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LIQUIDATE PARIS shows the eruption of the Second World War in its most brutal and cruel phase, as allied troops advance upon Paris and the penal regiment retreat.

I had a grenade in my hand. So, no doubt, did the English private. I tore out the pin with my teeth. Lay there and counted. Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four…

It is Hitler’s last chance to save the Third Reich…

Millions of Allied troops have landed in Normandy.

The orders are clear: Sven and his comrades, hardened by a savage war that has led them from the bloody steppes of the Russian Front, to the slopes of Monte Cassino, are ordered to withdraw to Strasbourg and destroy Paris on the way…

A masterly overview of the development of cosmological thinking from the Greeks, via Newton and Einstein, to the present day.

It is science’s last and greatest challenge: fathoming the depths of the night sky. The objective: to crack the cosmic code, to unravel the blueprint for nature’s grandest conception, a machine constructed on an unimaginably vast scale – the Universe itself.

Today’s model of an expanding Universe – the big bang cosmology – is actually built on principles derived from a few simple mathematical equations. Gravity-warped space time, quantum mechanics, the physics of the subatomic, these crucial insights, stemming from Einstein’s revolutionary theories of relativity, have led to a simple and elegant framework within which the whole of the Universe, over billions of years, has been described.

But recent evidence has begun to make wrinkles in the neat fabric of the big bang cosmology. There is now overwhelming evidence that there is far more stuff in the Universe than we can see. What, and where, is this ‘dark matter’? And it now appears that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating: something out there – some exotic ‘dark energy’ – is acting against gravity to push space and time apart.

While offering a critical view of how all the pieces in our current model fit together, Pedro Ferreira argues that Einstein’s Universe may be just another stepping stone towards a new, more profound and effective cosmology in the future.

The incredible real life story of the world’s first super spy

‘Full of stimulating detail… vivid glimpses of the world of Elizabethan espionage’ GUARDIAN

‘Walsingham emerges from these pages as a hero of epic stature’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

Francis Walsingham was the first ‘spymaster’ in the modern sense. His methods anticipated those of MI5 and MI6 and even those of the KGB. He maintained a network of spies across Europe, including double-agents at the highest level in Rome and Spain – the sworn enemies of Queen Elizabeth and her Protestant regime. His entrapment of Mary Queen of Scots is a classic intelligence operation that resulted in her execution.

As Robert Hutchinson reveals, his cypher expert’s ability to intercept other peoples’ secret messages and his brilliant forged letters made him a fearsome champion of the young Elizabeth. Yet even this Machiavellian schemer eventually fell foul of Elizabeth as her confidence grew (and judgement faded). The rise and fall of Sir Francis Walsingham is a Tudor epic, vividly narrated by a historian with unique access to the surviving documentary evidence.

The incredible real life story of the world’s first super spy

‘Full of stimulating detail… vivid glimpses of the world of Elizabethan espionage’ GUARDIAN

‘Walsingham emerges from these pages as a hero of epic stature’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

Francis Walsingham was the first ‘spymaster’ in the modern sense. His methods anticipated those of MI5 and MI6 and even those of the KGB. He maintained a network of spies across Europe, including double-agents at the highest level in Rome and Spain – the sworn enemies of Queen Elizabeth and her Protestant regime. His entrapment of Mary Queen of Scots is a classic intelligence operation that resulted in her execution.

As Robert Hutchinson reveals, his cypher expert’s ability to intercept other peoples’ secret messages and his brilliant forged letters made him a fearsome champion of the young Elizabeth. Yet even this Machiavellian schemer eventually fell foul of Elizabeth as her confidence grew (and judgement faded). The rise and fall of Sir Francis Walsingham is a Tudor epic, vividly narrated by a historian with unique access to the surviving documentary evidence.

After 35 years in power, Henry VIII was a bloated, hideously obese, black-humoured old man, rarely seen in public. He had striven all his life to ensure the survival of his dynasty by siring legitimate sons, yet his only male heir was eight-year-old Prince Edward. It was increasingly obvious that when Henry died, real power in England would be exercised by a regent. The prospect of that prize spurred the rival court factions into deadly conflict.

Robert Hutchinson spent several years in original archival research. He advances a genuinely new theory of Henry’s medical history and the cause of his death; he has unearthed some fabulous eyewitness material and papers from death warrants, confessions and even love letters between Katherine Parr and the Lord High Admiral.

