THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ''Every time Churchill took to the airwaves it was as if he were injecting adrenaline-soaked courage directly into the British people ... Larson tells the story of how that feat was accomplished ... Fresh, fast and deeply moving.'' New York Times A STARTLING, GRIPPING PORTRAIT OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE ALIVE IN BRITAIN DURING THE BLITZ, AND WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE AROUND CHURCHILL. On Winston Churchill''s first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, the Nazis would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons and destroying two million homes. In The Splendid and the Vile , Erik Larson gives a new and brilliantly cinematic account of how Britain''s most iconic leader set about unifying the nation at its most vulnerable moment, and teaching ''the art of being fearless.'' Drawing on once-secret intelligence reports and diaries, #1 bestselling author Larson takes readers from the shelled streets of London to Churchill''s own chambers, giving a vivid vision of true leadership, when - in the face of unrelenting horror - a leader of eloquence, strategic brilliance and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.
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** A FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN AND GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR ** ''A must read for anyone wanting to understand where the roots of our sense of a nation originated'' - Janina Ramirez, bestselling author of Femina ''A sharp new history of longing for the good old days'' - Financial Times ''Our national story is so much stranger than we think: this book brilliantly insists that we look at it afresh'' - James Hawes, bestselling author of The Shortest History of England ____________________________________________________ How has nostalgia shaped Britain?

Modern politicians implore us to draw on the ''Blitz Spirit'' of wartime Britain, post-war Britons mourned the lost innocence of Edwardian life, anxious Edwardians longed to return to a golden era of Victorian optimism, while Victorian artists dreamt of retreating to a medieval, pre-industrial age. Longing to go back to the ''good old days'' is nothing new, but it''s also not what it used to be.

Rule, Nostalgia is an eye-opening history of Britain''s perennial fixation with its own past that explores why nostalgia has been such an enduring and seductive emotion across hundreds of years of change. Cultural historian Hannah Rose Woods paints a novel picture of Britain, both strange and familiar, separating the fact from the fantasy, debunking pervasive myths and illuminating the remarkable influence that nostalgia''s perpetual backwards glance has had on our history, politics and society over the last five hundred years.

This is a timely and enlightening interrogation of national character, emotion, identity and myth making that explores how this nostalgic isle''s history was written, re-written and (rightly or wrongly) remembered. Lire la suite Fermer

From the invaders of the dark ages to the aftermath of the coalition, one of Britain's most respected journalists, Simon Jenkins, weaves together a strong narrative with all the most important and interesting dates in a book that characteristically is as stylish as it is authoritative. A Short History of England sheds light on all the key individuals and events, bringing them together in an enlightening and engaging account of the country's birth, rise to global prominence and then partial eclipse.There have been long synoptic histories of England but until now there has been no standard short work covering all significant events, themes and individuals. Now updated to take in the rapid progress of recent events and beautifully illustrated, this magisterial history will be the standard work for years to come.
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After the Second World War, new international rules heralded an age of human rights and self-determination. Supported by Britain, these unprecedented changes sought to end the scourge of colonialism. But how committed was Britain? In the 1960s, its colonial instinct ignited once more: a secret decision was taken to offer the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, create a new colony (the ''British Indian Ocean Territory'') and deport the entire local population. One of those inhabitants was Liseby Elyse, twenty years old, newly married, expecting her first child. One suitcase, no pets, the British ordered, expelling her from the only home she had ever known. For four decades the government of Mauritius fought for the return of Chagos, and the past decade Philippe Sands has been intimately involved in the cases. In 2018 Chagos and colonialism finally reached the World Court in The Hague. As Mauritius and the entire African continent challenged British and American lawlessness, fourteen international judges faced a landmark decision: would they rule that Britain illegally detached Chagos from Mauritius? Would they open the door to Liseby Elyse and her fellow Chagossians returning home - or exile them forever? Taking us on a disturbing journey across international law, THE LAST COLONY illuminates the continuing horrors of colonial rule, the devasting impact of Britain''s racist grip on its last colony in Africa, and the struggle for justice in the face of a crime against humanity. It is a tale about the making of modern international law and one woman''s fight for justice, a courtroom drama and a personal journey that ends with a historic ruling.
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Joanne Paul is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Sussex. A BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, her research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods. She has

A unique portrait of Victorian life, hidden figures and Empire, told through one woman''s textile scrapbook _____________ In 1838, a young woman was given a diary on her wedding day. Collecting snippets of fabric from a range of garments - some her own, others donated by family and friends - she carefully annotated each one, creating a unique record of their lives. Her name was Mrs Anne Sykes.

