Martin Amis first wrote about September 11 a week later in a piece for The Guardian beginning, 'It was the advent of the second plane, sharking in low over the Statue of Liberty: that was the defining moment.' He has kept returning to September 11, in essays and reviews, and in two remarkable short stories, 'In the Palace of the...

'IF YOU LOVE DOWNTON, THIS IS RIGHT UP YOUR STREET! Closer If you liked Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, it's time to discover the true story in Mollie Moran's Sunday Times charming bestselling memoir of life as a 1930s kitchen maid. When young Mollie became a 'skivvy' in a stately London townhouse aged just 14, she quickly learned that she...

Sir Ernest Shackleton could never have imagined his name being closely associated with whisky, certainly not in the title of a book. Rarely did he consume strong drink. On his expeditions, he tolerated a ‘mild spree’ at times of celebration. But that was all. Drinking to excess appalled him. From an early age, growing up in a teetotal home, he...

Eugene Vidocq was the Morse, the Guv'nor, the James Bond of his day. A notorious criminal and prison escaper, he turned police officer and employed a gang of ex-convicts as his detectives. Now, James Morton takes us on a historical romp through the 18th century in search of this elusive figure. Today Vidocq's influence can still be seen as members...

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Helga's Diary: A Young Girl's Account of Life in a Concentration Camp, by Helga Weiss. Read by the actress Emily Bevan. In 1938, when her diary begins, Helga is eight years old. Alongside her father and mother and the 45,000 Jews who live in Prague, she endures the Nazi invasion and regime: her father...

Classical civilisation, Martin Bernal argues, has deep roots in Afro-Asiatic cultures. But these Afro-Asiatic influences have been systematically ignored, denied, or suppressed since the eighteenth century - chiefly for racist reasons. The popular view is that Greek civilisation was the result of the conquest of a sophisticated but weak native population by vigorous Indo-European speakers--or Aryans--from the North. But the...

Ahmed Rashid, author of Descent Into Chaos and Taliban, charts the latest developments in the dangerous trajectory of one of the world's most strategically important, and volatile, countries - and the effects on its neighbours and us all 'An expert's examination of the volatile region that gives the world's policy-makers their biggest nightmare' Christina Lamb, Sunday Times What does the...

‘A major achievement' Ronald Blythe, author of Akenfield A Cotswold vicarage. A former girls' boarding school in Surrey. A Jacobean house now buried in inner London. Three Houses, Many Lives tells the stories not only of the houses themselves but of the lives of the many people who lived in them. From Eugenia Stanhope who sold Lord Chesterfield's scandalous letters,...

In this riveting anatomy of the new face of authoritarianism, acclaimed journalist William Dobson takes us inside the battle between modern dictators and those who challenge their rule. From Tahrir Square to the Kremlin, we have witnessed an incredible moment in the war between dictators and democracy. The problem is that today's authoritarians are not like the frozen-in-time, ready-to-crack regime...

This is the story of Christopher Isherwood’s parents – their meeting in 1895, marriage in 1903 after his father had returned from the Boer War, and his father’s death in an assault on Ypres in 1915, which left his mother a widow until her own death in 1960. As well as a family memoir, it is a social history of...

For most of western history, all sex outside marriage was illegal, with the church and state punishing any dissent. Between 1600 and 1800, this entire world-view was shattered by revolutionary new ideas - that consenting adults have the freedom to do what they like with their own bodies, and morality cannot be imposed by force. This groundbreaking book shows that...

China's Silent Army is a revealing and gripping piece of investigative journalism into the unknown extent of China's global power, from China-based reporters Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araújo This book stems from the remarkable, determined work of these two China-based journalists who, frustrated by the facile, pro-business commentary of so much writing on China and the evasions of Beijing's...

On 2 June 1953, 27-year-old Princess Elizabeth of York was crowned Queen, the eyes of the world upon her as she dedicated herself to her country. It is fascinating to look back over the sixty years since then and see how this remarkable woman, decade by decade, has brought the monarchy into the modern world, earning admiration and respect for...

The life of Harriet Spencer, Countess of Bessborough, was one of both respectability and high scandal. The aristocracy of the eighteenth century were the A-list celebrities of the day; their lives, loves, fashions and misfortunes avidly reported in the press. They dominated the political world as well as the social, and Harriet was at the very heart of this powerful...

Herewith a handful of sample entries to tickle your funny bones… In the 1824 war between Britain and Ashanti (now part of Ghana), the British Redcoats found themselves surrounded by 10,000 fierce Ashanti warriors, and running very low on ammunition. Their commander ordered Charles Brandon, the army’s stores manager, to break open the reserve ammunition he’d ordered. As the Ashanti...