We a good story
Quick delivery in the UK

Historical & Political Biographies

If you are interested in following a politician's remarkable life and their quest for the top of politics or getting really close to well-known or ordinary people and their lives back in history, then you will be able to find it here. Tales.as has compiled a large selection of over 10,000 exciting books on historical and political biographies. Find inspiration on everything from our international, best and new as well as older political biographies to the best and most exciting historical biographies of famous people from World War II. We are convinced that there is certainly a book that you will like, and thus a high probability of finding your next reading experience about exciting life stories here.
Show more
Filter
Filter
Sort bySort Popular
  • Save 11%
    - An American General's Combat Leadership, Volume I: November 1942 - July 1944
    by Kevin M. Hymel
    £39.99

    During his life, George S. Patton Jr starred as an Olympic athlete, chased down Mexican bandits, and led tanks into battle in World War I. But he is best remembered for his exploits in World War II. Patton's War follows the general from the beaches of Morocco to the fields of France, right before the birth of Third Army on the continent.

  • Save 15%
    - A Life
    by Harry Martin
    £14.49

    This is the extraordinary life story of Ernie O'Malley (1897-1957), one of Ireland's most complex and influential Republican figures, and later a hugely successful writer.

  • Save 20%
    by Iain Dale
    £11.99 - 18.99

    Essays on all 46 American Presidents who have held the office over the last 230 years - from George Washington to Joe Biden.

  • - The Memoir of Head Constable John McKenna, 1891-1921
    by John McKenna
    £10.49

    This memoir offers a unique insight into troubled times in Northern Ireland in the period leading up to partition. Prompted by a sectarian attack on pilgrims processing to a boat in Larne which would take them to the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, a retired RIC Head Constable looks back on his 31 years service. For McKenna the attack in the summer of 1932 represents the culmination of years of injustice perpetrated by a unionist hierarchy within the pre-partition RIC in Ulster and in post-partition northern society in general. He believed the RIC hierarchys supine attitude towards Ulster loyalism was characterised, around the time of partition, by the B Specials being given an apparently free hand in Co. Tyrone committing injustices without fear of being brought to account. The memoir provides a contrast between relatively idyllic service in Galway and the harshness of northern political realities. This is reinforced by the personal happiness McKenna enjoyed in the west where he met his wife, contrasted with the tragedy of the untimely deaths of three of his young children while serving in Ulster. A man of his time, Head Constable McKennas voice deserves to be heard today and his story is relevant to understanding Northern Irelands political and policing problems in the present. Cross-community support for a local police force was lacking in 192021 and the events in the memoir point up how essential consensus is in any divided society, past or present.

  • Save 24%
    by Captain Robin L Hutchison
    £18.99

    Scottish actor Bill Paterson narrates the funny, sad and enlightening Hurricane Hutch's Top 10 Ships of the Clyde. Captain Robin Hutchison's unique personal perspective on a fast fading era.

  • - The Life and Legends of Matilda de Braose
    by Peter Ford
    £8.99

  • Save 15%
    - Empowering Voices that Engage and Inspire
    by Anna Russell
    £10.99

    Over 50 empowering speeches celebrating women in their own words through extracts and commissioned illustrations, spanning throughout history up to the modern day.

  • Save 14%
    - A Foundling's Story
    by Justine Cowan
    £9.49 - 15.49

    A gripping memoir and revelatory investigation into the history of the Foundling Hospital and one girl who grew up in its care - the author's own mother.

  • Save 18%
    - A Biography of Thomas Sowell
    by Jason L. Riley
    £20.49

    A biography of Thomas Sowell, one of America's most influential conservative thinkers

  • Save 21%
    - Nixon and Watergate: an American tragedy
    by Michael Dobbs
    £14.99

    From an acclaimed British author, a sharply focused, riveting account - told from inside the White House - of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed, and ultimately toppled, a president. In January 1973, Richard Nixon was inaugurated after winning re-election in a historic landslide. But by April his presidency had fallen apart as the Watergate scandal metastasised into what White House counsel John Dean called 'a full-blown cancer'. King Richard is the intimate, utterly absorbing narrative of the tension-packed hundred days when the Watergate burglars and their handlers in the administration turned on one another, revealing their direct connection to the White House. Drawing on thousands of hours of newly released taped recordings, Michael Dobbs takes us into the very heart of the conspiracy, recreating these dramatic events in unprecedentedly vivid detail. He captures the growing paranoia of the principal players, and their desperate attempts to deflect blame, as the noose tightened around them and the daily pressures became increasingly unbearable. At the centre of this spellbinding drama is Nixon himself, a man whose strengths - particularly his determination to win at all costs - were also his fatal flaws. Structured like a classical tragedy with a uniquely American twist, this is an epic and deeply human story of ambition, power, and betrayal.

