Matthew Parris

Where’s the Beef?

John Smith – The Slow, Steady Rise of Labour's New Leader

By Andy McSmith

Charles Elliott

Desperately Seeking Sakura

‘Cherry’ Ingram: The Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms

By Naoko Abe

Christopher Andrew

The Spy Who Loved Himself

An Impeccable Spy: Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent

By Owen Matthews

Stephen Bates

The Woman Who Wouldn’t be Queen

Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

By Anna Pasternak

David Gelber

Ivy Killer & Consort

The Quest for Queen Mary

By James Pope-Hennessy (Edited by Hugo Vickers)

Queen Mary: The Official Biography

By James Pope-Hennessy

Paul Cartledge

Cherchez la Femme?

Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher

By Armand D’Angour

Alexander Maitland

From Yorkshire to Yalutorovsk

Thomas, Lucy and Alatau: The Atkinsons’ Adventures in Siberia and the Kazakh Steppe

By John Massey Stewart

John Gribbin

Of Coal & Calculus

Gunpowder and Geometry: The Life of Charles Hutton – Pit Boy, Mathematician and Scientific Rebel

By Benjamin Wardhaugh

Catherine Brown

She Had Sweets Named After Her

Teffi: A Life of Letters and of Laughter

By Edythe Haber

Blair Worden

Mightier Than the Sword

William Penn: A Life

By Andrew R Murphy

Richard Canning

Thrust into the Limelight

All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson

By Mark Griffin

Richard Davenport-Hines

The Art of the Deal

Mr Five Per Cent: The Many Lives of Calouste Gulbenkian, the World’s Richest Man

By Jonathan Conlin

Stuart Isacoff

Life in a Minor Key

Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times

By Alan Walker

Munro Price

The Emperor Unclothed

Napoleon: The Man Behind the Myth

By Adam Zamoyski

Brian Dillon

Squares in His Eyes

Josef Albers: Life and Work

By Charles Darwent

Director’s Dreams