The Munich Art Hoard: Hitler's Dealer and His Secret Legacy by Catherine Hickley
One of the most newsworthy events in modern art history happened seemingly by chance. When tax police raided the house of an aged man in Munich it was because they assumed he had been moving too much money about and paying no tax – this six months after he was seen on the train between Bavaria and Switzerland with 'nearly too much' cash. The investigators had no case, but he had something much more complex and rich – a massive legacy of 20th Century German and European art. But that collection had to have an origin – one of dubious and at times nefarious beginnings, and one that could have quite a rich and convoluted background. Hickley, in these pages, gives us much in the way of context as well as ironing out those convolutions, so this story is both of interest to Nazi historians and art scholars – as well as to those larger numbers who just like a good story told well. Full review...
Ancient Worlds by Michael Scott
History can be perceived as a dusty academic backwater. Often viewed as an irrelevance in our modern world, as we race through the daily events of our lives. It is a subject that has suffered greatly in our education system, where there has always been a tendency to teach the subject in isolation, only focussing on the events that have shaped our own national identity. Michael Scott's new book offers a refreshing change. Ancient Worlds is thought provoking history for the general reader. Well researched and with a persuasive argument, he explores the interactions across three differing cultures. Interactions that provide a new perspective on our modern world. Full review...
Weatherland: Writers and artists under English skies by Alexandra Harris
The story of English culture over a thousand years can be told as the story of changing ideas about the weather. A sweeping panorama, Weatherland explores how writers and artists, looking up at the same skies and walking in the brisk air, have felt very different things. A journey through centuries and cultures, Harris walks the reader through misty moor and foggy fen, lays with them on bright sunlit beaches, treks with them to stormy summits, and introduces them to a fascinating cast of writers, artists and cultural figures along the way. Full review...
Forgotten History: Unbelievable Moments from the Past by Jem Duducu
The numerous highways, byways and tangents of the chronicle of our life on earth provide the raw rata for any number of alternative histories, and in this book Jem Duducu has trawled magnificently through the ages from several centuries BC up to the present day. Full review...
The Anglo-Saxons in 100 Facts by Martin Wall
As one of the generation who was introduced to English history through the 'Kings and Queens' principle, and thoroughly enjoyed it, I have long since regarded the period between the Roman invasion and the Norman conquest as a bit of a blur. For me it is a rather murky area, punctuated by the likes of Hengist and Horsa, Alfred the Great and Ethelred the Unready, not to mention the Athelstans, Edgars, Egberts and others who are so often little more than names. In order words, what exactly did they do? This admirable title brings it all into focus. Full review...
24 Hours at the Somme by Robert Kershaw
They came past one by one...walking lumps of clay, with torn clothing, hollow cheeks and sunken eyes...There was a dreadful weariness, but a wildness burning in their fevered eyes, showing what this appalling hand to hand fighting had cost them. Utterly unforgivable for me...
So goes the description of the men, the ghosts, at the end of the first day of the Somme. July 1 2016 will mark 100 years since this most bloody of battles took place. It was supposed to be the optimistic 'Big Push' that would end the Great War, but by sunset of the first day the British casualties numbered 57,470. The battle would rage until November that year, with the total number of casualties on all sides exceeding one million. Full review...
Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses by Christopher McGrath
All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home. Full review...
Dream Cities: Seven Urban Ideas That Shape the World by Wade Graham
Between 1950 and 2014 the world's urban population increased from 746 million to 3.9 billion. The urbanising trend is set to continue with the United Nations predicting that by the middle of the century 66% of us will be city dwellers, a massive six billion people. How have city planners and architects tried to cope with the recent surge? How can they avoid repeating mistakes from the past? Both of those questions are considered in Dream Cities – Seven Urban Ideas That Shape The World, Wade Graham's excellent field guide to the modern world. Full review...
