A C Grayling

Philosophy for the People

Richard Holmes

Marching into the Mist

The Somme

By Peter Hart

Richard Overy

They Tried; They Failed

The Lights that Failed: European International History 1919–1933

By Zara Steiner

Frank Fairfield

Secrets and Spies

A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE

By Sarah Helm

Donald Rayfield

Ten Terrible Days

Stalin’s Folly: The Secret History of the German Invasion of Russia, June 1941

By Constantine Pleshakov

Brenda Maddox

The Survivors’ Tale

Children of War: The Second World War through the Eyes of a Generation

By Susan Goodman

Peter McDonald

Before the Beard

William Empson: Among the Mandarins

By John Haffenden

Catherine Peters

No Stirrings in the Undergrowth

Hide and Seek with the Angels: A Life of J M Barrie

By Lisa Cheney

Jeremy Lewis

Swigging and Snogging as the Bombs Rain Down

Party in the Blitz: The English Years

By Elias Canetti

Jason Goodwin

What Makes A Turk?

Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923

By Caroline Finkel

Nick Smith

Spice Odyssey

The Spice Route: A History

By John Keay

Nigel Jones

A Pearl Before Swine

The Setting of the Pearl: Vienna under Hitler

By Thomas Weyr

Jeremy Paterson

Peopling the Piazzas of Pompeii

Pompeii: The Living City

By Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence

Jessica Mann

Waiting for the Bombs to Drop

The Longest Night

By Gavin Mortimer

Patrick O’Connor

How We Laughed

Alexis: The Memoirs of the Baron de Redé

By Hugo Vickers (ed)

Jane Ridley

Husband Hunting

Consuelo and Alva: Love, Power and Suffrage in the Gilded Age

By Amanda Mackenzie Stuart

Lionel Kochan

Quite A Turk

The Orientalist: In Search of a Man Caught Between East and West

By Tom Reiss

Gregor Dallas

A Rose-Tinted History

La Vie en bleu: France and the French since 1900

By Rod Kedward

John Keay

The Path of Progress

Wild Scots: Four Hundred Years of Highland History

By Michael Fry

Laurence Kelly

The Trials of the Bear

Russia's Empires: Their Rise and Fall – From Prehistory to Putin

By Philip Longworth

Tom Stacey

The Terrible Trade

Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in England and Africa

By Ekow Eshun

Ian Whitcomb

Darkness In Eden

Coast of Dreams: A History of Contemporary California

By Kevin Starr

John McEwen

Life Itself Is Here

George Stubbs and the Wide Creation

By Robin Blake

Bryan Appleyard

Bang After Bang

Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons

By George Pendle

Sara Wheeler

The Chilly Mermaid

Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer

By Lynne Cox

Paul Johnson

Aesthetes on Trial

What Good are the Arts?

By John Carey

Robert Nye

Shakespeare’s Annus Mirabilis

1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare

By James Shapiro

Lewis DeSoto

A Community’s Crime

Rape, A Love Story

By Joyce Carol Oates

Michael Arditti

Saved From the Frost

The Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog

By Doris Lessing

Sophie Lewis

Small-Town Gothic

Ten Sorry Tales

By Mick Jackson

Martyn Bedford

Plus ça change…

Arthur & George

By Julian Barnes

Anthony Gardner

Fiendish Foresight

Blinding Light

By Paul Theroux

James Morrison

A Menace In Their Midst

The People’s Act of Love

By James Meek

Tristan Quinn

White-Water Politics

Rapids

By Tim Parks

Toby Lichtig

A Killer in the Family

Ten Seconds from the Sun

By Russell Celyn Jones

Michael Goldstein

From the Rubble

The Rules of Perspective

By Adam Thorpe

Susan Crosland

Audiobook

Lives of the Twelve Caesars

By Suetonius (Read by Derek Jacobi)

Philip Oakes

Crime

• Robert Littell, 
• Barbara Nadel, 
• Mark Billingham, 
• Denise Mina, 
• Susan Hill