After 35 years in power, Henry VIII was a bloated, hideously obese, black-humoured old man, rarely seen in public. He had striven all his life to ensure the survival of his dynasty by siring legitimate sons, yet his only male heir was eight-year-old Prince Edward. It was increasingly obvious that when Henry died, real power in England would be exercised by a regent. The prospect of that prize spurred the rival court factions into deadly conflict.

Robert Hutchinson spent several years in original archival research. He advances a genuinely new theory of Henry’s medical history and the cause of his death; he has unearthed some fabulous eyewitness material and papers from death warrants, confessions and even love letters between Katherine Parr and the Lord High Admiral.

The classic story of one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary families.

Among the six daughters and one son born to David, second Lord Redesdale, and his wife Sydney were Nancy, the novelist and historian; Diana, who married fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley; Unity, friend of Hitler; Jessica, who became a communist and then an investigative journalist; and Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and mistress of Chatsworth.

‘The Mitford Girls,’ as John Betjeman called them, were one of the twentieth century’s most controversial families; said to be always either in shrieks of laughter or floods of tears, they were glamorous, romantic and – especially in politics – extreme. Yet the teasing, often bordering on cruelty, the flamboyant contrasts and the violent disagreements, hid a powerful affection, subtle likenesses in character, and a powerful underlying unity.

King Charles’s Pirate Prince

To his fellow Royalists, fighting for King Charles I, Prince Rupert of the Rhine was the archetypal ‘cavalier’. Young, handsome, expert horseman, crack pistol shot, his swaggering style irritated the stuffier of the king’s courtiers almost as much as the ‘Roundheads’ they were fighting. To the parliamentarians, above all Oliver Cromwell, he was the ultimate ‘malignant’, one of those Royalists who fought on even after Charles was executed in 1649. Rupert commanded the Royalist forces in exile, at one point reduced to little more than pirates before the triumphant restoration of the monarchy in 1660.

In Charles Spencer’s thoroughly researched account, Prince Rupert is revealed as more than just a great general and dashing cavalier. He was a scientist and classical scholar too: a true renaissance prince. From his dramatic childhood escape through the snows of Bohemia to respected older statesman, this is the first comprehensive biography of the greatest cavalier of them all.

How two men brought about the defeat of Louis XIV’s previously unbeaten army and saved Europe from French domination – A Sunday Times Bestseller

By the summer of 1704 Louis XIV’s vast armies dominated Europe. France defeated every alliance formed against her and Louis was poised to extend his frontier to the Rhine and install a French prince on the throne of Spain. Two men saved Europe from French military domination: the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. Marlborough masterminded a brilliant campaign, working with Eugene to surprise the French invaders inside Germany. The rival armies clashed in August and the hitherto unbeaten French were utterly destroyed.

Blenheim was a major turning point in European history. Charles Spencer’s narrative is drawn from original sources and moves seamlessly from the deliberations of Kings and princes to the frontline soldiers. This is the battle that creates the enduring reputation of the British redcoat and shatters the image of the ‘Sun King’ and his mighty army.

A unique history of Britain’s most influential invention – from the East India Company to Enron

The present day might be called a corporate age but the power of the company is nothing new: From Renaissance Italy to the British East India Company, it is impossible to understand the history of the last few hundred years without placing the humble company at the centre of the picture. What other institution could have produced the slave trade, opium wars, the stock market and the British Empire, the ‘company man’ and globalization?

The history of the company includes some shocking tales, since companies have always rewarded some of the most greedy and unscrupulous – but they have also undoubtedly shaped the modern world. Today companies are increasingly regulated, but will there always be a new South Sea Bubble or another Enron? The authors extend their historical account to look at the company’s future, which is, surprisingly, as smaller and more diverse. They explode the myth of a ‘silent takeover’ by corporations and challenge the assumptions of the anti-globalization movement, but make the ongoing power of the company abundantly clear.

A philosophical but fun look at the meanings of Christmas myths and rituals, from carving the turkey to why Santa wears red.