The Reformation in 100 Facts by Kathleen Chater
The Reformation was one of the major events, if not themes of European history, that has decisively shaped the modern world, and has inevitably provided material for many a detailed account in print. This handy little volume, one of a new series from Amberley, reduces a very complex subject to a series of short chapters which make an ideal introduction. Full review...
Sir Henry Neville Was Shakespeare: The Evidence by John Casson and William D Rubinstein
Debunking the Bard of Avon on the grounds that he did not write the plays attributed to him is nothing new. This scholarly work, based on several years' research and new evidence, is by no means the first to suggest otherwise, and provides a compelling argument as to who really was the author. Full review...
Red Platoon by Clinton Romesha
When the soldiers of Red Platoon arrived at Combat Outpost Keating, in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan, the vulnerabilities of the outpost were frighteningly obvious. It was surrounded on all sides by steep and wooded hills, giving the Taliban excellent vantage points to observe the outpost and fire into it; the helicopter landing zone, essential for bringing in supplies and evacuating the wounded, was situated outside the base across a river; and the perimeter was too large to be sufficiently defended. These weaknesses were also obvious to the Taliban, and on the 3rd October 2009, just after dawn, they launched a full-out assault to capture the base. Red Platoon is a first-hand account of the frantic battle that followed, written by Staff Sergeant Clinton Romesha who received the Medal of Honor for his actions. Full review...
Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King & the Battle of Agincourt by Teresa Cole
Henry V is remembered as one of England's greatest warrior kings, not least as a result of his immortalisation in the play by Shakespeare (as well as by two film versions of the drama). Ironically he was one of several great-grandchildren of Edward III, and as he was considered relatively unimportant at the time of his birth, exactly when he arrived in the world was not recorded and two different dates have been given. It was the deposition of his father's childless cousin Richard II in 1399 which placed him directly in the line of succession. Full review...
Isabella of France: The Rebel Queen by Kathryn Warner
Ask almost anyone what they know about Isabella, Queen of King Edward II. The chances are that they will tell you she was ‘the she-wolf of France’ who was so infuriated by her gay husband’s propensity for disastrous favourites that she took a lover and they conspired to depose him, then have him murdered in captivity. The truth is somewhat different. To use an old cliché, if you throw enough mud it will stick. A good deal has adhered to this seemingly much-maligned couple over the years. Full review...
Marriages Are Made in Bond Street: True Stories from a 1940's Marriage Bureau by Penrose Halson
Audrey Parsons had no desire to marry. Her mother, however, had quite different ideas and was insistent that her daughter find a husband, as their would be no place for her at the family farm when she was older. Frustrated by her lack of options, Audrey bowed to pressure and went to stay with her uncle in India in the hope of finding a husband. When she arrived she was overwhelmed by all of the male attention she received. In the colonies, eligible women were few and far between and men were desperate for wives. Although she didn't find a husband, she hit upon an idea that would kill two birds with one stone: she would find wives for these lonely men, whilst at the same time creating a business that would allow her the financial independence she craved. The Marriage Bureau was born. Full review...
The Lady and the Generals: Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Struggle for Freedom by Peter Popham
On 13 November 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest after spending 15 of the previous 21 years as a prisoner of Burma's military junta. Political reforms soon followed, culminating with Suu (as she prefers to be known) being elected to parliament. The West rejoiced; leaders, business men, and tourists poured in; and Suu entered the pantheon of modern-day political heroes. Burma was a burgeoning democracy, and Suu was a saint. In reality, as Peter Popham argues in 'The Lady and the Generals', the situation was far more complex. Full review...
On the Trail of the Yorks by Kristie Dean
Just when you wondered whether there was room on your shelves for another book on the Yorkist dynasty, here comes a very enterprising addition. Part biography, part travel guide, this is a guidebook comprising a tour of various places at home and abroad associated with the major figures. Full review...
