First King of England
David Woodman
Little Englanders
Alwyn Turner
Mr. Churchill in the White House
Robert Schmuhl
On This Horrible Day in History
Terry Deary
The Rage of Party
George Owers
The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1975–2025
Ben Barry
These Isles
Brian Groom
What Matters in Jane Austen?
John Mullan
All That Glistens
Martin Thorley
Born to Rule
Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman
Chinese and Any Other Asian
Anna Sulan Masing
Every Kind of People
Kathryn Faulke
Friends in Youth
Minoo Dinshaw
George Orwell: A Reader's Guide
D. J. Taylor
The Good Society
Kate Pickett
Harold Wilson
Alan Johnson
Heirs and Graces
Eleanor Doughty
Interwar
Gavin Stamp
Keir Starmer
Tom Baldwin
Kingmaker
Sonia Purnell
The Light of Day
Christopher Stephens and Louise Radnofsky
Members Behaving Badly
Debbie Kilroy
Operation Paperclip
Annie Jacobsen
In this engrossing and deeply disturbing exposé from the bestselling author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen tells the gripping story of a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States.
In the chaos following the Second World War, the US government faced a critical decision: what to do with the great scientific minds of the Third Reich. Many were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder. Nevertheless, the US government secretly decided that their knowledge of rocketry and medical advances were vital to the outcome of the Cold War.
Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into one of the most startling, complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secrets of the twentieth century.
Sword
Max Hastings
Operation Paperclip
Annie Jacobsen
Operation Biting
Max Hastings
The Glass Mountain
Malcolm Gaskill
Victory '45
James Holland and Al Murray
Hotel Exile
Jane Rogoyska
Rain of Ruin
Richard Overy
Her Secret Service
Claire Hubbard-Hall
The Hiroshima Men
Iain MacGregor
The Unknown Warrior
John Nichol
The Great Siege of Malta
Marcus Bull
The Nazi Mind
Laurence Rees
Our Daily War
Andrey Kurkov
SAS The Great Train Raid
Damien Lewis
The Longest Walk Home
Ray Bailey and David Wilkins
Looking at Women, Looking at War
Victoria Amelina
Made in America
Edward Stourton
The Traitors Circle
Jonathan Freedland
Armageddon
Max Hastings
The Mission
Tim Weiner
A Spy Amongst Us
Marc Mierowsky
Wolfpack
Roger Moorhouse
Hitler's People
Richard J. Evans
Naples 1944
Keith Lowe
Polar War
Kenneth R. Rosen
SAS Great Escapes Four
Damien Lewis
The Siege
Ben Macintyre
The CIA Book Club
Charlie English
The Deadly Game
Will Britten
The Illegals
Shaun Walker
The Spy in the Archive
Gordon Corera
The Stalin Affair
Giles Milton
Tunisgrad
Saul David
The Accidental Soldier
Owain Mulligan
Arnhem: Black Tuesday
Al Murray
Goebbels and 'Total War'
Peter Longerich
How to Build a Spitfire
David Price
SAS Great Escapes Three
Damien Lewis
Armada
Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker
Chanel's War
Richard Wallace
Churchill's D-Day
Richard Dannatt and Allen Packwood
Cold War Britain
Fraser McCallum
D-Day: The Unheard Tapes
Geraint Jones
Double Agent Victoire
David Tremain
First Class Comrades
J. Boulter
Four Shots in the Night
Henry Hemming
The Illusionist
Robert Hutton
Josephine Baker's Secret War
Hanna Diamond
Mavericks
Nick Higham
Midway
Mark Stille
Misread Signals
Dermot Turing
On Democracies and Death Cults
Douglas Murray
Out of Hitler's Shadow
Tobias Straumann
Pearl Harbor
Mark Stille
The Poet's Game
Paul Vidich
Saint Petersburg
Sinclair McKay
The Second World War
Antony Beevor
The Sisterhood
Liza Mundy
Sky Warriors
Saul David
The Strategists
Phillips Payson O'Brien
Sword Beach
Stephen Fisher
Wannsee
War and Power
Phillips Payson O'Brien
The White Lady
Helen Fry
Winkle
Paul Beaver
The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz
Anne Sebba
All His Spies
Stephen Alford
Mr. Churchill in the White House
Robert Schmuhl
The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1975–2025
Ben Barry
Stay Alive
Ian Buruma
The Army That Never Was
Taylor Downing
The Battle for George Square 1919
Gordon Barclay and Louise Heren
Believable Lies
Terry Stiastny
The Bells of Nagasaki
Takashi Nagai
Bread and War
Felicity Spector
Captain de Havilland's Moth
Alexander Norman
The Defector
Richard Kerbaj
The Demon of Unrest
Erik Larson
Hiroshima
M.G. Sheftall
The Last Secret Agent
Pippa Latour
Lest We Forget
Tessa Dunlop
The Mad and the Brave
Colin Freeman
Night Train to Odesa
Jen Stout
The Nuclear Age
Serhii Plokhy
Nuremberg
James Bulgin and Toby Haggith
Opening the Gates of Hell
Richard Hargreaves
Operation Pimento
Adam Hart
Operation Wrath of God
Aviva Guttmann
Paris '44
Patrick Bishop
SAS Daggers Drawn
Damien Lewis
Killers of the King
Charles Spencer
Between Two Fires
Joshua Yaffa
Salvador
Joan Didion
A Kick in the Belly
Stella Dadzie
River Kings
Cat Jarman
The Light Ages
Seb Falk
Novels In Three Lines
Felix Feneon
Germany
Neil MacGregor
The White Ship
Charles Spencer
Open Veins of Latin America
Eduardo Galeano
East West Street
Philippe Sands
The Wager
David Grann
Colditz
Ben Macintyre
Eminent Churchillians
Andrew Roberts
