The conventional narrative of the Second World War is well known: after six years of brutal fighting on land, sea and in the air, the Allied Powers prevailed and the Nazi regime was defeated. But as in so many things, the truth is somewhat different. Bringing a fresh eye to bear on a story we think we know, Norman Davies forces us to look again at those six years and to discard the usual narrative of Allied good versus Nazi evil. Learn More

From the cooking methods of Ulysses to Victorian nursery fare, from Biblical food facts to modern food fads, Alice Thomas Ellis took delight in all things gastronomical, and generously seasoned her gallimaufry with anecdote and wit. Learn More

Virgil's affectionate poem of the land does not admit brief excerpts, any more than the labour of the farmer can easily be shortened. His verse, descriptive and narrative, brings us the disappointments as well as the rewards of the countryman's year-round devotion to his crops, his vines and olives, livestock great and small, and the complex society of bees. Learn More

In the nine corners of the globe, nine characters from an art thief in Saint Petersburg to a terrorist in Okinawa hurtle towards a shared destiny. Learn More

Packed with nuggets of information about language, culture, history and power, Robert McCrum traces the way that the English language as twisted and turned in response to the way the world has changed, and how, even as the British Empire is long dead, the language extends its influence further and further in a globalised world. Learn More

This landmark book uncovers for the first time in detail one of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century: the vast system of Soviet camps that were responsible for the deaths of countless millions. Learn More

London 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation with Netta who is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George. George is adrift in hell, until something goes click in his head and he realizes that he must kill her. Learn More

Something has gone profoundly amiss in our public affairs over the past thirty years. In the West, we are wealthy and secure enough to allow ourselves to drift very far off course before anything has to be done. But we have forgotten how to think about the life we live together: its goals and purposes. Not only are we post-ideological; we have become post-ethical. Learn More

Millennium is a stunning panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. Learn More