Nearly two hundred years later, the diary fell into the hands of Kate Strasdin, a fashion historian and museum curator. Using her expertise, Strasdin spent the next six years unravelling the secrets contained within the album''s pages, and the lives of the people within. Her findings are remarkable. Piece by piece, she charts Anne''s journey from the mills of Lancashire to the port of Singapore before tracing her return to England in later years. Fragments of cloth become windows into Victorian life: Pirates in Borneo, the complicated etiquette of mourning, poisonous dyes, the British Empire in full swing, rioting over working conditions and the terrible human cost of Britain''s cotton industry.

This is life writing that celebrates ordinary people: not the grandees of traditional written histories, but the hidden figures, the participants in everyday life. Through the evidence of waistcoats, ball gowns and mourning outfits, Strasdin lays bare the whole of human experience in the most intimate of mediums: the clothes we choose to wear. Lire la suite Fermer

''Ian Morris has established himself as a leader in making big history interesting and understandable'' Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steel ''Morris succeeds triumphantly at cramming 10,000 years of history into a single book'' Robert Colvile, Times Geography is Destiny tells the history of Britain and its changing relationships with Europe and the wider world, from its physical separation at the end of the Ice Age to the first flickers of a United Kingdom, struggles for the Atlantic, and rise of the Pacific Rim. Applying the latest archaeological evidence, Ian Morris explores how geography, migration, government and new technologies interacted to produce regional inequalities that still affect us today. He charts Britain''s geopolitical fortunes over thousands of years, revealing its transformation from a European satellite into a state at the centre of global power, commerce, and culture. But as power and wealth shift from West to East, does Britain''s future lie with Europe or the wider world? Lire la suite Fermer

Robert Tombs is Emeritus Professor of French History at Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John's College. Most of his writing and teaching has been on French and European history and on Franco-British relations, for which he was awarded

For more than 20 years, historian and broadcaster Michael Wood has made compelling journeys into the past, which have brought history alive for a generation of readers and viewers. He is the author of several highly praised books on Engl

Jane Ridley is Professor of History at Buckingham University, where she teaches an MA course on biography. Her books include The Young Disraeli, acclaimed by Robert Blake as definitive; a highly praised study of the architect

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE ''A page-turner with the authority of history'' PHILIPPA GREGORY ''As gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read'' SARAH WATERS London, 1938. Alma Fielding, an ordinary young woman, begins to experience supernatural events in her suburban home.

Nandor Fodor - a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical research - begins to investigate. In doing so he discovers a different and darker type of haunting: trauma, alienation, loss - and the foreshadowing of a nation''s worst fears. As the spectre of Fascism lengthens over Europe, and as Fodor''s obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes ever more disturbed.

With rigour, daring and insight, the award-winning pioneer of historical narrative non-fiction Kate Summerscale shadows Fodor''s enquiry, delving into long-hidden archives to find the human story behind a very modern haunting.

''An empathetic, meticulous account of a spiritual unravelling; a tribute to the astonishing power of the human mind - but also a properly absorbing, baffling, satisfying detective story'' AIDA EDEMARIAM A PICK OF THE AUTUMN IN THE TIMES , SUNDAY TIMES , OBSERVER AND THE GUARDIAN
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A beautifully considered book . . .Clare Hunter has managed to mix the personal with the political with moving results''>

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May, Dominic Cummings, Daniel Hannan, Jacob Rees-Mogg: Oxford has produced most of the prominent Conservative politicians of our time. The University newspapers of 30 years ago are full of recognisable names in news stories, photos of social events, and Bullingdon Club reports. Many walked straight out of the world of student debates onto the national stage. Unfortunately, they brought their university politics with them.

Eleven of the fifteen postwar British prime ministers went to Oxford. This narrowest of talent pools has shaped the modern country. In Brideshead in Power, Simon Kuper traces how the rarefied and privileged atmosphere of Oxford University - and the friendships and worldviews it created - helped give us today''s Britain, including Brexit. Lire la suite Fermer

Charles Townshend is the author of the highly praised Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion and The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence, 1918-1923. The Partition forms the third part of his trilogy on how Irela

Adrian Goldsworthy studied at Oxford, where his doctoral thesis examined the Roman army, and became an acclaimed historian of Ancient Rome. He is the author of numerous books, including Caesar, The Fall of the West,