  • Save 10%
    - The Life of Churchill's Cook
    by Annie Gray
    £8.99

  • Save 15%
    - The Life of Malcolm X
    by Les Payne & Tamara Payne
    £10.99

  • Save 10%
    by Joe Biden
    £8.99

  • by James A Carroll
    £14.99

    The Alaska Journals of James A. Carroll, 1911-1922

  • Save 14%
    by George Orwell
    £9.49

    Introduced by leading historian Helen Graham, Homage to Catalonia is Orwell's first-hand account of the Spanish Civil War.

  • Save 15%
    - An Inside Look at Women & Sex in Medieval Times (Human Sexuality, True Stories, Women in History)
    by Rosalie Gilbert
    £14.49

    An inside look at sexual practices in medieval Europe

  • Save 19%
    - A Biography of Louis N. Davout
    by John G Gallaher
    £12.99

    The only comprehensive English language biography of Napoleon's finest marshal.

  • Save 10%
    by Dan Morain
    £8.99

  • Save 13%
    - From His Death to the Present Day
    by John Boardman
    £17.49

    An illustrious scholar presents an elegant, concise, and generously illustrated exploration of Alexander the Great's representations in art and literature through the agesJohn Boardman is one of the world's leading authorities on ancient Greece, and his acclaimed books command a broad readership. In this book, he looks beyond the life of Alexander the Great in order to examine the astonishing range of Alexanders created by generations of authors, historians, and artists throughout the world-from Scotland to China.Alexander's defeat of the Persian Empire in 331 BC captured the popular imagination, inspiring an endless series of stories and representations that emerged shortly after his death and continues today. An art historian and archaeologist, Boardman draws on his deep knowledge of Alexander and the ancient world to reflect on the most interesting and emblematic depictions of this towering historical figure.Some of the stories in this book relate to historical events associated with Alexander's military career and some to the fantasy that has been woven around him, and Boardman relates each with his customary verve and erudition. From Alexander's biographers in ancient Greece to the illustrated Alexander "e;Romances"e; of the Middle Ages to operas, films, and even modern cartoons, this generously illustrated volume takes readers on a fascinating cultural journey as it delivers a perfect pairing of subject and author.

  • Save 14%
    - An American Journey
    by Kamala Harris
    £9.49

    Through the arc of her own life, Harris communicates a vision of shared struggle, purpose, and values and grapples with complex issues that affect America and the world at large, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.

  • Save 10%
    - 9 lessons for a remarkable life
    by Benjamin Ferencz
    £8.99

    100-year-old Benjamin Ferencz is the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials, where he prosecuted 22 leading Nazis. PARTING WORDS follows the story of Ben's life, and each chapter includes his learnings on how we can all make the most of ours - from the subjects of ambition and determination, to happiness and love.

  • - The untold true story of top secret British military intelligence undercover operations in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1972-1974
    by Simon Cursey
    £11.99

  • Save 14%
    - a life
    by Jane Sherron De Hart
    £9.49

    The definitive account of an icon who shaped gender equality for all women. In this comprehensive, revelatory biography - fifteen years of interviews and research in the making - historian Jane Sherron De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ginsburg's passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, and her meticulous jurisprudence. At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs was her Jewish background, specifically the concept of tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to 'repair the world', with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II. Ruth's journey began with her mother, who died tragically young but whose intellect inspired her daughter's feminism. It stretches from Ruth's days as a baton twirler at Brooklyn's James Madison High School to Cornell University to Harvard and Columbia Law Schools; to becoming one of the first female law professors in the country and having to fight for equal pay and hide her second pregnancy to avoid losing her job; to becoming the director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project and arguing momentous anti-sex-discrimination cases before the US Supreme Court. All this, even before being nominated in 1993 to become the second woman on the Court, where her crucial decisions and dissents are still making history. Intimately, personably told, this biography offers unprecedented insight into a pioneering life and legal career whose profound impact will reverberate deep into the twenty-first century and beyond.