Picture the scene: Aunt Gertrude has just given you the most appalling Christmas tie, complete with snow-flecked kittens in a bowler hat. Do you smile, nod, and confine it to the bottom drawer? Or do you tell the truth and spare yourself future ties from hell? Kant would say that we must, at all costs, tell the truth – whilst Mill would insist that we should think of the consequences.

THE XMAS FILES is a philosophical meander though the myths and rituals of Christmas today, asking such important questions as does Santa exist? What’s wrong with Christmas kitsch? Is it all just a commercial racket? What was Augustine’s attitude to ‘peace on earth’? And what would David Hume have to say about the virgin birth?

For underneath all the festive fun, the way we celebrate Christmas does raise serious questions about the beliefs that sustain us, and the ways in which we still value ritual and tradition as a means of coming together.

The defining moment of the Cold War: ‘The beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.’ (Richard Nixon)

The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is a story of extraordinary bravery in a fight for freedom, and of ruthless cruelty in suppressing a popular dream. A small nation, its people armed with a few rifles and petrol bombs, had the will and courage to rise up against one of the world’s superpowers.

The determination of the Hungarians to resist the Russians astonished the West. People of all kinds, throughout the free world, became involved in the cause. For 12 days it looked, miraculously, as though the Soviets might be humbled. Then reality hit back. The Hungarians were brutally crushed. Their capital was devastated, thousands of people were killed and their country was occupied for a further three decades.

The uprising was the defining moment of the Cold War: the USSR showed that it was determined to hold on to its European empire, but it would never do so without resistance. From the Prague Spring to Lech Walesa’s Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tighter the grip of the communist bloc, the more irresistible the popular demand for freedom.

The defining moment of the Cold War: ‘The beginning of the end of the Soviet empire.’ (Richard Nixon)

The Hungarian Revolution in 1956 is a story of extraordinary bravery in a fight for freedom, and of ruthless cruelty in suppressing a popular dream. A small nation, its people armed with a few rifles and petrol bombs, had the will and courage to rise up against one of the world’s superpowers.

The determination of the Hungarians to resist the Russians astonished the West. People of all kinds, throughout the free world, became involved in the cause. For 12 days it looked, miraculously, as though the Soviets might be humbled. Then reality hit back. The Hungarians were brutally crushed. Their capital was devastated, thousands of people were killed and their country was occupied for a further three decades.

The uprising was the defining moment of the Cold War: the USSR showed that it was determined to hold on to its European empire, but it would never do so without resistance. From the Prague Spring to Lech Walesa’s Solidarity and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tighter the grip of the communist bloc, the more irresistible the popular demand for freedom.

From rag-gatherers to royalty, from fish knives to Freemasons: everyday life in Victorian London.

Like its acclaimed companion volumes, Elizabeth’s London, Restoration London and Dr Johnson’s London, this book is the product of the author’s passionate interest in the realities of everyday life so often left out of history books. This period of mid Victorian London covers a huge span:

Victoria’s wedding and the place of the royals in popular esteem; how the very poor lived, the underworld, prostitution, crime, prisons and transportation; the public utilities – Bazalgette on sewers and road design, Chadwick on pollution and sanitation; private charities – Peabody, Burdett Coutts – and workhouses; new terraced housing and transport, trains, omnibuses and the Underground; furniture and decor; families and the position of women; the prosperous middle classes and their new shops, such as Peter Jones and Harrods; entertaining and servants, food and drink; unlimited liability and bankruptcy; the rich, the marriage market, taxes and anti-semitism; the Empire, recruitment and press-gangs.

The period begins with the closing of the Fleet and Marshalsea prisons and ends with the first (steam-operated) Underground trains and the first Gilbert & Sullivan.

Imagine that all the great discoveries of Ancient Egypt had happened in the last few years…and you will have some conception of the great excitement over recent finds in Peru

Peru wears its ancient cultures wrapped around in layers, like one of the mummified bodies so well preserved by the nitrates of its deserts. After his acclaimed book on the Incas, The White Rock, Hugh Thomson unwraps those layers to show how civilisation emerged so early and so spectacularly in this toughest and most arid of terrains.

Many of the extraordinary cultures of Ancient Peru, from the lines of Nasca to the temple-cult of Chavín, buried in the mountains, and the great pyramids of the coast, have only started to give up their secrets and antiquity in just the last few years.

