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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Napoleon and his Marshals: Victory, Rivalry, Betrayal
Andrew Roberts
8th October 2026
In 1804, immediately after his coronation as Emperor, Napoleon created the Marshalate, the supreme martial rank of the empire. Over the next decade, he elevated to it some of his most outstanding generals, who played leading roles in his extraordinary campaigns - including the brave Ney, the flamboyant Murat, the vain Massena, the iron Davout and the logistics master Berthier.
This dramatic and hugely enjoyable book by one of Britain's most admired historians is by far the fullest account of these brilliant figures and their fiery relationships with their master.
Talking Classics: The Shock of the New
Mary Beard
What's exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption at Pompeii? Why should we be bothered with the distant past anyway? What's the point?
The life, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome have something to offer everyone. They make us wonder how to make sense of people who lived long ago (from angry landlords to giggling senators) - and to think harder about our own world, to look at it differently. In Talking Classics, Mary Beard points to the surprising connections between antiquity and the present and explains why the deep past does really affect us all.
The Discovery of Britain: An Accidental History
Graham Robb
Taking you on a time-travelling adventure around the 'spindly, sea-wracked islands' we call home, The Discovery of Britain is history that's panoramic and intimate, poignant and shocking, seriously funny, and enlightening in the most surprising way.