British Nonfiction

Brought to you by Penguin. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian: a searing study of the British Empire that interrogates the pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century and traces how these practices were exported, modified, and institutionalized in colonies around the globe...

Brought to you by Penguin. From the Queen's stoic resolve to the crisis of Meghan and Harry. From the ascendance of Camilla and Kate to the downfall of Andrew. Full of remarkable inside access, The Palace Papers by Sunday Times bestselling author Tina Brown will change how you understand the...

Over a thousand years of history. One house. Countless lives. This is the extraordinary story of England told through one ordinary house – from the bestselling author of the acclaimed Time Traveller’s Guides. This book tells the history of England from the point of view of the people who...

As heard on the New Yorker Radio Hour: The triumphant and "engaging history" (The New Yorker) of the young women who devised a winning strategy that defeated Nazi U-boats and delivered a decisive victory in the Battle of the Atlantic. By 1941, Winston Churchill had come to believe that the...

Brought to you by Penguin. A finely spun history of clothes and where they come from Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool: through the stories of these five fabrics, Sofi Thanhauser illuminates the world we inhabit in a startling new way, travelling from China to Cumbria to reveal the craft...

The astonishing true story of Thomas Cochrane – naval hero, political radical and inspiration for Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey – whose audacity at sea, scandals on land and battles across empires make for a tale as thrilling as any novel. Cochrane’s life was even more remarkable than...

A transporting and gloriously entertaining journey through the hidden lives of England’s rural parish churches – from building conservator and church ‘rescuer’ Rachel Morley The poet John Betjeman coined the phrase ‘church crawling’ to describe his days out visiting churches. In the...

“Highly detailed and fast-paced, Charles Glass’s They Fought Alone is a must-read for those whose passion is the Resistance literature of World War II.” —Alan Furst, author of A Hero of France From the bestselling author of Americans in Paris and The Deserters, the astounding story...

A searing and revelatory account of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls of Highway 16, and an indictment of the society that failed them. For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern British...

Are you ready for the truth about World War Two? In the first of an extraordinary three-volume account of the war on land, in the air and at sea, James Holland reveals not only the truth behind the familiar legends of the Second World War but he also unveils those lesser known events which were...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER It was the most influential marriage of the nineteenth century–and one of history’ s most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power...

Brought to you by Penguin. Churchill. Hitler. Stalin. Mussolini. Roosevelt. Five of the most impactful leaders of WW2, each with their own individualistic and idiosyncratic approach to warfare. But if we want to understand their military strategy, we must first understand the strategist. In THE...

The #1 Sunday Times bestseller Named a best book of the year by Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, and Kirkus Reviews “One of the best books on politics our era will see . . . A book of astonishing literary quality.” —Matthew Parris, The TLS “[Rory Stewart] walked across Asia, served...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The perfect companion to the PBS Masterpiece series Victoria A gripping account of Queen Victoria’s rise and early years in power from CNN’s official royal historian “Kate Williams has perfected the art of historical biography. Her pacy writing is...

From a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian: a searing study of the British Empire that probes the country's pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century and traces how these practices were exported, modified, and institutionalized in colonies around the globe Sprawling across a...

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A KIRKUS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR The rise of globalization and financialization as seen from a barge—one Swedish barge, to be exact, built in 1979 "The many-headed hydra of neoliberalism has found its chronicler." —Sven Beckert, author of...

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE From the bestselling historian and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, the moving untold story of the eighteenth-century men and women behind the making of Handel’s Messiah. "A delicious history of music...

A best-selling journalist’s illuminating tour through the hidden legacies and modern realities of British empire that exposes how much of the present-day United Kingdom is actually rooted in its colonial past. Empireland boldly and lucidly makes the case that in order to understand America, we...

Join Zakia Sewell on a journey across Britain, uncovering hidden stories, ancient rituals, and a side of the nation you've never heard before Zakia Sewell is on a quest for another Britain. Traversing the length and breadth of our island from Somerset to Scotland, she's seeking out a different...

All six volumes of 'The Essential Letters from America', brought together for the first time in this definitive chronological collection of Alistair Cooke's finest broadcasts Alistair Cooke was the doyen of foreign correspondents and a radio legend, entertaining millions of listeners for over...