One of the great patrons of the Renaissance, creator of perhaps the most remarkable library outside the Vatican, the Duke of Urbino was also the most successful and feared mercenary of the a... read more
Born Elizabeth Forbes in 1912, he lived as a boy/man and had the gender on his birth certificate altered in order to marry. When his older brother died in 1965, his cousin contested Ewan's i... read more
This massive new appraisal - but shorter than his Churchill and his Napoleon - takes a revisionist approach: far from being a cruel tyrant, Farmer George was intelligent, benevolent, devoted... read more
A thorough, readable biography of the Queen's grandfather that seeks to understand how this supposedly dull man navigated the monarchy successfully through a succession of crises.
This little book is a delightful treat for Advent which tells the story of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square and its relationship with the honourable, courageous Norwegian King Haakon V... read more
A memoir by the former President of the Supreme Court. This remarkable and courageous woman, who took up law when told at school that she wasn't clever enough to study history, obtained a st... read more
A diary of the first hundred days under the strange new regime that were the Covid laws. It is both a record of that time and a meditation on an A-Z of subjects, from Alexandria to Queneau's... read more
From France to the American Revolution, then back again to join the French Revolution, whose firebrands threw him into prison for five years, whence he emerged to spar with Napoleon. In 1830... read more
Who was John Lewis? His father died in a Somerset workhouse; he opened his first business in Oxford Street in 1864. Subsequent family feuds are detailed here, as well as the Partnership that... read more