England Wars

The sixth and final volume in Peter Ackroyd’s magnificent History of England series, from the Boer War to the Millenium Dome. Innovation brings Peter Ackroyd’s History of England to a triumphant close. Ackroyd takes readers from the end of the Boer War and the accession of Edward VII to the...

With all the immediacy of an eyewitness account, Anthony Pitch recounts the dramatic story of the British invasion of Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1814. The British torched the Capitol, the White House, and other buildings, setting off an inferno that illuminated the countryside for miles around and sent President James Madison galloping out of town. The author's gripping account also describes the valiant defense of nearby Fort McHenry and the story of the writing of The Star Spangled Banner.

Peter Ackroyd has been praised as one of the greatest living chroniclers of Britain and its people. In Rebellion, he continues his dazzling account of the history of England, beginning the progress south of the Scottish king James VI, who on the death of Elizabeth I became the first Stuart king...

'Thoroughly researched and extremely readable' THE TIMES 'Fascinating, gripping, revelatory' KATE WILLIAMS 'An epic and clever history' GARETH RUSSELL 'I know no rival to this book in its presentation of a major dynasty in English history' DIARMAID MACCULLOCH THOMAS MADE ENGLAND. OLIVER MADE...

In 1943 Winston Churchill and the British Empire needed millions of Indian troops, all of India's industrial output, and tons of Indian grain to support the Allied war effort. Such massive contributions were certain to trigger famine in India. Because Churchill believed that the fate of the British Empire hung in the balance, he proceeded, sacrificing millions of Indian lives in order to preserve what he held most dear. The result: the Bengal Famine of 1943-44, in which millions of villagers starved to death.

As the world once again confronts an eruption of authoritarianism, Gyan Prakash's Emergency Chronicles takes us back to the moment of India's independence to offer a comprehensive historical account of Indira Gandhi's Emergency of 1975-77. Stripping away the myth that this was a sudden event...

Written in 1967 from the vantage point of the psychedelic sixties, Vanity of Duluoz is a fascinating portrait of the artist as a young man. This book presents the formative years in the life of Jack Duluoz—Kerouac’s alter ego—beginning with his high school experiences as a sporting jock in...

George Bowling, an insurance salesman, hits middle age and feels impelled to "come up for air" from his life of quiet desperation. With seventeen pounds he has won at a race, he steals a vacation from his wife and his family and pays a visit to Lower Binfield, the village where he grew up, to...

It is 1917 and Elinor Brooke, a young painter, is studying art in London while her beloved brother Toby serves on the front as a medical officer. When Toby goes missing and is presumed dead, the devastated Elinor refuses to accept it. A letter she finds hidden among his belongings reveals that...

As Anatole Broyard of the New York Times has so aptly said, "If le Carr├ is the Henry James of suspense fiction, Buckley, if he chose, might be the Waugh." Bill Buckley has created a handsome American hero, Blackford Oakes, who happens to be an irreverent Yale-and-CIA-trained superspy. The...

In 1859, the British and Americans coexist on the small island of San Juan, located off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. They are on fairly good terms—until one fateful morning when an innocent hog owned by a British man has the misfortune to eat some potatoes on an American farmer's land. In a moment of rash anger, Lyman Cutlar shoots Charles Griffin's pig, inadvertently almost bringing the two nations to war. Tensions flare, armies gather, cannons are rolled out . . . all because of a pig!

Ken Follett’s magnificent new historical epic begins as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage. A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man’s world in the mining pits. . . . An...

This triumphant conclusion to A. S. Byatt's great quartet of postwar English life and manners stands on its own as a magical and thought-provoking novel of ideas made flesh. Frederica,the spirited heroine of The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, and Babel Tower, falls almost by accident into a...

In burnished, driving prose, John Keegan chronicles the 1944 invasion of Normandy, from D-day to the liberation of Paris. At the same time, he furthers his exploration of the "role which warfare and its institutions play in social life" by showing how each of the six armies, while resembling one...

Following the execution of the king in 1649, the new Commonwealth and then Oliver Cromwell set out to drive forward a puritan reformation of manners. They wanted to reform the church and its services, enforce the Sabbath, suppress Christmas, and spread the gospel. They sought to impose a stern moral discipline to regulate and reform sexual behaviour, drinking practices, language, dress, and leisure activities ranging from music and plays to football.

Bloomsbury presents Master of War by David Gilman, read by Colin Mace. 'Page-turning and gritty' DAILY MAIL. Amid the carnage of the 100 Years War – the bloodiest conflict in medieval history – a young English archer confronts his destiny... England, 1346: For Thomas Blackstone the choice is...

In this imagined war, coalition forces led by Russia and France invade Britain and make several early advances, but the Germans land in Britain as allies and help to repulse the invasion. The brave English patriots, together with German soldiers, try to turn the tide. Written 20 years before the start of World War I in 1914, Le Queux’s novel is considered to have influenced many subsequent works, including H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds.

Christopher Andrew and guests ask what would have happened if major historical moments had taken a different course In these 34 intriguing episodes, leading historian Christopher Andrew rewrites history, considering what might have transpired if pivotal events had turned out differently. By...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “I gulped it right down. Excellent, as always. . . . Cornwell brings battles to life like no one else.” –George R.R. Martin, Author of Game of Thrones The final installment in Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling Saxon Tales series, chronicling the epic story of the...

A riveting account of the five heated months in which King Charles I attempted to arrest five dissident Members of Parliament by bringing an armed force to the House of Commons—a shocking act of political terrorism that pushed England toward civil war and planted the seeds of the American...