Hugh Thomson has been at the forefront of some of these discoveries himself, having made headlines with his work near Machu Picchu. Now he takes the reader on a journey back from the world of the Incas to the first dawn of Andean civilisation, to give an immensely personal and accessible guide to the wonders that have been revealed.

Imagine that all the great discoveries of Ancient Egypt had happened in the last few years…and you will have some conception of the great excitement over recent finds in Peru

Peru wears its ancient cultures wrapped around in layers, like one of the mummified bodies so well preserved by the nitrates of its deserts. After his acclaimed book on the Incas, The White Rock, Hugh Thomson unwraps those layers to show how civilisation emerged so early and so spectacularly in this toughest and most arid of terrains.

Many of the extraordinary cultures of Ancient Peru, from the lines of Nasca to the temple-cult of Chavín, buried in the mountains, and the great pyramids of the coast, have only started to give up their secrets and antiquity in just the last few years.

Hugh Thomson has been at the forefront of some of these discoveries himself, having made headlines with his work near Machu Picchu. Now he takes the reader on a journey back from the world of the Incas to the first dawn of Andean civilisation, to give an immensely personal and accessible guide to the wonders that have been revealed.

A visceral history of Pompeii – the living city brought back to life.

This startling new book concentrates on the twenty years between 59 and 79AD, thus beginning with the earthquake which all but destroyed Pompeii and ending with the volcanic eruption which has become part of our collective popular imagination.

Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence have synthesised the latest research into Pompeii to bring this period of flux and instability back to life. By concentrating on key members from each strata of Pompeiian society we are plunged into the everyday life of a city rebuilding itself, in the knowledge that it will all be for nothing when Vesuvius erupts.

So we follow Suedius Clemens who has been sent by Vespasian to settle disputes over land; Decimus Satrius Lucretius Valens who is set to join Pompeii’s elite magistrates following the death of his protector; the Vettii brothers who were fabulously rich and ostentacious dealers in wine and perfume; Pherusa, the runaway slave; lusty young Rustus who is contemplating parricide…

A visceral history of Pompeii – the living city brought back to life.

This startling new book concentrates on the twenty years between 59 and 79AD, thus beginning with the earthquake which all but destroyed Pompeii and ending with the volcanic eruption which has become part of our collective popular imagination.

Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence have synthesised the latest research into Pompeii to bring this period of flux and instability back to life. By concentrating on key members from each strata of Pompeiian society we are plunged into the everyday life of a city rebuilding itself, in the knowledge that it will all be for nothing when Vesuvius erupts.

So we follow Suedius Clemens who has been sent by Vespasian to settle disputes over land; Decimus Satrius Lucretius Valens who is set to join Pompeii’s elite magistrates following the death of his protector; the Vettii brothers who were fabulously rich and ostentacious dealers in wine and perfume; Pherusa, the runaway slave; lusty young Rustus who is contemplating parricide…

Fascinating biography of a 19th-century celebrity chef

Rarely has a man defined the spirit of an age as well as Alexis Soyer: celebrity chef, best-selling author, entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist and Crimean war hero. Soyer built the world famous kitchens of London’s Reform Club – which he filled with such ingenious inventions as the gas stove and steam lifts. He set up the most innovative culinary theme park ever seen in the capital, and devised the sauces and relishes that would make household names of Mr Crosse and Mr Blackwell.

In the 1840s he set up revolutionary soup kitchens during the Irish potato famine, and in the following decade risked his life by travelling to the Russian peninsula to reform army catering for the troops – saving thousands of soldiers from the effects of malnutrition. Alexis Soyer was one of the most famous names of the early Victorian age, and his legacy lives on through the radical army reforms his work set in train. He was also ¿ in a similar spirit of the age – a secret womaniser, near bankrupt and alcoholic.

Yet this brilliant man, who during his lifetime was more famous than the men he regularly brushed shoulders with – men such as Thackeray, Disraeli, Dickens and Palmerston – dropped completely from public view after his untimely death. His friend Florence Nightingale, never one to praise lightly, wrote that his passing was ‘a great disaster’ for the nation. Yet despite making several fortunes he died virtually penniless, his personal papers were destroyed, his funeral was a hushed-up affair and today his grave lies neglected and rotting in Kensal Green cemetery.

This is the first full length, fully researched biography of Alexis Soyer, which explores the life, career and legacy of one of the most enigmatic and extraordinary figures of the Victorian age.