The Ancient Greeks: Ten Ways They Shaped the Modern World by Edith Hall
Reading Edith Hall's book on the Ancient Greeks, develops a deep respect for the power of poetry. No poet was more effective in this regard than Homer recounting the sea adventures contained in the The Odyssey. It shaped the self-definition of a nation and engendered self-confidence. The mariners set out in their beautiful ships across the Aegean and established colonies to the West, in the Mediterranean as far as the Pillars of Hercules, to the East as far as the Levant and built trading cities in natural harbours along the fertile edges of the Black Sea. They were, as Plato wrote in the Phaedo, around the sea, like frogs and ants around a pond. They were encouraged by Delphic oracles and inspired by the company of diving dolphins. Full review...
Defending the Motherland: The Soviet Women Who Fought Hitler's Aces by Lyuba Vinogradova and Arch Tait (translator)
If you picture a wartime fighter ace in your mind, chances are it will hold to a few certain characteristics. The chutzpah on the face of a Han Solo, a fluffy pilot's jacket perhaps, the swagger of a person who's faced and dealt death and come out the other side only stronger, someone who can carry off the look of pilot's goggles – and whatever your visual impression, pretty much certainly a male. But consider the Soviet war machine, facing the Nazis easily absorbing Ukrainian territories and closing on Moscow with surprising rapidity. This is a country where all jobs are gender neutral, and where young girls fresh out of school had been building the Moscow Underground stations. No wonder, then, that that place and that cause were the locations for the world's first, and apparently, only female air regiments. Full review...
Brief Lives by John Aubrey
John Aubrey was a modest man, an antiquarian and the inventor of modern biography. His lives of the prominent figures of his generation include Shakespeare, Milton, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Funny, illuminating and full of historical details, they have been plundered by historians for centuries. Here Aubrey's biographical writings are collected, painting a series of unforgettable portraits of the characters of his day – all more alive and kicking than in a conventional history book. Full review...
So Great a Prince: England and the Accession of Henry VIII by Lauren Johnson
King Henry VII, whose victory at the battle of Bosworth in 1485 brought the curtain down on the Wars of the Roses, brought peace and stability to a divided country, but his last few years were marked by corruption and repression. When he died in 1509, there were hopes that his eighteen-year-old heir, now Henry VIII, would mark the end of medieval England and the start of a new era. The age of Protestantism and the Renaissance would indeed fulfil these aspirations. Lauren Johnson's book examines in fascinating detail the transitional year between the old and the new. Full review...
Shakespeare and the Stuff of Life: Treasures from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust by Delia Garratt and Tara Hamling (editors)
You remember that thing the British Museum did a few years back, where they picked the best of the best they owned – 100 objects that most epitomised both the riches of the place and the cultures it was designed to represent? Well, it seems that idea has legs. It’s been repeated, even, for the purpose of illuminating just one man – and you can probably guess that man was Mr Shakespeare. There has indeed been a project to pick a hundred limelights to illuminate his texts and his times, although for the purpose of this book they have been whittled down to fifty – and arranged by theme according to Jaques' 'Seven Ages of Man' speech from As You Like It. And the chances are, seeing as the results are almost more powerful here than in the best museum, you will like it very much indeed. Full review...
Marooned in the Arctic by Peggy Caravantes
Misogynists are manmade. And if anyone was in a position to hate men and the lot they put on their shoulders, it was Ava Blackjack. Her surname spoke of an abusive man she had a son by, but it was her time with four other men that made for one of the last century's more remarkable stories. An Inuit native, but one brought up in a city and with English lessons, she was invited on an excursion alongside many other 'Eskimo' and four intrepid Westerners, to the uninhabited Wrangel Island, perched off the northern Siberian coast. They were there just to stick a flag in it and call it British, even if they were pretty much fully American and Canadian, and the chap whose ideas these all were bore an Icelandic name; she was along to provide native expertise, especially waterproof fur clothing. And that was it – none of her kin joined her, leaving her in one tent and four men in another, in one of the world's most remote and inhospitable places. And that was just the start of her worries… Full review...
