"This tale of polar hubris is a “grade-A classic” that’s feverishly compelling..."

"This account of an appalling chapter in America’s history is so apocalyptic you can hardly believe it..."

"This is an important book and not just because it is a chilling account of slavery and commerce in the West Indies in the 18th and 19th centuries...."

"From prehistoric hippopotamuses to high-rise towers, the development of an awe-inspiring metropolis is captured with depth and detail..."

"This account brings to life the story of some of the 18,000 Nisei soldiers fighting for the US while facing discrimination at home,..."

"The author wisely focuses on biography to bring to life 10 chapters in the Anglo-Saxon story...."

"(an) erudite, thoughtful and magnificently entertaining book..."

"The author and punk musician draws parallels between her own life and that of the genre-blurring sister of Beyoncé in this hymn to black individualism..."

"If you had to name the most important battles in British history, there would be some obvious contenders. But your list would be fatally flawed unless it included the Battle of Brunanburh..."

"Jackson is excellent on a particular kind of midlife crack-up associated with irascible white bureaucrats about 50 years ago...."

"From stock market bubbles to end-times religious cults, this is a vivid history of mass delusion..."

"The sharp-eyed narrative historian Giles Milton charts this transition from the Yalta conference in February 1945 to the breaking of the Soviet blockade of West Berlin in May 1949...."

"Charles Townshend’s assessment layered and fair..."

"Dimbleby tells the story of strategic miscalculation and (self-) deception on all sides, and then Hitler’s ‘war of extermination’, magnificently...."

"This is a powerfully written and beautifully illustrated account of the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries..."

"a dramatic Second World War naval history..."

"(A) concise and remarkable book...."

"Serhii Plokhy’s book is remarkable and troubling..."

"This tale of a wealthy widow and her Mayfair inheritance is a historical romp..."

"Ruth Scurr approaches Bonaparte from an entirely novel angle..."

"Bathurst has a seemingly supernatural facility for getting people to speak to her honestly and movingly about the land and their place within it..."

"a furious dissection of double standards – and a rousing study of a brave woman..."

"an impressively researched and intelligently reasoned book ..."

"John Higgs’s book lets in a glittering stream of revelatory light...."

"(An) account of the spirited, spiky women of a vanished cosmopolitan Egypt..."

"a piece of storytelling, it is not without pockets of turbulence..."

"[an] unashamedly revisionist account..."

"This excellent history sheds new light on the British government’s war weariness..."

"(An) original and absorbing book, which is much more interesting than a study of foghorns has any right to be..."

"The pop science author calls 'Bomber' Harris a psychopath, in an error-prone history of Second World War bombing tactics..."

"Janet M. Hartley’s fascinating book ..."

"This fascinating study shows how the crime that most intrigues us is hard to define..."

"a tragic wartime family story..."