A biography of the city founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, once the largest city in the world and for a thousand years the capital of Egypt. Looks at the modern period too.
An account of Edward VIII that looks at early drafts of the abdicated King's own writings, and counterbalances the recent tabloid view of him as a traitor.
The memoirs of Henry 'Bunter' Somerset - rock singer and songwriter, formerly the Marquess of Worcester, now the 17th Duke of Beaufort and the owner of Badminton House.
A scrapbook becomes a twisty Ariadne's thread, leading its compiler into a world of art, vast wealth and murder. Sharp, with more than a touch of black humour.
The author went to Venice in 1957, aged 25, to have fun for a season among the rich and glam. Written with 67 years' hindsight, this memoir is a vivid evocation of a vanished era.
In this debut novel by a fine poet, a young woman's table-waiting, mould-spraying life of urban precariousness is disrupted by a glamorous stranger with a shared enemy.
A deliciously-written debut novel, in which a harried civil servant is assigned to help a Victorian time-traveller adjust to the C21st. By turns a romance, a thriller and an acid critique of... read more
A fascinating look at the way 29 European internal borders were made and have shifted; while some of these reflect the faultlines of old horrors, they also offer new hope. Perceptive and ext... read more
In October 1960, James Baldwin diagnosed the trouble with American society as 'a failure of the masculine sensibility.' This is a study of the relationship of Tennessee Williams, Carson McCu... read more