A compelling and persuasive account of how the Romantic Movement permanently changed the way we see things and express ourselves.

Three great revolutions rocked the world around 1800. The first two – the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution – have inspired the greatest volume of literature. But the third – the romantic revolution – was perhaps the most fundamental and far-reaching. From Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Burns, to Beethoven, Wagner, Berlioz, Rossini and Liszt, to Goya, Turner, Delacroix and Blake, the romantics brought about nothing less than a revolution when they tore up the artistic rule book of the old regime.

This was the period in which art acquired its modern meaning; for the first time the creator, rather than the created, took centre-stage. Artists became the high priests of a new religion, and as the concert hall and gallery came to take the place of the church, the public found a new subject worthy of veneration in paintings, poetry and music. Tim Blanning’s sparkling, wide-ranging survey traces the roots and evolution of a cultural revolution whose reverberations continue to be felt today.

The story of the 1957 Pescara Grand Prix – the last race of the heroic age of motor racing

There has been much talk of how Grand Prix motor racing has become rather dull with big name, big brand winners ousting out all competition. But it wasn’t always so. Once a romantic sport, motor sport produced heros whose where individual skill and daring were paramount.

The 1957 Pescara Grand Prix marked the end of an era in motor racing.
Sixteen cars and drivers raced over public roads on the Adriatic coast in a three-hour race of frightening speed and constant danger. Stirling Moss won the race, beating the great Juan Manuel Fangio (in his final full season) and ending years of supremacy by the Italian teams of Ferrari and Maserati.

Richard Williams brings this pivotal race back to life, reminding us of how far the sport has changed in the intervening fifty years. The narrative includes testaments from the four surviving drivers who competed – Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Roy Salvadori and Jack Brabham.

One of the great 20th century political diaries

‘A tremendous read’ SPECTATOR

‘One stops to marvel at the achievement. Honesty, decency, modesty, magnanimity, are stamped on every page, as evident as the wit’ EVENING STANDARD

Harold Nicolson was one of the three great political diarists of the 20th century (along with Chips Channon and Alan Clark). Nicolson was an MP (Conservative, 1935-45, who also flirted with Labour after WWII). He had previously been in the Foreign Office and attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and material from his period is included in this new edition for the first time.

Nicolson never achieved high office, but rarely a day went by when he didn’t record what was going on at Westminster. He socialised widely, was married to the poet and author Vita Sackville-West, and together they created the famous garden at Sissinghurst. Both were bi-sexuals and had affairs outside their marriage. This new edition also draws on diary entries and letters previously considered too sensitive for inclusion.

The diversity of Harold Nicolson’s interests and the irony in his writing make his diary a highly entertaining record of his life and times, as well as a document of great historical value.

Sven Hassel’s ultimate tank warfare novel.

‘This is a book of horrors, and should be left alone by those prone to nightmares. Sven Hassel’s descriptions of the atrocities committed by both sides are the most horrible indictments of war I have ever read … A great war novel!’ Alan Silitoe

Stationed on the Russian Front and now equipped with armoured vehicles, Sven Hassel and his comrades from the 27th Penal Regiment fight on remorselessly…

All of them should be dead: life expectancy on the Russian Front is measured in weeks. But Sven, Porta, Tiny and The Legionnaire fight to the end, not for Germany, not for Hitler, but for survival.

WHEELS OF TERROR is a sobering depiction of war’s brutalities, and the violence and inhumanity that the history books leave out.

Sven Hassel’s iconic novel about the Battle for Monte Cassino.

The thunder of the guns could be heard in Rome, 170 miles away…

Having survived the horrors of the Eastern Front, the 27th Penal Regiment are posted to Italy. Hitler has ordered that every position must be held to the last, and every lost position recaptured by counter-attack.

Monte Cassino – a major look-out post on the German defensive line – is under attack. In the face of overwhelming Allied firepower, Sven Hassel and his comrades are ordered to hold the fortress at all costs…

MONTE CASSINO is a classic Sven Hassel novel, a no-holds-barred account of frontline combat.

Sven Hassel based his unflinching narrative on his experiences in the German army. He ended the Second World War in a prisoner of war camp, where he wrote his first novel LEGION OF THE DAMNED.