England Wars

A history of Britain in the violent and unruly era between the first Scandinavian raids in 789 and the final expulsion of the Vikings from York in 954. In 865, a great Viking army landed in East Anglia, precipitating a series of wars that would last until the middle of the following century. It...

Drawing on interviews with first-hand sources in and outside the administration, official minutes and still classified documents, Shattered Hopes focuses on PH1.0’s rocky 22-months in power to tell the story of how a fledgling Government filled with so much promise and hope, was racked by...

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...

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...

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!

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.

Brought to you by Penguin. 'NEXT, I APPLIED TO WORK IN THE ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT, a sealed room where women operated clattering machines like enormous typewriters. After I had catastrophically and erroneously applied all the wrong information to several trolley loads of documents and lumbered the...

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.

The next in the BRAND NEW thrilling, action-packed House of Mercia series from BESTSELLER MJ Porter. Perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Matthew Harffy This is Mercia. The year is 758. In the space of just a few months, two kings have fallen. Now the royal helm stands unclaimed, and...

'An indelible and enthralling work of moral witness' PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE 'These questions of memory and impunity are forever timely' FINANCIAL TIMES 'An extraordinary achievement . . . I read with open mouth and thumping heart' STEPHEN FRY The house at 38 Londres Street in Santiago, Chile, 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.

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...

Bloomsbury presents Estocada by Graham Hurley, read by Andrew Cullum. 'Historical fiction of a high order' The Times To avoid war across Europe, a killing strike is needed. 1937. Flying for the infamous Condor Legion over the battlefields of Spain's civil war, Merz has been able to unleash the...

The winter of 1139 will disrupt Brother Cadfael's tranquil life in Shrewsbury, as raging civil war has sent refugees fleeing north from Worcester. Among them are two young orphans from a noble family and their companion, a young Benedictine nun. The trio, never reaching Shrewsbury, has...

In 1204, the great Angevin Empire was fragmenting under King John's rule. Unable to withstand France's invasion of Normandy, John also faced difficult relations with the papacy, and rising dissent among his barons. By the time John died in 1216, the failed Magna Carta gave way to civil conflict, and more than half of the country had fallen to the dauphin of France. These troubles were then passed, along with the crown, to John's nine-year-old son, Henry III.

Triumph and tragedy, love and loss, murder and malice in the lives of five fifteenth-century queens The fifteenth century was a turbulent age: the Hundred Years War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses dominated the lives of people both inside and out of the royal courts. Joan...

'A sizzling account'The Times A hidden network sustains our world, but it's no longer safe. Every button, house, nation and financial market depends on a massive, unseen web of cables across the ocean floor. Power cables and pipelines on the seafloor provide the world with energy. This is the...

A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr confronts head-on the victory of shopping over politics. It tells the story of how the great political visions of New Jerusalem or a second Elizabethan Age, rival idealisms, came to be defeated by a culture of consumerism, celebrity and...

Bloomsbury presents Henry V: The Astonishing Rise of England's Greatest Warrior King, written and read by Dan Jones. Nominated for Best Audiobook: Non-Fiction at The Speakies (The British Audio Awards) A brand-new life of England’s greatest king from our bestselling medieval historian 'A...