History's People: Personalities and the Past by Margaret MacMillan
According to the 19th century historian Thomas Carlyle, 'the history of the world is but the biography of great men'. Historian Margaret McMillan acknowledges in her introduction to this volume, based on a series of recent lectures, that there is a long-standing debate in history over whether events are moved either by individuals or by economic and social changes or technological and scientific advances, and suggests that there is no right or wrong answer. Full review...
Seeing the War: The Stories Behind the Famous Photographs from World War II by David P Colley
As anybody could tell, a still photograph is only part of the truth, if that. There is a beforehand we don't see, and an after we can only fantasise about unless we know otherwise. Take the famous image of wartime grunts pushing the flag pole upright – an icon of the War in the Pacific for the US soldiers, and the films made about Iwo Jima since. But other images of the war have been just as long-lasting, and the people in the photos don't always have movies made of their full story arc. This book is a collection of the images, and a corrective to that narrative lack, giving much more of a full biography with which to pay tribute. Full review...
Hitler's First Victims: And One Man's Race for Justice by Timothy W Ryback
Four people, taken to a sheltered corner of the place they're trapped, and shot in the back of the head by fresh-faced guards and soldiers with far too little experience of anything, let alone treating other men on the wrong end of a gun. Three people unceremoniously dumped, like slain game, on the floor of a nearby ammunition shed – the fourth had two hellish days with at least one bullet wound to the brain before he passed away. All four over-worked from being in a Nazi establishment, all four probably killed merely for being Jewish. Not a remarkable story, it's horrid to think, due to there being about six million cases of this happening. What is remarkable about this instance is that it was the first, at the incredible time of April 1933. And if it seems the first in a long chain of such murders, you would think people might have noticed that at the time, and tried to do something about it. Well, they did. Full review...
The New Threat From Islamic Militancy by Jason Burke
Barely a day passes without Islamic militancy making headlines somewhere in the world, and yet it can be a hard subject to grasp. The sudden rise of Islamic State and their campaign of shocking violence both in the Middle East and further afield has left many confused and fearful, and has provoked a sometimes extreme political response. In "The New Threat From Islamic Militancy", Jason Burke, a journalist with two decades of experience reporting on the Islamic world, attempts to correct the many misconceptions about Islamic extremism to give a true understanding of the threat we now face. Full review...
How English Became English: A short history of a global language by Simon Horobin
Angle se yon lang konfizyon. Mwen konnen, paske mwen li liv sa a tout sou li. Now, I know a lot of you understood that, and it's thanks to a certain search engine's 'translate' facility that it exists here in the first place, but hardly any of you would recognise it as Haitian Creole. But pretty much all of the words in the two sentences have come into English through one way or another, through an invasion either literal or lingual. Angle – the Anglo-Saxons were the first speakers of what we now call Old English, which is pretty much impenetrable – certainly harder to read than Creole. The konfizyon in the language are equally easy to decipher, and the second half is pretty close to the French with what seems a German verb in it. If you do use regular English, that's what you're doing – using French with some German, and Latin, and Indian, and the rest, even if that's only as far as vocabulary goes; our grammar is too Germanic to be called anything but. It's at this stage one reels out the old gag about English being the 'lingua franca' and thus proves that however global English is, it doesn't really stand as its own entity if you give it the slightest scrutiny. Full review...
World War Two: Against the Rising Sun (Campfire Graphic Novels) by Jason Quinn and Naresh Kumar
World War Two – so often a lesson subject for our primary school children, even after all this time. Nazis, Soviets, Pearl Harbor – but wait. That last wasn't just the clarion call to the Americans to join in with the rest of our Allies – it was a mere episode in a fuller story – the half of the war that was never seen by those in Europe, beyond the fact the British Empire was certainly changed forever. The War in the Pacific is something I was certainly never taught much about in school, at any age. And here's a graphic novel version of the tale from a publisher in India that can serve at last as a salutary lesson. Full review...