  • by HILLARY & Richard
    £10.49 - 17.99

  • Save 11%
    by Sebastian Junger
    £7.99 - 10.99

  • - The Unexpected Life of a Czech Family in India (1938-1977)
    by Miki Hruska
    £20.49 - 26.99

  • Save 11%
    - The brutal true story of a Chennai Six prisoner
    by Nick Dunn
    £7.99

    The remarkable story of former British soldier and 'Chennai Six' member Nick Dunn, who was caught up in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in the modern era.

  • Save 23%
    - Downfall 1939-45
    by Volker Ullrich
    £16.99

    and when he realised that the war was lost, he embarked on the annihilation of Germany itself in punishment of the German people who had failed to hand him victory.In September 1939, Hitler declared that he would wear a simple military tunic until the war was won - or otherwise, he would not be there to witness the end.

  • Save 14%
    - The true story of two Jewish sisters' resistance in the heart of Nazi territory
    by Roxane van Iperen
    £9.49

    The international bestselling and life-affirming story of female bravery, Jewish Nazi resistance and surviving the horrors of Auschwitz

  • Save 10%
    - The Story of a Lancaster Bomber Crew
    by David Price
    £8.99

    The intimate telling of the life of an Avro Lancaster crew during World War Two, bringing together the story of this iconic RAF bomber and its service with the lives of those who flew her.

Historical biographies

At tales.as you will find exciting historical biographies about, among other things, great historical personalities, which provide a completely unique insight into their then or past lives. The reader gets even closer to the main character than ever before, by gaining greater knowledge of the person's past challenges and what has often been the basis for the drastic actions and decisions that have been made. Getting closer to Captain Sir Tom Moore, for example, in "Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day", born at the tail end of the Spanish flu epidemic, Tom Moore was raised in the Yorkshire Dales by a loving family that had not escaped tragedy. Whether fighting for his life in Burma or helming a firm back home, racing motorbikes or raising a family, he always sought to do his very best. However, our selection is far larger than celebrities and their success stories, as the range also largely caters to those readers who instead want to gain an insight into more ordinary people and their upsetting stories, which can cover the challenges that many others in these times have also faced. Captivating examples of these historical biographies can be anything from "Happiest Man on Earth" by Eddie Jaku, which is a heartbreaking and inspiring story about an Auschwitz survivor who shares what he learned about gratitude, tolerance and kindness. Or the story of Anne Frank in the biography "Diary of a Young Girl", where Anne kept a diary in which she confided her innermost thoughts and feelings, movingly revealing how the eight people living under these extraordinary conditions coped with the daily threat of discovery and death , these petty misunderstandings and the unbearable strain of living like prisoners.These historical biographies are just to name a few of many, but there are far more great biographies to be found above. Find the best historical biographies at tales.as, and be inspired, identify yourself or follow the ups and downs of an admired individual from their past dramatic lives.


Political biographies

If historical biographies are not to be your next book on the bookshelf, then our political biographies may instead fill the void and become your next amazing reading experience. The best political biographies can be found in our beautiful selection, and if it is especially books about politics that interest you, then you have not gone completely wrong. We offer, among other things, the latest political biographies from 2018, 2019 onwards as well as older exciting books. A popular bid for your next political biography may be the tale of Barack Obama about his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency — a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil. Our selection consists of a wide range of different political biographies, where there are also other older political biographies about everything from past politicians to life stories about current leaders or other people with a political influence who have chosen to share their captivating stories. Therefore, if you have a special interest in politics and love to get an even deeper insight into episodes, events or just a greater knowledge of a specific individual and of course their ups and downs, which have marked their eye-catching life story, then tales.as offers a lot of inspiration to pick up.

Political and especially historical biographies contain a lot of different and fantastic stories, hence the large selection of books that can be interesting for anyone to read. We have therefore put together a large selection of these biographies, so there are several alternatives to choose from that will hopefully capture your interest and cover your needs.

Join thousands of book lovers

Sign up to our newsletter and receive discounts and inspiration for your next reading experience.