==History==
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{{newreview
|author=Nigel Jones
|title=Tower
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=If you had to name one particular artefact which personifies the history of England, it would be hard to choose anything more appropriate than the building which has at various times been a castle, a palace, a prison, a torture chamber, and execution site, an armoury, and is now the most visited tourist attraction in the nation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091936659</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Annelise Freisenbruch
|summary=The Ring and the Crown is a look at almost a thousand years of royal weddings, at how they've changed and how, in many ways, they've remained the same. Generally the weddings are of kings, queens or heirs to the throne but sometimes there's a glimpse of how the minor royals have managed their nuptials. The book is lavishly illustrated and is probably as un-put-downable as anything which is basically a history book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091943779</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Shrabani Basu
|title=Victoria and Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Abdul Karim was a 24-year-old assistant clerk at Agra Jail when he was granted the opportunity of a lifetime – to leave India, travel to England and find employment as personal attendant to the great Empress herself, Queen Victoria. Within a year of her employing him and his introducing her to the delights of curry, she promoted him. He would no longer be a mere servant, and henceforth he was now her teacher and clerk, or Munshi, with responsibility for instructing her in Indian affairs and the Urdu language. To the dismay and ill-concealed anger of nearly all her family and household, he suddenly became one of the most conspicuous figures in the royal entourage.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752458531</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard
|title=The Colosseum
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=The Colosseum is the most famous and instantly recognisable monument to have survived from the classical world. Most readily associated with the gladiatorial games and contests between the Christians and the lions so beloved by imperial Rome, it originally held over 50,000 spectators, a number now completely dwarfed by the four million or more visitors who come each year.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684706</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Jenkyns
|title=Westminster Abbey: A Thousand Years of National Pageantry
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=Few if any buildings in Britain personify history, and are steeped in so much, as Westminster Abbey. As the author says in his introduction, it is the most complex church in the world in terms of not only history but also functions and memories, perhaps the most complex building of any kind. In this compact paperback history, an updated edition of a hardback first published in 2004, he tells the story very readably from its foundation by Edward the Confessor in the 11th century to the preparations for the wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William in 2011.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685346</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alan Titchmarsh
|title=When I Was A Nipper
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=There's something about Alan Titchmarsh that you can't help liking. He's got a wry sense of humour, seems unfailingly positive and, best of all, was born in my home town of Ilkley. You really can't get much better than that, now can you? 'When I Was A Nipper' is a look not just at his life in the fifties (although there ''is'' a lot about him) but about the way that things were then. There's an unspoken question about what we can learn from how we lived then and how we can apply this to our lives today. It's pure nostalgia only lightly seasoned with the reality of outside privies and harsh working conditions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184990152X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rodric Braithwaite
|title=Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=In 1979, the Soviet Union decided to move into Afghanistan, and special forces killed the Afghan president. What was initially planned as a fairly modest expedition which would see them stabilise the government, train up the army and police, and then withdraw within a year, turned into a war lasting nearly a decade which left both the Russian army and the Afghan civilians counting the cost of the intervention and with their lives changed forever. What went wrong, and why has Afghanistan proved such a difficult place for foreign powers – ranging from the British in the 19th century, to the Russians in this book, to the current armies engaged in the country – to get any sort of foothold?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680549</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stephanie Williams
|title=Running the Show: Governors of the British Empire 1857-1912
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=For some, the glory days of the British Empire were the closing years of the Victorian era and the 19th century. Government ministers in London, and doubtless Queen Victoria herself, would glance at a map of the world and bask in reflected glory at the generous expanses of land coloured red, 'the empire where the sun never sets', to use the old cliché.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918040</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Duff Hart-Davis
|title=The War That Never Was
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=In the 1960's, an Egyptian general with delusions of grandeur is trying to conquer the Arab world, starting with Yemen. The new Imam, having previously disobeyed the general's orders to assassinate his own father, has fled to the hills. The British are wary of getting officially involved so turn to more subtle channels. Jim Johnson, an underwriter at Lloyd's who claims to have been arrested for attempted murder at the tender age of 8 when he attacked an Italian maid abusing a cat, is the man asked to run a secret operation. His response? 'I've nothing particular to do in the next few days. I might have a go.' Putting together a team of mercenaries, he sends them to Yemen to fight what will become, as the subtitle of the book states, Britain's most secret battle.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846058252</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adrian Tinniswood
|title=Pirates Of Barbary: Corsairs, Conquests and Captivity in the 17th-Century Mediterranean
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=In the early 17th century the North African coast was a particularly dangerous place to sail near due to the prevalence of pirates there ready to plunder the cargo of ships. In this truly captivating account author Adrian Tinnisworth looks at these corsairs – focusing on Englishmen such as John Ward, who became so renowned that plays about him and Dutchman Simon Danseker managed to outsell
King Lear!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523868</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charles Emmerson
|title=The Future History of the Arctic: How climate, resources and geopolitics are reshaping the north, and why it matters to the world
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=Charles Emmerson examines the past history of Arctic exploration, economic exploitation and development and the policies of governments of countries which include Arctic territory (and others), with the aim of understanding the present and predicting the future better. He explains the apparently contradictory title in some detail in the Introduction. While history is about the past, 'ideas about the future have changed over time'. Also, the future of the Arctic will be shaped by its history.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523531</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alex Butterworth
|title=The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=In deciding to write about political upheaval across Europe, including Russia, Alex Butterworth has chosen a massive topic for this entertaining book. So massive, in fact, that when I tried reading it without first looking through the pen pictures at the start of the main players I was quickly completely lost. My mistake – the short, sharp, pen pictures, which cover sixteen pages and detail all the major anarchists and secret agents are completely invaluable and helped my reading of the book enormously.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551926</amazonuk>
}}
